CCND News Archive 2008 Jan-Apr

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News Archive 2008
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The New Security - Huffington Post The next president will face the following security threats, most new and different from the previous Cold War era: proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their availability to stateless nations (i.e. jihadists); ground forces exhausted by two protracted wars; energy dependence in the Persian Gulf; America's disproportionate role in protecting the global flow of oil; the security implications of climate change, and the list continues. Issues that were recently separated into policy "boxes" are now interrelated. Consider the linkages among the cost of food and fuel, the world price of oil, increase in demand for oil in coming decades, the cost to U.S. taxpayers to protect global oil supplies, the impact of oil consumption on climate, two wars in the Persian Gulf, and so forth. Consider also how global warming is changing weather patterns. In the American West and elsewhere aquifers and reservoirs are drying up. Crops are becoming scarce and costly, thus leading to massive instability among the world's poor. In South Asia, over a billion people may lose their source of fresh water as Himalayan glaciers recede. Two of these nations are India and Pakistan -- nuclear states with indigenous terrorist movements and a history of conflict between them.	30th April 2008
Hansen for the plebes - Gristmill By Joseph Romm The nation's top climate scientist, James Hansen, has just published a general-audience article, "Tipping Point" [PDF], in State of the Wild 2008-2009 from Island Press. It is well worth sending to folks who don't like all the math. His key points: We are at the tipping point because the climate state includes large, ready positive feedbacks provided by the Arctic sea ice, the West Antarctic ice sheet, and much of Greenland's ice. ... Prior major warmings in Earth's history, the most recent occurring 55 million years ago ... resulted in the extinction of half or more of the species then on the planet.	30th April 2008
Terra Preta, Biochar, Black Gold: a Climate Change Solution - DeSmogBlog It's no silver bullet, but Terra Preta de Indio, a centuries-old agricultural-waste management and fertilization practice, may provide part of the solution to global warming - and to the gathering world food shortage.Terra Preta is a literal description of the "dark earth" that European explorers first discovered in the Amazon basin, earth that researchers now believe was enriched with charred agricultural waste. Preparing and mixing this biochar into the earth is a great way to sequester carbon AND to fertilize crops. There are a host of challenges - a large number of hurdles to clear before biochar can be guaranteed as a useful solution to climate change - but when asked if it's a possible goal, Cornell University Assoc.	30th April 2008
StatoilHydro Storing 10 Million Tonnes of CO2 - Rigzone StatoilHydro reported that ten million tonnes of carbon dioxide are now stored underground at Sleipner in the North Sea. 2,800 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) are removed from natural gas produced on the Sleipner West field in the North Sea every day.	30th April 2008
Experts call for 'feed-in tariffs' to encourage renewable energy use - Guardian Unlimited Engineers, trade unions, farmers and house builders have backed a campaign by Friends of the Earth and the Renewable Energy Association to introduce a "feed-in tariff" system that would improve Britain's take-up of renewable energy.	30th April 2008
Antarctic ice threatened by ozone-hole recovery - Nature Recovery of the ozone hole above Antarctica could warm the Antarctic and cause more ice to melt in coming decades, researchers say. As the ozone hole heals, wind patterns that shield the interior of the polar region from warm air may break down, causing warming in the Antarctica as well as warmer and drier conditions in Australia.	30th April 2008
Kenya: Harsh Weather Patterns to Shrink Maize Production - AllAfrica.com Kenyans could soon be forced to adjust their eating habits as the favourite maize meal becomes more scarce due to the effects of climate change.	30th April 2008
The world's children will be first to pay the price for climate change, and they deserve to be heard - Guardian Unlimited David Puttnam: The world's children will be first to pay the price for climate change, and they deserve to be heard	30th April 2008
Clean, abundant and free renewable energy sources - Guardian Unlimited Fossil fuels are running out, and the only real answer to tackling global warming is to use renewable sources of energy. So, how do they work?	30th April 2008
OECD ministers plead for environment despite economic concerns - France24 OECD environment ministers on Tuesday stood by efforts to tackle climate change, despite arguments in some quarters that at a time of economic uncertainty, spending on green issues could damage competitiveness. In an "excellent and lively debate" over two days, ministers reasserted the goal of addressing global warming and outlined some of the challenges as to how to cut greenhouse-gas emissions in a border-free worldwide market, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said in a statement. "Ministers noted that tackling climate change and moving towards low-carbon economies is a shared ambition, but moving to a low-carbon society will require structural shifts in the economy," it said. "This can create opportunities, but also competitiveness challenges (though often overstated), for particular industries, sectors and workers."	30th April 2008
Can a Polymer Help Curb Arctic Ice Melting? - PhysOrg In order to help prevent the melting of Arctic ice, a process that has been occurring at alarming rates in recent years, which many scientists believe is due gradual global warming, a group of researchers have proposed a partial solution that is quite novel: covering select small regions with a layer of a porous polymer that would reflect sunlight and promote freezing, thereby reducing melting.	30th April 2008

Earth stewardship - Common Ground.ca When we stand four-square to the future and observe the simultaneous incoming storms of global warming, food shortages, peak oil, mass extinctions, and a host of other crises any one of which is enough to make us cry a global “ouch”, how can we not notice that the culprit behind all these problems is capitalism, the system of laws and entitlements created 250 years ago?	29th April 2008
Real Solutions to the Climate Crisis - AlterNet A look at climate-friendly options for buildings, electricity production, transportation, and food and forestry.	29th April 2008
Big squid imperil fish, people - Times Colonist Canada, BC: Nightmarish packs of rapacious giant devil squid are hunting off the B.C. coast -- and as their numbers increase, scientists are worrying about an attack on fish stocks. Humboldt squid, called diablos rojos or red devils in Mexico, have been known to attack scuba divers and were once a rarity in B.C. waters. But a changing ocean environment has brought them northward, and they may now be permanently establishing themselves off the B.C. coast.	29th April 2008
UN chiefs hold food crisis summit - BBC News UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is due to announce details of new measures to tackle the global food crisis. "In the long term we need to address the challenges caused by climate change," UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon	29th April 2008
Warming 'affecting poor children' - BBC News Climate change is already affecting the prospects for children in the world's poorer nations, says the UN children's agency. The UN children's agency says that increases in floods, droughts and insect-borne disease will all affect health, education and welfare.	29th April 2008
Corn-fuel bill will worsen hunger, critics say - CNews Canada: Food will be turned into fuel and people will go hungry if Parliament passes a new bill demanding greater use of corn-fuels like ethanol, critics say.	29th April 2008
Oil giants make £7bn in three months - Guardian Unlimited Soaring prices of oil and gas help Royal Dutch Shell and BP swell profits and comfortably beat analyst expectations	29th April 2008
Sydney's Poor Elderly Hit Hardest By Climate Change - Planet Ark SYDNEY - Climate change will hurt Sydney's poor and elderly the most, as many live in low-lying coastal areas vulnerable to rising sea levels and cannot afford technologies that protect them from life-threatening heatwaves.	29th April 2008
US judge orders May 15 decision on polar bears - Reuters The Bush administration must decide by May 15 whether polar bears should be listed as threatened by climate change under the Endangered Species Act, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday, barring further delay.	29th April 2008

Breakthrough in battle to curb greenhouse gases - New Kerala London, April 27 : A team of scientists has developed a highly energy-efficient method of converting waste carbon dioxide into chemical compounds, marking a breakthrough in the fight to cut greenhouse gases.	28th April 2008
Zeppelins: a low-impact alternative to flying - The Christian Science Monitor These airships cause less environmental damage than planes. But journeys would test passengers' patience.	28th April 2008
Easing greenhouse gas emissions won't crimp the economy, study says - The Kansas City Star WASHINGTON \| Legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions won't send utility costs or unemployment through the roof, nor will it damage the economy, according to a study released last week.	28th April 2008
Study: Bio-plastic goods not eco-friendly Bio-plastic goods can still damage the environment by emitting gases that can impact climate change, a study by a British newspaper found.	28th April 2008
Big Oil: 'Together, We Can' ignore global warming - Gristmill By Brad JohnsonOriginally posted at the Think Progress Wonk Room. The American Petroleum Institute, the trade organization for the oil and natural gas industry, has just begun running a feel-good commercial that argues "America's future" lies in drilling out domestic reserves of oil and natural gas. Here's what the ad says: Oil and natural gas powered the past. But the future? Fact is, a growing world will require more. 45 percent more by 2030, along with greatly expanding alternatives. We have substantial oil and natural gas resources right here. Enough to power 60 million cars and heat 160 million households for 60 years.	28th April 2008
Attenborough fears for Earth - Canada.com Attenborough: "Whatever we do now, the world is going to change. The question is, can we slow down those changes or reduce them? One clutches at straws to try and find something in this bleak picture which is not deeply depressing."	28th April 2008
US air force calls for mission to combat climate change - Guardian Unlimited World's top scientists to come together in programme to develop greener fuels and tackle global warming	28th April 2008
Climate change: the facts - Guardian Unlimited The subject of global warming has become impossible to ignore. But what are its implications? And is mankind really to blame?	28th April 2008
Nature's controlling cycles are largely out of our hands - Guardian Unlimited Human activities have upset some of the Earth's delicate balances in recent times, but nature's controlling cycles are largely out of our hands	28th April 2008
Who Will Revive BC's Forests? - in News - The Tyee Canada, BC: World relies on our 'lungs,' but replanting is lowest in 20 years.	28th April 2008

Polar bears 'at risk' in Canada - BBC News Polar bears in Canada are at risk from climate change but not threatened by extinction, a panel of experts say.	26th April 2008
Experts say that the drought in the U.S. could mean climate change - CNews The U.S. Southwest's current drought could be the start of the Dust Bowl-like future that some scientists have already predicted will come from human-caused warming.	26th April 2008
World Bank Carbon Plan 'A Protection Racket' - OneWorld A World Bank-backed carbon-reduction programme in which concessional loans would be offered to developing country governments was compared to a protection racket by Friends of the Earth director Tony Juniper at a meeting in London at the weekend.	26th April 2008
Is 450 ppm politically possible? Part 2.5 - GristMill By Joseph Romm The goal of this post is to explore how peak oil and, yes, peak coal might affect the world's effort to stabilize CO2 concentrations. Here I present calculations I haven't seen anywhere else, and since different sources provide different numbers, please view these as a crude estimates. I welcome corrections. At recent growth rates for oil consumption, we are all but certain to peak in oil production within two decades -- and if we follow the recent trend-line for coal use (and for coal reserves), we could hit peak coal within three decades. It looks like it simply isn't possible for oil and coal use to sustain for decades the trends that led CO2 emissions to rise 3 percent per year since 2000, if the analysis below is roughly correct.	26th April 2008

North Pole could be ice free in 2008 - New Scientist This year, Arctic scientists are preparing for that possibility that ice loss will make it possible to swim at the top of the world	25th April 2008
Aust drought increasing world grain prices: expert - Australian Broadcasting Corporation An expert in science communication says the drought in Australia is one of the reasons world grain prices are increasing.	25th April 2008
Step Aside Dollar, Is Rice the New Global Currency? China is exchanging its depreciating reserves of the greenback for things of value, notably rice, with deadly consequences for U.S. foreign policy.	25th April 2008
Narwhals more at risk to Arctic warming than polar bears - PhysOrg (AP) -- The polar bear has become an icon of global warming vulnerability, but a new study found an Arctic mammal that may be even more at risk to climate change: the narwhal.	25th April 2008
Warming shifts gardeners' maps - USA Today A growing number of meteorologists and horticulturists say that because of the warming climate, the 1990 U.S. climate zone map doesn't reflect a trend that home gardeners have noticed for more than a decade: a gradual shift northward of growing zones for many plants.	25th April 2008
Low-Carbon Electricity is Needed To Power Plug-in Hybrids - Science Daily Engineering researchers report that plug-in hybrid electric vehicles could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions that fuel global warming, but the benefits are highly dependent on how the electricity system changes in the coming decades.	25th April 2008
'Sustainable' bio-plastic can damage the environment - Guardian Unlimited Corn-based material emits climate change gas in landfill and adds to food crisis	25th April 2008

Hints of methane's renewed rise - BBC News Levels of the greenhouse gas methane appear to be rising again after years of stability, data suggests.	24th April 2008
Arctic Ice Melting Faster Than Anticipated - WWF - Planet Ark GENEVA - Arctic ice may be melting faster than most climate change science has concluded, the conservation group WWF said in a report published on Thursday.	24th April 2008
Carbon study: Beetle-killed forest pumping out CO2 - CNews VANCOUVER - British Columbia's pine-beetle devastated forest is belching out enough carbon to equal Canada's average annual forest fire emissions, says a new report from scientists at the Ministry of Natural Resources Canada.	24th April 2008
Greenhouse plan could damage ozone - CNews WASHINGTON (AP) - The rule of unintended consequences threatens to strike again. Some researchers have suggested that injecting sulfur compounds into the atmosphere might help ease global warming by increasing clouds and haze that would reflect sunlight.	24th April 2008
A. Siegel: Buying our way to a better planet? - HuffingtonPost There is a debate, subdued at times, between various approaches toward changing the planet to the better. In many ways, my viewpoint (on the optimist...	24th April 2008
China Aims For First Zero Emission Power By 2015 - Planet Ark BEIJING - China plans to build a major emissions-free coal burning power station by 2015, the project chief said on Wednesday, putting it at the front of a tight global race to build the first commercial scale plant.	24th April 2008
Butterflies, tornadoes and climate modelling - realClimate Many of you will have seen the obituaries (MIT, NYT) for Ed Lorenz, who died a short time ago. Lorenz is most famous scientifically for discovering the exquisite sensitivity to initial conditions (i.e. chaos) in a simple model of fluid convection, which serves as an archetype for the weather prediction problem. He is most famous outside science for the 'The Butterfly Effect' described in his 1972 paper "Predictability: Does the Flap of a Butterfly's Wings in Brazil Set Off a Tornado in Texas?". Lorenz's contributions to both atmospheric science and the mathematics of dynamical systems were wide ranging and seminal.	24th April 2008
Arctic currents may be warming the world - New Scientist Natural changes in the warm ocean currents travelling to the icy north may be helping to heat up the entire northern hemisphere	24th April 2008
RIGHTS: Climate a "Life and Death" Issue for Native Peoples UNITED NATIONS, Apr 23 (IPS) - Leaders of the world's 370 million indigenous peoples are calling for the United Nations to include their voices in its future talks on climate change.	24th April 2008
The big turn off: Could you drink, bathe and clean using just 20 litres a day? - Guardian Unlimited Full marks to those who keep a tight rein on their carbon footprint, but don't relax just yet: water is the new carbon, and our engorged water footprints need to be scrutinised before the rivers really do run dry. At the World Economic Forum in January, the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, warned that water and food shortages would be the crises of 2008. Last week we watched the escalating food crisis reverberate around the globe. Conflicts fuelled by water shortages may well be next, triggered by climate change, population growth and poor water management.	24th April 2008
EPA scientists drop bombshell in political-interference survey - DeSmogBlog Hundreds of Environmental Protection Agency scientists said they have been victims of political interference and pressure from superiors to skew their findings, according to a survey by the Union of Concerned Scientists. Francesca Grifo, director of the Union of Concerned Scientists' Scientific Integrity Program, said the survey results revealed "an agency in crisis" with low morale, especially among scientists involved in risk assessment and crafting regulations. "The investigation shows researchers are generally continuing to do their work, but their scientific findings are tossed aside when it comes time to write regulations," Grifo said. The survey comes as EPA is under fire from Congress on a number of fronts, including its delay in determining whether carbon dioxide should be regulated to combat global warming.	24th April 2008
Is 450 ppm - or less politically possible? Part 2 In this post I will lay out "the solution" to global warming, focusing primarily on the 14 "stabilization wedges." Part 1 argued that stabilizing atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide at 450 ppm is not politically possible today, but that it is certainly achievable from an economic and technological perspective. It would require some 14 of Princeton's "stabilization wedges" -- strategies and/or technologies that over a period of a few decades each reduce global carbon emissions by one billion metric tons per year from projected levels (see technical paper here [PDF], less technical one here [PDF]) .	24th April 2008

Green engine for black cab firm - BBC News Manganese Bronze, the maker of the iconic London black cab, signs a deal to produce a battery-powered taxi.	24th April 2008
Despite Climate Worry, Europe Turns to Coal - New York Times At a time when the world’s top climate experts agree that carbon emissions must be rapidly reduced to hold down global warming, Italy’s major electricity producer, Enel, is converting its massive power plant here from oil to coal, generally the dirtiest fuel on earth. Skip to next paragraph Enlarge This Image Marco Di Lauro for The New York Times Italy’s Civitavecchia power plant is converting from oil to coal. Over the next five years, Italy will increase its reliance on coal to 33 percent from 14 percent. Power generated by Enel from coal will rise to 50 percent. And Italy is not alone in its return to coal. Driven by rising demand, record high oil and natural gas prices, concerns over energy security and an aversion to nuclear energy, European countries are expected to put into operation about 50 coal-fired plants over the next five years, plants that will be in use for the next five decades.	24th April 2008
Global warming threat to native dragonfly species - The Independent Britain's dragonflies, which date back to the dinosaurs but are increasingly threatened by habitat destruction, pollution and climate change, are to be the subject of a major national survey.	24th April 2008
WFP cuts school meals as food crisis grows - Guardian Unlimited Rapid rise in food prices forces the World Food Programme to cut its provision of school meals to some of the world's poorest children	24th April 2008

Time for small changes is over - BBC News Small changes to the way we live our lives are not enough to tackle the environmental challenges facing the planet, argues Tom Crompton. In this week's Green Room, he says the stark reality is that the only option is to cut the unsustainable consumption of the Earth's finite resources.	23rd April 2008
How Many Earth Days Do We Have Left? Lester Brown, author of Plan B 3.0, shows us how we can change in enough time to save life on earth, as we know it. Of all the resources needed to build an economy that will sustain economic progress, none is more scarce than time. That is one of the key messages of PLAN-B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, the newest book by Lester Brown -- available from www.earthpolicy.org.	23rd April 2008
Eight Reasons Our Changing World Will Turn You Into an Environmentalist, Like It or Not - AlterNet The challenges our society faces with depleted energy resources, water shortages, soaring food costs all point to environmental solutions.	23rd April 2008
Norway Gives Tanzania $100 Mln For Forests - Planet Ark DAR ES SALAAM - Norway will give Tanzania $100 million over five years to cut deforestation in the east African country and try to reduce carbon emissions blamed for climate change, according to a deal signed on Monday.	23rd April 2008
Climate projects prevented 135 million tonnes of CO2: agency - Muzi Projects to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in developing countries have prevented 135 million tonnes of CO2 emissions from entering Earth's atmosphere so far, the Norwegian classification group Det Norske Veritas (DNV) said on Monday.	23rd April 2008
Marked rise in greenhouse-gas emissions between 1990 and 2005: study - CNews OTTAWA - A new study says Canada's greenhouse-gas emissions rose 25 per cent between 1990 and 2005, but it says the increase would have been greater without improvements in energy efficiency.	23rd April 2008
Impressions from the European Geophysical Union conference 2008 - RealClimate Last week, the European Geophysical Union held its annual general assembly, with thousands of geophysicists converging on the city of Vienna, Austria. It was time to take the pulse of the geophysical community. When registering at the conference, we got a packet called 'Planet Earth; Directions for Use'. As far as I know, this is a new feature apparently offered by the EGU. The box says 'EGU cares…' and it contains 4 sheets: Biosphere, Hydrosphere, Litho- and Pedosphere, and the Atmosphere. The Biosphere sheet is concerned about the biodiversity, the hydropshere discusses water shortage and loss of marshland issues, the litho- & pedosphere mentions the fact that fossil fuels are finite and soil erosion, and the atmosphere discusses AGW.	23rd April 2008
Biggest onshore wind farm plan rejected - The Independent Plans for Britain's biggest land-based wind farm were turned down by the Scottish government yesterday, in a landmark decision with wide implications for the future development of renewable energy in the UK. See also: The dilemma of global warming	23rd April 2008
Me, worry? - GristMill A new series of Pew polls shows public concern for climate change is out of sync with the science:	23rd April 2008
Farm bill: making America fat and polluted, one subsidy at a time - The Christian Science Monitor At a time of soaring food prices, America's grocery bill is about to balloon. Congress is staggering toward completion of a nearly $300 billion farm bill that upholds subsidies for big farmers and food corporations – undermining vital efforts to make our food supply more healthful and sustainable, both environmentally and economically. It's time to overhaul the government's approach to food and farming.	23rd April 2008

Nature throws one-two punch at global warming - deSmogBlog The Nature article says the climate problem is much greater than forecast by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change due to rising use of coal in Asian nations, especially China and India, where energy use is projected to double by 2030. If an exploding population is to have sufficient energy for development, the world's energy supply will have to at least double in 50 years even if consumption in China, India and elsewhere never rises to the per-capita level seen today in the U.S., Canada and Europe. At the same time, if the climate is to be stabilized, carbon emissions must fall sharply from current levels.	22nd April 2008
Capitalism harms planet - Morales - BBC News Bolivian President Evo Morales tells a UN forum capitalism must be scrapped to save the planet from climate change.	22nd April 2008
Waiting for a techno miracle: not the fastest way to cut emissions With NYT columnist Nicholas Kristof's seeming endorsement of Roger Pielke Jr.'s ideas about mitigating global warming, it seems that we have two main arguments developing: the "breakthrough" argument, which says we must have technology breakthroughs in order to solve the problem, and, as articulated (for instance) by Joseph Romm, the "just do it" argument that we have the technologies now to minimize global warming. Most of my posts have been an attempt to show how current technologies can move us toward a "zero emissions" society. The "breakthrough" people do raise an interesting question, but then they veer off into the wrong answer.	22nd April 2008
CLIMATE CHANGE-US: Governors Unite to Cut Emissions NEW HAVEN, Apr 20 (IPS) - U.S. state governors say they are fed up with the George W. Bush administration's foot-dragging on climate change and will go ahead -- and around -- the White House to reduce greenhouse gases. See also: US Lawmakers Are Changing Opinions on Climate, Pachauri Says - Bloomberg Quebec Joins US - Canada Group To Cut Emissions - Planet Ark	22nd April 2008
Thousands march in Spain over climate change - AFP Thousands marched through Madrid on Sunday to demand that the Spanish government adopt concrete measures to fight climate change,	22nd April 2008
Drought hits millions in Thai rice region: government - TODAYonline Thai villagers sit on a dry riverbank during a severe drought in 1998. More than 10 million people in parts of Thailand's rice bowl region have been hit by drought, causing further concerns as prices of the staple grain soar. See also: Mere rise in temperature will reduce S. Asian crop yield, warns envoy - Ceylon Daily News	22nd April 2008
Top native leader wants more action on climate - CTV.ca Phil Fontaine, grand chief of the Assembly of First Nations, will tell a United Nations committee today that the government needs to engage natives more on climate change. "We're witnessing dramatic changes in the environment" See also: Young Alaskan Sees Changing Way of Life - NPR	22nd April 2008
The Antarctic deep sea gets colder - PhysOrg The Antarctic deep sea gets colder, which might stimulate the circulation of the oceanic water masses. This is the first result of the Polarstern expedition of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association that has just ended in Punta Arenas/Chile. At the same time satellite images from the Antarctic summer have shown the largest sea-ice extent on record. In the coming years autonomous measuring buoys will be used to find out whether the cold Antarctic summer induces a new trend or was only a "slip".	22nd April 2008
Stop waiting for 'leaders' to act on global warming - The Christian Science Monitor Greener energy in your community depends on strong grass roots.	22nd April 2008
Talk about hot air - Guardian Unlimited According to Nigel Lawson, the science community has been so successful in stifling debate about global warming that he could hardly find a publisher to print this book. If only.	22nd April 2008

Exposed: the great GM crops myth - Independent Genetic modification actually cuts the productivity of crops, an authoritative new study shows, undermining repeated claims that a switch to the controversial technology is needed to solve the growing world food crisis.	20th April 2008
Apocalypse now - Sunshine Coast Daily Cuban permaculturist and educator Roberto Perez: Havana – Perez’s home city – produces 60% of its fruit and vegetables within its city limits and peri-urban areas. It has transformed itself into an economy that is virtually self-sustainable while leading the way as a “low energy society” where public transport is the norm and recycling is an integral part of life.	20th April 2008
Watching wolves, moose - and the heat - WOOD-TV Vucetich, of Michigan Tech University, is co-leader of a team closely monitoring Isle Royale's moose and wolves for five decades. Both species have had their ups and downs, but now may be facing their biggest threat. Declines in pack and herd populations, coming as average temperatures have been rising, make the scientists wonder if global warming may be writing a new story line for the narrative that played out as the plane followed the hungry pack below.	20th April 2008

The Fat Bush Theory - New York Times George W. Bush says we’re on track to meet the nation’s goals for curbing global warming. Let’s back up here. I don’t know about you, but I’ve always had trouble getting my head around goals that involve reducing the rate at which something is growing. To appreciate the administration’s efforts on the, um, issue, let’s try to imagine it in terms other than greenhouse gas emissions. (As the president noted: “Climate change involves complicated science.”) Suppose that two years after taking office, George W. Bush discovered that because of the stress of his job, he had gained 40 pounds and was tipping the scales at 220. The real-world Bush would immediately barricade himself in the White House gym, refusing all human contact or nourishment until the issue was resolved. But imagine that he regarded getting fat as seriously as he regards melting glaciers, rising oceans and drought and starvation around the planet. In that case, he would set a serious, management-type goal — of, say, an 18 percent reduction in the rate at which he was gaining weight, to be reached within the next decade. Cut to the Rose Garden in 2008 where partial victory is declared. “Over the past seven years, my administration has taken a rational, balanced approach to these serious challenges,” the 332-pound chief executive announces. He delivers this good news sitting down. 2012: Bush hits his final goal and 400 pounds at approximately the same time. See also: US carbon emissions to rise 23 percent over UN benchmark: IEA - AFP via Yahoo! News US emissions of greenhouse gases are poised to rise by nearly a quarter over a key UN benchmark by 2025, the date set by President George W. Bush for stabilising this pollution, an International Energy Agency (IEA) expert said on Friday.	19th April 2008
Food miles don't feed climate change – meat does - New Scientist Eating locally-produced food has little impact on your carbon footprint, but going veggie for one day a week makes a big difference. Weber's team combined statistics on greenhouse gas emissions for different foods with estimated greenhouse footprints for transport for each step in a food's production and final delivery. Food travelled an average of 1640 km in its final trip to the grocery store, out of total of 6760 km on the road for the raw ingredients. But some foods log more kilometres than others. Red meat averaged 20,400 km – just 1800 of those from final delivery. Accounting for greenhouse gas emissions made those contrasts even starker. Final delivery "food-miles" make up just 1% of the greenhouse emissions of red meat, and 11% for fruits and vegetables. To drive his point home, Weber calculated that a completely local diet would reduce a household's greenhouse emissions by an amount equivalent to driving a car 1600 km fewer per year. He assumed the car travels 10.6 km per litre of petrol (25 mpg). Switching from red meat to veggies just one day per week would spare 1860 km of driving. "The differences between eating habits are very, very striking," Weber says.	19th April 2008
EU set to scrap biofuels target - Guardian Unlimited Commission backing away from its insistence on 10% quota by 2020 amid fears of food crisis	19th April 2008
Solar so good for our house - Guardian Unlimited Business money: One year on and roof-top panels are generating nearly all the electricity used by Ashley Seager	19th April 2008
Coasts feeling the heat - CNews Canada: Global warming concerns highest in Maritimes and B.C., lowest in Prairies. "It's a combination of having experienced the potential impacts of climate change on our doorstep and the cultural link to the sea and land ... I'm not too surprised this is a top issue." In a virtual tie with Quebecers, 88% of Maritimers also agreed that fighting global warming should be the country's top priority, followed by Ontario, the Prairies and British Columbia. Nationwide that number was 78%.	19th April 2008
Spain suffers worst drought - CNN.com Spain is reeling from its most severe drought in 70 years with the nation's reservoirs on average just half full, the Environment Ministry reports. The tower of a former church, underwater before the drought, reappears in the Mediano reservoir. Rainfall has been less than half of what's considered normal for the last six months and reservoir levels were already low after two years in which normal rain levels failed to rebound from the driest 12 months on record -- October 1, 2004 to September 30, 2005.	19th April 2008
Moulins, Calving Fronts and Greenland Outlet Glacier Acceleration - RealClimate Guest Commentary by Mauri Pelto The net loss in volume and hence sea level contribution of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GIS) has doubled in recent years from 90 to 220 cubic kilometers/year has been noted recently (Rignot and Kanagaratnam, 2007). The main cause of this increase is the acceleration of several large outlet glaciers. There has also been an alarming increase in the number of photographs of meltwater draining into a moulin somewhere on the GIS, often near Swiss Camp (35 km inland from the calving front). The story goes-warmer temperatures, more surface melting, more meltwater draining through moulins to glacier base, lubricating glacier bed, reducing friction, increasing velocity, and finally raising sea level.	19th April 2008
Clearing smog reveals true extent of global warming - New Scientist Atmospheric pollution confuses temperature measurements, so now it is clearing we can measure global warming more accurately. A team led by Martin Wild, of the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science in Switzerland, has been monitoring changes in temperatures, the amount of aerosols in the air and the amount of sunlight that is getting through and warming the different continents. Their data, taken from over 2500 locations, shows that in Europe and the US the amount of solar radiation reaching the ground is increasing. Satellite data shows that the optical density of the air above Europe, a measure of how dense the suspension of aerosols is, has been stable since 2000. This, says Wild, suggests that aerosols are no longer influencing brightness and something else is making it more sunny – possibly a reduction in cloud cover, although he does not yet know why this might happen.	19th April 2008
Climate talks in France reach no emissions goals - CNews PARIS (AP) - Negotiators from the world's most polluting countries have failed to agree on specific goals for cutting emissions of greenhouse gases. See also: Climate Conference is a Lesson in Irresponsibility - Deutsche Welle	19th April 2008
Climate Change Likely To Intensifies Storms - Science Daily Hurricanes in some areas, including the North Atlantic, are likely to become more intense as a result of global warming even though the number of such storms worldwide may decline, according to a new study by MIT researchers.	19th April 2008
Clinton, Obama walk delicate line hunting votes in coal states - International Herald Tribune Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are walking a delicate line as they promise to aggressively tackle global warming while trying to assure voters that they continue to believe in the future of coal.	19th April 2008

