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News Archive 2008 back to archive main page |
German Scientist Warns Climate Change Accelerating - Deutsche Welle ![[essential]](../images/redDot.gif) Climate change is happening more rapidly than anyone though possible, the German government's expert, Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, warned in an interview. See also: Report warns of 'rapid' sea-ice melt - The News Journal |
30th December 2008 |
| ENVIRONMENT-AUSTRALIA: Emissions Reduction Target 'Weak' MELBOURNE, Dec 30 (IPS) - The gap between the Rudd government's rhetoric and practice in addressing climate change, albeit with one eye on the worsening global financial conditions, has led to a palpable feeling of betrayal among Australians. |
30th December 2008 |
Next Year to Be Among World's Five Warmest on Record - Update1 - Bloomberg ![[canaries]](../images/canary.gif) Dec. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Next year will be one of the world's five warmest years in a century and a half of record-keeping, according to a forecast by the U.K. Met Office and the University of East Anglia. |
30th December 2008 |
| 'Huge year for natural disasters' - BBC News Losses from natural disasters rose by 50% in 2008, underlining need for action on climate change, re-insurers Munich Re say. See also: Natural disasters 'killed over 220,000' in 2008 |
30th December 2008 |
| NASA study links severe storm increases, global warming - Spaceflight Now The frequency of extremely high clouds in Earth's tropics -- the type associated with severe storms and rainfall -- is increasing as a result of global warming, according to a study by scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. |
30th December 2008 |
| Attorney general plans crackdown on climate change protests - Guardian Unlimited Attorney general plans crackdown on climate change protests |
30th December 2008 |
Food needs 'fundamental rethink' - BBC ![[food]](../images/food.gif) A sustainable global food system in the 21st Century needs to be built on a series of "new fundamentals", a leading food expert says. |
30th December 2008 |
Calls for 'speed-limiting' cars - BBC News ![[hopeful]](../images/greenDot.gif) UK Government transport advisers want voluntary speed-limiting devices fitted to cars to help save lives and cut emissions. |
30th December 2008 |
| Green fuel technologies pick up speed in 2008 - New Scientist As Obama prepares to green the US, we take a look at the new technologies that may help – from super batteries to oil-cleaning fungi |
30th December 2008 |
| Green Goal of 'Carbon Neutrality' Hits Limit - WSJ ROUND ROCK, Texas -- Computer giant Dell Inc. said this summer that it has become "carbon neutral," the latest step in its quest to be "the greenest technology company on the planet." What that means, and what it doesn't, may surprise Dell customers and other consumers who have been bombarded with bold environmental promises from major corporations. |
30th December 2008 |
| Canada's Kyotoplus Campaign - Green Muze KYOTOplus is a joint project from a number of Canadian public interest groups designed to mobilize public support for action on climate change. |
30th December 2008 |
| Erratic weather 'harms wildlife' - BBC News Birds, mammals and insects are struggling to cope with unseasonal weather in the UK, the National Trust says. |
27th December 2008 |
| Sierra Warming: Later snow, earlier melt: High anxiety - Merced Sun-Star Sierra Warming: Not only are warmer temperatures thawing that mountain snow sooner, they are changing the nature of the precipitation as it falls – turning more Sierra snowflakes to sleet, slush and rain. Now 10 percent smaller than a century ago, the Sierra snowpack is expected to retreat dramatically in coming decades, posing major challenges for water managers and the climate-dependent ski industry. |
27th December 2008 |
| Minnesota's iconic moose are dying off - Hartford Courant It wasn't long ago that thousands of moose roamed the gentle terrain of northwestern Minnesota, affirming the iconic status of the antlered, bony-kneed beast from the North Woods. In just two decades, though, their numbers have plummeted, from 4,000 to fewer than a hundred. They didn't move away. They just died. The primary culprit in what is known as the moose mystery, scientists say, is climate change, which has systematically reduced the Midwest's already dwindling moose population and provoked alarm in Minnesota, where wildlife specialists gathered for a "moose summit" this month in Duluth. |
27th December 2008 |
| It's 'attack of the slime' as jellyfish jeopardize the Earth's oceans - Globe and Mail It has been dubbed the "rise of slime." Massive swarms of jellyfish are blooming from the tropics to the Arctic, from Peru to Namibia to the Black Sea to Japan, closing beaches and wiping out fish, either by devouring their eggs and larvae, or out-competing them for food. To draw attention to the spread of "jellytoriums," the National Science Foundation in the U.S. has produced a report documenting that the most severe damage is to fish: In the Sea of Japan, for example, schools of Nomurai jellyfish - 500 million strong and each more than two metres in diameter - are clogging fishing nets, killing fish and accounting for at least $20-million in losses. The Black Sea has suffered $350-million in losses. A region of the Bering Sea is so full of jellies that it was nicknamed "Slime Bank." |
27th December 2008 |
| The Gas Tax - New York Times If the Obama administration is to meet its twin objectives of reducing the consumption of foreign oil and cutting emissions, it needs to curb the nation?s demand for energy. |
27th December 2008 |
| The war on carbon - Times Online Arguments of 2009: Can Copenhagen save the planet? At the last full-scale United Nations conference on global warming, in Bali, the man in charge broke down and wept. American opposition to mandatory carbon cuts had been implacable. |
27th December 2008 |
| SOUTHERN AFRICA: Climate change threatens livelihoods LILONGWE, Dec 26 (IPS) - Climate change will affect the Zambezi River basin more severely than any other river system in the world, according to Kenneth Msibi, Water Policy and Strategy Expert for the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Increased floods, drought and increased levels of disease threaten lives and livelihoods all along the river's length. |
27th December 2008 |
| The electric car that can break the speed limit signals a new road order - Independent Forget milk float. Forget golf buggy. The tarnished image of the electric car is about to be smartened up. The first proper-performance, four-seater electric car from a major manufacturer is about to be launched on the UK market. |
27th December 2008 |
| Eurosceptic becomes EU President - BBC News Eurosceptic Czech President Vaclav Klaus takes on the role as EU leader on January 1st. |
27th December 2008 |
| Kelp-fuel cars on the horizon in Scotland - Guardian Unlimited Motorists may soon be driving cars powered by kelp and algae after scientists in Scotland and Ireland won European funding today for a new research project to create "mari-fuels" - the marine equivalent to plant-based biofuels. |
27th December 2008 |
| it's wise strategically to hold something in reserve - Telegraph-Journal What's a billion? What's a trillion? What's US$8.7 trillion? What's $10.3 trillion? James Bianco, president Chicago-based Bianco Research Inc., provides specific answers to each of these questions - helping, in the process, to make these numbers comprehensible. |
27th December 2008 |
| For the mega rich: a refrigerated beach - The Christian Science Monitor Oh, Dubai. Home to petro-billionaires. Vacation spot for the stars. And soon, location of the world's first refrigerated beach. Palazzo Versace announced last week that its next ultra-posh hotel will offer guests a taste of Dubai without the blazing heat. |
25th December 2008 |
| How desperate are climate scientists - Gristmill By Joseph Romm [I think that as a climate-saving strategy geo-engineering is somewhere between a dead end and a hoax -- why would you choose chemotherapy that might make you sicker if your doctors told you diet and exercise would definitely work (see "Geo-engineering remains a bad idea" and "Geo-engineering is not the answer")? The likely new science advisor, John Holdren, has written, "The 'geo-engineering' approaches considered so far appear to be afflicted with some combination of high costs, low leverage, and a high likelihood of serious side effects (PDF)." And the new head of NOAA is someone "who would put oceans first," whereas absent a successful effort to stabilize at 450 ppm or below, most geo-engineering schemes would put oceans last, leaving them acidified and inhospitable to most current ocean life, possibly for hundreds of years. |
25th December 2008 |
| The Paranoia Squad - Monbiot A British police unit is demonising peaceful protesters to stay in business. |
25th December 2008 |
| Ambitious climate goals make economic sense - New Scientist Despite the global economic downturn, spending money now to keep global warming in check makes sense as it will save us money |
25th December 2008 |
| Climate change could one day doom "white Christmas" - Reuters BERLIN (Reuters) - The odds of a "white Christmas" in temperate parts of the northern hemisphere have diminished in the last century due to climate change and will likely decline further by 2100, climate and meteorology experts said. |
25th December 2008 |
| Melting Yosemite glacier an omen - Modesto Bee YOSEMITE -- As melting water gushed off the ice in a tinseled maze of rivulets and tumbled through a gaping chasm, the hikers watched, wondered and worried. |
25th December 2008 |
| Shaun Spiers Challenged This is the third of my investigative interviews with policy makers. |
25th December 2008 |
| Peak oil - Dec 23 Energy Investment, Energy Return (Jim Hansen and Charlie Hall)The American Muslim: The end of the world as we know it?The Coming Oil Train Wreck read more |
25th December 2008 |
| A Price On Carbon Not Enough To Save Rainforests - Science Daily Including carbon emissions from tropical deforestation in a future international climate regime will not suffice to protect the world's remaining tropical forests from expanding palm oil plantations. |
25th December 2008 |
| First U.S. offshore wind farm project moves forward BOSTON (Reuters) - A plan to build the United States' first offshore wind farm took another step forward on Tuesday, after the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection approved its proposed undersea cables to transmit power to the mainland. |
25th December 2008 |
| A record year - Nature 2008 went down as the coolest year of the current decade, if still the tenth warmest since instrumental measurements began in 1850. But the past 12 months have done little to cool concerns over the forecast for climate change. If anything, the science that has emerged this year paints a far bleaker picture than the landmark reports released in 2007 from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. |
25th December 2008 |
| CLIMATE CHANGE: Arctic Peoples Claim Their Right to Cold Temperatures QUEBEC CITY, Dec 24 (Tierramérica) - "Terrifying" is the word that best describes the situation of a hunter who is lost on shifting ice, or of the homeowner whose house splits in two when its foundation sinks, says Canadian indigenous leader Mary Simon when asked about the effects of global warming on the Inuit people. |
25th December 2008 |
| Opinion: Save the Planet from Capitalism - Circle Opinion: Save the Planet from CapitalismCircle, MN. Global warming is generating abrupt changes in the weather: the retreat of of diseases in areas that before were free from those diseases. ... |
25th December 2008 |
| Fix For Global Warming? Scientists Propose Covering Deserts With ... - Science Daily Fix For Global Warming? Scientists Propose Covering Deserts With ...Science Daily (press release). 23, 2008) - A radical plan to curb global warming and so reverse the climate change caused by our rampant burning of fossil fuels since the industrial ... |
25th December 2008 |
| Losing paradise - International Herald Tribune Losing paradiseInternational Herald Tribune, France. I am talking about climate change and rising sea levels. Looking out from my office window, it is difficult to believe that this view may someday disappear. ... |
25th December 2008 |
| Economics - Dec 24 Kurt Cobb: Energy and moneyPaul Krugman: Life without bubblesGloomy economy fails to curb Green enthusiasmAmbitious climate goals make economic sense read more |
25th December 2008 |
| Potluck - Dec 24 Vancouver mayor promises action on peak oilThe year 2008 in photographs Sarkozy fears spectre of 1968 haunting EuropeNew York Times beefs up environment coverageScientists find increased methane levels in Arctic Ocean read more |
25th December 2008 |
| Leading article: Obama's green machine The latest appointments to Barack Obama's administration are significant for a host of reasons. But perhaps most significant is what they tell us about the environmental priorities of the incoming American President: Mr Obama is deadly serious about facing up to the challenge of climate change. |
22nd December 2008 |
| Those Kingsnorth police injuries in full: six insect bites and a toothache - Guardian Unlimited When climate camp protesters descended on the site of the Kingsnorth power station for a week-long summer demonstration, the scale of the police operation to cope with them was enormous. Police were accused of using aggressive tactics, confiscating everything from toilet rolls and board games to generators and hammers. But ministers justified what they called the "proportionate" £5.9m cost ... |
22nd December 2008 |
| Facts melted by 'global warming' - Telegraph.co.uk Facts melted by 'global warming'Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom - 2 hours agoA local spokeswoman helpfully suggested that the thing about "climate change" was that it was always coming up with the unexpected. ... |
22nd December 2008 |
| Gloomy economy fails to curb Green enthusiasm - Globe and Mail Gloomy economy fails to curb Green enthusiasmGlobe and Mail, Canada. As well, two thirds of respondents disagreed when asked if “governments in Canada should cut back on efforts to tackle global warming because of the current ... |
22nd December 2008 |
| Water vapor's effects on atmosphere are debated - McClatchy Newspapers via Yahoo! News WASHINGTON - Ron Ace's idea to cool the planet by evaporating water could provoke controversy because it collides head-on with a concern of environmental scientists: that water vapor is a potent greenhouse gas. |
22nd December 2008 |
| The Big Ask: "Act Now!" on global warming [video] This video is well done. Help spread the message by emailing it on to your friends and family. <!--break--> |
22nd December 2008 |
| When Science Fiction Morphed Into Politics - New York Times The death of Michael Crichton gives us the opportunity to re-evaluate his role in nourishing the sceptics. | 9th November 2008 |
| Which way to a sustainable future? - Green Left Weekly Review: “Now Or Never” By Tim Flannery.“Now or Never” surveys the technology available now to move away from the use of fossil fuels and begin the necessary task of cooling the planet. The massive potential of geothermal power in Australia is explained. The hot rocks in the Cooper Basin in South Australia alone have the potential to supply cheap, renewable, emissions-free energy to all of Australia. Flannery also outlines the changes that could rapidly be made to agriculture in order to both increase food yields and recapture increasingly large amounts of carbon in the soil. | 9th November 2008 |
| The environment: Green giant step for mankind - Scotsman The clue to its ambition is in the name. Barack Obama says his No 1 priority on getting into the Oval Office will be something he calls "the Apollo project". By giving his plans for a green energy revolution, the same name as Nasa's programme to put a man on the moon, he has shown the importance he attaches to it, and signalled the amount of effort and vision it will require to work. | 9th November 2008 |
| OUR COMMON CAUSE Ten steps to stop climate change - Green Left Weekly Australia: The latest reports by climate scientists, which reveal that global warming is taking place at a faster pace then first thought, indicate that the Socialist Alliance climate change charter, produced for last year’s federal election, is now out of date. | 9th November 2008 |
| For more news, click here >> News from previous days is below | |
| Revised Theory Suggests Carbon Dioxide Levels Already In Danger Zone - Medical News Today If climate disasters are to be averted, atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) must be reduced below the levels that already exist today, according to a study published in Open Atmospheric Science Journal by a group of 10 scientists from the United States, the United Kingdom and France. | 8th November 2008 |
| World needs climate emergency backup plan, says expert - PhysOrg In submitted testimony to the British Parliament, climate scientist Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution said that while steep cuts in carbon emissions are essential to stabilizing global climate, there also needs to be a backup plan. Geoengineering solutions such as injecting dust into the atmosphere are risky, but may become necessary if emissions cuts are insufficient to stave off catastrophic warming. He urged that research into the pros and cons of geoengineering be made a high priority. | 8th November 2008 |
| The coming IEA report - Energy Bulletin IEA's World Energy Report 2008 (PDF) - executive summary now online The world’s energy system is at a crossroads. Current global trends in energy supply and consumption are patently unsustainable — environmentally, economically, socially. But that can — and must — be altered; there’s still time to change the road we’re on. It is not an exaggeration to claim that the future of human prosperity depends on how successfully we tackle the two central energy challenges facing us today: securing the supply of reliable and affordable energy; and effecting a rapid transformation to a low-carbon, efficient and environmentally benign system of energy supply. What is needed is nothing short of an energy revolution. This World Energy Outlook demonstrates how that might be achieved through decisive policy action and at what cost. It also describes the consequences of failure. | 8th November 2008 |
| Michael Pollan: Eating Is a Political Act - Alternet Michael Pollan discusses food production, consumer choices, the future of organics and climate change. | 8th November 2008 |
| Calif. drought forces cattle ranchers to downsize - AP via Yahoo! News USA: California's worst drought in decades is forcing the state's cattle ranchers to downsize their herds because two years of poor rainfall have ravaged millions of acres of rangeland used to feed their cows and calves. The parched, yellow pastures on Joe Gonzales' cattle ranch attest to the severity of a dry spell that is devastating the economic fortunes of many of the state's beef producers. Gonzales, who normally runs 500 cows on his 2,000-acre spread about 30 miles south of San Jose, cut his herd by half over the past year and may have to sell more if the drought persists. | 8th November 2008 |
| Is It Time to Kill Off the Flush Toilet? - Time Magazine At the 2008 World Toilet Summit and Expo in Macau, the common Western toilet, whose design hasn't changed much since the sixteenth century, comes under fire for failing the green test. "The human body is designed to separate solids from liquid waste," and we should follow suit, he says. By separating fecal matter from urine at the source in what's called a "urine diversion toilet," a wider ecological system of waste disposal becomes possible. Solids can be composted for fertilizer and harvested for methane gas. Urine can be used to produce phosphorous and nitrogen and clean, drinkable water. | 8th November 2008 |
| DAVID SUZUKI: The answer is blowing in the wind - Victoria News Energy underpins everything we do. Human societies have become increasingly complex, requiring ever larger-scale sources of continuous energy. Now, energy fuels not only our activities but our economies as well. If we don't choose our energy sources wisely, we can do more harm than good. | 8th November 2008 |
| 100 percent renewables in 10 years - Gristmill Following up on Wednesday's "Now what?" ads, the Alliance for Climate Protection has launched a new website, RepowerAmerica.org, calling for 100 percent of U.S. electricity to be drawn from renewable sources within the next 10 years. | 8th November 2008 |
| Is Arnie's green revolution on its way to the White House? - vnunet.com Rumours circulating that Governor Schwarzenegger could be offered energy secretary post in Obama administration Having already modelled many of his energy and climate change proposals on those pioneered by California, US president-elect Barack Obama is now reportedly considering asking the state's governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, to take on the role of managing US energy policy. | 8th November 2008 |
| MEPs in Moscow for talks on climate change - Environmental Expert A nine-strong delegation of MEPs from the temporary Committee on Climate Change held talks with Russian MPs, members of the Russian government and NGOs in Moscow from 27-29 October, to explore attitudes towards a possible Kyoto deal. | 8th November 2008 |
| Obama climate policy caught in Democratic tussle - PhysOrg (AP) -- A fight within the Democratic Party over control of the House Energy and Commerce Committee could influence the outcome of President-elect Obama's efforts to limit the heat-trapping gases blamed for global warming. | 8th November 2008 |
| BP quits contest to build emissions plant - Financial Times BP has pulled out of the UK government's competition to build a prototype power station that will capture and store its carbon dioxide emissions, in a setback to plans to develop technologies for cutting the output of greenhouse gases while continuing to use fossil fuels. | 8th November 2008 |
| Energy Agency warns of 6°C rise in temperatures - New Scientist The International Energy Agency says that our rate of oil consumption could result in temperature rises that are more than the environment can cope with | 7th November 2008 |
| EU global warming limit may not be possible: IEA - Reuters LONDON (Reuters) - A European Union target to limit warming of the planet to no more than 2 degrees Celsius may not be technically achievable, the International Energy Agency said in a report to be published next week. | 7th November 2008 |
| The slippery business of palm oil - Guardian Palm oil is used in a third of all foods. But can it ever be produced without causing environmental devastation as some big companies are promising? | 7th November 2008 |
| Global warming may hasten carbon release from world's peat bogs - Fresh News A new analysis has determined that billions of tons of carbon sequestered in the world’s peat bogs could be released into the atmosphere in the coming decades as a result of global warming. | 7th November 2008 |
| Newspapers neglect food impact on climate - Earth & Sky In recent years, scientists have estimated that agricultural activities – including livestock production and clearing land for farming – contribute 30 percent of the greenhouse gases now warming our planet. But a new study shows that you wouldn’t know it from reading the newspapers. Out of 4,582 climate change articles, we found that only 109 even mentioned food and agriculture contributions to climate change. That’s 2.4 percent. | 7th November 2008 |
| 'Unprecedented' warming drives dramatic ecosystem shifts in North Atlantic - PhysOrg (PhysOrg.com) -- While the planet has experienced numerous changes in climate over the past 65 million years, the most significant climate change of the last 5,000 years has been in recent decades. That change is global warming. | 7th November 2008 |
| Turtles alter nesting dates due to temperature change - PhysOrg Turtles nesting along the Mississippi River and other areas are altering their nesting dates in response to rising temperatures, says a researcher from Iowa State University. | 7th November 2008 |
| Al Gore Group Urges Obama To Create US Power Grid - Planet Ark WASHINGTON - Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection has some environmental advice for the incoming Obama administration: focus on energy efficiency and renewable resources, and create a unified US power grid. See also Yes we can... build the smart grid - Independent | 7th November 2008 |
| Portable Power: Tiny Solar Cells Show Promise - Planet Ark CHICAGO - Researchers have developed some of the tiniest solar cells ever made and said on Thursday the organic material could potentially be painted on to surfaces. | 7th November 2008 |
| China set to take the initiative in climate talks - Reuters BEIJING (Reuters) - China is seeking to seize the initiative in talks on cutting the world's greenhouse gas pollution, pressing rich nations even as global financial turmoil and Barack Obama's victory recast climate change diplomacy. See also: Rich nations should ditch 'unsustainable' lifestyles: China's Wen - AFP Tax polluters for global warming funds-UN official - Reuters AlertNet | 7th November 2008 |
| Ecologists use oceanographic data to predict future climate change - PhysOrg Earth scientists are attempting to predict the future impacts of climate change by reconstructing the past behavior of Arctic climate and ocean circulation. In a November special issue of the journal Ecology, a group of scientists report that if current patterns of change in the Arctic and North Atlantic Oceans continue, alterations of ocean circulation could occur on a global scale, with potentially dramatic implications for the world's climate and biosphere. | 7th November 2008 |
| Monsoon link to fall of dynasties - BBC News The demise of some of China's ruling dynasties was linked to changes in the strength of monsoon rains, a study suggests. Scientists say the natural archive shows that climate change can have devastating effects on local populations - even when this change is mild when averaged across the globe. | 7th November 2008 |
| The Climate Change Trap - Forbes How carbon emissions could turn into a "Hillary Care" fiasco for the new administration. | 7th November 2008 |
| Obama triggers first environmental dividend - DeSmogBlog Canada moves to protect U.S. market for dirty oil The world enjoyed the first environmental dividend of an Obama presidency yesterday when a worried Canadian government proposed a joint North American action plan to address climate change. Although it appeared that Canada's real goal was to ensure a continued U.S. market for its huge dirty-fuel tar sands project, this could still be a solid step toward a continental cap-and-trade program - which would be the first significant gesture from the world region that, so far, has been the least responsible in its approach to global warming. | 7th November 2008 |
| The damage has already been done - Mail and Guardian It is already too late to reverse the damage humans have done to the environment, says Mozambican scientist Filipe Lucio. | 7th November 2008 |
| Indian temperature rise 'will exceed projected rainfall' - SciDev.net The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has projected India will become hotter and wetter by the end of the century due to global warming (see India predicts suffering from climate change). But Krishna Kumar cautions that the expected benefits of rainfall "will be nullified" by the rise in temperature; and higher day and night temperatures over the country will impact its crops, water resources, ground water supplies and health issues such as heat stroke and extension of malaria-prone areas. | 7th November 2008 |
| Obama May Put Renewable-Energy Plan Ahead of Climate Package - Bloomberg Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) -- President-elect Barack Obama may pursue legislation early next year to speed a transition to an economy fueled by renewable energy sources and delay a fight on climate change until the economy improves. See also: Under Obama, Dark Days Seen Ahead For Fossil Fuels - CNNMoney.com | 6th November 2008 |
| President Obama's Big Climate Challenge - AlterNet The bills are coming due. And not just from a failed Bush presidency, but the bills from 200 years of burning fossil fuel. See also: Will Obama Be the Leader We Need on Climate Change? | 6th November 2008 |
| Infrastructure 'hit by climate change' - Sydney Morning Herald All forms of infrastructure in Australia including electricity, dams, roads and even footpaths will be severely affected by climate change, a new report has found. | 6th November 2008 |
| Manx sea water temperature rises - BBC News A report on the quality of sea water around the Isle of Man shows its temperature has risen by one degree. | 6th November 2008 |
| Lemmings in Norway hit by global warming - Reuters OSLO (Reuters) - Lemming numbers are dwindling in Norway because of climate change, ending a historic cycle of population booms and busts that inspired a myth of mass suicides by the rodents, scientists said on Wednesday. | 6th November 2008 |
| Climate may force pandas to move - BBC News Climate change could force pandas to move to different parts of China as bamboo growth patterns shift. | 6th November 2008 |
| Extreme weather postpones the flowering time of plants - PhysOrg Extreme weather events have a greater effect on flora than previously presumed. A one-month drought postpones the time of flowering of grassland and heathland plants in Central Europe by an average of 4 days. With this a so-called 100-year drought event equates to approx. a decade of global warming. | 6th November 2008 |
| Little bugs, lots of sun, make great deal for one lucky business interested in alternative energy - Observer The New Jersey Meadowlands Commission is getting even more inventive with their use of Kearny's landfills. Ever since 1987, the Commission has been successfully converting methane gas into energy on neglected landfills throughout the meadowlands. | 6th November 2008 |
| A green lesson from Iceland - The Christian Science Monitor Since the 1970s, Iceland has gone from relying on imported coal for 75 percent of its energy to getting more than 82 percent of its energy from geothermal and hydro power. | 6th November 2008 |
| Rocks could be harnessed to sponge vast amounts of CO2 from air, says study - PhysOrg Scientists say that a type of rock found at or near the surface in the Mideast nation of Oman and other areas around the world could be harnessed to soak up huge quantities of globe-warming carbon dioxide. Their studies show that the rock, known as peridotite, reacts naturally at surprisingly high rates with CO2 to form solid minerals - and that the process could be speeded a million times or more with simple drilling and injection methods. The study appears in this week's early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. | 6th November 2008 |
| Californians reject renewable power measure - Reuters LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A California ballot measure that called for a dramatic increase in the share of renewable power to half of electricity generation by 2025 appeared headed for defeat on Tuesday night. | 6th November 2008 |
| Lack of political will slowing Europe's renewables revolution, engineers say - Guardian Unlimited Leading European engineers say governments are slow to pass legislation that will implement renewable energy technology that is already available. | 6th November 2008 |
| Canada to seek climate deal with Obama - CNews OTTAWA - Canada hopes to negotiate a North American climate-change deal with U.S. president-elect Barack Obama and will begin working on the file within weeks, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said Wednesday. | 6th November 2008 |
| In hot water - Nature The ocean's enormous capacity for soaking up greenhouse gases has gone some way toward softening the blow of escalating emissions; over the last century, the upper ocean has soaked up over 500 billion tonnes of fossil fuel carbon. But in acting as a buffer for the planet, the ocean itself has begun to suffer. Some of the harm is obvious; some is more obscure. Most notably, the seas are warming, having taken up around 20 times more heat than the atmosphere since 1960. For some time, it has been realized that the ocean will also become more acidic in a carbon-rich world. Now studies show it will become saltier and, rather surprisingly, noisier too. If, as predicted under some scenarios, the ocean's pH drops 0.3 units from its current value of 8.1 units by 2050, sound waves at one kilohertz and below could travel up to 70 per cent further underwater. | 5th November 2008 |
| The end is nigh - Gristmill Geologists predict that oil production will decline within a decade. | 5th November 2008 |
| Companies regulating carbon emissions create business opportunities: Survey - Canada.com Canada's largest companies are starting to report more business opportunities than risks as a result of emerging regulations to address the greenhouse gas emissions linked to global warming, a new international study has revealed. | 5th November 2008 |
| David Suzuki: renewable energy requires strength of will - Georgia Straight Energy underpins everything we do. Human societies have become increasingly complex, requiring ever larger-scale sources of continuous energy. Now, energy fuels not only our activities but our economies as well. If we don’t choose our energy sources wisely, we can do more harm than good. Non-renewable energy sources such as fossil and nuclear fuels are not sustainable and have also taught us that technological advances often come at great cost. These fuels can never be a long-term solution because they will run out. They also create emissions that pollute our air, water, and soil, and contribute to global warming or long-term radioactive-waste problems. Renewable energy sources will not run out, and they don’t cause the same kinds of environmental problems as non-renewable sources. But that doesn’t mean we should adopt renewable energy without any forethought. Biofuels can create problems if fuel production comes at the expense of food production. And wind power, if not properly planned and sited, can harm birds and bats (although Danish studies of 10,000 bird kills revealed that almost all died in collisions with buildings, cars, and wires; only 10 were killed by windmills). | 5th November 2008 |
| The need for speed - Gristmill Hansen et al: We must phase-out coal emissions by 2030 and stabilize at or below 350 ppm. In a few days, James Hansen and several other leading climate scientists will release a major new study, "Target Atmospheric CO2: Where Should Humanity Aim?" in the Open Atmospheric Sciences Journal. You can read a first draft of the study and my commentary on it here: Hansen (et al) ultimatum: Get back to 350 ppm or risk an ice-free planet. Hansen has just put online a draft press release and FAQ. | 4th November 2008 |
| Global warming pollution up 3 percent; surpassing dire predictions - The Chesapeake Bay Journal The world pumped up its pollution of the chief man-made global warming gas last year, setting a course that could push beyond leading scientists' projected worst-case scenario, international researchers said in September. | 4th November 2008 |
| Drought land 'will be abandoned' - Guardian Unlimited Parts of the world may have to be abandoned because severe water shortages will leave them uninhabitable, the United Nations environment chief has warned. Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environment Programme, said water shortages caused by over-use of rivers and aquifers were already leading to serious problems, even in rich nations. With climate change expected to reduce rainfall in some places and cause droughts in others, some regions could become 'economic deserts', unviable for people or agriculture, he said. | 4th November 2008 |
| ENERGY-EU: Zero Carbon Communities - IPS MOURA, Portugal, Nov 3 (IPS) - This small municipality in the south of Portugal is becoming increasingly well-known for its alternative energy initiatives. The latest is the Sunflower project, which also involves communities in seven other European Union countries. The aim of the project is to transform communities in Bulgaria, Britain, the Czech Republic, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain into what the EU’s Intelligent Energy - Europe programme (IEE) calls a "Zero Carbon Community." The IEE seeks to convert the communities into areas free of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, where only renewable energies are used. | 4th November 2008 |
| Quebec greenhouse gas emissions drop - Montreal Gazette Quebec's greenhouse gas emissions have dropped for the fourth year in a row, the Ministry of the Environment announced Monday. | 4th November 2008 |
| Coating helps solar panels soak up more of the sun - Reuters CHICAGO (Reuters) - A new type of reflective coating can make solar panels far more efficient, soaking up nearly all available sunlight from nearly any angle, U.S. researchers said on Monday. | 4th November 2008 |
