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News Archive 2010 back to archive main page |
This Time Is Different ![[essential]](../images/redDot.gif) 'I' d like to join in on the blame game that has come to define our national approach to the ongoing environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. This isn' t BP''s or Transocean''s fault. It''s not the government''s fault. It''s my fault. I' m the one to blame and I' m sorry. It''s my fault because I haven' t digested the world''s in- your- face hints that maybe I ought to think about the future and change the unsustainable way I live my life. If the geopolitical, economic, and technological shifts of the 1990s didn' t do it ... |
14th June 2010 |
| BP is just a symptom of a dangerous addiction to oil President Obama''s attacks on "British Petroleum" and its chief executive, Tony Hayward, are deeply unedifying. Not because of the hypocrisy and misinformation involved, though there is plenty of that: BP has not been called British Petroleum for years and its controversial dividend is denominated in US dollars. Nancy Pelosi, the House Speaker, conjured up images of pound notes flowing into pinstriped pockets in the City when she suggested shareholders had "deeper pockets" than fishermen on the Gulf coast. But recipients of the divi are not all fat cats, and they are certainly not all British. About 40% of BP''s dividends are paid to US small investors and pension fund members, including teachers in California and Texas. |
14th June 2010 |
| Boycott Big Oil? Prepare to give up your lifestyle WASHINGTON " Has the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico got you so mad you' re ready to quit Big Oil? Ready to park the car and take up bike- riding or walking? Well, your bike and your sneakers have petroleum products in them. And sure, you can curb energy use by shutting off the AC, but the electric fans you switch to have plastic from oil and gas in them. And the insulation to keep your home cool, also started as oil and gas. Without all that, you' ll sweat and it' ll be all too noticeable because deodorant comes from oil and gas too. |
14th June 2010 |
| David King: We must abandon oil before it's too late The Gulf of Mexico spill has made it imperative that we end our dependency on petrol. How much should we worry about running out of oil? Of late, there have been disparate predictions for our oil reserves, with some claiming that oil will last us for decades. In fact, the question is not so much: "When will there be no more oil left for us to take?" but, rather: "When will demand outstrip production?" And that could happen sooner than most people realise. This is an issue that governments around the world, including our own, are ignoring despite the potential risk to our economies. Conventional oil production has a limited capacity. |
14th June 2010 |
| From ecological tragedy to political nightmare Fifty days in, the backlash from the BP oil spill is being felt on both sides of the Atlantic. As the special relationship comes under strain, Obama invests an unprecedented amount of presidential time on a visit to the Gulf, while Cameron faces rightwing flak. The anger is palpable in the southern Louisiana towns where livelihoods are being slowly and inexorably choked by oil. Pickup trucks with "BP sucks" scrawled on their panels bounce along the roads. Anti- BP rallies are planned this weekend in communities too small to rate a petrol station but which now sport giant billboards advertising law firms touting for people who want to sue the oil giant for compensation. |
14th June 2010 |
| What's wrong with the sun? Right now our nearest star should be flaring up as never before. But instead it''s eerily calm - and we need to find out why See also: As the Sun Awakens, NASA Keeps a Wary Eye on Space Weather |
14th June 2010 |
Warmer climate thaws ice cellars in Arctic villages  Residents who rely on a subsistence diet are having to throw out spoiled whale meat. |
14th June 2010 |
French oyster business faces fresh plague crisis  From the Mediterranean coast to the bay of Arcachon on the Atlantic and now Brittany, farmers have been watching in dismay in recent weeks as the virus once again moved northwards, keeping pace with the rising sea temperature. In 2008 and 2009, the industry was ravaged by the same epidemic, with many farms losing 80-100% of their stocks of naissains - first- year spats. Because it takes three years to grow a commercially viable oyster, so far the economic impact of the crisis has been limited. But now all pre-2008 production has been depleted, so major shortages are predicted next winter when demand peaks around Christmas and New Year. |
14th June 2010 |
| Climate talks: goodwill down the toilet, or not? Two weeks of international talks in Bonn ended on something of a sour note when Saudi Arabia and two other Gulf fossil- fuel producers blocked a proposal for an updated report on the effect of a 1.5 degree increase in climate. |
14th June 2010 |
| Fossil Fuels versus Corn Ethanol So, digging up dirty old decaying fish causes massive coastland and marine pollution. Would bioethanol from corn be better ? [link] energy- source/2010/06/14/is- bps- oil- spill- an- opportunity- for- the- ethanol- lobby/ Not really. First there''s the amount of land required to grow all that corn to burn in all those tanks (see diagram at top of page). Then, there''s the competition between food and fuel that that will generate. Then there''s the continued hazard from airborne particulates that you get from burning anything in infernal, I mean, internal combustion engines :- [link] blog/20100609/new- questions- about- toxic- products- biofuel- combustion And last, and by no means least, Corn Ethanol production would keep Archer Daniels Midland in business, and that would mean they would own not only (unresearched ... |
14th June 2010 |
| Recent trends in CO2 emissions Guest commentary by Corinne Le Quéré, Michael R. Raupach, and Joseph G. Canadell There is a letter in Nature Geoscience this month by Manning et al (sub. reqd.) 'Misrepresentation of the IPCC CO2 emission scenarios' discussing some recent statements about the growth rates of CO2 emissions compared to the IPCC scenarios that informed the climate modeling in the last IPCC report. In it they refer to results published by us and colleagues in a couple of recent papers (Raupach et al. 2007; Le Quéré et al. 2009), and to statements made by others on the basis of our results (Ganguly et al. |
14th June 2010 |
| Harper pressured to put climate change on G8, G20 agenda - Vancouver Sun CBC. ca. Harper pressured to put climate change on G8, G20 agenda. Vancouver Sun... some issues surrounding climate change. At the same time, the G20 isn' t expected to replace the United Nations (global- warming) negotiating process. ...International summits have become outdated. St. Thomas Times- Journal. National Affairs. Orangeville Citizenall 352 |
14th June 2010 |
| OPEC takes flak for UN climate veto - National AFPOPEC takes flak for UN climate veto. National. Reuters Several OPEC nations have blocked a proposal for a UN inquiry into tougher action against global warming but not without a barrage of criticism from ...Saudis block call for global warming report. AFPSaudi placard vandalized, climate talks slowed further. Sify. Oil nations block switch to 1.5°C climate goal. EurActiv. Irish Times -Reuters UK -Indian Expressall 71 |
14th June 2010 |
| Hedge funds sweeping through beleaguered ethanol industry for bargains A mile down an unpaved road on the outskirts of Canton, Ill., population 14,500, stands a shuttered ethanol plant. |
14th June 2010 |
| Climate scientists say attacks against them have increased stolen e-mail flap WALNUT CREEK, Calif. A few years ago, Ben Santer, a climate scientist with Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in Washington, answered a 10 p. m. doorbell ring at his home. After opening the door, he found a dead rat on the doorstep and a man in a yellow Hummer speeding away and shouting curses. |
14th June 2010 |
| The oil spill and credit crunch were bad. An oil crunch would be worse | Jeremy Leggett Small print of BP Statistical Review of World Energy is troubling. Big as BP''s problems are as a result of failed risk assessments, it will very probably soon become worse. Growing numbers of people doubt its annual review of oil reserves, published today. Society builds its oil dependency on key cultural statements of faith about secure supply, such as BP''s annual announcement that there is 40 years of supply or more, and no danger of supply falling short of demand, so ambushing oil- addicted economies. You would think that BP''s risk- assessment failures in the Gulf, and in US refineries, would make the company measured, given the stakes in this particular assessment. |
12th June 2010 |
| We're all to blame for the oil spill | Mark Coeckelbergh It''s our addiction to cheap fuel that drives the high- risk, poorly regulated sector producing business models like BP' sWho''s to blame for the Gulf oil spill? Many commentators point the finger at BP and the United States government. This focus is understandable " but gives an incomplete picture of how moral responsibility is distributed in this kind of case. Getting a better idea of distribution is important for blame and punishment but also for prevention: we don' t want this to happen again. Ascribing responsibility here can be knotty, owing to the wide range of actors involved in oil production. What BP does in this context depends on other corporate actors. |
12th June 2010 |
| Global Warming Deniers and Their Proven Strategy of Doubt For years, free- market fundamentalists opposed to government regulation have sought to create doubt in the public''s mind about the dangers of smoking, acid rain, and ozone depletion. Now they have turned those same tactics on the issue of global warming and on climate scientists, with significant success. BY NAOMI ORESKES AND ERIK M. CONWAY |
12th June 2010 |
| World at risk of "red card" over climate: de Boer BONN (Reuters) - Climate negotiators gave a standing ovation to the outgoing head of the U. N. climate change secretariat Wednesday even after he told them they would be at risk of a red card in a soccer match for wasting time. |
12th June 2010 |
| Extreme warming in Arctic will cause colder winters-and political gridlock by Tom Laskawy. The political (or at least the Senatorial) tides are running strongly against a muscular policy response to climate change. Now a top NOAA scientist tells us that even the winds are blowing in the wrong direction- actual winds, mind you, not political. Via Science Daily: A warmer Arctic climate is influencing the air pressure at the North Pole and shifting wind patterns on our planet. We can expect more cold and snowy winters in Europe, eastern Asia and eastern North America. 'Cold and snowy winters will be the rule, rather than the exception,' says Dr. |
12th June 2010 |
| The Hottest Ever Image Credit : NASA GISS NASA GISS compute that the period January to May for 2010 has been the hottest ever on record. Of course, the Sun is the ultimate cause of rising temperatures on Earth. The energy from the Sun is the driving force behind all the weather systems, ocean currents, wind storms and cloud activity. But it''s the things you can' t see that are the most significant. Sunspots are theorised to indicate energy output from the Sun, that has an impact on temperatures on Earth. Higher sunspot activity would point to higher levels of energy reaching Earth. See also: NASA: Easily the hottest spring - and Jan-May - in temperature record - Plus another record 12-month global temperature |
12th June 2010 |
| Study: Shrinking glaciers to spark food shortages (AP) -- Nearly 60 million people living around the Himalayas will suffer food shortages in the coming decades as glaciers shrink and the water sources for crops dry up, a study said Thursday. |
12th June 2010 |
Prominent U.S. Executives Call For Major Increase in Energy Research  A group of powerful U. S. business leaders has called on the government to sharply increase funding of renewable energy research or risk falling far behind other nations in the race to replace fossil fuels with green technologies. The group, which includes Microsoft co- founder Bill Gates, General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt, and venture capitalist John Doerr, said the government should triple spending on energy research and development to $16 billion a year and create a national energy board to oversee investment decisions in renewable energy research. Gates, speaking for the group, the American Energy Innovation Council, said it was vital that the nation reduce its dependence on fossil fuels and slash greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050. |
12th June 2010 |
| Cutting fuel subsidies will cut CO2 emissions: OECD Phasing out fossil fuel subsidies should cut greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent from levels they would otherwise reach in 2050, the OECD said Wednesday. |
12th June 2010 |
| Lockbox may be making a political comeback Republicans may be coming around to former Vice President Al Gore''s way of thinking. Not on climate change, but on the "lockbox." During his failed 2000 presidential bid, Gore talked about setting aside Social Security tax surpluses and putting them in a kind of "lockbox" to keep them off limits for other government spending and tax cuts. NBC''s "Saturday Night Live" comedy show made great fun of the Democrat''s comment. Now Senate Republicans have revived the idea. Not for Social Security, but for the oil spill clean up fund. Democrats are proposing to increase the oil spill clean up fund tax to 41 cents a barrel from 8 cents a barrel. |
12th June 2010 |
| Senate defeats bid to limit EPA authority to regulate emissions The Senate Thursday defeated 53-47 an effort to limit the Environmental Protection Agency''s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, and President Barack Obama said the vote was a reminder of the need to pass more comprehensive climate change legislation. |