Burning ice, ice, baby - Gristmill Methane hydrates (or clathrates), "burning ice," are worth understanding because they could affect the climate for better or worse. You can get the basics here on ... ... a solid form of water that contains a large amount of methane within its crystal structure [that] occur both in deep sedimentary structures, and as outcrops on the ocean floor. The worst that could happen is a climate catastrophe if they were released suddenly, as some people believed happened during "the Permian-Triassic extinction event, the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum." The best that could happen is if they could be recovered at a large scale safely -- then they would be an enormous new source of natural gas, the lowest-carbon and most efficient-burning fossil fuel.	18th April 2008
Wild fires likely to spread due to global warming - Reuters Wild fires are likely to be bigger, more frequent and burn for longer as the world gets hotter, in turn speeding up global warming to create a dangerous vicious circle, scientists say. See also: Smoke worsens over Buenos Aires - BBC News Smoke blanketing the Argentine capital Buenos Aires has thickened, prompting the authorities to close airports and major highways. The smoke started a week ago, caused by fires on grassland outside the city that are being blamed on farmers clearing the land to graze cattle.	18th April 2008
Tiny tremors can track extreme storms in a warming planet - EurekAlert! SANTA FE, New Mexico--Data from faint earth tremors caused by wind-driven ocean waves-often dismissed as “background noise” at seismographic stations around the world-suggest extreme ocean storms have become more frequent over the past three decades, according to research presented at the annual meeting of the Seismological Society of America.	18th April 2008
March the warmest on record over world land surfaces (AP) -- Planet Earth continues to run a fever. Last month was the warmest March on record over land surfaces of the world and the second warmest overall worldwide. For the United States, however, it was just an average March, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported Thursday.	18th April 2008
Greenland ice lakes drain at speed of Niagara Falls - New Scientist A 3-kilometre-wide lake on Greenland's ice sheet was swallowed up in under an hour and a half See also: Greenland's disappearing lakes leave giant ice sheets largely unmoved - Guardian Unlimited Research allays fears that the rapid draining of water from the top of Greenland's ice sheet may be contributing to the rise of global sea levels	18th April 2008
How to Win the War on Global Warming - TIME How to Win the War on Global WarmingTIME. Here's our blueprint for how America can fight-and win-the war on global warming. The most important part of a blueprint to contain climate change is to put ...	18th April 2008
Crown Estate buys turbine prototype - Guardian Unlimited Company says project will allow it to gain first-hand experience of developing offshore wind technology designed to operate in deep water	18th April 2008
350 sense - Gristmill Bill McKibben is a scholar in residence at Middlebury College, and author of a dozen books, most recently The Bill McKibben Reader. ----- If only atmospheric chemistry gave you points for trying. A year ago this week, we were celebrating. I and six college-age colleagues of mine, joined by thousands of organizers across the country, had managed to pull off 1,400 simultaneous demonstrations against global warming in all 50 states. Though we didn't have much in the way of resources, Step It Up day was a success -- and within a week, both the Obama and Clinton campaigns had endorsed our call for 80 percent cuts in carbon emissions by 2050.	18th April 2008
Pyrenean snowfall could be cut by half - Guardian Unlimited Spanish scientists predict temperatures in the mountain range could rise by between 2.8C and 4C by the start of the 22nd century	18th April 2008
More doubt on cosmic climate link - BBC News New data throws more doubt on the notion that cosmic rays are a major influence on the Earth's climate.	18th April 2008
Acidic oceans may be water of life for plankton - New Scientist 2, prompting hopes that they might lock away carbon	18th April 2008
Sarkozy urges 'massive' private investment in green technologies - International Herald Tribune About 90 percent of the money for fighting global warming will come from the private sector over the long term, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France said at climate talks in Paris.	18th April 2008
The Wikipedia Climate Conspiracy - DeSmogBlog Resident expert in climate denial at the National Post, Lawrence Solomon, penned a piece recently decrying Wikipedia's entry for science historian Noami Oreskes. Oreskes is well known for her oft-quoted 2004 article in Science that found that out of a random sample of 928 research articles on climate change, not one questioned the consensus view that human activity is to blame. Solomon got his hackles up when Wikipedia disallowed his edit of the Oreskes entry referring to a social anthropologist named Benny Peiser (well known to DeSmog), who apparently had "debunked" Oreskes original study. No mention of course that Peiser's "debunking" has never been published in a peer-reviewed journal, the normal route for which discourse and debate in science is undertook.And rightly so.	18th April 2008

Climate change: Losing Greenland - Nature Is the Arctic's biggest ice sheet in irreversible meltdown? And would we know if it were? Alexandra Witze reports.	17th April 2008
Scientists find bigger, more cracks in Arctic ice shelves - CBC North Researchers who teamed up with Canadian Rangers on a patrol around Ellesmere Island this month say they've found cracks in ice shelves are worse than they originally thought.	17th April 2008
Oceans absorbing less CO2 may have 1,500 year impact - Windsor Star VIENNA - Global oceans are soaking up less carbon dioxide, a development that could speed up the greenhouse effect and have an impact for the next 1,500 years, scientists said on Wednesday.	17th April 2008
Changing jet streams may alter paths of storms and hurricanes - PhysOrg The Earth`s jet streams, the high-altitude bands of fast winds that strongly influence the paths of storms and other weather systems, are shifting possibly in response to global warming. Scientists at the Carnegie Institution determined that over a 23-year span from 1979 to 2001 the jet streams in both hemispheres have risen in altitude and shifted toward the poles.	17th April 2008
Britain's collapsing coastline - Guardian Unlimited Patrick Barkham on Norfolk's cruel new choice: plough millions into doomed defences, or abandon whole villages to the invading waters?	17th April 2008
Lough Neagh ducks on the decline - BBC News Climate change could be behind a dramatic fall in the number of ducks on Lough Neagh, according to scientists.	17th April 2008
Alarmist? It's getting worse: Stern - The Age Climate change expert Nicholas Stern says he underestimated its threat. "Emissions are growing much faster than we'd thought, the absorptive capacity of the planet is less than we'd thought, the risks of greenhouse gases are potentially bigger than more cautious estimates, and the speed of climate change seems to be faster," he told Reuters at a conference in London.	17th April 2008
A controversial fighter in the climate-change debate - The Christian Science Monitor NASA's James Hansen frequently clashes with global warming 'deniers,' as well as the Bush administration.	17th April 2008
The brighter side of $115 a barrel crude - Salon.com How can high oil prices, which encourage more burning of a coal, be a good thing? The answer lies in the European Union's Emissions Trading System	17th April 2008
Bush sets new CO2 emission target - BBC News US President George W Bush says he is setting an "ambitious" new target of halting growth in US greenhouse gas emissions by 2025. ...but no ones buying it... Same as it ever was - Grist Strike three on climate change for the Bush White House? - DeSmogBlog CLIMATE CHANGE-US: Little New in Bush Climate Plan - IPS Bush's Toothless Climate Plan - Time Magazine


The education of Warren Buffett - Gristmill One of the biggest climate stories of 2007 never made it to the business pages. It's about how Warren Buffett, with no fanfare, quietly walked away from coal, cancelling six proposed plants. Buffett used to love coal. His involvement with it began when Berkshire Hathaway bought MidAmerican Energy Holdings in 1999. MidAmerican was a big operator of coal plants, and with natural gas prices edging toward a huge leap upwards -- bringing coal back into favor -- it appeared to be a typically savvy Buffett move. In 2006, Buffett picked up another utility, PacifiCorp, which includes Rocky Mountain Power and operates in Calif., Idaho, Ore., Utah, Wash., and Wyo.	16th April 2008
The best technology to protect the earth - Gristmill Other than energy efficiency (see here), I don't believe any set of technologies will be more important to the climate fight than concentrated solar power (CSP). I have a long article on CSP in Salon: "The technology that will save humanity: The solar energy you haven't heard of is the one best suited to generate clean electricity for generations to come." OK, maybe "will" should be "may help" (I'm an optimist, sue me!) and readers have heard about CSP for a while. But I do think CSP deserves much more attention: It is the best source of clean energy to replace coal and sustain economic development.	16th April 2008
Tesco to show carbon footprints - Guardian Unlimited Science environment: Supermarket group announces environmental move which will see product labels carry carbon information	16th April 2008
Climate Models Match Well With Current Observations - U.S. News & World Report More than a dozen centers around the world develop climate models to enhance our understanding of climate change and serve as the basis for policy decisions. But just how good are those models, and can they truly be relied upon? A new study by meteorologists at the University of Utah shows that current climate models are quite accurate and can be valuable tools for those seeking solutions to global warming trends.	16th April 2008
EPA is missing in action on major environmental issues, observers charges - GovExec.com The Environmental Protection Agency is failing to live up to its name these days, its legions of critics agree. At a time when the nation's top environmental regulators face increasingly complex pollution problems, President Bush is pushing for dramatic cuts in EPA's budget, his administration's strained, pro-industry interpretations of environmental laws have repeatedly been laughed out of court, and the White House is widely perceived to be running roughshod over agency scientists and lawyers.	16th April 2008
Forecast for big sea level rise - BBC News Sea levels could rise by up to one-and-a-half metres by the end of this century, according to scientific analysis.	16th April 2008
Analyst pushes water sector as global warming affects supply - AP via Yahoo! Finance With money already being allocated to combat global warming's affect on water supply, investors cannot afford to sit on the sidelines and wait for politicians to settle the matter, an analyst said Tuesday.	16th April 2008
A decarbonization story: part one - Gristmill The decarbonization data makes clear that if you want to beat 450 ppm and avoid catastrophic climate impacts, a significant price for carbon (plus aggressive technology deployment) is much more important than technology breakthroughs. That is a central point of this post. That is what I learned in the mid-1990s when I helped to run the billion-dollar office at DOE in charge of federal clean energy technology breakthroughs and deployment -- and had the chance to work with the top scientists and technology modelers at the national labs to figure out how we can cut emissions most quickly and cost-effectively.	16th April 2008
Ultracapacitors: the future of electric cars or the 'cold fusion' of autovation? - The Christian Science Monitor ZENN Motors says its electric car will cruise for 250 miles on a single five-minute charge. Skeptics cry shenanigans.	16th April 2008
University of Calgary Audit Exposes Friends of Science Wrongdoing - DeSmogBlog A University of Calgary audit into its relationship with the climate lobby group, Friends of Science (FOS), suggests that in setting up two trust funds on behalf of FOS, U of C Professor Barry Cooper likely contravened Revenue Canada and Elections Canada laws - and, in diverting money to his wife and daughter, most certainly broke rules at the University itself.The audit was assessing allegations that:1. Prof. Cooper helped secure Revenue tax receipts for FOS donors, even though FOS does not have charitable status;2. Prof. Cooper channeled money through the university that was later used to fund what "may be considered third party advertising under the Elections Act" - an ad campaign that was never registered and would contravene Elections Canada laws;3.	16th April 2008

China 'now top carbon polluter' - BBC News China has already overtaken the US as the world's biggest polluter, according to a new report by US scientists.	15th April 2008
EU carbon market sets up another round of windfall profits for dirtiest power generators - ENN Polluting electricity generators in Europe are set to reap another round of extraordinary windfall profits from the carbon trading scheme meant to curb their carbon emissions, a new report revealed today. The study, commissioned by WWF from world-leading carbon market analysts Point Carbon, estimates that the windfall to electricity generators in just the five states of UK, Germany, Spain, Italy and Poland over the current five year phase of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) could be between 23 and 71 billion Euros ($US 36 -111 billion ).	15th April 2008
Biofuel: the burning question - Independent UK: From today, all petrol and diesel sold on forecourts must contain at least 2.5 per cent biofuel. The Government insists its flagship environmental policy will make Britain's 33 million vehicles greener. But a formidable coalition of campaigners is warning that, far from helping to reverse climate change, the UK's biofuel revolution will speed up global warming and the loss of vital habitat worldwide.	15th April 2008
Australians hungry for climate change action: report - ABC via Yahoo!7 News A new report on climate change has found that most people want urgent action to reduce Australia's greenhouse gas emissions.	15th April 2008
$10bn wind farm set up in Texas - Guardian Unlimited Science environment: Billionaire oil tycoon hatches audacious plan to erect enough turbines to supply one million US homes	15th April 2008
Breaking: The great ice age of 2008 is finally over -- next stop, Venus! By Joseph RommA top NASA scientist just emailed me the breaking news: "The ice age expired!" Even more shocking: the rate of warming this year has been just about unprecedented in the historical record -- even faster than I had predicted just last month based on the NASA data from February. Just look at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies dataset. While January's land-ocean global temperature was a mere +0.12 degrees C above the the 1951-1980 average and the February anomaly was +0.26 degrees C -- the March anomaly was a staggering +0.67 degrees C.	15th April 2008
Climate change affecting UK's coastal wildlife, report warns - Guardian Unlimited A diverse range of wildlife along Britain's coastline will be affected by flooding and coastal erosion in the next 100 years, conservationists have warned	15th April 2008
Melting Mountains A "Time Bomb" For Water Shortages - Planet Ark VIENNA - Glaciers and mountain snow are melting earlier in the year than usual, meaning the water has already gone when millions of people need it during the summer when rainfall is lower, scientists warned on Monday.	15th April 2008
A world of hunger - The Age A world of hungerThe Age, Australia. Then there is the surge in Western demand for biofuels as alarm at climate change has driven policy to cut fossil fuel emissions. The consequences for the ...	15th April 2008
Summary of main points in food report - Guardian Unlimited Key findings of the UN report into the global food crisis See also: Reinventing Agriculture - IPS Q&A: "Increase Agricultural Productivity While Reducing the Environmental Footprint" - IPS	15th April 2008
George Monbiot: Credit crunch? The real crisis is global hunger. And if you care, eat less meat - Guardian Unlimited George Monbiot: A food recession is under way. Biofuels are a crime against humanity, but - take it from a flesh eater - flesh eating is worse	15th April 2008
Rich states failing to lead on emissions, says UN climate chief - Guardian Unlimited Developing countries, including China and India, are unwilling to sign up to a new global climate change pact to replace the Kyoto protocol in 2012 because the rich world has failed to set a clear example on cutting carbon emissions, according to the UN's top climate official.	15th April 2008
FEATURE - Bangladesh Faces Climate Change Refugee Nightmare - Planet Ark DHAKA - Abdul Majid has been forced to move 22 times in as many years, a victim of the annual floods that ravage Bangladesh.	15th April 2008
Green groups in carbon plan rift - The Age Major environment group aligns itself with coal industry to push case for carbon storage technology, in a move that has split the green movement. The World Wildlife Fund will join forces with the Australian Coal Association, the Climate Institute and the powerful miners' union, the CFMEU, to call for a government taskforce, possibly situated within the Prime Minister's Department, to oversee the introduction of the technology.	15th April 2008
2008 Proxy Voter Guide for Libertarian and Conservative Shareholders Released by Free Enterprise Action Fund - PR Newswire via Yahoo! Finance Concerns over corporate lobbying for impending regulation of greenhouse gases dominate the 2008 Proxy Voting Guide released today by Action Fund Management, the investment adviser to the Free Enterprise Action Fund , a publicly traded mutual fund.	15th April 2008
Top emitters meet in Paris, worries on UN overlap - AlertNet The world's top greenhouse gas emitters meet in Paris this week to work out ways to slow global warming with uncertainty about whether the U.S.-backed talks will help or hinder plans for a new U.N. climate treaty.	15th April 2008
Private Security Firm Spied on Environmental Groups for Corporate Clients A private security firm infiltrated environmental groups, collected their phone records and confidential internal documents.	15th April 2008

Focus: Hunger. Strikes. Riots. The food crisis bites - Guardian Unlimited In less than a year, the price of wheat has risen 130 per cent, soya by 87 per cent and rice by 74 per cent. According to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, there are only eight to 12 weeks of cereal stocks in the world, while grain supplies are at their lowest since the 1980s. Not surprisingly, these swiftly rising prices have unleashed serious political unrest in many places. In Dhaka yesterday 10,000 Bangladeshi textile workers clashed with police. Dozens were injured, including 20 policemen, in a protest triggered by food costs that was eventually quelled by baton charges and teargas. In Haiti, demonstrators recently tried to storm the presidential palace after prices of staple foods leaped 50 per cent. In Egypt, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Mozambique, Senegal and Cameroon there have been demonstrations, sometimes involving fatalities, as starving, desperate people have taken to the streets. And in Vietnam the new crime of rice rustling - in which crops are stripped at night from fields by raiders - has led to the banning of all harvesting machines from roads after sunset and to farmers, armed with shotguns, camping around their fields 24 hours a day.	13th April 2008
Now survivalism isn't just for eccentrics Idea of 'extreme preparedness' heads to the mainstream - SF Chronicle The traditional face of survivalism is that of a shaggy loner in camouflage, holed up in a cabin in the wilderness and surrounded by cases of canned goods and ammunition. It is not that of Barton M. Biggs, the former chief global strategist at Morgan Stanley. Yet in Biggs' new book, "Wealth, War and Wisdom," he says people should "assume the possibility of a breakdown of the civilized infrastructure."	13th April 2008
John Doerr: Not nearly enough money going to green tech - CNET Speaking at the MIT Energy Conference, famed venture capitalist sees a "green-tech boom," but he says it's happening too slowly to address global energy challenges.	13th April 2008
What to Do About Water - Vancouver Sun Because of climate change, there's too much in some places and too little in others. Chris Wood explains the mess we've made and suggests solutions that likely won't be popular.	13th April 2008
Financing crucial to next climate change pact-UN - Reuters The global fight against climate change after the Kyoto pact expires will fail unless rich countries can come up with creative ways to finance clean development by poorer nations, a UN official said on Saturday.	13th April 2008
China drought leaves 670,000 without drinking water - Australian Broadcasting Corporation A drought in China's north-east Liaoning province has left nearly 700,000 people without drinking water after rainfall in the first three months of 2008 tumbled to one-fifth levels last year, the Xinhua agency said.	13th April 2008
Bangladesh introduces improved stove to save fuel DHAKA (Reuters) - Bangladesh has introduced an improved cooking stove that will consume 50 percent less of the biomass used for cooking in rural areas, a senior official said on Sunday.	13th April 2008
Arctic future full of uncertainty - Calgary Herald A huge amount of uncertainty exists with respect to the broader Arctic -- a planetary cap comprising eight per cent of the world's land mass: everything above the 66th Parallel in eight countries across 24 time zones, inhabited by four million people. With the twin challenges of climate change slowly creating a "blue Arctic" offering enhanced access to polar neighbourhoods, and accelerating competition for energy and other resources, it's imperative that such uncertainty be addressed.	13th April 2008
Coal To Liquids In Australia - The Oil Drum Coal To Liquids In AustraliaThe Oil Drum. ... which is far in excess of levels considered safe by the IPCC, leading some global warming activists to declare "coal is the enemy of the human race". ...	13th April 2008
‘Make the climate wreckers explain actions to children' - Sunday Herald EVERY PUBLIC sector organisation should have to justify the impact on the climate of every decision it takes, under plans to be put forward by the trade union, Unison. Councils, enterprise agencies, government bodies and the government itself would all be accountable for any development or plan which increases the pollution that is warming the globe. Unison is proposing that chief executives responsible for climate-wrecking schemes should be hauled up before school children to explain their actions.	13th April 2008
The colour of money just got greener - Guardian Unlimited The only way to save the planet is to help big business to make a profit from it, the founder of eco-dealmaker Cool NRG tells Nick Mathiason	13th April 2008

Jim Hansen, the Big Ice Melt and the Mainstream Media - Truthout Imagine you have a choice between two scenarios on the future impact of climate change: Scenario A: Climate change is real and human-caused, a gradual increase in global temperature that we have a long time to do something about (2050 targets) before drought, sea level rise, etc. get too severe; climate change can be effectively mitigated within continuing political and economic business as usual with carbon taxes and more efficient green technology. Scenario B: Climate change is an emergency where we must make Draconian cuts to our use of fossil fuels immediately and globally in order to reduce greenhouse gases in the atmosphere this decade so that we don't continue over a tipping point where both polar ice caps melt completely, sea level rises by 75 meters, and conditions become fiercely inhospitable to humanity and most of the species with which we share this small blue planet. Political and economic business as usual is far too slow and path dependent for mitigation of this scale, so we must innovate a World War II-style government mobilization so that a systemic reconfiguration of the global economy is possible. Thousands of mainstream media articles and commentaries on TV, in newspapers and magazines, inform about climate change Scenario A, but there has been minimal, almost nonexistent mainstream coverage of Scenario B even though its main proponents - James Hansen and his NASA climate science team - have released several papers explaining this nonlinear vision of climate change focusing upon the unpredicted rapid melting of the polar ice caps.	12th April 2008
Gore predicts worsening climate change - Times Online Climate change is taking place even faster than the worst predictions made by the UN's Nobel prize-winning panel on climate change, Al Gore said this morning. The former US vice-president and winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize said that there were forecasts that the North Pole ice cap could disappear during summer months within five years. "The climate crisis is significantly worse and unfolding more rapidly than those on the pessimistic side of the IPCC [International Panel on Climate Change] projections had warned us."	12th April 2008
Getting Cooler? What the World Meteorological Organization Actually Said - DeSmogBlog For the past week, the breathless buzz on the global warming denier blogs and radio programs has been about a certain BBC News article regarding the temporary cooling effect of El Ni??a this year. Serial denier Noel Sheppard at Newsbusters described how the denier dramathon unfolded: NewsBusters has just learned that a British "climate activist" was responsible for getting the BBC to radically alter its "Global Temperatures 'To Decrease'" article last Friday.As reported Sunday, the third paragraph of what previously had been a very balanced piece about how global temperatures have been declining since 1998 was totally reworded in order to make the report just another hysterical climate change pronouncement.On Monday, Jennifer Marohasy, the director of the Environment Unit at Australia's Institute of Public Affairs, received and published an e-mail exchange between the article's author, Roger Harrabin, and a climate activist affiliated with the British ...	12th April 2008
Ward Hunt Ice Shelf destined to disappear - Toronto Star New cracks in the largest remaining Arctic ice shelf suggest another polar landmark seems destined to break up and disappear. Scientists discovered the extensive new cracks in the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf earlier this year and a patrol of Canadian Rangers got an up-close look at them last week.	12th April 2008
End of the sequoias? - Scripps News FRESNO, Calif. -- The 2,000-year-old giant sequoias east of Fresno, Calif., have survived warm spells lasting centuries, but in just 100 years, global warming could snuff them out -- along with many Sierra Nevada species.	12th April 2008
Drought brings 'staggering fire behaviour' - Australian Broadcasting Corporation Firefighting authorities say they have been staggered by changes to fire behaviour because of ongoing drought in South Australia.	12th April 2008
Americans See Global Warming as Serious Problem - Angus Reid Global Monitor Many adults in the United States are concerned about climate change, according to a poll by Rasmussen Reports. 47 per cent of respondents think global warming is a very serious problem, while 26 per cent deem it as somewhat serious.	12th April 2008
May the truth force be with you - Gristmill By Guest authorThis is a guest post from Jonathan F. P. Rose, co-founder of the Garrison Institute, presenting a public forum on "Satyagraha: Gandhi's Truth Force in the Age of Climate Change" April 13 at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine in New York City. ----- In recent days, we commemorated the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., who died 40 years ago this month. And some have also recalled that King was influenced by Gandhi, learning from Gandhi's Satyagraha or "truth force" movement the nonviolent tactics that ultimately made the civil rights movement a success.	12th April 2008
Plant a Garden, Get a Tax Break? - Alternet We give tax breaks to encourage people to put solar panels on their roofs, so why not offer incentives for healthy food production in their backyards? See also: The solution beneath our feet	12th April 2008
MARKET ALONE CAN'T HALT CO2 EMISSIONS: BRITISH CLIMATE OFFICIAL - The Tocqueville Connection PARIS, April 11, 2008 (AFP) - A top British climate change official backed an embattled European Union scheme Friday to tax industrial carbon emissions, but also allowed for exceptions in highly competitive sectors.	12th April 2008
Scientists Predict More Floods, Droughts - PhysOrg (AP) -- Scientists predicted Thursday that climate change in coming decades will cause more flooding in the Northern Hemisphere and droughts in some southern and arid zones.	12th April 2008
All candidates for US presidency treat Kyoto as if it is radioactive - Sault Star The conventional wisdom in Canada is that no matter who becomes the next American president, he or she will quickly lead the United States into compliance with the Kyoto Accord and its successor treaty. Problem is, when you look at what Republican presidential nominee John McCain and Democratic contenders Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are actually saying about Kyoto and its successor treaty (and I've just gone through 80 eye-glazing pages about their environment policies on their campaign websites) you realize the conventional wisdom is wrong.	12th April 2008
Greenpeace costs BE atomic plan at £25bn - Guardian Unlimited Buying British Energy and using its sites to build nuclear power stations will be costly and ineffective, claims Greenpeace	12th April 2008
A force to be reckoned with - Los Angeles Times Songs of the Earth: Environmentalist Bill McKibben's new book plead with readers to stay focused on what is happening to the world.	12th April 2008

Logging boreal forest could detonate massive 'carbon bomb,' says report - CNews OTTAWA - Canada's boreal forest is a ticking "carbon bomb" and its continued logging could trigger a massive release of greenhouse gases, says a new report.	11th April 2006
FINANCE: World Bank "Playing Both Sides of Climate Crisis" - IPS NEW YORK, Apr 10 (IPS) - A new study released by an independent policy think tank casts further doubts on the World Bank's ability to stay neutral in the global politics of climate change.	11th April 2006
The future of solar-powered houses is clear - PhysOrg The future of solar-powered houses is clear. People could live in glass houses and look at the world through rose-tinted windows while reducing their carbon emissions by 50 percent thanks to QUT Institute of Sustainable Resources research.	11th April 2006
The technologies needed to beat 450 ppm, Part 1 - GristMill By Joseph RommIn 2007, the IPCC wrote [PDF] in its Working Group III summary (page 16): The range of stabilization levels assessed can be achieved by deployment of a portfolio of technologies that are currently available and those that are expected to be commercialised in coming decades. This assumes that appropriate and effective incentives are in place for development, acquisition, deployment and diffusion of technologies, and for addressing related barriers (high agreement, much evidence). This range of levels includes reaching atmospheric concentrations of 445 to 490 ppm CO2-equivalent, or 400 to 450 ppm of CO2.	11th April 2006
Low-carbon Living Takes Off In The US - Science Daily Co-housing offers a low-carbon lifestyle, and developers are poised for a market that could soon burgeon in the US, according to a new study. Cohousing in the US typically comprises private living units (houses or flats) with shared spaces such as a gym, office space, workshops, laundry facilities and a cafe. Those living in cohousing consume nearly 60 per cent less energy in the home, and operate car-sharing and recycling schemes that greatly reduce the pollution from travel and landfill.	11th April 2006
Model-data-comparison, Lesson 2 - RealClimate In January, we presented Lesson 1 in model-data comparison: if you are comparing noisy data to a model trend, make sure you have enough data for them to show a statistically significant trend. This was in response to a graph by Roger Pielke Jr. presented in the New York Times Tierney Lab Blog that compared observations to IPCC projections over an 8-year period. We showed that this period is too short for a meaningful trend comparison. This week, the story has taken a curious new twist. In a letter published in Nature Geoscience, Pielke presents such a comparison for a longer period, 1990-2007 (see Figure).	11th April 2006
Absence of clouds caused pre-human supergreenhouse periods - PhysOrg In a world without human-produced pollution, biological productivity controls cloud formation and may be the lever that caused supergreenhouse episodes during the Cetaceous and Eocene, according to Penn State paleoclimatologists.	11th April 2006
Peak Oil Is a Problem We Can Solve Now - Alternet The peak oil problem will not "destroy suburbia" or the American way of life. Only unrestrained emissions of greenhouse gases can do that.	11th April 2006
Poor go hungry as rich fill their tanks - Guardian Unlimited Fight against world poverty set back by seven years as World Bank condems global dash to biofuels	11th April 2006
Bjorn Lomborg and the Anti-Climate Crowd - DeSmogBlog Bjorn Lomborg is breaking bread with another right wing think tank this week. The Manhattan Institute for Policy Research will be hosting the “skeptical environmentalist” for a speech today in the Big Apple. Lomborg continues to tour the world delivering his message of “don't worry – be happy” around environmental issues - particularly global warming. In May he will be hosting the Copenhagen Consensus 2008 conference where we can expect to see another contrived conclusion that climate change it too expensive to deal with. Lomborg's biggest cachet with the media is that he portrays himself as an environmentalist and a one-time supporter of Greenpeace , though the organization has no record of his membership.	11th April 2006
Hunters, anglers worry about global warming, loss of wildlife - WOOD TV 8 Grand Rapids Global warming could force elk and mule deer from much of the American West. Wild trout could disappear in lower Appalachian streams. Two-thirds of the country's ducks may disappear. A new assessment of the threat to fish and wildlife habitat has hunters and anglers calling for action.	11th April 2006

Warming trends rise in large ocean areas -study - AlertNet Warming trends in a third of the world's large ocean regions are two to four times greater than previously reported averages, increasing the risk to marine life and fisheries, a U.N.-backed environmental study said.	10th April 2008
East Lancashire pays the price of extreme weather - This Is Lancashire EXTREME weather caused by climate change is leaving local councils facing a multi-million pound bill. Council bosses say things are getting worse after an internal report warned the true cost of bad weather was "grossly underestimated".	10th April 2008
Most Canadians think Earth Hour should happen more often: poll - CNews OTTAWA - A new survey suggests most Canadians think Earth Hour should happen more often. In fact, the Harris-Decima poll suggests more than a third of Canadians wouldn't mind flicking off their lights and appliances for an hour as often as once a month.	10th April 2008
CLIMATE CHANGE: Will Societies Bend, or Snap in the Storm? - IPS JOHANNESBURG, Apr 9 (IPS) - Representatives from countries, civil society and the private sector are meeting this week in Johannesburg, South Africa, to review the findings of the three-year International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD). This global initiative has examined agriculture from all angles, to determine how farming might be done more sustainably in the future.	10th April 2008
Fruit and vegetable waste clogs landfills - PhysOrg About 4.4 million uneaten apples are being thrown away each day in Britain, creating a mountain of landfill waste, a report reveals. Reducing food waste could cut carbon dioxide by 15 million tons each year, equivalent to taking one in five cars off the road, The Times of London reported.	10th April 2008
Green Groups Oppose World Bank's India Coal Plant - Planet Ark WASHINGTON - Environmental groups called on the World Bank to delay a decision on Tuesday on funding for a $4.2 billion coal-fired power plant in India until more analyses of costs and environmental impact are done.	10th April 2008
Lieberman-Warner is a mess - GristMill Climate Security Act could be worse than the 2007 energy bill. From an analysis [PDF] of the Lieberman-Warner act by the NRDC: ... the requirement for renewable fuels, such as ethanol and biogasoline, will grow from 9 billion gallons in 2008 to 36 billion gallons in 2022. So far, so good, but keep in mind that biogasoline, green diesel, algae derived biodiesel, and cellulosic ethanol have yet to be proven commercially or environmentally viable. Less than a month ago, the NRDC and our government were under the mistaken impression that our conventional biofuels produced fewer greenhouse gases than fossil fuels. And it gets worse:By 2022, 21 billion gallons must be advanced biofuels, of which 16 billion gallons must be cellulosic biofuels.	10th April 2008
Al Gore at TED Al Gore addresses the TED conference, March 2008: Pretty intense. You can see how he is consciously attempting to transcend politics -- he's shooting for something bigger now.	10th April 2008
Brit's Eye View: Not now, Darling U.K.'s Labor Party embraces nuclear but is slow to move on the big climate challenge.	10th April 2008
Next-generation nuclear fuel may be too hot to handle: report - PhysOrg New high-efficiency nuclear fuel meant to burn longer and stronger may prove unstable in an emergency and hard to dispose of, according experts cited in a report published Wednesday.	10th April 2008
'Citizen scientists' watch for signs of climate change - The Christian Science Monitor People with no formal training are helping scientists track and record birds, fish, stars, and plants in their neighborhoods online.	10th April 2008