| Scientists discover Patagonian diesel that grows on trees - Guardian Unlimited A tree fungus could provide green fuel that can be pumped directly into vehicle tanks, US scientists say. The organism, found in the Patagonian rainforest, naturally produces a mixture of chemicals that is remarkably similar to diesel. "This is the only organism that has ever been shown to produce such an important combination of fuel substances," said Gary Strobel, a plant scientist from ... | 4th November 2008 |
| Manipulative COMPAS poll bolsters skeptics' position - DeSmogBlog A COMPAS poll (attached) sponsored by the neo-con Frontier Centre for Public Policy offers an embarrassing example of a survey that sacrifices the discovery of new information in favour of eliciting specific answers for later use in building a political case.This poll appears to have been designed to promote the phony debate over whether human activity causes climate change - a debate long since settled in science, but still raging in the media.The poll begins with this question:Politicians talk about spending billions to fight carbon gases and also about higher taxes on gasoline and heating oil. | 4th November 2008 |
| Britain and Abu Dhabi to sign clean energy accord - Reuters ABU DHABI (Reuters) - Britain and an Abu Dhabi renewable energy company are to sign an agreement to cooperate on clean energy technologies, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Monday. | 4th November 2008 |
| In Bush's end-game, lots of changes on environment - Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As the U.S. presidential candidates sprint toward the finish line, the Bush administration is also sprinting to enact environmental policy changes before leaving power. Whether it's getting wolves off the Endangered Species List, allowing power plants to operate near national parks, loosening regulations for factory farm waste or making it easier for mountaintop coal-mining operations, these proposed changes have found little favor with environmental groups. The one change most environmentalists want, a mandatory program to cut climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions, is not among these so-called "midnight regulations." | 3rd November 2008 |
| Chilean glacier will vanish in 50 years: study - PhysOrg Chile's official water authority warned Saturday that the Echaurren glacier near Santiago, which supplies the capital with 70 percent of its water needs, could disappear in the next half century. | 3rd November 2008 |
| Drought, climate change double whammy for farmers - Queensland Country Life The release of Treasury economic modelling on climate change mitigation and the Productivity Commission's report on drought and climate change adaptation highlight the double challenge facing farmers, according to the Queensland Farmers' Federation. | 3rd November 2008 |
| Will cheaper gas nix energy reforms? - The Christian Science Monitor via Yahoo! News Watching the recent gasoline price drops, former CIA director Jim Woolsey, now a McCain energy adviser, says he is reminded of similar price-cutting tactics by Saudi Arabia and OPEC in the 1980s and 1990s in the face of US government attempts to ease dependence on foreign oil. Both candidates' plans pose a significant strategic threat to oil producers, he says, because they focus on tax breaks for hybrid and plug-in vehicles that would gradually move consumers from liquid fuels onto the national power grid. "I don't think oil could get down to $10, $20, or $30 [per barrel], but [oil producers] would be giving alternative fuels a difficult time with their ability to manipulate the market," says Mr. Woolsey. "But there is no way that the Saudis or any other oil producer can come close to competing with electricity." | 3rd November 2008 |
| Save the planet: Get on the bus - The Spokesman Review Save the planet: Get on the busThe Spokesman Review, WA. Using mass transit is the single biggest thing the average person can do to slow global warming, a national leader in public transportation said in Spokane last week. | 3rd November 2008 |
| FAQ on climate models - RealClimate We discuss climate models a lot, and from the comments here and in other forums it's clear that there remains a great deal of confusion about what climate models do and how their results should be interpreted. This post is designed to be a FAQ for climate model questions - of which a few are already given. If you have comments or other questions, ask them as concisely as possible in the comment section and if they are of enough interest, we'll add them to the post so that we can have a resource for future discussions. (We would ask that you please focus on real questions that have real answers and, as always, avoid rhetorical excesses). | 3rd November 2008 |
| Dried mushrooms slow climate warming in Northern forests - PhysOrg The fight against climate warming has an unexpected ally in mushrooms growing in dry spruce forests covering Alaska, Canada, Scandinavia and other northern regions, a new UC Irvine study finds. When soil in these forests is warmed, fungi that feed on dead plant material dry out and produce significantly less climate-warming carbon dioxide than fungi in cooler, wetter soil. This came as a surprise to scientists, who expected warmer soil to emit larger amounts of carbon dioxide because extreme cold is believed to slow down the process by which fungi convert soil carbon into carbon dioxide. Knowing how forests cycle carbon is crucial to accurately predicting global climate warming, which in turn guides public policy to curb greenhouse gas emissions. This is especially important in northern forests, which contain an estimated 30 percent of the Earth's soil carbon, equivalent to the amount of atmospheric carbon. | 3rd November 2008 |
| Doing well by clearing the air - CNN Money Investing in carbon credits takes an appetite for risk and complexity. But this market is doing much better than most. | 3rd November 2008 |
| The Art and the Urgency of Measuring Your Carbon Footprint - GreenBiz PODCAST: George Ahn, president and CEO of Tririga, talks about the importance and the challenges of measuring carbon footprints - and why businesses large and small should act now. | 3rd November 2008 |
| US vote: 'change, global warming' top campaign buzzwords - Hindu US vote: 'Change', 'climate change' and 'gasoline' have been named the top political buzzwords of the US Presidential Campaign, with the phrase 'financial meltdown' also finding a place in the list of 30. | 3rd November 2008 |
| The Psychology of Denial in the Age of Consumerism - MWC News In our society we use material goods and social roles to cover up the black hole of grief. By surrounding ourselves with pretty and expensive things we tell everyone else that we are really OK. This is, so I learn from my clients, the major cause of going shopping, going on buying sprees and being consumers. We have come to believe that bright new things will fill the empty spaces inside. This seems to be why we cannot really confront the devil of global warming that is being fed by every dollar we spend. For our own safety as a species we should all be consuming less and sharing more and striving to make life simple, whereas we are literally hell-bent on getting the most while we still can. The hound sitting in the kennel of our emptiness makes it too hard for us to look at the truth and change our ways. We cannot alter the terminal path we are on, because to do so would expose our deepest fears that underneath all the tinsel and stuff we really are not worth much at all. Not even the protection we should be giving to our beautiful children is enough to move us to confront this terrifying personal fear. A four-year analysis of the world's ecosystems sponsored by the Worldwatch Institute found that over-consumption has pushed 15 out of 24 ecosystems essential to human life "beyond their sustainable limits". Our insatiable desire for more is moving the planet toward a state of collapse that may be "abrupt and potentially irreversible". Since we all know that, can we not go beyond the fear to follow David Attenborough, who said in a recent interview, "How could I look my grandchildren in the eye and say I knew and did nothing?" | 2nd November 2008 |
| 97 months left - Guardian Unlimited But October marked an unprecedented opportunity for the US and UK to tackle climate change. | 2nd November 2008 |
| Judge halts New York plan to turn yellow cabs green - Reuters NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City's plan to turn its entire fleet of yellow cabs green by 2012 was halted on Friday by a federal judge who ruled that regulation of fuel emissions standards falls under federal, not city, authority. | 2nd November 2008 |
| Grain News - Grainnet.com Plenty of media reports have been devoted to the subject of global climate change, but farmers and ranchers may still be wondering what the change means for how theýll grow the food supply in coming years. | 2nd November 2008 |
| Chemical released by trees can help cool planet - Guardian Unlimited Trees Scientists in the UK and Germany have discovered that trees release a chemical that thickens clouds above them, which reflects more sunlight and so cools the Earth. The research suggests that chopping down forests could accelerate global warming more than was thought, and that protecting existing trees could be one of the best ways to tackle the problem. | 2nd November 2008 |
| A Splash of Green for the Rust Belt - New York Times In the face of rising unemployment, renewable energy has become a crucial source of good jobs for laid-off Rust Belt workers. | 2nd November 2008 |
| Environmentalists protest at Australian coal plant - Reuters SYDNEY (Reuters) - Environmental activists chained themselves to a conveyor belt at one of Australia's largest coal-fired electricity plants Saturday to protest slow government action on climate change, a spokeswoman said. | 2nd November 2008 |
| California "green" energy vote seen close: poll - Reuters LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Opponents have taken a small lead in the latest poll on a California ballot measure that calls for half the state's electricity to be generated by renewable sources by 2025, a Field Poll issued on Friday shows. | 2nd November 2008 |
| Major Potential Changes Seen in US Energy Policy after 2008 Election - MarketWatch Obama and McCain would make substantially different choices on climate change, energy independence. See also: Political pendulum is swinging toward regulation - Houston Chronicle | 2nd November 2008 |
| EU nations agree to push back CO2 auto limits to 2015 - Eu Business (BRUSSELS ) - EU member states are ready to grant automakers a three-year delay until 2015 to reduce the CO2 emissions of their new vehicles, in light of the global economic crisis, negotiators said Saturday. | 2nd November 2008 |
| Bluescope says carbon scheme must be global - The West Australian Steelmaker Bluescope Steel says carbon pollution reduction schemes must be global and create a level playing field, otherwise some steel makers will be disadvantaged. Bluescope chief executive Paul O | 2nd November 2008 |
| The Nasty Truth: Free Trade Agreements May Scuttle Green Jobs Plans Many of the promises the candidates make on the stump would have trouble passing muster with the WTO -- that's the whole point of "free trade" deals. | 31st October 2008 |
| Another record profit for Exxon Shell gains from high oil prices | 31st October 2008 |
| Humans to blame for polar warming - New Scientist Models which factor in human activity best match polar temperature data, as new measurements suggest Arctic ice is at its thinnest since records began | 31st October 2008 |
| Time to bury the 'clean coal' myth - Guardian Unlimited In the second of his Greenwash columns, Fred Pearce exposes how energy companies and governments are trying to rebrand coal as a clean fuel of the future despite the evidence See also: What Is this "Clean Coal" Obama and McCain Support? | 31st October 2008 |
| World Needs Biological Ways of Cutting Carbon, Scientist Says - Bloomberg Technologies such as the creation of charcoal that permanently stores carbon are needed if the world has any hope of halting global warming, which is happening faster than forecast seven years ago by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Flannery, who was the 2007 Australian of the Year, said today at a conference on the country's Gold Coast. | 31st October 2008 |
| Amazon may lose 50 pct of tree species: Expert - Frontline Global warming could kill off half of the tree species in Brazil's vast Amazon jungle by 2050, a leading international climate change expert said on Wednesday. A worst-case rise of 4 degrees Celsius would wipe out half of the region's tree species by making the Amazon much drier and causing increased humidity in Brazil's non-Amazon southern region, said Martin Parry of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . A lower rise of 2 degrees Celsius by 2050 would eliminate a quarter of the tree species in the Amazon, the world's largest remaining tropical rain forest, he told reporters. | 31st October 2008 |
| China to invest $280 billion in rail network 'as a stimulus measure' - Gristmill By Joseph Romm Australian media reports: China will invest nearly $A445 billion (US$ 280 billion) in its overburdened rail system as a stimulus measure aimed at blunting the impact of the global financial crisis. The investment is part of plans to extend the country's railway network from the current roughly 125,502km to nearly 160,900km by 2010, Shanghai's Oriental Morning Post reported. The Beijing News quoted a rail official as saying that, while the network needed extending, the massive investment was also intended to help lift the nation's economy as it suffers amid the global woes. "New rail investment will become a shining light in efforts to push forward economic growth," railway ministry spokesman Wang Yongping said. | 31st October 2008 |
| UK aims to support small renewable power from 2010 LONDON (Reuters) - Britain says it wants to guarantee a price premium for small producers of renewable power, for example from the wind and sun, from 2010. | 31st October 2008 |
| Emissions scheme to cost households $1 a day - The West Australian Emissions trading will cost households a dollar a day when it starts in 2010. Comprehensive economic modelling released today has painted a rosy picture of how emissions trading will affect the econo See also: Emissions cuts: 'little economic impact' - Sydney Morning Herald | 31st October 2008 |
| Chris Ames: Flying in the face of reason - Guardian Unlimited Chris Ames: Government efforts to manipulate the 'consultation' process on Heathrow's expansion seem to be coming unstuck | 31st October 2008 |
| “Post 2012″ strikes fear in carbon market players - Reuters No pun intended but for the world's carbon community, times are looking a little black. The global financial crisis, or GFC as it is being called this week during Australia's largest ever carbon market gathering, is deeply troubling many participants. But a larger, more worrying issue remains “post 2012″. This is when the Clean Development Mechanism under the current phase of the U.N. Kyoto Protocol runs out, along with the hundreds of CDM projects already approved and the 3,000 still awaiting approval by a U.N. board. U.N. talks at the end of next year aim to agree on a broader replacement for Kyoto from 2013 and market players are hoping those talks don't fail. | 31st October 2008 |
| A Solar Gold Rush Is Spreading From California to New Jersey With new solar-powered movie theaters and factories, the solar industry is exploding. But how far can it take us toward a clean energy future? | 31st October 2008 |
| Climate change seen helping short-lived creatures - Reuters OSLO (Reuters) - Climate change is likely to disrupt food chains by favoring animals with short lifespans over often bigger rivals that are worse at tolerating temperature swings, scientists said on Thursday. | 31st October 2008 |
| Carbon footprint of sugar revealed FWi - Farmers Weekly Interactive British Sugar has become the first sugar business to certify the carbon footprint of its granulated sugar using the government's new PAS 2050 standard. | 31st October 2008 |
| Eat grass, more gas - CNews Scientists have got wind of some myth-busting moos, thanks to some burping cows. See also: Why is the 'eat less meat' message such a hard sell? - Vancouver Sun | 31st October 2008 |
| A look at whether "clean coal" is actually clean, how the technology works, and whether it is a climate crisis cure. | 31st October 2008 |
| Warning as seabird breeding fails - BBC Kittiwakes, Arctic terns and Arctic skuas suffer a breeding season which could see them wiped out, it is claimed. Changes in food supply, which may be linked to climate change, could threaten the future of these species. RSPB Scotland said recent reports of significant declines in plankton biomass point to major changes to ocean ecosystems in the Atlantic, which could be affecting seabirds. It said that although direct evidence was still lacking, increased winter sea surface temperatures disrupting the food chain are thought to be driving the declines. Douglas Gilbert, an ecologist with RSPB Scotland, said: "The outlook for some species such as Arctic skua, kittiwake and Arctic tern is dire, and there are problems with other species like guillemots and puffins in some areas too. "Unless conditions change to allow these birds the chance of successful breeding, the long-term future for them is bleak. "The evidence that this is linked to changes in sea surface temperatures is now growing." | 30th October 2008 |
| Climate-warming methane levels rose fast in 2007 - Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Levels of climate-warming methane -- a greenhouse gas 25 times as potent as carbon dioxide -- rose abruptly in Earth's atmosphere last year, and scientists who reported the change don't know why it occurred. |
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| Hunger hotspots of the future revealed - New Scientist A comprehensive new study combines climate models with population and economic predictions to warn where food security will be worst in Africa of 2030 | 30th October 2008 |
| Energy agency denies oil output falling at faster rate than previously thought - Guardian Unlimited The International Energy Agency sought to play down a report that it believes global oil production is falling at a faster rate than previously thought. The Financial Times said a draft of the IEA's annual World Energy Outlook calculated world production would fall at a natural annual rate of 9.1% without extra investment. See also: Peak oil is just five years away, and we must start to plan now to avert a truly ruinous crisis - Guardian Unlimited | 30th October 2008 |
| China warns on emissions control - BBC News China admits its greenhouse gas emissions are equal to America's and that there is little prospect of an early improvement. | 30th October 2008 |
| Activists sail towards Kingsnorth - BBC News Environmental campaigners in a flotilla of craft, led by the ship Rainbow Warrior, are sailing towards Kingsnorth power station. | 30th October 2008 |
| "Carbon army" hopes to grab slice of New Deal cash - Reuters LONDON, Oct 30 - A growing "carbon army" of environmentalists, bankers and investors has seized on official backing last week for major public spending announced in Britain and the United States. | 30th October 2008 |
| Act fast on emissions: Swan - The Age AUSTRALIA could lower the cost of tackling global warming by 15% if it moves quickly rather than waiting until the world is ready to act, according to Treasury modelling to be released today. See also: Australia carbon plan no company killer-Government - Interactive Investor | 30th October 2008 |
| EU biofuel data change angers environmentalists - Reuters BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European biofuels could receive a boost from a change in the way the European Union calculates their impact on the environment, a document shows, angering environmentalists who think they do more harm than good. | 30th October 2008 |
| Drought's real meaning lost in new talk of dryness - Stock & Land Australia: The Government is looking at a new approach to drought and it starts with a refusal to call it that from now on. | 30th October 2008 |
| Will the Economic Crash Take Down Our Hopes for Clean Energy? - Alternet This happened before, in 1981. But this time the renewable energy industry is in better shape for a fight. See also: Climate change fight 'hurt by cash crisis' says EU - International Herald Tribune | 30th October 2008 |
| Climate Change Adds UK Flood to Lloyd's Insurance Concerns - Occupational Health Safety Lloyd's, the venerable British risk insurer, announced Monday that it has added a major flood in the United Kingdom to its set of Realistic Disaster Scenarios for 2009. Lloyd's uses RDS to stress test individual syndicates and the market as a whole to see how they stand up to exposures in very extreme cases; existing RDS events used in this way include earthquakes in California or Tokyo, windstorms hitting Florida or the Gulf of Mexico, and airlines colliding over large cities. | 30th October 2008 |
| Greenspan, Einstein, and Reich - RealClimate With the remarkable admission by Alan Greenspan that his “theory” of economics had a fundamental flaw, I've been musing about all those emails I get from people claiming to have found a “fundamental flaw” in the “greenhouse theory”. The letters range from amusing claims that we are overlooking changes in the magnetic field, to tales about how the “weight” of carbon dioxide keeps it “near the ground”. If the writer sounds serious, then I treat them seriously, and do my best to provide a helpful reply. Often, though, I find myself in a pointless debate of the most basic, well-established physical principles. | 30th October 2008 |
| ANALYSIS - Carbon Market's Future Hangs In The Balance - Planet Ark LONDON - The future of global carbon markets is finely poised as recession threatens the political will to shoulder costs but New Zealand, Australia and Japan follow Europe with their own cap and trade schemes. | 30th October 2008 |
| Climate damage science studied - BBC News The UK's Royal Society is to investigate whether ambitious engineering schemes could reduce the impact of global warming. | 30th October 2008 |
| Palin shocker: McCain Won't Regulate Greenhouse Gas Emissions - HuffingtonPost It's time to stop trying to guess whether the latest McCain campaign revision on global warming means the Arizonan has walked away from his previous support for mandatory government control of greenhouse gases. He has. | 30th October 2008 |
| DSCOVR Mission May Be Gutted - DeSmogBlog Here is the latest twist in the bizarre story about the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR). Apparently, the US Air Force is in discussions with NASA to take over the mission, with one important catch: that all the Earth observing instruments be removed. It seems the Air Force is more interested in looking at the Sun than our warming planet and plans are being made to send the spacecraft 100 million miles distant – only to look the other way. DSCOVR is unique experiment that would place a spacecraft at a gravitational parking spot 100 million miles towards the sun away where it could continuously observe the Earth as it circles our home star. | 30th October 2008 |
| Arctic ice thickness 'plummets' - BBC News Arctic sea ice thickness "plummeted" last winter, thinning by as much as 49cm in some regions, data shows. | 29th October 2008 |
| Climate change making seas more salty, research finds - Guardian Unlimited Experts at the UK Met Office and Reading University say warmer temperatures over the Atlantic Ocean have significantly increased evaporation and reduced rainfall across a giant stretch of water from Africa to the Carribean in recent years. The change concentrates salt in the water left behind, and is predicted to make southern Europe and the Mediterranean much drier in future. | 29th October 2008 |
| Earth on course for eco 'crunch' - BBC The planet is headed for an ecological "credit crunch", according to a report issued by conservation groups. The document contends that our demands on natural resources overreach what the Earth can sustain by almost a third. The Living Planet Report is the work of WWF, the Zoological Society of London and the Global Footprint Network. "The events in the last few months have served to show us how it's foolish in the extreme to live beyond our means," said WWF's international president, Chief Emeka Anyaoku. "Devastating though the financial credit crunch has been, it's nothing as compared to the ecological recession that we are facing." He said the more than $2 trillion (£1.2 trillion) lost on stocks and shares was dwarfed by the up to $4.5 trillion worth of resources destroyed forever each year. The report's Living Planet Index, which is an attempt to measure the health of worldwide biodiversity, showed an average decline of about 30% from 1970 to 2005 in 3,309 populations of 1,235 species. An index for the tropics shows an average 51% decline over the same period in 1,333 populations of 585 species. See also: FAQ: Planet's capacity - Guardian Unlimited | 29th October 2008 |
| What the Public Doesn't Get About Climate Change - TIME On the one hand are the scientists, who with few exceptions think climate change is very serious and needs to be dealt with immediately and ambitiously. On the other side is the public, which increasingly believes that climate change is real and worries about it, but which rarely ranks it as a high priority. | 29th October 2008 |
| Long term strategy needed for reducing greenhouse gases - PhysOrg A group of scientists led by the University of Bristol have, for the first time, combined the outcomes of proposals by the G8 countries and the UK Government’s Stern Review with the latest knowledge of climate change feedbacks relating to the carbon cycle (the way carbon moves between the oceans, atmosphere and land). Their findings, published in Environmental Research Letters, show that short-term cuts alone will not solve the problem and that policy makers need to plan for hundreds of years into the future. | 29th October 2008 |
| Beijing sets price for cooperation on climate change - The Standard Beijing sets price for cooperation on climate changeThe Standard, Hong Kong. China wants rich countries to commit 1 percent of their economic worth to help poor nations fight global warming, and will press for a new international ... | 29th October 2008 |
| Heat stress rather than drought will hit yields in the future, says researcher FWi - Farmers Weekly Interactive Breeding for drought tolerance or heat stress was under the spotlight at a Rothamsted Research/HGCA workshop. Mike Abram reports | 29th October 2008 |
| ENVIRONMENT: Massive Shift to Clean Energy Could Start Tomorrow - IPS NEW YORK, Oct 28 (IPS) - An aggressive shift towards renewable power generation and energy effiency could save the world from the most devastating impacts of climate change, and at the same time create a multi-billion-dollar industry and save trillions of dollars in future fuel costs, experts say. | 29th October 2008 |
| In pictures: Green technologies - BBC News Alternative transport companies show off their goods to industry experts at the UK's first national low carbon vehicle event. | 29th October 2008 |
| Revealed: Secret plot by Labour MPs to scupper Heathrow third runway - Daily Mail UK: Ministers are stirring up a rebellion among Labour MPs in a bid to scupper plans for a third Heathrow runway, it was claimed yesterday. | 29th October 2008 |
| Van Jones on “The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix ... - Democracy Now In a new book, the well-known community activist and attorney Van Jones lays out a plan for a green economy he says could help solve the nation’s economic inequality while also addressing the long-term environmental threats to our survival as a planet. See also: Now is the perfect time to save the planet - Guardian Unlimited | 29th October 2008 |
| UK unveils CO2 footprint standard - BBC News A new standard that allows UK firms to measure the size of their products' carbon footprints is launched. | 29th October 2008 |
| Study helps clarify role of soil microbes in global warming - PhysOrg Current models of global climate change predict warmer temperatures will increase the rate that bacteria and other microbes decompose soil organic matter, a scenario that pumps even more heat-trapping carbon into the atmosphere. But a new study led by a University of Georgia researcher shows that while the rate of decomposition increases for a brief period in response to warmer temperatures, elevated levels of decomposition don't persist. | 29th October 2008 |
| Britain threatens to cut Kopernikus programme funding for climate spy in space - Guardian Unlimited A major programme to monitor climate change from space could be in jeopardy after it emerged that the British government is poised to slash funding for the project. | 29th October 2008 |
| Amid economic crisis, wind power spins more slowly - The Christian Science Monitor Many of the big players who were drawn to alternative energy by tax credits are now sidelined or kaput. | 29th October 2008 |
| Study Confirms Amphibians' Ability to Predict Changes in Biodiversity - PhysOrg (PhysOrg.com) -- Biologists have long suspected that amphibians, whose moist permeable skins make them susceptible to slight changes in the environment, might be good bellwethers for impending alterations in biodiversity during rapid climate change. | 29th October 2008 |
| Save the planet! Now, how do we do that? - Grist Magazines like to tease their readers with headlines that promise answers to seemingly intractable problems. Such seems to be the intent of the lead story of the December 2008 issue of Mother Jones, entitled "How to rescue the economy and save the planet." Al Gore, Bill McKibben, and Nobel-laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz hold forth, among others, but I thought that David Roberts, in his article about green jobs, and Mark Schapiro, in his piece about Europe, offered the most concrete ideas about what governments can do -- and that, after all, should be our focus. Al Gore and Bill McKibben made clear the "urgency of now," but failed, I think, to explain how we can cooperatively act as a society in the face of that urgency. | 29th October 2008 |
| Aussies won't catch bus to save planet - Herald Sun AUSTRALIANS are seriously worried about climate change but many draw the line at catching the bus, a poll has found. | 29th October 2008 |
| Big Brother Spies on Climate Activists - DeSmogBlog How crazy is the so-called “climate debate”? Consider the bizarre case of three young climate activists who were just informed by local police that they were under surveillance for over a year on suspicion of “involvement in terrorism”. Between March 2005 and May 2006, three representatives of Chesapeake Climate Action Network were apparently being spied on due to their non-violent efforts to raise awareness about climate change. All three received letters from the Maryland State Police this October blandly stating that there was “no evidence whatsoever of any involvement in violent crime” and they had the option to view the files once, without a camera or lawyer present, before the surveillance records were destroyed. | 28th October 2008 |
| Yellowstone amphibians in decline due to climate change - Mongabay.com Climate change appears to be responsible for a "marked drop" in the population of three of four species of amphibian once common to Yellowstone National Park, the world's oldest national park, report researchers writing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Using surveys and remote sensing to monitor and record changes in wetlands in northern Yellowstone National Park, Sarah McMenamin of Stanford University and colleagues linked declining amphibian populations to drier and warmer conditions over the past 60 years, including a four-fold increase in the number of number of permanently dry ponds over the past 16 years. | 28th October 2008 |
| Wildflowers disappear from Walden Pond as earth heats up - Boston Globe In the 1850s, a few years after he had gone to “live deliberately” in a cabin in the woods at Walden Pond, Henry David Thoreau began to compile detailed records on hundreds of species of plants in his beloved Concord. That same data is now being used to measure the effect of climate change and, according to researchers, the news is not good. Scientists from Harvard and Boston University reported today that the mean annual temperature has climbed by 4 degrees since Thoreau's time in Concord, and over that same period, 27 percent of the species documented by Thoreau have disappeared. | 28th October 2008 |
| Swans stay in 'warm' Siberia - The Independent UK: The late arrival in Britain of migratory birds from Russian region is being blamed on global warming. Wildlife experts are reporting that the swans' 1,800-mile mid-October migration has so far failed tomaterialise, with climate change turning the once famously harsh Russian region into a more inviting winter haven for the majestic birds. | 28th October 2008 |
| Emissions kill off coral larvae: study - AAP via Yahoo!7 News Carbon dioxide emissions have the potential to kill off coral larvae used to build the Great Barrier Reef, a new study has found. | 28th October 2008 |
| Earthworm activity can alter forests' carbon-carrying capabilities - EurekAlert! Earthworms can change the chemical nature of the carbon in North American forest litter and soils, potentially affecting the amount of carbon stored in forests, according to Purdue University researchers. | 28th October 2008 |
| New green targets 'best in world' - BBC News New environmental laws will put Scotland at the forefront of global climate change action, the Scottish Government says. | 28th October 2008 |
| Ice sheet secrets set to be seen - BBC News The secrets of the largest ice sheet on earth are to be revealed under plans to map the Antarctic in detail. | 28th October 2008 |
| The Clean Air Act: Jump-starting climate action - Guardian Unlimited The next president should use the Clean Air Act to control greenhouse gas emissions and establish a national cap-and-trade programme, write Michael Northrop and David Sassoon. From Yale Environment360. | 28th October 2008 |
| Save transit, save the world - Gristmill Katharine Mieszkowski tells the sordid story: in the U.S., ridership for public transit is up, demand is up, but funding is going down and transit systems are decaying. The Washington Post says "[D.C.] Metro and 30 other transit agencies across the country may have to pay billions of dollars to large banks as years-old financing deals unravel, potentially hurting service for millions of bus and train riders." Not good. Meanwhile! Reconnecting America recently released new report: "Jumpstarting the Transit Space Race: How the New Administration Could Make America Energy-Independent, Create Jobs and Keep the Economy Strong." Is shows that demand for transit is high and rising ... | 28th October 2008 |
| Survey Set New Direction for U.S. Climate Policy - DeSmogBlog We'll either choose one of two paths: one that will reverse global warming while creating a new, more prosperous economy; or one that will make us increasingly dependent on a dwindling supply of dirty sources of fuel. Eco-America has released a major new report on American attitudes toward climate change, and Eco-America Executive Director Lee Bodner (quoted above) provides an overview in this interview on the Nature conservancy site.Three quick findings:1. The divide remains large between Democrats (90 per cent) and Republicans (54 per cent) when responding to whether they are "convinced that global warming is happening."2. | 28th October 2008 |
| New generation of electric public service vehicles to include postal vans and police cars - Guardian Unlimited UK: A new generation of electric public service vehicles, including postal vans, police vehicles and ministerial limousines is to be introduced as part of a government initiative to speed up the introduction of low-emission technology on Britain's roads. | 28th October 2008 |
| Climate bill 'to include planes' - BBC News Measures to cut UK carbon emissions by 80% looks set to cover aviation and shipping, heading off a rebellion by MPs. | 28th October 2008 |
| Risks of global warming greater than financial crisis: Stern - Reuters HONG KONG (Reuters) - The risks of inaction over climate change far outweigh the turmoil of the global financial crisis, a leading climate change expert said on Monday, while calling for new fiscal spending tailored to low carbon growth. "The risk consequences of ignoring climate change will be very much bigger than the consequences of ignoring risks in the financial system," said Nicholas Stern, a former British Treasury economist, who released a seminal report in 2006 that said inaction on emissions blamed for global warming could cause economic pain equal to the Great Depression. "That's a very important lesson, tackle risk early," Stern told a climate and carbon conference in Hong Kong. | 27th October 2008 |