12th June 2010 |
| Working towards a holistic change OUR journey towards Vision 2020 is full of challenges and uncertainties at the global level. The global economic landscape today has changed significantly and Malaysia can no longer depend on a low- cost structure to remain competitive internationally. |
12th June 2010 |
| Wal-Mart Goes Green Wal-Mart, the original Black Hat, is going green. Or better said, sustainable. Let that sink in because it is true. Big time. So much so that Treehugger.com says It "could end up being one of the biggest motivators to make truly 'green' products ever." As in history of the world. Wal-Mart has made believers out of not just the biggest environmental organizations in the world -- like the Environmental Defense Fund and the World Wildlife Federation -- but also Wal-Mart's suppliers. It started five years ago when Wal-Mart announced three goals: 1) 100 percent renewable energy; 2) Zero waste; 3) Sustainable products. |
12th June 2010 |
| If There Was Ever a Moment to Seize Here''s the president on March 31st, announcing his plan to lift a longstanding moratorium on offshore drilling: "Given our energy needs, in order to sustain economic growth and produce jobs, and keep our businesses competitive, we are going to need to harness traditional sources of fuel even as we ramp up production of new sources of renewable, homegrown energy." read more |
12th June 2010 |
| Video: The National Geographic Archive: The water-powered battery A battery that runs on water may be in our cars and homes in the very near future |
12th June 2010 |
| New UN climate chief urges action The incoming head of the UN climate convention says rich nations must pledge bigger emission cuts. |
12th June 2010 |
| Energy Secretary welcomes Republican climate bill WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Energy Secretary Steven Chu on Wednesday gave limited support to a Republican senator for introducing an alternative climate bill that would limit emissions by less than President Barack Obama wants to, but would also take steps to reduce U. S. dependence on oil. |
12th June 2010 |
| Biofuels from deforested land to fail EU standards BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Palm oil grown on recently deforested land is unlikely to be acceptable for use in European biodiesel, a draft report from the European Commission shows. |
12th June 2010 |
| China fossil fuel CO2 jumps as global total falls LONDON (Reuters) - China could face increasing pressure in U. N. climate talks after data released on Wednesday showed the country''s carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel rose by 9 percent in 2009, bucking a global downtrend. |
12th June 2010 |
| Michael Tomasky: Energy and reality A lot has happened in the last few days on energy and climate change in the Senate, most of it not so great. But it sets up a classic half- a-loaf kind of dilemma for liberals. First, on Sunday, Chuck Schumer said the Senate would be aiming low on energy and that the Kerry- Lieberman mega- legislation, which puts a price on carbon emissions via cap- and- trade, wasn' t necessarily the template. He spoke a little prematurely and walked that back. Then, yesterday, Lindsey Graham, the only Republican who was playing ball here and whose name used to be on that legislation, said definitively that he wouldn' t support the current version of that bill. |
12th June 2010 |
| Gulfs remain after climate talks UN climate talks end in Bonn with talk of an improved mood but major gulfs remain between blocs. |
12th June 2010 |
| Rich slammed on carbon 'cheating' Campaigners accuse some rich nations of trying to gain carbon credits for "business as usual". |
12th June 2010 |
| Fixing Planet Earth: a not-so-modest proposal Mahatma Gandhi is widely regarded as the father of the Indian nation, which he was. But the founding of the nation was not his only aim. He was, as he freely admitted, using India to demonstrate to the whole world how nonviolence could change history. The swell of mostly nonviolent revolutions that has followed in the last 30 or so years would seem to indicate that his bold scheme worked. read more |
12th June 2010 |
| Apocalypse Now and Next: From Gulf Spill to Nuke Disaster We just ignited a disaster beyond our technical control. Why are we on the brink of doing it again? |
12th June 2010 |
| The BP Disaster Marks the End of the Age of Arrogance About the Environment ... Can We Change? This spill will mark the time we started to learn about ecocide; a turning point in our realization that our industrial, carbon- dependent way of life cannot last. |
12th June 2010 |
| Greenpeace competition to redesign BP logo Images from a Greenpeace competition to redesign the BP logo following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico |
12th June 2010 |
| Confidence in climate science strong: poll Survey shows 71% of Britons are concerned about climate, despite hacked emails, failure at Copenhagen and cold weather. Climate science''s winter of discontent has not made a large impact on the British public''s attitudes to global warming, according to poll of over 1,800 people. The poll, by researchers at the University of Cardiff, showed a small drop in public acceptance of climate change but not the major falls that some observers had predicted after a series of media controversies over the actions of climate scientists, combined with the failure of the Copenhagen summit and the record- breaking cold temperatures."By no means has there been a collapse in confidence in climate science," said Professor Nick Pidgeon, who led the study. |
12th June 2010 |
| Mass. Study: Wood Power Worse Polluter Than Coal Wood- burning power plants release more greenhouse gases into the air than coal over time. |
12th June 2010 |
| Critics slam climate change proposal A new round of climate talks has ended with rich and poor countries criticising a new text meant to pave the way toward a deal to halt global warming. |
12th June 2010 |
| US pollsters argue over public view on climate change A new survey suggests that climate science scandals don' t bother people in the US much " but hot words have been exchanged about global warming polls |
12th June 2010 |
| Engineers say Interior changed oil report after they signed it A group of engineers and oil experts said Friday that the Interior Department changed the language of a high- profile oil spill report after they' d signed it, falsely signaling their support for a drilling moratorium that they thought went too far. |
12th June 2010 |
| France, UK, Sweden want deep CO2 cut, Italy opposed LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - Western European countries gave strong backing to deeper cuts to climate- warming emissions on Friday, but Italy''s environment minister said her peers were deluded. |
12th June 2010 |
| New U.N. climate text omits deepest 2050 carbon cuts BONN, Germany (Reuters) - Negotiators from 185 nations end two weeks of talks on a new climate treaty on Friday with a new blueprint for a pact that omits the most draconian options for greenhouse gas cuts by 2050. |
12th June 2010 |
| UK grows more skeptical on climate change: poll LONDON (Reuters) - Britain has become more skeptical about climate change, more supportive of nuclear power, and more worried about depending on energy imports, a poll by Cardiff University on Friday showed. |
12th June 2010 |
| Inside the Beltway Climate War A new book charts the troubling back story behind the struggle to craft laws limiting the human impact on climate. |
12th June 2010 |
| Climate in an Impolitic World An all- day online discussion of climate, energy, communication and public attitudes. |
12th June 2010 |
| Attack on climate scientist just latest in a long line - CNN Washington Post. Attack on climate scientist just latest in a long line. CNN... is more associated with global warming than Roger Revelle, mentor to Al Gore, who first warned of the risks of human- caused climate change in the 1950s. ...When in doubt, trust science. Record- Searchlight (blog) Unmasking disinformation, from tobacco to climate. Washington Post. Climate Science and the IPCC Fail Legal Cross Examination. Canada Free Press. Scoop. co. nz (press release) all 7 |
12th June 2010 |
| BP Gulf of Mexico crisis will transform the oil industry -Kees Willemse is professor of off- shore engineering, Delft University. The opinions expressed are his own.- The news that a huge metal cap has been successfully placed over several of the leaking oil vents at the Deepwater Horizon site marks a potential turning point in the Gulf of Mexico crisis. It is already estimated that each day some 10-15,000 barrels of the oil that are spilling out into the ocean are being captured and diverted to ships on the sea surface. Despite this engineering success, a complete end to the oil leakage is unlikely until new relief oil wells are completed -- a drilling process that could take most of the summer, and potentially into the autumn. |
12th June 2010 |
| Obama is right to slam BP and why capitalists should too Put aside the environmental impact of the BP oil spill for a minute " massive as it is " because right- wingers don' t really care for little things like that. Instead they' re whinging that Obama is slamming their favourite oil company far too much. It hurts their pride you know. Oh and it hurts our pensions! Damn that Obama, does he not care for our goddamn pensions?. Who cares for those people whose livelihoods have been lost thanks to the obscene amounts of oil that is about to hit their shores? Certainly not these idiots. Ben Goldacre tweeted yesterday ... |
12th June 2010 |
| Carbon sink plans sunk by stalling of emission plan Tree- planting schemes and carbon- offset projects could be abandoned at the end of the month, another casualty of the federal government''s delayed emissions trading scheme. |
9th June 2010 |
| Alex Rafalowicz: Update from Bonn: The Crazy Killing of the Kyoto Protocol The EU used to be characterized by its 'ambition and contribution' to a strong international climate regime, but here in Bonn they are showing a distinct lack of courage, and as the German''s say, when you lose your courage you lose everything. |
9th June 2010 |
| The addict's excuse As I read Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal''s letter to President Obama and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar asking them to reconsider a six- month moratorium on deepwater oil drilling, I was reminded of a Wendell Berry essay I read several years ago. In "Word and Flesh" Berry wrote, "The great obstacle is simply this: the conviction that we cannot change because we are dependent on what is wrong. But that is the addict''s excuse, and we know that it will not do." Or do we? The Gulf of Mexico is currently experiencing the human equivalent of metastasizing cancer, and the governor of Louisiana proposes that the activities which resulted in that cancer be resumed immediately even as BP''s underwater gusher continues to flow into the gulf. |
9th June 2010 |
| Dale Pendell: An Economy Not Worth Saving Let the recession come. The earth needs a recession, badly, globally. |
9th June 2010 |
| The oil firms' profits ignore the real costs | George Monbiot The energy industry has long dumped its damage and, like the banks, made scant provision against disaster. Time to pay up. Has BP ever made a profit? The question looks daft. The oil company posted profits of $26bn last year. There''s no doubt that BP has been pumping money into the pockets of its shareholders. The question is whether this money is what the company says it is. BP calls it profit. I call it the provision the firm should be making against future liabilities. Despite an angry letter from two US senators and a warning from Barack Obama about spending big money on their shareholders while nickel- and- diming coastal people, despite the fact that it has no idea what its total liabilities in the Gulf of Mexico will be, BP seems to be planning to pay a dividend this year. See also: BP buys 'oil spill' sponsored links for search engines |
9th June 2010 |
| Europe's Green Energy Portfolio Up in Smoke? BERLIN, Jun 7 (IPS) - Europe seems hell- bent on burning the world''s forests for bioenergy, even as it offers billions of euros to save them, critics say. |
9th June 2010 |
| New climate chief: 'no choice' but to take action - The Associated Press AFPNew climate chief: 'no choice' but to take action. The Associated Press. BONN, Germany - The new UN climate chief says nations have no choice but to join forces to stop global warming, even after her predecessor said he doubts ...I had both failure and success: outgoing UN climate chief (Interview) Sify. UN climate chief forecasts missed targets on emissions. Irish TimesA gentle breeze of optimism detected at UN climate talks. Sydney Morning Herald. AFP -PR Newswire (press release) -Jakarta Globeall 254 |
9th June 2010 |
| Major Vegetation Shifts Occurring Because of Warming, Study Says Rising global temperatures over the past century are already causing large shifts in vegetation, with trees and plants increasingly moving toward the poles and up mountain slopes, according to a new study. Conduced by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, and the U. S. Forest Service, the research combined data from hundreds of previous studies and found that 76 percent of the Earth''s land surfaces experienced significant temperatures increases in the 20th century, causing shifts in vegetation. The changes were most prominent in Arctic and sub- Arctic landscapes, where shrublands have been moving into tundra regions, and Click to enlarge. UC Berkeley/ Gonzalez, et al. Projected vegetation shift through 2100 in northern Africa''s Sahel region, where woodlands are giving way to grasslands. |
9th June 2010 |