What is the meaning of 'green'? - BBC News Everyone from supermarkets to politicians talk about going green, but does it actually mean anything? 'We might be the Death Star, but we have a flowerbed in the fourth quadrant.'	9th April 2008
Food price rises threaten global security - UN - Guardian Rising food prices could spark worldwide unrest and threaten political stability, the UN's top humanitarian official warned yesterday after two days of rioting in Egypt over the doubling of prices of basic foods in a year and protests in other parts of the world. See also: Hungry mob attacks Haiti palace - BBC	9th April 2008
World food balance tips toward crisis - Seattle Post Intelligencer The subsidized conversion of crops into fuel was supposed to promote energy independence and help limit global warming. But this promise was, as Time magazine bluntly put it, a "scam."	9th April 2008
Scientist warns climate change will impact beer production - CNews WELLINGTON, New Zealand - The price of beer is likely to rise in coming decades because climate change will hamper the production of a key grain needed for the brew - especially in Australia, a scientist warned Tuesday.	9th April 2008
Climate - Energy Bulletin Map animation of greenhouse gas sources - 'like a beating heart'. Will capitalism survive climate change? The South's dilemma	9th April 2008
New York assembly shelves Manhattan congestion charge - Guardian Unlimited Mayor Michael Bloomberg calls politicians 'cowards' for failing to back $8 levy to combat choking traffic jams and pollution	9th April 2008
Time to stop playing fast and loose with renewables targets - Guardian Unlimited The government should concentrate on strengthening its renewable energy programme, not arguing for dubious certificate trading systems	9th April 2008
The US Is Heading Towards Water Crisis - AlterNet Decreasing water supplies are garnering the interest of the private sector and the potential for profit.	9th April 2008
Earth Day Reality Check: Consumers 'Clueless' About Home Energy ... - PR Newswire As environmental action enters the spotlight this 38th annual Earth Day on April 22, 2008, a national study shows that consumers remain largely "clueless" about residential energy use impacting greenhouse gas emissions -- despite a vast U.S. marketing movement toward green affinity and awareness in recent years.	9th April 2008
Key US Rep Outlines Draft CO2 Policies; Warns Of Infighting - Nasdaq WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- The chairman of the House energy committee Tuesday broadly outlined his draft climate change policies to cut greenhouse gas emissions, but warned that "ferocious infighting" could delay passage of any bill.	9th April 2008
Shell Chief Seeks Carbon Capture Subsidies - Planet Ark BRUSSELS - The European Union must create rapid incentives to promote underground storage of carbon dioxide (CO2) to achieve its ambitious climate change goals, the head of oil major Royal Dutch Shell said on Monday.	9th April 2008

Palm oil industry continues to destroy Indonesia's peatland forests - Monsters and Critics.com Jakarta - The destruction of Indonesia's peatland forests is continuing unstopped despite the government's pledge to halt it, according to a report by environmental group Greenpeace's issued Monday.	8th April 2008
World Bank Accused Of Climate Change "Hijack" - Planet Ark BANGKOK - Developing countries and environmental groups accused the World Bank on Friday of trying to seize control of the billions of dollars of aid that will be used to tackle climate change in the next four decades.	8th April 2008
The 2030 Blueprint - Gristmill A new report from Architecture2030 shows that solving the climate change crisis can save billions of dollars, stimulate a deteriorating U.S. economy, and create high quality jobs (full report here). Complex problems sometimes require the simplest of solutions. One of the most important questions facing those attempting to solve the climate crisis is, "How do we reduce CO2 emissions dramatically and immediately?" The simplest answer is, "Turn off the coal plants." Although coal produces about half of the energy supplied by the electric power sector, it is responsible for 81% of the sector's CO2 emissions.	8th April 2008
CLIMATE CHANGE: European Mountain Top Vanishes - IPS BERLIN, Apr 7 (IPS) - The peak of the Stubai Mountains in the Austrian Alps has vanished. It was around a couple of months back, but since then no one can say exactly when it disappeared.	8th April 2008
Your Asphalt Parking Spot Can Become a Blooming Garden Plot - The Tyee We can pave our streets green: Wouldn't you give up your extra parking spot for a garden plot?	8th April 2008
Price shock in global food - The Christian Science Monitor via Yahoo! News Americans may fret that Wheat Thins cost 15 percent more than a year ago but in poor nations, such price hikes aren't taken lightly. In Ivory Coast last week, women rioted against higher food costs, leaving one person dead.	8th April 2008
E-Day: A good use of energy? - BBC News The recent Energy Saving Day did not affect the UK's electricity use as intended; does that mean such initiatives are a waste of time?	8th April 2008
Target CO2 - RealClimate What is the long term sensitivity to increasing CO2? What, indeed, does long term sensitivity even mean? Jim Hansen and some colleagues (not including me) have a preprint available that claims that it is around 6ºC based on paleo-climate evidence. Since that is significantly larger than the 'standard' climate sensitivity we've often talked about, it's worth looking at in more detail. We need to start with some definitions. Sensitivity is defined as the global mean surface temperature anomaly response to a doubling of CO2 with other boundary conditions staying the same. However, depending on what the boundary conditions include, you can get very different numbers.	8th April 2008
Worst drought for a generation leaves water and comradeship in short supply - Times Online Spain is suffering its worst drought in more than four decades, pitting the country's regions against each other in a fierce battle over water resources.	8th April 2008
Can technology alone stop global warming? - Gristmill By Joseph RommOf course not. We need at least three other things: Major political change, to deploy the technologies fast enough. My first take on this is here ("Is 450 ppm [or less] politically possible? Part 1"). Major price change, to add a cost to emitting greenhouse gases that approximates the terrible damage done by them. All of the technology advances in renewables (or nuclear, or coal with carbon capture) that you can plausibly imagine in the next decade won't make coal cost-uneffective -- this is a critical point to understand. Major behavior change; most people need to understand at a visceral level that unrestricted greenhouse gas emissions are the gravest threat to the health and well-being of future generations that we face, by far.	8th April 2008

Climate target is guaranteed catastrophe - Guardian Unlimited Hansen says the EU target of 550 parts per million of C02 - the most stringent in the world - should be slashed to 350ppm. He argues the cut is needed if "humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilisation developed". A final version of the paper Hansen co-authored with eight other climate scientists, is posted today on the Archive website. Instead of using theoretical models to estimate the sensitivity of the climate, his team turned to evidence from the Earth's history, which they say gives a much more accurate picture.	7th April 2008
Keeping a green eye on drivers - Los Angeles Times Devices in 400 Denver cars will measure lead-footed use of the gas and brake pedals and other fuel-burning maneuvers. The aim: to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Hundreds of drivers here will serve as guinea pigs in a test that's part sociology experiment, part environmental advocacy and part Driver's Ed 101.	7th April 2008
New Method For Combating The Greenhouse Gas Nitrous Oxide Developed - Science Daily The cost of treating wastewater contaminated with nitrogen could be lowered in future. Soil scientists have developed a new mathematical model which can help determine the optimum conditions for microbiological water treatment. Using the stable natural nitrogen isotope, this mathematical model is the most accurate to date.	7th April 2008
Wind farm faces MoD opposition - Guardian Unlimited E.ON, the power generator, has today submitted a planning application to build a £700m wind farm off the east Yorkshire coast, despite opposition from the Ministry of Defence.	7th April 2008
Global Warming Heats Up Urgency Of Salmon Recovery Efforts - Science Daily Federal efforts to recover endangered salmon on the Columbia and Snake rivers can no longer ignore global warming, which already has fundamentally changed the river and ocean habitats of salmon and steelhead, warns a new scientific review.	7th April 2008
The Inconvenient Truthteller: Al Gore captivates Montreal - DeSmogBlog Al Gore strode into Montreal Friday evening and the city embraced him as one of its own. In fact, I can't quite imagine that he gets quite this kind of welcome anywhere else. First of all, his visit was sponsored by La Presse, which guaranteed a pretty compelling advance. And if the front page coverage wasn't impressive enough, the full-colour special section on climate change would have to turn your head. Before taking to the stage at the Place des Arts to deliver his now-famous slideshow, Gore was whisked off to the offices of Power Corporation – a name which perfectly describes the scope, if not the actual activities of the company in question – for a VIP reception hosted by Andre Desmarais and including the cream of the Montreal business and political community.	7th April 2008
Carbon credits could help save Amazon, blunt warming: study - Raw Story Global carbon markets could generate billions of dollars each year for developing countries that tackle tropical deforestation, a major source of global warming, according to a new study. Reducing the rate at which Amazonian rain forests are disappearing by only 10 percent, for example, would yield 1.5 to 9.1 billion euros (2.2 to 13.5 billion dollars), depending on world carbon emission prices, researchers calculated.	7th April 2008
Fires main threat to Amazon in drier climate: study - Reuters UK Fires set by people will be the biggest threat to the Amazon rainforest in coming decades linked to a drier climate caused by global warming, researchers said on Monday. They said swathes of the forest were more likely to be killed by blazes raging out of control than by a more gradual shift towards savannah caused by more frequent droughts predicted by the U.N. Climate Panel in a 2007 report.	7th April 2008

Global warming continues, regardless of La Nina weather pattern - TREND Information The long-term trend of global warming is continuing, despite the current La Nina weather phenomenon that is bringing relatively cooler temperatures to parts of the Equatorial Pacific region, the United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said yesterday. Worldwide temperatures this year are expected to be above the long-term average, even though La Nina is also likely to persist through to the middle of 2008, WMO said in a press statement issued in Geneva.	6th April 2008
Koalas in danger - Independent The future of the koala, perhaps Australia's best-loved animal, is under threat because greenhouse gas emissions are making eucalyptus leaves – their sole food source – inedible. Scientists warned yesterday that increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere were reducing nutrient levels in the leaves, and also boosting their toxic tannin content.	6th April 2008
Spanish region may ship water to relieve drought - Environmental News Network MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's northeast Catalonia region will need to import water by ship and train from May to ensure domestic supplies if the current drought persists, the regional government said in a report. The report, sent to Reuters on Friday, said rainfall in all but one of Catalonia's 15 river basins was below emergency levels for the year so far.	6th April 2008
Georgia lawmakers approve request to redraw borders, hoping to alleviate a drought - Boston Herald ATLANTA - Lawmakers in drought-parched Georgia voted Friday to ask mapmakers to redraw their state’s northern boundary in hopes of tapping the Tennessee River, in a vote that potentially escalates a conflict with their neighbor.	6th April 2008
New Focus on Coal's Part in Warming - Washington Post James E. Hansen, perhaps the best-known scientific advocate for curbing greenhouse-gas emissions, sent a letter recently to the head of one of the nation's largest power companies, calling on him to confront the role that his coal-fired plants play in global warming. Hansen proposed they meet.	6th April 2008
Climate debate shifts as many say emissions caps are not enough - International Herald Tribune More economists, scientists and students of energy policy are pushing for the development of advanced low-carbon technologies.	6th April 2008
Riots fear after rice price hits a high - Guardian Unlimited Shortages of the staple crop of half the world's people could bring unrest across Asia and Africa	6th April 2008
New site for global warming action - We Can Solve It No single person will stop global warming, but by working together, we can make it a priority for government and business. We'll succeed because when people unite and call for action, change is inevitable. Together we can solve the climate crisis.	6th April 2008
Companies will have to tell all on carbon emissions - Independent All quoted companies will be forced to detail carbon emissions in their annual reports after the Government caved in to backbench pressure.	6th April 2008
Dust to Dust... - Sunday Herald The rising temperatures and increasing humidity triggered by climate change are threatening to unleash a plague of pests on the priceless contents of Scotland's historic buildings, according to a new warning from the National Trust for Scotland (NTS). Clothes moths, carpet beetles, woodworm, mould and fungi are all on the ascendancy, says NTS's head of collections conservation services, Clare Meredith. This puts the textiles, furniture and books in some of the nation's iconic castles and stately homes in danger.	6th April 2008
Nobel winner has grave climate fears - TVNZ The Nobel Prize-winning scientist who rang the first alarm bells over the ozone hole has issued a warning about climate change, saying there could be "almost irreversible consequences" if the Earth warmed 2.5 degrees Celsius above what it ought to be.	6th April 2008
Bangkok climate change talks close - Reuters UK As expected, no major advances were achieved at the meeting, which was mainly intended to flesh out a roadmap from a breakthrough agreement in Bali last year to kick off the talks through to a culmination in Copenhagen at the end of 2009.	6th April 2008
Just the Tree of Us - Newsweek Driven by public concern, all the candidates agree that action is needed to slow global warming. No matter who's elected, America's policy will be different a year from now.	6th April 2008

CLIMATE CHANGE: A Game With Too Many Free Riders BROOKLIN, Canada, Apr 4 (IPS) - The evidence is piling up that climate change threatens to bring a chaotic future unlike anything ever known. Taking collective action in time to avert the worst means rewarding climate-safe behaviour, punishing climate transgressors and publicly praising those who are trying to protect the environment, a new study suggests.	5th April 2008
Green row over fuel made from coal - Guardian Unlimited Science environment: Energy companies planning to replace dwindling supplies of oil with synthetic fuels derived from coal · Method devised by Nazis sparks worldwide interest · Greenhouse gas emissions around double that of oil	5th April 2008
CLIMATE CHANGE: New Value For Old Forests SYDNEY, Apr 4 (IPS) - Newly sensitised to the dangers of climate change, researchers around the world are making progress in helping to protect old growth forests that are threatened by fires, urban development and logging.	5th April 2008
An inspirational kickoff from David Suzuki - DeSmogBlog A room, bursting with 250 Inconvenient Truth trainees gathered in Montreal Friday afternoon for the opening of the first Canadian (and the first bilingual) Al Gore Bootcamp. And if they weren't already excited by the prospect – and convinced of the necessity – of learning how to engage Canadians in a climate change conversation (and plainly there were), David Suzuki would have made all the difference. Suzuki could fairly be characterized as the Al Gore of Canada, where climate change is concerned. His organization, the David Suzuki Foundation, has been actively engaged in lobbying for action for more than a decade.	5th April 2008
Crop switch worsens global food price crisis - Guardian Unlimited UN secretary general raises doubt over policy encouraging farmers to produce biofuels amid signs of worst food crisis in a generation	5th April 2008
Go for an 'Edible Estate': The Case Against Lawns - AlterNet Why do we dedicate so much property to something that requires precious resources, endless hours and contaminates our air and water?	5th April 2008
Wheat future surge on worries that bad weather will damage crops - Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune NEW YORK - Wheat prices shot up Friday as investors bet that a mix of wet and dry weather in wheat-growing U.S. states will damage crops and tighten supplies of the grain used to make bread, pasta and other foods.	5th April 2008
NOAA studies four seals species as possible endangered - Alaskajournal.com NOAA Fisheries Service is preparing status reviews of ribbon, bearded, spotted and ringed seals for possible listing under the federal Endangered Species Act.	5th April 2008

Australia to begin carbon capture - BBC News Australia opens its first underground carbon storage facility in an effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions.	4th April 2008
US mulls Pacific salmon fishing ban - BBC News A collapse in Pacific salmon stocks is leading the US government to consider a fishing ban, the BBC's Rajesh Mirchandani reports.	4th April 2008
Canadian Researchers Warn Of New Arctic Worries - Planet Ark Melting ocean ice is apparently allowing larger storm surges to flood into the delta in Canada's far north, a change that could have an impact on energy development plans for the region, said Lance Lesack, who has been tracking environmental changes in the region for more than a decade. "With receding sea ice, suddenly we're seeing bigger storm surges moving into the delta from storms that really aren't any bigger than they have been historically," said Lesack, a geographer from Simon Fraser University near Vancouver.	4th April 2008
Harmful algae taking advantage of global warming - PhysOrg You know that green scum creeping across the surface of your local public water reservoir" Or maybe it`s choking out a favorite fishing spot or livestock watering hole. It`s probably cyanobacteria - blue-green algae - and, according to a paper in the April 4 issue of the journal Science, it relishes the weather extremes that accompany global warming.	4th April 2008
Severe Spanish drought sparks regional fights over water - Channel NewsAsia MADRID: The worst drought in decades in Spain is leading to regional disputes over scarce water resources with areas with more reserves resisting transfers to more parched zones.	4th April 2008
CLIMATE CHANGE: A Vision Worth Fighting For - IPS BROOKLIN, Canada, Apr 3 (IPS) - Sweeping societal change is a slow and erratic business. The civil rights movement in the United States went nowhere for decades and then exploded in the 1960s. Not long ago, smokers could light up anywhere they pleased in Canada and the U.S. Now they are mostly confined to a few outdoor areas and as a consequence, far fewer people smoke.	4th April 2008
US warns on economy as Africa seeks climate aid - Raw Story The United States warned Thursday a worsening economy limited what it could give to help poor nations fight global warming, as African activists appealed for major polluters to commit one percent of GDP. [absolutely shameful]	4th April 2008
BRAZIL: Clean Gasoline Fuels Soybean Production RIO DE JANEIRO, Apr 3 (IPS) - The Brazilian government has decided to move up the deadlines for obligatory addition of biofuels to gasoline and diesel fuel, a measure that will boost the production of soybeans, the oilseed crop with the lowest yield and that causes the most environmental damage.	4th April 2008
IMF: Price Carbon Emissions To Avert Global Warming Crisis - Nasdaq WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- A price should be put on greenhouse gas emissions to avert "potentially catastrophic" damage to the world economy from global warming, the International Monetary Fund said Thursday.	4th April 2008
Ted Turner Says Global Warming Will Increase Cannibalism - Ecorazzi In an interview Tuesday for Charlie Rose’s PBS show, the CNN founder said that one of the consequences of Global Warming will be mass cannibalism. From the interview, “Not doing it will be catastrophic. We’ll be eight degrees hotter in ten, not ten but 30 or 40 years and basically none of the crops will grow. Most of the people will have died and the rest of us will be cannibals. Civilization will have broken down. The few people left will be living in a failed state — like Somalia or Sudan — and living conditions will be intolerable. The droughts will be so bad there’ll be no more corn grown. Not doing it is suicide.”	4th April 2008

The green scare - Guardian Unlimited Science environment: Why is the Bush government casting 'eco-terrorists' as public enemy No 1? John Vidal reports	3rd April 2008
The World Bank's Climate Profiteering - AlterNet The bank is turning dirty carbon credits into gold -- bad news for those seeking a real solution to the climate crisis.	3rd April 2008
More from the delayer-1000 du jour By Joseph RommThe usually thoughtful journal Nature has just published a pointless and misleading -- if not outright dangerous -- commentary by delayer-1000 du jour, Roger Pielke, Jr., along with Christopher Green, who, as we've seen, is another aspiring delayer. It will be no surprise to learn the central point of their essay, ironically titled "Dangerous Assumptions" (available here [PDF] or here, with a subscription), is: "Enormous advances in energy technology will be needed to stabilize atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations at acceptable levels." This is otherwise known as the technology trap or the standard "Technology, technology, blah, blah, blah" delayer message developed by Frank Luntz and perfected by Bush/Lomborg/Gingrich. See also: Report: Uphill fight vs. CO2 - Rocky Mountain News	3rd April 2008
A tactical and moral mistake - Toronto Star A tactical and moral mistakeToronto Star, Canada. The report followed a common pattern of portraying China as a recalcitrant participant in global warming talks and a large, energy inefficient, polluting, ...	3rd April 2008
Hungry Crowds Spell Trouble For World Leaders - Planet Ark YAOUNDE - "Is it not said 'A hungry man is an angry man'?" commented Simon Nkwenti, head of a teachers' union in Cameroon, after riots that killed dozens of people in the central African country.	3rd April 2008
ENVIRONMENT: Major Climate Campaign Hits U.S. Airwaves WASHINGTON, Apr 2 (IPS) - Building on his Oscar for the documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" and his 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his work on climate change, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore Wednesday launched a 300-million-dollar media campaign to mobilise the public for concrete action to reduce global warming.	3rd April 2008
US states take agency to court over emissions standards - Guardian Unlimited A group of states are attempting to force the Environmental Protection Agency to comply with a Supreme Court ruling	3rd April 2008
Green Scotland 'can power whole of UK' - Scotsman Green Scotland 'can power whole of UK'Scotsman, United Kingdom. By HAMISH MACDONELL SCOTLAND could become the global leader in the fight against climate change by producing ten times as much electricity from renewables ...	3rd April 2008
Climate and cholera - PhysOrg Cholera outbreaks may soon be predicted using satellite sensors, paving the way for preemptive medicine in countries that suffer epidemics, says Distinguished University Professor Rita Colwell, speaking today at the Society for General Microbiology`s 162nd meeting being held this week at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.	3rd April 2008
CLIMATE CHANGE: The Fault Lies Not in Our Cars but in Ourselves BROOKLIN, Canada, Apr 2 (IPS) - Rising levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in Earth's atmosphere can be compared to a flooding river, swamping low areas at first but inevitably bursting its banks.	3rd April 2008
The great carbon con: Can offsetting really help to save the planet? - The Independent It all started with Sting, this fad for owning one's very own patch of tropical rainforest, though it is probably unfair to blame him entirely for creating the boom industry that buying up forests piecemeal has become.	3rd April 2008
Dust plays huge role in climate change - The Christian Science Monitor Tiny particles heat up the atmosphere faster than scientist once believed. The good news is this dust can be cleaned up fairly quickly.	3rd April 2008
Coal power policy under attack from top scientists - Guardian Unlimited Leading scientists warn ministers that plans for a new generation of coal power stations pose climate risk	3rd April 2008
Carbon prices rise amid tighter rules - Guardian Unlimited Europe's big polluters emitted lower levels of carbon dioxide than allowed last year See also: EU industry sees emissions rise - BBC News	3rd April 2008
Rising seas could be death knell to sportfish - Naples Daily News Global warming models show a 15-inch sea level rise in Southwest Florida by year 2100, wiping out much marshland where fish breed.	3rd April 2008
German Soy Fuel Blend Fails Climate Test - Greenpeace - Planet Ark HAMBURG - Germany's policy of blending fossil diesel with biodiesel to combat climate change is failing because 20 percent comes from soyoil produced in countries where deforestation takes place, Greenpeace said on Wednesday.	3rd April 2008
'No Sun link' to climate change - BBC News The idea that the Earth's climate is determined by cosmic rays and the Sun's activity is discredited by UK scientists.	3rd April 2008

How Conservatives Have Duped Us in the Global Warming Fight We've let them decide how we talk about climate change and what's important.	2nd April 2008
CLIMATE CHANGE: The Future Is Now BROOKLIN, Canada, Apr 1 (IPS) - Our fingers are glued to the global thermostat, pushing it ever higher, and climate catastrophe has already begun to reshape human civilisation.	2nd April 2008
Climate change: Time is running out - CNN.com It appears that the scale and seriousness of climate change is at last being grasped. In 2008, we stand on the brink of a historic consensus, not only between scientists, but in the corridors of political power and in boardrooms across the globe.	2nd April 2008
Is 450 ppm - or less politically possible? Part 1 By Joseph RommThe short answer is: "Not today -- not even close." The long answer is the subject of this post. Regular readers know that the nation and the world currently lack the political will to stabilize atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide at 450 ppm or even 550 ppm. The political impossibility is also obvious from anyone familiar with Princeton's "stabilization wedges" [PDF] -- and if you aren't, you should be (technical paper here [PDF], less technical one here [PDF]). The wedges are a valuable conceptual tool for showing the immense scale needed for the solution (although they have analytical flaws).	2nd April 2008
A timeline of climate change science - CNN.com Climatology was once a small and often overlooked branch of science. But important discoveries made as the early 19th century have contributed to what is the most important field of scientific study in the world today. Listed below are some key dates in climate change history.	2nd April 2008
After Earth Hour - Toronto Star For one hour on Saturday evening, Torontonians turned their lights off and cut their power consumption by almost 9 per cent from the average over the past three years. Symbolic though it was, Earth Hour demonstrated the level of concern in this city over climate change as well as a willingness by residents to start changing their behaviour when it comes to the overuse of fossil fuel.	2nd April 2008
Canada's submission to UN climate change conference ‘deceitful': critics - GlobalTV Ontario OTTAWA - The Harper government is being accused of misleading the world about the toughness of its plan to force industry to bury greenhouse gas emissions underground.	2nd April 2008
Building the future - CNN.com It's easy to overlook the impact buildings have on greenhouse gas emissions, but the places where we live and work contribute over 30 percent of global greenhouse emissions.	2nd April 2008
Climate changing gas from some surprising microbial liaisons - PhysOrg The climate changing gas dimethyl sulphide (DMS) is being made by microbes at the rate of more than 200 million tonnes a year in the world`s seas, scientists heard today at the Society for General Microbiology`s 162nd meeting being held this week at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.	2nd April 2008
Climate Cartoons Brings Green to Screen - Animation Magazine Climate Cartoons Brings Green to ScreenAnimation Magazine. Climate Cartoons, a leading producer of animation that inspires action to prevent climate change, uses the power of animation to educate viewers on the ...	2nd April 2008
EU data set to reveal effect on emissions - Financial Times Carbon traders found out on Tuesday whether the European Union's emissions trading scheme has succeeded in persuading companies to curb their greenhouse gas output.	2nd April 2008

No laughing matter -- bacteria are releasing a serious greenhouse gas Unlike carbon dioxide and methane, laughing gas has been largely ignored by world leaders as a worrying greenhouse gas. But nitrous oxide must be taken more seriously, says Professor David Richardson from the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK, speaking today at the Society for General Microbiology`s 162nd meeting being held this week at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.	1st April 2008
Climate Change Is a Wake-Up Call to Radically Reform Our Economy The people most affected by the injustices of the polluting economy are already helping to lead the way.	1st April 2008
'Fossil Fools' Protests Target Oil Industry - OneWorld.net Green groups are planning to celebrate April Fools Day Tuesday with a variety of actions designed to embarrass oil industry bosses gathering in Washington.	1st April 2008

Hansen to Australian PM: stop coal plants now - Energy Bulletin James Hansen, Australian Science Media Centre. Text of letter from climate scientist James Hansen to Australian PM Kevin Rudd calling on Rudd to provide global leadership to to climate change by ordering a halt to the "construction of coal-fired power plants that do not capture and sequester the C02" they produce.	31st March 2008
US West Warming Faster Than Rest Of World - Study - Planet Ark LOS ANGELES - The US West is heating up at nearly twice the rate of the rest of the world and is likely to face more drought conditions in many of its fast-growing cities, an environmental group said on Thursday.	31st March 2008
Thai temple fights off encroaching tide as world sea levels rise - Raw Story Thailand: Visanu Kengsamut, 26, has already moved three times in his life, while his mother -- the village chief -- has fled the crumbling coast and rebuilt her home eight times, and each time the village has paid for its own relocation. Khun Samut Chin now sits about one kilometre inland from the temple. "We know that the cause of this is the effects of global warming," says Visanu.	31st March 2008
Thai farmers fall prey to rice rustlers as price of staple crop rockets - Guardian Unlimited Asian countries curb exports to avoid shortfalls as 'perfect storm' nearly doubles price in three months	31st March 2008
Wartime lessons for the credit crunch - BBC News Things might not get that bad, but the credit crunch is forcing many to economise. So what can we learn - apart from the recipe for home-made margarine - from the diaries of people who lived through the austerity of World War II?	31st March 2008
Gore unveils $300m advertising blitz to force climate debate - Guardian Unlimited Nobel laureate Al Gore rolls out advertising blitz to try to force debate on climate change during the US elections	31st March 2008
Huaneng To Build China's Largest Wind Farm - Paper - Planet Ark BEIJING - China's Huaneng Group will start in June building the country's largest wind farm of 300 megawatts, a Chinese paper said, as the world's second-largest energy user seeks to grow its tiny renewables sector.	31st March 2008
What Are The UN Bangkok Climate Talks? - Planet Ark THAILAND - Delegates from up to 190 nations will meet in Bangkok from March 31-April 4 for the first round of UN talks on a sweeping new pact to fight climate change.	31st March 2008
When does additionality matter? Part I The deceptively simple concept at the heart of carbon markets. Sean recently wrote a provocative post on why "additionality" -- one of the bedrock principles of carbon markets as presently designed -- is an expensive waste of time. This is a rich topic, and my perspective as a carbon offset retailer differs from his as an energy producer. It's worth spending a few posts exploring why.When we ask whether a greenhouse-gas reduction is "additional," we're asking if it would have happened in the absence of whatever incentive we've applied. According to the logic of additionality, if the reduction would have happened anyway, then we've wasted our money.	31st March 2008