| Methane rise reminds us of climate change feedback loop - Gather.com The total methane in the air is now around 5.6 billion tons. Scientists are concerned that we may be seeing the beginning of a feedback loop in the arctic in terms of methane release. For perspective on this, ask yourself, smugly and complacently, "what's the worst thing that could happen?" Then search your memory from the year 2005, when you asked yourself that same question about the subprime mortgage problem. | 27th October 2008 |
| Sea levels to rise a metre this century, German experts warn - EARTHtimes.org Sea levels around the world will rise one metre this century, according to German scientists who warn that global warming is happening much faster than hitherto predicted. Citing UN date on climate change, two senior German scientists say that previous predictions were far too cautious and optimistic. | 27th October 2008 |
| Primeval ice melts in Finnish Lapland - Helsingin Sanomat The primeval ice in an ice cave on the isle of Korkia-Maura in Lake Inari has melted, turning into a pond of crystal water. Recent years’ mild winters as well as longer summer and autumn periods have been too much for the ice cover of the cave, which began to grow in the Little Ice Age some 500 to 1,000 years ago. | 27th October 2008 |
| World can halt fossil fuel use by 2090: study - Reuters OSLO (Reuters) - The world could eliminate fossil fuel use by 2090 by spending trillions of dollars on a renewable energy revolution, the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC) and environmental group Greenpeace said on Monday. | 27th October 2008 |
| Future of green is not so black, say some - PhysOrg The deepening economic crisis may appear to be the perfect storm for environmentalism, but many in and around the green movement contend the opposite, seeing in it a time of opportunity. | 27th October 2008 |
| Financial crisis takes toll on carbon scheme - Independent Online Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd won office promising to be a climate change warrior but his chief weapon - a carbon trade scheme to slash emissions - is falling victim to shifting politics and world financial tumult. | 27th October 2008 |
| Low Oil Prices Take Wind Out Of Renewables - San Francisco Chronicle Now oil costs less than half what it did this summer. Ditto natural gas. If prices keep dropping and stay down, future fuels like cellulosic ethanol and biodiesel will have a harder time competing. So will solar and wind power projects, which compete against power plants that burn natural gas. Public interest in alternative energy may dwindle as well. | 27th October 2008 |
| Ranking methods to save the world - New Scientist There is an urgent need to rank the engineering proposals advanced to save Earth's climate, in order to work out which should undergo rigorous testing | 27th October 2008 |
| China's hidden coal cost equal to 7.0 pct of GDP: green groups - SpaceDaily BEIJING, Oct 27 (AFP) Oct 27, 2008 China's dependency on coal as its major energy source is creating hidden environmental and other costs worth more than seven percent of its annual gross domestic product, green groups said Monday. | 27th October 2008 |
| Carbon Tax Gets Another Voter Test Wednesday - in News - The Tyee Primer: Parties' global warming stands going into byelection. | 27th October 2008 |
| Steaming off - Canoe.ca Iceland gets 99% of its electricity from renewable sources: Kinetic energy from rivers and glaciers is harnessed to generate hydropower, and about 20% of the country is run on geothermal energy. In the winter, geothermal systems melt snow on sidewalks and driveways and heat 90% of homes. | 26th October 2008 |
| Good Thing We're Going to Have to Live with Less Stuff -- We'll Stay Alive on Earth for Longer That Way If we scale down economic activity -- especially if the rich do -- we could all live in a cleaner world. | 26th October 2008 |
| How I made it: Jeremy Leggett - Times Online AS a professor of earth sciences at Imperial College in the mid-1980s, Jeremy Leggett ran a research project on the geological history of the planet. His studies left him extremely concerned. “I got really worried about global warming and climate change - well ahead of it being fashionable,” he said. “Everything I have done from then on has been trying to do something about that.” Leggett left his teaching post determined to make a difference. He became an environmental campaigner and the scientific director of Greenpeace International’s climate campaign. | 26th October 2008 |
| £100m electric car test planned - BBC News Ministers plan a £100m scheme to test the use of electric cars and vans in cities, the BBC learns. Monbiot:"It's crazy that the government is subsidising the motor industry for what it should be doing anyway. "Years ago, in 1998, the industry promised it would make a radical cut in the amount of carbon dioxide its cars are producing. "It's broken that promise, and now the government is paying it to do what it should have been forced to do through regulation". | 26th October 2008 |
| Mandelson loses fight with Miliband over CO2 disclosure law - Independent Business Secretary Lord Mandelson has clashed with Ed Miliband, the Climate Change Secretary, over proposed legislation that will force big companies to detail all their carbon dioxide emissions. | 26th October 2008 |
| 500 places to see before they die - guardian.co.uk 500 places to see before they dieguardian.co.uk, UK. The Nazca lines in Peru, one of the world's most intriguing ancient sites, face destruction as roads are built and global warming and deforestation cause ... | 26th October 2008 |
| Dire warnings for world's megacities - The Australian "With a rise in the sea level of just a few metres (caused by global warming), London would cease to function." | 26th October 2008 |
| Study blasts one-size-fits-all approach to climate change - CNews OTTAWA - A new study on the economy and the environment recommends the federal government combat climate change with a "silver buckshot" of policies rather than a single silver bullet. | 25th October 2008 |
| Top coal CEO isn't buying the techno-hope of carbon capture and storage - DeSmogBlog The $40 million clean coal lobby has been very effective in creating a false sense of security that someday all coal fired electrical plants will be able to capture greenhouse gases and store them underground. David Ratcliffe, the CEO of Southern Company - the second largest emitter of greenhouse gas from coal in the United States - is extremely pessimistic about the future prospects of CCS. | 25th October 2008 |
| The great green swindle - Guardian Unlimited As consumers become more eco-conscious, companies will go to ever greater lengths to present themselves as environmentally friendly. Some make exaggerated or absurd claims, others resort to downright lies. Fred Pearce, whose new weekly Greenwash column launches on the Guardian website today, reports on a sinister trend - and appeals to readers to help stamp it out | 25th October 2008 |
| EU confirms aviation in emissions trading scheme BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union governments gave their formal approval on Friday to include aviation in the bloc's emissions trading scheme, they said in a statement. | 25th October 2008 |
| Big Chinese companies join climate group - Guardian Unlimited One of China's biggest companies will today become the first state-controlled business in the country to join an international agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The powerful Climate Group will announce three Chinese members, including the majority state-owned China Mobile, which has 420 million customers and is one of the country's 10 biggest companies. It is the world's biggest mobile phone operator. | 25th October 2008 |
| Ninety Percent of Young People Want Action on Climate Change - It's Getting Hot In Here Talk about a consensus: 90 percent of young people around the world think global leaders should do “whatever it takes” to tackle climate change, according to a new United Nations Environment Program survey. The survey questioned 12-to-18 year-old’s in five countries (Brazil, India, Russia, South Africa, and the United States), all key players in upcoming international climate negotiations. Concern about global warming is highest in Brazil (96 percent) and South Africa (91 percent), followed by India (85 percent) and the U.S. (82 percent). Fewer youth in frigid Russia (70 percent) seem to be concerned, but they still constitute a clear majority. | 25th October 2008 |
| Climate Change Seeps into the Sea - PhysOrg Good news has turned out to be bad. The ocean has helped slow global warming by absorbing much of the excess heat and heat-trapping carbon dioxide that has been going into the atmosphere since the start of the Industrial Revolution. | 25th October 2008 |
| Oceans may provide clues to future rainfall - PhysOrg Changes in the salinity of our oceans are being brought about by man's influence on our climate, suggests new research conducted by the Met Office Hadley Centre and the Walker Institute for Climate System Research at the University of Reading, to be published in Geophysical Research Letters next month. | 25th October 2008 |
| Environment - Oct 24 - Energy Bulletin UK's ancient woodland being lost 'faster than Amazon'Migrating Alaskan pollock are creating the potential for a new dispute with Russia Rising water in Florida's Everglades threatens wildlife read more | 25th October 2008 |
| Atlas of hidden water may avert future conflict - New Scientist Atlas of hidden water may avert future conflictNew Scientist (subscription), UK. Climate Change – Want to know more about global warming – the science, impacts and political debate? Visit our continually updated special report. | 25th October 2008 |
| Native cold water fish might eventually become a rarity in Irish waters - Fish Update Cod, salmon and eels and other native cold water fish might eventually become a rarity in Irish waters - and not necessarily because of overfishing, pollution or habitat destruction. Ongoing studies, carried out by teams of scientists in Galway, Mayo and Maynooth suggest that long term changes in the temperature and salt content of our regional seas, brought about by climate change, may force species such as these into deeper, colder waters and replace them with warm water species such as sea bass and boarfish. | 25th October 2008 |
| Flatscreen TVs turn up the heat on climate - New Scientist Levels of a powerful greenhouse gas emitted by the electronics industry are four times as high as previously estimated, and they're growing fast | 25th October 2008 |
| Rainbow Warrior's protest against coal plant - Kent Online The flagship of the Greenpeace protest fleet sailed up the River Medway on Friday. The Rainbow Warrior docked in Chatham as part of the Give Coal the Boot Campaign. The activist group chose to come to Medway to highlight how the decision to build a new coal power station at Kingsnorth in Hoo could have an impact on the fight against global warming around the world. | 25th October 2008 |
| 'Drastic' reforms on energy urged - BBC News UK:"Urgent and drastic" changes are needed if the UK is to meet challenging EU targets on renewable energy, peers say. | 24th October 2008 |
| Q&A: 'Media Must Find a Way for the Message' - IPS ROME, Oct 23 (IPS) - While there is clear evidence of growing global warming, "the political will to address it is still lacking," says Mohan Munasinghe, co-winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize as vice-chairman of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). | 24th October 2008 |
| Danish PM says China onboard for climate pact goal - Reuters BEIJING (Reuters) - China is committed to seeking a climate change pact at key talks next year, the prime minister of Denmark said on Thursday, urging countries not to use global economic upheaval as a reason for delaying a deal. | 24th October 2008 |
| Van Jones: How We Can Lead Our Country Out of Crisis - Alternet Van Jones talks about a new vision for America in which progressives go from protest to governance. | 24th October 2008 |
| UK announces world's largest algal biofuel project - Guardian Unlimited The world's biggest publicly funded project to make transport fuels from algae will be launched today by a government agency which develops low-carbon technologies. The Carbon Trust will today announce a project to make algal biofuels a commercial reality by 2020. The plan could see up to £26m spent on developing the technology and infrastructure to ensure that algal biofuels replace a signficant proportion of the fossil fuels used by UK drivers. | 24th October 2008 |
| Soil health 'threatens farming' - BBC The health and fertility of soil in parts of England may threaten its capacity for food production in future, a new report warns. | 24th October 2008 |
| It's not a drought, it's 'dryness' - ABC via Yahoo!7 News Federal Government-selected experts want people to start using the word "dryness" to describe Australia's worst drought in a century. | 24th October 2008 |
| Wind development biggest challenge for power grid - Reuters HOUSTON (Reuters) - The need to build high-voltage power lines to link growing electric supply from renewable sources, such as wind and solar, to homes and businesses is the biggest challenge facing the power grid, the North American Reliability Corp (NERC) said in a report to be issued Thursday. | 24th October 2008 |
| Cap-trade or carbon tax alone not adequate: Study - Canada.com Canadian politicians overstate the differences between carbon taxes and cap-and-trade programs as tools to reduce greenhouse gases, a new report suggests. | 24th October 2008 |
| Potent greenhouse gas more common than estimated: study - SpaceDaily WASHINGTON, Oct 23 (AFP) Oct 23, 2008 A potent greenhouse gas many thousands of times more effective at warming the world's atmosphere than carbon dioxide (CO2) is four times more prevalent than previously thought, according to a study released Thursday. | 24th October 2008 |
| China report warns of greenhouse gas leap - Reuters BEIJING (Reuters) - China's greenhouse gas pollution could double or more in two decades says a new Chinese state think-tank study that casts stark light on the industrial giant's role in stoking global warming. | 23rd October 2008 |
| Big Oil's Last Stand - Foreign Policy In Focus And Big Oil thrives on secrecy, a lack of transparency, and control over information. We can only address its power by pulling back its veil. This is what The Tyranny of Oil: the World’s Most Powerful Industry—And What We Must Do To Stop It, seeks to achieve. | 23rd October 2008 |
| Three Degrees of Conflagration: Dr. Andrew Weaver on Modeling Global Warming - O'Reilly Media Dr. Andrew Weaver may be one of the most famous people you've never heard of. Weaver, a professor at the University of Victoria's School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, is one of the world's leading experts on climate modeling. He was served as lead author for last year's ground-breaking report from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; | 23rd October 2008 |
| CLIMATE CHANGE: Window of Opportunity Closing Rapidly - IPS UXBRIDGE, Canada, Oct 22 (IPS) - The global financial crisis has pushed climate change off the front pages despite new evidence that it is happening faster and with stronger impacts than previous projections, a new report warns. See also: IPCC Chair: Severity Under-reported - Worldwatch Institute | 23rd October 2008 |
| Ice cap threat to migrating birds - BBC News Some of Britain's most treasured bird species face extinction because of melting polar ice, a Cumbrian wildlife expert warns. Dr Roy Armstrong from Cumbria University said shrinking polar ice may lead to droughts which could threaten the wintering grounds. "We're expecting a severe drought to hit West Africa at any time." | 23rd October 2008 |
| Data show US riding out worst storms on record - The News-Press More frequent and powerful hurricanes from the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico since the mid-1990s have created one of the most dangerous and costliest storm eras in recorded history, a USA TODAY analysis of weather data shows. Since 1995, there have been 207 named storms in the Atlantic basin, which includes the Gulf of Mexico � a 68% increase from the previous 13 years, according to statistics from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Of those storms, 111 were hurricanes, a 75% increase over the previous period. | 23rd October 2008 |
| UK to boost wind farm power generation by a third - Reuters LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will boost the generation of power from wind farms by a third next year as part of efforts to hit renewable energy targets, a government minister said on Wednesday. | 23rd October 2008 |
| MPs rebelling over climate bill - BBC News The government is facing a backbench rebellion over plans to exclude aviation and shipping from UK greenhouse gas targets. | 23rd October 2008 |
| Study probes clouds' climate role - BBC News Scientists hope to shed light on how massive cloud systems over the Pacific Ocean affect global climate and weather systems. | 23rd October 2008 |
| Energy challenges for US - BBC News How the US is planning for a post-oil world | 23rd October 2008 |
| Climate change accelerating far beyond the IPCC forecast, WWF says - Telegraph.co.uk Climate change is happening much faster than the world's best scientists predicted and will wreak havoc unless action is taken on a global scale, a new report warns. | 22nd October 2008 |
| Global warming leads India tigers to village attacks - Reuters KOLKATA, India (Reuters) - The number of tiger attacks on people is growing in India's Sundarban islands as habitat loss and dwindling prey caused by climate change drives them to prowl into villages for food, experts said Monday. | 22nd October 2008 |
| The 'win-win' solution failing the rainforests - Guardian Unlimited Market-based answers to deforestation in Latin America are backfiring, say conservation groups. By Oliver Balch | 22nd October 2008 |
| Q&A: "Profit Is Enemy Number One of the Environment" - IPS SANTIAGO, Oct 20 (Tierramérica) - The global financial debacle is evidence that capitalism "is more alive than ever" and can only be stopped by policies that extinguish all forms of profit or by the end of life on Earth, says Chilean professor and activist Marcel Claude. | 22nd October 2008 |
| Low-carbon economy is not a luxury - BBC News The low-carbon economy is an integral part of the world's economic recovery, not a luxurious extra. | 22nd October 2008 |
| If an hour is a long time in politics, we must start thinking in centuries - Guardian Unlimited George Monbiot: From banking to the climate, the wreckage of short-termism is stark, and the need for a 100-year committee is plain | 22nd October 2008 |
| 34 Million-Yr GHG Model: Earth Is CO2 Sensitive - innovations report The new model, accounting for atmospheric CO2 and changes in Earth's orbit around the sun among other variables, shows that the threshold of atmospheric CO2 at which large ice sheet development in the Northern Hemisphere is possible, is much lower than for Antarctica. The work, supported by the National Science Foundation, also suggests that climate, ice sheets and sea level may be far more sensitive to CO2 levels than generally accepted. | 22nd October 2008 |
| How many jobs does it create to screw in a lightbulb? - Reuters Change to an energy-saving lightbulb – create a job? Energy efficiency efforts in California over the past three decades have created or saved 1.5 million jobs and added $45 billion to payrolls in the state, according to a report from David Roland-Holst of the Center for Energy, Resources and Economic Sustainability at the University of California, Berkeley. It comes as the Golden State is debating whether plans to radically cut carbon dioxide emissions will be a financial burden for California or spur economic growth in a state that already leads in energy efficiency. When people save money on utility bills and buying gasoline for cars, it frees up money for buying other things from groceries to appliances to theater tickets, Roland-Holst said. | 22nd October 2008 |
| Rolls-Royce brings propeller engines back in vogue - Guardian Unlimited Aviation company claims the design could cut an airline's fuel bills and greenhouse gas emissions by 30% | 22nd October 2008 |
| Going down - Gristmill Hybrid production costs may drop two-thirds within 10 years | 22nd October 2008 |
| Rainbow Warrior in coal protest - BBC News The Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior arrives in the UK to join the fight against coal power. | 22nd October 2008 |
| INTERVIEW-Putting a price on nature can save forests, rivers - AlertNet Source: Reuters By David Fogarty, Climate Change Correspondent, Asia SINGAPORE, Oct 20 (Reuters) - Putting a price on nature by creating tradeable credits can the limit the loss of forests, wetlands and rivers from ... | 22nd October 2008 |
| Environment will wither whoever wins US election - Environmental News Network Eager anticipation of the next American president offering a dramatically different policy on climate change is being tempered by the chill winds of the financial crisis. Barack Obama or John McCain will inherit a blighted economy, a ballooning deficit set to reach $1 trillion and a political landscape in upheaval from the market turmoil of recent weeks. | 22nd October 2008 |
| EU Asks Developing World to Cut Emissions 15%-30% Versus Trends - Bloomberg Oct. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Europe asked developing countries such as China to reduce emissions blamed for climate change as much as 30 percent in 2020 compared with levels expected under current trends, seeking to advance talks on a global agreement. | 22nd October 2008 |
| Amid the rubble of global finance, a blueprint for Bretton Woods II - Guardian Unlimited Jeffrey Sachs: Durable reform must tackle climate change and world poverty as well as market regulation | 22nd October 2008 |
| What's nature worth? Financial crunch may bring rethink - Reuters Would you pay $1,000 a year for a remote patch of mangrove swamp? Maybe not - but more and more environmental economists are arguing that you should. And they say that the worst financial crisis in 80 years could be a good opportunity to overhaul the world's economic system and put a price tag on what are often viewed as “free” services from nature, ranging from coral reefs' role as nurseries for fish, to wetlands' ability to purify water. See the story here. Markets failed to regulate banks in the current crunch and they are doing even less to slow global warming that the U.N. | 22nd October 2008 |
| Rivers Act as Transport for Huge Carbon Sinks - New York Times When it comes to carbon balance, some rivers are doing the world a favor. | 22nd October 2008 |
| Emissions from burping cows 'higher than family car' - The Independent A herd of cows belches out more climate-changing gas than a family car, a university researcher said today. | 22nd October 2008 |
| Environmental Failure: A Ruined Planet Is Closer to Reality Environmental groups have grown in strength and sophistication, but the environment has continued to go downhill. Why? | 22nd October 2008 |
| Wood heat rises again - The Christian Science Monitor High cost of oil and gas fuels a boom in wood stoves. But what is the cost to climate? | 22nd October 2008 |
| So what, so what, so what's the scenario? - Gristmill New report offers five different pictures of life in 2030 | 22nd October 2008 |
| This recession is the ideal time to deal with global warming - Johann Hari This is, perversely, a dazzling time to be alive: every human being who ever lives will deal with the decisions we make here | 20th October 2008 |
| Risk of Disease Rises With Water Temperatures - Washington Post Now, scientists say, it is a near-certainty that global warming will drive significant increases in waterborne diseases around the world. Rainfalls will be heavier, triggering sewage overflows, contaminating drinking water and endangering beachgoers. Higher lake and ocean temperatures will cause bacteria, parasites and algal blooms to flourish. Warmer weather and heavier rains also will mean more mosquitoes, which can carry West Nile virus, malaria and dengue fever. Fresh produce and shellfish are more likely to become contaminated. | 20th October 2008 |
| FRANCOPHONIE TO CUT CO2 EMISSIONS IN HALF BY 2050 - The Tocqueville Connection QUEBEC CITY, Oct 19, 2008 (AFP) - Governments of 70 French-speaking nations pledged to help cut global greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050, at the close of the 12th Francophonie summit on Sunday. | 20th October 2008 |
| Scientists raise alarm as Britain's seals disappear - Guardian Unlimited 'Massive decline' mirrors other marine population falls and baffles scientists. | 20th October 2008 |
| Yosemite glacier on thin ice - Sacramento Bee As signals of climate change begin to come into focus in the Sierra Nevada, its melting glaciers spell trouble in bold font. Not only are they in-your-face barometers of global warming, they also reflect what scientists are beginning to uncover: that the Sierra snowpack – the source of 65 percent of California's water – is dwindling, too. | 20th October 2008 |
| Bad news for arachnophobics - gair rhydd Global warming hasn’t just affected the icebergs but the UK’s increasingly mild climate has also caused spiders to hitch a ride on the country’s food and plant imports and manage to survive. Some new residents include the False Widow spider and scientists believe it’s only a matter of time before the poisonous Black Widow spiders invade. | 20th October 2008 |
| Geely has plans to electrify London cabs: report - Reuters LONDON (Reuters) - Chinese carmaker Geely Automobile has been in talks over the possibility of converting London's black cabs into electric-powered cars, the Financial Times reported on Monday. | 20th October 2008 |
| Nothing to fear from curbing growth - New Scientist
BACK in the 1970s, few people listened to scientists' warnings about global warming. Even fewer heeded calls to curb economic growth so we could protect the environment. Today, these ideas are starting to be appreciated. We are hearing ever more about the contradiction between hanging on to a habitable planet and the expansionary demands of the global market. Yet as Tim Jackson outlines (see "What politicians are afraid to say"), people and their governments - which continue to urge the growth agenda in Canute-like defiance of the rising waters and raging heats they have been told will ensue - are still largely in denial about this conflict. A key factor in this is the widespread presumption that becoming more sustainable will inevitably make our lives worse, which leads to green campaigners being dismissed as regressive killjoys bent on returning us to a primitive existence. Perhaps to counter this idea, those who take global warming seriously tend to focus on technical fixes that might allow us to continue with our current ways. It doesn't help that virtually all representations of pleasure and the life we should aspire to come from advertising, with its incessant message that our happiness is dependent on consuming ever more "stuff". We hear little about the joys of escaping the stress, congestion, ill-health, noise and waste that come with our "high" standard of living. In fact, there is plenty of evidence that the work-dominated and materially encumbered affluence of today is not giving us enjoyable lives, and that switching to a more sustainable society in which we work and produce less would actually make us happier. For example, rates of occupational ill-health and depression have been shown to be linked to the number of hours we work, and once a certain level of income is reached further wealth does not correlate with increased happiness. | 19th October 2008 |
| Green energy is not a middle-class conceit, more the only way forward - Independent So that's it, then, choruses the commentariat. Collapsing confidence, crashing stock markets and credit-starved banks spell doom not just for the economy, but for environmental concerns. Saving the planet may be all very well in the good times, but is an unaffordable luxury when things turn bad. The argument is pervasive, persuasive and gaining ground. Even some environmentalists half-accept it, believing they should mute their message. But it is plain wrong. Never have green concerns and measures been more important. How so? The second best reason is that this financial crisis is mild compared with the environmentally driven ones ahead. The climate crunch, the Stern report concluded, will cost a staggering 20 per cent of global growth if not averted. Peak oil – when the cheap and abundant fuel that has powered our growth becomes scarce and expensive – is likely to be even worse in its impact, reducing supplies of humanity's main source of energy, for the first time in history, before another can take its place. And neither can wait. There's a growing consensus that emissions of carbon dioxide must head sharply downwards within a decade if global warming is not to run out of control. And peak oil, a growing number of experts believe, may well arrive even sooner. But the most important reason is wholly positive. Developing a new green economy is our most promising path out of the present crisis. It is the best available new engine of growth, with the best chance of creating the tens of millions of jobs that will soon be desperately needed. | 19th October 2008 |
| A failing grade - Gristmill NOAA's arctic report card shows stronger effects of warming in Greenland and permafrost. | 19th October 2008 |
| Candidates Agree on Need to Address Global Warming - New York Times Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama part company on many issues, but they agree that the Bush administration’s policies on global warming were far too weak. Both candidates say that human-caused climate change is real and urgent, and that they would sharply diverge from President Bush’s course by proposing legislation requiring sharp cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by midcentury. | 19th October 2008 |
| Lethal build-up of ozone poses threat to UK - Guardian Unlimited Scientists call for global measures amid warnings the gas damages health and environment Trees and vegetation damaged by ozone cannot properly absorb carbon dioxide and the gas therefore has a double impact on the climate: it helps raise the temperature of the atmosphere and it hinders the planet's ability to cope with other greenhouse gases. | 19th October 2008 |
| Coal addiction: Can Australia kick the habit? - Green Left Weekly Our addiction to coal is not only killing our planet but also those who mine it, burn it and live around it, a Perth climate activist has claimed. | 19th October 2008 |
| Andrew Simms: This way happiness lies - Guardian Unlimited Andrew Simms: We should design a system in which we worship the invisible heart of society rather the invisible hand of the market economy | 19th October 2008 |
| Earth, but not as we know it - CNN Dr Jan Zalasiewicz is the author of "The Earth After Us -- What legacy will humans leave in the rocks?" His book examines what might remain of our civilization in the strata 100 million years from now, and how aliens might piece together the story of the planet and our brief but dramatic impact on it. | 17th October 2008 |
| Analysis: What would the bank-bail out money buy for the environment? - Guardian Unlimited UK: Up $4 trillion has been committed to rescue the global economy. How could that money be spent on the environment? | 17th October 2008 |
| Completely Unplugged, Fully Green - New York Times Many people who can comfortably use “carbon footprint,” “global warming” and “energy offset” in a sentence will toss a bottle or can into a blue recycling bin and call it a day. Those who are somewhat more committed may swap incandescent bulbs for compact fluorescents, rely on cloth shopping bags and turn to mass transit. Then there are people like Ms. Astyk... | 17th October 2008 |
| Italy aims for carbon-neutral farm - BBC News Italy: A range of new technologies is being installed at the farm in the central region of Umbria as part of an experiment to cut its CO2 emissions to zero over the course of the next year. They include everything from electric farm vehicles to sun-reflecting paint on storage buildings. | 17th October 2008 |
| Major tidal power plan revealed - BBC News Hundreds of jobs and heat for Prince Charles' greenhouses are identified as spin offs of project. | 17th October 2008 |
| In echo of Kingsnorth Six, US climate change activists go on trial over blockade of $1.8bn coal-fired power plant - Guardian Unlimited • Eleven face criminal charges after blockading $1.8bn plant• James Hansen offers to lend support | 17th October 2008 |
| Southern drought creeps northward - MSNBC The drought that plagued the Deep South for more than a year is creeping north, and officials in multiple states are restricting outdoor burning in the face of water shortages and forest fire risks. | 17th October 2008 |
| Water documentary flows with dread - Jam! Showbiz Wars fought around the world for oil may soon be replaced by those fought for water. | 17th October 2008 |
| EU seeks tougher rules on illegal logging - PhysOrg The European Commission on Friday proposed tighter rules against illegal logging aimed at fighting climate change and protecting forests across the world. See also: EU Move Against Illegal Timber 'Toothless' - IPS Brazil tests carbon reduction in Amazon forest - Reuters | 17th October 2008 |
| OIL SANDS-PART 2: "Where I Come From Is Ground Zero" FT. MCMURRAY, Oct 17 (IPS) - The wheels of the Caterpillar 797B, the world's largest truck, are always going round and round at Shell Canada's Albian Sands mine. | 17th October 2008 |
| UK: Another green dream? - Guardian Unlimited Ben Caldecott: Britain is setting ambitious targets on emission reductions but the government is failing to deliver See also: Michael Meacher: The climate change disconnect - Guardian Unlimited | 17th October 2008 |
| Progressive Voter Guide to the Environment - Alternet From climate change to fuel efficiency, a look at where the candidates stand on this year's top 10 environmental issues. | 17th October 2008 |
| Arctic air temperatures climb to record levels - Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fall air temperatures have climbed to record levels in the Arctic due to major losses of sea ice as the region suffers more effects from a warming trend dating back decades, a report released on Thursday showed. | 17th October 2008 |
| U.S. solar field foresees cost parity with coal, gas - Reuters SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - U.S. producers of solar power will no longer need federal subsidies within eight years because by then solar power will cost less than electricity generated by conventional power plants, industry players said this week. | 17th October 2008 |
| OIL SANDS-PART 1: Showdown at Ft. McMoney FT. MCMURRY, Canada, Oct 16 (IPS) - The sun rises in a bright, red line over flat land, small lakes, boreal forest and peat bogs as our small double engine plane bumps through early morning turbulence between Edmonton and Ft. McMurray, Canada. | 17th October 2008 |
| POVERTY: Water Wars Hit Rural Zimbabwe - IPS PLUMTREE, Oct 16 (IPS) - When water experts warned at the turn of the millennium that soon wars will be fought not over oil anymore but over water, little did Zimbabweans know that they would be some of the first people affected by this dire prediction. | 17th October 2008 |
| ENVIRONMENT: Global Financial Crisis a Bad Sign for Andean Biodiversity BARCELONA, Oct 16 (Tierramérica) - The crisis affecting the financial sector and stock markets around the world could fuel the expansion of extractive industries in South America's Andean region, warn experts. | 17th October 2008 |
| Loophole in minister's new emissions target Ed Miliband announced a tough new target for cutting Britain's greenhouse gas emissions yesterday – but excluded aviation and shipping. | 17th October 2008 |
| Leading article: No time for retreat - The Independent The European Union's credibility as a serious economic force has been restored this week by its co-ordinated manoeuvres to rescue the continent's banking sector. The task at hand now for the EU is to maintain its credibility as a serious player in the global struggle to mitigate dangerous climate change. | 17th October 2008 |
| Q: Is a global economic slowdown good for the climate? A: Of course not. Only efforts to sharply cut CO2 emissions starting immediately would be good for the climate. | 17th October 2008 |
| EU, Kyoto Carbon Link to Cut Climate Costs - Planet Ark LONDON - A link between European Union and Kyoto Protocol carbon trading schemes will allow EU companies to pay developing countries for cheap greenhouse gases emissions permits from Thursday, EU officials said. | 17th October 2008 |
| Finding a climate for growth - BBC News Can we have economic growth and cut emissions? | 17th October 2008 |
| Post-bubble possibility - Guardian Unlimited Beyond the plummeting markets and whingeing banks is a ray of hope - for a Green New Deal | 17th October 2008 |
| Ian Traynor on the consequences of delay on Europe's climate change targets - Guardian Unlimited Europe's credibility will be in tatters at the Copenhagen summit next year if its leaders cannot reach a deal beforehand on how to share the burden of climate change targets, writes Ian Traynor in Brussels | 17th October 2008 |