| Blackout Asia : Crispy Baking While Europe has been enjoying an early Summer, elsewhere in the world high air temperatures have been record- breaking. When the heat gets this bad, public services need to provide air- conditioned community shelters as a key adaptational strategy. But any plans of this nature are being thwarted by power shortages, for example, in India and Pakistan :- [link] world/2010/06/01/200-dead- in- india- heatwave/ '200 Dead In India Heatwave', 01 June 2010 [link] commentisfree/2010/jun/07/pakistan- energy- policy- proving- deadly 'Pakistan''s heatwave and a deadly lack of energy policy ... |
9th June 2010 |
| Drought threatens Thailand's rice crop The world''s largest rice exporter, Thailand, is facing major losses to its next crop of rice and a water crisis because of the worst drought in nearly two decades. |
9th June 2010 |
| OECD tells G20 fossil fuel subsidies should end PARIS (Reuters) - The OECD urged governments to end fossil fuels subsidies in a statement on Wednesday that argued this could cut greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent and help deliver on G20 promises to combat global warming. Leaders of the Group of 20 economic powers meet in Toronto in late June and pledged last September in Pittsburgh to press for a phase- out over the medium term, the Organization for Economic Co- operation and Development said. |
9th June 2010 |
| Post BP Disaster: Support grows for comprehensive energy bill that makes carbon polluters pay As the BP oil disaster drags on, the public''s desire for clean energy investments and increased oversight of corporate polluters has greatly intensified. CAP''s Daniel J. Weiss and intern Ariel Powell have the important data and charts from a major new poll. The League of Conservation Voters commissioned a poll by the Benenson Strategy Group, President Obama''s pollster in 2008, to measure public support for clean energy reform in the wake of the BP oil disaster. The central finding is that the public wants real changes in our energy policies: In the aftermath of the spill, people firmly believe Congress needs to do more than just make BP pay. |
9th June 2010 |
| My bright idea: Environment Following the frugal example set by our hunter' gatherer forebears is the best way to combat today''s environmental challenges, says explorer Spencer Wells. Spencer Wells has a job that most people would kill for. He is explorer- in- residence for National Geographic and his work has taken him to every corner of the globe. His particular interests have nothing to do with wild places, however. His fascination lies with the people who inhabit these remote corners: how did they get there and what are their biological relations with other inhabitants of the planet? Wells is a geneticist and leader of the Genographic project, funded by National Geographic, which has traced the movements of human populations since we first emerged from our sub- Saharan homeland 100,000 years ago and colonised the planet. |
9th June 2010 |
| Support for U.S. climate regulation growing: poll WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A growing number of Americans want the United States to regulate greenhouse gas emissions as the largest oil spill in U. S. history helps boost interest in petroleum alternatives, a poll by two universities found on Tuesday. See also: Poll: American opinion on climate change warms up The Climate Majority - New York Times |
9th June 2010 |
| White House eyes veto if Senate curbs EPA climate power WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Tuesday threatened a presidential veto if Congress passes a measure to strip the Environmental Protection Agency of its authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. |
9th June 2010 |
| BP chief Tony Hayward sold shares weeks before oil spill The chief executive of BP sold £1.4 million of his shares in the fuel giant weeks before the Gulf of Mexico oil spill caused its value to collapse. [Lucky Tony] |
9th June 2010 |
| Nuclear fusion dream hit by EU's cash dilemma £1bn funding shortfall jeopardises hopes of producing cheap, non- polluting powerA £15bn international bid to harness the fusion process that powers the Sun is facing a major funding crisis. Scientists have revealed that the cost of the International Thermonuclear Experiment Reactor (Iter) has trebled from its original £5bn price tag in the past three years. At the same time, financial crises have beset all the nations involved in the project. As a result, construction of Iter " at Cadarache in France " has already been pushed back from 2015 to 2019, and further delays are likely. Some scientists say there is a risk that the entire project could be cancelled. Because it is hoped that fusion plants could one day supply the world with cheap, non- polluting power, the crisis facing Iter represents a substantial threat to plans to tackle the planet''s energy and climate problems. ... |
9th June 2010 |
| GM lobby helped draw up crucial report on Britain's food supplies Email trail shows how biotech group helped watchdog to draw up analysis of GM crops ... and prompted two advisers to quitA powerful lobbying organisation representing agribusiness interests helped draft a key government report that has been attacked by environmentalists for heavily favouring the arguments of the genetically modified food industry. The revelation comes after the resignation of two government advisers who have criticised the close relationship between the Food Standards Agency (FSA), the body that oversees the UK''s food industry, and the GM lobby. Emails between the FSA and the Agricultural Biotechnology Council (ABC) show the council inserted key sentences strengthening the case for GM food that ended up in the final report. The report, "Food Standards Agency work on changes in the market and the GM regulatory system", examines how GM products are entering the UK, where the growing of GM products is ... |
9th June 2010 |
| Tread cautiously on fossil fuel use: experts to govt India Inc should end its dependence on fossil fuel and consumers should be more disciplined in their use of subsidised fuel, but the government has to be cautious while considering harsh disincentives to the use of fossil fuel such as a carbon tax. |
9th June 2010 |
| Better way to calculate greenhouse gas value of ecosystems Researchers have developed a new, more accurate method of calculating the change in greenhouse gas emissions that results from changes in land use. The new approach takes into account many factors not included in previous methods, such as the ecosystem''s ability to take up or release greenhouse gases over time and all of the greenhouse gases absorbed and released in the process of introducing ... |
9th June 2010 |
| Radical plan to combat global warming 'may raise temperatures' - Independent Radical plan to combat global warming 'may raise temperatures' Independent... as a serious topic of study, given the international failure to curb global emissions of carbon dioxide and the possibility of extreme climate change. ... |
9th June 2010 |
| Oil spill is a sign to Congress: kick the fossil-fuel habit - Boston Globe WKRG- TVOil spill is a sign to Congress: kick the fossil- fuel habit. Boston Globe. IF THE threat of global warming doesn' t persuade Congress of the need to reduce America''s reliance on oil and coal, the vast slick now befouling the Gulf of ...Mr. President, lead now on fossil fuels. Los Angeles Timesall 167 |
9th June 2010 |
| McKibben: Mr. President, lead now on fossil fuels Bill Mc. Kibben - counder of 350.org, long- time guest blogger, and the author most recently of the must- read book Eaarth - has an op- ed in the LA Times on the spill- to- bill pivot: Here''s the president on March 31, announcing his plan to lift a longstanding moratorium on offshore drilling: 'Given our energy needs, in order to sustain economic growth and produce jobs and keep our businesses competitive, we are going to need to harness traditional sources of fuel even as we ramp up production of new sources of renewable, homegrown energy.' And here he is on May 26, as political pressure started to really build over BP''s hole in the bottom of the sea ... |
9th June 2010 |
| Is Obama Serious About Breaking Our Catastrophic Oil Addiction? Has the President been transformed by the oil spill in the Gulf, or is he merely trying to ride out the public reaction? |
9th June 2010 |
| Honeybee collapse: Stung from behind Distracted by a mysterious rash of dying bees, researchers may be overlooking a more insidious pollinator crisis. It has little to do with bees and everything to do with booming markets for raspberries, pears, and chocolate Fears for crops as shock figures from America show scale of bee catastrophe. Beekeeper Eric Olson has lost so many bees in the past few years, he''s had to consider closing shop. But nothing prepared him for what he found when he went out early one November morning to do a final check on "his girls," as he calls them. The first hive was dead - completely empty. |
9th June 2010 |
| Michael Tomasky: Why no big energy bill? You' d think the time was exactly right for a big new energy bill, right? I mean, if the American public is ever going to be attuned to these issues, it would be now, with all those images of those poor pelicans trying vainly to flap their oil- soaked wings. Well, things don' t work that way in 2010 America. Yes, it''s true, there''s a new poll out showing a majority opposing offshore drilling for the first time in a while. But look how close the numbers are: With oil continuing to stream into the Gulf, a majority of Americans - 51 percent -- say the costs and risks of increased offshore drilling are too great, according to a new CBS News poll. |
9th June 2010 |
| Give decision makers access to the value of nature's services | Chantal Jouanno and Janet Ranganathan This week, governments will meet in Korea to decide whether to establish an intergovernmental panel on biodiverisy services. It is all too easy to forget in the city- centred 21st century that human wellbeing is utterly dependent on the natural world. To state the obvious, we cannot survive without fresh water, food and fuel. And yet every day countless decisions are made whose ripple effects will degrade or destroy the vital goods and services that nature provides to people. Asian forests are cleared to boost timber exports, leading to erosion, landslides and the release of stored carbon that fuels climate change. Over- grazing by goats reared to meet overseas demand for cashmere clothing degrades grasslands in Mongolia. |
9th June 2010 |
| 10 years needed to agree on global climate action, says U.N. pointman by Agence France- Presse. PARIS- The world community may need another 10 years to agree on carbon cuts deep enough to roll back global warming, the U. N.'s pointman for climate change warned on Monday. 'I don' t see the process delivering adequate mitigation targets in the next decade,' Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the U. N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said in a webcast from Bonn. 'Over the longer term, I think we will get this issue under control. Having said that, I do believe that it''s a longer journey.' De Boer spoke on the sidelines of a 12-day round of negotiations for a post-2012 treaty to curb the greenhouse gases that are disrupting Earth''s climate system. |
9th June 2010 |
| Climate Intervention Schemes Could Be Undone by Geopolitics As global warming intensifies, demands for human manipulation of the climate system are likely to grow. But carrying out geoengineering plans could prove daunting, as conflicts erupt over the unintended regional consequences of climate intervention and over who is entitled to deploy climate- altering technologies. BY MIKE HULME |
9th June 2010 |
| UN climate chief warns 2020 carbon targets will be missed James Murray, Business. Green , Tuesday 8 June 2010 at 11:14:00 As advisory group mulls proposal for aviation carbon tax, Yvo de Boer warns the world is not moving fast enough to cut emissions Yvo de Boer, the outgoing UN climate change chief, has offered arguably the bleakest assessment yet of the chances of an ambitious international climate treaty being agreed, warning that the world is ... |
9th June 2010 |
| Climate Depot Update From Bonn: Discord, Blame and Profiteering at UN Bonn Climate Conference as UN Scrambles to Get ... BONN, Germany, June 8 /PRNewswire- USNewswire/ -- The following is being issued by Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow: |
9th June 2010 |
| Global fossil fuel CO2 falls, 1st time since '98: BP LONDON (Reuters) - Global greenhouse gas emissions from energy use fell for the first time since 1998, as the economic recession slashed industrial production and fossil fuel consumption in most countries, BP said on Wednesday. |
9th June 2010 |
| Wind turbines take to the skies The inventor is currently putting the final touches to a series of large kites, which he says will be able to harvest the fast crosswinds found at high altitude. His airborne wind turbines will take off and fly to around 2000 feet (600m), where they will float, generating power that can be transferred to the ground via a tether. "Global wind is a tremendous source of energy - carrying nearly 870 terrawatts in global tropospheric winds," says Mr Bevirt of Joby Energy, which is developing the wind turbine technology. "In comparison, the global demand is 17 terawatts. Harnessing a tiny fraction will transform the way we power our civilization." |
5th June 2010 |
| Obama calls for higher prices on carbon emissions President Barack Obama said Wednesday that the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has hardened his resolve to impose "a price" on carbon emissions to drive private investment away from fossil fuels and toward clean energy. |
5th June 2010 |
| Go veggie, cut fossil fuels to aid planet: study OSLO (Reuters) - An overhaul of world farming and more vegetarianism should be top priorities to protect the environment, along with curbs on fossil fuel use, a U. N.-backed study said on Wednesday. |
5th June 2010 |