Cities dim lights for environment - BBC News Cities around the world, starting with Sydney, switch off the lights for an hour to highlight climate change. See also: Earth Hour saved at least 5 per cent power: organisers - The West Australian	30th March 2008
Four nations in race to be first to go carbon neutral - Independent It's the race for the greenest of the laurels, the contest for the ultimate ecological accolade. Four countries are competing to be the first of the world's 195 nations to go entirely carbon neutral.	30th March 2008
Air Capture - RealClimate Guest Commentary by Frank Zeman [This is one of an occasional series on the science of mitigation/adaptation/geo-engineering that we hope to continue. Since this isn't our core expertise, we'd especially appreciate balanced contributions from other scientists.] One of the central challenges of controlling anthropogenic climate change is developing technologies that deal with emissions from small, dispersed sources such as automobiles and residential houses. Capturing these emissions is more difficult as they are too small to support infrastructure, such as pipelines, and may be mobile, as with cars. For these reasons, proposed solutions, such as switching to using hydrogen or electricity as a fuel, rely on the carbon-free generation of electricity or hydrogen.	30th March 2008
The Clean Energy Scam - Time Magazine Ethanol increases global warming, destroys forests and inflates food prices. So why are we subsidizing it?	30th March 2008
Control oil and control the world - Guardian Unlimited Comment is free: John Gray: New superpowers are competing for diminishing resources as Britain becomes a bit-player. The outcome could be deadly	30th March 2008
A response to Romm on peak oil Dave Cohen, Energy Bulletin. It's high-time for climate activists to wake up and smell the coffee on peak oil. Peak oil problems are immediate and inimical to our ability to solve all the other problems we have - including climate.	30th March 2008
The new global menace: food inflation - The Globe and Mail Staple prices have doubled, fanning social, political unrest	30th March 2008
Time runs out for islanders on global warming's front line - Guardian Unlimited Rising sea levels threaten to flood the Ganges delta, leading to an environmental disaster	30th March 2008
Austrian glaciers shrink the most in five years Austria's glaciers retreated more than 22 metres (24 yards) on average last year, in the biggest shrinking for five years, the country's Alpine Club said Saturday.	30th March 2008
New building rules 'will raise carbon emissions' - Guardian Unlimited More than eight million tonnes of carbon will be released by homes built over the next eight years	30th March 2008

Carbon tariff on China possible to curb pollution - Toronto Star Countries such as Canada and the United States may start imposing a "carbon tariff" on goods from China and other developing countries which have become the biggest contributors to global greenhouse-gas emissions, CIBC World Markets said Thursday.	29th March 2008
Cities dim lights for environment - BBC News Cities around the world, starting with Sydney, are set to switch off the lights for an hour to highlight climate change. See also: Is one hour long enough? - CNews	29th March 2008
EXPERTS SOUND ALARM ON FUTURE AVAILABILITY OF RICE - The Manila Times LOS BAÑOS: It is the staple food of half of humanity but only a handful of countries have large rice surpluses, leaving even some of the biggest producers scrambling to grow enough to feed their own people.	29th March 2008
Rosie Boycott: Only a radical change of diet can halt looming food crises - Guardian Unlimited Rosie Boycott: Costs are high now, but rising oil prices will bring enormous problems for a world with appetites that it simply can't sustain	29th March 2008
NOAA: Ocean acidity threatening Pacific Ocean fisheries - Alaska Journal of Commerce KODIAK Ñ A federal fisheries scientist says a major threat to fisheries in the North Pacific Ocean in this century is coming from ocean acidity due to rising levels of carbon dioxide in the ocean.	29th March 2008
Gore's Message To Climate Change Skeptics - CBS News Al Gore tells 60 Minutes' Lesley Stahl those who doubt humans cause global warming, including Vice President Dick Cheney, are like those who doubt the moon landing or who once believed the world is flat. Sunday, March 30, 7 p.m. ET/PT.	29th March 2008
The lesser-spotted butterfly - Independent The lesser-spotted butterflyIndependent, UK. With the losses greater in south-east England, Butterfly Conservation says that suggests the problem may be linked to climate change, because climate ...	29th March 2008
Climate change affecting trees, streams in the West - San Diego Union-Tribune SALT LAKE CITY – Around the same time the American West started heating up five years ago, Colorado started losing its lodgepole pine forests to a beetle infestation.	29th March 2008
Fossil Fool's Day 2008 only days away!! - It's Getting Hot In Here Fossil Fool's Day 2008 only days away!!It's Getting Hot In Here, DC. We have had enough of coal companies that destroy communities, poison our air, and spew global warming pollution. We are sick of oil and car companies ...	29th March 2008
US environment agency signals go-slow approach on global warming rules - International Herald Tribune The U.S. government made clear on Thursday it will not be rushed into deciding whether to regulate emissions linked to global warming, as the Supreme Court directed nearly a year ago. "Time is not on our side when it comes to avoiding dangerous climate change. This letter makes it clear that Mr. Johnson and the Bush administration are not on our side, either," Boxer, a Democrat, said in a statement.	29th March 2008
Asia Must Reverse Massive Deforestation Trend : UN - Planet Ark NEW DELHI - Parts of Asia are losing more than 28,000 square kilometres (10,800 square miles) of forest every year, a trend that must to be reversed immediately to fight climate change, a United Nations report said on Thursday.	29th March 2008
100,000 Wells Needed to Store US Carbon Emissions Even if carbon capture storage technology was not a myth on par with flying cars, the reality is that in order to store the amount of heat-trapping greenhouse gas produced by the United States, "100,800 new wells would be needed by 2030 in America if Washington commits to meeting the Kyoto Protocol emission requirement and keeping total carbon emissions at 2005 levels."H/T to our friends at SolveClimate.com. carbon capture and sequestration global warming greenhouse gas emissions	29th March 2008
Lawyers challenge company 'carbon neutral' claims - ABC via Yahoo!7 News As we edge towards Earth Hour at 8pm AEDT on Saturday night, a group of lawyers have raised questions about carbon offset programs.	29th March 2008
Will capitalism survive climate change? - Bangkok Post Will capitalism survive climate change?Bangkok Post, Thailand. Thus, for the South, the implications of an effective global response to global warming include not just the inclusion of some countries in a regime of ...	29th March 2008
Britain seeks loophole in EU green energy targets - Guardian Unlimited Government wants its clean power projects abroad to count towards the UK's quota	29th March 2008
Government Insider Document Shows Critical Importance of DSCOVR Climate Satellite A fresh document recently provided to DeSmog Blog by inside sources shows the critical importance of the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) to the US government. Several universities and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) commissioned the study to evaluate how this unique spacecraft could provide benefits to earth monitoring and space weather prediction. The document is available for viewing here, and favorably compares DSCOVR's capabilities with the stated science priorities of NOAA. The conclusion: the spacecraft would be a boon to monitoring our rapidly warming planet and tracking dangerous solar flares. NOAA's primary interest in DSCOVR is predicting “space weather”.	29th March 2008

Ice shelf collapse video	27th March 2008
Russian, Canadian Winter Days Much Milder - UK Study - Planet Ark OSLO - The coldest winter days in Russia and Canada have become up to 4 Celsius (7 Fahrenheit) milder since the 1950s in an extreme sign of climate change, the British Meteorological Office said on Wednesday.	27th March 2008
Australian industry dying on the vines - Toronto Star MELBOURNE–Australian grape growers reckon they are the canary in the coal mine of global warming, as a long drought forces winemakers to rethink the styles of wine they can produce and the regions they can grow in.	27th March 2008
Western Canadian Pine Beetle Infestation Spreads - Planet Ark VANCOUVER, British Columbia - About half of the marketable pine trees in West Coast Canadian province of British Columbia have been ravaged by a nearly decade-long beetle infestation, according to new government statistics.	27th March 2008
How much will it cost to fix the climate? The numbers vary. - The Christian Science Monitor Even when experts look at the same data, they can come to vastly different conclusions. Robert Repetto, an economics professor at Yale University, recently created a website reviewing 25 of the leading economic models that predict the impacts of cutting greenhouse gases. His conclusion: Strong economic growth would continue even under worst-case assumptions.	27th March 2008
Million acres of Guyanese rainforest to be saved in groundbreaking deal - Independent A deal has been agreed that will place a financial value on rainforests - paying, for the first time, for their upkeep as "utilities" that provide vital services such as rainfall generation, carbon storage and climate regulation.	27th March 2008
New approach to measuring carbon in forests - PhysOrg CSIRO is collaborating in a NASA-funded project, using a CSIRO-designed instrument, to help develop new methods of measuring forest carbon stores on a large scale.	27th March 2008
Climate change threatens Amazonian small farmers - PhysOrg A six-year study of Amazonian small farmers and their responses to climate change shows the farmers are vulnerable to natural catastrophes and risky land use practices, say Indiana University Bloomington anthropologists Eduardo Brondizio and Emilio Moran.	27th March 2008
The man making 'wind bags' - BBC News An engineer receives funding for the experimental storage of energy as compressed air in undersea containers.	27th March 2008
Indian minister attacks biofuels - BBC News The Indian finance minister says it is "outrageous" that developed countries are turning crops into biofuels.	27th March 2008
Is the World Making Progress on Fighting Global Warming? - AlterNet Climate negotiations in Bali moved the world just a bit back from the brink. But the next two years will be critical.	27th March 2008

Antarctic shelf 'hangs by thread' - BBC News A huge chunk of ice is starting to break away from Antarctica in what scientists believe is further evidence of global warming.	26th March 2008
US experts will stage climate war game - United Press International U.S. foreign affairs and military experts will stage a war game this summer to study and highlight the national security threats posed by global warming.	26th March 2008
Millions at risk from warmer world - Sydney Morning Herald Rising seas and water shortages will displace about 125 million people living along the coasts of India and Bangladesh by the turn of the century, Greenpeace said.	26th March 2008
On Carbon, Tax and Don't Spend - New York Times Carbon tax discussions always seem to devolve into gleeful suggestions for ways to spend the revenue, but policymakers must be prevented from turning the tax into a cash cow.	26th March 2008
Bambi and Nemo are 'unsung heroes of the green lobby' - Guardian Unlimited Disney films played radical role, says Cambridge professor	26th March 2008
Organic Crops Impressively Productive When Compared With Conventionally Grown Crops - Science Daily Can organic cropping systems be as productive as conventional systems? The answer is an unqualified, “Yes” for alfalfa or wheat and a qualified “Yes most of the time” for corn and soybeans according to research reported by scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and agricultural consulting firm AGSTAT in the March-April 2008 issue of Agronomy Journal. [Why is this about global warming? Because it doesn't need petroleum derived fertilizer.]	26th March 2008
For Carbon Emissions, a Goal of Less Than Zero - New York Times For Carbon Emissions, a Goal of Less Than ZeroNew York Times, United States. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said that an 80 percent cut in carbon dioxide emissions was necessary to avoid the worst ...	26th March 2008
Quiet revolution - Guardian Jaime Lerner's 'urban revolution' successfully transformed a congested, grimy, crime-ridden city into a world-renowned model of green living and social innovation. London can do it too, he tells Tom Phillips.	26th March 2008
Ice shrinks in Arctic sea - International Herald Tribune Winter sea ice around a Norwegian Arctic island has thinned to less than one metre (3 feet) since the 1960s, according to a study on Tuesday of a region that may be more attractive to oil firms because of climate change. The Norwegian Polar Institute said ice around Hopen island southeast of the Svalbard archipelago had become more than 40 cms (16 inches) thinner in the past 40 years, in what it called the first long-term study of ice thickness in the Barents Sea.	26th March 2008
New Parasite Discovered; Infects Waterfowl, Other Species - PhysOrg.com The findings were just reported in the International Journal for Parasitology, and raise concerns not only about the new parasite but about others that may become more widespread, cause more health problems or possibly even move into new species as a result of global warming and climate change.	26th March 2008
Pine beetle infestation impacting salmon runs - Canada.com If the heat of climate change weren't enough of a danger to Pacific salmon, scientists are cataloging how the effects of the global-warming-aided mountain pine beetle infestation are adding to salmon's woes. Because the enormous pine forests are dead or dying, the tree boughs don't intercept snow and rain, or shade the forest floor to slow the spring snow-melt. The result is bigger snow packs, more rapid snow melts leading to flash flooding and higher peak stream flows that erode streams. Then rapid runoffs mean more summer droughts, combined with higher summer water temperatures, the report notes.	26th March 2008
Our Suicide Mission with Coal - Alternet Coal produces more carbon emissions than other energy sources, yet we burn more of it each year.	26th March 2008
Why don't kids walk to school anymore? - PhysOrg Maybe when we were their age, we walked five miles to school, rain or shine. So why don't most children today walk or bike to school? It's not necessarily because they're spoiled, lazy or over scheduled. According to a University of Michigan researcher, concerns about safety are the main reason that less than 13 percent of U.S. children walked or biked to school in 2004, compared to more than 50 percent who did so in 1969.	26th March 2008

Tony the climate tiger: Roaring success? - BBC News Does the world need Tony Blair as a climate change envoy? In the Green Room this week, Saleemul Huq argues that he shows few signs of understanding the impacts that climate change is already having on the developing world.	25th March 2008
Geothermal energy can cut energy use, greenhouse gases - Daily Local News LONDON GROVE - While you are sitting around waiting for a fuel cell car to be developed for the mass market, there is one technology available right now that can cut energy use and greenhouse gases dramatically.	25th March 2008
Deep thought - Mar 24 Staff, Energy Bulletin. Despoiled Nauru - poster child for "The Party's Over" What does climate change do to our heads?	25th March 2008
New Limits to Growth - Wall Street Journal Blogs Now and then across the centuries, powerful voices have warned that human activity would overwhelm the earth's resources. The Cassandras always proved wrong. Each time, there were new resources to discover, new technologies to propel growth. Today the old fears are back.	25th March 2008
Air Force out to launch coal venture - Arkansas Democrat Gazette The US Air Force wants to build at Malmstrom in central Montana the first piece of what it hopes will be a nationwide network of facilities that would convert domestic coal into cleanerburning synthetic fuel.	25th March 2008
Gulf Stream Leaves Its Signature Seven Miles High - Science Daily - press release The Gulf Stream’s impact on climate is well known, keeping Iceland and Scotland comfortable in winter compared to the deep-freeze of Labrador at the same latitude. That cyclones tend to spawn over the Gulf Stream has also been known for some time. A new study reveals that the Gulf Stream anchors a precipitation band with upward motions and cloud formations that can reach 7 miles high and penetrate the upper troposphere. The discovery, announced by a Japan–US team of scientists, shows that the Gulf Stream has a pathway by which to directly affect weather and climate patterns over the whole Northern Hemisphere, and perhaps even world wide.	25th March 2008
Government is listening to polluters - Toronto Star Canada: The climate crisis, according to Canada's former environment commissioner, requires "massive scale-up of effort" by the federal government. The response by the Conservative government: fire the environment commissioner. Global warming is caused by burning fossil fuels – primarily oil, gas and coal. The federal government's plan is designed to encourage the expansion of production of these fossil fuels. It does very little to actually help industry or individuals reduce the use of fossil fuels.	25th March 2008
Climate change seen as last nail in coffin for native fauna - The Age SOME of Australia's most vulnerable native animals could die out as climate change take its toll on their already fragile existence.	25th March 2008
MoD blocking new wind farms - The Independent Defence chiefs were accused today of prolonging Britain's reliance on fossil fuels as it emerged they have sought to block dozens of new wind farms. The Ministry of Defence has submitted planning objections to 44 of the schemes over concerns they interfere with radars and obscure the vision of low-flying aircraft.	25th March 2008
Joseph Romm: Stunning Climate Double-Talk From McCain Campaign - HuffingtonPost We've heard climate double talk from McCain on "mandates" and "dependence on foreign energy sources." Now, in a stunning interview with E&E News (subs. req'd), the McCain campaign seriously undermines its claim that the Arizona Senator could successfully take on the global warming threat. As the reporter put it, "the Arizona senator's presidential campaign is trying to differentiate itself from its Democratic rivals by rejecting calls for additional climate-themed restrictions." This, however, is a potentially fatal difference.	25th March 2008
Insects take a bigger bite out of plants in a higher CO2 world - EurekAlert! Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are rising at an alarming rate, and new research indicates that soybean plant defenses go down as CO2 goes up. Elevated CO2 impairs a key component of the plant’s defenses against leaf-eating insects, according to the report.	25th March 2008
Australian wine industry feels heat from climate change - Reuters Australian grape growers reckon they are the canary in the coalmine of global warming, as a long drought forces winemakers to rethink the styles of wine they can produce and the regions they can grow in.	25th March 2008
Nicholas Stern: One global crisis after another - Guardian Unlimited The man who alerted the world to climate change is back, now with sharp words about banks. By John Crace	25th March 2008
BRAZIL: Growing Foreign Appetite for Land - IPS RIO DE JANEIRO, Mar 24 (IPS) - It is a question of "national sovereignty, not xenophobia," said the president of Brazil's land reform agency, INCRA, explaining the need to regulate foreign land ownership in Brazil.	25th March 2008

Black carbon pollution emerges as major player in global warming - PhysOrg Black carbon, a form of particulate air pollution most often produced from biomass burning, cooking with solid fuels and diesel exhaust, has a warming effect in the atmosphere three to four times greater than prevailing estimates, according to scientists in an upcoming review article in the journal Nature Geoscience. [Phew! - just when we thought that global warming was the fault of rich nations...]	24th March 2008
The Security Council must act preemptively - on climate change - The Christian Science Monitor This global threat requires a war-room mentality. A concerted international strategy, on a par with the seriousness and scope of an UN Security Council resolution, is what's needed to counter this climate crisis. Under Article 39 of the UN Charter, the Security Council maintains the right to identify threats to international peace and security and to devise means to counter these threats. The potential impact of that on climate change is substantial: the Security Council's toolbox includes the capacity to cap greenhouse-gas emissions on every country and sanction those who fail to comply. Both a carbon tax, as well as a carbon-trading scheme, could incentivize countries to reduce emissions below even capped levels.	24th March 2008
Call for delay to biofuels policy - BBC News The UK's chief environment scientist has called for a delay to a policy demanding inclusion of biofuels into fuel at pumps across the UK. Professor Robert Watson said ministers should await the results of their inquiry into biofuels' sustainability.	24th March 2008
Major food source threatened by climate change - New Scientist Rice yields will be hit hard by predicted changes in climate, with the potential to cause widespread food shortages	24th March 2008
Dr Wieslaw Maslowski predicted a 2013 Ice Free Summer Arctic five years ago - now he says that may have been too conservative - Beyond Zero Emissions Transcription of podcast interview	24th March 2008
Investment is key in climate change battle - Financial Times Until recently, it was remarkably difficult for ordinary investors to put their own money behind the fight against global warming. Mutual funds, most people's investment vehicle of choice, offered few options. That has changed thanks to government legislation and a new awareness among many of the world's investment professionals that climate change is an opportunity, not a threat. In a little more than two years, we estimate retail investors all over the world have pumped around $66bn (£33bn, €42bn) into more than 200 newly launched mutual funds and exchange traded funds investing in companies that help to mitigate or adapt to climate change.	24th March 2008

Climate change 'is accelerating' - Guardian Unlimited The growth of developing economies in Africa, Asia and South America has accelerated global warming, study says	23rd March 2008
A global threat multiplier - Energy Bulletin Paul Rogers, openDemocracy. A European Union study on the problems of global climate change contained the sobering assessment that a failure to take radical action now to address global warming would create the likelihood of severe conflict over resources in the decades ahead.	23rd March 2008
Inside the political attack on Dr. James Hansen and the truth of global warming - Democracy Now Transcript of interview between Dr. James Hansen, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space, NASA’s premiere climate research center, and adjunct professor of earth and environmental sciences at Columbia University and Mark Bowen, author of Censoring Science: Inside the Political Attack on Dr. James Hansen and the Truth of Global Warming.	23rd March 2008
We've been here before, and it wasn't pretty the first time - Globe and Mail Book review: THE GREAT WARMING: Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations By Brian Fagan Medieval warm period: But during the great warming, Europeans chopped down their ancient forests to grow more meat, honey and flour. When the Little Ice Age came, along with the Black Death, Rinderpest and other climate-driven surprises, Europe lost a third of its population. There simply was no mantle for misfortune. The Maya: The elites, who considered themselves divinely infallible, had no real sense of tragedy, and that's just when the climate served up a super drought. In the face of hunger and thirst, ordinary people abandoned their rulers, who squatted alone on blood-stained pyramids.	23rd March 2008
Livingstone fury at green plans veto - Guardian Unlimited London's Mayor claims civil servants blocked his energy proposals for the capital because they put the interests of big business first	23rd March 2008
U.S. Environmental Groups Divided on “Clean Coal” - Environmental News Network At a Senate press conference held last week to urge national action on climate change policy, 16 major U.S. environmental organizations shared the stage in solidarity. But while it appears the nation's green groups are united in the fight against global warming, they remain divided on which technologies would best create a carbon-free economy. This division may cause major roadblocks as Congress prepares to debate several climate change policies that could lead to sweeping changes.	23rd March 2008
Fight climate change by turning roof green - International Herald Tribune To help fight climate change, countries in Europe and North America are installing "green" roofs covered in vegetation and collecting rainwater for household use.	23rd March 2008
Sebelius Vetoes Energy Bill - Forbes Kansas, USA: Gov. Kathleen Sebelius vetoed a bill Friday that would allow two coal-fired power plants in southwest Kansas and strip some power from the regulator who has blocked them. See also: Poof! 132 coal plants disappear - Gristmill	23rd March 2008
Sea levels rising too fast for Thames Barrier - The Independent A fear that sea levels will rise far faster than predicted this century has led to a revision of the plan to protect London from a devastating flood caused by the sort of storm surge in the North Sea that resulted in the closure of the Thames Barrier yesterday.	23rd March 2008
Noah's Ark for salmon - Salt Lake Tribune As global warming bears down on our Western rivers and watersheds, it threatens one of the great symbols of Western abundance: wild salmon. With each passing year, their numbers have dropped precipitously. This decline is believed to be in part the result of warming temperatures in streams and rivers.	23rd March 2008
Severe drought threatens wheat and rapeseed production - China Daily Wheat and rapeseed production in north China are under threat from severe drought.	23rd March 2008
How food miles myth hurts the planet - Guardian Unlimited Science environment: Robin McKie and Caroline Davies report on how the concept of food miles became oversimplified [Let's re-simplify it then... Eating Local Strengthens Commmunity]	23rd March 2008
Nuclear plans attract fresh fire - BBC News A rumoured Anglo-French nuclear reactor initiative is the wrong plan for Britain, anti-nuclear group warns.	23rd March 2008
Global warming scientists eagerly await first Nenana ice cracks - Times Online It may not be the world's most exciting spectator sport, but watching the ice melt in Alaska has become an unmissable rite of spring for two very different but related groups - gamblers and climatologists.	23rd March 2008
The Hansen - et al. ultimatum - GristMill Here is the draft [PDF] of the long-awaited defense of why we need an ultimate target of 350 ppm for atmospheric carbon dioxide, by NASA's James Hansen et al., titled "Target Atmospheric CO2: Where Should Humanity Aim?" (Yes, they know we're already at 385 ppm and rising 2 ppm a year.) The paper does suffer from one analytical weakness that makes it a tad less dire than it appears -- and some people believe the core element of this analysis is wrong (see very end of post), although I don't.	21st March 2008
More Dirt on the DSCOVR Climate Satellite - DeSmogBlog Fresh documents have trickled out of the US government about the fate of the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR). DeSmog Blog has been researching an investigative series on this mothballed climate change spacecraft designed to monitor the energy budget of the planet from the unique vantage of 1 million miles away. NASA strangely cancelled the project after spending over $100 million building it. Prominent members of the scientific community were outraged at the decision. You can view their laundry list of letters here. Another US government agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), requested that NASA transfer the mission to them.	21st March 2008
Cutting greenhouse emissions will double GDP - The Australian Achieving cuts of 70-90 per cent would be manageable over 40 years and likely to be in Australia's interest	21st March 2008
EU 'committed' to stiff CO2 cuts - BBC News Europe is still committed to ambitious cuts in CO2 emissions, the EU environment chief tells the BBC.	21st March 2008
Bat 'die-off' raises alarms - Times Herald-Record US: Unprecedented "die-off" of thousands of cave-dwelling bats across the Northeast - climate change has kept bats flying during fall, winter and spring periods when insects are in short supply or almost nonexistent.	21st March 2008
Melting glaciers will trigger food shortages - New Scientist The glaciers that feed Asia's mightiest rivers are disappearing, and with them irrigation water that feeds millions	21st March 2008
Carbon Offset Schemes "Confusing" - Planet Ark LONDON - Carbon offsetting Web sites are inconsistent and confusing, with costs varying by up to 540 percent, according to a report.	21st March 2008
Fish key to reef climate survival - BBC News As climate change and pollution threaten coral reefs, fish may be vital to their survival, scientists say. Australian scientists found that some fish act as "lawnmowers", keeping coral free of kelp and unwanted algae.	21st March 2008
Starbucks sows carbon farmers - CNN Money Ever heard of 'ecosystem services'? It's one of the most exciting concepts kicking around the corporate-environmental world these days.	21st March 2008
The seeds of aridity: Crops for a parched world - International Herald Tribune Scientists, companies and governments are pursuing thousands of projects to lessen water demand, but they face a race against time.	21st March 2008
Europeans Concerned About Climate Change - Angus Reid (Angus Reid Global Monitor) - People in all European Union (EU) countries express concern over climate change, according to the Eurobarometer conducted by TNS Opinion Social. 57 per cent of respondents in the 27 nations list the phenomenon as their top environmental worry.	21st March 2008
Warming scenario sees flooded airport - The Washington Times The Bush administration has set aside its skepticism about global warming to begin planning for the possibility that...	21st March 2008
Deep thought - Energy Bulletin Study: it's better to give than receive What we can expect as nature changes The United States of too much information (thinking about risk)	21st March 2008

Back to 1988 on CO2, Says NASA's Hansen - New York Times James E. Hansen, the NASA climate scientist and eight co-authors have drafted a fresh paper arguing that the world has already shot past a safe eventual atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, which they say would be around 350 parts per million, a level passed 20 years ago.	20th March 2008
What we can afford - Grsitmill US: The money we've spent on the five-year Iraq War could have shifted the entire world to renewables	20th March 2008
Water: A long dry summer - Nature In parts of the world already facing unreliable food supplies, an uncertain climate adds to the future stress for soils, plants and people. Quirin Schiermeier reports on water strategies for a drier world. See also: Climate Change Deepening World Water Crisis - IPS A thirsty planet looks for solutions to water shortage - Physorg	20th March 2008
Icy start, but 2008 may be in top 10 warmest years - Environmental News Network OSLO (Reuters) - After the coldest start to a year in more than a decade, spring will bring relief to the northern hemisphere from Thursday. Bucking the trend of global warming, the start of 2008 saw icy weather around the world from China to Greece. But despite its chilly start, 2008 is expected to end up among the top 10 warmest years since records began in the 1860s.	20th March 2008
Dams: Deep trouble - Independent Are vast dams around the world masking the full extent of sea-level rises?	20th March 2008
Israel suffers worst drought in decade - AP via Yahoo! News Israel is suffering its worst drought in a decade and will have to stop pumping from one of its main sources of drinking water, the Sea of Galilee, by the end of the summer, an official said Wednesday.	20th March 2008
How the blurring of the seasons is a harbinger of climate calamity - Independent Spring, which officially starts today, is starting to dissolve as a distinct season as climate change takes hold. See also: Spring keeps coming earlier for birds, bees, trees, and sneezes because of global warming - Seattle Times	20th March 2008
The man who wants to turn China green - BBC News A profile of millionaire Chinese businessman Zhang Yue, who wants the country to be more environmentally friendly.	20th March 2008
Reducing carbon emissions could help -- not harm -- US economy A national policy to cut carbon emissions by as much as 40 percent over the next 20 years could still result in increased economic growth, according to an interactive website that reviews 25 of the leading economic models used to predict the economic impacts of reducing emissions.	20th March 2008
HSBC commits £100m to renewables - Guardian Unlimited Science environment: Renewable energy projects in public sector get more than £100m of new funding from HSBC	20th March 2008
The Mystery of Global Warming's Missing Heat - NPR Thousands of robots deployed across the ocean have sent back an unexpected message: The seas have stopped warming. The results don't mean that climate change isn't happening, but they are causing scientists to rethink their climate models.	20th March 2008
Warming will overheat air cons - ScienceAlert Office air conditioning systems face collapse under the pressure of global warming unless steps are taken now to reduce both the internal and external heat affecting buildings, a QUT engineering researcher says.	20th March 2008
Take that, delayers - this means you, Pielke! - Gristmill By Joseph RommThe deniers/delayer-1000s cite recent U.K. Hadley Center data to promote their "climate is cooling" disinformation. Even Roger Pielke, Jr. is peddling this nonsense with his recent inanely titled post, "Update on Falsification of Climate Predictions." Falsification? Give me a break! According to the Hadley Center, the eight warmest years in the global temperature record of 150 are, in order, 1998, 2005, 2003, 2002, 2004, 2006, and 2007. Those are also the eight warmest years in the NASA record in a different order, starting with 2005, then 2007 tied with 1998. Where the heck is the cooling trend?	20th March 2008

Arctic losing long-term ice cover - BBC News Despite colder conditions, the Arctic is losing a lot of its old, stable ice, according to satellite data.	19th March 2008
Shell wants to produce five times more oil from tar sands - Guardian Unlimited Shell gears up for huge expansion of its carbon-intensive tar sands operation as it struggles to replace conventional reserves	19th March 2008
See-saw to power African schools - BBC News A young inventor has created a see-saw which converts the energy used during child's play into electricity.	19th March 2008
Climate Change: The World's Biggest Security Threat - AlterNet Unchecked climate change could spark instability in energy-producing states and lead to the collapse of fragile states around the world.	19th March 2008
Envisat makes first ever observation of regionally elevated CO2 from manmade emissions - SpaceRef Using data from the SCIAMACHY instrument aboard ESA's Envisat environmental satellite, scientists have for the first time detected regionally elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide.	19th March 2008
Chinese biofuel 'could endanger biodiversity' - SciDev.net [BEIJING] Using China's forests and 'idle land' to produce biofuels could pose a threat to biodiversity, warned experts at an international meeting.	19th March 2008
Battery-powered car on the cards for BMW in bid to cut emissions - Guardian Unlimited BMW may launch all-electric car as part of strategy to cut greenhouse gas emissions	19th March 2008
China's pollution nightmare is now everyone's pollution nightmare - The Christian Science Monitor The environmental disaster springs largely from its emulation of the American way of life - so let's set a better example.	19th March 2008
Canadians in fog over causes of global warming: poll. - Canada.com Four of five Canadians say they understand what is causing global warming but a majority does not seem to know that scientific research blames greenhouse gas pollution from industrial facilities and other human activity for causing the problem, a poll has revealed. Meantime, despite gloomy media reports and warnings about a recession, the environment remains the No. 1 priority of Canadians ahead of both jobs and the economy, according to the survey commissioned by a public relations firm and a non-profit group set up to educate people in Canada about global warming.	19th March 2008
CO2 emissions from US power plants jump 2.9% in '07 - Reliable Plant Magazine A poor progress report on efforts to rein in greenhouse gases: Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from U.S. power plants climbed 2.9 percent in 2007, the biggest single-year increase since 1998.	19th March 2008
Investors warm to water as shortages mount - MSN Money As liquidity is drained from credit and money markets and pours into oil and gold, another asset class that could offer long-term returns to the discerning investor is water. Water shortages are on the rise -- stemming from soaring demand, growing populations, rising living standards and changing diets. A lack of supply is compounded by pollution and climate change.	19th March 2008