| Warming seas create a massive chemistry experiment - The Christian Science Monitor Rising acidity in oceans and accelerating wind patterns may lead to unexpected changes. | 17th October 2008 |
| Climate Change Threatens to Dry up the Southwest's Future The abundant water and cheap energy that have fueled the Southwest's transformation are starting to dry up. | 17th October 2008 |
| Substantial Loss Of Carbon, Nitrogen From Burned Soils -- And Connections To Warming Climate - Science Daily A new study led by the Pacific Northwest Research Station represents the first direct evidence of the toll wildfire can take on forest soil layers. It draws on data from the 2002 Biscuit Fire, which scorched some 500,000 acres in southwest Oregon. | 17th October 2008 |
| Planet Eaters - OpEdNews CHAIN REACTIONS, BLACK HOLES, CLIMATE CHANGE AND EXISTENTIALIST PHILOSOPHY. | 17th October 2008 |
| Britain to pledge legally-binding emissions cut - The Independent Britain is to sign up to a legally-binding pledge to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050, the new Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband announced today. The move makes the UK the first country in the world to commit to such swingeing cuts in the production of carbon dioxide and other gases blamed for global warming. | 16th October 2008 |
| Obama to Declare Carbon Dioxide Dangerous Pollutant If Elected - Bloomberg By Jim Efstathiou Jr. Oct. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Barack Obama will classify carbon dioxide as a dangerous pollutant that can be regulated should he win the presidential election on Nov. 4, opening the way for new rules on greenhouse gas emissions. | 16th October 2008 |
| EU vows "cost-effective" climate plan amid crisis BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union leaders planned on Thursday to appease critics of the bloc's bold plans to fight climate change amid economic turmoil with concessions to heavy industry and former communist nations. | 16th October 2008 |
| California issues plan to slash greenhouse gas emissions - Los Angeles Times Over the next 12 years, new regulations would seek to turn the climate change clock back to 1990 levels. More efficient electricity use, less traffic and cleaner cars are goals. California forged ahead Wednesday in its bold attempt to turn back the clock of climate change, issuing its final draft of an economywide plan to slash the state's greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels. | 16th October 2008 |
| Off-grid data centre powered by tidal energy planned for Scotland - Guardian Unlimited Morgan Stanley scheme sidesteps major barrier to renewables – the long wait for connection to the national grid | 16th October 2008 |
| Feeding billions - BBC News World wakes up to the global food challenge See also: Global cost - BBC News | 16th October 2008 |
| Foreboding forecast - Nature Even the most stringent of proposed climate mitigation measures may not avert dangerous climate change, shows a new analysis. An increase in global average surface temperature of 2 °C above pre-industrial values is generally considered to be the level of warming that could have serious impacts and, as such, is to be avoided. | 16th October 2008 |
| When mammals are threatened, we are threatened - CNews We humans sometimes forget that we are animals. We're mammals, and like all mammals, and indeed all animals, we are connected to and dependent on the web of life. When part of that web is in danger, we are all in danger. | 16th October 2008 |
| Climate change action is urgent: Garnaut - Sydney Morning Herald Federal government adviser Ross Garnaut is adamant Australia and other nations must press ahead with climate change initiatives regardless of the turmoil on world markets. Professor Garnaut said the global financial crisis was a short-term problem that must not stymie efforts to solve the long-term issue of global warming. | 16th October 2008 |
| Tracing the carbon in your beer, jacket, shoes, and soap - WorldChanging For household products, carbon hides in some unexpected places. | 16th October 2008 |
| Financial meltdown just a curtain-raiser to what we face with global warming - The Age There is a disconcerting similarity between the responses to global warming and those to the dud assets created through subprime lending and financial innovation. Both are examples of market failure. In both cases, banks, industries and regulators have ignored underlying risks that could devastate the global economy. The focus has been on short-term gains, where you pay the bare minimum now and pretend the day isn't coming when payment is due — or when fossil fuels run out. Where you pitch interest rate swaps, derivatives and layers of barely understood securities and then ask for a bail-out — or have urban planning that encourages more car use and freeways while paying lip service to sustainability. | 15th October 2008 |
| Why deniers out-debate 'smart talkers' - Gristmill Why scientists aren't more persuasive, part 2 NPR broadcast a now-infamous climate debate on the proposition "Global warming is not a crisis." In theory, this sounds like an easy win for the "nay" side -- "crisis" is obviously the mildest of words to describe the greatest preventable existential threat to the health and well-being of future generations. But in practice such debates are almost unwinnable, even by those who are good at debating in public, a group that does not include very many scientists. As noted in Part 1, scientists are lousy at rhetoric, the art of persuasion. Significantly, rhetoric, was discovered and developed by the Greeks and Romans in part to help them win debates, so it follows that modern debates are also won by those who are better at using the strategies and tactics of rhetoric. | 15th October 2008 |
| Build wind farms near land to cut costs, UK study finds - Reuters LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will fall woefully short of its own renewable energy targets unless the government allows wind farms to be built closer to shore, the Carbon Trust said in a report on Tuesday. | 15th October 2008 |
| Safeguarding forests could halve cost of fixing climate - Guardian Unlimited Editorial: Consider two propositions. First, avoiding climate catastrophe could require cuts in carbon emissions of as much as 80%. Second, deforestation accounts for 17% of the total. The upshot is obvious. Unless we somehow safeguard the forests, the carbon savings needed elsewhere could entail virtually shutting down the fossil fuel economy. Yesterday a government-commissioned review by the businessman Johan Eliasch spelled out this steely logic. It made an overpowering financial case for investing in the world's arboreal lungs. | 15th October 2008 |
| Alaska village faces eroded future - BBC News The BBC's Stephen Chittenden visits an Alaska village where climate change is being blamed for eating away the land. | 15th October 2008 |
| ENVIRONMENT: Going Beyond Climate Change - IPS BARCELONA, Oct 15 (IPS) - While the financial mayhem continues to draw the headlines, the cost of persistent biodiversity loss has yet to be established. But it is believed to be bigger than that of the meltdown, and in many cases also irreparable. | 15th October 2008 |
| German Coal Consumption Fell 7.9% in June, July, Curbing CO2 - Bloomberg Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) -- German coal consumption by power utilities fell 7.9 percent in June and July, curbing emissions of carbon dioxide gas in Europe's biggest economy, government statistics show. | 15th October 2008 |
| A president with an energy plan - Los Angeles Times Neither nuclear nor 'clean coal' will solve the crisis. | 15th October 2008 |
| Cold feet on climate change? - Guardian Unlimited Now is not the time for inefficiency or backpedalling on EU policies, despite the faltering climate pact. | 15th October 2008 |
| Global warming could wipe out roos - ScienceAlert A new study published in the December issue of the University of Chicago’s Physiological and Biochemical Zoology finds that an increase in average temperature of only two degrees Celsius could have a devastating effect on populations of Australia’s iconic kangaroos. [so much for saving the planet by eating kangaroo meat...] | 15th October 2008 |
| Army of loft insulators to cut gas bills and tackle climate change - Guardian Unlimited Gordon Brown announces large numbers of draft-proofers to provide jobs, aid poor, and help environment | 15th October 2008 |
| This Is What Denial Does - George Monbiot The economic crisis is petty by comparison to the nature crunch. But they have the same cause. | 14th October 2008 |
| Time to invest in nature's capital - BBC News Amid the global financial crisis, it is time to recognise the wealth we enjoy from nature's capital, says Andrew Mitchell, director of the Global Canopy Programme. In this week's Green Room, he argues that there will be no government bailout if we fail to protect the vital services provided by the world's forests. See also: Tony Juniper: John Eliasch is right: we need a global fund to pay for rainforests - Guardian Unlimited Rich countries must pay for rainforests: UK report - Reuters Forest plan may 'fuel corruption' - BBC News | 14th October 2008 |
| Cooking The Carbon Books - Forbes Is Europe really reducing emissions, or just outsourcing them to the developing world? | 14th October 2008 |
| Met Office issues strongest warning yet on climate change - The Edinburgh Journal A three per cent cut on global emissions from 2010 is the only way to avoid rising sea levels and drought, Met Office researchers say. See also: Ecologists raise alarm ahead of UN climate summit - SpaceDaily | 14th October 2008 |
| MEDIA: Time for a Global Glasnost, Says Gorbachev - IPS Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev has warned against the danger of letting the global financial crisis and other emergencies overshadow media attention on climate change. "This financial turmoil, which will heavily affect the real economy, was absolutely predictable, and it is only one aspect of the wider crisis of all the current development systems," Gorbachev, former president of the former Soviet Union and the 1990 Nobel Peace laureate told IPS in an interview. "In fact, there are connected simultaneous crises that are rapidly emerging. These relate to energy, water, food, demography, climate change and the ecosystem devastation." | 14th October 2008 |
| Brit's Eye View: Is this the end of capitalism as we know it? - Gristmill By Ben TuxworthBen Tuxworth, communications director at Forum for the Future, writes a monthly column for Gristmill on sustainability in the U.K. and Europe. ----- It's official: we haven't had a financial crisis like this since at least 1603, and commentators here in the U.K. seem to agree that things can never be the same again. Capitalism, if not in question, will be a very different beast from now on. Think donkey on short leash. It's all a bit frightening, and though we're still in the midst of the storm, a growing band of voices here in the U.K. | 14th October 2008 |
| Global Warming – Impact Of Climate Change On Global Agriculture - CattleNetwork.com Our efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change, urgent as they are, will have little effect over the next 50 years. Changes during this period have already been set in motion by past greenhouse gas emissions. | 14th October 2008 |
| Bleak warning that UK fish face extinction - Guardian Unlimited Severe overfishing biggest environmental threat facing Britain today, says Marine Conservation Society | 14th October 2008 |
| Dear Mr. Next President -- Food, Food, Food We must move into the post-oil era to improve the health of the American people and to mitigate climate change. See also: Cool Cuisine: Taking the Bite Out of Global Warming - Energy Bulletin | 14th October 2008 |
| Grim Outlook for World Food - Asia Sentinel Food scarcity and the challenges of climate change and bio energy | 14th October 2008 |
| Ethiopia: $265M needed for worsening drought - AP via Yahoo! News An Ethiopian minister says his country urgently needs US$265 million to feed 6.4 million people affected by drought. | 14th October 2008 |
| 2008 tornado season could blow away records - USA Today The 2008 tornado season is on track to set a record for the number of tornadoes in the USA, according to National Weather Service data. | 14th October 2008 |
| Warmer water devastates reef's seabirds - The Australian GLOBAL warming has been blamed for dramatic declines in seabird populations on the Great Barrier Reef and surrounding waters. Tens of thousands of seabirds are failing to breed because warmer water from more frequent and intense El Nino events means there is insufficient food to raise their young, according to research compiled by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. Warm water near the surface forces fish, plankton and other prey into deeper water, where it cannot be reached by seabirds. | 14th October 2008 |
| Massive Wildfires Rage In California - WSB-TV 2 Atlanta Two people are reported dead and dozens of homes are in ruins as several wildfires scorch California. | 14th October 2008 |
| Antarctic Krill study projects damage from carbon emissions - ABC Radio Australia Australian scientists say a study on the effect increased carbon dixide has on Antarctic Krill has uncovered some worrying signs for the future. | 14th October 2008 |
| Byproduct of steel shows potential in CO2 sequestration - PhysOrg With steelworks around the world emitting huge amounts of carbon dioxide, scientists are reporting that a byproduct of steel production could be used to absorb that greenhouse gas to help control global warming. The study is scheduled for the October 15 issue of ACS' Industrial Engineering Chemistry Research. | 14th October 2008 |
| Barrage 'could benefit wildlife' - BBC News The proposed Severn Barrage could encourage more diverse wildlife, one researcher says. | 14th October 2008 |
| Credit or climate? - Guardian Unlimited An EU-commissioned study found that the global economy is losing more money from the disappearance of forests than through the current banking crisis, with an annual cost of forest loss set between $2 trillion and $5 trillion. Which is the biggest threat? | 14th October 2008 |
| 'Too late' to save polar bears - survey - News Interactive ONE in five Australians believe it is too late to save polar bears from extinction ? and experts are not much more optimistic. | 14th October 2008 |
| Environmental crime worth $10 billion per year - Mongabay.com Environmental crime is generating $10 billion a year in revenue for gangsters and criminal syndicates reports the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) in a paper released today. The assessment cites the wildlife trafficking, smuggling of ozone-depleting compounds and global-warming chemicals, the illicit trade in hazardous waste, and illegal fishing and logging. | 14th October 2008 |
| Lloyd Evans on Thomas Friedman - Spectator.co.uk Thomas Friedman, the influential American commentator, addressed Intelligence Squared on his new book, ‘Hot, Flat and Crowded. Why the world needs a green revolution and how we can renew our global future.’ To those who question climate change he says, ‘you can jump out of an 80-storey building and for 79 floors you think you're flying. ... | 14th October 2008 |
| Warmer climate to dry up peatlands - Reuters HONG KONG (Reuters) - Warmer temperatures in the years ahead will dry up peatlands, release more carbon dioxide into the world's atmosphere and aggravate global warming, a study in Japan has found. | 13th October 2008 |
| From energy efficiency to war: thinktank sees 2030 climate future - AFP via Yahoo! News The challenge posed by climate change could be resolved by a peaceful switch to a low-carbon economy, or alternatively inflict stresses that could include war and desertification of swathes of the US and Australia, a thinktank said on Monday. | 13th October 2008 |
| World 'to fail' on nature target - BBC News The world's governments will fail to meet their agreed target of curbing biodiversity loss by 2010, according to experts questioned by BBC News. | 13th October 2008 |
| BC birds at risk: populations plummet - Vancouver Sun Surveys show massive reductions in Fraser River estuary's birds that feed on insects | 13th October 2008 |
| SOUTHERN CHILE GLACIAL LAKE DISAPPEARS - AGAIN - Santiago Times The Cachet 2 glacial lake, located in the southern Chilean region of Aysén (Region XI), disappeared last week for the second time in six months. The lake spilled into the nearby Baker River, possibly due to a phenomenon some say is related to global warming. | 13th October 2008 |
| World Food Scarcity and the Challenges of Climate Change and Bio Energy - The Seoul Times The theme for this year's WFD is ‘World Food Scarcity : The Challenges Of Climate Change And Bio Energy' as there is a strong need to expand global awareness to reduce the effect of severe climate patterns on agriculture and the impact of bio fuels on food production. | 13th October 2008 |
| Carbon Tax Seen as Best Way to Slow Global Warming - Planet Ark NEW YORK - Climate taxes, not cap and trade markets alone, will lead to the vast technological changes the world's energy system needs to fight global warming, a top US economist said on Thursday. | 13th October 2008 |
| End of our affair with air travel? - The Independent Air travel is declining for the first time in almost 20 years, The Independent on Sunday discloses today. Airline failures, harder economic times and a dismal airport experience have caused a sharp downturn in the number of travellers boarding planes at British airports. | 13th October 2008 |
| Global warming gets U.S. political cold shoulder - CNews The global economic crisis has thrown a political chill over one of the main initiatives under consideration in the United States to combat global warming: the so-called cap-and-trade plan. | 13th October 2008 |
| PBS Turns Up the ‘Heat' - TVWeek On Tues., Oct. 21, “Frontline” will air “Heat,” a two-hour investigation of how the world’s largest corporations and governments are responding to climate change caused by global warming. “Heat” is part of the “PBS Vote 2008” election coverage in acknowledgement of the more urgent role of environmental issues in the 2008 presidential campaign. | 13th October 2008 |
| Strategic-voting initiatives target vulnerable Conservatives - Globe and Mail Canada: “It is so much more important to change your leaders than change your light bulbs,” | 13th October 2008 |
| David Suzuki hosts The Current - CBC (audio) For almost two years, the environment -- and especially climate change -- has been near the top of the list of Canadians' concerns. But now, the American economy is on the verge of collapse and it's threatening to take the rest of the world's markets down with it. There's even discussion about how to bail out Canadian banks, should it come to that. In the midst of this, politicians are sensing panic and now the economy is THE issue in the federal election campaign. So clearly, a lot has changed since the concept of "economy" was first hatched. Now, with all this talk about the economy, it's worth reminding ourselves where the term comes from and what it meant when the ancient Greeks first conceived of it. So here's Ephraim Lytle with a brief history lesson. He's teaches Hellenistic History and specializes in Ancient Greek Economy at the University of Toronto. For some people elections, government and huge bureaucracies aren't where the real political action is it's in community gardens, do-it-yourself bike repair shops and communities of computers programmers collaborating on new software to give away to whoever wants it. Chris Carlsson joined David Suzuki from San Francisco. | 12th October 2008 |
| ENVIRONMENT-CHILE: Pedalling Against Pollution - IPS SANTIAGO, Oct 11 (Tierramérica) - As greenhouse gas emissions drive global warming and fuel prices continue to soar, pedalling has come back in style in many cities of the industrialised world. In Chile, as well, public bicycle services, bike routes and special parking areas are some of the initiatives currently being developed. | 12th October 2008 |
| The green lining to this chaos - The Independent There are two responses to the financial crisis that are wrong. One is to say that we can forget all that goody-goody guff about the environment now that people are worrying about how to pay next week's bills. The other is to say that our culture of consumption has been exposed as unsustainable and that we must abandon capitalism for a life that is closer to nature. Today we outline a middle way. See also: Don't pay for a failed system - Green Left Weekly | 12th October 2008 |
| Drought the hottest ever - Queensland Country Life The current and on-going drought ranks along side the Federation and World War II droughts as one of Australia's worst, but new figures show it has also been the hottest of all the big dries. | 12th October 2008 |
| Climate change ground zero - Sydney Morning Herald The earth is disappearing from under the feet of millions of impoverished Bangladeshis. Increased temperatures mean a torrent of additional melt-water from Himalayan glaciers is gushing down the great rivers of India - the Ganges and the Brahmaputra - into the Bangladeshi delta, causing savage erosion. At the same time coastal areas are being gradually flooded by rising sea levels. If that wasn't enough, Bhola is cyclone-prone and likely to experience more frequent and extreme storms as sea temperatures rise because of global warming. | 12th October 2008 |
| Waterborne Disease Risk Upped In Great Lakes - Pollution Online In a report published recently (Oct. 7, 2008) in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, a team of Wisconsin researchers reports that a trend toward extreme weather such as the monsoon-like rainfall events that occurred in many parts of the region this past spring is likely to aggravate the risk for outbreaks of waterborne disease in the Great Lakes region. | 12th October 2008 |
| Westminster protester prepared to risk jail in cause of climate change - Guardian Unlimited On the eve of another demo against airport expansion, would-be priest Tamsin Omond is resigned to breaching her bail terms | 12th October 2008 |
| US wildfires pushed ozone past legal limits - New Scientist Californian fires in 2007 pushed levels of the pollutant way past what is considered safe - the effects may have been felt as far as Nevada | 11th October 2008 |
| New estimates on global warming - The Christian Science Monitor The global climate could warm by 2.5 degrees F. by the end of the century, even if countries undertake stringent efforts to curb greenhouse-gas emissions, according to a new study from a team of climate scientists in the United States, China, Japan, and five European nations. This figure is more than twice as high as the level cited in the most recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), when it estimated how much global warming could occur even if nations froze emission at year-2000 levels. | 11th October 2008 |
| Economic competitiveness: easy when taxpayers pay to clean up your mess - Gristmill Canadian oil sands will pollute the Great Lakes Speaking of studies on oil sands, there's another one out of the University of Toronto showing that oil sands will pollute the Great Lakes, reversing decades of cleanup efforts in the region. | 11th October 2008 |
| U.N. says credit crisis could enable "green growth" - Reuters UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Instead of sidelining the fight against climate change, the global credit crisis could hasten countries' efforts to create "green growth" industries by revamping the financial system behind them, the U.N. climate chief said on Friday. | 11th October 2008 |
| AFRICA: Research and Tradition Could Save Environment - IPS CAPE TOWN, Oct 10 (IPS) - Africa risks losing up to 50 percent of its indigenous species over the next century due to global warming. | 11th October 2008 |
| ENVIRONMENT-US: Florida Hopes Energy Farm Will Be First of Many - IPS TAMPA, Florida, Oct 10 (IPS) - If an experiment to plant sweet sorghum in rural Florida and convert it to fuel ethanol pans out, it could herald a fundamental change in how the U.S. and other countries create and use renewable bio-energy, researchers say. | 11th October 2008 |
| Longest, hottest drought on record - The Australian THE long drought affecting southern Australia is officially the worst on record. | 11th October 2008 |
| Climate challenge - BBC News Don't cut emissions targets, UK's new energy sec says See also: Green alarm as EU ministers mull climate opt-outs - Reuters | 11th October 2008 |
| The One Issue All the Candidates Are Wrong On - Alternet Palin and McCain have always been for it. Joe Biden was sort of against it before he was for it and Barack Obama embraces it. | 11th October 2008 |
| NASA Maps Shed Light on Carbon Dioxide's Global Nature - PhysOrg A NASA/university team has published the first global satellite maps of the key greenhouse gas carbon dioxide in Earth's mid-troposphere, an area about 8 kilometers, or 5 miles, above Earth. The team's study reveals new information on how carbon dioxide, which directly contributes to climate change, is distributed in Earth's atmosphere and moves around our world. | 11th October 2008 |
| Business: ILLEGAL LOGGING ALARMING - Island Business THE PARADISE FORESTS OF INDONESIA, PAPUA New Guinea and the Solomon Islands are falling at an alarming rate. Every year 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions come from the logging of natural and ancient forests. Illegal and destructive logging in PNG is fuelling global warming which is melting icecaps, contributing to the drowning of Pacific Islands Countries and low-lying areas in PNG. PNG’s forests can either help fight climate change if left standing or put the foot on the accelerator of global warming if the destructive and illegal logging continues. | 11th October 2008 |
| Nature loss 'dwarfs bank crisis' - BBC News The global economy loses more money from deforestation than the current banking crisis, says an EU-commissioned report. | 10th October 2008 |
| Sierra climate change puts range's species on the run - Sacbee YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK: One century ago, alpine chipmunks owned the upper half of Yosemite. They skittered under logs and darted across rocks from the rugged Sierra crest down to the conifer forests at 7,800 feet. Today, they are missing in action below 9,800 feet. "It's lost half its geographic range," Patton said. "Climate is the culprit. I don't think there is any iota of reason not to think that." See also: Climate change may threaten biodiversity in tropics | 10th October 2008 |
| Birds' decline shows wider damage to nature: study - Reuters BARCELONA, Spain (Reuters) - Dwindling numbers of birds worldwide are a sign that governments are failing to keep promises to slow damage to nature by 2010, an international report said on Thursday. | 10th October 2008 |
| Carbon tax seen as best way to slow global warming - Reuters NEW YORK (Reuters) - Climate taxes, not cap and trade markets alone, will lead to the vast technological changes the world's energy system needs to fight global warming, a top U.S. economist said on Thursday. ,See also: Canada -The case for carbon taxes - Georgia Straight | 10th October 2008 |
| U.S. focus on climate could ease financial crisis - Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) - If the United States focused on curbing climate change as soon as a new president took office -- or sooner -- it could help pull the world from the financial brink, environmental policy experts told Reuters. | 10th October 2008 |
| Warm welcome for house powered by hydrogen fuel cell - Guardian Unlimited House in Lye, near Stourbridge, will be opened as the first of its kind connected to the national grid | 10th October 2008 |
| France eyes CO2 opt-outs for industry - Reuters LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - The European Union's French presidency sought on Thursday to defuse mounting opposition to EU climate goals by offering opt-outs for some industries and countries that fear economic damage, angering environmentalists. | 10th October 2008 |
| Some countries sidestep Kyoto rules with land 'donations' - PhysOrg (PhysOrg.com) -- When is a park a meaningful piece of protected land and when is it merely a political gesture? | 10th October 2008 |
| Expansion of Stansted wins Hoon approval - Independent The UK Government has been accused of reneging on its commitment to tackle climate change and ignoring local opinion after it stepped in to approve a major expansion of Stansted. | 10th October 2008 |
| Clean-Air Policies May Accelerate Warming Trend, Scientist Says - Bloomberg Oct. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Cleaning air in Beijing and in other large cities suffering from pollution problems by limiting car and power-plant emissions may raise global temperatures instead of lowering them, according to a German scientist. | 10th October 2008 |
| Wishful Thinking: On Al Gore and Civil Disobedience - It's Getting Hot In Here Instead of talking and blogging about it, more of us in the youth climate movement (as well as the elder climate movement) need to get out from behind our computer screens into the streets and into the gears of these coal and oil companies. Global warming is not stopping itself. | 10th October 2008 |
| Put your call for action on climate change on the map! - CNW Telbec Canadians across the country are publicly showing that climate change is a key voting issue this election. In the past two weeks Voters Taking Action on Climate Change (VTACC) has distributed over 1000 'I'm voting for REAL action on climate change' lawn signs to citizens across the country, adding to the 1000 already on people's lawns from Victoria to St. John's and Whitehorse to Hamilton. In addition to displaying the signs in their yards, Canadians are now expressing their calls for action on a new web-based map of Canada. This map, found on the VTACC web site, provides a forum for people to voice their concerns about climate change. To access the map go to: http://www.vtacc.org/gmap.html | 10th October 2008 |
| The Power of the nonrational - Energy Bulletin The different reception accorded to warnings about global climate change, on the one hand, and peak oil, on the other, demand explanation. Why has one been turned into a cause célèbre while the other remains marginalized? The answer lies in the underlying beliefs, nonrational but emotionally powerful, that define the two visions of the future. | 9th October 2008 |
| Indian Politics Makes Climate a Tough Sell - Planet Ark NEW DELHI - India's raucous democracy, endemic poverty and soaring economic ambition make targetting greenhouse gas emissions cuts a hard sell, even as global pressure mounts on the government to do more on climate change. | 9th October 2008 |
| Climate change could force millions from homes - Reuters BARCELONA, Spain (Reuters) - Environmental damage such as desertification or flooding caused by climate change could force millions of peoples from their homes in the next few decades, experts said on Wednesday. | 9th October 2008 |
| One-metre sea-level rise this century, scientists say - EARTHtimes.org Global warming calculations have been too optimistic, and the sea level round the globe is likely to rise a full metre this century, two senior German scientists warned Wednesday. Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, who heads the Potsdam Institute for Research on Global Warming Effects and Jochem Marotzke, a leading meteorologist, said UN-backed data on climate change, predicting a rise of 18 to 59 centimetres, was out of date. "We now have to expect that the sea level will rise by a metre this century," said Schellnhuber in Berlin. | 9th October 2008 |
| Are shiny hothouses keeping Spain cool? - New Scientist The roofs of Spanish horticulture hothouses are reflecting so much sunlight that local temperatures have cooled in recent decades | 9th October 2008 |
| Mushroom enzyme could strip pollutants from fuel cells - Guardian Unlimited A chemical found in mushrooms could one day replace the expensive and polluting heavy metals at the heart of fuel cells and conventional batteries, say chemists at Oxford University, boosting the development of clean power. They have demonstrated that laccase, an enzyme produced by fungi that grow on rotting wood, can be used as a cheaper and more efficient catalyst. Fuel cells use chemical ... | 9th October 2008 |
| Economic crisis impels EU climate fight: Barroso - Reuters BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The financial crisis increases the urgency of European Union efforts to cut carbon dioxide emissions by weaning itself off imported oil and gas, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said on Wednesday. See also: Economics seen bolstering case to protect nature - Reuters | 9th October 2008 |
| US environmentalists criticise World Bank on climate change ahead of annual meeting in Washington - Guardian Ahead of the World Bank annual meeting in Washington this weekend, an alliance of US environmental campaigners today stepped up their criticism of the Bank's proposed funds to combat climate change | 9th October 2008 |
| Britain lobbies MEPs in attempt to weaken laws for greener cars - Guardian Unlimited Briefing indicates support for similar proposals by French and German governments | 9th October 2008 |
Renewable energy: News Scientist Feature (subscription required)
| 9th October 2008 |
| Rising Acidity in the Ocean: The Other CO2 Problem - Scientific American Climate change caused by rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) is now widely recognized. But the other side of the equation—the massive absorption of CO2 by the ocean—has received far less attention. The planet’s seas quickly absorb 25 to 30 percent of humankind’s CO2 emissions and about 85 percent in the long run, as water and air mix at the ocean’s surface. We have “disposed” of 530 billion tons of the gas in this way, and the rate worldwide is now one million tons per hour, faster than experienced on earth for tens of millions of years. We are acidifying the ocean and fundamentally changing its remarkably delicate geochemical balance. Scientists are only beginning to investigate the consequences, but comparable natural changes in our geologic history have caused several mass extinctions throughout the earth’s waters. | 8th October 2008 |
| Back carbon tax, leading economists tell politicians - Ottawa Citizen Canada: More than 230 academic economists have signed an open letter to the leaders of the federal political parties, urging them to acknowledge that putting a price on carbon is "the best approach" to combatting climate change. | 8th October 2008 |
| Geothermal energy development gathers steam - CNNMoney.com An unusual combination of economic and environmental forces have created a "perfect storm" that could help geothermal shed its back-seat status to its renewable cousins wind and solar energy, experts said at an international conference. | 8th October 2008 |
| Green Policies Can Have Big Economic Spinoffs - UN - Planet Ark BARCELONA, Spain - The credit crunch is distracting from a shift to green policies that have big but often overlooked economic benefits, the head of the UN Environment Programme said on Monday. | 8th October 2008 |
| Canal plan to power 45,000 homes - BBC Turbines along British canals and rivers could power 45,000 homes within five years under new plans. | 8th October 2008 |
| Solar power and plug-in hybrids win big - Gristmill By Joseph RommThe bailout legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush on Friday has a $17 billion energy tax package. This post will focus on the clean energy credits. Part 2 will focus on the dirty ones. The biggest winner is certainly solar. As Scott Sklar, former head of the Solar Energy Industries Association and now President of the Stella Group summarizes: This package extends the 30-percent federal investment tax credit for both residential and commercial solar, small wind, ground-coupled heat pumps installations from 4 - 8 years. This bill also completely eliminates the $2,000 monetary cap for residential solar electric installations. | 8th October 2008 |
| What links the retreat of Jakobshavn Isbrae, Wilkins Ice Shelf and the Petermann Glacier? - RealClimate Guest commentary from Mauri Pelto Changes occurring in marine terminating outlet glaciers of the Greenland Ice Sheet and ice shelves fringing the Antarctic Peninsula have altered our sense of the possible rate of response of large ice sheet-ice shelf systems. There is a shared mechanism at work that has emerged from the detailed observations of a number of researchers, that is the key to the onset and progression of the ice retreat. This mechanism is shared despite the vastly different nature of the environments of Jakobshavns Isbrae, Wilkins Ice Shelf and the Petermann Glacier. We reviewed in a previous post the first mechanism for explaining the change in velocity of Greenland's large outlet glacier - the Zwally effect - and why it is not the key. | 8th October 2008 |
| Early birds get to survive changing climate - New Scientist Birds that haven't adjusted to the realities of a warming world are worse off than their more flexible counterparts, suggests a first-of-a-kind study | 8th October 2008 |