| Canadian forest fires spark alerts in Quebec and US Firefighters in Canada are battling more than 50 forest fires that have sparked smog alerts across Quebec and parts of the north- eastern US. At least eight of the blazes north of Montreal were out of control, Quebec''s forest fire protection unit said. Smoke moved over Massachusetts and New Hampshire in the US, with the city of Boston covered in a haze on Monday. Officials in both countries have warned people with breathing problems to remain indoors until the smoke clears. The fires - sparked by lightning strikes - have raged for a week, and more than 1,300 firefighters were battling the blazes on Monday evening. |
5th June 2010 |
| First in the world floating plant of ecological desalination First in the world floating plant of ecological desalination Project Research team of Aegean University professors N. Nikitakos T. Lilla and N. Vatistas. See also: Desalination plant opens in London |
5th June 2010 |
| 2010 on track to become warmest year ever Figures from US scientists show Arctic sea ice is at a record low, while land temperatures are likely to hit new highs Nasa scientist James Hansen condemns 'politicised' media. New data from some of the world''s leading climate researchers and institutions suggest that 2010 is shaping up to be one of the warmest years ever recorded. Scientists at the US National Snow and Ice Centre Data Centre (NSIDC) report today that Arctic sea ice " frozen seawater that floats on the ocean surface " is now at its lowest physical extent ever recorded for the time of year, suggesting that it is on course to break the previous record low set in 2007.Satellite monitoring by the NSIDC in Boulder, Colorado, shows that the melting of sea ice has been unusually fast this year, with as much as 40,000 sq km now disappearing daily. The melt season started almost ... |
5th June 2010 |
| Temperatures reach record high in Pakistan Meteorologists record a temperature of 53.7C (129F) in Mohenjo- daro as heatwave continues across Pakistan and India. Mohenjo- daro, a ruined city in what is now Pakistan that contains the last traces of a 4,000-year- old civilisation that flourished on the banks of the river Indus, today entered the modern history books after government meteorologists recorded a temperature of 53.7C (129F). Only Al 'Aziziyah, in Libya (57.8C in 1922), Death valley in California (56.7 in 1913) and Tirat Zvi in Israel (53.9 in 1942) are thought to have been hotter. Temperatures in the nearest town, Larkana, have been only slightly lower in the last week, with 53C recorded last Wednesday. |
5th June 2010 |
| Algal blooms hit the poor of India hard The problem of toxic algae is not just confined to the Nordic countries - in India algal blooms are threatening poor people''s access to food and their livelihoods, a problem that has been exacerbated by global warming. With funding from the Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, researchers from the University of Gothenburg are to attempt to reduce the effects of algal blooms. |
5th June 2010 |
| Warming threatens state's coast, scientists say - San Francisco Chronicle Warming threatens state''s coast, scientists say. San Francisco Chronicle. They proposed a greatly increased effort to inform the public about the effects of global warming on the complex ecology of a region where life in the ocean ...Report: climate change could affect ocean species off Marin''s shores. Marin Independent- Journalall 3 |
5th June 2010 |
| Food for thought while millions die of hunger The world is rapidly moving towards disaster, whether you call it doomsday or apocalypse. But this is not the global financial crisis or the risk of financial problems in Greece and other European countries that may drag the rest of the world down with them. No, this is the global food situation. We face a global food shortage, the like of which the world has never seen. |
5th June 2010 |
| Change in the air Green energy is all the rage, but who pays for reforms? |
5th June 2010 |
| US airlines mount legal challenge to EU emission cuts American aviation sector accused of using 'every trick in the book' to block the European Union''s efforts to reduce carbon emissions |
5th June 2010 |
| EDF secret lobbying over radioactive waste Reactors builder won big concessions on key issues Rethink on costs is in effect a subsidy, says Greenpeace. The nuclear industry is being offered what campaigners claim is a taxpayer subsidy on the disposal costs of waste from new reactors following a secret lobbying campaign, the Guardian has learned. The revelation will put further scrutiny on the new government''s promise that there will be no subsidy for nuclear power. Liberal Democrat Chris Huhne, the new energy and climate change secretary of state, admitted to the Guardian this week that the government already faces a £4bn funding black hole over existing radioactive waste. The previous government had planned to charge the industry a high, fixed, disposal levy tied to the amount of nuclear waste it produced. |
5th June 2010 |
| How climate scientists can repair their reputation Climatologists can' t just hope that the public will regain trust in their work. They need to go on a PR offensive, says Bob Ward |
5th June 2010 |
| Climate Change and the Role of Energy Efficiency Samuel Charap and Georgi V. Safonov outline Russia''s role in climate policy both at home and abroad. |
5th June 2010 |
| Kevin Grandia: Climate financing: put the money on the barrel at the Bonn climate talks One of the major issues at the climate treaty talks underway in Bonn, Germany this week is a big idea encapsulated in a simple phrase:... |
5th June 2010 |
| Alex Rafalowicz: Where's the Obama Era Change on Climate Change? The deep dark secret of international climate change policy is that Obama has been worse than Bush. Worse for international climate law, and more importantly for the planet. |
5th June 2010 |
| First Obama climate report to UN projects 4 per cent emissions rise by 2012 In its first major climate report to the United Nations in four years, the United States projected Tuesday that its climate- warming greenhouse gases will grow by 4 per cent through 2020. |
5th June 2010 |
| The numbers say it all: Canada is a climate-change miscreant The annual report required by all signatories to the original Kyoto Protocol is depressing See also: Canada cuts greenhouse gas emissions target for 2010-2012 |
5th June 2010 |
| China 'not optimistic' on emissions cuts China, the world''s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, faces serious challenges to its efforts to cut environmental pollution, with one key pollutant increasing for the first time in three years, a senior Chinese official said Thursday. |
5th June 2010 |
| Who is responsible for cleaning up our oceans? " David Rockefeller, Jr. is a philanthropist and CEO of Around the Americas and Chairman of Sailors for the Sea. Any views expressed here are his own. " When the Ocean Watch set sail from Seattle last May at the launch of our Around the Americas expedition, our greatest challenge was to make Americans start thinking about health of oceans. For too long, we have been taking our rich seafood supplies and scenic seascapes for granted. One year and 28,000 miles later, and now with the massive BP oil spill, much has changed. While I' d love to say that our expedition is responsible for finally turning around the slow drip of public concern for ocean health into a steady flow, I am fairly certain that the continuous flow of oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico is, unfortunately, driving home what the captain and crew of Ocean ... |
5th June 2010 |
| The dumbing down of Carly Fiorina - Salon Modesto Bee. The dumbing down of Carly Fiorina. Salon. Fiorina''s first sentence -- willfully pretending that being concerned about the threat of global warming is the same as being worried about whether it''s ...California Senate Race: Carly Fiorina, Climate Change and an Idiotic Ad. Politics Daily (blog) Carly Fiorina injects global warming into her race with Barbara Boxer. American Thinker (blog) You Think Carly Fiorina Gives a F* ck About Global Warming? SF Weekly (blog) Sacramento Beeall 82 |
5th June 2010 |
| US prepares for climate burden National summit paves way for concerted action on global warming. |
5th June 2010 |
| The real cost of cheap oil | John Vidal The Gulf disaster is only unusual for being so near the US. Elsewhere, Big Oil rarely cleans up its mess. Big Oil is holding its breath. BP''s shares are in steep decline after the debacle in the Gulf of Mexico. Barack Obama, the American people and the global environmental community are outraged, and now the company stands to lose the rights to drill for oil in the Arctic and other ecologically sensitive places. The gulf disaster may cost it a few billion dollars, but so what? When annual profits for a company often run to tens of billions, the cost of laying 5,000 miles of booms, or spraying millions of gallons of dispersants and settling 100,000 court cases is not much more than missing a few months' production. |
1st June 2010 |
| Could climate change and biodiversity of marine plankton in North Atlantic affect carbon cycle? Over the last decades, global warming has been accompanied by an increase in the taxonomic biodiversity of phytoplankton and zooplankton in the North Atlantic Ocean and a reduction in the average size of these organisms, according to researchers. They demonstrate that this structural modification of biological systems could bring about an alteration to the carbon sink in the North Atlantic and a ... |
1st June 2010 |
 Alarmist environmentalists - Toles |
1st June 2010 |
| What will it take to end our oil addiction? Energy economics expert Craig Severance has written a sequel to 'Peak oil production coming sooner than expected.' It''s time we moved on to something else, or this is going to kill us. Not only are world oil supplies running out, but what oil is still left is proving very dirty to obtain. We need to kick our oil addiction now if we expect to preserve any hopes of economic prosperity, or unspoiled habitats. 'This is What the End of the Oil Age Looks Like.' We have the Deepwater Horizon oil spill now precisely because the easy to obtain oil is already tapped. |
1st June 2010 |
| Climate Change : Robust Findings Image Credit : Skeptical. Science. com It should come as no surprise that the United Nations (under UNFCCC) commissioned a report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), way back in 2007. The revelation is that very few people appear to have read any of it. So I thought I would present just a little about the 'robust findings' of Working Group 1 (WG1 or WGI) of the Fourth Assessment Report (AR4). I think the IPCC''s science needs a wider public readership, and so I hope that this post in some way enables that. See also: Global Warming versus Climate Change Northern Summer's Here |
1st June 2010 |
| Rush for rare metals heats up around globe Global competition to secure rare metals is heating up, fueled by their use in green products and surging demand in emerging economies like China. Rare metals are essential for energy- saving products a strong area for Japan including hybrid vehicles, electric cars, air conditioners and vacuum cleaners with less power consumption, and light- emitting diode illumination, and demand for all of ... |
1st June 2010 |
| BP's behaviour in the Gulf is appalling. But our thirst for oil is the real issue Science will solve this crisis, but the real cause is America''s demands and our refusal to pay oil''s true price. As this piece is written, act one of the Gulf of Mexico tragedy continues, agonisingly, to unfold. We, the people of the region, keep hoping to leave behind the terrifying explosions and ghastly loss of human life, the dread invoked by black jets billowing endlessly from below and the floating oil spreading over an ever- growing area. We want to move on to act two, which will feature many dirty shovels, corpses of birds and people crying over the loss of a landscape they love. |
1st June 2010 |
| Cheap prices and high tax revenues underpin America's love of Big Oil Report into Minerals Management Service has bought time for US government but it remains in thrall to the oil industry. The American public have been told by government that oil industry regulation has been undermined by drugs, pornography and ethical transgression. But politicians in Washington are less keen to admit that they and the wider public have all allowed themselves to be seduced by the cheap petrol and tax provided by BP and the rest of Big Oil. The interior department has created good headlines and bought time for Barack Obama by releasing details of a report into the working of one of its own agencies, the Minerals Management Service. This review by the department''s acting inspector general, Mary Kendall, outlined how staff at the oil industry''s chief safety watchdog, MMS, accepted tickets to sporting events, lunches and hunting trips from oil and gas firms. It also spelled out incidents such ... |
1st June 2010 |
| Prices vs. contracts: Why good CO2 policy needs complex financial markets by Sean Casten. Economic theory is predicated on the thesis that if supply and demand are allowed to freely set the price for a given item, rational capital allocation (and a host of other social benefits) will follow. Much of public policy is predicated on the truth of that thsis. But there''s a problem with the thesis: price alone isn' t sufficient. A market that provides nothing more than a spot price for a given commodity is only a market in name. To have a real market of the kind that brings about all the good things that economic theory describes, we need a much richer, more complex suite of transactions. |
1st June 2010 |
| What Lies Beneath: An Interview with Permafrost Expert Larry Hinzman What Lies Beneath: An Interview with Permafrost Expert Larry Hinzman |
1st June 2010 |
| The Water Cost of Carbon Capture Despite all the talk of moving to greener energy sources, coal will be with us for the foreseeable future. Its just too cheap and plentiful. |
1st June 2010 |