Livingstone urges Porsche to drop congestion charge challenge - Guardian Unlimited The row between Porsche and the mayor of London intensified last night when Ken Livingstone called on the luxury car manufacturer to abandon its legal challenge to a new £25 polluters' charge, claiming it did not have the support of Londoners	18th March 2008
Consensus for Kyoto successor falls short - UPI The Group of 20 environment and energy ministers meeting in Japan fell short of a consensus on a framework to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol successor.	18th March 2008
New car emissions down 13% since 1997 - Guardian Unlimited Average CO2 emissions from new cars in Britain have fallen by more than 13% since 1997, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders	18th March 2008
Peak Oil Review -- March 17th, 2008 Tom Whipple, ASPO-USA. An executive summary of weekly news from a peak oil perspective, featuring: -Production and prices -Climate change -Have we reached the breaking point? -Energy briefs. "According to calculations by Deutsche Bank, every penny increase in gasoline prices costs the US economy $1 billion per year. Numbers like this will devour most of the stimulus package passed by Congress. "	18th March 2008
From Green Luddite to Techspressive: The ideology of consumer technology When people line up to buy a new iPhone, what is it that they are really buying? A fascinating new paper in the April issue of the Journal of Consumer Research outlines the four main ideologies governing our consumption of technology, revealing that conceptions of technological use introduced hundreds of years ago still influence our adoption of new products and services today.	18th March 2008
Coal reemerges as important raw material in chemical manufacturing industry - PhysOrg With oil prices hovering around $100 per barrel, coal is reemerging as a key raw material in the manufacture of the basic chemical materials used to make plastics, fertilizers, and hundreds of other products, according to an article scheduled for the March 17 issue of Chemical Engineering News, ACS` weekly news magazine.	18th March 2008
Carbon capture is turning out to be just another great green scam - Guardian Unlimited Cleaner technology is possible, but Labour plans to introduce it so slowly that any benefits will be lost in higher coal output	18th March 2008
Government 'missing its own carbon targets' - Guardian Unlimited Government in danger of losing credibility because more than half of its departments are failing to reach emissions targets set for the country	18th March 2008
Outrage over airlines' empty 'ghost flights' for flying empty planes Airlines that run empty "ghost flights", needlessly pumping hundreds of tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, should face heavy fines, environmentalists have demanded.	18th March 2008

Clouded by doubts about Kyoto - Financial Times The trade in greenhouse gases was worth about €40bn (£30.6bn) last year and is expected to increase to €63bn next year, says Point Carbon, the market analysts.	17th March 2008
Climate change and cyber attacks among security threats - Guardian Unlimited Gordon Brown set to reveal long-delayed national security strategy this week	17th March 2008
Carry on polluting - Guardian Unlimited Leader: Ministers cannot claim to take climate change seriously - and then trivialise the measurement of progress	17th March 2008
Small respite in Australia's drought and heat wave - BBC News The longest heat wave of any Australian capital city looks set to ease in Adelaide over the coming days, after 15 consecutive days of temperatures above 35C (95F). Temperatures hit 40.5C (105F) in Adelaide at the end of last week, with the heat wave surpassing the record set in Perth in 1988.	17th March 2008
Venus Unveiled - RealClimate Something over a week ago I had the pleasure of making my way up to the little ski resort of La Thuile in the Val D'Aosta to learn about the latest results from the Venus Express mission. (You can imagine it was a tough decision to go to La Thuile and hear real scientists talking about Venus when I could have instead been listening to luminaries such as Mark Morano drone on at Heartland Institute pseudoscience bash. ) My own connection with the Venus Express meeting came about through some work I've been doing on habitability of the newly discovered "Super Earth" extrasolar planets like Gliese 581c.	17th March 2008
Ozone Case Shows Bush Meddling In Science-Watchdogs - Planet Ark WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush's decision to intervene in setting air pollution standards is part of a longstanding administration pattern of meddling in environmental science, watchdog groups said on Friday.	17th March 2008
A forest of change - Boston Globe Trees are responding to warming temperatures in New England much faster than scientists had expected.	17th March 2008
Lobbyists regroup as government delays release of GHG regulations - Hill Times Canada: Lobby groups reacted with disappointment last week when the government delayed the release of its draft regulations on greenhouse gas emissions, with environmentalists saying the regulations are not a priority for the government and industry lobbyists saying they need regulatory certainty.	17th March 2008

If We Want to Survive the Climate Crisis We Must Change Either we build real community -- with mass transit and local food -- or we will go down clinging to the wreckage of our privatized society.	16th March 2008
Countdown to climate chaos - Guardian Unlimited Climate experts warn of damaging effects of disappearing glaciers See also: Glaciers melt 'at fastest rate in past 5,000 years'	16th March 2008
Faster climate change fears - Adelaidenow SOUTH Australians are being warned to brace for harsher and more regular heatwaves amid fears climate change may be occurring faster than forecast. Meteorologists and researchers say timeframes calculated by organisations such as the CSIRO for climate change impacts of higher temperatures, falling rainfall and rising sea levels are now conservative at best. And they warn the normal four seasons will blur as temperatures increase and summer stretches well into the autumn months.	16th March 2008
Global warming is taking a toll on streams - The Daily American Pennsylvania is predicted to lose 50 percent of its trout habitat in the coming decades. Other states such as North Carolina and Virginia could lose up to 90 percent of habitat. Even warmwater species are being impacted by climate alterations. The ongoing concern of the disappearance of and disease infested smallmouth bass in the Susquehanna River watershed is now being seen as result of heavy rains during the spring spawning season that have almost wiped out entire year classes of fish. Then followed by a long dry summer that escalates water temperature further stressing those fish that survive.	16th March 2008
Old king coal digs in for the future - Guardian Unlimited UK: Thoresby has a £55m new lease of life, but other pits are also recruiting again	16th March 2008
Labour's carbon claims too low - Times Online Britain's greenhouse gas emissions are 12% higher than claimed by Labour, according to an investigation by the National Audit Office. The report could undermine Gordon Brown's claims to be creating a low-carbon economy.	16th March 2008
Want to Buy Some Pollution? - New York Times The auction of greenhouse gas emissions permits could provide the foundation for a federal-state partnership to revolutionize energy use.	16th March 2008
Blair wants 'climate revolution' - BBC News Ex-prime minister Tony Blair has called for "global environment revolution" during a trip to Japan.	16th March 2008
Gordon Brown's plea: Lord, let me save the planet, but not yet - Times Online UK: The dilemmas and trade-offs of environmental policy are, admittedly, highly complex. The political pitfalls of changing our tax system are obvious. But as the man who commissioned the Stern report, Brown gained great credit. By ducking on delivering, he hands the green card to his enemies.	16th March 2008

Carbon Prices, Not Quotas - Forbes Worried about climate change but don't like carbon taxes? Consider the messy or even impossible alternatives.	15th March 2008
Analysis: Reality check for EU - BBC News EU leaders are upbeat on the bloc's response to the climate change and financial turmoil challenges, says the BBC's Paul Kirby. See also:Concessions to Merkel threaten climate plan - Guardian Unlimited Europe's chances of spearheading a global post-Kyoto climate change accord were jeopardised yesterday when Germany secured pledges that several of its heavy industries could be protected from international competition and exempted from the EU's plan to combat global warming.	15th March 2008
EU gives US airlines green ultimatum - Guardian Unlimited US airlines must pay for carbon emissions or face curb on flights to EU, commissioner warns	15th March 2008
Obama and Clinton plan to cool it - Salon.com Earth, that is. Our energy expert cracks open the Democratic candidates' proposals on global warming -- and is impressed.	15th March 2008
INTERVIEW-Antarctic glacier melted more quickly last year - AlertNet A glacier used as a benchmark to measure global warming's impact on the Antarctic Peninsula melted more than usual in the past year, according to an Argentine glacier researcher. For more than 20 years, Pedro Skvarca has studied the Devil's Bay glacier on Vega Island off the Antarctic Peninsula, a part of Antarctica that is warming five times faster than the average in the rest of the world.	15th March 2008
Uganda: 1.5 Million People Face Starvation Due to Foods, Drought - AllAfrica.com Some 1.5 million people are in need of food aid in parts of the country hit by last year's floods and now experiencing drought since January.	15th March 2008
GE CEO Says US Moving Too Slowly On Clean Energy - Planet Ark GOLETA - The United States is in danger of falling behind other nations in reducing greenhouse gas emissions if both the federal government and companies do not move quickly to support sources of clean energy, General Electric Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt said on Wednesday.	15th March 2008
Canada Pleads Technicality on Kyoto Non-Compliance - DeSmogBlog Like a criminal who beats the rap because police lost a piece of evidence, the Canadian government is trying to dodge responsibility for failing to meet its Kyoto commitments by clinging to a technicality.Defending itself against Federal Court suit brought by Friends of the Earth, the Canadian government argued this week that Kyoto targets "are not legally binding as they have not been adopted as an amendment to the Kyoto Protocol by agreement of all Parties." A rough translation might be: George Bush isn't playing fair; why should we?The answer, to that hypothetical question at least, is that Canada promised that it would meet its Kyoto obligations.	15th March 2008
Killing the electric car again: Part II Take action and express your opinion to California regulators Part I described the background leading up to the March 27 California Air Resources Board meeting that will decide the fate of zero emissions vehicles (ZEVs) in a dozen or more states. Because the 1970 Clean Air Act allows only two sets of regulations in the U.S. -- the EPA's, and California's (which must be stricter than the EPA's) -- California may be regulating for your state, even if you don't live in California. Roughly a dozen states routinely adopt California's stricter standards -- and sometimes as many as 18 -- and collectively these states can represent as much as half of the U.S.	15th March 2008

Australia's food bowl lies empty - BBC After America, Australia is normally the second largest exporter of grain, and in a good year it would hope to harvest about 25 million tonnes. But the country remains in the grip of the worst drought in a century, which is why the 2006 crop yielded only 9.8m tonnes. Last year saw one of the best starts to a growing season for years, but dry weather in recent weeks has forced the Australian government to slash its crop forecasts by 30%.	14th March 2008
Killing the electric car, again: Part I The following post is by Earl Killian, guest blogger at Climate Progress. ----- If you've seen the movie Who Killed the Electric Car? (which is ranked No. 8 on Netflix in documentary rentals), then you know the EV story up to 2003. What you might not know is that it looks like one of the players in the movie, the California Air Resources Board, is up to no good again. In killing Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) the first time, they put off progress on this front for a decade. Now they are preparing, at their March 27 meeting, to kill BEVs a second time and probably waste another decade. See also: Killing the electric car again: Part II	14th March 2008
"It's An Ill Wind" -- Well Not All That Ill! - DeSmogBlog Powerful winter storms sweeping across Europe have boosted wind power, oversupplying the wholesale market for electricity and driving down prices by some 12 percent since Friday. Even though road, rail and ship travel has been disrupted and insurers facing claims from damage brought by high winds, operators of wind turbines have been able to generate and sell more supply of the renewable energy into the power network.	14th March 2008
Sea Level Increase Is Kept Down by Reservoirs, Masking Ice Melt - Bloomberg.com March 13 (Bloomberg) -- Man-made reservoirs have cut sea- level gains by 30 millimeters (1.2 inches), masking the true extent of the contribution from melting ice, scientists said.	14th March 2008
EU threatens to punish climate deal rebels - The Times America and China face trade protection measures from Europe if they fail to join a global climate deal to replace the Kyoto Protocol, EU leaders will caution at their summit in Brussels today. Nations that refuse to curb greenhouse gases will be told that they face “appropriate measures” — code for trade sanctions — if they try to gain a competitive advantage by continuing to allow cheap, high-pollution production.	14th March 2008
Why Dealing With Climate Change Won't Bankrupt Us - U.S. News & World Report Expect more tussles over climate cost-benefit analysis ahead, says Daniel Weiss, director of climate strategy at the Center for American Progress. He argues that most cost-benefit studies of global warming solutions will overestimate the costs and underestimate the benefits, because they are incapable of seeing the dynamic technological progress that inevitably will occur in the future. "These studies base their cost assumptions on existing technologies and practices, which means that they do not account for the vast potential for innovation once binding reductions and deadlines are set," he says.	14th March 2008
All close together now - Gristmill "This craziness is not sustainable," concludes The New York Times op-ed columnist Bob Herbert, and he's talking about the economy, not the environment. He continues: Without an educated and empowered work force, without sustained investment in the infrastructure and technologies that foster long-term employment, and without a system of taxation that can actually pay for the services provided by government, the American dream as we know it will expire. And without petroleum. Oil is shooting over $100 per barrel, caused ultimately by a looming decline in global supply, and exacerbated by rising demand in China and India, foolish policies such as the occupation of Iraq, and repressive regimes such as in Nigeria.	14th March 2008
US House Panel Chairman Threatens Legal Battle For EPA CO2 Drafts - Nasdaq WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- The chairman of the U.S. House panel on climate change Thursday vowed to use all of the committee's legal powers to obtain U.S. Environmental Protection Agency documents that show carbon dioxide endangers public welfare.	14th March 2008
EU's move on emissions targets - Financial Times European Union leaders, seeking to set the pace for the world, plan to announce on Friday that they will convert their bold promises to fight global warming into law within 12 months. See also: Barroso warns EU leaders against backing off emissions cuts - International Herald Tribune	14th March 2008
Manufacturers Oppose Climate-Change Bill - AP via Yahoo! Finance Manufacturers on Thursday went on the offensive against mandatory reductions in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, unveiling a study projecting $631 billion in costs by 2020 if Congress institutes a reduction program.	14th March 2008
'It has to be politically doable' - Guardian Unlimited Tony Blair spoke to the Guardian about his fears of a deadlock in international climate change talks yesterday as he headed to Japan, China and India to set out his plans to publish a report over the next year that could form the basis for what he described as a proper global deal to combat the biggest threat facing the world	14th March 2008
Going off-grid - The Ecologist No water? No electricity? Most of us would say ‘No way’. But, says Nick Rosen, you can gain a freewheeling sense of self-sufficiency by living more al fresco	14th March 2008

Blind date with disaster - Guardian Unlimited We are constantly warned by scientists that our planet is in big trouble, so why can't we change direction? David Suzuki, one of the world's leading ecologists, on how humans have lost the vital skill of foresight	13th March 2008
Tinkering or tackling? The 'green' measures - The Independent In what had been widely trailed as a "green" budget, Alistair Darling focused on cutting carbon emissions from homes, businesses and transport. See also: The green reaction: 'a missed opportunity' - Guardian Unlimited A paler shade of green - Guardian Unlimited	13th March 2008
Peru Bets On Desalination To Ensure Water Supplies - Planet Ark LIMA - Peru plans to start desalinating water from the Pacific Ocean to make up for declining supplies from fast-melting glaciers affected by climate change, President Alan Garcia said on Tuesday.	13th March 2008
Fun with numbers - Gristmill If we want to create jobs, why aren't we spending on mass transit? ● Number of jobs created by spending $1 billion on defense: 8,555 ● Number of jobs created by spending $1 billion on health care: 10,779 ● Number of jobs created by spending $1 billion on education: 17,687 ● Number of jobs created by spending $1 billion on mass transit: 19,795 (via Yes! magazine)	13th March 2008
Atlantic's Gulf Stream has huge influence on atmosphere - France24 The conveyor belt of Atlantic warm water known as the Gulf Stream massively influences the lower layers of the atmosphere, a finding that could shed light on a poorly-understood aspect of global warming, scientists report.	13th March 2008
Climate refugees in political pass-the-parcel - Reuters The islanders of Tuvalu could lose their homes and much of their land in the coming decades. But the world has yet to figure out how it will deal with them, and millions of others, who may be displaced by climate change. "It's a game of political pass-the-parcel," said Andrew Simms, policy director at British think-tank New Economics Foundation. "No one wants to be left holding the problem of climate refugees."	13th March 2008
Early spring thaw could affect your groceries - MSNBC NASA scientists have recorded an earlier regional thawing trend across northern high latitudes, advancing almost one day a year, since 1988. This trend, a likely result of global warming, leads to a longer growing season and supplies more time to harvest, which on the surface can be seen as positive. Some new studies, though, warn that this situation could actually increase the effects of climate change in the long term. Why? Early thaw has the potential to alter the cycle of atmospheric carbon dioxide intake and release. A longer growing season promotes more carbon uptake, which is then stored in seasonally frozen and permafrost soils. But when permafrost soils thaw and dry out, higher temperatures in the fall promote release of the stored carbon back into the atmosphere. This process is projected to increase over time at an accelerated rate, sending carbon dioxide levels soaring and further warming the planet.	13th March 2008
Nation told it must aim to be carbon neutral - The Age A LEADING authority on climate change says Australia's greenhouse gas reduction targets are inadequate, and all industrialised countries should be aiming to become carbon neutral. Bill Hare, a lead author on the latest report (2007) from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, says industrialised countries need to cut emissions by 85% to 95% of 1990 levels by 2050, a far more substantial reduction than the 60% promised by the Federal Government.	13th March 2008

World warned on high food costs - BBC The UN secretary general tells the BBC he is "deeply concerned" about the sharp rise in global food prices. See also: Grain traders buzz as prices soar - BBC News Grain prices are pushed higher by a combination of soaring global demand from new consumers and failed crops restricting their supply.	12th March 2008
Indians Gather to Save the Planet - PhysOrg (AP) -- North American Indians assembled in the shadow of ancient Mayan pyramids Monday discussed how their tradition wisdom could help save the planet, and were told that even indigenous cultures have struggled with environmental abuse.	12th March 2008
Media enable denier spin, part three - GristMill They Aren't Skeptical: Their Minds Are Made Up What name can we possibly use for the people who are working feverishly to convince the public to ignore the broad scientific understanding of global warming and delay taking serious action, action needed to avert a very grim fate for our children, their children, and so on? I suspect future generations will call them "climate destroyers" or worse, since if we actually (continue to) listen to them, that pretty much ensures carbon-dioxide concentrations will hit catastrophic levels -- 700 to 1000 -- this century, as explained in part two. But what should we call these people in the meantime, while we still have time to ignore them and save the climate?	12th March 2008
Deep thought - Energy Bulletin Cassandra's curse: how "The Limits to Growth" was demonized Alex Steffen: Zero, now Jeff Vail: Rhizome at the community level	12th March 2008
Stelmach draws a line in the - oilsands - CNews Alberta won't be pressured by the federal government into accepting unreasonable deadlines for reducing greenhouse gases, Premier Ed Stelmach said yesterday. See also: Oil Group to Press Canada to Postpone New Greenhouse-Gas Rules - Bloomberg.com	12th March 2008
ECONOMY: Market Heating Up the Globe - IPS BRUSSELS, Mar 11 (IPS) - One way to look at the climate problem is through the lens of the market. If you do, only one conclusion is possible -- the climate change problem is a massive market failure, a failure of market mechanisms to factor in future costs of a change in climate in real time prices.	12th March 2008
Kill king coal? - Guardian Unlimited James Hansen: The UK government must provide clearer leadership on fossil fuels and demand that new power plants are climate change accountable	12th March 2008
Trains and boats and planes all expected to be affected by climate ... - International Herald Tribune Flooded roads and subways, deformed railroad tracks and weakened bridges may be the wave of the future with continuing global warming, a new study says. Climate change will affect every type of transportation through rising sea levels, increased rainfall and surges from more intense storms, the National Research Council said in a report released Tuesday.	12th March 2008
Market Man - Forbes As president of the Environmental Defense Fund, Fred Krupp helped establish a market-based cap-and-trade system to limit acid rain pollution in the late 1980s. In Earth: The Sequel, co-written by Miriam Horn and published by W.W. Norton & Co., he says this system is the most effective way to stop climate change in the 21st century. Krupp recently spoke to Forbes.com about this and other environmental issues. Here is the edited transcript of the conversation.	12th March 2008
Increased carbon dioxide in atmosphere linked to decreased soil organic matter - EurekAlert! URBANA - A recent study at the University of Illinois created a bit of a mystery for soil scientist Michelle Wander – increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was expected to increase plant growth, increase plant biomass and ultimately beef up the organic matter in the soil -- but it didn't. What researchers found instead was that organic matter decay increased along with residue inputs when carbon dioxide levels were increased and they think the accelerated decay was due to increased moisture in the soil.	12th March 2008
China emissions to swamp Kyoto reductions by 2010 - New Scientist Chinese greenhouse gas emissions will soon vastly outstrip reductions achieved by all the countries that signed up to the Kyoto protocol	12th March 2008
World `Squandered' Decade in Climate Debate, Top Scientist Says - Bloomberg.com March 11 (Bloomberg) -- World leaders wasted a decade debating whether global warming is happening, and now need to act quickly to limit its effects, a former chairman of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said.	12th March 2008
Britain is stealing the US crown of No 1 climate villain - Guardian Unlimited Mark Lynas: If it fails to stand up to BAA on Heathrow, Labour will be cast as the enemy in the environmental battle of the decade	12th March 2008

This foolish rush into the arms of the dirtiest fuel - The Independent UK: Coal is easily the most carbon-intensive and polluting form of energy generation available. As a society, we ought to be moving in the very opposite direction for ourenergy needs, towards conservation and renewables. It is inconceivable that a government serious about cutting carbon emissions would give the go-ahead for a new generation of coal-fired power stations to be built. Yet this is precisely what the Business Secretary, John Hutton, will come perilously close to doing in a speech today. Mr Hutton isexpected to hint strongly that government approval is to be granted for a new coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth, Kent.	11th March 2008
A Galactic glitch - RealClimate Knud Jahnke and Rasmus Benestad After having watched a new documentary called the 'Cloud Mystery' - and especially the bit about the galaxy (approximately 2 - 4 minutes into the linked video clip) - we realised that a very interesting point has been missed in earlier discussions about 'climate, galactic cosmic rays and the evolution of the Milky Way galaxy. It is claimed in 'The Cloud Mystery', the book 'The Chilling Stars', and related articles that our solar system takes about 250 million years to circle the Milky Way galaxy and that our solar system crosses one of the spiral arms about every ~150 million years (Shaviv 2003).	11th March 2008
Alarming growth in expected CO2 emissions in China, finds UC analysis - EurekAlert! Berkeley - The growth in China's carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions is far outpacing previous estimates, making the goal of stabilizing atmospheric greenhouse gases even more difficult, according to a new analysis by economists at the University of California, Berkeley, and UC San Diego.	11th March 2008
Amazon's worst-ever drought in 2005 caused by global warming - People's Daily Brazil's drought in 2005, the worst-ever hitting the Amazon, was caused by global warming instead of the El Nino weather phenomenon as previously thought, the country's National Space Research Institute (INPE) announced Sunday.	11th March 2008
Global Warming Alliance warns accident risk due to aircraft design weakness - openPR ‘The maximum crosswind limits have only increased on Boeing aircraft by 7 knots since the beginning of the jet age,’ says Donald Burfitt-Dons, Chairman of the Global Warming Alliance and a former airline pilot. ‘The control systems are designed to cope with a 30 to 35 knot crosswind on landing. That is no longer sufficient’. He is urging an immediate review of safety standards to ensure future aircraft can handle the meteorological conditions of today. Ship engineers also need to look at rudder control limitations in order for vessels particularly high sided ones, to maintain directional control in the hurricane strength winds now being encountered often in straits with limited room to manoeuvre.	11th March 2008
Salmon fishing ban mulled in California as run suffers record plunge - The Sacramento Bee The decline occurred because the jet stream changed course in spring 2005, in turn disrupting ocean currents. The currents drive an upwelling of nutrient-rich waters, touching off a phytoplankton bloom that forms the base of the food chain. That bloom either failed to happen in some places or was delayed, leaving the menu empty when hungry young salmon went looking for food. Scientists have said the disrupted jet stream is consistent with changes likely to be caused by global warming. Salmon guide, J.D. Richey,may be one of Sacramento's first climate change victims. "A lot of people don't realize it's more than just a fish going away. We're losing a significant neighbor," Richey said. "I felt this last year there was something missing – almost at the soul level. I could just feel the salmon weren't anywhere, and it just bummed me out.".	11th March 2008
Seal cubs threatened by global warming, WWF warns Hundreds of newborn seal cubs risk dying of hunger and cold because global warming is making ice in the Arctic Circle melt too fast, the World Wide Fund for Nature in Germany warned Monday.	11th March 2008
Reef Fish Get Lost As Climate Changes - Planet Ark SYDNEY - Climate change might be causing reef fish to get lost, unable to return to breeding grounds from the open ocean, which could have profound implications for the survival of reef ecosystems, Australian scientists say.	11th March 2008
Wheat-a-fix? - BBC News Global stocks of wheat are plummeting and people are starting to worry about the price of staples like bread. But can you beat the commodity by growing it in your own back garden?	11th March 2008
It's time for provinces to follow B.C. on greenhouse gas emissions - The Globe and Mail Canada: Premier Gordon Campbell has done other provinces a favour: He made the carbon tax look like a winning proposition	11th March 2008
Climate Change Barometer: The Swiss Decide on Global Warming - EcoWorldly Under the Swiss system of direct democracy voters have a right to challenge parliamentary laws or pass constitutional amendments by collecting a minimum of 100,000 signatures to force a ballot. In just 18 months, a coalition of green organizations have collected over 150,000 signatures, enough to force a vote on increasing Switzerland’s current 20% Co2 reduction targets to a slightly more ambitious 30%. The initiative has been so popular that people have reportedly been queuing up to sign the petition. See also: Aussies want urgent action on CO2 - Daily Telegraph	11th March 2008
EU leaders back more greenhouse cuts - Daily Telegraph EUROPEAN Union leaders will call on the EU Commission to draw up a road map for deeper cuts in greenhouse gas emissions at a summit this week, going beyond a unilateral target agreed in the fight against climate change.	11th March 2008
Southern Baptists Back a Shift on Climate Change - New York Times Signaling a significant departure from the Southern Baptist Convention’s official stance on global warming, 44 Southern Baptist leaders have decided to back a declaration calling for more action on climate change, saying its previous position on the issue was “too timid.”	11th March 2008
How L.A. Was Almost Our Greenest City - Alternet Southern California set the nation on the path to bicycling bliss, then detoured. But smogville could still become a velotopia.	11th March 2008
Canada to Impose Additional Greenhouse Gas Rules, Globe Reports - Bloomberg.com March 10 (Bloomberg) -- Canada will require new oil-sands projects and coal-fired electricity plants to capture and store most of their greenhouse gases as part of new climate-change regulations to be introduced this week, the Globe and Mail said.	11th March 2008
Analysis: Trade worries tangle CO2 plan - UPI As Congress considers capping carbon emissions, industry representatives say the plan could wipe out the U.S. economy unless the playing field is leveled between domestic and imported goods.	11th March 2008
Voting Commences to Decide Fossil Fool of the Year - PR Newswire via Yahoo! News Voting to select this years Fossil Fool of the Year is officially underway at www.fossilfools08.org, with results to be announced on the third annual Fossil Fools Day on April 1. Nominees for this years top prize include the CEOs of General Motors, Bank of America, ExxonMobil and Dynegy, as well as the premier of Alberta, Canada.	11th March 2008
Climate change 'hits minorities hardest' - Independent When the floods subsided in India last year more than half of the bodies found were Dalits, or untouchables; the recent droughts in Kenya have devastated the herds pastoralists in the north rely on for survival; in Arctic Norway the Sami people's reindeer are starving as warmer rains destroy their grazing land.	11th March 2008

Bringing a knife to a gunfight - Gristmill What drives climate change denial?	10th March 2008
Carbon Output Must Near Zero To Avert Danger, New Studies Say - Washington Post The task of cutting greenhouse gas emissions enough to avert a dangerous rise in global temperatures may be far more difficult than previous research suggested, say scientists who have just published studies indicating that it would require the world to cease emitting carbon altogether within a matter of decades.	10th March 2008
EU told to prepare for flood of climate change migrants - Guardian Unlimited Global warming threatens to severely destabilise the planet, rendering a fifth of its population homeless, top officials say	10th March 2008
High CO2 cars targeted by budget - BBC News UK: Cars that produce large amounts of carbon dioxide could be hit by Wednesday's budget.	10th March 2008
2008: The Year Of Global Food Crisis - Sunday Herald It is the new face of hunger. A perfect storm of food scarcity, global warming, rocketing oil prices and the world population explosion is plunging humanity into the biggest crisis of the 21st century by pushing up food prices and spreading hunger and poverty from rural areas into cities.	10th March 2008
Climate change may spark conflict with Russia, EU told - Guardian Unlimited European governments have been told to plan for an era of conflict over energy resources, with global warming likely to trigger a dangerous contest between Russia and the west for the vast mineral riches of the Arctic.	10th March 2008
Green experts to press for tougher targets - Guardian Unlimited A powerful new government climate change committee will meet today for the first time to decide how ministers will meet their commitment to cut carbon emissions by 60% by 2050, and whether the target needs to be strengthened in the face of worsening forecasts on climate change.	10th March 2008
UN looks east for unused land in face of rising food prices - Guardian Unlimited Redundant agricultural land in central and eastern European countries may be used to alleviate worldwide food shortage	10th March 2008
Back to black: return to coal power - The Independent The UK Government will today anger environmentalists by signalling its support for a controversial new generation of coal-fired power stations and warning that Britain needs to burn more fossil fuels to prevent power cuts.	10th March 2008
Travellers ignore pleas to curb air travel amid growing stampede for long-haul mini-breaks - The Independent Holidaymakers are ignoring environmentalists' calls to limit their air travel and are taking more "indulgent" long-haul mini-breaks than ever before.	10th March 2008
Highway of diamonds - Energy Bulletin Hon. Andrew McNamara (Queensland MP), Energy Bulletin. A line from a Bob Dylan song has increasingly struck me as a perfect symbol for the choices we now face in dealing with climate change, peak oil and population: "I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it." We need to get it right. No one will thank us for a highway of diamonds with nobody on it.	10th March 2008
Deep thought - Energy Bulletin The New Green Deal of 2009 Can we survive?: THE CHANGES REQUIRED TO DEAL EFFECTIVELY WITH GLOBAL WARMING Norman Church: The elephant in the room Review: Path Through Infinity's Rainbow - Personal Survival In A World Gone Mad	10th March 2008
The greening of the global south - Gristmill Here's something novel: a well-informed and honest article from a significant British magazine (Prospect) that looks hard at the core political challenges of global climate stabilization and then draws some conclusions. And it's written by Simon Retallack, who knows his way around both the climate policy debate and the climate movement. Retallack, now head of Climate Change at the UK's Institute for Public Policy Research, did not come blithely to the Greenhouse Development Rights perspective, which he here recommends. He's way too much of a realist for that. But he is an honest realist, one who rejects most of the goods currently being sold under that label as being long past their use-by dates.	10th March 2008
Violent storms, water shortages in store for Canada: report - CBC News Canada can expect to see more devastating storms and extreme weather because of climate change, a yet-to-be released federal report concludes. See also: Canadian Watchdog Slams Environmental Spin - DeSmogBlog	10th March 2008