| Disease warning on climate change - BBC News Climate change may hasten the spread of diseases that can move from wild animals to humans, researchers warn. | 8th October 2008 |
| Climate change poised to devastate penguins: WWF - SpaceDaily BARCELONA, Oct 8 (AFP) Oct 08, 2008 Half to three-quarters of major Antarctic penguin colonies could be damaged or wiped out if global temperatures are allowed to climb by more than two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), according to a report released Wednesday. | 8th October 2008 |
| Economic woes may give planet a breather - Reuters NICOSIA (Reuters) - A slowdown in the world economy may give the planet a breather from the excessively high carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions responsible for climate change, a Nobel Prize winning scientist said on Tuesday. See also: Global financial crisis may help Amazon rainforest | 8th October 2008 |
| ENVIRONMENT: Climate Action Could Escape Financial Crisis - IPS BARCELONA, Oct 7 (IPS) - Enter the global financial crisis - exit action on climate change? That lingering apprehension is not shared by Pamela Cox, the World Bank's vice-president for Latin America and the Caribbean. | 8th October 2008 |
| Turning CO2 into fuel - CNN You might have thought that recycling was limited to paper, plastics and glass. Well, think again. A Californian company is developing a new technique for recycling CO2 and turning it back into fuel. | 8th October 2008 |
| Arctic soil reveals climate change clues - PhysOrg Frozen arctic soil contains nearly twice the greenhouse-gas-producing organic material as was previously estimated, according to recently published research by University of Alaska Fairbanks scientists. | 8th October 2008 |
| ENERGY: Governments Must Lead on Renewables, says Shell CEO - IPS BARCELONA, Oct 8 (IPS) - Royal Dutch Shell, with an annual turnover of more than 350 billion dollars from extracting oil and gas, mainly in third world countries, says it is up to governments rather than companies like Shell to take the lead in finding solutions for a sustainable energy future. | 8th October 2008 |
| European parliament votes for carbon emissions standards for electricity generation - Guardian Unlimited Plans for new heavily polluting coal-fired power stations were dealt a blow when MEPs voted for tough regulations which would force companies to fit expensive equipment to trap the emissions | 8th October 2008 |
| Nearly half of FTSE-250 companies keep their carbon footprints hidden - Guardian Unlimited Coy corporations include Thomas Cook and the InterContinental Hotels Group | 8th October 2008 |
| Mark Lynas: If this is a New Deal, it must be a Green New Deal - Guardian Unlimited Mark Lynas: We must ensure that tackling climate change is not forgotten but put at the heart of any rescue plan for the economy | 8th October 2008 |
| Map reveals species most at risk from climate change - New Scientist A huge project aims to work out which species most need help to survive climate change – of the 17,000 species assessed, over a third are at risk | 8th October 2008 |
| A Green Bailout: We Need Help for People Who Want to Save the Planet - AlterNet Don't give platinum parachutes to those who wrecked the economy, let's throw a green lifeline to the people who want to rebuild it. | 7th October 2008 |
| Food crises could swing future UK elections, says thinktank - Guardian Unlimited UK food system unable to cope with rapid changes in supply driven by factors such as climate change | 7th October 2008 |
| NASA study finds rising Arctic storm activity sways sea ice, climate - PhysOrg A new NASA study shows that the rising frequency and intensity of arctic storms over the last half century, attributed to progressively warmer waters, directly provoked acceleration of the rate of arctic sea ice drift, long considered by scientists as a bellwether of climate change. | 7th October 2008 |
| EU's climate package 'in crisis' - BBC News The EU's attempt to lead the world on climate change will crumble unless its current policy crisis is resolved, a study warns. | 7th October 2008 |
| Green subsidy for car makers is disguised corporate bail-out - Guardian Unlimited Having long sabotaged eco-innovations, the motor industry is now demanding billions to cut its carbon emissions | 7th October 2008 |
| Now is the time to tackle global warming - Lord Stern - Guardian Unlimited Peer recommends spending on renewable and low-carbon industries to stimulate economy | 7th October 2008 |
| End use of fossil fuels in 20 years, UK warned - Guardian Unlimited Britain must 'decarbonise the power sector by 2030', the government's climate change watchdog warns | 7th October 2008 |
| ENVIRONMENT: Twisted As Unnaturally as the Banks - IPS BARCELONA, Oct 6 (IPS) - The financial meltdown in most of the industrialised world presents an opportunity for a new economic model that would end short-sighted search for high returns, according to leading economists attending the IUCN World Conservation Congress here. | 7th October 2008 |
| Nuclear power back on German political agenda- - Reuters BIBLIS, Germany (Reuters) - The vat of still blue water containing enriched uranium rods at Germany's oldest nuclear plant looks as harmless as a public swimming pool. | 7th October 2008 |
| U.N. sees risks mounting for global warming fight - Reuters LONDON/BARCELONA (Reuters) - The struggle against climate change must not follow world trade talks into limbo as risks mount that the credit crisis will sap commitment to the fight, the U.N. climate chief said on Monday. | 7th October 2008 |
| West putting climate treaty in jeopardy, China warns - New Scientist Rich countries are failing to deliver on promises and threaten "son of Kyoto" global warming pact with failure, top climate envoy says | 7th October 2008 |
| We Are One President Away From a Future of Fossil Fuel Addiction - AlterNet America's energy and climate future will be determined by what the nation decides to do with its deposits of oil shale. | 7th October 2008 |
| Global Warming: Beyond the Tipping Point - Scientific American The world's most outspoken climatologist argues that today's carbon dioxide levels are already dangerously too high. What can we do if he is right? | 6th October 2008 |
| Global warming set change eating - The Australian A report to be released by the CSIRO today says changes in temperature, ocean currents, rainfall and extreme weather events could cost Australian fisheries tens of million of dollars. Hardest hit could be stocks of Tasmanian salmon, estimated to be worth $221million in 2005-06 and representing 30 per cent of the total national aquaculture production. The report says projected ocean warming of 2-3 degrees by 2070 could render salmon farming unviable, leaving open the possibility of salmon farmers having to shift their operations offshore to deeper, cooler waters. | 6th October 2008 |
| Scientists Develop Solar Cells With a Twist - Planet Ark CHICAGO - US researchers have found a way to make efficient silicon-based solar cells that are flexible enough to be rolled around a pencil and transparent enough to be used to tint windows on buildings or cars. | 6th October 2008 |
| ENVIRONMENT: EU Stepping Back from Cleaning Up - IPS BRUSSELS, Oct 6 (IPS) - Most of the European Union's promised cuts in greenhouse emissions could be undertaken outside the bloc under a proposal to be considered by law-makers this week. See also: Greece ‘signs pact' to delay CO2 plan - Kathimerini Brussels readies for 'Super Tuesday' climate vote - EurActiv | 6th October 2008 |
| Peru Studies Climate Riddle as the World Heats Up - Planet Ark LIMA - Scientists are using everything from a yellow submarine to weather balloons and special airplanes to solve a climate conundrum: why is Peru getting colder while the rest of the world heats up? | 6th October 2008 |
| Shanghai highrises could worsen threat of rising seas - Reuters Shanghai, China's most populous city and an aspiring global financial center, is also among the world's most vulnerable urban areas to a rise in sea levels as global warming melts polar ice. Its location on a low-lying alluvial plain near the mouth of Asia's longest river, the Yangtze, had already left it prone, but researchers warn that forests of skyscrapers sprouting across the ambitious metropolis could compound the threat by causing its marshy ground to sink. | 6th October 2008 |
| New charges on shipping could help climate - Guardian Unlimited 'Fuel tax' proceeds to go towards implementing green technology in developing nations | 6th October 2008 |
| Peter Preston: Slicing up Whitehall - Guardian Unlimited Peter Preston: Merging the energy and climate departments sells short the supreme threat of global warming | 6th October 2008 |
| Companies 'need green directors' - BBC News Businesses must change their attitude to green issues, the World Conservation Congress is told as it opens. | 6th October 2008 |
| Reuters Summit-China grim on prospects for climate pact - AlertNet Source: Reuters (For other news from the Reuters Environment Summit, click on http://www.reuters.com/summit/Environment08?pid=500) By Chris Buckley and Emma Graham-Harrison BEIJING, Oct 6 (Reuters) - Negotiations ... | 6th October 2008 |
| Ground-level ozone pollution to increase - The Independent Ground-level ozone pollution is contributing to hundreds of deaths a year in the UK - and climate change could help make the situation worse, a report from the Royal Society warned today. | 6th October 2008 |
| Climate change and energy policies lack cohesion, says Oxfam report - Guardian Unlimited New energy and climate change secretary faces calls to unify government approach to environmental problems | 6th October 2008 |
| We're 'bored' by climate change - The Courier Mail AUSTRALIANS are becoming bored with the issue of climate change and many still doubt whether it is actually happening, according to a new survey. | 6th October 2008 |
| Seas turn to acid as they soak up CO2 - Guardian Unlimited Waters near Naples have seen plant and fish biodiversity drop by 30% due to 'ocean acidification' | 5th October 2008 |
| Beaches once thick with birds quiet thanks to Ike - PhysOrg (AP) -- One of North America's renowned bird migration and bird watching areas is strangely silent. Blame Hurricane Ike. | 5th October 2008 |
| Britain's rivers could run dry - Guardian Unlimited Flows in Severn and Mersey in summer could drop by up to 80 per cent by 2050, experts warn | 5th October 2008 |
| Russians Say Global Warming Happening - Angus Reid (Angus Reid Global Monitor) - More people in Russia believe that climate change is a reality now, according to a poll by the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center. 51 per cent of respondents say global warming is already happening, up six points since May 2007. | 5th October 2008 |
| Ecologists fear EU diluting climate change battle plans - SpaceDaily BRUSSELS, Oct 5 (AFP) Oct 05, 2008 European Union plans to tackle climate change reach a crucial phase on Tuesday with votes in the EU parliament, amid fears among green groups that pressure from industry is watering the proposals down. | 5th October 2008 |
| 2008 probably represents the lowest volume of Arctic sea ice on record - National Snow and Ice Data Center NSIDC Research Scientist Walt Meier said, �Warm ocean waters helped contribute to ice losses this year, pushing the already thin ice pack over the edge. In fact, preliminary data indicates that 2008 probably represents the lowest volume of Arctic sea ice on record, partly because less multiyear ice is surviving now, and the remaining ice is so thin. | 4th October 2008 |
| U.N. seeks $20 million for drought victims in Syria - Reuters GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations appealed on Friday for $20 million to help one million people in Syria cope with the country's worst drought in four decades. | 4th October 2008 |
| Gas From the Past Gives Scientists New Insights into Climate and the Oceans - PhysOrg (PhysOrg.com) -- In recent years, public discussion of climate change has included concerns that increased levels of carbon dioxide will contribute to global warming, which in turn may change the circulation in the earth's oceans, with potentially disastrous consequences. The researchers discovered that elevations in carbon dioxide levels were related to subsequent increases in the Earth's temperature as well as reduced circulation of ocean currents in the North Atlantic. The data also suggests that carbon dioxide levels increased along with the weakening of mixing of waters in the Southern Ocean. This, the researchers say, may point to potential future scenario where global warming causes changes in ocean currents which in turn causes more carbon dioxide to enter the atmosphere, adding more greenhouse gas to an already warming climate. | 4th October 2008 |
| Economic turmoil could scupper EU climate plans - New Scientist The European Union was planning to impose limits on CO emissions from cars, but car makers argue that the financial crisis will make the targets impossible to achieve | 4th October 2008 |
| Tsunami threat 'is growing in UK' - BBC News Climate change is increasing the risk of tsunami affecting the UK, scientists claim in a BBC TV programme. | 4th October 2008 |
| UK MPs tipped to call for greater cut in carbon emissions - Guardian Unlimited The UK's independent climate change committee is expected to recommend next week that the government sets a binding target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% by 2050, campaigners say. The increase in the target from 60%, hinted at by the prime minister, Gordon Brown, in his party conference speech last month, would bring the UK in line with several other governments including Germany, France and California, although the British target would have the strongest enforcement. | 4th October 2008 |
| How white roofs shine bright green - The Christian Science Monitor Can you help save the planet by painting your roof white? Hashem Akbari thinks so. Global warming's complexity and momentum have led to a try-everything approach by scientists. In that spirit, Dr. Akbari offers his simple yet profound innovation for slowing that warming way down. It has long been known that a white roof makes a dwelling cooler. | 4th October 2008 |
| Climate change stocks fall more than wider markets - Reuters via Yahoo! UK & Ireland News Shares in companies specializing in curbing greenhouse gas emissions, including energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies, have tumbled faster than wider markets this year, indices showed. | 4th October 2008 |
| Back to the progressive future - Guardian Unlimited Andrew Pearmain: Imagine if Labour hadn't imploded in 1983. Insulated from market forces, we'd be thriving | 4th October 2008 |
| Oysters will fail the acid test - Goondiwindi Argus Australia: SYDNEY oyster lovers are in for an unpalatable surprise. A global conference in Monaco next week on the rising acidity of the world's oceans will hear research that shows a detrimental effect on local oyster species. | 4th October 2008 |
| Dreaming of a climate bailout - CNN Governments around the world continue to pump billions of dollars into financial markets, but there is still no telling whether the "injections of liquidity" will be enough to prevent "this sucker" -- to quote the President of the United States -- from going down. | 3rd October 2008 |
| CSIRO's UltraBattery goes global in the auto sector - PhysOrg The CSIRO-invented UltraBattery is set to have a global impact on greenhouse gas emissions after Japan's Furukawa Battery Company, which has already begun production of the UltraBattery, and US manufacturer, East Penn, today signed an international commercialisation and distribution agreement for the technology. | 3rd October 2008 |
| Renewable energy made from waste - BBC News A company in Swindon has developed technology which it claims turns household rubbish into clean renewable energy. | 3rd October 2008 |
| Local authority bonds benefit the economy and the planet - Guardian Unlimited Colin Hines: They've been out of fashion for a while, but local authority bonds benefit the economy and the planet | 3rd October 2008 |
| Sowing the seas - CNN The Seawater Foundation turns barren coastal deserts into fertile green land. Founder Carl Hodges currently overseeing irrigation work along the coast of Mexico. The atmospheric physicist hopes his work will help in climate change mitigation | 3rd October 2008 |
| U.S. could create 4.2 million green jobs by 2038 - Reuters MIAMI (Reuters) - The U.S. economy could generate 4.2 million new "green" jobs in the next 30 years, about 10 percent of all the jobs created, according to a study for the U.S. Conference of Mayors released on Thursday. | 3rd October 2008 |
| Species die-off may be underway - Sky News Australia Earth's animal and plant species are vanishing at unprecedented rates, evidence that the planet is facing a tsunami of mass extinction, experts have warned. | 3rd October 2008 |
| Climate change threat to haggis - BBC News Warmer temperatures may be to blame for an increase in a parasite affecting sheep's lungs - an ingredient of haggis. | 3rd October 2008 |
| Can we save forests by listening to trees? - The Christian Science Monitor An old Broadway song laments, “I talk to the trees, but they don't listen to me.” Now researchers are finding it pays to let the trees “talk” to them. Humans have lived with trees for millennia. Yet two recent studies reveal that we still have a lot to learn about the subtleties of how they function. | 3rd October 2008 |
| Solar rickshaw to help fight global warming - New Kerala New Delhi, Oct 2 : The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has brought forward a solution for the twin problems of employment generation and mitigation of global warming by giving shape to a solar-electric rickshaw for eco-friendly urban transport, which is also being touted as the CSIR's Nano for the poor people. | 3rd October 2008 |
| US Subsidies Grease the Skids Into Chaos Why do U.S. oil companies -- some of the most profitable corporations on the planet -- receive 20 to 40 billion dollars a year in subsidies from the U.S. government? Doug Koplow Erich Pica Janet Larsen Ross Gelbspan | 3rd October 2008 |
| Climate action could save Europe billions in health costs - People & the Planet Health savings of up to �25 billion more than currently predicted could be achieved every year in Europe if the European Union immediately opted for stronger climate policies, according to a new study published by health and environment NGOs. | 3rd October 2008 |
| Emissions rising faster this decade than last - EurekAlert! ( CSIRO Australia ) The latest figures on the global carbon budget to be released in Washington and Paris indicate a four-fold increase in growth rate of human-generated carbon dioxide emissions since 2000. | 3rd October 2008 |
| 98 months, and counting - guardian.co.uk Governments moved quickly to rescue our banks. Why does it take any longer to act to save the planet from runaway warming? See also: Will the financial storm blow climate action off course? - Reuters What global warming has to do with subprime mortgages - University Daily Kansan Why Don't We Bailout The Planet? - Green Muze | 2nd October 2008 |
| It's now or later - Nature Is a slow, measured approach to reducing emissions more cost-effective than taking immediate action? | 2nd October 2008 |
| Delay and Fail - Energy Bulletin Last week, speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting in New York, Al Gore suggested that young people should engage in civil disobedience to stop the building of new coal power plants “that do not have carbon capture and sequestration.” I sympathize with Gore's intent. Coal is the most polluting of the fossil fuels, and if we burn more of it there is little hope of averting catastrophic climate change. But is carbon capture and storage (CCS) a solution? | 2nd October 2008 |
| Heat destroys crops, farmers' hopes - Perth Now RECORD temperatures across Victoria's north last weekend laid waste to the state's wheat crops, the Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) says. | 2nd October 2008 |
| International trade in grain could be dramatically cut within 10-15 years: Dyer - The Truro Daily News BIBLE HILL - Food could be in short supply worldwide as one of the impacts of global warming, a renowned columnist told an agriculture crowd here Tuesday. | 2nd October 2008 |
| Cyprus grape harvest squeezed by drought - AFP via Yahoo! News In Cyprus, where the reservoirs are almost dry and the taps often cease to flow, another liquid may also become scarce. Parched by a chronic drought, the island's wine industry, among the oldest in the world, is under threat. | 2nd October 2008 |
| Will Cities Soon Be Able to Feed Themselves? - Alertnet A growing interest in urban farming is sprouting all kinds of new ideas -- including growing food in high-rises. See allso: A lack of food security is London's achilles heel - Guardian Unlimited | 2nd October 2008 |
| How to create change In your community: finding or forming a local group - Energy Bulletin When we live locally and strengthen our communities, we become stronger and better able to adapt to changes in the economy, climate, and energy availability. But we discuss much about how to go about this. So... how do you create change in your community? And how do you form a group of people who can tackle these community needs? read more | 2nd October 2008 |
| Microwave factory to act as carbon sink - New Scientist The world's first commercial plant that uses microwave technology to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to help reduce the effects of global warming has started operating in New Zealand. | 2nd October 2008 |
| Schwarzenegger signs greenhouse gas bill - The Fresno Bee Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation Tuesday that attempts to ease greenhouse gas emissions by giving priority to transportation projects that limit commutes and curb urban sprawl. | 2nd October 2008 |
| Turbines 'no risk to farm birds' - BBC Wind turbines pose less of a threat to farmland birds than previously thought, a study concludes. | 2nd October 2008 |
| Green coffee-growing practices buffer climate-change impacts - PhysOrg Chalk up another environmental benefit for shade-grown Latin American coffee: University of Michigan researchers say the technique will provide a buffer against the ravages of climate change in the coming decades. | 2nd October 2008 |
| Are we trading energy conservation for toxic air emissions? - PhysOrg A team of Yale scientists has found that certain countries and some U.S. states stand to benefit from the use of compact fluorescent lighting more than others in the fight against global warming. Some places may even produce more mercury emissions by switching from incandescent light bulbs to compact fluorescent lighting. | 2nd October 2008 |
| Experts warn species in peril from climate change - PhysOrg (AP) -- Climate change threatens to kill off up to a third of the planet's species by the end of the century if urgent action isn't taken to restore fragile ecosystems, protect endangered animals and manage growth, scientists warned Wednesday as a wildlife summit opened. See also: Putting humans in their place - David Suzuki | 2nd October 2008 |
| Companies Scramble for Ever-Scarcer Resources - IPS NEW YORK, Oct 1 (IPS) - As humanity runs out of oil and minerals, the extraction of previously untouched deposits suddenly pays off -- financially. But experts warn that it will likely further accelerate climate change and seriously damage the environment. | 2nd October 2008 |
| Tim Jenkins: The European Union emissions trading scheme is a good idea, badly executed - Guardian Unlimited Tim Jenkins: The European Union emissions trading scheme is a good idea, badly executed | 2nd October 2008 |
| 'Taxing' farts and burps - BBC News On New Zealand's South Island, Stephen Evans discovers how plans for a levy on livestock methane emissions is causing controversy among farmers. | 2nd October 2008 |
| Failure will 'haunt humanity' - News24 Failure will 'haunt humanity'News24, South Africa. Sydney - Failure to curb global warming would "haunt humanity" forever, Australia's top climate adviser said on Tuesday as he urged the country to cut ... See also: Australia economy can afford emissions trading: expert - Reuters | 1st October 2008 |
| Met Office warns of need for drastic cuts in greenhouse gases from 2010 - Guardian Unlimited Cutting global emissions by 3% a year is only hope of avoiding dangerous temperature rise | 1st October 2008 |
| Economists Denounce Harper "Climate Plan" - DeSmogBlog Canada: Three top economists, led by Dr. Mark Jaccard of Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, have released an analysis (attached) of the Conservative government's climate policy, saying that, as designed, the might make no headway whatever in reducing Canadian CO2 emissions. | 1st October 2008 |
| Heavy rains bring a little relief to drought-hit Argentina - BBC News Many parts of Argentina have been experiencing a very dry spell over the past 6 months, which is widely being regarded as the most severe drought in a century. | 1st October 2008 |
| Virgin Galactic craft to help monitor climate The plane designed to carry SpaceShipTwo flies higher than most others, allowing it to study greenhouse gases throughout the atmosphere | 1st October 2008 |
| Kyoto Emissions Market Is 17% Oversupplied, Point Carbon Says - Bloomberg Sept. 30 (Bloomberg) -- The market for emission credits allocated to nations under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol is 17 percent oversupplied, according to Point Carbon. | 1st October 2008 |
| Does global warming trump all hot-button ethical issues? - Reuters Imagine you go to a conference on major bioethical questions -- controversial issues like abortion, embryonic stem cells, assisted reproduction and euthanasia -- and a keynote speaker uses all his allotted time warning about global warming. Is this the wrong issue to discuss -- or the only one worth talking about? The question arose at the annual conference of the European Association of Centres of Medical Ethics (EACME) that ended at the weekend in Prague. Dr. Richard Nicholson, editor of the Bulletin of Medical Ethics, told the assembled bioethicists they had to look beyond their usual issues to consider the far larger ecological threat he said could soon end up destroying mankind. | 1st October 2008 |
| The green Sahara, a desert in bloom - PhysOrg Reconstructing the climate of the past is an important tool for scientists to better understand and predict future climate changes that are the result of the present-day global warming. Although there is still little known about the Earth's tropical and subtropical regions, these regions are thought to play an important role in both the evolution of prehistoric man and global climate changes. New North African climate reconstructions reveal three 'green Sahara' episodes during which the present-day Sahara Desert was almost completely covered with extensive grasslands, lakes and ponds over the course of the last 120.000 years. | 1st October 2008 |
| The Prince of Wales outlines concerns about climate change in interview In an interview published today in Weather, the magazine of the Royal Meteorological Society, His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales talks about his longstanding interest in the weather and its impact on the environment. The interview covers His Royal Highness's love of gardening and his environmental work to protect the rainforests, as well as his memories of the impact of weather on communities at home and abroad. | 1st October 2008 |
| High stakes in Canada's vast oil-sands fields - The Christian Science Monitor Trillions of dollars' worth of oil are present, but the environmental costs are high, too – and growing. | 1st October 2008 |
| Revealed: oil-funded research in Palin's campaign against protection for polar bear - Guardian Unlimited Two-thirds of the world's polar bears likely to be extinct by 2050 due to the rapid melting of the sea ice | 1st October 2008 |
| Will plug-in hybrid vehicles like the Chevy Volt succeed? - Guardian Unlimited Joseph Romm: Next-generation plug-in hybrid vehicles can live up to their eco-friendly promises only with government support | 30th September 2008 |
| Garnaut to fire for zero emissions by 2050 - Queensland Country Life Australia: Government climate adviser Ross Garnaut will use his final report to set out a framework to cut Australia's greenhouse emissions to near zero by the middle of the century through clean power generation. | 30th September 2008 |
| Vatican installs solar panel roof - BBC News Pope Benedict XVI becomes the first pontiff to harness solar power to provide energy for the Vatican. | 30th September 2008 |
| Tories urge new age of the train - BBC News BBC political correspondent Carole Walker looks at the Conservatives' plans to build a new high speed rail link rather than a third runway at Heathrow. | 30th September 2008 |
| Carbon dioxide 'scrubber' captures greenhouse gases - PhysOrg University of Calgary climate change scientist David Keith and his team are working to efficiently capture the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide directly from the air, using near-commercial technology. | 30th September 2008 |
| Meat must be rationed to four portions a week, says report on climate change - Guardian Unlimited Return to old-fashioned cooking habits urged by study looking at food impact on greenhouse gases | 30th September 2008 |
| Marine 'dead zones' leave crabs gasping - New Scientist Crustaceans are the first to gasp for air when oxygen levels get low – the finding suggests that low-oxygen zones are more widespread than thought | 30th September 2008 |
| Brazil government 'worst logger' - BBC Brazil's Environment Ministry lists 100 of the worst illegal loggers - and names a government department as number one. | 30th September 2008 |
| Why We Can't Afford Cheap Gas - Alternet We can't let the talk about alternative energy rise and fall with the cost of gas, or the environment and our economy will pay a mighty price. | 29th September 2008 |
| Get tougher on climate: scientists - The Age AUSTRALIA's leading climate scientists have written an open letter to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd urging him to make deep cuts to Australia's greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, and to back a tough global agreement to avoid dangerous climate change. The 16 scientists — who worked with the UN's peak scientific body on global warming, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — warn Mr Rudd "there is no time to lose", and call on him to slash Australia's emissions by at least 25% below 1990 levels by 2020. | 29th September 2008 |
| NASA data show Arctic saw fastest August sea ice retreat on record - PhysOrg Contributing to the near-record sea ice minimum in 2008 was a month-long period in the summer that saw the fastest-ever rate of seasonal retreat during that period. From August 1 to August 31, NASA data show that arctic sea ice extent declined at a rate of 32,700 square miles per day, compared to a rate of about 24,400 square miles per day in August 2007. Since measurements began, the arctic sea ice extent has declined at an average rate of 19,700 miles per day at the point when the extent reaches its annual minimum. | 29th September 2008 |
| Europe warms fast: Med drier, north ever wetter - Reuters Europe's mountains, coasts, the Mediterranean and the Arctic were most at risk from global warming, according to the report by the European Environment Agency and branches of the World Health Organization and the European Commission. "Global average temperature has increased almost 0.8 C (1.4 F) above pre-industrial levels, with even higher temperature increases in Europe and northern latitudes," it said. Europe had warmed by 1.0 C. Northern Europe would get wetter this century while more of Europe's Mediterranean region might turn to desert, based on trends already under way, it said. European heatwaves like in 2003, during which 70,000 people died, could be more frequent. | 29th September 2008 |
| Solar water heaters growing in power-hungry Burkina Faso - PhysOrg A solar panel lies on the roof of Pierre Guissou's home in Burkina Faso, feeding power to his water heater and allowing his family to take precious hot showers in a country where most homes lack electricity. | 29th September 2008 |
| VIETNAM: Heeding Climate Change Warnings HANOI, Sep 29 (IPS) - With a predicted sea level rise of one metre by 2100, Vietnam may end up being one of the nations worst hit by climate change. Such a rise would affect five percent of the land area, 11 percent of the population and seven percent of the agriculture. | 29th September 2008 |
| London firm unveils new software for mobile phones that can track transport and measure carbon footprint - Guardian Unlimited A London-based start-up company has developed software for mobile phones that uses global positioning satellites to work out an individual's mode of transport and calculate the journey's impact on the environment | 29th September 2008 |
| Inpex to Use Bacteria at Old Oil Wells to Produce Gas - Bloomberg Japanese researchers have developed a method of using bacteria found in depleted oil wells to turn leftover crude into natural gas, a technique that could help meet 10 percent of the country's demand for the fuel. | 29th September 2008 |
| How will the EU pay for demonstrating CO2 capture and storage? - Bellona Foundation A new report shows that CO2 capture and storage are on the verge of becoming commercially viable, but until that happens, solutions to pay for the first projects are needed. On October 7th, a proposal for such a solution is to be voted on in Brussels. See also: The burning question, is how to bring coal into the low-carbon age - Times Online Jonathan Leake looks at the scientists’ latest developments. 'Clean coal' is fiction, for now - Colorado Springs Gazette The coal industry is trying to restore a reputation tarnished by concerns over global warming and the environmental impacts of burning coal for power, the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, with a campaign touting the benefits of "clean coal." | 28th September 2008 |
| Huge Nationwide Rallies Call for 'Green Jobs Now!' - PR Newswire via Yahoo! News With a reeling economy, soaring gas prices and rising fears of a global climate crisis, more than 100,000 people rallied at events across the country to urge leaders to jump start the clean energy economy. The events, "Green Jobs Now: A Day to Build the New Economy," urged policy makers to think beyond the short-sighted distraction of drilling and, instead, create real energy solutions that build a new green economy strong enough to create millions of green jobs and lift people out of poverty. | 28th September 2008 |
| Alternative energy key to stability - Business Standard India Countries, which have access to more sunshine and good wind speed, could become energy-rich. There's an opportunity here for India Inc. There are many ways to classify countries. | 28th September 2008 |
| Hard questions for NDP leaders Carole James and Jack Layton - Georgia Straight Canada: Harper has gone on the offensive against federal Liberal Leader Stephane Dion's relatively benign carbon tax, which would be offset with income-tax cuts and other tax credits. Harper has benefited from the B.C. NDP's opposition to a carbon tax; the Conservatives are polling exceptionally well in this province. Federal NDP Leader Jack Layton has joined the chorus, saying he will never introduce a carbon tax, notwithstanding the threat of runaway global warming. One academic who has voted NDP his entire life told me recently, "I hate the NDP." Why? Because of the party's position on the carbon tax. | 28th September 2008 |
| May touts tax cuts as part of carbon plan - The Brockville Recorder and Times Canada: "A $50-a-tonne carbon tax is $35 billion in tax cuts," May told The Recorder and Times after being asked how the proposal can be sold to local voters already leery of climbing energy costs. "(It's) $35 billion worth of help to save students from student debt, to help elderly Canadians who are living on low income, $35 billion of investment in reduced payroll taxes, reduced income taxes (and) helping people who are suffering from high energy prices. | 28th September 2008 |
| Pickin' on the plan - Gristmill Pickens' natural gas plan makes no sense and will never happen. | 28th September 2008 |
| Today's Capitalism Has Run Its Course - Washington Post As the free market economy makes a free fall, all kinds of prescriptions will come to mind, including socialism. A Somali proverb says: "Nin buka boql u talisay" (a sick man gets 100 advisers). Socialist-minded gurus and those who feel left behind by capitalism's unprecedented generation of wealth may need to shout "gotcha," but one thing that could be unanimously agreed by at least uninitiated armchair observers like me is that capitalism in its current free reign and globalized fit for all structure has run its course. Just like we need and preach biodiversity in the field of ecology we need eco-diversity in the economic world. | 27th September 2008 |
| Fears surface over methane leaks - Nature Experts work to confirm source of gas bubbling from Arctic seabed. | 27th September 2008 |