| The World After Abundance By John Michael Greer. In the energy crisis of the Seventies, relatively simple conservation and efficiency measures, combined with lifestyle changes, sent world petroleum consumption down by 15% in a single decade and caused comparable drops in other energy sources across the industrial world. Most of these measures went out the window in the final binge of the age of cheap oil that followed, so theres plenty of low hanging fruit to pluck |
1st June 2010 |
| Air traffic poised to become a major factor in global warming, scientists predict The first new projections of future aircraft emissions in 10 years predict that carbon dioxide and other gases from air traffic will become a significant source of global warming as they double or triple by 2050. |
1st June 2010 |
| Washing Carbon Out Of The Air - preview The world cannot afford to dump more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Yet it is not cutting back. All indications are that the concentration of CO 2 will continue to rise for decades. Despite great support for renewable energy, developed and developing countries will probably burn more oil, coal and natural gas in the future. For transportation, the alternatives to petroleum appear especially ... |
1st June 2010 |
| Geoengineering: 'A Bad Idea Whose Time Has Come' Driving a Prius and putting up solar panels aren' t the only options for cooling the earth''s climate. More radical ideas include brightening clouds, creating giant algae blooms in the ocean and launching spacecraft to deploy giant sunshades. It might sound a bit far- fetched, but scientists are considering ideas like these -- known as geoengineering -- to alter the climate. |
1st June 2010 |
| 'Merchants of Doubt' delves into contrarian scientists - USA Today 'Merchants of Doubt' delves into contrarian scientists. USA Today. What Singer and Seitz did for tobacco, Nierenberg did for global warming. In 1995, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that ... |
1st June 2010 |
| Why is climate change going down the political agenda? contribution by Climate Sock After a pause in hostilities for the election, it looks like the favourite climate story of the year has resurfaced. A new poll is out and being covered with the headline that fewer people now believe in climate change or think that it''s an urgent issue demanding attention. There''s some truth in the basic argument that people are now less convinced and worried about climate change than they have been in the past. But when the Guardian runs a story like this, it gets widely noticed and repeated, and there are several reasons why we shouldn' t get too carried away by the news. |
1st June 2010 |
| Washing Carbon Out Of The Air - preview The world cannot afford to dump more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Yet it is not cutting back. All indications are that the concentration of CO 2 will continue to rise for decades. Despite great support for renewable energy, developed and developing countries will probably burn more oil, coal and natural gas in the future. For transportation, the alternatives to petroleum appear especially ... |
1st June 2010 |
| Geoengineering: 'A Bad Idea Whose Time Has Come' Driving a Prius and putting up solar panels aren' t the only options for cooling the earth''s climate. More radical ideas include brightening clouds, creating giant algae blooms in the ocean and launching spacecraft to deploy giant sunshades. It might sound a bit far- fetched, but scientists are considering ideas like these -- known as geoengineering -- to alter the climate. |
1st June 2010 |
| The search for improved carbon sponges picks up speed (Phys. Org. com) -- A new class of materials with a record- shattering internal surface may have the right stuff to efficiently strip carbon dioxide from a power plant''s exhaust. Berkeley lab scientists hope to find out soon. |
1st June 2010 |
| I Believe: 'We need to move away from fossil fuels as an energy source' The recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and growing awareness of global warming has underscored for many people that we need to move to energy sources other than oil and natural gas. |
1st June 2010 |
| A historic moment for anyone who cares about the environment History doesn' t always come in thunderclaps or cheering crowds, and yesterday it was made with very little outward fuss when a woman in a pale blue trouser suit got to her feet from a green leather bench and began to speak. It was precisely 3.30 in the afternoon, and the Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons, Hugh Bayley, had just issued a two- word invitation: "Caroline Lucas." And with that, the first MP of the Green Party, in fact the first MP of a new national party for many years, began her maiden speech and her party''s political life at Westminster. |
1st June 2010 |
| EU should impose 'carbon tax' on developing countries, study finds Brussels - The European Union should go ahead with plans to charge a carbon tax on developing countries which do not make efforts to reduce their carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, a study released Monday said.... |
1st June 2010 |
| EU should impose 'carbon tax' on developing countries, study finds Brussels - The European Union should go ahead with plans to charge a carbon tax on developing countries which do not make efforts to reduce their carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, a study released Monday said.... |
1st June 2010 |
| Millions face hunger in arid belt of Africa (AP) -- At this time of year, the Gadabeji Reserve should be refuge for the nomadic tribes who travel across a moonscape on the edge of the Sahara to graze their cattle. But the grass is meager after a drought killed off the last year''s crops. Now the cattle are too weak to stand and too skinny to sell, leaving the poor without any way to buy grain to feed their families. |
1st June 2010 |
| US faces rising heatwave and hurricane threats - Agrimoney.com US faces rising heatwave and hurricane threats. Agrimoney. com... seasons on record", and a growing likelihood of a La Nina weather pattern, which often spells a crop- damaging heatwave, official forecasts have warned. ...and more |
1st June 2010 |
| Expert warns of global warming threat to paddy - Myanmar Times Expert warns of global warming threat to paddy. Myanmar Times. By Than Htike Oo HOTTER weather brought on by climate change could decrease rice yields, especially for summer paddy, an official from the Myanmar Rice ...and more |
1st June 2010 |
| Heatwave forces cattle exodus from Rajasthan - Times of India Heatwave forces cattle exodus from Rajasthan. Times of India. JAISALMER: Continuing heatwave across swathes of Rajasthan has forced hundreds of cattle- rearers from Jaisalmer and Barmer to migrate to neighbouring states ...and more |
1st June 2010 |
| Summertime 2100, and the living isn't easy The year is 2100. Londoners and their guests need a pastiche of Arcadia in the heart of the capital. Peak summer daily temperatures are nearly seven degrees hotter than they were in 2000, and the city is far more crowded. By mid- afternoon the day''s heat is starting to hang heavy, and will not disperse until the small hours. Evenings are febrile and nights fitful. Shaded open spaces draw people out of doors like a magnet summoning iron filings. |
1st June 2010 |
| Government warns of worst hurricane season since 2005 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Atlantic storm season may be the most intense since 2005, when Hurricane Katrina killed over a thousand people after crashing through Gulf of Mexico energy facilities, the U. S. government''s top climate agency predicted on Thursday. |
1st June 2010 |
| Will REDD Preserve Forests Or Merely Provide a Fig Leaf? The tropical forest conservation plan, known as REDD, has the potential to significantly reduce deforestation and carbon dioxide emissions worldwide. But unless projects are carefully designed and monitored, the program could be undercut by shady dealings at all levels, from the forests to global carbon markets. BY FRED PEARCE |
1st June 2010 |
| CO2 Emissions Could Grow 43 Percent by 2035, New Projection Says If the world''s major nations fail to enact significant changes in energy and climate policies, global carbon dioxide emissions will increase 43 percent by 2035, according to the U. S. Energy Information Agency (EIA). In its annual long- term energy outlook, the EIA projected that global emissions from burning fossil fuels would grow from 29 billion tons in 2007 to 42 billion tons in 2035. The EIA said that most of the increase in greenhouse gas emissions will come from developing economies such as China, India, and Brazil, whose energy consumption is expected to nearly double in the next 25 years. |
1st June 2010 |
| Australia to miss emission reduction goals BRISBANE, Australia, May 27 (UPI) -- Australia''s Climate Change Department head Martin Parkinson warned that the nation will likely not meet its promised emission reduction targets. |
1st June 2010 |
| A new vision of climate change needed to combat skepticism Washington, May 28 : A British is looking into ways new 'visual strategies' can communicate climate change messages against a backdrop of increased climate scepticism. |
1st June 2010 |
| Global Carbon Market Grows to $144 Billion Despite Financial and Economic Turmoil World Bank Releases 2010 State and Trends of the Carbon Market Report |
1st June 2010 |
| Rising Temperatures Red Constantino blogs about matters of dollars and thermometers, and the organizational pains plaguing the newly- created Philippine Climate Change Commission. |
1st June 2010 |
| Why has a Newsweek economics editor, Stefan Theil, written 'basically a condensed version of the climate denier viewpoint'? - Bickering and defensive, Newsweek reporters have lost the public's trust. Another week, another staggering journalistic lapse in climate science reporting at a once- great media outlet. How bad is 'Uncertain Science,' by Stefan Theil, European economics editor for the near- dead newsweekly? I asked Dr. Robert J. Brulle for a comment, and the Drexel University 'expert on environmental communications,' wrote me back: This article is basically a condensed version of the climate denier viewpoint. Mr. Theil significantly distorts the situation, and grossly fails to ground his story in the actual facts, all to support his biased position. Obviously, Newsweek doesn' t have any fact- checking capability. How this counts as journalism is beyond me. |
1st June 2010 |
| We Need an 'Emergency Mobilization' to Fight Climate Change: So Where's the Support for the Kerry-Lieberman Bill? Perhaps the reason that the environmental lobby is putting up a lackadaisical fight for Kerry- Lieberman is simply that the bill isn' t really worth fighting for. |
1st June 2010 |
| 'Climate change is a long struggle' Global warming has always energised Hay audiences " but this year the mood is much more sober. For the past four or five years, one theme burned through discussions at Hay more than most: climate change, and the large and small things human beings might do to tackle it. Politicians " including, most famously, Al Gore " arrived here to talk up their ecological credentials, green authors warned the crowds of the doom that may await us, and everyone lapped it up. Moreover, with the Copenhagen summit coming into view, last year''s environmental sessions had an infectious mixture of trepidation and momentum, as they focused on The Big Question ... |
1st June 2010 |
| Death and devastation - and it's just the start It could take months or years for the true impact of the spill on surrounding ecosystems to emerge. The White House says the BP oil spill is probably the greatest environmental disaster the US has faced, but the true impact on surrounding ecosystems could take months or even years to emerge. Experts say the unprecedented depth of the spill, combined with the use of chemicals that broke the oil down before it reached the surface, pose an unknown threat."It''s difficult to marshal resources to do a thorough job of charting what the impacts are," Jeffrey Short, an environmental chemist who worked on the effects of the Exxon Valdez spill, told Nature magazine. |
1st June 2010 |
| Presence of world leaders 'paralysed' climate summit, UN letter claims United Nations climate chief says Danish presidency''s backing for US also derailed Copenhagen negotiationsA leaked letter from the United Nations' climate chief suggests the Copenhagen climate summit failed because the presence of 130 world leaders paralysed decision- making and the Danish presidency backed the US and other western nations over the interests of the poor. The revelations " made as the UN climate talks resume in Bonn tomorrow " come in Yvo de Boer''s candid letter, written to colleagues days after the summit broke up in acrimony in December. More than 130 world leaders had been persuaded by Britain and other countries to go to Denmark, where they were expected to put the finishing touches to a historic global agreement to limit carbon emissions, protect forests and put in place a mechanism to transfer billions of dollars from rich to poor countries each year. |
1st June 2010 |
| UK Royal Society revives confusion as US concludes climate change certainty Just as leading US experts give their clearest warning about emissions, 43 UK scientists prompt Royal Society to rethink Government''s chief scientific adviser hits out at climate sceptics. Two weeks ago, the United States National Academy of Sciences published its clearest ever report on the science of climate change. It concluded: "Climate change is occurring, is caused largely by human activities, and poses significant risks for a broad range of human and natural systems."Over recent years, particularly during the George W Bush administration, the academy has faced great challenges in presenting the science of climate change to domestic policymakers, many of whom have been in denial about the consequences of greenhouse gas emissions. But with Barack Obama in the White House, the academy has been more able to offer scientific advice that some politicians may find inconvenient. So it is ironic that just as the leading scientists in the US ... |