James Hansen: No more conventional coal and carbon stabilisation below 350ppm - IndyMedia Beyond Zero Radio show spoke to James Hansen the world's leading climate scientist about his call for CO2 emissions stabilisation at 300-350ppm, well below todays 385ppm.	8th March 2008
Life after the oil crash - Globe and Mail The apocalypse is coming - it's time to recycle your manure and get a socially responsible vasectomy. Peak-oil buffs are preparing for a future where oil is so scarce that people will go hungry	8th March 2008
The global cooling mole - RealClimate By John Fleck and William Connolley To veterans of the Climate Wars, the old 1970s global cooling canard - "How can we believe climate scientists about global warming today when back in the 1970s they told us an ice age was imminent?" - must seem like a never-ending game of Whack-a-mole. One of us (WMC) has devoted years to whacking down the mole (see here, here and here, for example), while the other of us (JF) sees the mole pop up anew in his in box every time he quotes contemporary scientific views regarding climate change in his newspaper stories.	8th March 2008
The power to save Britain - Mark Lynas UK: Our island could be supplying Europe with green electricity. Instead we're lagging behind in the renewables revolution. It may not feel like it on a gusty grey day in Rhyl, but this country is blessed. Take a boat out into the choppy waters off the North Wales coast, and you can see why. Thirty bright white turbines spin continuously just five miles off the coast, producing enough electrical power to supply 40,000 homes with clean, green energy. The wind and waves seem limitless and powerful – and they are.	8th March 2008
Here comes the sun -- again - Gristmill As part of the Back to the Future alternative energy series, The New York Times has an article today about the rising demand for solar thermal power plants, which use solar panels to heat water and operate a steam turbine. Among the advantages cited: On sunny afternoons, those 10 plants would produce as much electricity as three nuclear reactors, but they can be built in as little as two years, compared with a decade or longer for a nuclear plant. Some of the new plants will feature systems that allow them to store heat and generate electricity for hours after sunset.	8th March 2008
Canada Environment Groups Ask Government to Double Carbon Price - Bloomberg.com Canada's government should double the price companies pay to exceed limits on greenhouse gases because the current cost won't slow pollution enough, the country's leading environmental activist groups said.	8th March 2008
New Research Confirms Antarctic Thaw Fears - Spiegel Online New research confirms that ice sheets in West Antarctica are thinning at a far faster rate than in past millennia. Although scientists are divided as to the cause of the melt, many feel it is directly related to climate change.	8th March 2008
Map sheds light on hothouse world - BBC A reconstruction of how the oceans looked in the past could help model future changes, a study says. Click here to see map of ocean basins, past and future.	8th March 2008
US biofuels flooding European market - Guardian Unlimited Subsidised biofuels from America threaten to destroy Europe's domestic refining market, D1 Oils warned as its shares lost a third of their value	8th March 2008
The Case for a Sustainability Emergency, Part II - Energy Bulletin Jason Bradford, Global Public Media. Second of two interviews with Philip Sutton, coauthor of a recent report titled Climate Cod Red: The Case for a Sustainability Emergency. He discusses how, with a shared sense of purpose and heroic leadership, humans have the technical and social capacity to go into "emergency" mode and design an economic and environmental turn-around in 10-20 years.	8th March 2008

Cost of saving planet at $190bln in new book - Khaleej Times What would it cost to wipe out world poverty, guarantee universal health care, stabilise population growth and roll back the ravages of global warming? - About $190 billion a year, or the equivalent of a third of US annual military expenditure, a prominent environmental economist says in a new book.	7th March 2008
Canuck MegaBattery "Cleans Up" Wind Power - DeSmogBlog The trouble with wind is that it's a bit like Adam Sandler's career. Sometimes it blows, and sometimes it doesn't.That's just fine if all you want to do is fly a kite, but if you're an electrical utility seeking a steady supply of carbon-free juice for millions of homes and businesses, the resource needs a Plan B.For one Canadian company, that plan B is "battery."If the deal goes through as expected, next year Richmond, B.C.-based VRB Power Systems will install an enormous "flow battery " in a wind farm at Donegal, Ireland. When the North Atlantic is truly honkin', turbines will feed a steady 32 megawatts of juice into the island's grid while simultaneously charging VRB's battery.The battery itself will be large enough to need its own warehouse.	7th March 2008
Expanding ‘Deserts,' by Land and Sea - New York Times Scientists have long projected that areas north and south of the tropics will grow drier in a warming world –- from the Middle East through the European Riviera to the American Southwest, from sub-Saharan Africa to parts of Australia.	7th March 2008
Warnings over future food crisis - BBC News A world food crisis can be expected in the coming decades as our demand for food outstrips our ability to produce it, a UK government adviser has warned. Climate change is expected to worsen the food shortage	7th March 2008
Second Life avatars and Brazilians: the same carbon footprint - PhysOrg What do an avatar on Second Life and the average inhabitant of Brazil in the real world have in common? Incredibly, they both use the same amount of electricity.	7th March 2008
Poll Finds New Yorkers Worried About Climate Change - Environment News Service NEW YORK, New York , March 6, 2008 (ENS) - A large majority of New York City residents are convinced that global warming is happening now and leaders should do more to address the threat, according to the results of the first survey of New Yorkers' opinions about climate change.	7th March 2008
EU warned of climate-induced polar security threat - Reuters via Yahoo! News European Union leaders will receive a stark warning next week of potential conflict with Russia over energy resources at the North Pole as global warning melts the ice cap and aggravates international security threats.	7th March 2008
How high must oil go before we end subsidies? Bush's refusal to consider clean technologies could be repeated by McCain	7th March 2008

A passing trend -Gristmill NASA's James Hansen has weighed in (PDF) to ... ... expose the recent nonsense that has appeared in the blogosphere, to the effect that recent cooling has wiped out global warming of the past century, and the Earth may be headed into an ice age. On the contrary, these misleaders have foolishly (or devilishly) fixated on a natural fluctuation that will soon disappear. As Hansen explains: Weather fluctuations or 'noise' have a noticeable effect even on monthly-mean global-mean temperature, especially in Northern Hemisphere winter. Weather has little effect on global-mean temperature averaged over several months or more.	6th March 2008
Bush's sleight of hand - Gristmill By Joseph RommThe following is a guest essay by Daniel J. Weiss and Nick Kong. It was originally published on the Center for American Progress website. ----- "Watch what we do, not we say," Attorney General John N. Mitchell accurately warned at the dawn of the Nixon administration. This could also be a fitting epitaph for President Bush's energy policies. Despite frequent claims of support for renewable energy over the years, the record shows consistent opposition to efforts to spur investments in clean wind, solar, geothermal, and other renewable energy sources. The subterfuge began when President Bush announced his administration's National Energy Policy on May 17, 2001.	6th March 2008
Global Warming Means Fewer Flowers in the Rockies - RedOrbit Spring in the Rockies begins when the snowpack melts. But with the advent of global climate change, the snow is gone sooner. Research conducted on the region’s wildflowers shows some plants are blooming less because of it.	6th March 2008
Northern Quebec town mulls relocation as global warming softens ground - CNews MONTREAL - Mudslides, buckled roads and sinking buildings are threatening the northern Quebec village of Salluit, leaving residents with the unwanted prospect of moving their town.	6th March 2008
Drought arrives early this year in the North - Bangkok Post Drought has arrived early this year and it may be a lengthy one as nine northern provinces are already bracing for water shortages. The dry spell has gripped Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai, Lampang, Uttaradit, Nan, Phrae, Kamphaeng Phet, Sukhothai and Tak, according to officials.	6th March 2008
Sweden to Accelerate Global Warming Gases Cuts, Minister Says - Bloomberg.com By Jim Efstathiou Jr. March 5 (Bloomberg) -- Sweden will propose a 30 percent reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions by 2020 by lowering pollution from cars and raising taxes on carbon-dioxide output, said Maud Olofsson , Sweden's enterprise and energy minister.	6th March 2008
The toxic issue of green taxes - BBC News BBC environment analyst Roger Harrabin looks at how green taxes became a difficult issue for politicians.	6th March 2008
OECD: World must act quickly on climate change - CNews OSLO, Norway - The world must respond to climate change and other environmental challenges now while the cost is low or else pay a stiffer price later for its indecision, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development said Wednesday.	6th March 2008
Climate change to curb economy: ABARE - Sydney Morning Herald New modelling suggests climate change would knock five per cent off Australia's economic output by 2100 if nothing is done to reduce greenhouse gases.	6th March 2008
EPA Chief Under Fire for Ignoring Scientists - OneWorld.net The vast majority of scientists and other specialists at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have withdrawn from a key labor-management partnership, citing rising distrust of the agency's chief Stephen Johnson.	6th March 2008

Warming climate may cause arctic tundra to burn - EurekAlert! Research from ancient sediment cores indicates that a warming climate could make the world's arctic tundra far more susceptible to fires than previously thought. The findings, published this week in the online journal, PLoS ONE, are important given the potential for tundra fires to release organic carbon which could add significantly to the amount of greenhouse gases already blamed for global warming.	5th March 2008
MPs call for rise in green taxes - BBC News The The UK Treasury has "continually demonstrated a lack of ambition and imagination" when it comes to green taxes, a report by MPs has concluded. The Commons Environmental Audit Committee says there is little sign that ministers have acted on the recommendations of the Stern Review. They also call for a rise in air taxes, especially on long-haul flights.	5th March 2008
Scientists in Arctic go with the floe - Winnipeg Free Press Brabant says sea ice can help the oceans suck up 40 per cent of the carbon dioxide created by human beings, which is fantastic for a planet beset by depressing climate-change news. However...If current climate-change models underestimate the role sea ice plays in moderating the warming of the atmosphere, then the complete loss of summer sea ice in the Arctic -- something forecast to take place between 2013 and 2030 -- may be even more disastrous than previously believed.	5th March 2008
U.S. coal power boom suddenly wanes - The Christian Science Monitor via Yahoo! News Concerns about global warming and rising building costs are blocking construction of new coal-fired power plants in the United States and pushing utilities to turn to natural gas and renewable power instead.	5th March 2008
Transport tickets should show impact - Guardian Unlimited Plane and train tickets should reveal the environmental impact of individual journeys by stating the carbon emissions released on each trip, the UK's main professional body for engineers said yesterday. See also: The green betrayal - Independent	5th March 2008
DEVELOPMENT: NGOs Wary of Doomsday Seed Vault BANGALORE, Mar 4 (IPS) - Agricultural non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working in India and elsewhere are criticising the newly-opened Global Seed Vault (GSV) at Svalbard in Norway as fundamentally unjust in its objectives.	5th March 2008
USA Grain Exports - Where to, how much? - The Oil Drum This post looks at the role the USA plays in global grain (wheat, corn, sorghum) and soybean (soya bean) trade, since the USA is to a large extent the world's breadbasket and there are concerns over this role in the light of the current corn-to-ethanol expansion. The article begins by looking, very briefly, at how similar concerns were raised about 20 years ago, due to the potential effects of global warming on US grain production.	5th March 2008
The plot to destroy America - Gristmill Suppose you knew about a plot whose inevitable outcome would be to undermine the health and well-being of your children, their children, and the next 50 generations. Yes, hundreds of educated people -- mostly Americans -- are assembling in New York right now for just two purposes: Sharing the techniques needed to block vital action that could save billions of people from suffering and misery. Spreading long-debunked disinformation while masquerading as experts who believe in the scientific method. Well, of course, if you were Fox News, you'd be celebrating the event. What can the rest of us do about this dangerous plot? See also: Denial-a-palooza or Yawn-fest 2008? - DesmogBlog The Ostrich Brigades - IPS	5th March 2008
DEVELOPMENT: Rising Rice Prices Hit Asian Stomachs BANGKOK, Mar 5 (IPS) - Soaring global rice prices are hitting the stomachs of Asia's poorest citizens.	5th March 2008

Wheat Rises as Investors Bet Crops Will Face Adverse Weather - Bloomberg.com March 3 (Bloomberg) -- Wheat surged the most allowed by the Chicago Board of Trade on speculation adverse weather will hurt crops for the third straight year.	4th March 2008
Abnormally dry and mild winter hampers growth of crops in food-starved NKorea - CNews SEOUL, South Korea - State media reported today North Korea has experienced an abnormally mild and dry winter that has hampered the growth of some crops, threatening to exacerbate the impoverished country's chronic food shortages.	4th March 2008
Rain not enough to ease New Zealand's drought - BBC News Torrential rain hit New Zealand's North Island over the weekend, but despite a six-hour downpour drenching the capital Wellington; it did little to ease the current drought. Wellington's dry summer has left reservoirs and underground aquifers drained.	4th March 2008
Climate change's most deadly threat: drought - The Christian Science Monitor Anthropologist Brian Fagan uses Earth's distant past to predict the crises that may lie in its future.	4th March 2008
Will global warming increase plant frost damage? Widespread damage to plants from a sudden freeze that occurred across the Eastern United States from 5 April to 9 April 2007 was made worse because it had been preceded by two weeks of unusual warmth, according to an analysis published in the March 2008 issue of BioScience.	4th March 2008
UN warns climate change in Mideast could lead to food, water shortages - CNews CAIRO, Egypt - Climate change is likely to reduce agricultural production and exacerbate water shortages in the Middle East, threatening the region's poor, the UN Food and Agricultural Organization warned Monday.	4th March 2008
In Highland Peru, a Culture Faces Blight - NPR Nothing is more important than the potato in the highland villages of Peru. Thousands of varieties abound here, cultivated over time as insurance against unpredictable conditions. But Peru's potato culture confronts its biggest threat yet: Global warming has opened the door to the disease that caused the Irish potato famine.	4th March 2008
Lunar eclipse may shed light on climate change - New Scientist The Moon's brightness during last month's eclipse shows Earth's atmosphere contains little volcanic dust, which can affect the climate	4th March 2008
Climate camp to target power station - Guardian Unlimited Science environment: Activists to target site of proposed coal-fired power station with a week-long camp in Kent this summer	4th March 2008
For more and more Americans, the outdoors are not so great - The Pantagraph PHILADELPHIA -- It’s windy. Rain is imminent. The path is muddy. But Patricia Zaradic is loving it all. What’s important is that she is out in nature, a place her research tells her fewer and fewer Americans are heading.	4th March 2008
Ministers support EU climate plan - BBC News EU environment ministers broadly back a plan to cut carbon dioxide emissions by at least a fifth by 2020.	4th March 2008
Promising new material for capturing CO2 from smokestacks - PhysOrg Scientists and engineers in Georgia and Pennsylvania are reporting development of a new, low-cost material for capturing carbon dioxide from the smokestacks of coal-fired electric power plants and other industrial sources before the notorious greenhouse gas enters the atmosphere. Their study is scheduled for the March 19 issue of the ACS` Journal of the American Chemical Society.	4th March 2008
Media enable denier spin, part one - Grist Magazine A (sort of) cold January doesn't mean climate stopped warming	4th March 2008
Team probes mysteries of oceanic bacteria: Wee creatures are key to Earth's environment Microbes living in the oceans play a critical role in regulating Earth`s environment, but very little is known about their activities and how they work together to help control natural cycles of water, carbon and energy.	4th March 2008

Why oil rulers won't go green - Times Online Oil producers must reasonably suppose that, as global warming continues and provokes ever-greater concern, restrictions on demand will grow tighter. Further alternative energy sources are also likely to be developed. So they are likely to perceive high probability of downward pressure on prices in future. The result is a strongly enhanced incentive to extract and sell resources now, to whichever country will buy them, and then to invest the proceeds. Producers may even step up production.	3rd March 2008
No time to lose in cutting CO2 emissions - New Scientist Waiting until we have developed greener technology before cutting emissions could have deadly consequences. At current rates of emissions, a five-year delay before the peak would lead to an increase of 34ppm in CO2 levels. If the peak has still not been reached 40 years from now, a five-year span of emissions at that time would result in a further leap of 54ppm. Even if new technology means emissions fall faster, the concentration of CO2 may already be too great by then for some stabilisation targets to be met. To keep levels below 550ppm, for instance, emissions should start falling much sooner, probably within 20 years, the study concludes.	3rd March 2008
The day China runs dry - Energy Bulletin China's massive but dwindling aquifers would be on track to run virtually dry if over-pumping continued, said Lester Brown, prominent US environmental policy advocate. At that point, its grain production would dive, severely exacerbating any food price increases that had already accumulated. Without rationally priced water, Brown predicted this scenario and a severe global food shortages as inevitable.	3rd March 2008
Global warming pioneer's job threatened - The Independent The man who unlocked the secrets of the new seasons of climate change may have to leave his job because of government cutbacks. Tim Sparks has led the way in demonstrating that the plants and animals were already responding to global warming, before people were even aware of the problem.	3rd March 2008
Tobacco and oil pay for climate conference - The Independent The first international conference designed to question the scientific consensus on climate change is being sponsored by a right-wing American think-tank which receives money from the oil industry.	3rd March 2008
King of soya: environmental vandal or saviour of the world's poor? - Guardian Unlimited Vast plantations are a source of cheap food - but also encourage deforestation	3rd March 2008
Antarctic Boulders May Point To Sea Level Rise - Planet Ark OSLO - Boulders as big as soccer balls show that a thinning of West Antarctic glaciers has become 20 times faster in recent decades and may hold clues to future sea level rise, scientists said on Friday.	3rd March 2008
The corporate threat to water and the water justice movement's fight to protect it - AlterNet An interview with international water guru Maude Barlow and clips from the new documentary Flow: For Love of Water.	3rd March 2008

Stop Global Climate Change By Building An "Ark" - OpEdNews If neither governments, nor most businesses are taking effective measures to avoid global climate catastrophe, what can people do at a grass-roots level to help sustain life on earth?	2nd March 2008
Arctic polar cap may disappear this summer - China Daily The polar cap in the Arctic may well disappear this summer due to the global warming, Dr. Olav Orheim, head of the Norwegian International Polar Year Secretariat, said on Friday. "If Norway's average temperature this year equals that in 2007, the ice cap in the Arctic will all melt away, which is highly possible judging from current conditions," Orheim said.	2nd March 2008
California emissions waiver formally blocked - Environmental News Network The Environmental Protection Agency released a regulatory notice signed by Administrator Stephen Johnson, canceling California's plans to impose a state law that would have forced automakers to reduce emissions by making cars that achieve sharply higher gas mileage beginning next year. "While I find that the conditions related to global climate change in California are substantial, they are not sufficiently different from conditions in the nation as a whole to justify separate state standards," Johnson wrote.	2nd March 2008
Climate crisis getting short shrift in US president race: Gore - AFP via Yahoo! News Former US vice president and renowned climate change fighter Al Gore said Saturday that the global warming crisis is getting short shrift in this year's presidential race.	2nd March 2008

'Enjoy life while you can' - Guardian Unlimited Climate science maverick James Lovelock believes catastrophe is inevitable, carbon offsetting is a joke and ethical living a scam. So what would he do, asks Decca Aitkenhead	1st March 2008

Only zero emissions can prevent a warmer planet - New Scientist Greenhouse gas emissions will have to be eliminated completely to stabilise the Earth's climate and prevent temperatures from rising. That’s the conclusion of climatologists in the US who say that our current efforts to merely stabilise emissions will not be enough. Damon Matthews, from Concordia University in Canada, and Ken Caldeira, from the Carnegie Institution for Science, Stanford, USA, used a global climate model to study how greenhouse emissions would need to change in order to stabilise global temperatures over the next few hundred years. “Even if we eliminated carbon dioxide today we are still committed to a global temperature rise of around 0.8 ºC lasting at least 500 years,” says Caldeira.One of the reasons for the persistence is the slow response of oceans. “It takes a lot of energy to heat them up and then a long time for them to cool back down” .	29th February 2008
If climate sceptics are right, it is time to worry - Financial Times Al Gore says the science on global warming is clear and there is a major problem. Vaclav Klaus, Czech president, contends that climate change forecasts are speculative and unreliable. Whose claims are scarier?	29th February 2008
Capitalism, Consumerism and Materialism: The Value Crisis - OpEd News The global economic, ecological and energy crises we face – as well as associated crises (terrorism, conflict, and so on) -- are not separate but fundamentally interlinked: at the source of our ills is an excessive exploitation of hydrocarbon resources that is tied to the escalation of CO2 emissions with no recognition of limits or boundaries, fuelling global warming and the acceleration of climate change, devastating eco-systems, facilitating the deaths of millions of people and the extinction of thousands of species.	29th February 2008
House Votes to End Big Oil's Tax Breaks - Washington Post Despite Veto Threat, Bill to Boost Renewable Energy Is Sent to Senate The House of Representatives brushed aside threats of a White House veto yesterday and voted 236 to 182 in favor of an $18 billion tax package that would rescind a tax break for the five biggest oil companies and use the revenue to boost incentives for wind and solar energy and energy efficiency.	29th February 2008
Congestion charge 'boosts health' - BBC London's congestion charge may have delivered a small, unexpected health bonus to the capital, say researchers.	29th February 2008
Dramatic jump seen in number of Americans who view political leaders as weak on energy/climate - PR Newswire Strong, Bipartisan Majorities Want Action on Clean Power Agenda; But 72% Now See Leaders As Weak on Energy/Climate Matters ... Compared to Just 57% Before 2004 Election.	29th February 2008
Leading article: People power - The Independent It is possible to detect a climate of scepticism in some quarters towards the idea that ethical consumer pressure can effect real change in our society. Whether the issue is carbon emissions or developing world sweatshops, it is never hard to find someone (and they can be on the left or the right) who will argue that any individual action we take as consumers is pointless and that only intervention at a governmental level can change things. [But on the other hand] No impact from Energy Saving Day - BBC News The UK's first Energy Saving Day ends with no discernible reduction in the country's electricity consumption.	29th February 2008
Scientists warn of new plague of jellyfish - Guardian Unlimited Scientists in Spain blame over-fishing and global warming for summer invasion of jellyfish	29th February 2008
Winter temperature in Finland hits record high - Xinhua The average temperature in the Finnish capital Helsinki in January was 0.6 degrees Celsius, which was 4.8 degrees higher than that of the period between 1971 and 2000, said the institute.	29th February 2008
Horsepower vs. mpg - Gristmill By Clark Williams-DerryThis should be perfectly obvious, but automotive technologies have changed an awful lot over the last few decades. From about 1975 through 1987, federal standards prompted massive and surprisingly rapid improvements in fuel economy. Cars designers focused on nimbleness and efficiency over raw power, and the fuel savings were enormous.But since the late 1980s, most engineering advances have focused on making cars more muscular, and fuel efficiency has taken a back seat. For graphic proof, take a look after the jump at a nifty chart ...The yellow arrow represents the passage of time, the horizontal axis represents fuel economy (increasing for the first 12 years) and the vertical axis represents horsepower (on the rise since the late 1980s).	29th February 2008
Threat to rain forests isn't easing - San Francisco Chronicle Data from the World Resources Institute indicate that deforestation accounts for about 18 percent of human-caused greenhouse gases, compared with nearly 10 percent for road vehicles. The Amazonian and other tropical forests of South America are losing about 8.6 million acres a year, from a total estimated at about 1.7 billion acres in 1999, said Rodolfo Dirzo, a Stanford biology professor who studies deforestation's impact on biodiversity.	29th February 2008
Former member sheds light on Black Panther legacy - The Williams Record Former member sheds light on Black Panther legacyThe Williams Record, MA. The speech concluded with O'Neal urging the audience to use her work as an example when dealing with issues such as global warming and climate change.	29th February 2008

The cold truth about climate change - Salon.com Deniers continue to insist there's no consensus on global warming. Well, there's not. There's well-tested science and real-world observations.	28th February 2008
The rhetoric of slavery and climate change - Salon.com Then: Abolition would wreak havoc on the economy of the South. Now: Ratifying the Kyoto Protocol would punish all Americans	28th February 2008
The World's Growing Food-Price Crisis - TIME Soaring prices of staples — which have risen about 75% since 2005, driven by growing demand, rising oil prices and the effects of global warming — have sparked riots in several countries, as people reel from sticker shock and governments scramble to feed their people.	28th February 2008
Heathrow protesters take to roof of parliament - Guardian Unlimited Breach by runway activists comes after security was tightened in response to terror threat	28th February 2008
'We're in deep doo-doo' Report urges action on climate change - Hamilton Spectator Pollution Probe's Quentin Chiotti believes fighting climate change "calls for an effort equal to dealing with global world war" but says current efforts fall far short.	28th February 2008
Radiohead star launches emissions campaign - Times Online The lead singer of Radiohead today launched a campaign to persuade the European Union and European governments to commit to annual cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.	28th February 2008
Environment: The Democrats' Dirty Secret: Presidential Candidates Backed by Nuclear Powerhouses A hidden conflict over nuclear issues is simmering, pitting Obama and Clinton against many indigenous communities.	28th February 2008
Arctic Meltdown - Foreign Affairs Magazine Summary: Thanks to global warming, the Arctic icecap is rapidly melting, opening up access to massive natural resources and creating shipping shortcuts that could save billions of dollars a year. But there are currently no clear rules governing this economically and strategically vital region.	28th February 2008
BP hints at sale of alternative energy business - Guardian Unlimited BP boasted today that it could put its alternative energy business up for sale to take advantage of rising values in the renewable sector	28th February 2008
Efforts to boost climate change Concern may have opposite effect, risk analysis study shows - Marketwire Ewire -- Mass media efforts to raise American public concern about climate change -- such as Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" and the "scientific consensus" media drumbeat -- ironically may be having just the opposite effect, according to a new study appearing in the scientific journal Risk Analysis.	28th February 2008
Coal industry spends millions on election-year ads - San Diego Union Tribune Facing a bruising fight over climate change, the coal industry is on the political offensive this election year to ensure that no matter who wins in November, so does coal. Billions of dollars in corporate profits are at stake for the companies that mine, ship and burn the nation's most abundant domestic fuel.	28th February 2008
New US climate offer 'too little' - BBC European officials dismiss America's latest offer on climate change as too little, too late.	28th February 2008
Environment: The Bush Administration's War On Science Our government is waging a war against science, endangering millions of lives in the U.S. and beyond.	28th February 2008
Why Heathrow is a terminal case - Times Online There are four inescapable reasons why the third runway should not be built	28th February 2008

'Laws needed' to protect scientific debate - ABC Science Online Australian researchers are calling for laws to protect scientists' freedom to participate in public debate as well as encouragement and rewards from their institutions to do so. "We're doing a wonderful experiment in global warming at the moment but by the time it gets through peer review there may not be many humans left on the planet," says Professor Peter Cullen of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists.	27th February 2008
Sumatran deforestation driving climate change and species extinction, report warns - Guardian Unlimited The destruction of Sumatra's natural forests is accelerating global climate change and pushing endangered species closer to extinction, report warns	27th February 2008
Environment Canada's Muzzle Mandate Available for Viewing - DeSmogBlog Further to an earlier post, we now have a copy (attached) of the new Media Relations Protocol with which Environment Canada is muzzling its scientists.The protocol says Environment Canada's staff members are no longer allowed to speak to the media without first calling consulting with their direct supervisor and phoning Media Relations at Environment Canada's national headquarters. This, the protocol says, will ensure that EC experts "respond with approved lines," thereby saving Minister John Baird from surprise or embarrassment.I think that's a lot to hope. A minister who refuses to read anything about climate science is destined to continue embarrassing himself.	27th February 2008
Fresh records for price of wheat- BBC News Wheat prices have hit record levels as supplies dwindle, raising concerns about growing food inflation. Reports of a drought in Northern China, where most of the country's wheat is grown, also pushed prices higher. Extreme weather has already damaged crops in other parts of the world and US wheat inventories are expected to fall to their lowest level for 60 years.	27th February 2008
A Broken Crystal Ball - Center For American Progress Global Warming Solution Studies Will Overestimate Costs, Underestimate Benefits	27th February 2008
Hottest arctic winter ever - Barents Observer This winter might become the mildest winter in Northern Norway ever registered. So far the average temperature in parts of the region has been up to eight degrees Celsius above the normal.	27th February 2008
Tories scrap clean-car rebate in budget - CNews OTTAWA - Green groups were singing the blues after the federal budget killed a clean-car rebate just one year after it was born to much fanfare.	27th February 2008
Storm-plagued village sues energy companies - Anchorage Daily News The eroding village of Kivalina in the Northwest Arctic announced today it is suing Exxon Mobil and 23 other energy companies for damage due to global warming.	27th February 2008
Sarkozy given emissions challenge - Financial Times José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, yesterday challenged Nicolas Sarkozy to use his European Union presidency to push through ambitious environmental targets. Mr Barroso told the Financial Times at a meeting in Svalbard, Norway, that the French presidency of the EU, which begins in July, would have to ensure the ambitious -targets were agreed by European member states and -parliament.	27th February 2008
Objectors unite on Heathrow plan - BBC News Residents, green campaigners and politicians from the three main parties object to Heathrow expansion plans.	27th February 2008
The Market is Speaking and It's Not Saying More Coal Plants - RedOrbit By the end of 2007, plans for 59 coal-fired power plants across the country were cancelled or seriously delayed, in large part due to rapidly growing wariness among prospective investors. Just when King Coal was looking invincible, the big bucks began bailing.	27th February 2008
Troops sent to stem Amazon loss Brazilian troops go to an Amazon town after efforts to stop illegal logging provoke a local backlash.	27th February 2008