| Donors pledge $6.1 billion to climate change funds - Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Industrialized countries pledged more than $6.1 billion on Friday to international investment funds aimed at helping developing countries adopt cleaner technologies and mitigate growth in greenhouse gas emissions, the World Bank said. | 27th September 2008 |
| Wind power dollars pour into west Texas economy - Reuters BLACKWELL, Texas (Reuters) - Millions of dollars in new tax revenue generated from the wind power boom sweeping rural west Texas have helped fund a rash of school building projects, the first signs of an expected economic revival. | 27th September 2008 |
| DEVELOPMENT: Food Security Hostage to Climate Trends - IPS UNITED NATIONS, Sep 26 (IPS) - More than 50 African leaders meeting at the United Nations this week focused on strategies to overcome a myriad of interrelated problems -- food shortages, droughts, HIV/AIDS, an energy crisis, climate change and military conflicts -- on the troubled continent. | 27th September 2008 |
| 'World Bank success exaggerated' - PRESS TV The World Bank has exaggerated successes from its lending to poor countries in 2007, according to an Individual Evaluation Group report. The World Bank also failed to address the big global challenges of climate change and communicable diseases, when these conflicted with the interests of the individual poor countries, the report said. | 27th September 2008 |
| Oliver Tickell: The UK needs to show commitment to renewable energy - Guardian Unlimited Oliver Tickell: The government has done so little to deliver on renewable energy that I doubt its good faith. But here is the remedy | 27th September 2008 |
| Ben Adler: Combating climate change requires a reduction in energy consumption - Guardian Unlimited Ben Adler: New energy sources are all the rage at the Clinton Global Initiative, but where are the calls to reduce consumption? | 27th September 2008 |
| Schwarzenegger To Convene Global Climate Summit - CBS 5 Bay Area Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is trying to cast himself in a new role: an international leader on global warming. The Republican governor, who has become a national pitchman by challenging many members of his party on the issue, announced Friday he would convene a summit in California for his contemporaries from around the world. | 27th September 2008 |
| Size does matter - Toronto Sun Do you know about shrinkage? No, not the kind that happens in men's swimming trunks when it's cold, as we were taught in the classic Seinfeld moment. In a quick inventory of climate change's impacts on the environment, a recurring theme emerges in our lakes, forests, Arctic ice coverage, animals and even the global gross domestic product: Shrinkage. | 27th September 2008 |
| Carbon emissions soar, despite curbs - Reuters Emissions of the main greenhouse gas are rocketing - despite international efforts to slow them down, according to a study today. Read my colleague David Fogarty's worrying article about carbon dioxide emissions - China has definitely overtaken the United States as top emitter, India is catching up with third placed Russia. What's alarming is that the rate of growth of gases blamed for stoking global warming is quickening. And the fastest growth is in the developing world. The Global Carbon Project said in its report carbon dioxide emissions by mankind are growing about four times faster since 2000 than during the 1990s, despite efforts by 37 rich nations to rein in emissions under the Kyoto Protocol. | 26th September 2008 |
| The American anti-intellectual threat - Mmegi NEW YORK - In recent years, the United States has been more a source of global instability than a source of global problem-solving. | 26th September 2008 |
| Bleak outlook for Europe's toads - BBC News More than half of Europe's amphibians could be extinct by 2050, due to climate change and disease, UK research warns. See also: In Pictures - Europe's amphibians at risk | 26th September 2008 |
| Forest fires 'pushing Lebanon toward desertification' - Daily Star - Lebanon Devastating fires caused by climate change are threatening forests in Lebanon, in turn accelerating the pace of global warming, an environmental activist has warned. "We are witnessing a rise in temperature which leads to the dryness of forest soil and pushes it toward desertification," Sawsan Bou Fakhreddine, director general of the Association for Forests, Development and Conservation (AFDC), a Lebanese NGO, told IRIN. | 26th September 2008 |
| Ten States With a Plan - New York Times Until Washington takes more responsibility for addressing global warming, the states should take the lead. | 26th September 2008 |
| ECONOMY: It Pays to Go Green - IPS UNITED NATIONS, Sep 25 (IPS) - A new report shows how a greener economy could eradicate poverty by creating tens of millions of new jobs. But it will not happen solely through the market's "magic hand". | 26th September 2008 |
| Brazil unveils deforestation plan - BBC News Brazil sets out a plan to end net deforestation by 2015, but with no targets on emission cuts. | 26th September 2008 |
| Cynical New Democrats playing into Harper's hands - DeSmogBlog Canada's New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton continues to opt for cheap partisan opportunism over sound environmental policy - most recently decrying the British Columbia carbon tax as "unfair for ordinary working families" and tying it to Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper. There was a time when the NDP had real credibility as Canada's most environmentally conscious party - a position that they have given over, apparently in equal parts, to the Green party and to Stephane Dion's Liberals. Now, instead of standing up for a good policy , Layton and the New Democrats provincially and federally are trying to score cheap points against their perceived rivals, in the process, chipping away at public support for any substantive action on climate change. | 26th September 2008 |
| First U.S. greenhouse cap-and-trade market opens - Reuters NEW YORK (Reuters) - Ten states in the U.S. Northeast kicked off the country's first cap-and-trade market on greenhouse gas emissions on Thursday, gaining accolades from environmentalists and many businesses but also eliciting concerns about how the states will spend the money the plan raises. | 26th September 2008 |
| Cabinet split on Kingsnorth power station - The Independent UK: The Cabinet is split over whether to approve a controversial plan for a £1bn coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth in Kent which has become a key test of its green credentials. | 26th September 2008 |
| UK opposes green aviation target - BBC News The government wants the aviation industry to be exempt from EU targets on renewable energy | 26th September 2008 |
| Hundreds of methane 'plumes' discovered - Independent British scientists have discovered hundreds more methane "plumes" bubbling up from the Arctic seabed, in an area to the west of the Norwegian island of Svalbard. It is the second time in a week that scientists have reported methane emissions from the Arctic. | 25th September 2008 |
| Nuclear energy: assessing the emissions - Nature Nuclear energy: assessing the emissions Nature Reports: Climate Change(2008). doi:10.1038/climate.2008.99 Author: Kurt Kleiner Kurt Kleiner reports on whether nuclear power deserves its reputation as a low-carbon energy source. | 25th September 2008 |
| Climate scientist warns severe carbon cuts needed in shipping and aviation - Guardian Unlimited Carbon trading will not solve the problem of soaring emissions from the aviation and shipping industries, a new analysis shows. Future carbon cuts must be so severe, that both sectors will have to curtail future growth to tackle global warming, according to research presented at a climate change conference at Exeter University today. | 25th September 2008 |
| Gore urges civil disobedience to stop coal plants - Reuters NEW YORK (Reuters) - Nobel Peace Prize winner and environmental crusader Al Gore urged young people on Wednesday to engage in civil disobedience to stop the construction of coal plants without the ability to store carbon. | 25th September 2008 |
| Sahara solar scheme could power poor West Africa - Reuters Nigeria ACCRA, Sept 24 (Reuters) - West African legislators worried by climate change and soaring energy costs want regional leaders to back plans to harness sun and wind energy that experts say could bring electricity to some of the poorest people on earth. NASA scientists have identified a site in the Sahara desert in northern Niger as the sunniest piece of land in the world. "We have the natural resource -- enough sunshine that can supply our total power requirements," Kwame Ampofo, an energy expert and a member of Ghana's parliament, told Reuters late on Tuesday after legislators from the region discussed the project. | 25th September 2008 |
| Blow to carmakers - BBC There's been a surprising defeat for European carmakers and their allies over the new plans to cut back greenhouse gases. A carefully stitched-together deal between the two big groupings of left and right in the European Parliament came apart at the seams, as Socialists worried about their green credentials voted against the party line in the environment committee. | 25th September 2008 |
| Strategic online eco-voters aim to thwart Tory win - CNews Canada:A website asking eco-voters to unite and vote strategically against the Tories has become the latest online weapon trying to thwart a Conservative victory. | 25th September 2008 |
| Portugal embraces wave power - BBC Can Portugal's pioneer help wave power to float? | 25th September 2008 |
| UN launches program to cut deforestation emissions - Reuters UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations launched a program on Wednesday that it hopes could be the foundation for a system in which rich countries would pay poor ones to slow climate change by protecting and planting forests. The new program, called Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation Program, or UN-REDD, will assist nine developing countries, including Bolivia, Indonesia and Zambia, in establishing systems to monitor, assess and report forest cover. See also: Old-growth forests soak up CO2 - The Christian Science Monitor | 25th September 2008 |
| Toward a Movement for Peace and Climate Justice - Toward Freedom Global warming can represent a future of deprivation and scarcity for all but the world’s wealthiest, or this global emergency can compel us to imagine a radically transformed society—both in the North and the South—where communities of people are newly empowered to remake their own future. The crisis can drive us to break free from a predatory global economy that fabulously enriches the top tenth of one percent, while leaving the rest of us scrambling after the crumbs. The reality is too urgent, and the outlook far too bleak, to settle for status-quo false solutions that only appear to be addressing the urgency of global climate disruption. We can embrace the reconstructive potential of a radically ecological social and political vision, prevent catastrophe, and begin to make our way toward a fundamentally different kind of future. In practical terms, real solutions to global warming, as Van Jones of San Francisco’s Ella Baker Center, points out, are far more likely to benefit our inner cities and put millions of people to work installing decentralized, energy-saving technologies. In the longer term, Al Gore is correct when he emphasizes that political will is the main obstacle to addressing global warming, but we also need to be able to look beyond the status-quo and be willing to struggle for a radically different kind of world. | 25th September 2008 |
| Environment Agency calls for carbon-capture on all new coal power stations - Guardian Unlimited The Environment Agency has told the government that all new power stations must be built with the CO2-capturing technology | 25th September 2008 |
| Bush speech to U.N.: “terror” 32, “climate” 0 - Reuters U.S. President George W. Bush upset some delegates by failing to mention “climate change” or “global warming” in his final speech to the United Nations - in which he referred to terrorism 32 times. Exactly a year ago, the United Nations held a special summit about climate change – U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon calls fighting global warming his “signature issue” and many governments see it as the biggest long-term challenge. Bush clearly has a lot to worry about such as the global financial crisis, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and how to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. | 25th September 2008 |
| Ben Caldecott: It needn't cost the earth - Guardian Unlimited Ben Caldecott: At the moment it's too difficult to live the green life. Obstacles should be removed and green choices made cheaper and easier | 25th September 2008 |
| Police offered £3.2m over protest - BBC News The government offers to pay half the £6m cost of the police operation at the Climate Camp near Kingsnorth Power Station. A Freedom of Information (FOI) request by BBC South East revealed on Tuesday that nearly £5.9m was spent on officers, accommodation, air support and planning. | 25th September 2008 |
| Acidifying oceans are brewing up an underwater din - New Scientist As carbon emissions drive chemical changes in the oceans, noise pollution beneath the waves will become more of a problem | 25th September 2008 |
| Vegetarian Shift Seen Helping Climate, Not Poor - Planet Ark OSLO - Eating less meat can help rich nations to combat global warming but may not work for poor countries where people depend on livestock for survival, a leading expert said on Wednesday. | 25th September 2008 |
| Polar bears resort to cannibalism as Arctic ice shrinks - CNN.com Summer is over in the northern hemisphere, but it's been another chilling season for researchers who study Arctic sea ice. | 24th September 2008 |
| Western states pitch plan to reduce greenhouse emissions - Los Angeles Times Four Canadian provinces are also included in the initiative, which aims to cut regional emissions by 15% below 2005 levels. Seven Western states and four Canadian provinces proposed a sweeping plan to crack down on global warming emissions today, across a region that represents 20% of the U.S. economy and 73% of Canada's economy. | 24th September 2008 |
| The accelerating race to get oil and natural gas from the Arctic - International Herald Tribune Oil executives say areas of the Arctic like the Barents Sea could provide a new way for them to increase their reserves, but environmentalists say the delicate Arctic environment has been made even more vulnerable in recent years. | 24th September 2008 |
| Companies must lead climate change fight: consumers - Reuters Most consumers want companies to do more to protect the environment and reckon that firms should play a leading role in fighting global warming, a worldwide survey showed Tuesday. | 24th September 2008 |
| Scientists Get Wind of Why Coasts Cool as the Globe Warms - Scientific American A group of northern California scientists have found a new bend in the Gordian knot of global warming: coastal cooling. [More] | 24th September 2008 |
| Bill Chameides: Is It Too Late to Avoid Dangerous Climate Change? - HuffingtonPost Scientists call it DAI -- "dangerous anthropogenic interference" with the climate system. The United States along with 191 other countries pledged to prevent DAI in 1994. However, little has happened to address the problem since, and now some scientists think it may be too late. The critical question is: How long do temperatures have to be above the 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit threshold before the loss of the Greenland ice sheet becomes unstoppable? Is it more or less than 70 years? We don't know. So maybe we still have time and maybe we don't. But even if we can't save the Greenland ice sheet, there's still the Amazon rain forest, and the Antarctic ice sheet and on and on and on. So my vote, if anyone's asking, is that we get started on cutting back on greenhouse gas emissions right away. | 24th September 2008 |
| EU lawmakers set to halt carbon curbs BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union lawmakers are set to slam the brakes on plans to curb carbon dioxide emissions from cars, easing the burden on the auto industry in the fight against climate change, documents circulated on Tuesday showed. | 24th September 2008 |
| Make or break for planet earth - Daily Mirror Life in the planet depends on the immediate implementation of measures to combat global warming. | 24th September 2008 |
| Environment chief lied to Congress: Sen. Boxer - Reuters via Yahoo! UK & Ireland News The head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency lied to Congress about his rejection of a request from California meant to curb global warming emissions, Sen. | 24th September 2008 |
| Powering Our Automotive Future with--Pond Scum - Scientific American Corn—or the cellulose in everything from wood chips to crop stalks—are often touted as the basis of the fuel of the future. But Microsoft founder and billionaire Bill Gates is betting that algae will provide the answer to our future fuel needs. He's so sure, in fact, that last week he joined the Rockefeller family and London-based Wellcome Trust to invest $100 million in a California start-up devoted to churning out biofuel from this tiny primitive plant. | 24th September 2008 |
| Flooding might help lower gas emission from wetlands River floods and storms that send water surging through swamps and marshes near rivers and coastal areas might cut in half the average greenhouse gas emissions from those affected wetlands, according to recent research at Ohio State University. | 24th September 2008 |
| Methane release off Siberian coast prompts concern over runaway climate change - Guardian Unlimited Scientists claim to have discovered evidence for large releases of methane into the atmosphere from frozen stores off the northern coast of Siberia | 23rd September 2008 |
| Greenland's ice cap melting faster than expected: experts - PhysOrg Greenland's ice cap, which covers more than 80 percent of the island, is melting faster than expected because of global warming, a Danish researcher said on Monday. See also: Greenland: roar of melting glacier sounds climate change alarm - Space Daily | 23rd September 2008 |
| Planet in debt at earliest day ever - Metro The world slides into 'ecological debt' today, having used up all the natural resources the planet can provide this year, according to the New Economics Foundation. The think-tank said humans were using up resources such as forests and fisheries faster than they can be regenerated and producing more waste, mainly carbon dioxide, than the planet can absorb. | 23rd September 2008 |
| Birds decline seen sign of biodiversity crisis - Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Many of the world's most common birds suffered steep population drops over recent decades, a sign of a deteriorating global environment and a biodiversity crisis, BirdLife International said on Monday. | 23rd September 2008 |
| Climate sceptics have 'heads in sand' - Guardian Unlimited Met office says average temperatures have continued their rising trend over the last decade See also: Green growth is the path to economic recovery - Guardian Unlimited | 23rd September 2008 |
| Crisis must be turned to green benefit, scientist says - Guardian Unlimited Governments must show same boldness to move to a low-carbon economy as demonstrated when helping banks | 23rd September 2008 |
| Elevator Pitch: Click4Carbon wants your search clicks - Guardian Unlimited Click4Carbon wants to convince us to use their search service over Google's home page. The advantage? Click4Carbon uses Google's search technology but every search donates a small amount ot carbon offsetting projects, as well as green news. | 23rd September 2008 |
| Burying CO2 could pay for itself by 2030: report - Reuters BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Trapping and burying carbon dioxide from power plants could become viable without public funding by 2030, helping nations reduce their dependence on energy imports and meet climate goals, a report said on Monday. | 23rd September 2008 |
| Damage from hurricane Ike could affect coastal ecosystem of Texas for years - Guardian Unlimited Texas coast could change dramatically in a future with higher sea levels from global warming See also: CARIBBEAN: The Stormy Face of Climate Change - IPS | 23rd September 2008 |
| Modest CO2 cutbacks may be too little, too late for coral reefs - EurekAlert! Ocean acidification could devastate coral reefs and other marine ecosystems even if atmospheric carbon dioxide stabilizes at 450 ppm, a level well below that of many climate change forecasts, report chemical oceanographers Long Cao and Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. The researchers' conclusions are based on computer simulations of ocean chemistry stabilized at atmospheric CO2 levels ranging from 280 parts per million (pre-industrial levels) to 2000 ppm. Present levels are 380 ppm and rapidly rising due to accelerating emissions from human activities, primarily the burning of fossil fuels. | 23rd September 2008 |
| “Resistance is the only way” - International Viewpoint European Social Forum: Michael Löwy speaks on climate change. "Today’s governments are simply incapable of preventing the suicide which capitalism is paving the way for. However, this is not due to lack of collective will on behalf of the ruling class or lack of understanding. Rather it is because the capitalist system does not allow limitations. That makes ecological and social adaptation impossible." | 23rd September 2008 |
| We Can't Afford McCain and Palin's Anti-Science Beliefs - AlterNet Their combined anti-science positions may be devastating for the economy, the environment and our health. | 23rd September 2008 |
| Turbulent weather ahead for southern US - New Scientist Turbulent weather ahead for southern USNew Scientist (subscription), UK. Climate Change – Want to know more about global warming: the science, impacts and political debate? Visit our continually updated special report. | 23rd September 2008 |
| The climate crisis: Five parties, no solutions - Rabble.ca Canada: For the environment, there's good news and bad news in Canada's current federal election campaign. Good news: for the first time ever, climate change is a central issue in the political debates. Bad news: despite much sound and fury, none of the major political parties is proposing effective measures for dealing with the climate change crisis. | 23rd September 2008 |
| A new climate tax for the US? - Bellona Foundation EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson and Bellona President Frederic Hauge met in a debate in Oslo Thursday to discuss the central question as to whether the the United States and other countries should be punished with a carbon border tax if they don't sign on to a new climate deal at next year's climate conference in Copenhagen. | 22nd September 2008 |
| Acid ocean warning - Adelaide Now THE acidification of the world's oceans is the "gorilla in the cupboard" which could lead to "a marine Armageddon", two science writers claimed yesterday. | 22nd September 2008 |
| Bringing Oceans to a Boil - RedOrbit Scientists have known for a long time that the ocean plays a huge role in climate. Covering 70% of the globe, it stores 1,000 times more heat than the atmosphere, but often overlooked in the public debate on climate change is the ocean's synergistic role-how it responds to the growing amount of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere. | 22nd September 2008 |
| U.S. conservation win – in Canada - The Christian Science Monitor Forestland half the size of Texas is being saved to help thwart climate change. | 22nd September 2008 |
| U.S. companies see climate risk, but lack plan NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. companies judge climate change a risk to their business, but lag global companies in setting targets to cut emissions, according to a global survey. | 22nd September 2008 |
| Can rubber ducks help track a melting glacier? WASHINGTON (Reuters) - To help figure out what's happening inside the fastest-moving Greenland glacier, a U.S. rocket scientist sent 90 rubber ducks into the ice, hoping someone finds them if they emerge in Baffin Bay. | 22nd September 2008 |
| Economic Slowdown Won't Ease Carbon Emissions - Planet Ark LONDON - Tumbling factory output following an economic slowdown will not be enough to curb rising industrial carbon emissions in Europe, analysts said on Friday. | 22nd September 2008 |
| Voters storm Rudd's office - The Courier Mail UP to 20 constituents from Kevin Rudd's Griffith electorate have packed his electorate office in Brisbane's Morningside to demand a meeting on climate change. | 22nd September 2008 |
| You Can Change The World - Newsweek From Bill Clinton to Oprah Winfrey, advice on how to make a difference, from improving health and education to bringing peace and justice. | 21st September 2008 |
| Einstein fridge design can help global cooling - Guardian Unlimited Scientists relaunch a 1930 invention that uses no electricity and would reduce greenhouse gases. | 21st September 2008 |
| Dividing the developing countries will spell disaster for Copenhagen and future climate negotiations - Down to Earth Yu Qingtai, Ambassador and Special Representative, Climate Change Talks, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, China talks to Pradip Saha about developing country imperatives in climate talks in face of increasing pressure from developed countries to increase commitments | 21st September 2008 |
| Greens in climate bill pie claim - BBC News A party conference is told the climate bill's exclusion of aviation emissions is like "a diet plan with an opt-out for pies". | 21st September 2008 |
| Dems blow it: McCain allies kill Gang of 20 USA: Senate Dems falter on energy compromise bill | 21st September 2008 |
| Andrew Simms: Tackling the 'triple crunch' with a green new deal - Guardian Unlimited Andrew Simms: The financial crisis, climate change and soaring energy prices can only be tackled by shift to policies based on green principles | 20th September 2008 |
| Van Jones: We Can't Drill Our Way Out of Our Energy Problems - Alternet In an electrifying speech, Van Jones explains that we have to invent and invest our way out of the economic and environmental crises. | 20th September 2008 |
| 'No time to lose' to start thinking sustainability - PhysOrg As director of the University of Oregon's Climate Leadership Initiative, the need to address human contributions to global warming is a no-brainer that Bob Doppelt says in his new book requires a mindset tuned into "The Power of Sustainable Thinking." | 20th September 2008 |
| Australians Back Carbon Reduction Scheme - Angus Reid (Angus Reid Global Monitor) - The majority of people in Australia agree with a government-proposed scheme to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to a poll by Newspoll published in The Australian. 59 per cent of respondents think the plan will help slow global warming, and 58 per cent are willing to pay more for oil, electricity and gas in order to help curb pollution. | 20th September 2008 |
| Live Earth show to help boost solar energy - Reuters MUMBAI (Reuters) - India will host the next Live Earth concert to raise funds for lighting homes with solar energy in places where people do not have access to electricity, organizers said. | 20th September 2008 |
| Over 70pc of NSW now in drought - The West Australian Drought conditions have worsened in NSW, with more than 70 per cent of the state now officially drought-declared. Figures released by the NSW Department of Primary Industries on Saturday show just 10 See also: New South Wales Grain Crops May Fail Without Rainfall This Week - Bloomberg.com | 20th September 2008 |
| Planet is running out of clean water, new film warns - CNN.com One sixth of the world's population does not have access to clean drinking water. More than 2 million people, most of them children, die each year from water-borne diseases. | 20th September 2008 |
| Glaciers vanish in North Cascades - Sierra Sun Nearby, Spider Glacier has already passed away. The scientist who pronounced it dead three years ago believes that one-third of the glaciers in the North Cascades — including Lyman — are doomed. | 20th September 2008 |
| Scientist speaks up - Vancouver Sun SIt was pure chance that University of Victoria climate scientist Andrew Weaver's new book on global warming came out during a federal election campaign. But since it has, he's taking an extraordinary step for a scientist and declaring, point-blank, no punches pulled, how he thinks people should vote. | 20th September 2008 |
| Bill Gates' Intriguing Investment - The Motley Fool The software guru's going green. | 20th September 2008 |
| Wainwright, Feist to set sail for climate change inspiration - CBC Canadian singers Feist and Martha Wainwright will board a boat for Greenland later this month in a trip meant to inspire works about climate change. | 20th September 2008 |
| The World Cannot Afford A New Cold War - MorungExpress Military spending by the United States, Russia and China are at their peak, and, except for Russia, higher than at the end of the Cold War. Total world military spending has increased rapidly in recent years. Strategic contentions over arms and missiles are resurfacing. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is in jeopardy. There is an evident build-up of mistrust, which makes the risk of geopolitical confrontation more likely. The international community cannot afford to lose time and focus on defusing the real ticking time bombs: energy, food and climate change. These are the ultimate security threats of our time, and from where we stand now, we are barely scratching the surface. These are all momentous challenges. They transcend East-West and North-South relations. These hard issues will not be resolved by hard power. They can only be resolved by a collective long-term response, coupled with adequate political will and enormous resources. The foundations of our security and survival in the 21st century rest upon our success in meeting these challenges. And certainly none of these challenges can be achieved unless the major powers work together, and demonstrate the leadership that the world expects of them. The all-powerful forces of globalization do not make geopolitics irrelevant. But the world cannot afford to slip back into the geopolitics of domination, conquest and confrontation of the past. | 19th September 2008 |
| Can the collapse of Lehman Brothers ram a rare taste of reality into the Presidential campaign? - Johann Hari Obama offers a rare chance to begin to dismantle the petrol pump and the Wall Street cash-dispenser in the Oval Office | 19th September 2008 |
| Why Glaciers and Polar Ice are Melting Faster - Best Syndication Why Glaciers and Polar Ice are Melting FasterBest Syndication, CA. He holds more than 60 US Patents. He is working on a new book: "THE SOLUTION FOR ENDING GLOBAL WARMING AND CLIMATE CHANGE". Go to http://www.thermalexpert.com. | 19th September 2008 |
| 'Fish in the forest': Rising seas push PNG coast dwellers inland - Reuters AlertNet To lose your territory is to lose a significant part of your identity - and your freedom. To be displaced onto somebody else's puts you entirely at their mercy. That is the bleak prospect facing the world's first sea level-rise "refugees". Although PNG's Carteret Islanders hold the dubious honour of being the first to permanently lose their land to sea levels, in fact they are just the most vocal of three or four atoll populations in PNG who are today's vanguard among the environmentally displaced. When sea levels rise, loss of land will displace tens of thousands in PNG. The contamination of fresh-water lenses, poisoning of crops and flooding of low-lying settlements is a trend that will only continue, not just on outlying island chains but increasingly, on mainland coastal communities as well. | 19th September 2008 |
| Beijing taps "emergency" water supplies - Reuters BEIJING (Reuters) - China's capital started pumping "emergency" water from its long-parched neighboring province on Thursday, officials said, weeks after the Beijing Olympics when they declared the city had enough supply. "Owing to continuous drought in recent years, the water situation in the capital Beijing is grim and water sources are quite strained," said a statement on the website, adding that the two government had reached an agreement on the supplies. | 19th September 2008 |
| The clams are nearly gone - Daily Express Giant clams in Sabah waters have been severely depleted by overfishing - Another threat that is hastening their extinction is global warming or climate change through excessive carbon dioxide in the sea making the water acidic and lessening the ability of giant clams to build their skeleton. The rise in sea temperature is also known to disturb the symbiotic relationship that the clams have with zooxanthellae (symbiotic algae), which nourished them. | 19th September 2008 |
| The escalator effect - Nature Rising temperatures are changing mountain ecosystems as the heat forces some species upwards — until there is nowhere left to go. Emma Marris reports on the 'escalator effect', which is threatening species worldwide. | 19th September 2008 |
| Global warming fight will boost California economy, study says - The Sacramento Bee Costly as it may seem, California's mandate to cut climate-altering exhausts from vehicles and industry by nearly one-third in the next 12 years actually will boost the economy, a state analysis released Wednesday predicts. See also: Californian city approves solar loans - Guardian Unlimited | 19th September 2008 |
| Business chiefs urge action on climate change - Guardian Unlimited Business leaders including directors at Tesco, Lloyds TSB and other top high street names have urged Gordon Brown to drop his slowly, slowly approach to tackling global warming and go for "transformational change", saying the prime minister should not be held back by fears over the current financial crisis. But the involvement in the initiative of BAA, owner of Heathrow, and the energy firm E.ON angered environmentalists, who said the companies that encouraged flying and built coal-fired power stations showed "hypocrisy of the purest strain". | 19th September 2008 |
| Topless protestor disrupts Ryanair meeting - Car Rentals Topless protestor disrupts Ryanair meetingCar Rentals, UK. According to the Irish Times, a man who simply called himself “Rob Mac” decided that the best way to draw attention to climate change and global warming was ... | 19th September 2008 |
| Economic downturn 'a chance to invest' in green energy: Gore - SpaceDaily MUMBAI, Sept 18 (AFP) Sep 18, 2008 The global economic downturn and the crisis in the US financial markets offers the chance for investment in green energy, former US vice-president Al Gore said Thursday. | 19th September 2008 |
| Chemistry for the climate - Nature Chemists claim that by mimicking photosynthesis in the lab, they could revolutionize fuel production within five years. Katharine Sanderson reports. | 19th September 2008 |
| A New Boom in Natural Gas Threatens Drinking Water - Alternet Water and chemicals injected at high pressure can extract more gas and may threaten drinking water in places like New York and Texas. | 19th September 2008 |
| Arctic Permafrost May Not Hasten Global Warming, Study Says - Bloomberg.com Sept. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Arctic permafrost, the frozen soil that contains carbon deposits beneath polar ice, has withstood periodic temperature swings, indicating it may not contribute to current global warming, Canadian scientists said. | 19th September 2008 |
| America's oldest ice discovered... then it melts - New Scientist Ice wedges found buried in the Canadian permafrost have survived 75,000 years protected by just a few metres of soil | 19th September 2008 |
| Radical shift in worldviews must - The New Nation Radical shift in worldviews mustThe New Nation, Bangladesh. Global warming and climate change which is the current focus could lead to rise in sea levels and flooding and subsequent inundation of human habitats. ... | 19th September 2008 |
| Harper's Climate Carbon Tax Snowjob - DeSmogBlog Canada: Mr. Harper's credibility on the climate file hit a new low recently when he claimed with a straight face that the Liberal's proposed carbon tax would “wreck” the economy. Perhaps the Prime Minster should look at some of the other economies around the world that are apparently doing well in spite of being saddled with such a radical and un-tested policy. The Swedes clearly don't appreciate that their economy is in peril due to the carbon tax that they brought in seventeen years ago. | 19th September 2008 |
| Abrupt Climate Change Focus Of U.S. National Laboratories - Science Daily Abrupt climate change is the focus of IMPACTS, a major new program bringing together six US Department of Energy national laboratories to investigate the instability of marine ice sheets, warming of the boreal forests and Arctic, megadroughts in the Southwestern United States, and methane release from frozen hydrates. | 19th September 2008 |