1st June 2010 |
| Innovation: Bringing biogas to book Methane capture technology could have a dramatic impact on global warming. But developing such technologies won' t be easy |
1st June 2010 |
| Study finds reforestation may lower the climate change mitigation potential of forests Scientists at the University of Oklahoma and the Fudan University in Shanghai, China, have found that reforestation and afforestation -- the creation of new forests -- may lower the potential of forests for climate change lessening. |
1st June 2010 |
| Solar incentives may fall A local man who sells photovoltaic solar systems wants people to know Public Service Company of New Mexico may change its policy regarding how customers are credited for solar power they put into the grid. |
1st June 2010 |
| Bonn climate change talks aim to pick up the pieces from Copenhagen A FRESH round of UN climate change talks got under way in Bonn yesterday in an effort to pick up the pieces after last Decembers summit in Copenhagen and pave the way for firmer action. |
1st June 2010 |
| Fears Grow over Oil Spill's Long-Term Effects on Food Chain ATLANTA, Georgia, May 31 (IPS/ IFEJ) - As oil continues gushing from the ocean floor into the Gulf of Mexico, with no sign of stopping until a new well is finished this August, scientists, environmentalists and local residents are beginning to reckon with the reality of a massive annihilation of sea creatures and wildlife. |
1st June 2010 |
| Climate talks kick off with squabbling in Germany A new round of climate negotiations kicked off in Germany on Monday with squabbling over money and procedural questions that could threaten progress at the two- week U. N. conference. Climate change - Germany - Post- Kyoto Protocol negotiations on greenhouse gas emissions - Environment - Activism |
1st June 2010 |
| The Man Who Wants to Northern Rock the Planet Matt Ridley''s irrational theories remain unchanged by his own disastrous experiment. |
1st June 2010 |
| Spill brings more urgency As the BP oil spill destroys natures delicate balance in and along the Gulf of Mexico, it may also upset an uneasy political balance in Congress one that supports badly needed legislation to move the nation toward a cleaner, sustainable energy future. |
1st June 2010 |
| Can We Do Better at Managing Rare, Big Risks? Can humans overcome traits that lead to well blowouts and other foreseen disasters? |
1st June 2010 |
| Why Science Needs to Step Up Its PR Game - Wired News Wired News. Why Science Needs to Step Up Its PR Game. Wired News. You know there is a problem with climate change / global warming theory when all the solutions are increased taxes. As another commenter has said adaptation ...And then there were three: Britain''s Royal Society rejects alarmism. Financial Post. Royal Society and climate change. Times Online. Why do we argue about climate change? Record- Searchlight (blog) all 4 |
1st June 2010 |
| Oxfam warns of climate debt with WB climate aid Oxfam International has warned that the $100 billion a year pledged by rich nations to help fight climate change could fail the poorest people if recent moves to deliver climate cash as loans continue. |
1st June 2010 |
| ExxonMobil says we need to destroy our grandchildren's future to save them Exxon. Mobil anxiously grasps its gigantic but unsustainable gold mines, pumps cash (much of it from your wallet to places far away), pours GHGs into the atmosphere, pushes its publicity machine, and doesn' t seem to comprehend the relationships between a healthy climate and the lives of our grandchildren. They try to confuse you in the process. Their actions delay the creation of millions of jobs and our ability to author a healthier future. And that''s putting it politely. Exxon. Mobil will be holding its Annual Meeting of Shareholders this week, on May 26 in Dallas. If you get your news from the status quo media, you might not have a full picture of the company (see NYT suckered by Exxon. Mobil in puff piece titled 'Green is for Sissies'). |
27th May 2010 |
| Should we prefer investing in renewable energy to cleaning up the dirty stuff? by David Roberts A couple weeks ago, Michael Levi at the Council for Foreign Relations (one of the best energy analysts out there; bookmark his blog) wrote a post called 'In Defense of CCS.' (For non- nerds: CCS is carbon capture and sequestration.) I' ve done plenty of bashing of CCS, so I read it with interest. It is structured as a fisking of a recent anti- CCS op- ed in the NYT. One of the arguments he debunks, however, deserves a closer look: 'Carbon dioxide is a worthless waste product, so taxpayers would likely end up shouldering most of the cost. |
27th May 2010 |
| JP Morgan invented credit-default swaps to give Exxon credit line for Valdez liability Credit- default swaps are widely seen as a major contributor to the recent financial meltdown. But the origin of CDS''s with the Exxon Valdez oil disaster isn' t as widely known. |
27th May 2010 |
| ANALYSIS-World warms, public cools to climate action OSLO, May 27 (Reuters) - This year is on track to be the warmest worldwide since records began in the 19th century yet voters seem to be cooling to strong action to combat climate change. Their doubts may be quietly sapping the will of governments and companies to cut greenhouse gas emissions after the Copenhagen summit in December failed to agree a treaty meant to slow more droughts, floods and rising seas, analysts say. "There has been a resurgence of scepticism" that humans are to blame for global warming, said Max Boykoff, an assistant professor and expert in environmental policy at the University of Colorado- Boulder. Yet so far in 2010 there has been record warmth especially in many tropical regions, Australia and parts of the Arctic -- despite a chill start to the year in western Europe and some eastern parts of North America. "It''s more likely than not -- greater than a 50 percent chance -- that it will be the warmest year on record," said Vicky Pope, head of climate change advice at the British Met Office Hadley Centre, referring to global temperatures. That would eclipse 1998 and 2005 as the warmest years since records began and undermine an argument used by some sceptics that warming has peaked. The decade just finished was the warmest on record, ahead of the 1990s. See also: Americans Are Becoming Global Warming Skeptics - U.S. News & World Report |
27th May 2010 |
| Do Humans Need a Golden Rule 2.0? Weighing the climate challenge, a popular novelist proposes that humans need a new Golden Rule. |
27th May 2010 |
| Debt crisis hits climate change battle - Financial Times The private sector will have to pay more towards efforts to tackle climate change as the European sovereign debt crisis leaves governments facing pressure to cut spending, Norway has warned. 'We all see that many European states have to focus on debt reduction and that will of course reduce their ability to increase public funding for climate actions,' he told the Financial Times. His comments came as officials from more than 50 countries prepared to gather in Oslo on Thursday for one of the biggest meetings on global warming since the UN climate summit in Copenhagen in December. Norway, which has promised to use some of its oil wealth to fight climate change, burnished its commitment by announcing $1bn ( 817m, £694m) to help Indonesia tackle deforestation " the main focus of the Oslo event. |
27th May 2010 |
| On attribution How do we know what caused climate to change " or even if anything did? This is a central question with respect to recent temperature trends, but of course it is much more general and applies to a whole range of climate changes over all time scales. Judging from comments we receive here and discussions elsewhere on the web, there is a fair amount of confusion about how this process works and what can (and cannot) be said with confidence. For instance, many people appear to (incorrectly) think that attribution is just based on a naive correlation of the global mean temperature, or that it is impossible to do unless a change is 'unprecedented' or that the answers are based on our lack of imagination about other causes. |
27th May 2010 |
| Polar bears face 'tipping point' Climate change will trigger a dramatic and sudden decline in the number of polar bears, a study concludes. |
27th May 2010 |
| Methane Rising See also: 2010 Is A Hot Year The Oceans Are Not Cooling Sea Ice Not In Recovery |
27th May 2010 |
| Climate change making Everest more dangerous: Sherpa Climate change is making Mount Everest more dangerous to climb, a Nepalese Sherpa said in Kathmandu Tuesday after breaking his own record by making a 20th ascent of the world''s highest peak. |
27th May 2010 |
| Distressed damsels stress coral reefs ( Florida Institute of Technology ) Damselfish are killing head corals and adding stress to Caribbean coral reefs, which are already in desperately poor condition from global climate change, coral diseases, hurricanes, pollution and overfishing. |
27th May 2010 |
| 20th century one of driest in 9 centuries for northwest Africa Droughts in the late 20th century rival some of North Africa''s major droughts of centuries past, reveals new research that peers back in time to the year 1179. |
27th May 2010 |
| North-west England 'could reach drought status in weeks' Environment Agency data shows major rivers in England and Wales are below average levels after high temperatures and a dry start to 2010Much of northern England faces a drought within weeks, according to new figures published this week. The combination of recent high temperatures, one of the sunniest Aprils in a century and five months of below- average rainfall is the reason, the Environment Agency said. Weekly river flow and rainfall data (pdf) shows that the flow in major rivers including the Lune, Wharfe, Wyre, Swale, Conwy, Dee and Taff are already "notably" and in some cases "exceptionally" below- average levels for the time of year. |
27th May 2010 |
| Weaning Us Off Oil Making a complete switch to clean, sustainable power seems a bit of a tough sell at the moment, considering that oil still accounts for a whopping percentage of U. S. energy consumption. So what do we do now? Grist has a few ideas on how to slowly wean the nation off of oil (which should weaken the argument for offshore drilling at the same time): |
27th May 2010 |
| Cooling buildings with the power of the sun Sunlight can be used not just to warm homes but also to cool them and keep food fresh. Advanced and sustainable technologies for solar cooling already exist. But theyre still too expensive to be used on a global scale. |
27th May 2010 |
| Energy answer: Blowing in the wind? (Phys. Org. com) -- When the federal government approved the Cape Wind project in April, allowing 130 power- generating turbines to be placed in the waters off Cape Cod, it gave a significant boost to the prospects of wind energy. The comparatively high costs of wind power, however, remain a problem. But in a study, MIT researchers have concluded that some of the price problems associated with wind power can be remedied right now, given a couple of changes to the electricity grid. |
27th May 2010 |
| Climate: El Nino weakens, La Nina threatens The Pacific weather pattern known as El Nino is all but gone, climate scientists say, while its alter ego, La Nina, might soon appear on the horizon. |
27th May 2010 |
| China drought highlights future climate threats Yunnan''s worst drought for many years has been exacerbated by destruction of forest cover and a history of poor water management. |
27th May 2010 |
| Meltdown: Why ice ages don't last forever At last we understand why the monstrous ice sheets that periodically entomb continents vanish when they do |
27th May 2010 |
| The need for growth Yesterday, a friend sent me over this graph, which shows the levels of carbon dioxide emitted by the USA over the last twenty years. As the accompanying report explains, it shows that 2009 was an "exceptional" year - exceptional in that emissions levels fell by more than they had fallen in a single year since 1949. The reason? The economic crash. read more |
27th May 2010 |
| Why NASA Keeps a Close Eye on the Sun's Irradiance (Phys. Org. com) -- For more than two centuries, scientists have wondered how much heat and light the sun expels, and whether this energy varies enough to change Earth`'s climate. In the absence of a good method for measuring the sun''s output, the scientific conversation was often heavy with speculation. |
27th May 2010 |
| China all but dashes hope of climate deal this year BEIJING (Reuters) - A senior Chinese climate official said on Tuesday that negotiators aim to seal a binding global pact on warming by the end of 2011, a blow to any lingering hopes the world could reach a deal at talks this year in Mexico. |
27th May 2010 |
| New Plans Try to Revive Carbon Trading Two disparate groups one representing businesses, the other European regulators are recommending steps to resuscitate the system. |
27th May 2010 |
| BRAZIL: Bridge to Drive Urban Growth in Heart of Amazon MANAUS, Brazil, May 26 (IPS) - The 74 pillars that will hold up the bridge over the Negro river to join this major city in Brazil''s Amazon jungle to nearby urban districts have mostly been laid, without environmental protests or major debates on the impact of a fast- growing metropolitan area in the heart of the Amazon rainforest. |
27th May 2010 |
| Changing gear Rocky road ahead for makers of electric cars |
27th May 2010 |
| Biofuels learn to eat less Production of bioethanol has attracted global controversy because it uses important food crops. That could be about to change |
27th May 2010 |
| EU cools rhetoric on deeper unilateral emissions cuts The European Commission, under pressure from industry and member states, on Wednesday cooled its enthusiasm for the EU to unilaterally commit to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent. See also: Economic Woes Lower Cost Of EU CO2 Cuts By A Third - Wall Street Journal A new EU target? |