Promised green revolution still seems a long way off - Guardian Unlimited Climate change to have profound impact on agriculture in coming decades	26th February 2008
UN: World Fisheries Face Collapse Within Decades - Planet Ar k MONACO - A deadly combination of climate change, over-fishing and pollution could cause the collapse of commercial fish stocks worldwide within decades, said Achim Steiner, head of the United Nations Environment Programme. "You overlap all of this and you see you're potentially putting a death nail in the coffin of world fisheries," Steiner told reporters on Friday on the fringes of a climate conference involving more than 150 nations and 100 environment ministers.	26th February 2008
US to set 'binding' climate goals - BBC News The US will accept "binding international obligations" on climate if other nations do the same, say officials.	26th February 2008
Carbon tax could generate $50B a year: Suzuki - CTV.ca The David Suzuki Foundation has released a report extolling the virtues of a federal carbon tax -- something that could be returned to taxpayers through income tax cuts.	26th February 2008
Compost can turn agricultural soils into a carbon sink, thus protecting against climate change - EurekAlert! Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, and Singapore (25 February, 2008) – Applying organic fertilizers, such as those resulting from composting, to agricultural land could increase the amount of carbon stored in these soils and contribute significantly to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, according to new research published in a special issue of Waste Management Research	26th February 2008
Climate protest on Heathrow plane - BBC News Greenpeace activists climb on top of a Boeing aeroplane in a protest at Heathrow. See also: Climate change protestors fined - BBC News	26th February 2008
BOLD ENERGY PLAN TO BE DEBATED IN PARLIAMENT - Press Release Every year, each square kilometre of hot desert receives solar energy equivalent to 1.5 million barrels of oil. Multiplying by the area of deserts worldwide, this is several hundred times the entire energy consumption of the world. It is possible to tap in to this cornucopia using the simple proven technique of "concentrating solar power" (CSP): using mirrors to concentrate sunlight to create heat and then using the heat to raise steam to drive turbines and generate electricity, just like a conventional power station. Solar heat can be stored so that electricity generation can continue at night. Using CSP, less than 1% of the world's deserts could generate as much electricity as the world is currently using. And it is feasible and economic to transmit solar electricity for 3000 km or more using highly-efficient 'HVDC' transmission lines. It has been calculated that 90% of the world's population lives within 2700 km of a hot desert and could be supplied with solar electricity from there.	26th February 2008
Antarctic glaciers surge to ocean - BBC News UK scientists working in Antarctica have found some of the clearest evidence yet of instabilities in the ice of part of West Antarctica.	26th February 2008
Nature's in bloomin' chaos as global warming turns the seasons on their head - Daily Mail UK: Early spring brings with it a host of dangers to our flora and fauna. The balance of Nature is being upset and the knock-on effect may be devastating. Some species are able to adapt, while others may vanish, and their disappearance will have a significant effect on the rest of the ecosystem.	26th February 2008
Watching Peru's Oceans for Cholera Cues - NPR Warming oceans were behind Peru's cholera outbreaks in the 1990s, and global warming may cause future outbreaks. Some scientists in Peru are closely watching microscopic marine life, hoping to catch an outbreak before it begins.	26th February 2008
Drought hits more than 2 million in northern China - Houston Chronicle While parts of China have been rocked by record snowfalls this winter, a drought in northern China has left more than 2 million people without sufficient drinking water, a state news agency said.	26th February 2008
Obama's Missing Ideas - Washington Post So it just isn't true that we have all the good ideas we need -- at least not on climate change. And it's peculiar that Obama, the brainiac Harvard grad, should dismiss the importance of fresh thinking this way.	26th February 2008
Zero carbon goal needs firm foundation - BBC News There is no "magic bullet" solution to meeting the ambitious target of making all new homes "zero-carbon" by 2016.	26th February 2008

The un-eco eco-towns - Guardian Unlimited UK: The government has entered into a pact with developers - and our countryside is suffering	25th February 2008
Congestion tax back on agenda for CBD - The Age Congestion tax back on agenda for CBDThe Age, Australia. The new study comes as Professor Ross Garnaut paints a bleak picture of the dangers and costs of global warming, suggesting Australia may need to slash its ...	25th February 2008
Mayor to fight Porsche challenge - BBC News Ken Livingstone pledges to contest legal action by Porsche against plans to increase charges for the most polluting vehicles in central London.	25th February 2008
Britain's year zero: UK to leap from 'laggard to leader' on carbon dioxide emissions - Independent UK: All new buildings will have to be pollution free, according to a government target to be unveiled this week. As only a handful fit the bill today, there's a long way to go.	25th February 2008
Left-leaning budget calls for taxes, deficit - GlobalTV Ontario OTTAWA -- A carbon tax of $30 a tonne, a hike in the newly-reduced GST and a higher tax rate for Canada's wealthiest residents would be part of Tuesday's federal budget if the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives had its way.	25th February 2008
First biofuel flight dismissed as Virgin stunt - The Independent The world's first commercial aircraft powered partly by biofuel took off from Heathrow yesterday to a storm of criticism from climate change experts, who insisted it was nothing more than Sir Richard Branson's latest "nonsensical" publicity stunt.	25th February 2008
Want to cut your carbon? Join our club - Guardian Unlimited Carbon rationing networkS are spreading across the UK, but can everyone make a good 'crag'?	25th February 2008
In praise of ... feed-in tariffs - Guardian Unlimited Leader: The idea is simple: those generating electricity from renewable sources are paid generously for extra power they feed to the grid. Electricity companies have to buy this energy and share the higher cost among all their customers. It is supposed to kick-start investment in greener energy, and it works: Germany's adoption of the programme has helped it develop 200 times the solar power capacity of Britain and 10 times the wind energy, despite Britain being a much windier place.	25th February 2008
The case of the missing Minnesota moose - Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune Is it parasites, or climate change, or both, that's killing Minnesota's moose? Researchers are attacking the question on the ground, in the air, with radio, needle and microscope.	25th February 2008
A movement for a better future - Green Left Weekly Australia: We all know the scale of the threat posed by global warming and the short time in which we have to take meaningful action to prevent potentially catastrophic consequences. This makes the issue of global warming and how to combat it arguably the most urgent question facing humanity today. What is required — a rapid, far-reaching reorganisation of industry, energy, transport, mass consumption patterns, and the massive transfer of clean technology to the Third World — is simply not possible under our corporate-dominated, profit-driven society.	25th February 2008
Butterflyfish may go extinct - ScienceAlert In a study published in the journal Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology Dr Pratchett and Dr Michael Berumen of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (USA) warn that the highly specialized nature of the feeding habits of this particular butterflyfish – the distinctively patterned Chaetodon trifascialis - make it an extinction risk as the world’s coral reefs continue to degrade due to human over-exploitation, pollution and climate change.	25th February 2008
Drop in mango output feared - Inquirer.net Philippines:The country's mango exporters have expressed fears that production this year could decrease significantly due to climate change and increasing production cost.	25th February 2008

Staying hooked on oil is expensive, too - Gristmill By Eric de Place Apropos of British Columbia's big announcement, I have some ranting to get off my chest. One of the most frustrating things about U.S. climate policy is the reflexive fear that if we ever raise the price of gas -- or of driving generally -- people will riot in the streets or something. This makes it exceedingly difficult to rearrange the economy away from oil and its carbon contents. But, of course, the price of gas keeps rising anyway. In fact, crude oil prices have more than tripled over the last half-dozen years, with futures closing above $100 recently.	23rd February 2008
Warmer World May Mean Less Fish - Environmental News Network Climate change is emerging as the latest threat to the world's dwindling fish stocks a new report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) suggests. At least three quarters of the globe's key fishing grounds may become seriously impacted by changes in circulation as a result of the ocean's natural pumping systems fading and falling they suggest.	23rd February 2008
UN gears up for its first global TV ad - Guardian Unlimited The United Nations has created its first global TV campaign to raise awareness about climate change by promoting the benefits of public transport.	23rd February 2008
Special Coating Greatly Improves Solar Cell Performance Breakthrough in solar energy conversion promises to bring researchers and developers worldwide closer to the goal of producing cheaper, more manufacturable and more easily implemented solar cells. Such technology would greatly reduce our dependence on burning fossil fuels for electricity production as well as reduce the combustion product: carbon dioxide, a global warming greenhouse gas.	23rd February 2008
Energy storage nears its day in the sun - Reuters Energy storage is an unglamorous pillar of an expected revolution to clean up the world's energy supply but will soon vie for investors attention with more alluring sources of energy like solar panels, manufacturers say.	23rd February 2008
Europe's truffle harvests drying up amid drought that farmers blame on global warming - IHT France: Farmers say production is down by 50-75 percent this winter season and they blame global warming.	23rd February 2008
As South American Rivers Dry Up, Miners Tap Ocean - Planet Ark CERRO LINDO - Vast mines in Peru and Chile that supply the world with crucial metals have started to pump water from the Pacific Ocean high into the Andes Mountains because of chronic water shortages exacerbated by climate change.	23rd February 2008
Porsche launches protest petition - BBC News Porsche launches an online petition against a planned 'gas guzzlers' charge in central London.	23rd February 2008

The Case for a Sustainability Emergency: Philip Sutton interview - Energy Bulleitn Jason Bradford, Global Public Media. A new report called Climate Code Red: The Case for a Sustainability Emergency reviews disturbing new data and scientific understanding of climate change. It explains why existing institutions have failed to respond adequately to the problem and outlines an appropriate response. An interview with Philip Sutton, one of the co-authors of the report.	22nd February 2008
'70s Scientists More Worried about Warming than Cooling - DeSmogBlog Thomas Peterson of the National Climatic Data Center has finally and convincingly dismissed the mythical '70s "consensus" that the planet was in imminent danger of cooling. In fact, his research shows that the overwhelming majority of scientific articles during that period were already predicting global warming.	22nd February 2008
New data impacts climate change models - University at Buffalo Reporter Digital imaging techniques extract new information from old aerial photos	22nd February 2008
Who Took The 'R' Out of USCAP? - DeSmogBlog When 10 of the largest U.S. corporations and four environmental groups joined forces last January to lobby for federal regulations to restrict greenhouse-gas emissions, it was seen as a watershed in corporate environmentalism. The U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP), comprising 27 companies from General Electric to General Motors, won praise from enviros by endorsing cuts-10% to 30% of heat-trapping emissions within 15 years and 60% to 80% by 2050-to avert some of the severest consequences of global warming. Behind the scenes, however, several companies that belong to USCAP are simultaneously supporting efforts and organizations that oppose mandatory cuts in greenhouse gases or promote policies that would make the USCAP reductions nearly impossible to meet.	22nd February 2008
CLIMATE CHANGE: Canada's Polar Bears Beset on All Sides - IPS VANCOUVER, Feb 21 (IPS) - Melting sea ice caused by climate change and government inaction is putting polar bears at extreme risk in Canada as a species over the next 50 years, according to local environmental groups.	22nd February 2008
Large-scale Amazon deforestation or drying would have dire global ... - Mongabay.com A new study shows that large-scale degradation of the Amazon, either through drying or continued deforestation, would have global consequence, including worsening climate change, causing regional vegetation shifts, and increasing dust in the atmosphere.	22nd February 2008
The Real Swindle - Nature AClimate change must be reported more carefully to help distinguish convergent agreement from legitimately contentious issues.	22nd February 2008
Anti-Kyoto campaigner volunteer member of Tory election team - Canada.com A volunteer member of the Conservative party's 2006 federal election team was on the payroll of an Alberta-based group of global warming skeptics accused in a recent complaint of violating Canada's electoral laws for launching radio ads that attacked government spending on climate change. Although the Tories have denied any links to the group, Canwest News Service has confirmed that Morten Paulsen, a veteran political organizer with roots in the Reform and Canadian Alliance parties, was a volunteer spokesperson for the Conservatives at the same time that he was acting as a paid communications consultant for the Friends of Science.	22nd February 2008
Boreal Forests Aflame - Conservation Magazine For years, researchers have regarded the boreal forest as one of the world’s largest carbon reservoirs. The boreal already houses about as much carbon as the earth’s atmosphere, and that amount was thought to be increasing, making the forest a modest counterweight against climate change. But a new study in Nature suggests global warming could be turning this reservoir into a tinderbox, transforming the boreal from a carbon sink to a carbon source along the way.	22nd February 2008
280-MW Solar Plant to Use Molten Salt for Energy Storage - PESN Abengoa Solar has announced plans to build a 1900-acre concentrated solar trough plant that will store the heat in molten salt towers for round-the-clock power generation capability.	22nd February 2008

Johann Hari: We'll save the planet only if we're forced to - Independent Do you check every item you buy to make sure it is green and planet-friendly? Do you buy carbon offsets every time you fly? Stop. It is time to be honest: green consumerism is at best a draining distraction, and at worst a con. While the planet's fever gets worse by the week, we are guzzling down green-coloured placebos and calling it action. There is another way. Our reaction to global warming ...	21st February 2008
Risk of permafrost thaw a "wild card" in warming-UN - Reuters AlertNet A thaw of Arctic permafrost is a "wild card" that could stoke global warming by releasing vast frozen stores of greenhouse gases, the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) said on Wednesday. More research was urgently needed into the possibility of a runaway release of methane, a powerful heat-trapping gas trapped in frozen soils in Siberia, Canada, Alaska and Nordic nations, it said in a 2008 yearbook issued at 154-nation talks in Monaco.	21st February 2008
Dire new climate warning - The Age It's a lot worse than we thought, says Government's top adviser on global warming. On the eve of the release today of his interim report on climate change, Professor Garnaut told a conference in Adelaide yesterday that without intervention before 2020, it would be impossible to avoid a high risk of dangerous climate change. "The show will be over," he said. The Government's existing target is to cut greenhouse emissions by 60% by 2050. Professor Garnaut said Australia would need to go "considerably further" as part of a global agreement, with full participation by developing countries, to keep climate change at acceptable levels.	21st February 2008
Greenland's rising air temperatures drive ice loss at surface and beyond - PhysOrg A new NASA study confirms that the surface temperature of Greenland's massive ice sheet has been rising, stoked by warming air temperatures, and fueling loss of the island's ice at the surface and throughout the mass beneath.	21st February 2008
Spain suffering worst drought in over a decade - BBC News Spain faces water restrictions widely this summer as it suffers its worst drought in more than a decade. In one of the worst affected areas, Catalunya, the Barcelona government is hoping to pre-empt a summer crisis by importing water by tanker.	21st February 2008
BP goes back to petroleum - Guardian Unlimited The shift to renewables has been ditched for a carbon intensive future See also: Demand fuels oil industry confidence - Financial Times	21st February 2008
Smoke, soot dims China, India climate prospects - Khaleej Times The soot, called black carbon and produced by burning coal, dung, wood and diesel, rises in the upper atmosphere, where it traps the sun’s heat and blots out the light, raising the temperature at higher altitudes but cooling the earth below. Veerabhadran Ramanathan, an atmospheric scientist at the University of California, said that as a result the soot is contributing to the melting of the glaciers and weakening Indian monsoons.	21st February 2008
Alarm over new oil-from-coal plans - Guardian Unlimited Chinese A Chinese energy company is poised to open a chemical plant to make liquid fuels for cars and aircraft from coal, a move that has alarmed environmental campaigners who say it will increase carbon emissions and worsen global warming. The plant, in Inner Mongolia, will use technology developed by Germany during the second world war to convert coal directly into synthetic diesel, dubbed "Nazi fuel". China says the process will help break its booming economy's reliance on foreign oil, and that it will build more such plants.	21st February 2008
Past Greenhouse Warming Provides Clues To What The Future May Hold - Science Daily Scientists studying an extreme period of global warming 55 million years ago are piecing together an increasingly detailed picture of its causes and consequences. Their findings describe what may be the best analog in the geologic record for the global changes likely to result from continued carbon dioxide emissions from human activities.	21st February 2008
The Lieberman-Warner Conundrum - DeSmogBlog Recently, a debate among environmental advocates over global warming strategy has spilled out into the public arena, apparently triggered by signals from Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Ca), chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee, that she will try to move a bill to address global warming this year. (For more details, see this recent story in the LA Times.) The bill in question, the bipartisan Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act, would ratchet down U.S. emissions by something on the order of 70 percent by the year 2050. This it would do by establishing a cap and trade program, one in which most of the initial allowances or pollution permits would be given for free to industry, although the percentage of giveaways would decline considerably over time.	21st February 2008

BC introduces carbon tax - CNews VICTORIA - Finance Minister Carole Taylor introduced an escalating carbon tax on most fossil fuels Tuesday, one she says is designed to ignite an environmental social movement in British Columbia and across Canada to fight climate change.	20th February 2008
Eliminating fossil fuels is friggin' cheap, pt. 2 - Gristmill My last post argued that based on the figures Scientific American projected for a slow, partial phaseout of fossil fuels, we could do a full, fast, near-total elimination for between 170 and 240 billion dollars a year -- somewhere less than a third, possibly even less than a quarter, of our military budget. I'd like to offer some other comparisons to put those numbers into perspective: We spent $840 billion buying fossil fuels in 2004, according to page 72 of the 2006 Annual Energy Review (10 Meg PDF). So a 95% reduction in U.S.	20th February 2008
24 world cities in 'Earth Hour' black-out: organisers - Raw Story Twenty-four cities around the world will fall into shadow next month as homes and businesses turn off the lights to raise awareness about global warming,	20th February 2008
Capitalism will save planet, experts say - Financial Post "In conversations with other business leaders, I've heard more times than I can count that it's impossible or impractical to make much headway on greenhouse gases until we have better technology," Mr. Darbee said during the panel discussion. "That is not the case. It's a red herring.... The biggest obstacle right now is a lack of will--not invention." Many environmentalists at the summit were pessimistic about prospects for attacking the threat of greenhouse gasses, pointing to the coming surge in energy demand as countries such as China adopt Western habits. Mr. Khosla doesn't share that gloom. He said it's not the first time he has seen widespread skepticism of a looming sea change. In 1996, for example, it was impossible to convince telecom companies that the Internet was important. They also resisted the notion that long-distance calls would be free. "The point is change happens, and it happens quickly," he said. "Technology caused dislocations."	20th February 2008
The scary oil sands - Toronto Star Canadians' concerns over Alberta oil-sands development centre largely around its impact on climate change. And for good reason. In a list of 207 nations ranked by greenhouse gas emissions, Alberta's oil sands come out higher than 145 of them. And that comparison is based on 2007 emissions. Under its proposed "intensity" caps to fight global warming, the Harper government predicts a near doubling in oil-sand emissions by 2020. But as a study released last week by the advocacy group Environmental Defence shows, the dangers posed by the tar sands go far beyond climate change. The most frightening is the leaching of toxins into the region's water supplies, which the study terms "a giant slow-motion oil spill."	20th February 2008
NOAA Stonewalls on DCSOVR Documents - DeSmogBlog The stonewalling on DSCOVR documents continues, this time with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). To recap, NASA was given over $100 million in taxpayers money to build the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR), a spacecraft designed to measure the energy budget of our warming planet from the unique vantage of a million miles away. Even though it is fully completed over five years ago, DSCOVR is still sitting in a box at the Goddard Space Centre – likely for political reasons. The mission was originally promoted by Al Gore – a liability when George Bush and Dick Cheney remain in the Whitehouse.	20th February 2008
Porsche challenges C-charge rise - BBC News Carmaker Porsche plans to mount a legal challenge over plans to increase London's congestion charge to £25-a-day. See also: Red Ken turns green - Guardian Unlimited	20th February 2008
Democracy, Brought to You by Coal - Daily Green According to advertisements on CNN, Americans for Balanced Energy Choices is sponsoring the next Democratic debate, which is to air Thursday from Texas. Americans for Balanced Energy Sources promotes the use of coal, or as the SourceWatch watchdog Web site puts it: Formed in 2000 to develop astroturf support for coal-based electricity, Americans for Balanced Energy Choices (ABEC) promotes the interests of mining companies, coal transporters, and electricity producers. A domain name search reveals that ABEC's website is registered to the coal industry trade organization Center for Energy and Economic Development. (ABEC originally used the www.balancedenergy.org domain but later switched to a website titled America's Power).	20th February 2008
Namibia: Jellyfish Population Worries Fish Industry - AllAfrica.com Namibia: The ever-presence of jellyfish in Namibian waters, which feed on fish eggs of commercial species, has had the line ministry worried. Although no scientific information is available in Namibia on what causes these jellyfish to multiply, experts believe climate change and alterations in the ecosystem could have contributed to such an increase.	20th February 2008
How satellites saved the world - MSNBC Earth-observing satellites have been lifesavers for the past 50 years, and now scientists are working to make sure the next generation of orbital sentinels will continue the legacy.	20th February 2008
Climate change threatens human rights of millions: UN - Reuters Climate change threatens the human rights of millions of people who are at risk of losing access to housing, food and clean water unless governments intervene early to counter its effects, experts said on Tuesday.	20th February 2008
Solar evidence points to human causes of climate change - PhysOrg It`s getting harder and harder to blame the sun for causing the gradual increase in global temperatures that are now being seen in the climate record, scientists said today.	20th February 2008
Botanical conservatories take on urgent new role - The Christian Science Monitor Conservatories, once the glass-walled playgrounds of wealthy plant collectors, now serve a more urgent function. The changing global climate has spotlighted the role these specialized greenhouses play in preserving plant diversity.	20th February 2008

'Greenwash' is losing its shine - BBC News Time is running out for advertisers who are a lighter shade of green, as eco-cliches fall out of fashion. Simply being seen to be green will soon not be enough, says Getty Images' Rebecca Swift. In this week's Green Room, she argues that time is running out for advertisers who "greenwash" audiences with empty eco-cliches.	19th February 2008
Juggle a few of these numbers, and it makes economic sense to kill people - Guardian Unlimited Britain's official approach to climate change puts a price on human lives. And the richer you are, the more yours is worth	19th February 2008
The Recession's Human and Environmental Impacts - Center for Research on Globalization Too often news coverage focuses on discreet current events at the expense of a more synthetic approach to notable happenings. While it is important that the public learns of major incidents in the world as they take place, sometimes this can lead to some observers "not seeing the forest for the trees." On account, it might be easy to miss the connection between the global recession (and possible future depression) with the ongoing decline of environmental well-being and increase in human population. All the same, these three areas are deeply intertwined. Here are a few details concerning the relationship.	19th February 2008
Climate focus 'ignores wildlife' - BBC News Many efforts to curb climate change pay little attention to conservation or the world's poor, a think-tank warns. "Policymakers have focused on mitigating greenhouse gas emissions but biodiversity is also key," observed Ms Swiderska. "For centuries, traditional farmers have used the diversity within both domesticated and wild species to adapt to changing conditions." She said that greater recognition of local knowledge could help deliver results on a global scale. "Many communities are already using agricultural -biodiversity and traditional practices, such as seed exchange and field experimentation, to adapt to climate change. "Farmer/researcher collaboration can bring added value that each alone could never realise."	19th February 2008
UK Government Mulls Increasing CO2 Cut Target To 80% By 2050 - Nasdaq LONDON -(Dow Jones)- The U.K. government said Monday it will consider increasing the country's target for cutting carbon dioxide emissions to as much as 80% by 2050, compared with 1990 levels.	19th February 2008
Britain Invests In Waste Digesting Energy Plants - Planet Ark LONDON - Britain is to invest in several anaerobic digestion plants as it seeks to cut emissions of greenhouse gas methane and boost renewable energy production, Farm Minister Hilary Benn said on Monday.	19th February 2008
Cameron warns farmers of global food shortages - Guardian Unlimited David Cameron told British farmers today that the nation could feel the impact of a global "food crunch" because of changes in people's diets and the effects of climate change. The Conservative leader told the National Farmers' Union's centenary conference that food security was vital for "every family in the country" as he called for a new approach to create a level playing field for British farming produce.	19th February 2008
German scientists warn of changes in Arctic Ocean circulation - Earthtimes Marine scientists in Germany have issued an alarming warning about the radically alteration of the circulation of water in the Arctic Ocean. The findings by the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences (IFM- GEOMAR) in Kiel, Germany, have dire implications for climate change in the Northern Hemisphere. Hitherto, the circulation of the Arctic Ocean was driven by the formation of sea ice rather than the inflow of North Atlantic deep water. Recently, however, the shrinkage of sea ice due to global warming has resulted in the startling reversal, according to the study by the German scientists which is published in the new journal Nature Geoscience.	19th February 2008
Kyoto Kev 'slashes climate programs' - Adelaide Now THE Federal Government has undercut its Kyoto commitment by slashing $50m from climate change programs, the Opposition says.	19th February 2008
US Should Speed Up Energy Efficiency Plans - IEA - Planet Ark WASHINGTON - The US government needs to move more quickly on plans to boost automobile fuel efficiency standards, improve efficiency of power plants and take hard action on heat-trapping greenhouse gases, the International Energy Agency said Friday. See also: US Power Shortage Without More Coal Plants: AEP - Planet Ark [ well, they would say that, wouldn't they? ]	19th February 2008
2008 Will Be Among the Ten Hottest Years on Record - Natural News.com UK: Despite being slightly cooler than previous years, 2008 will be one of the top 10 hottest years since record keeping of average global temperatures began in 1850.	19th February 2008

Will North Atlantic threshold response to ocean changes be enough? - PhysOrg Predictions that the 21st century is safe from major circulation changes in the North Atlantic Ocean may not be as comforting as they seem, according to a Penn State researcher. "The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that it is very unlikely that the North Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (MOC) will collapse in the 21st century. They predict a probability of less then 10 percent," says Klaus Keller, assistant professor of geosciences. "However, this should not be interpreted as an all clear signal. There can be a considerable delay between the triggering of an MOC collapse and the actual collapse. In a similar way, a person that has just jumped from a cliff may take comfort that pain in the next few seconds is very unlikely, but the outlook over the long term is less rosy."	18th February 2008
Reasons to see red over green energy - Guardian Unlimited UK: Government apathy sabotages Britain's shift to a low-carbon economy See also: INTERVIEW - UK Risks Being Left Behind In Wind Surge – GE - Planet Ark	18th February 2008
Elections Canada to investigate anti-Kyoto group - Canada.com Canada's chief electoral officer has been asked to investigate a series of radio ads, funded by an Alberta-based global warming skeptics group, which targeted key markets in vote-rich Ontario during the 2006 federal election.	18th February 2008
Climate Change Has Major Impact On Oceans - Science Daily Climate change is rapidly transforming the world's oceans by increasing the temperature and acidity of seawater, and altering atmospheric and oceanic circulation, reported a panel of scientists at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Boston.	18th February 2008
Southern Ocean rise due to warming, not ice melts - AlertNet Rises in the sea level around Antarctica in the past decade are almost entirely due a warming ocean, not ice melting, an Australian scientist leading a major international research programme said.	18th February 2008
Eliminating fossil fuels is friggin' cheap - Gristmill USA: A third of our military budget could cure our carbon addiction Scientific American's grand plan to provide a bit over a third of U.S. energy from solar sources provides insight into what it would cost to phase out all or most U.S. greenhouse emissions. Bottom line: a lot less than current military spending. The total cost of the SciAm plan: $420 billion over the course of that 40 years, or slightly over ten billion dollars per year -- less than current fossil fuel subsidies, less than the new subsidies "clean coal" would require. The authors suggest phasing out fossil-fuel powered electricity over the course of forty years, using a solar dominated electricity grid.	18th February 2008
The Other Carbon: Reducing Black Carbon's Role in Global Warming - Wired News A professor at the annual AAAS meeting gives a talk on the role of black carbon, the other carbon, in global climate change. A mere 10% reduction in black carbon would be equivalent to eliminating 25 gigatons of carbon dioxide emissions	18th February 2008
Carbon-neutral by 2020: SA Govt plan - Australian Broadcasting Corporation South Australia has announced a scheme it says will give the state the first carbon-neutral government in Australia.	18th February 2008
Efficiency Now Ahead Of US Carbon Rules: Utilities - Planet Ark HOUSTON - US utilities are focusing on energy efficiency to lessen the need to build new power plants while they await what they see as inevitable carbon regulation, executives said at the four-day CERA conference in Houston that ended Friday.	18th February 2008
MIT expert: How to toughen up environmental treaties - PhysOrg The Kyoto Protocol is one of more than 100 global environmental treaties negotiated over the past 40 years to address pollution, fisheries management, ocean dumping and other problems. But according to MIT Professor Lawrence Susskind, an expert in resolving complex environmental disputes, few of the agreements have done more than slow the pace of ecological damage, due to lack of ratification by key countries, insufficient enforcement and inadequate financial support. The reforms he has in mind include engaging civil societies, not just governments, in drafting and enforcing global environmental treaties; offering incentives for countries that ratify treaties and comply with their terms; and establishing more meaningful timetables and targets, along with economic penalties. Penalties for non-compliance with environmental treaties should hit nations hard—in their pocketbooks, says Susskind. See also : Mission critical for carbon management - EurekAlert!	18th February 2008
Amtrak's defenders cite energy efficiency - Houston Chronicle Administration wants to cut funds to U.S. rail system by 40 percent WASHINGTON — Supporters of federal funding for Amtrak have a new argument: The threat of global warming will be eased if more people ride the train.	18th February 2008
Laughing Gas Causes Food, Global Warming Dilemma - Planet Ark OSLO - The world needs to find smarter ways to feed a rising population while cutting emissions of laughing gas, a widely forgotten greenhouse gas that is stoked by the use of fertilisers, a researcher said on Friday.	18th February 2008

Birds choke to death on migrant fish - Guardian Unlimited Baffled scientists warn of a 'catastrophic' impact as snake pipefish flood into British waters	17th February 2008
LATIN AMERICA: Deforestation Still Winning - IPS MEXICO CITY, Feb 16 (Tierramérica) - Never before have Latin America and the Caribbean fought so hard against deforestation, say experts and government officials, but logging in the region has increased to the point that it has the highest rate in the world.	17th February 2008
California's burning ambition - Guardian Unlimited Steered by Schwarzenegger, the Golden State plans to be at the forefront of fighting global warming, reports Juliette Jowit	17th February 2008
Chicago to turn off lights for one hour - PhysOrg Chicago plans to join more than 20 other cities and shut off exterior lights on public buildings for an hour in an effort to raise environmental awareness.	17th February 2008
National Post "Rabid Response Team" Assails Suzuki Over Jail Quote - DeSmogBlog The Post's pages of outrage (O'Neill, Gunter) were inspired (this time) by a Suzuki speech to the students of McGill University. "The Doc," as he is known to friends and insiders, apparently took full flight in exhorting students to action on the environment and, especially, on the issue of climate change. The Post reports the following, culminating quote: What I would challenge you to do is to put a lot of effort into trying to see whether there's a legal way of throwing our so-called leaders into jail because what they're doing is a criminal act." This, The Post rails, amounts to "environmental fascism," "enviro-totalitarianism" and/or the beginning of an "enviro-inquisition." Lorne Gunter actually says that Suzuki is "picking up the time-honoured tradition of Tomas de Torquemada, inquisitor-general of the Spanish Inquisition." We're on the verge, apparently, ...	17th February 2008
How climate change sparked a Canadian gold rush - Times Online It's little more than an ice-bound collection of shacks besieged by hungry polar bears. But climate change has sparked a gold rush in Churchill, population 923. Within 10 years, this tiny Canadian port could be transformed into a hub of world trade	17th February 2008