| Australia to set up carbon capture institute - Reuters CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia will set up a A$100 million ($80 mln) carbon capture research institute aimed at fighting climate shift and with ambitions of becoming the world hub for the technology, the government said on Friday. | 19th September 2008 |
| Carbon trading boss rejects fears of slowdown in pollution permits business - Guardian Unlimited Trading on European Climate Exchange increases by 150% in first six months of 2008, despite credit crunch | 19th September 2008 |
| GM's Lutz on Colbert: I Don't Believe in the CO2 Theory - Earth2Tech GM's Lutz on Colbert: I Don't Believe in the CO2 TheoryEarth2Tech, CA. Colbert went into a joke tangent about how the creation of the Volt is “tantamount to admitting we have to do something about global warming . . . why not ... | 19th September 2008 |
| Arctic ice melts to second-lowest level: scientists - Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Arctic sea ice melted to its second-lowest level this summer, rising slightly from 2007's record but still showing a downward trend that is a key symptom of climate change, U.S. scientists said on Tuesday. Saa also: Arctic Ice Growing: Record NOT Set! | 18th September 2008 |
| Seabird chicks 'killed over food' - BBC Food shortages are forcing Scotland's seabirds to attack and kill chicks from neighbouring nests, experts say. | 18th September 2008 |
| Heat Hinders Ground's Ability to Absorb CO2 - Discovery Channel A very hot year damages the ability of soils and plants to absorb carbon dioxide. | 18th September 2008 |
| Leaked papers show Britain trying to weaken plan for EU carbon cuts - Guardian Unlimited Leaked documents show Britain wants to offset rather than cut emissions | 18th September 2008 |
| 'Calm before storm' may foreshadow climatic tipping point - PhysOrg Abrupt climate change has occurred on earth many times over the past millions of years. Climate scientists hypothesize that these sharp transitions may be caused when the earth system reaches a tipping point, or a critical value, resulting in a change of several degrees. These abrupt transitions have caused, for example, the formation and melting of glaciers throughout the earth, North Africa`s change from savannah to desert 5,000 years ago, and various other changes. A recent study has shown that there might be an early warning signal that heralds climatic tipping points. By analyzing the geological records of eight ancient abrupt climate shifts, scientists have found that each shift is each preceded by a period in which the system becomes increasingly slower in responding to natural perturbations, which is reflected as a decrease in the rate of change. | 18th September 2008 |
| Water shortage cripples Palestinian farming - Reuters BARDALA, West Bank (Reuters) - In the plains around the village of Bardala, the Israeli-Palestinian tug-of-war over land and water plays itself out in vivid colour -- largely brown Palestinian farms border green fields owned by Jewish settlers. | 18th September 2008 |
| CarrotMobbing rewards green businesses - Guardian Unlimited Forget negative campaigning, why not reward green businesses instead - with a group spending spree? CarrotMobbing emerged in the US earlier this year. It uses the "carrot" of consumer buying rather than the "stick" of boycotting or bad publicity to encourage ethical business. Alone, our consumer choices make a minimal impact, but together and organised we unlock a bigger bargaining power. CarrotMobbers talk about "liberating" their capital. They make demands of their suppliers; green improvements in exchange for loyalty. And they are prepared to reward in a language that companies understand: cash. | 18th September 2008 |
| Europe's cleanest tech firms revealed - Guardian Unlimited Solar cell maker Odersun tops the Guardian/Library House CleanTech 100 list | 18th September 2008 |
| Norway joins fight to save Amazon - BBC News Norway pledges $1bn to a new fund to help Brazil preserve its Amazon rainforest and cut greenhouse gas emissions. | 18th September 2008 |
| This too shale pass - Gristmill House energy bill includes oil-shale provisions that alarm conservation groups. | 18th September 2008 |
| World War III - BusinessWorld Online Climate change and global warming have resulted in bigger and more frequent hurricanes, affecting global food security. In Texas, "monster Ike" has neutralized refineries and sea platforms, affecting US energy sources. The second biggest catalyst to World War III is food-energy security. | 18th September 2008 |
| Will saving a forest save us money? - CNews How much is a forest worth? And how do we calculate that value? Do we simply count the trees and figure out how much we could get for them if we were to cut them down and turn them into logs, lumber, and pulp and paper? | 18th September 2008 |
| Shane Meadows directs government anti-climate change ad - Guardian Unlimited Shane Meadows, the director of This Is England and Dead Man's Shoes, has directed a £6m TV ad campaign on climate change for the government. By Mark Sweney Watch video | 18th September 2008 |
| Last Minute Bush Administration Changes Undermine Endangered Species Act - The Wilderness Society WASHINGTON (September 17, 2008) - Although scientists say nearly 30 percent of the world's plant and animal species could become extinct due to global warming, the federal government may not notice if the Bush administration's proposed rule changes to the Endangered Species Act (ESA) are allowed to take effect, The Wilderness Society charged in comments submitted to the Department of Interior late yesterday. | 18th September 2008 |
| A national grid will make renewable electricity work - Gristmill This is one more attempt to kill a zombie myth: the notion that local generation of renewable electricity can substitute for long-distance transmission. I can see where this comes from -- the sun shines almost everywhere, and the wind blows strong within a few hundred miles of most places where it doesn't, right? If we are going to use renewable electricity at all, it's hard to understand why we wouldn't get it from rooftops, parking lots, or at worst surrounding rural areas. But if we generate renewable electricity locally (locally being anything from your own rooftop to a wind farm a few hundred miles away), we end up with a huge monthly variation. | 18th September 2008 |
| Skills shortage could delay green-collar jobs - The Age GLOBAL warming and peak oil are shaping up as seismic events that might just transform markets and organisations in Australia. It only might because, at this stage, we lack the management skills to make the change. | 18th September 2008 |
| Where there's a drill, there's a way - Gristmill House passes an energy bill that combines increased drilling with expansion of renewables. See also: House passes bill allowing offshore drilling - Reuters | 17th September 2008 |
| Physicists urge U.S. to prioritize energy efficiency - PhysOrg The U.S. can reduce its dependence on foreign oil and greenhouse gas emissions by making cars and buildings much more energy efficient, according to a study released Tuesday by a large national association of physicists. | 17th September 2008 |
| Arctic ice melts to second-lowest level: scientists - Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Arctic sea ice melted to its second-lowest level this summer, rising slightly from 2007's record but still showing a downward trend that is a key symptom of climate change, U.S. scientists said on Tuesday. See also: Are humans to blame for Arctic meltdown? - New Scientist | 17th September 2008 |
| Ozone Hole Above Antarctica Grew in 2008, Meteorologists Say - Bloomberg.com Sept. 16 (Bloomberg) -- The ozone hole over Antarctica , a doorway for harmful solar radiation, is bigger than last year, a worrying sign to scientists studying global warming, the World Meteorological Organization said. See also: CLIMATE CHANGE: Chemical Lobby Weakening Ozone Treaty - IPS | 17th September 2008 |
| Climate change may prompt need for grapes rethink - ABC Online A viticulture expert says the days of solely growing traditional French varieties in Western Australia's south-west and great southern may be drawing to a close. Melbourne University Professor Snow Barlow says growers may have to consider more Mediterranean wines, like Spanish or Italian grape varieties, due to global warming. | 17th September 2008 |
| JORDAN: Drought may claim thousands of olive trees - AlertNet Source: IRIN Persistent drought in the south could lead to the decimation of thousands of olive trees in the city of Karak, 120km south of Amman, according to environmentalists, who blame climate change. | 17th September 2008 |
| Moderate Quantities Of Dirt Make More Rain - Science Daily Drought or deluge? Scientists have now discovered how aerosols affect the when, where and how much of rainfall. | 17th September 2008 |
| 'Hobo polar bear' causes panic in US - Ninemsn A bomb squad has been called in to take down a "hobo polar bear" that had commuters alarmed outside a train station in the US. | 17th September 2008 |
| Environment: Tar sands - the new toxic investment - guardian.co.uk Shell and BP have been warned by investors that their involvement in unconventional energy production such as Canada's oil sands could turn out to be the industry's equivalent of the sub-prime lending that poisoned the banking sector and triggered the current financial crisis. | 17th September 2008 |
| Global Warming Effects Here Now Too Late To Reverse Some Damage - KPBS Global Warming Effects Here Now Too Late To Reverse Some DamageKPBS, CA. He says scientists and engineers must mount a massive effort and develop solutions for adapting to climate change and for offsetting it. | 17th September 2008 |
| Trying times for deniers - guardian.co.uk Rightwing commentators and climate change deniers have gone wild at the trial verdict that cleared Greenpeace direct action protesters of committing a criminal offence. Top marks to Richard Littlejohn, in the Daily Mail, who hopelessly confuses climate change with the ozone layer in his rant, and compounds his ignorance by saying "the ice caps are not melting". | 17th September 2008 |
| Communities plan for a low-energy future - CS Monitor 'Transition initiatives,' begun in Britain, aim to empower people to tackle effects of climate change and decline of oil. | 16th September 2008 |
| Credit Crisis Hurting Clean Energy Sector - Bankers - Planet Ark LONDON - The renewable energy sector will see a 21 billion euro (US$29.43 billion) shortfall in debt finance by 2020, following the credit crisis and a brake on lending, a senior banker said on Monday. | 16th September 2008 |
| Small glaciers -- not large -- account for most of Greenland's recent loss of ice, study shows A new study shows that the dozens of much smaller outflow glaciers dotting Greenland's coast together account for three times more loss from the island's ice sheet than the amount coming from their huge relatives. | 16th September 2008 |
| Study for 'greener' car battery - BBC News Researchers at the University of Bath are developing new rechargeable batteries for hybrid cars. | 16th September 2008 |
| ENVIRONMENT: Big Donors Shifting Green Agenda - IPS OBERLIN, Ohio, Sep 15 (IPS) - "Philanthro-capitalists" and more traditional foundations are addressing global problems like climate change with unprecedented zeal. But are their money and efforts being put to the best use? | 16th September 2008 |
| Regulation needed for carbon offset cowboys: Choice - Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Federal Government is being urged to speed up the introduction of a national standard for carbon offsets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. | 16th September 2008 |
| Quebec premier says U.S. election could force emissions caps in Canada - The Canadian Press BAR HARBOR, Maine - If the United States adopts a cap-and-trade system to reduce industrial greenhouse gas emissions, Canada will have no choice but to follow suit, Quebec Premier Jean Charest said Monday. See also: Carbon regulation could hit 1 million U.S. firms: study - Reuters | 16th September 2008 |
| Fuel Emissions From Marine Vessels Remain A Global Concern - Science Daily The forecast for clear skies and smooth sailing for oceanic vessels has been impeded by worldwide concerns of their significant contributions to air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions that impact the Earth's climate. | 16th September 2008 |
| Brussels Would Allow State Aid for Carbon Capture - Planet Ark BERLIN - Brussels would look favourably at member states giving financial support for plants to test almost carbon-free power production, which could help fight climate change, a European Commission official said on Monday. | 16th September 2008 |
| Carbon targets too low to ensure a stable, long-term climate, expert warns - Guardian Unlimited Cleaning the atmosphere of all man-made carbon dioxide is the only way to prevent the worst impacts of global warming, one of Europe's most senior climate scientists has warned | 15th September 2008 |
| Carbon capture stations must not be delayed - Financial Times It is time for Europe’s leading economies to initiate the demonstration process as part of their commitment to serious action on climate change. For the UK the opportunity and the challenge are immediate. The decision to proceed with a new coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth should be accompanied by a decision to begin work immediately on a CCS demonstration plant in Britain. Kingsnorth’s licence to operate should be limited to 10 years and extended only if CCS technology is deployed. | 15th September 2008 |
| Lowest ever sea ice in Arctic - WWF International Arctic sea ice may well have reached its lowest volumes ever, as summer ice coverage of the Arctic Sea looks set to be close to last year’s record lows, with thinner ice overall. Final figures on minimum ice coverage for 2008 are expected in a matter of days, but they are already flirting with last year’s record low of 1.59 million square miles, or 4.13 million square kilometres. “If you take reduced ice thickness into account, there is probably less ice overall in the Arctic this year than in any other year since monitoring began,” said Martin Sommerkorn, WWF International Arctic Programme’s Senior Climate Change Advisor. | 15th September 2008 |
| Lyman Glacier: Frozen reservoir above Lake Chelan is dying - The Wenatchee World Lyman Glacier, sitting just below 8,459-foot Chiwawa Peak, is dying. | 15th September 2008 |
| 2008 Texas drought losses estimated at $1.4 billion - High Plains Journal Lack of rain and scorching temperatures hit Texas' agricultural crops and beef operations hard late spring and summer, leading to an estimated $1.4 billion in drought losses, Texas AgriLife Extension Service economists reported Sept. 8. | 15th September 2008 |
| Edge of oblivion - BBC News Actor Ted Danson says our seas are in a parlous state | 15th September 2008 |
| Investors press for disclosure of tar sands' climate risk - Guardian Unlimited Move reflects changing attitudes among mainstream investors to impact of commercial activities | 15th September 2008 |
| Programmed for extinction? - The Star-Ledger - NJ.com We are "hard-wired for extinction." That's the warning from author and former University of Pennsylvania psychology professor Andrew Shatte. Speaking at Saturday's "One Day University" series at the College of Saint Elizabeth, Andrew argued that millennia of evolution prepared us well to evade lions--while leaving us virtually powerless to recognize, or respond to, global warming. So start meming, everyone. Before we get Irish-Elked. | 15th September 2008 |
| Bank breaks ranks on emissions - Sydney Morning Herald AUSTRALIA'S second biggest bank, Westpac, has spoken out against the business community to urge the Federal Government to pursue a strict emissions trading scheme with tougher reporting standards for business. | 15th September 2008 |
| The secret life of Sarah Palin - Gristmill A passion for oil drilling isn't the only thing Sarah Palin has in common with Dick Cheney. "Interviews show that Ms. Palin runs an administration that puts a premium on loyalty and secrecy," The New York Times reports in a front page article on Sunday. "While Ms. Palin took office promising a more open government, her administration has battled to keep information secret," the Times reports. "The governor and her top officials sometimes use personal e-mail accounts for state business; dozens of e-mail messages obtained by The New York Times show that her staff members studied whether that could allow them to circumvent subpoenas seeking public records." Sounds an awful lot like White House officials using RNC accounts so their emails wouldn't have to be made public. | 15th September 2008 |
| Phase out coal and burn trees instead, urges leading scientist - The Independent Humanity must urgently embark on a massive programme to power civilisation from wood to stave off catastrophic climate change, one of the world's top scientists has told The Independent on Sunday. | 14th September 2008 |
| The WMD that really should be worrying us - Johann Hari If al-Qa'ida was unleashing this weather of mass destruction, we would do anything to stop them | 14th September 2008 |
| The great honey drought - The Independent In 26 years of beekeeping, Ged Marshall has never seen anything as bad as the 2008 honey harvest. A miserable summer that has confined his bees to their hives following a winter bedevilled by deadly viruses means that production this year will be barely a third of its usual level of around five tonnes of honey. The dearth of honey this summer is due to a number of issues linked to changing climate and trends in agriculture which belie the bucolic image of beekeepers in protective masks harvesting dripping honey combs from their village gardens. | 14th September 2008 |
| The public are ahead of the game on climate change - Independent Kingsnorth 6: The jury in effect sat through a six-and-a-half-day seminar on global warming, in a forum where lying was illegal, and every statement could be challenged by top barristers. And, at the end, they decided that the danger was so immediate and serious that it justified taking extreme - and normally illegal - action against it. "That is something the Government and the utilities need to take extremely seriously," says Professor Tom Burke, an aide to three environment secretaries. "It shows how seriously the public takes climate change." Yet a report last week by the Green Alliance and seven top pressure groups concluded that, over the past year, the Government's approach to the crisis had been "contradictory and incoherent", the Tories' had been "more presentation than substance", while the traditionally green Lib Dems had been "markedly quieter" on the issues. It's time for them to raise, and change, their game. For, in the end, the public, while on the same side, is likely to be less forgiving than the turbulent jurors of Kent. | 14th September 2008 |
| Think globally, power up locally - San Francisco Chronicle The "locavore" movement is big, especially in California. With the bounty of food found locally in the Bay Area, living off the land - and sea - is not only possible, but also a delicious exercise. But there's another, less obvious, revolution brewing here in the Bay Area: the "locavolt" movement. In response to high gasoline and natural gas prices, global warming and an increasingly unstable, scary world, residents more than ever are looking to generate power right in their own homes and neighborhoods with free energy from nature. | 14th September 2008 |
| Australia seeks to lower carbon emissions from cars - Reuters via Yahoo! UK & Ireland News The Australian government issued a discussion paper on reducing automobile carbon emissions on Saturday, with recommendations such as providing financial incentives for manufacturing low-emission cars. | 14th September 2008 |
| China mulls green tax to curb pollution: report - Reuters SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China is studying whether to impose an environmental tax on polluters to cut their emissions, the official China Daily reported on Saturday. | 14th September 2008 |
| GOP Invents a New Junk Science: 'Galaxy Warming'! - The People's Voice The GOP is prepared to embrace all kinds of junk science if it will get them off the hook for supporting industries, technologies and politicians that support disastrous but profitable policies. These deniers of 'global warming have more than money riding on their attempts to discredit science. They will oppose 'global warming for the threat it poses to their investments and for the psychological threat it represents to their self-esteem, their ideologies and shibboleths. To this end, 'deniers of global warming, primarily the GOP, have invented an entirely new phenomenon: galaxy warming. | 14th September 2008 |
| The politics of wind power - IHT It may seem strange for an entrepreneur to call for more government regulation, but when it comes to energy, that is what Mandelstam is doing. "As a student of history, you go back to a guy named Thomas Edison, and his first power plant, and the thing one has to point out is that the government and regulators have been integrally enmeshed in the energy business ever since it began on Pearl Street in 1882." He points to Europe as an exemplar: "We were the world leader in wind. Europe overtook us quite a while ago and continues to beat us all the time because they got the public policy right." Wise regulation, according to Mandelstam, and a thoughtful debate about energy policy is the best way to correct that. "Let's line up all the subsidies of coal and nuclear power and oil and natural gas and wind - and let's have a debate," Mandelstam urges. "That hasn't happened in the last eight years, and now, frankly, we're paying the price for it." | 14th September 2008 |
| Don't Get Too Comfortable - TheDay ”It's as if we've been on a spending spree with our credit cards,” said Brenda Ekwurzel, climate scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists. “Mother Nature has been giving us a break, but heat-trapping gases are still accumulating. If people mistake this for a sign that global warming is not happening, we'll lose precious time.” | 14th September 2008 |
| For more news, click here >> News from previous days is below | |
| Carbon trading has become a licence for polluters to print money - Guardian Unlimited Oliver Tickell: Far from incentivising emissions cuts, the EU's carbon trading scheme provides a grotesque subsidy for the biggest polluters See also: Flagship emissions trading scheme set to benefit UK's worst polluters - Guardian Unlimited | 13th September 2008 |
| Russia says it must stake claim to Arctic resources - Reuters MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia must stake its claim to a slice of the Arctic's vast resources, the secretary of Russia's Security Council said on Friday at an unprecedented session of the council held on a desolate Arctic island. | 13th September 2008 |
| Permafrost carbon content double the old estimates - PhysOrg New research indicates that the amount of frozen organic carbon locked away in the world`s permafrost regions - a major potential source of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) - is double what has been previously estimated. | 13th September 2008 |
| Don't let facts spoil a good story - how academics' work can be misrepresented by the press - Guardian Unlimited Ben Goldacre: Academics' work can be 'grossly and crassly misrepresented' by the newspapers | 13th September 2008 |
| Will America lead the global energy technology revolution? - Salt Lake Tribune How much should we invest? In 2006 the government spent between $2.4 billion and $3.4 billion (less than half of the annual R&D budget of our largest pharmaceutical company). Many experts, including the Council on Competitiveness, recommend that federal energy research spending climb to twice or even 10 times current levels. In my view, the nation should move promptly to triple current rates, then increase funding further as the Energy Department builds its capacity to convert basic research into marketable technologies. | 13th September 2008 |
| Traditional almanacs ponder change in the air - Boston Globe Prognosticators create long-range weather charts for the handful of surviving farmer's almanacs - an old job, done an old way. They eschew Doppler radar and weather satellites and look for clues in the timeless rhythms of nature. But now, the world and the weather don't look as timeless as they used to. Scientists say the planet is warming, threatening to make droughts more widespread, heat waves more punishing and hurricanes more severe. So one of the country's most fervently unmodern subcultures has had to confront climate change. Prognosticators are deciding how - or if - they should factor greenhouse gases into weather-predicting formulas that are two centuries old. "Global warming has kind of messed it up." | 13th September 2008 |
| Antarctic winter ice gets bigger; Arctic shrinks - Reuters OSLO (Reuters) - The amount of sea ice around Antarctica has grown in recent Septembers in what could be an unusual side-effect of global warming, experts said on Friday. | 13th September 2008 |
| Spain to Plant 45 Million Trees in 4 Years - OhmyNews International Recognizing the real threats of climate change, the Spanish council of ministers approved a reforestation project on Friday to plant 45 million trees in the next four years in the Spanish peninsula and in the Balearic Islands, which have been suffering from frequent forest fires due to desertification and costing the government major economic loss. | 13th September 2008 |
| Terra Preta: Biochar and the MEGO effect - Energy Bulletin "Terra preta" refers to the rich, fertile artificial soils found in the Amazon. In this post I'll have a look at modern day techniques to produce terra preta (often called biochar or agrichar) which have the potential to increase soil fertility, generate energy and sequester carbon all at the same time. read more | 13th September 2008 |
| Curbing coal emissions alone might avert climate danger, say researchers - PhysOrg An ongoing rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide from burning of fossil fuels might be kept below harmful levels if emissions from coal are phased out within the next few decades, say researchers. They say that less plentiful oil and gas should be used sparingly as well, but that far greater supplies of coal mean that it must be the main target of reductions. Their study appears in the journal Global Biogeochemical Cycles. | 13th September 2008 |
| Climb every chimney - Guardian Unlimited The 'Kingsnorth Six' admitted causing £30,000 worth of damage to a coal-fired power station - yet a jury still refused to find them guilty. The verdict has left the government's energy plans in the balance and given a huge boost to climate change protesters. See also: British Court Rules Direct Action OK Because Global Warming Risks So Bad - Infoshop News | 13th September 2008 |
| Book throws cold water on Tories' climate change position - The Gazette - Montreal "For Canadians, this is the best single book on our climate crisis and what we should do about it." | 13th September 2008 |
| Ministers' roundtable on climate change - OECD Observer Climate change is a pressing challenge, requiring leadership and determined action. At the same time, people are concerned that policies do not put them at an economic disadvantage or unnecessarily undermine their welfare. | 13th September 2008 |
| Climate change could devastate Philippines: NASA scientist - SpaceDaily MANILA, Sept 12 (AFP) Sep 12, 2008 Climate change could have a devastating impact on the Philippines, leading to widespread destruction of the country's flora and fauna and flooding the capital Manila, a NASA scientist warned here Friday. | 13th September 2008 |
| Ice core studies confirm accuracy of climate models - PhysOrg An analysis has been completed of the global carbon cycle and climate for a 70,000 year period in the most recent Ice Age, showing a remarkable correlation between carbon dioxide levels and surprisingly abrupt changes in climate. | 12th September 2008 |
| Oliver Tickell: Gordon Brown has let the energy firms off the hook - Guardian Unlimited Oliver Tickell: The PM trumpets his energy deal, yet power firms have escaped a windfall tax for a piffling investment in low-carbon homes | 12th September 2008 |
| Wet August prompts climate fears - BBC News Conservation charity WWF Scotland warns of 'climate chaos' after a dull, wet and warmer August. | 12th September 2008 |
| Saltwater solution to save crops - PhysOrg Technology under development at the University of New South Wales could offer new hope to farmers in drought-affected and marginal areas by enabling crops to grow using salty groundwater. | 12th September 2008 |
| Review backs yellow school buses - BBC News The government is being urged to introduce US-style yellow school buses for all primary schools in Britain. | 12th September 2008 |
| MTV ad attacks 'greenwash' firms - Guardian Unlimited MTV is launching a global marketing push to tackle climate change that includes a TV ad attacking businesses guilty of 'greenwash'. By Mark Sweney Watch MTV Switch anti-'greenwash' video | 12th September 2008 |
| Honey, climate change is shrinking the species - New Scientist As the Earth warms up, larger animals may be at a disadvantage compared to smaller species who can lose heat more efficiently | 12th September 2008 |
| Dan Gilbert on the psychology of global warming [video] - DeSmogBlog Here's a great 13 minute presentation by Harvard Psychologist, and author of the book Stumbling on Happiness, Dan Gilbert answering in his own way the question: Why haven't we rallied our collective power to solve global warning?Well worth the watch and well worth sending out to your friends and family.Part:1 Part 2: | 12th September 2008 |
| World's water ecosystems under threat - PhysOrg (PhysOrg.com) -- Human activities such as fishing and water use are over-riding the effects of global warming on the ecosystems that support the world`s water and fish supplies, experts have revealed. | 12th September 2008 |
| Africa's climate tied to northern hemisphere - Nature Ocean temperatures seem to control rainfall in tropical Africa. | 12th September 2008 |
| Cleared: Jury decides that threat of global warming justifies breaking the law - The Independent The threat of global warming is so great that campaigners were justified in causing more than £35,000 worth of damage to a coal-fired power station, a jury decided yesterday. In a verdict that will have shocked ministers and energy companies the jury at Maidstone Crown Court cleared six Greenpeace activists of criminal damage. See also: Policy, not protesters, should be on trial - Guardian Unlimited | 11th September 2008 |
| Elizabeth May could rock Canada's political world - Georgia Straight Today's decision by NDP Leader Jack Layton and Prime Minister Stephen Harper to allow Green Leader Elizabeth May into the televised debates could change Canada forever. May is fiery, funny, and smart. She talks about issues that the other leaders generally ignore. Her clever wit to turn Harper into a laughing stock with a well-timed joke or two about his decision to muzzle federal scientists about global warming. | 11th September 2008 |
| Climate scientist aims to get 1m students to vote on McCain and Obama's green energy records - Guardian James Hansen lends his voice to a US voter organising drive with an ambitious goal: enlisting 1m students who will cast their vote for the presidential candidate with the greenest energy record | 11th September 2008 |
| Thousands of Canadians Unite for Stronger Action on Climate Change - Canada NewsWire Today, citizens across the country as well as some of the country's largest and most influential organizations including Canada's Association for the 45Plus (CARP), the Canadian Jewish Congress, the Steelworkers Union of Canada and the Canadian Federation of Students, among others, are uniting as part of a new citizens movement calling for stronger action on climate change. The official launch today of PowerUP Canada comes one day after many of the country's most influential leaders, including former prime ministers, released recommendations for new stronger climate laws and policies in Canada. | 11th September 2008 |
| Timothy Garton Ash: We friends of liberal international order face a new global disorder - Guardian Unlimited Timothy Garton Ash: On the anniversary of the September 11 attacks, China, Russia and climate change all vie with al-Qaida for our attention | 11th September 2008 |
| Louisiana: Hurricane Damages Crops and Fisheries - New York Times Hurricane Gustav caused an estimated $372 million in crop damage, dumping as many as 20 inches of rain, agriculture officials said. The storm also caused crawfish and catfish ponds to overflow, causing an estimated $46 million in damages to fisheries, according to estimates by the Louisiana State University AgCenter. Among hardest-hit crops were cotton, sweet potatoes, soybeans and sugar cane. More than 47 percent of the cotton crop is estimated to be destroyed, a $112 million loss in what was expected to be a $237 million crop. | 11th September 2008 |
| 'Difficult harvest' - BBC News How wet weather has ruined one farmer's crops | 11th September 2008 |
| The diary of an Arctic explorer - BBC News BBC environment correspondent David Shukman travels to Alaska, to find out how Arctic ecosystems are coping with the change to a warmer climate. Watch video | 11th September 2008 |
| 'Extreme waves' worry Australia - BBC News Australia's coastline is being battered by extreme waves that are driven in part by climate change, scientists say. | 11th September 2008 |
| Walruses: The friendly, fun-loving, musically talented creatures are under threat from climate change - Independent The future is far from rosy for these musical beasts, as the threat of global warming looms over their icy habitat. The most disturbing signs of climate change surfaced in 2004, when a team of climate-change researchers cruising through the Beaufort Sea, north of Alaska, saw walrus calves swimming alone in deep water, far from either ice or land. Crying loudly, they had, it seemed, been separated or abandoned by their mothers as the sea ice retreated north to deeper water. Summer ice cover has been declining since 1980 and last September shrunk to just 1.65 million square miles – almost 40 per cent less than the average since 1979, when satellite records began. This lack of sea ice is causing walruses "to look further afield for places to 'haul out' – pull themselves on to the ice – and this means we are getting more crowding in areas which can have more interference from humans, trampling and frightening, leading to more deaths," Dr Schusterman says. As walruses come ashore earlier, they congregate in extremely large herds, as big as 40,000 in one location last year, and as many as 4,000 are thought to have been killed in stampedes in Arctic Russia. | 11th September 2008 |
| Australia buys huge farm to save dying river - elEconomista.es An irrigation farm larger than Singapore and sucking up billions of liters of water each year has been bought by Australia's government to help save one of the country's most vital rivers from a slow death and climate change. | 11th September 2008 |
| Get rich quick - Gristmill By Joseph RommI was at the U.S. Department of Energy when the Gingrich gang took over and tried to shut down all of DOE's applied energy research, claiming it was a waste of taxpayer money. I helped organize a major report documenting the large return to the U.S. taxpayers of federal spending on energy efficiency (and other energy technologies). The once-honorable GAO (formerly General Accounting Office, hypocritically renamed Government Accountability Office) didn't want to meet the same fate as the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, so it became a wing of the Gingrich hit squad. | 11th September 2008 |
| Diesel Cuts Bad for Economy - and Planet What do you do to win an election? Roll out the pork of course. And so Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper announces a proposed tax cut on diesel fuel, even if it will dig Canada even deeper into an economic and climate hole. Canada already emits more carbon per capita than almost any other country on Earth. Our total carbon emissions are number seven worldwide – more than the United Kingdom, which has almost twice our population. Harper's solution: make fuel even cheaper.While this might play well in an election campaign it is the exactly the wrong direction to be taking our nation and our economy. | 11th September 2008 |
| Climate protest against mine plan - BBC News Campaigners are staging a protest against plans for an opencast mine near to a nature reserve. | 11th September 2008 |
| NASA study illustrates how global peak oil could impact climate - PhysOrg (PhysOrg.com) -- The burning of fossil fuels -- notably coal, oil and gas -- has accounted for about 80 percent of the rise of atmospheric carbon dioxide since the pre-industrial era. Now, NASA researchers have identified feasible emission scenarios that could keep carbon dioxide below levels that some scientists have called dangerous for climate. | 11th September 2008 |