27th May 2010 |
| 'Playing God' with the climate? Biotech supremo Craig Venter's latest foray into "synthetic life" is raising all sorts of questions within the domain of medical and scientific ethics. One of the potential uses which he's looking at for synthetic bacteria - sucking carbon dioxide from the atmosphere - potentially also breaks new ground in the ethics of human effects on the natural world. Craig_VenterDr Venter's proposed CO2-suckers, if they ever materialise, would basically constitute a new entry into the field of geo-engineering - using technology to ameliorate human-induced climate change. |
23rd May 2010 |
| U.S. National Academy of Sciences labels as 'settled facts' that 'the Earth system is warming and that much of this warming is very likely due to human activities' - New report confirms failure to act poses "significant risks" A strong, credible body of scientific evidence shows that climate change is occurring, is caused largely by human activities, and poses significant risks for a broad range of human and natural systems . Some scientific conclusions or theories have been so thoroughly examined and tested, and supported by so many independent observations and results, that their likelihood of subsequently being found to be wrong is vanishingly small. Such conclusions and theories are then regarded as settled facts. This is the case for the conclusions that the Earth system is warming and that much of this warming is very likely due to human activities. See also: US top scientists urge coal, oil use penalties Academy of Sciences defends climate-change research, conclusions |
23rd May 2010 |
| Singularity > Climate Change > Peak Oil > Financial Crisis While lying awake late at night worrying about what kind of world my children will inherit, I find it helpful to come up with schemas for the most obvious and inevitable of the large societal problems. It makes them seem slightly more manageable to place them in order of importance, or time. Further, being clear on what are the biggest and most important problems is an essential prerequisite to thinking about solutions: these problems all interact, and solutions to the smaller of them may not be radical enough to address the larger of them. read more |
23rd May 2010 |
| Economic impacts of biodiversity loss: case studies From forests in Japan to sea turtles in Tanzania to Scottish school dinners, the evidence of the global biodiversity crisis is evident. See also: The price of consuming the planet UN study backs economic changes to save natural world: report Visualizing Earth's Shared Assets |
23rd May 2010 |
| Last chance for a slow dance? All the world fiddles as we near global warming’s point of no return. Ha! Ha! Dance the Hambopolska! 1896 Svante Arrhenius suggests burning coal could raise the planets temperature. How bout that Lindbergh! Lindy Hop! 1930s Amateur scientist suggests warming in North America due to Arrheniuss proposed greenhouse effect. |
23rd May 2010 |
| Last chance for a slow dance? All the world fiddles as we near global warming’s point of no return. Ha! Ha! Dance the Hambopolska! 1896 Svante Arrhenius suggests burning coal could raise the planets temperature. How bout that Lindbergh! Lindy Hop! 1930s Amateur scientist suggests warming in North America due to Arrheniuss proposed greenhouse effect. |
23rd May 2010 |
| Polluted by profit: Johann Hari on the real Climategate Why did America's leading environmental groups jet to Copenhagen to lobby for policies that will lead to the faster death of the rainforests " and runaway global warming? Why are their staff dismissing the only real solutions to climate change as "unworkable" and "unrealistic"? Why are they clambering into corporate "partnerships" with BP, which is responsible for the worst oil spill in living memory? |
23rd May 2010 |
| Arctic double stunner: Sea ice extent is now below 2007 levels, while volume hit record low for March - Summer poised to set new record We appear to have been breaking volume records over the past several months according to the Polar Science Center: Total Arctic Ice Volume for March 2010 is 20,300 km^3, the lowest over the 1979-2009 period and 38% below the 1979 maximum. September Ice Volume was lowest in 2009 at 5,800 km^3 or 67% below its 1979 maximum. That is, in September, PSC says we saw the lowest volume ever, and in March, we saw the lowest volume for that month, according to their Pan-Arctic Ice Ocean Modeling and Assimilation System (PIOMAS). Cryosphere scientists I have spoken to say PIOMAS is best for showing long-term trends, and they do recommend the caveat that it is a model, and so conclusions should be viewed accordingly. That said, as the website shows, the analysis has been validated. |
23rd May 2010 |
| Ocean heat content increases update There is a new paper in Nature this week on recent trends in ocean heat content from a large group of oceanographers led by John Lyman at PMEL. Their target is the uncertainty surrounding the various efforts to create a homogenised ocean heat content data set that deals appropriately with the various instrument changes and coverage biases that have plagued previous attempts. We have discussed this issue a number of times because of its importance in diagnosing the long term radiative imbalance of the atmosphere. Basically, if there has been more energy coming in at the top than is leaving, then it has to have been going somewhere " and that somewhere is mainly the ocean. See Also: Oceans Smaller And Warmer |
23rd May 2010 |
| Africa revives hardy, local rice vs Asian cousin OSLO (Reuters) - Scientists are reviving long-ignored African rice to cut dependence on Asian varieties that may be less able to withstand the impact of climate change on the poorest continent, a report said on Friday. |
23rd May 2010 |
| Coming to Terms with Climate Change and the Economy Where does the concept of "climate debt" fit into a New Economy framework? |
23rd May 2010 |
| Climate change concern declines in poll Only 62% of Britons interested in subject, down from 80% in 2006, according to You. Gov survey. Popular concern about climate change has declined significantly, following this year's harsh winter and rows over statistics on global warming, a survey has found.The numbers of those interested in where Britain's electricity comes from have also slipped back, according to a survey commissioned by the energy company EDF, demonstrating what appears to be growing consumer complacency in an era of electric-powered gadgetry.At the same time resistance to building new nuclear power stations appears to be slackening. The results of the You. Gov poll, based on a sample of 4,300 adults questioned during the week after the general election, show that interest in climate change fell from 80% of respondents in 2006, to 71% last year and now stands at only 62%. |
23rd May 2010 |
| Can we really put a price tag on nature? The UN project shows us how expensive biodiversity loss has become " but the danger is that it becomes something tradeable Economic report into biodiversity crisis reveals price of consuming the planet"You can't value nature per se, other than to say it's priceless, and you're part of nature and you would not exist were you not," declares the man in charge of the biggest attempt ever to measure nature's worth."But what you can do," he continues, "is measure the economic value of services that come to you from nature."The speaker is Pavan Sukhdev, study leader of the UN's three year project to measure The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB). |
23rd May 2010 |
| Fast-breeding mice dominate a warming world - Nature.com The period of global warming linked to the extinction of animal giants such as the woolly mammoth also made its mark on smaller mammals who survived the event. Adaptable deer mice came to dominate the small furry communities of northern California as the climate warmed at the end of the last ice age, around 11,700 years ago, an excavation of one ancient woodrat nest shows. Overall, the number of small mammalian species in the area declined by about one-third, say Jessica Blois, currently at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and her colleagues. The study, published today in Nature1, emphasizes that concentrating solely on eye-catching species extinctions fails to capture the full impact of climate change on biodiversity. "If we focus only on extinction, we're not getting the whole story," says Blois. The work also suggests that rapidly reproducing, adaptable species — such as the deer mice — could benefit further from future warming. See also: Did megafauna extinction cool the planet? |
23rd May 2010 |
| Leading article: An inconveniently persistent truth It has been hard work in recent times to get the world to take seriously the dangers posed by global warming. Those who have been persuaded, through misguided short-term self-interest, to deny the reality of climate change, have had succour from a number of sources. |
23rd May 2010 |
| Canada set to announce heavy truck emission curbs Canada on Friday will announce curbs on greenhouse gas emissions for heavy-duty vehicles like tractor trailers, the Environment Ministry said on Thursday night. |
23rd May 2010 |
| EU struggles to find voice on environment issues The European Union is bogged down in a power struggle over who speaks for the bloc at international meetings, threatening action on environmental issues from mercury pollution to whaling, EU officials say. |
23rd May 2010 |
| Turned Out Nice: How the British Isles Will Change as the World Heats Up by Marek Kohn - The Guardian What will a globally warmed Britain actually be like? Luke Jennings takes a stroll through the future |
23rd May 2010 |
| New Scientist's 'Living In Denial' Special Issue Discusses Climate Deniers head_in_sand.jpg The magazine New Scientist has devoted a special issue to the 'Age of Denial,' including a lot of examples of climate deniers' efforts to distort and attack climate science.DeSmogBlog's own Richard Littlemore has an essay in the issue entitled 'Living in denial: How corporations manufacture doubt,' which discusses how polluting industries have followed the tobacco playbook in order to confuse the public about climate change.Littlemore writes:'The doubt industry has ballooned in the past two decades. There are now scores of think tanks pushing dubious and confusing policy positions, and dozens of phoney grass-roots organisations created to make those positions appear to have legitimate following.'<!--break-->Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine and columnist for Scientific American, explains the difference between a skeptic and a denier in his piece ... |
20th May 2010 |
| Green advantage Dwindling metal supply threatens drive to go green See also: Mining garbage for tomorrow's metals |
20th May 2010 |
| Oil companies fund initiative to repeal California's landmark climate law by Jonathan Hiskes Texas oil companies are funding an attack on Gov. Schwarzenegger's signature environmental accomplishment, the 2006 Global Warming Solutions Act.Gov. Schwarzenegger's OfficeBig Oil is nothing if not brazen, so while BP works to protect its tattered reputation in the Gulf, two Texas oil companies are on the attack in California. Their target is Assembly Bill 32, the most ambitious cap-and-trade climate plan in the nation, which was signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) in 2006 and is set to really kick into gear next year. Their weapon is a ballot initiative that would mothball the plan until state unemployment drops to below 5.5 percent for four consecutive quarters (from a current 12.6 percent), which would effectively kill the plan for the time being. |
20th May 2010 |
| Man-made climate change blamed for 'significant' rise in ocean temperature The world's oceans are warming up and the rise is both significant and real, according to one of the most comprehensive studies into marine temperature data gathered over the past two decades. |
20th May 2010 |
| 2010 on track for warmest year on record - Washington Post 2010 on track for warmest year on recordWashington Post (blog)It's just hard to stop the march of manmade global warming, well, other than by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, that is. NASA scientists have argued that ...and more |
20th May 2010 |
| Weighing Greenland Scott Luthcke weighs Greenland -- every 10 days. And the island has been losing weight, an average of 183 gigatons (or 200 cubic kilometers) -- in ice -- annually during the past six years. That's one third the volume of water in Lake Erie every year. Greenland's shrinking ice sheet offers some of the most powerful evidence of global warming. Luthcke is a scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. He specializes in space geodesy, a branch of earth sciences that monitors Earth from space by measuring changes in the planet's shape, orientation, and gravitational field. |
20th May 2010 |
| UK 'will push EU on CO2 targets' The UK government will push the EU to move to a higher target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. |
20th May 2010 |
| UK on course to reap massive renewable energy harvest Independent study says North Sea wind and wave power could make Britain the 'Saudi Arabia of renewable energy'Britain could become the "Saudi Arabia of the renewables world" on the back of North Sea wind and wave resources, according to a study carried out by government and industry.The review by independent consultants for the Offshore Valuation Group estimates that by 2050 the UK could generate the equivalent in electricity to the 1bn barrels of oil and gas being produced annually offshore.Green energy experts in the City are sceptical claiming it would require herculean efforts to put the infrastructure in place to hit even the most modest targets.The study, undertaken by the Boston Consulting Group, suggests that Britain could not only keep the lights on but would produce a surplus, suggesting the need for connections to a "super grid" to enable electricity to be exported via subsea cables. See also: Out of Sight, Out of Trouble |