Stabilizing climate requires near-zero carbon emissions - EurekAlert! Now that scientists have reached a consensus that carbon dioxide emissions from human activities are the major cause of global warming, the next question is: How can we stop it? Can we just cut back on carbon, or do we need to go cold turkey? According to a new study by scientists at the Carnegie Institution, halfway measures won�t do the job. To stabilize our planet�s climate, we need to find ways to kick the carbon habit altogether.	16th February 2008
Warming risks Antarctic sea life - BBC Unique marine life in Antarctica will be at risk from an invasion of sharks, crabs and other predators if global warming continues, scientists warn.	16th February 2008
Sony leads charge against climate change - Guardian Unlimited Sony and other big multinationals today committed themselves to drastically reducing their carbon footprint and urged other businesses to join the fight against global warming. Twelve companies, including Nokia, Nike, and Hewlett-Packard, signed up to the Tokyo declaration, promising to "take all necessary action" to limit the increase in the global average temperature to less than 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels.	16th February 2008
World Wine Map Changing With Climate - Discovery Channel Climate change is threatening to redraw the world's wine-producing map, and the effects are already being seen in earlier harvests and coarser wines, experts told an international conference Friday.	16th February 2008
Greening US likely to create huge carbon market - New Scientist Introducing carbon trading in the US could create a market worth $1 trillion a year by 2020, according to a new report	16th February 2008
Rediscovering the forgotten crops - BBC News Earth Report looks at how rediscovering forgotten food crops can help avert a future food crisis.	16th February 2008
Past greenhouse warming events provide clues to what the future may hold - PhysOrg If carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels continue on a "business-as-usual" trajectory, humans will have added about 5 trillion metric tons of carbon to the atmosphere by the year 2400. A similarly massive release of carbon accompanied an extreme period of global warming 55 million years ago known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM).	16th February 2008
GPS 'thermometer' could flag up climate change - New Scientist Variations in the way GPS satellite signals distort when passing through the atmosphere could be used to monitor the changes in Earth's climate	16th February 2008
CHILE: Drought Raises Likelihood of Energy Rationing - IPS SANTIAGO, Feb 15 (IPS) - The severe drought affecting Chile has caused an agricultural emergency in 50 rural districts in the centre of the country, and large sectors of the economy are concerned about possible electricity rationing in March.	16th February 2008
Greenpeace projects message on Parliament Buildings to mark anniversary of Kyoto - CNW Telbec Canada: Greenpeace marked the third anniversary of the Kyoto Protocol coming into force by projecting the words "Wanted: Climate Leaders" on the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa this evening. Activists holding candles also held vigil in protest of Canada's lack of progress on combating global warming.	16th February 2008

Pacific Northwest hypoxic events unprecedented - EurekAlert! CORVALLIS, Ore. – A review of all available ocean data records concludes that the low-oxygen events which have plagued the Pacific Northwest coast since 2002 are unprecedented in the five decades prior to that, and may well be linked to the stronger, persistent winds that are expected to occur with global warming.	15th February 2008
Firms will act on CO2 only if its cost triples, says Shell - Guardian Unlimited A carbon price close to $100 per tonne of CO2 - more than three times higher than it is today - is needed before industry will invest in the thousands of carbon-capture-and-storage (CCS) schemes needed for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, Shell warned yesterday. Jeremy Bentham, the vice president of business environment at the company, also called on the EU to quicken the pace of regulatory change and take vital decisions "within five years" that would largely shape the pattern of energy supply and global warming in coming decades.	15th February 2008
Environment: Who Needs Meat When You've Got Bugs? We may find the idea of insects as livestock disgusting, but could a bug farm possibly be any more foul than our fetid feedlots?	15th February 2008
Study finds profit in cutting emissions - Financial Times Half the cuts in greenhouse gas emissions needed to make the world safe can be achieved at a net profit to the global economy, a study has found.	15th February 2008
Investment fund giants demand 90% reduction in carbon emissions - Guardian Unlimited Some of the largest institutional investors in the world yesterday called on the US Congress to introduce a mandatory national policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 90% below 1990 levels by 2050. It is the latest move that underlines the way business leaders have dramatically seized the environmental agenda and are now pushing politicians to tackle global warming. The group of 40 investors, which includes F&C Asset Management in London and controls $1.5tr (£760bn) worth of funds, also wants the financial regulator, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), to insist that companies listed in New York and elsewhere disclose their exposure to climate change risk.	15th February 2008
Climate mobilization: suddenly a dam breaks Bill Pfeiffer, Sacred Earh Network. Interview with climate scientist Susanne Moser: "A dam works well and for a long time, until one day it breaks. A social movement builds slowly and quietly, until one day it takes off and major political changes become possible. We're witnessing the building of such a climate protection movement right now."	15th February 2008
Prince sees climate fight as war - BBC Prince Charles tells Euro MPs the biggest ever public-private partnership is needed to tackle climate change.	15th February 2008
Gore to Wall Street: beware of 'subprime carbon' - CNN Money Former Vice President says investors must curb assets tied to business that are heavily carbon dependent; warns that carbon emissions will soon come at a price.	15th February 2008
Volunteers Across Nation to Track Climate Clues in Spring Flowers - PhysOrg A nationwide initiative starting this week will enable volunteers to track climate change by observing the timing of flowers and foliage. Project BudBurst, operated by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) and a team of partners, allows students, gardeners and other citizen scientists in every state to enter their observations into an online database that will give researchers a detailed picture of our warming climate.	15th February 2008
New materials can selectively capture carbon dioxide UCLA chemists report a major advance in reducing heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions in the Feb. 15 issue of the journal Science.	15th February 2008
Map shows toll on world's oceans - BBC News Only 4% of the world's oceans remain undamaged by human activity, a study shows.	15th February 2008
Goodbye gasoline? Not so fast - CNN Money Gasoline use over the next two decades is expected to soar as developing nations get richer and more people there buy cars, but gas alone won't be able to shoulder the burden.	15th February 2008
Coal's Time Is Up In US, Environmentalist Warns - Planet Ark NEW YORK - The United States should leave its estimated 200 years' supply of coal in the ground and invest in wind farms and solar technology for its power-generating needs, a leading environmental analyst said on Thursday.	15th February 2008
SCIENCE-US: Top Scientists Want Research Free From Politics BOSTON, Feb 14 (IPS) - Leading U.S. scientists called on Congress Thursday to make sure the next president does not do what they say the George W. Bush Administration has done: censor, suppress and falsify important environmental and health research.	15th February 2008

Chaos wrecks the balance of nature - Telegraph.co.uk The effects of global warming on the life on planet Earth are impossible to predict over the long term, according to a study that has found chaos at work among tiny marine creatures from the Baltic.	14th February 2008
INTERVIEW - Mankind Can't Afford More Oil Drilling - Ex-BP Exec - Planet Ark LONDON - Known oil, gas and coal reserves may already contain a quarter more carbon than mankind can emit and still avoid dangerous climate change, putting the value of new oil exploration in doubt, said a former oil major executive.	14th February 2008
Biofuels and the fertilizer problem - Gristmill Can a 'renewable fuel' rely on mining a finite resource?	14th February 2008
Pentagon faces a battle on climate change - Financial Times There are five key areas in which effective military planning can be undermined by uncertainty over when and how the major carbon-emitting countries combat climate change.	14th February 2008
Mosquito invasion threatens a plague on Ulster - Belfast Telegraph Ulster has been invaded by mosquitoes - and the diseases they carry could pose a heightened risk to human health as climate change starts to bite.	14th February 2008
Growers face early start to Myzus pest migration - Farming UK UK: Potato, sugar beet and vegetable growers must be ready for an early attack of Myzus persicae again this year, predicts aphid expert Dr Richard Harrington of Rothamsted Research. And it is a trend that is set to continue with climate warming, he reported. Official forecasts will be issued at the end of February, but the mild conditions so far make early aphid movement look likely.	14th February 2008
Five-seat concept car runs on air - BBC News A French engineer promises that he will start selling a car that runs on compressed air within a year.	14th February 2008
America's Sportsmen Target Global Warming - All American Patriots More than 670 hunting and fishing organizations from all 50 states, representing the millions of Americans who share America’s sporting tradition, are urging their U.S. Senators and Representatives to target global warming with strong climate legislation.	14th February 2008
Family cars among 'gas guzzlers' - BBC News If you think the new £25 charge for driving in London is just for 4x4s and Porsches, think again.	14th February 2008
Senate passes measure on emissions labeling program - KAJ Kalispell Associated Press - February 13, 2008 8:05 PM ET OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - The Senate today passed ameasure requiring the Department of Ecology to develop a greenhouse gas emissions disclosure...	14th February 2008
Canadian Province Enlists Trees In Climate Fight - Planet Ark VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Canada's westernmost province plans to recruit its vast forests to help in the battle against climate change, with the goal of no net deforestation by 2015, British Columbia said Tuesday.	14th February 2008
Q&A: Ecotowns - Guardian Unlimited Later this month, the government is to announce the 10 locations chosen to become Britain's first green communities. But the controversial plans have already sparked nationwide protests. Vikki Miller takes a look at what the developments will entail	14th February 2008
'Shift focus' of security battle - BBC News Attempts to maintain national security need to be redefined, with more attention being paid to climate change and poverty, a left-leaning think tank says.	14th February 2008
BANGLADESH GOVT PLANS TO CONTAIN GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS - Asia Pulse via Yahoo!7 Finance Regulations / Law The caretaker government plans to knock out two-stroke-engine vehicles from all district headquarters and metropolitan cities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to hazardous global warming.	14th February 2008
INTERVIEW-Arctic ice unlikely to see record melt in 2008 - AlertNet Source: Reuters By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent OSLO, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Arctic summer sea ice is unlikely to shrink drastically in 2008 beyond a record low set last year even though the long-term trend is a thaw tied to global warming, a leading scientist said on Wednesday.	14th February 2008
Sierra Club gives feds failing grade on climate change - CNews TORONTO - The Sierra Club of Canada is giving the federal Conservatives a failing grade for their environmental record and kudos to Quebec and British Columbia for their efforts to reduce emissions.	14th February 2008
US will appoint 'energy attache' - BBC News The US secretary of state says she will appoint an energy envoy to monitor the use of oil and gas for political purposes.	14th February 2008
Second deadline to protect polar bears missed - Reuters The United States has missed its own postponed deadline to decide if polar bears need protection from climate change, and critics link the delay to an oil lease sale in a vast swath of the bear's icy habitat.	14th February 2008
Synthetic Fuel Concept to Steal CO2 From Air - PhysOrg Los Alamos National Laboratory has developed a low-risk, transformational concept, called Green Freedom(TM), for large-scale production of carbon-neutral, sulfur-free fuels and organic chemicals from air and water.	14th February 2008
Up In Smoke: President Bush's Big Environmental Broken Promise - New York Times Blogs President Bush’s announcement of FutureGen on Feb. 27, 2003 generated great excitement. Coal-fired power plants account for a large percentage of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, and experts have known for years that the battle against climate change would almost certainly be lost unless ways could be found to control those emissions. FutureGen offered hope. Yet two weeks ago, after five years of chaotic management and $300 million in unfocused spending, the administration essentially pulled the plug. And nobody, including the Times, should have been surprised.	14th February 2008

Pressure builds for global battle plan on climate change - Reuters AlertNet Just how big a threat to the world is climate change? Listening in to a press conference at U.N. headquarters in New York on Monday, you'd have heard British billionaire businessman Richard Branson describing it as "a crisis that is bigger than World War I and II combined". Or New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg emphasising, "This is just as important as stopping nuclear proliferation. This is just as important as stopping terrorism." The sociologist Ulrich Beck argues that huge global risks like climate change are so different from what we've experienced so far, it's more accurate to describe them as "unknown unknowns". Whatever your favourite soundbite, there are signs that we're finally reaching the point where we no longer need international celebrities and politicians to scare us into realising how bad things could get.	13th February 2008
Path of least resistance - Guardian Unlimited UK: The government's fallacious use of carbon pricing means that it can disguise its aviation expansion plans as alleviating climate change	13th February 2008
Antarctica is Cold? Yeah, We Knew That - RealClimate Guest commentary from Spencer Weart, science historian Despite the recent announcement that the discharge from some Antarctic glaciers is accelerating, we often hear people remarking that parts of Antarctica are getting colder, and indeed the ice pack in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica has actually been getting bigger. Doesn't this contradict the calculations that greenhouse gases are warming the globe? Not at all, because a cold Antarctica is just what calculations predict… and have predicted for the past quarter century. It's not just that Antarctica is covered with a gazillion tons of ice, although that certainly helps keep it cold.	13th February 2008
Drought cuts 10 percent off Australian agricultural production - AFP via Yahoo! News Drought cut 10 percent off the value of Australia's agricultural production in 2006-07, official figures showed Tuesday.	13th February 2008
True scale of C02 emissions from shipping revealed - Guardian Unlimited The true scale of climate change emissions from shipping is almost three times higher than previously believed, according to a leaked UN study seen by the Guardian. It calculates that annual emissions from the world's merchant fleet have already reached 1.12bn tonnes of CO², or nearly 4.5% of all global emissions of the main greenhouse gas. The report suggests that shipping emissions - which are not taken into account by European targets for cutting global warming - will become one of the largest single sources of manmade CO² after cars, housing, agriculture and industry. By comparison, the aviation industry, which has been under heavy pressure to clean up, is responsible for about 650m tonnes of CO² emissions a year, just over half that from shipping..	13th February 2008
CLIMATE CHANGE: Security Council Urged to Punish CO2 Offenders UNITED NATIONS, Feb 12 (IPS) - The world's small island nations are calling for the U.N. Security Council to help protect their lands and resources by using its authority to demand reductions of carbon dioxide emissions, and to penalise those nations that fail to comply.	13th February 2008
Climate change could kill thousands in UK by 2012, says report - Guardian Unlimited Climate change could lead to a heatwave in the south-east of England killing 3,000 people by 2012, a Department of Health report said today.	13th February 2008
Lake Mead could be dry by 2021 - PhysOrg There is a 50 percent chance Lake Mead, a key source of water for millions of people in the southwestern United States, will be dry by 2021 if climate changes as expected and future water usage is not curtailed, according to a pair of researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego.	13th February 2008

Activist links struggles of public space, climate - Deseret Morning News When it comes to combating global warming, it all comes down to "the common," says Larry Lohmann, English author and environmental activist.	12th February 2008
Apart from used chip fat, there is no such thing as a sustainable biofuel - Guardian Unlimited George Monbiot: Even capitalists now admit the oil crisis is real. But their solutions border on lunacy as they avoid the obvious answer See also: Biofuel demand leading to human rights abuses, report claims - Guardian Unlimited	12th February 2008
Insect explosion 'a threat to food crops' - Independent Food crops could be ravaged this century by an explosion in the numbers of insect pests caused by rising global temperatures, according to scientists who have carried out an exhaustive survey of plant damage when the earth last experienced major climate change.	12th February 2008
Cities: A Smart Alternative to Cars - BusinessWeek Creating compact communities—and eliminating the need to drive everywhere - may be the best way to slash greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles See also: A climate for old men: Spearheading transit for livable cities at 93> - Gristmill	12th February 2008
EU Cities Commit to Climate Package, But Challenges Lay Ahead - Deutsche Welle Fighting global warming can happen one city at a time. This is the belief of those who signed up to the EU's new climate package. Now, those cities who pledged to slash their CO2 are facing the reality of their promise.	12th February 2008
King Penguins Declining Due to Global Warming - National Geographic Warming seas near Antarctica are making prey scarce for the large birds, which are forced to travel further distances to feed their chicks.	12th February 2008
Consumers must stop forest destruction - BBC News Some people may not sit so comfortably on their patio furniture if they knew where the wood came from, argues John Nelson. In this week's Green Room, he says the demand for wood products is threatening the long-term survival of communities around the globe.	12th February 2008
Sea Level Rise Could Be Twice As High As Current Predictions - Science Daily A comprehensive new study authored by University at Buffalo scientists and their colleagues for the first time documents in detail the dynamics of parts of Greenland's ice sheet, important data that have long been missing from the ice sheet models on which projections about sea level rise and global warming are based.	12th February 2008

Climate scientist they could not silence - Times Online Jim Hansen has long been a thorn in the side of the White House. Now he has a stark warning for Britain.	11th February 2008
Air district wants thousands of firms to pay fees based on greenhouse gases - Contra Costa Times In the first such program in California, and perhaps the United States, Bay Area air pollution regulators are proposing to charge an annual fee to thousands of businesses based on the amount of greenhouse gases they emit. The fee -- 4.2 cents per metric ton of carbon dioxide -- would affect everything from oil refineries to power plants, and landfills, factories and small businesses such as restaurants or bakeries.	11th February 2008
New Zealand can't become carbon neutral? - Scoop.co.nz The ideas that New Zealand cannot become carbon neutral and that carbon trading will push up the cost of pastoral farming are both total nonsense, according to farm business sustainability specialist Peter Floyd.	11th February 2008
Super-sized squid may be indicator of climate change - Eureka Times-Standard There's a new squid in town. Southern waters were once the domain of Humboldt squid, but over the course of decades the tentacular jumbos have been gradually ranging farther north.	11th February 2008
RIGHTS-BRAZIL: Pantanal Indians Threatened by Deforestation - IPS CAMPO GRANDE, Brazil, Feb 9 (Tierramérica) - The indigenous peoples of the central-western Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul do not look like the tribes portrayed in film, decked out in colourful clothing and adornments and depending on their natural surroundings to survive in the Amazon jungle. But some of their problems are similar to their Amazonian counterparts, and in some cases even more serious.	11th February 2008
China buys its future from Africa - Guardian Unlimited Limited by the West, the superpower is scouring the continent for raw materials, write Tim Webb and Nick Mathiason	11th February 2008
After US pulls plug, future unclear for 'clean coal' - PhysOrg The US government's decision to end funding for a "zero emissions" coal-fired power plant project has cast doubt over the future of "clean coal" to meet growing global energy needs.	11th February 2008
GM chief urges dealers to fight emissions caps - USA Today Rick Wagoner called on auto dealers to lobby against individual states trying to set their own limits on emissions.	11th February 2008
Can GM project produce ethanol at less than $1 a gallon? - Detroit News General Motors has decided that despite all the headlines about hybrids, battery power and fuel cells, ethanol provides the best way to curb carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the short term.	11th February 2008

Q&A: "You Can See the Whole Hemisphere Breathing" VANCOUVER, Feb 8 (IPS) - Dr. Ralph Keeling is a climate change expert who explores how rises in carbon dioxide influence global oxygen levels.	9th February 2008
Dependent on a Dirty Fuel - Washington Post German Coal Mines Thrive Despite Push for Cleaner Energy	9th February 2008
City's two-wheel transformation - Guardian Unlimited Livingstone's £400m plan maps out 12 bicycle 'motorways' At a cost of £400m, the 12 routes are intended to be the motorways of cycling and are likely to be emulated by other cities across the UK. Londoners without bikes will be able to use one of the city's free bicycles.	9th February 2008
Why the World Needs the Youth Vote - TIME In the 1960s and early '70s, civil rights and the Vietnam War were the defining issues on college campuses. In the 1980s, it was apartheid. Today, that issue is climate change — or at least it will be, if Eban Goodstein has anything to do about it.	9th February 2008
Sea change for energy generation - BBC News A new date has been picked to install the world's first turbine to create commercial amounts of electricity.	9th February 2008
Climate change affects Ugandan coffee output - Independent Online The temperature is rising a little too quickly in Uganda - and coffee farmers are getting worried. Growers say that global warming is damaging production of coffee, Uganda's biggest export. Ask coffee farmer Emmanuel Kawesi, who has a "feeling" about the impending danger. "It's hotter now - this is not usual,"	9th February 2008
Botanists see winter fading away in U.K. - PhysOrg Climate change is leading some British botanists to conclude that winter is disappearing as a distinct season in the United Kingdom.	9th February 2008
Hottest year on record for Shanghai in 2007: official media - PhysOrg Shanghai may have endured one of its coldest months ever in January but 2007 was the eastern Chinese city's hottest year on record, state press reported on Friday.	9th February 2008
SOUTHERN AFRICA: Thirty percent less maize by 2030 - AlertNet Source: IRIN As global warming pushes temperatures up and droughts become more intense, the production of maize, southern Africa's staple food, could drop by as much as 30 percent in another two decades, according to a new study.	9th February 2008
Federal Government Petitioned to Protect Pacific Walrus - Environment News Service The Pacific walrus is threatened by global warming and oil development throughout its range and needs the shelter of the federal Endangered Species Act, the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity warned today, filing a petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the walrus for protection.	9th February 2008
No climate for old men: Why John McCain isn't the candidate to stop global warming - HuffingtonPost McCain's astonishing doubletalk on climate in the Florida GOP debate -- denying that a cap and trade system is a mandate -- made me start rethinking what a McCain presidency would mean for the fight to prevent catastrophic global warming....	9th February 2008
Climate change hits world's poor - BBC News Eileen Clarkson, a mother of two from Glasgow who works for Oxfam, explains why her recent trip to Nicaragua convinced her that western countries have to take responsibility for the effects of climate change on the developing world.	9th February 2008
Studying rivers for clues to global carbon cycle - PhysOrg In the science world, in the media, and recently, in our daily lives, the debate continues over how carbon in the atmosphere is affecting global climate change. Studying just how carbon cycles throughout the Earth is an enormous challenge, but one Northwestern University professor is doing his part by studying one important segment -- rivers.	9th February 2008
Great Oreskes Lecture Updates State of Climate Change Denial - DeSmogBlog Polls show that between one-third and one-half of Americans still believe that there is "no solid" evidence of global warming, or that if warming is happening it can be attributed to natural variability. Others believe that scientists are still debating the point. Scientist and renowned historian Naomi Oreskes describes her investigation into the reasons for such widespread mistrust and misunderstanding of scientific consensus and probes the history of organized campaigns designed to create public doubt and confusion about science.*Thanks JM for the tip.	9th February 2008

Aircraft numbers may double by 2026 - Guardian Unlimited · Airbus warns that more runways are needed · Britain will be third-largest customer for new planes	8th February 2008
Why the price of 'peak oil' is famine - Daily Telegraph Vulnerable regions of the world face the risk of famine over the next three years as rising energy costs spill over into a food crunch, according to US investment bank Goldman Sachs.	8th February 2008
Study: Destroying native ecosystems for biofuel crops worsens global warming - PhysOrg Turning native ecosystems into “farms” for biofuel crops causes major carbon emissions that worsen the global warming that biofuels are meant to mitigate, according to a new study by the University of Minnesota and the Nature Conservancy. The work will be published in Science later this month and will be posted online Thursday, Feb. 7.	8th February 2008
Water meter call in drought areas - BBC News Water meters should be introduced in drought-hit parts of England to help save water, the environment secretary says.	8th February 2008
Office block warmed by body heat - BBC News Engineers in Sweden are using the body heat from train passengers to warm a new office building.	8th February 2008
ENERGY: Canada's Oil Sands a Political Hot Potato VANCOUVER, Feb 7 (IPS) - Alberta's Parkland Institute and the Polaris Institute have a released a report calling for an emergency strategic petroleum reserve for Canada, as well as for tougher policies to cut fossil fuel consumption and revise the country's oil export regime.	8th February 2008
Wind patterns could mask effects of global warming in ocean - PhysOrg Scientists at the University of Liverpool have found that natural variability in the earth`s atmosphere could be masking the overall effect of global warming in the North Atlantic Ocean. The research is published in journal Science.	8th February 2008
Kansas King Coal Funding Details Exposed - DeSmogBlog DeSmogBlog has just received the 2007 statement of political expenditures for a recently formed astroturf group calling themselves "Kansans for Affordable Energy" (KAE).The document is attached to the end of this post. According to the report, the KAE received $145,400 in total contributions. Of that amount, $120,000 came from the world's largest coal company, Peabody Energy and another $25,000 came from Sunflower Electric Power Corporation. In other words, all but $400 of the money provided to this group of Kansans "concerned" about "affordable energy" came from Big King Coal.An astroturf group if there ever was one.	8th February 2008
Deep thought - Feb 7 Energy Bulletin Hooked on growth: our misguided quest for prosperity Rolf Nordstrom discusses depletion scenarios Feeding people The big picture: climate chaos (Jamais Cascio) The organic apocalypse	8th February 2008
Age of "green economics" is upon us: UN - Reuters U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday the world is on the cusp of "the age of green economics" and called on nations to cooperate to fight global warming and promote the transformation.	8th February 2008
Ancient trees give clues to climate change - elEconomista.es Ancient trees give clues to climate changeelEconomista.es, Spain. Tree rings also provide a long-term perspective in the climate change debate, such as in the question of whether global warming is a result of human ...	8th February 2008
Google Says to Help Green Technologies Amass Scale - Planet Ark INDIAN WELLS, Calif. - Google Inc is prepared to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in big commercial alternative-energy projects that traditionally have had trouble getting financing, the executive in charge of its green-energy push said on Wednesday.	8th February 2008
New rules for front gardens to fight floods - Guardian Unlimited The government has declared war on the traditional right of homeowners to cover their front gardens with asphalt, as part of a drive to save water and reduce the risk of flooding	8th February 2008

Climate Code Red - Carbon Equity Climate policy is characterised by the habituation of low expectations and a culture of failure. There is an urgent need to understand global warming and the tipping points for dangerous impacts that we have already crossed as a sustainability emergency, that takes us beyond the politics of failure-inducing compromise. We are now in a race between climate tipping points and political tipping points. Read full report (.pdf)	7th February 2008

Canadian Wheat Inventories Decline as Weather Hurts Production - Bloomberg.com Feb. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Canada's wheat inventories at the end of 2007 dropped 30 percent from a year earlier after drought hurt crops in southern growing areas and cool, wet weather damaged plants in the north, a government survey showed.	6th February 2008
ENVIRONMENT-PERU: "For Sale" Signs in Amazon Jungle - IPS LIMA, Feb 5 (IPS) - The Peruvian Congress plans this week to debate a draft law pushed by the government that would authorise the sale of vast tracts of deforested, uncultivated land in the Amazon jungle to private companies that invest in "reforestation" efforts. See also: Indonesia: World eyes grand plan of payoffs to preserve trees, protect climate - CNews	6th February 2008
Study Suggests That, Unlike in the '70s, Energy Lessons Will Last - New York Times The oil shocks of the 1970s produced a flurry of attention to alternative sources of energy, but it faded once prices dropped in the mid-1980s. Now, with oil prices again high and climate change moving up the list of public concerns, interest in alternative energy is once again at fever pitch. Is history about to repeat itself? Not likely, according to a leading energy consulting firm. In a report scheduled for release Tuesday, the firm, Cambridge Energy Research Associates, concludes that multiple factors will continue pushing the world toward greater use of alternative energy sources like sun and wind power, regardless of what happens to oil prices.	6th February 2008
Calls for climate change minister - BBC News The Treasury Committee has called for a new ministerial post to co-ordinate the fight against global warming.	6th February 2008
Europe push for greener aviation Some of the biggest names in European aviation team up with the EU to develop cleaner aircraft.	6th February 2008
Climate Change Billions Not Going to Best Use - Planet Ark LONDON - Private sector billions being spent on the fight against climate change may be leaving a stocks boom-and-bust legacy as money pours into listed companies but leaves private entrepreneurs starved of cash.	6th February 2008

Climate set for 'sudden shifts' - BBC News Many climate systems will undergo a series of sudden shifts this century as a result of human-induced climate change.	5th February 2008
The great coal rush - and why it will fail - Energy Bulletin Richard Heinberg, Museletter / Global Public Media. The world appears poised for a headlong sprint toward greater dependence on coal. This book's purpose is to examine one crucial question that will shape this next great coal rush: How much is left?	5th February 2008
The great fuel folly - Guardian Unlimited Oil firms' output is down, yet profits skyrocket. It all points to the crisis predicted by the peakists. If the "peakists" are correct, and the oil establishment suddenly awakens to its dysfunctional culture of overoptimism, here is what is likely to happen. The oil and gas producers are going to start keeping what remains for themselves, in an effort to feed their own economies. Many countries would then face the threat of not having enough oil and gas to run the production processes needed to manufacture the low-carbon technologies that could replace oil and gas. Or, indeed, to feed themselves.	5th February 2008
UK 'set for early spring arrival' - BBC Researchers suggest spring is likely to arrive early in the UK.	5th February 2008
Lack of 'good ice' in winter stresses area's water levels - Toledo Blade Tthe Great Lakes, the region's greatest natural resource and the backbone of its economy, take a beating from these on-again, off-again winters.	5th February 2008
UK prepares new standard on carbon emissions - Food Production Daily CCFRA , the largest membership-based food and drink research centre in the world, is participating in the development and testing of the new standard in response to growing concerns about carbon emissions.	5th February 2008
Environment: There Are Green '08 Candidates, and Then There Are Some That Aren't ... at All - AlterNet Which candidates support nuclear and coal? Who's fighting climate change and supports renewables? Here's the scoop.	5th February 2008
Environment: Morgan Stanley: When Green Gets Sleazy - AlterNet High powered companies like Morgan Stanley are pushing a green image, but they're funding some of the worst environment projects.	5th February 2008
Leading Wall Street Banks Establish The Carbon Principles - Centre Daily Times Three of the world's leading financial institutions today announced the formation of The Carbon Principles, climate change guidelines for advisors and lenders to power companies in the United States. These Principles are the result of a nine-month intensive effort to create an approach to evaluating and addressing carbon risks in the financing of electric power projects. The need for these ...	5th February 2008
Bush is late and lame on global warming - International Herald Tribune Even allowing for the low expectations we bring to any lame-duck president's final State of the Union address, President George W. Bush's brief discussion of climate change seemed especially disconnected from reality: from the seriousness and urgency of the problem and from his own responsibility for obstructing progress.	5th February 2008
Scientific American Magazine: Unquiet Ice Speaks Volumes on Global Warming - Scientific American Abundant liquid water newly discovered underneath the world's great ice sheets could intensify the destabilizing effects of global warming on the sheets. Then, even without melting, the sheets may slide into the sea and raise sea level catastrophically	5th February 2008
ENVIRONMENT: Record Financing For Biofuels, Not Food - IPS Biofuels have quickly turned from environmental saviour to just another mega-scale get-rich quick scheme. Countries and regions without their own oil reserves to tap now see their farms, peatlands and forests as potential "oil fields" -- shallow but renewable lakes of green oil.	5th February 2008
Nuclear, coal and science get boost in Bush budget - Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Research into producing electricity from low-emission coal and nuclear plants saw big funding boosts in the 2009 budget request submitted by the U.S. Energy Department on Monday, along with experiments in basic energy sciences.	5th February 2008

Show me the - oil money - Gristmill Check out Follow the Oil Money, a tool from the Center for Responsive Politics. You can find out exactly how much oil money any politician is getting Here, for instance, is a chart of the presidential candidates -- it shows that Giuliani was clearly the biggest oil man. Website: Follow The Oil Money	4th February 2008
Climate change: Panic in the trenches - Tehran Times While the high-level climate talks pursue their stately progress towards some ill-defined destination, down in the trenches there is an undercurrent of suppressed panic in the conversations. The tipping points seem to be racing towards us a lot faster than people thought .	4th February 2008
National Geographic launches Six