| Gravity-mapping satellite will help predict climate change - Guardian Unlimited £265m project will enable scientists to produce more precise picture of ocean currents | 11th September 2008 |
| Prince Charles calls for 'wartime' effort against deforestation - AFP Britain's Prince Charles called on the world Wednesday to act with a "sense of wartime urgency" to protect the rainforests, warning they were "umbilically connected" to the phenomenon of climate change. The heir to the British throne told a black-tie dinner in London that rainforests "are the world's lifebelt", acting as the "world's air conditioning system" and helping store the largest body of flowing water on the planet. | 11th September 2008 |
| Most Europeans 'very concerned' by climate change: EU survey - AFP via Yahoo! News Most Europeans are very concerned about climate change, but a sizeable minority feel they don't know enough to help counter it, a major EU opinion poll released Thursday suggested. | 11th September 2008 |
| Bottoming out - Energy Bulletin With the federal bail out of the GSEs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, even a blind man can see that the economy is tanking at full throttle. ... I conclude that peak oil will be pretty much off the radar in the next few years among the public, the media and politicians read more | 11th September 2008 |
| Caution at what cost? - The Age Australia can be a leader in emissions reduction instead of waiting for a global agreement. How can we value the common interest? We can value the tourism industry on the Great Barrier Reef, our low-lying coastal infrastructure, our investments in desalination. But how do we value food self-sufficiency in an unstable world, our unique Alpine flora and fauna, or the loss of our history in severe bushfires? While we can attempt to place a price on taking action, putting a price on our failure to act is an enormously challenging task. In this context, we cannot possibly set a target for some point in the future and know we got it right. | 10th September 2008 |
| Reduced Dominance Is Predicted for U.S. - Washington Post An intelligence forecast being prepared for the next president on future global risks envisions a steady decline in U.S. dominance in the coming decades, as the world is reshaped by globalization, battered by climate change, and destabilized by regional upheavals over shortages of food, water and energy. | 10th September 2008 |
| Cap-and-trade vs. carbon tax: formulating an effective carbon accounting system - Energy Bulletin The most critical thing is not which system we ultimately choose to go with, but that we make the system as transparent, robust, and equitable as possible. And, of course, that we put it into place as soon as possible-we simply do not have much time left to start initiating these reductions in emissions. | 10th September 2008 |
| Temps Are Down, So What's Up with Global Warming? - The Tyee Why one chilly summer does not a global cooling make. See also: Temperatures plummeted in 2008 - Gristmill | 10th September 2008 |
| Ex PMs join call for climate change action - Canada.com Four former prime ministers - Kim Campbell, Paul Martin, Joe Clark and John Turner - and leaders in academia, science, business and the environment have united to demand the federal government do much more to deal with climate change. The diverse group, which also includes students, steelworkers and authors, is expected to release a statement in Toronto Tuesday calling for "steep cuts" in Canadian greenhouse gas emissions and deployment of "climate-safe technologies at a staggering rate." While the group claims to be non-partisan, it is clearly dissatisfied with the Conservative government's performance on what many consider the most pressing issue facing the planet. | 10th September 2008 |
| $100 billion could yield 2 million "green" jobs - Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A $100 billion U.S. government investment over two years could create 2 million "green" jobs in such industrial sectors as steel and construction, environmental and labor groups said on Tuesday. | 10th September 2008 |
| Scientists develop formula to calculate CO2 savings from 'cool roofs' - Sacramento Business Journal California scientists announced today that they have developed a formula to calculate how much carbon dioxide (CO2) can be offset by using more reflective surfaces, such as rooftops, in urban settings. | 10th September 2008 |
| Texas city plans to convert human waste to energy - Reuters SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - San Antonio unveiled a deal on Tuesday that will make it the first U.S. city to harvest methane gas from human waste on a commercial scale and turn it into clean-burning fuel. | 10th September 2008 |
| September of fires - iafrica.com Fire-fighting services in Pietermaritzburg have already dealt with 165 fires in September. | 10th September 2008 |
| Climate inaction 'costing lives' - BBC News Failure to curb climate change is violating the human rights of people in the poorest nations, says a UK-based aid charity. | 10th September 2008 |
| Peak Oil & Supplies - Energy Bulletin Heinberg: Is peak oil "A Misleading Concept?" Focus on climate change and ignore peak oil? Not good enough. Rough seas Geopolitical disruptions #2: Identifying the feedback loops Sounding like ‘Peak Oil' advocate, Toyota warns world faces ‘Supply Shortages and Resource Exhaustion' | 10th September 2008 |
| Suzuki touts economic value of environment - CNews TORONTO - Canada's most prominent environmentalist is pleased federal party leaders are focusing on ecological issues so early in the election campaign. | 10th September 2008 |
| A Silver Bullet or just ‘Greenwash'? - Reuters Can carbon capture and storage (CCS) save the world? Is this the silver bullet everyone's been waiting for? Or just pie in the sky? Is capturing and storing carbon dioxide the technology breakthrough to cut greenhouse gas emissions without getting in the way of economic growth and industry's “addiction” to fossil fuels? Or is it just a “greenwash” - a token gesture by some of the utilities responsible for so much of the world's CO2 to try to persuade an increasingly green public that the great emitters are doing something to fight climate change? Those are the questions that were hurled at Vattenfall executives on Tuesday when the Swedish-based utility opened the world's first CCS plant in a small town south of Berlin called Schwarze Pumpe. | 10th September 2008 |
| Britain, Bangladesh urge climate change action - Reuters LONDON (Reuters) - Britain and Bangladesh joined forces on Wednesday to call for more money and a new global deal to combat the catastrophic consequences of climate change. | 10th September 2008 |
| British Political Parties Failing on Climate - Greens - Planet Ark LONDON - Britain's three main political parties are failing to address climate change as the economic downturn starts to take precedence, the country's leading environmental organisations said on Wednesday. | 10th September 2008 |
| David Letterman On Global Warming: “We're Dead Meat” - Ecorazzi David Letterman recently hosted author Thomas Friedman who was promoting his book on Climate Change 'Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why we need a green revolution–And how it can renew America'. [Letterman lays it on the line in all its bleak darkness, and still the people laugh] | 10th September 2008 |
| Jonah Gelbach: John McCain's misguided carbon emissions policy - Guardian Unlimited Jonah Gelbach: John McCain's plan to cut carbon emissions will simply increase profits for America's biggest polluters | 9th September 2008 |
| Ancient trees recorded in mines - BBC A US-UK team of scientists find more spectacular fossil forests deep in the coal mines of Illinois. See also: Midges provide huge window on past - Irish Times | 9th September 2008 |
| Garnaut too soft on emissions target: expert - ABC via Yahoo!7 News A leading Australian climate scientist has criticised the greenhouse gas reduction targets proposed by the Government's climate change adviser Professor Ross Garnaut. | 9th September 2008 |
| Polar Bear Army Deployed for Canadian Election - DeSmogBlog With the Canadian federal election off to the races, DeSmogBlog has deployed an army of polar bears across Canada that will be working to raise the profile of climate change issues, especially around the environmental impacts of Alberta's oil sands operations.The campaign is called the Arctic Front, and many of our regular readers will remember that we began this campaign during the Alberta provincial election earlier this year. Since then we have expanded our capabilities and now have polar bears stationed across the country, ready to get out the message at town hall forums,debates, rallies and other events. In fact, over the summer the Arctic Front was featured on the Discover magazine website for our rather unique approach to getting the message out. | 9th September 2008 |
| Foods 'should label up eco-costs' - BBC Packaging could be embedded with computer chips linking phones to an online sustainable food guide, a conference hears. | 9th September 2008 |
| Organic has lower carbon imprint: BFA - North Queensland Register People who consume organic food are a carbon-step ahead, according to the Biological Farmers of Australia, which says those eat organic are almost half a tread lighter than their non-organic counterparts. | 9th September 2008 |
| Michael McCarthy: Another summer of sodden misery. Is it bad luck - or worse? - The Independent It's getting wearisomely familiar, isn't it? Last summer's toll of sodden misery is with us again as people are flooded out of their homes from one end of the land to the other and, for the second year running, a famous medieval abbey is an island. You could be forgiven for thinking, is this really all just coincidence? | 9th September 2008 |
| As Andean glacier retreats, tiny life forms swiftly move in, study shows - PhysOrg A University of Colorado at Boulder team working at 16,400 feet in the Peruvian Andes has discovered how barren soils uncovered by retreating glacier ice can swiftly establish a thriving community of microbes, setting the table for lichens, mosses and alpine plants. | 9th September 2008 |
| Simple Question, Simple Answer… Not - RealClimate Guest commentary by Spencer R. Weart, American Institute of Physics I often get emails from scientifically trained people who are looking for a straightforward calculation of the global warming that greenhouse gas emissions will bring. What are the physics equations and data on gases that predict just how far the temperature will rise? A natural question, when public expositions of the greenhouse effect usually present it as a matter of elementary physics. These people, typically senior engineers, get suspicious when experts seem to evade their question. Some try to work out the answer themselves (Lord Monckton for example) and complain that the experts dismiss their beautiful logic. | 9th September 2008 |
| Thawing Arctic vulnerable without new international laws - New Scientist As global warming melts the polar ice, a new set of UN laws will be needed to regulate invading industries, legal experts say | 9th September 2008 |
| Scientists point to forests for carbon storage solutions - PhysOrg Scientists who have determined how much carbon is stored annually in upper Midwest forests hope their findings will be used to accelerate global discussion about the strategy of managing forests to offset greenhouse gas emissions. | 9th September 2008 |
| CLIMATE CHANGE: Arctic Oil and Gas Rush Alarms Scientists - IPS UXBRIDGE, Canada, Sep 8 (IPS) - As greenhouse gas pollution destroys Arctic ecosystems, countries like Canada are spending millions not to halt the destruction but to exploit it. | 9th September 2008 |
| 'Climate crisis' needs brain gain - BBC The former UK chief scientist says the climate challenge is so great, it demands the most brilliant minds tackle it. | 8th September 2008 |
| Climate wars and the secret ‘Jasons' - Greenbang More interesting was the uncovering of a secret cabal of US scientists - called ‘Jason’ - who reported into the US government. One of their reports all the way back in 1979 predicted CO2 levels in the atmosphere would double from pre-industrial levels in the following 50 years, that this would cause global warming of around 2-3C and that the poles would warm even faster. 30 years on and those early predictions aren’t far off the more sophisticated estimates produced by scientists today. The report, and it’s frightening predictions, was never publicly released, of course but was seen at the highest levels of the US government and, largely, ignored. Especially by Ronald Reagan, who commissioned his own scientist to produce that said actually things aren’t that bad and everything will probably be OK - the start of the sceptic movement. | 8th September 2008 |
| Deep Thought - Energy Bulletin CSIRO paper: A comparison of the Limits to Growth with Thirty Years of Reality In 1972, the Club of Rome’s infamous report “The Limits to Growth” (Meadows et al., 1972) presented some challenging scenarios for global sustainability, based on a system dynamics computer model to simulate the interactions of five global economic subsystems, namely: population, food production, industrial production, pollution, and consumption of non-renewable natural resources. Contrary to popular belief, The Limits to Growth scenarios by the team of analysts from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology did not predict world collapse by the end of the 20th Century. This paper focuses on a comparison of recently collated historical data for 1970–2000 with scenarios presented in the Limits to Growth. The analysis shows that 30 years of historical data compares favorably with key features of a business-as-usual scenario called the “standard run” scenario, which results in collapse of the global system midway through the 21st Century. The data does not compare well with other scenarios involving comprehensive use of technology or stabilizing behaviour and policies. The results indicate the particular importance of understanding and controlling global pollution. [if you don't have the time to read it in its entirety, skip to the end and look at the graphs]  | 8th September 2008 |
| Bark beetles are feasting on Utah forests - Deseret Morning News A vicious cycle is brewing in Utah: Bark beetles are killing a lot of trees in the state. Dead trees are fuel for wildfires, which experts say contributes to global warming. And climate change is now being blamed for an increased population of bark beetles. | 8th September 2008 |
| ENVIRONMENT-BRAZIL: Click Here to Plant a Tree - IPS RIO DE JANEIRO, Sep 7 (Tierramérica) - It has become fashionable in Latin America to pursue initiatives towards "zero carbon", neutralising the climate-changing greenhouse gases produced by industry, commercial aviation and even the football World Cup -- and along with it, atoning for the environmental sins of polluters. But while the big reforestation projects like these reach thousands of hectares, deforestation in the Amazon jungle alone totals millions of hectares each year. See also: UN Plan to Protect Forests Flawed - Planet Ark Why the west should put money in the trees - BBC News | 8th September 2008 |
| Wind of change on farms as cows help to save the Earth - Times Online Hundreds of cattle in Britain are being fed a new diet to reduce their burping and cut emissions of greenhouse gas. Chopped straw and hay are the vital ingredients to settle a cow's stomach and reduce emissions of methane by 20 per cent. | 8th September 2008 |
| Methane could spark a revolution - Guardian Unlimited Environment, science technology: Quantities of high-quality gas found in south Wales could help ease UK's growing energy crisis | 8th September 2008 |
| Climate of the changing mind - Sydney Morning Herald Australia: When Professor Ross Garnaut released his draft report on climate change in May, his approach justified optimism. Garnaut gave us hope that his recommendations would follow the science. The following month, Minister for Climate Change Senator Penny Wong released the Government's green paper, which made it clear the Government was not interested in science-based solutions to global warming. | 8th September 2008 |
| Germany leads 'clean coal' pilot - BBC News A small German coal-fired plant will be the first in the world to capture and store its own CO2 emissions. "It's too expensive, it will come too late and it will divert money from the real solutions, renewable energies and energy efficiency." | 8th September 2008 |
| The dark dreams of global warming - Boston Globe "It doesn't really matter as much for you, because you'll be dead," he explained, "but I'm going to have to live through global warming, and I'm afraid by the time I can vote, it will be too late." | 8th September 2008 |
| UN says eat less meat to curb global warming - Guardian Unlimited Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which last year earned a joint share of the Nobel Peace Prize, said that people should then go on to reduce their meat consumption even further. | 7th September 2008 |
| Solar energy can meet all the world's energy demands - PhysOrg The world must speed up the deployment of solar power as it has the potential to meet all the world's energy needs, the chairman of an industry gathering which wrapped up Friday in Spain said. | 7th September 2008 |
| ‘We demand a reason for hope' - Green Left Weekly The federal government’s climate adviser, Professor Ross Garnaut, told the National Press Club on September 5 that while climate change is “diabolical”, “intractable” and “daunting”, Australia is a “special case” and cannot be expected to cut greenhouse gas emissions to the same extent as other “wealthy nations”. While the world is “rapidly running out of time”, the primary recommendation in Garnaut’s supplementary draft report is for a 10% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. However, he proposes that Australia may reduce the target to 5% if an international climate change agreement is not reached. However, alarming environmental warning signs, such as the devastating Artic ice melt, demand real and immediate action to halt climate disaster. The approach of both Garnaut the federal government is dangerously inadequate, and is frustrating climate activists across the country. In September, a national week of climate emergency actions is planned to highlight the urgency of global warming and the need for drastic action. See also: Australia a 'special case', says Garnaut - Sydney Morning Herald Ross Garnaut: Nuclear power has no place in Australia's scheme to reduce its carbon footprint - Herald Sun | 7th September 2008 |
| Lifestyle choices won't win the battle against global warming - Independent The governments should be solving the climate problem. They aren't. So an avalanche of propaganda is coming at us - saying it's all your fault. Almost everything about climate is put in terms of individual lifestyle choices such as green tourism. But no one really thinks that will insulate the houses of the poor, build wind farms around the world, or cut emissions in China. What we need is a mass movement to change government policies, or replace the current politicians with people who will take action. | 7th September 2008 |
| CLIMATE CHANGE: Arctic Meltdown Signals Long-Term Trend - IPS UXBRIDGE, Canada , Sep 5 (IPS) - Soaring temperatures have led to the collapse of several huge ice shelves in the Canadian Arctic over the past few weeks. See also: Bad Sign For Global Warming: Thawing Permafrost Holds Vast Carbon Pool - Science Daily | 7th September 2008 |
| Ecological Economics: An Interview with Joshua Farley - WorldChanging Joshua Farley is a professor at the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics - home of the original $33 trillion estimate for ecosystem service value. Joshua co-authored the recent textbook Ecological Economics: Principles and Applications,which reconceptualizes economics with a few key new axioms: ecosystem and resource limits, distribution issues, and broader definitions of human well-being. He's in the vanguard of a growing movement to get economics right - with sustainability and human well-being as core principles. | 7th September 2008 |
| Pyrenees glaciers will melt by 2050: Spanish study - PhysOrg Climate change will melt the 21 remaining glaciers in the Pyrenees mountains before 2050, a group of Spanish researchers said Friday. | 7th September 2008 |
| Ribbon Seal Endangered - LiveScience.com The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is considering placing the Bering Sea’s ribbon seal under the protection of the Endangered Species Act. In late December 2007, the San-Francisco-based Center for Biological Diversity petitioned NOAA’s Fisheries Service to list the ribbon seal as threatened or endangered, citing current and future destruction of their icy habitat in Alaska’s Bering Sea due to climate change. | 7th September 2008 |
| Spanish wine makers fight climate change - BBC News Some wine makers in Spain are already taking steps to protect their vineyards against the effects of climate change, Danny Wood finds. See video interview with Miguel Torres. | 7th September 2008 |
| Tories get failing grade on climate-change report card - Times Colonist Canada: Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative party has received a failing grade in a new report card to be released Friday that evaluates the climate-change policies of the five federal parties. The report, The Voters' Guide to the Climate Crisis Election, produced by the Sierra Club of Canada, awarded an A- to the Green party for its climate-change policies. The Liberals ranked second with a B+, followed closely by the NDP, which got B, and the Bloc Quebecois with a B-. The environmental group gave the Conservatives an F+ in its evaluation. | 7th September 2008 |
| FACTBOX-Greenhouse gas curbs, from Australia to India - AlertNet Source: Reuters Sept 5 (Reuters) - The following factbox compares national goals for fighting climate change, from the United States to India, after Australia's top climate adviser proposed 2020 greenhouse gas emissions targets on Friday. | 7th September 2008 |
| Climate change could stop corals fixing themselves - New Scientist By 2100, most of the world's coral reefs could be living in waters that lack the minerals for them to repair damage, as a result of ocean acidification | 7th September 2008 |
| Explorer kayaks to 1000 km from N.Pole - Reuters UK A British explorer has kayaked to within 1,000 km (620 miles) of the North Pole to highlight a rapid shrinking of Arctic ice and put pressure on governments to do more to fight global warming. | 7th September 2008 |
| Pollution can make you fat, study claims Pollution can make children fat, startling new research shows. A groundbreaking Spanish study indicates that exposure to a range of common chemicals before birth sets up a baby to grow up stout, thus helping to drive the worldwide obesity epidemic. | 7th September 2008 |
| How much will sea level rise? - RealClimate … is the question people have been putting a lot of thought into since the IPCC AR4 report came out. We analysed what was in the report quite carefully at the time and pointed out that the allowance for dynamic ice sheet processes was very uncertain, and actually precluded setting a upper limit on what might be expected. The numbers that appeared in some headlines (up to 59 cm by 2100) did not take that uncertainty into account. In a more recent paper, our own Stefan Rahmstorf used a simple regression model to suggest that sea level rise (SLR) could reach 0.5 to 1.4 meters above 1990 levels by 2100, but this did not consider individual processes like dynamic ice sheet changes, being only based on how global sea level has been linked to global warming over the past 120 years. | 5th September 2008 |
| Doubling dead zones - Nature Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions could strip tropical oceans of oxygen and drastically expand the region's 'dead zones' by the end of this century. Large portions of the tropical oceans are oxygen-depleted and hostile to marine life. Although these poorly ventilated zones are known to be highly sensitive to climate change, it's not clear how they will fare over the next century. | 5th September 2008 |
| New underwater turbines promise clean energy from UK tides - Guardian Unlimited Harnessing the vast energy of the UK's coastal tides could become much simpler and cheaper with a new design for the next generation of underwater turbines | 5th September 2008 |
| More gain than pain in climate formula - The Australian CRUCIAL climate change modelling to be unveiled today by the Rudd Government's greenhouse adviser, Ross Garnaut, concludes that Australia would reap greater economic benefit from deep cuts than shallow cuts to global greenhouse emissions. | 5th September 2008 |
| Dion announces 'Green Shift' changes - CNews WINNIPEG - Stephane Dion finetuned his carbon-tax plan to make it more palatable to farmers, loggers, truckers and fishers Wednesday as he snagged Canada's highest-profile farmer as a Liberal election candidate. | 5th September 2008 |
| How food waste can power your home - BBC News The government considers building new "biowaste" plants across England after a successful scheme in Shropshire. | 5th September 2008 |
| Old-growth B.C. forests worth more standing than fallen, study says - CNews VANCOUVER - A study by researchers at Simon Fraser University in B.C. says leaving old-growth forests standing may make more economic sense than cutting them down. | 5th September 2008 |
| Indian cyclones soar - Nature The frequency and intensity of summer tropical cyclones forming in the north Indian Ocean could increase in the coming century, according to scientists. | 5th September 2008 |
| Gone underground - BBC Can carbon dioxide be locked away in rock forever? | 5th September 2008 |
| Asian pollution could spur U.S., European warming WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Asian pollution from Asian power plants, cooking and heating could create summer hot spots in the central United States and southern Europe by mid-century, U.S. climate scientists reported on Thursday. | 5th September 2008 |
| Tim Radford on geoengineering and climate change - Guardian Unlimited Can the new science of geoengineering save the planet? Tim Radford weighs the probabilities | 5th September 2008 |
| Feds Warn Global Warming May Harm Calif. Sequoias - CBS 5 Bay Area Federal researchers warned Thursday that warming temperatures could soon cause California's beloved giant sequoia trees to die off more quickly, so forest managers must start considering the impacts of climate change and a longer, harsher wildfire season. | 5th September 2008 |
| Arctic melting shows global warming serious: expert - Reuters OTTAWA (Reuters) - The incredibly rapid rate at which Canada's Arctic ice shelves are disappearing is an early indicator of the "very substantial changes" that global warming will impose on all mankind, a top scientist said on Wednesday. | 4th September 2008 |
| Hurricanes in the Atlantic - NOAA Watch an animated satellite image of current hurricane activity in the Atlantic | 4th September 2008 |
| Climate must be heart of foreign policy: EU official LONDON (Reuters) - Climate change represents such a threat to global security it must be at the heart of European Union foreign policy, much as energy security is now, a top EU bureaucrat said on Wednesday. | 4th September 2008 |
| Warming boosts strongest storms - BBC News As temperatures rise globally, strong storms in the tropics are getting stronger with faster winds, scientists show. | 4th September 2008 |
| Nasa man defends climate protest - BBC News A leading climate change scientist speaks in defence of six Greenpeace activists charged with criminal damage. | 4th September 2008 |
| Greenpeace proposes giant North Sea windfarm grid - Reuters BRUSSELS (Reuters) - North Sea nations could link their offshore windfarms via a giant electricity grid on the sea bed and bring huge benefits for Europe, according to a Greenpeace report gaining interest from the European Commission. | 4th September 2008 |
| Drier 'new reality' to cost nation $30 billion to hydrate - The Age Australia will spend at least $30 billion finding new sources of water over the next decade, as the nation's biggest water authorities declared yesterday there was no drought, but rather a drier "new reality". | 4th September 2008 |
| "Green" funding for Ford: Why Government Shouldn't Pick Winners The Canadian government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper is reported to be on the verge of giving $200 million from a "green initiatives fund" to Ford and General Motors - to help those failing companies continue to build really big (and increasingly unpopular) cars and trucks.Ford, which lost $8.7 billion in the second-quarter of this year as its truck-dominated fleet crashed into oily reality, is advertising its latest Ontario production facility as "green" because it features a "more fuel-efficient V8 engine." And Stephen Harper, in a pre-election vote-buying frenzy, is using taxpayers money to prop up this stupidity.I would hope for some support from the libertarian community in criticizing this decision. | 4th September 2008 |
| Scientists warn of rising Mediterranean temperature - SINDH TODAY Scientists warn of rising Mediterranean temperatureSINDH TODAY, Pakistan. ... measures are taken to curb global warming. Scientists currently aboard the Aigaio oceanographic vessel near Sicily studying the impact of climate change ... | 4th September 2008 |
| Global warming: Western US feels the heat - Seattle Post Intelligencer Global warming: Western US feels the heatSeattle Post Intelligencer. ... on climate change impact helped galvanize European leaders. "Global warming is absolutely transformational in where species can live," Stern said. ... | 4th September 2008 |
| Oliver Tickell: Geo-engineers, too, have a vital role in saving the planet - Guardian Unlimited This week the Royal Society published a special edition of its journal, Philosophical Transactions, dedicated to "geo-engineering" interventions to combat global warming. Its initiative deserves to be welcomed, not rejected out of hand. The time may come when we need to geo-engineer in order to maintain our planet in a livable state. Doug Parr, Greenpeace UK's chief scientist, made the case ... | 4th September 2008 |
| Major ice-shelf loss for Canada - BBC News Canada's Arctic ice shelves have lost a colossal area this year, scientists report, with one 50 sq km shelf breaking off completely. See also: A planet on thin ice - Boston Globe MANY SCIENTISTS worry that there will be tipping points in global warming, as changes in the delicate balance of the earth's ice, land, water, and air cause sudden accelerations in average temperatures. One focus of concern is the Arctic, where ice annually expands and recedes with the seasons. Just as the data on Arctic summer ice came in, researchers also reported alarming releases of methane gas in the Arctic. As a greenhouse gas, methane is 25 times as potent as carbon dioxide. Scientists have long feared that gigantic burps of this gas would be a result of warming in the Arctic. | 3rd September 2008 |
| Energy's Most Dangerous Game - Forbes Undersea methane hydrates could power civilization for centuries--or cause a global climate disaster. | 3rd September 2008 |
| Republican VP Who Scoffs At Greenhouse Gas Effect - Sound Familiar? Stuart Gaffin is a climate researcher at Columbia University and a regular contributor with his blog “Exhausted Earth”. ThomsonReuters is not responsible for the content - the views are the author's alone. I am not a Republican. However, early in John McCain's campaign for the presidency, I would often say to friends and family-who know I am not a Republican-that if I did vote solely on the one issue I research most, climate change, I would probably vote for McCain. He came across to me as the candidate who most respected the science and gravity of the issue (perhaps even as much as Al Gore I thought … why else take such a big political risk with his party?) and was prepared to lead America in a new direction. See also: And Then There Was One - New York Times With his choice of Sarah Palin — the Alaska governor who has advocated drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and does not believe mankind is playing any role in climate change — for vice president, John McCain has completed his makeover from the greenest Republican to run for president to just another representative of big oil. See also: Oil Contributions to the 2008 US presidential election campaigns | 3rd September 2008 |
| Can carbon offsetting ever be green? - Guardian Unlimited Environment, science technology: Leo Hickman: A new scheme to help the people most at risk from climate change to adapt is admirable but ultimately unconvincing | 3rd September 2008 |
| NASA scientists to fan flames of Kingsnorth debate - Kent News A leading climate change expert is coming to Kent today to voice his concerns about plans to build new coal-fired units at Kingsnorth power station. “The fact that such a preeminent scientist is coming to Kent just goes to show how big the issue of Kingsnorth has become and its global significance.” | 3rd September 2008 |
| Seawater greenhouses for the desert - Guardian Unlimited Environment, science technology: Planned project would use solar power to evaporate salt water, allowing food to be grown | 3rd September 2008 |
| Scientists uncover key to boosting carbon capture - Australian Broadcasting Corporation Buried under a giant stand of bamboo in northern New South Wales, two Australian soil scientists have made a discovery they believe will help save the planet. | 3rd September 2008 |
| Garnaut has the answer to climate change - Sydney Morning Herald Prof Garnaut said biosequestration could transform Australia's bid to contain climate change. | 3rd September 2008 |
| Drought in Australia Food Bowl Worsens - Planet Ark CANBERRA - Drought in Australia's main food growing region of the Murray-Darling river system has worsened, with water inflows over the past two years at an all-time low, the government's top water official said on Tuesday. See also: In pictures: The drought in Benalla - BBC News | 3rd September 2008 |
| Experts: 'Global Warming Heat Stress' Threatening Nations - FOXNews Climate change is likely to first hurt developing countries which could become almost too hot to successfully grow essential crops, international experts told a conference Wednesday. |
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| Greenland's ancient analogue - Nature Greenland's ancient analogue Nature Reports: Climate Change110 (2008). doi:10.1038/climate.2008.88 Author: Amanda Leigh Haag New insights into the disappearance of a massive ice sheet that once covered much of North America suggest that Greenland could melt more rapidly than predicted. Amanda Leigh Haag reports. | 3rd September 2008 |
| Check out NASA's new science blog - DeSmogBlog When it comes to climate science, its usually best to talk to climate scientists. And a new blog set up by NASA at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a welcomed voice in the social media arena. While climate isn't the only focus of the new JPL blog, so far there has been a pretty heavy focus on the issue. So grab the JPL blog's RSS feed and keep up-to-date on the latest in climate change science through the eyes of an actual climate scientist. | 3rd September 2008 |
| POLITICS-US: Canada's Tar Sands Lobbyists Focus on Democrats - IPS VANCOUVER, Sep 2 (IPS) - As the U.S. election campaign kicks into overdrive, Canadian politicians and oil executives are stepping up lobbying efforts to make sure whoever controls the White House keeps purchasing notoriously dirty oil from the Alberta tar sands. | 3rd September 2008 |
| Destruction of Kenya forest is national emergency NAROK, Kenya (Reuters) - Maasai goatherd Joseph Nkolia points dismissively at two shallow pools, the only water in a parched stream west of the Kenyan town of Narok. | 3rd September 2008 |
| Emissions scheme 'won't stop logging' - Adelaide Now THE forestry industry has rejected suggestions it will stop harvesting trees under emissions trading. | 3rd September 2008 |
| Shaman says 'We have lost touch with Mother Nature' - Orillia Packet & Times "I was telling them how the world government listened and my father said, 'But son did they hear you?' I said 'Dad they gave me a standing ovation.' But, then I understood, he meant did they hear my message," Lyberth said. "We know now that no one did." | 3rd September 2008 |
| Climate 'hockey stick' is revived - BBC News A new study by scientists behind the controversial "hockey stick" climate graph suggests their earlier work was broadly correct. | 2nd September 2008 |
| Melting permafrost will be major driver of global warming - Mongabay.com Melting permafrost will be major driver of global warmingMongabay.com. Edward AG Schuur et al (2008) Vulnerability of Permafrost Carbon to Climate Change: Implications for the Global Carbon Cycle. Biosicence September 2008. | 2nd September 2008 |
| Transport Canada study puts price on transportation - CNews A groundbreaking federal study has calculated the "soci |