20th May 2010 |
| Google-funded hot rock 'water' drill could reduce cost of geothermal energy Enhanced geothermal systems 'could be the killer app of energy world' says Dan Reicher, Google's climate and energy chiefA novel drill that is inspired by a jet engine and uses super-heated water to carve through rock could help make clean energy from underground rocks more economically viable, according to its backers at Google.Potter Drilling is part-funded by Google.org - the internet search giant's philanthropic arm - and wants to use its technology to develop geothermal energy, which involves tapping the energy from hot rocks deep in the Earth.Geothermal energy is seen by environmentalists as a vast potential source of clean, carbon-free energy if it can be tapped efficiently. |
20th May 2010 |
| The fight is on to save Kenya's green lung Poverty and climate change are threatening one of East Africa's most valuable forestry areas. Researchers from the University of Copenhagen, including researchers from the Faculty of Life Sciences and the Faculty of Law, have therefore just started a promising partnership with the Wangari Maathai Institute of Peace and Environmental Studies at the University of Nairobi as well as the grassroots Green Belt Movement, which has planted more than 40 million trees in Kenya. |
20th May 2010 |
| U.S. reports urge a price on climate emissions WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The best way to curb global warming is to put a price on climate-warming carbon dioxide emissions, according to a trio of reports from the U.S. National Academy of Sciences released on Wednesday. |
20th May 2010 |
| Fly the eco-friendly skies MIT-led team designs airplanes that would use 70 percent less fuel than current models. |
20th May 2010 |
| New climate head demands ambition The Costa Rican diplomat just selected as top UN climate official asks countries to ramp up efforts to curb climate change. |
20th May 2010 |
| ANALYSIS - U.N. climate chief faces widening rich-poor split OSLO/LONDON (Reuters) - Incoming U.N. climate chief Christiana Figueres of Costa Rica inherits a widening split between rich and poor nations over how to slow climate change, with almost no chance of a treaty in 2010, analysts say. |
20th May 2010 |
| Energy descent action plans for cities: some thoughts The subject under discussion is EDAPs (or Community Resilience Plans or whatever you want to call them), and how one does them for cities, or even if one does them for cities... read more |
20th May 2010 |
| Coalition must commit to zero-carbon future for our homes and offices | John Alker The construction industry has made huge progress on green buildings, but a wave of uncertainty is sweeping through the sectorDavid Cameron said last week that this was going to be "the greenest government ever", so why am I feeling underwhelmed by today's coalition agreement?The energy used in our homes and buildings accounts for 43% of the UK's carbon emissions. People are often surprised that figure is so high and that's because a lot of focus is given to how energy is generated, rather than how it is used. So as the UK Green Building Council, we were particularly interested to see how the Conservatives and Lib Dems are proposing to tackle our carbon-hungry built environment.Unfortunately, the statement is a bit short of ambition and is worrying in part. |
20th May 2010 |
| Carbon Graveyard Almost half the UK's greenhouse gas emissions have gone missing. Here they are, and here are the amazing implications. |
20th May 2010 |
| 12 ways to cash in on the 'collapse of Eaarth' The war is over mining rights to Pandora's unobtanium, a powerful new energy source needed back on Eaarth to save our planet, where rapid population growth is exhausting limited natural resources, resulting in a dying civilization. Obviously this is a metaphor for today's global threats. The goals of Avatar 2154: Maximum security and wealth preservation for future generations of members from the elite of Wall Street, Washington, Corporate America CEOs and the Forbes 400. Avatar 2154 secretly supports climate-change-deniers in think tanks, academic research and politicians who negate the impact of scientific facts. This effort is necessary when high-profile voices like Al Gore and Bill McKibben surface and new propaganda is required to attack their efforts stirring global climate initiatives. |
18th May 2010 |
| Making the Simple Complicated - New York Times - blog Making the Simple ComplicatedNew York Times (blog)In the case of global warming, we may arguably be more confident that the amount of carbon should stay relatively flat than we are about the per-ton damage ...and more |
18th May 2010 |
| Q&A: "Old Rich" Countries Owe Debt for Climate Crisis NEW YORK, May 17 (IPS) - Countries closest to the equator will suffer most from climate change, according to Gwynne Dyer, a geopolitical analyst and journalist who predicts catastrophic events over the next few decades if temperatures continue to rise. |
18th May 2010 |
| Fast Train to Nowhere? Before the UK commissions a high speed rail network, we should ask ourselves some big questions. |
18th May 2010 |
| Michael McCarthy: This is no forecast. Climate change is here and now You can look at the warming of Lake Tanganyika as a geographical and scientific curiosity; but you're probably wiser to look at it with a considerable sense of foreboding. |
18th May 2010 |
| Arctic team reports unusual conditions near Pole OTTAWA (Reuters Life!) - A group of British explorers just back from a 60-day trip to the North Pole said Monday they had encountered unusual conditions, including ice sheets that drifted far faster than they had expected. |
18th May 2010 |
| Record Atlantic sea surface temps in hurricane development region NOAA's National Climatic Data Center has published its monthly 'State of the Climate Report.' It pretty much matches the NASA data. An emeritus physics professor writes me cautioning against the use of the word 'anomaly' since, 'In many people's mind, the word 'anomaly' means something unusual that is a temporary phenomenon.' He suggests 'change,' which is probably better. Certainly for those who are communicating to the general public, like NOAA and NASA, 'anomaly' is a confusing word as used in these charts. And that is especially true because the recent temperature trend is anything but an anomaly - it is in fact a prediction of basic climate science. |
18th May 2010 |
| Bonuses can be a good thing - if they're linked to carbon emissions Growing numbers of firms are linking executive remuneration to environmental performance " Andrew Williams investigates those companies pioneering the concept of carbon bonusesWhen it's time for salary reviews at Minnesota-based utility Xcel Energy, earnings per share are not the only metric that matters.In its 2009 corporate proxy statement, Xcel explains how a range of sustainability indicators fit into annual incentive objectives for all executives so that it can weigh greenhouse gas reductions and safety performance alongside earnings per share when deciding how to divide up bonuses.Company spokeswoman Patti Nystuen recently told sustainable investment lobby group Ceres that the bonus policy underlined the company's commitment to environmental issues. |
18th May 2010 |
| Senate climate bill cuts aid to global forests WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The climate bill unveiled in the U.S. Senate last week cuts funds to projects protecting tropical forests that also are inexpensive ways to reduce global pollution and keep U.S. power bills affordable, environmentalists and electric utilities said on Monday. |
18th May 2010 |
| FT pulls controversial Shell ad on libel worries Amnesty International UK expressed its immense disappointment today at the Financial Times' decision to pull a new hard-hitting advertisement at the last possible moment. The ad was due to appear today as Shell held its London AGM. The advertisement focused on the appalling human rights record of Shell in Nigeria. It compared the company's $9.8bn profits with the consequences of pollution caused by the oil giant for the people of the Niger Delta. Numerous oil spills, which have not been adequately cleaned up, have left local communities with little option but to drink polluted water, eat contaminated fish, farm on spoiled land, and breathe in air that stinks of oil and gas. |
18th May 2010 |
| Melting sea ice would cause sea levels to rise by 'hair's breadth' [bonkers] Melting icebergs are causing sea levels to rise, scientists have discovered, but only by a hair's breadth every year. [BONKERS BONKERS BONKERS - the sea level rise is not the point - it's the tipping point! Another indicator that climate change has already started and that we have missed the opportunity for easy fixes] |
18th May 2010 |
| 'Climate dice' now dangerously loaded: leading scientist Evidence for global warming has mounted but public awareness of the threat has shrunk, due to a cold northern winter and finger-pointing at the UN's climate experts, a top scientist warned Wednesday. |
17th May 2010 |
| Radical new tack urged on climate The failure of the UN climate process and questioning of the science mean a new approach is needed, a report says. See also: Climate crash |
17th May 2010 |
| Ocean ecosystems in the age of Cassandra - As warnings mount, how can we speed science into policymaking? Just within the past month, several news items underscored the dire situation our oceans face. Kristen L. Marhaver, a Ph.D. Candidate in Marine Biology at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography has the story in this repost. Chemists warned that we must focus more attention on ocean acidification. As the seas absorb more CO2 emissions, pH levels decrease and wreak havoc on marine life, which is why the phenomenon is also called the 'evil twin of global warming.' Meanwhile, biologists warned that not enough attention is focused on the rapid extinction of the world's species, some of which will disappear before we've discovered them. |
17th May 2010 |
| BIODIVERSITY: We Can Live Without Oil, But Not Without Flora and Fauna UXBRIDGE, Canada, May 10 (Tierramérica) - The policies and deals that contributed to the massive oil spill under way in the Gulf of Mexico are also jeopardising the Earth's vital biological infrastructure, according to the Global Biodiversity Outlook 3, published Monday. |
17th May 2010 |
| Money's Hunger Industrial civilisation is trashing the environment. Should we try to reform it or just watch it go down? |
17th May 2010 |
| It's the end of the world - as we know it This article concisely summarizes most of what has been discussed in Energy Bulletin over the past few months regarding Peak Oil. Reading all this news, I realized we are now actually facing The End of The World (As We Know It). I struggled for awhile with how to write about this. Despair is not the answer. read more |
17th May 2010 |
| What we can learn from studying the last millennium - or so With all of the emphasis that is often placed on hemispheric or global mean temperature trends during the past millennium, and the context they provide for interpreting modern warming trends, one thing is often lost in the discussion: space matters as much as time. Indeed, it is likely that the regional patterns of past climate changes, rather than simple hemispheric or global mean temperature trends, will best inform our understanding of the dynamical mechanisms involved. Since much of the uncertainty in future projections relates to regional climate change impacts, it makes particular sense to focus on those changes in the past that involve regional changes and the underlying mechanisms behind them. |
17th May 2010 |
| 10 Reasons to Be Alarmed About Our Catastrophic Oil Addiction War, terrorism, economic instability -- these are just a few of the reasons to be concerned about our addiction to oil. |
17th May 2010 |
| Ian Welsh: Global Warming: A localized pause and then the end of our civilization The majority of the American population now thinks that global warming probably doesn't exist. Part of that is the huge amount of money which has... |
17th May 2010 |
| Lost lizards validate grim extinction predictions Many models of climate-driven extinctions are criticised for being theoretical, but new hard data lends them weight |
17th May 2010 |
| Large Number of Bird Species Facing Rapid Decline in North America Nearly 150 of the 882 land bird species in North America are in sharp decline, especially in Mexico, according to a new report. The report, issued by Partners in Flight - a consortium of academics, conservationists, government agencies, and philanthropists - said that 124 of the 148 imperiled bird species spend much of their time in Mexico, where habitat destruction is occurring more rapidly than in the U.S. and Canada. The threatened birds in Mexico include the thick-billed parrot, the horned guan, and the Greg Lawatay. A resplendent quetzal resplendent quetzal, a green and red bird with long tail feathers that feeds on avocados. |
17th May 2010 |
| The Shrinking of Lake Powell A prolonged drought that has caused Lake Powell on the Colorado River to shrink significantly over the last decade has eased slightly, according to recent data. But, as documented in a series of satellite images released by NASA, the water levels are still far from the 1999 levels when the lake was near full capacity. Water levels in Lake Powell, a meandering reservoir created by the Glen Canyon Dam and straddling the Utah and Arizona border, dropped significantly in the years following 1999 as a result of drought and water removal for View galleryNASAThe shrinking of Lake Powell, 1999-2010 human use. |
17th May 2010 |
| NASA: Easily the hottest April - and hottest Jan-April - in temperature record - Plus a new record 12-month global temperature, as predicted It was the hottest April on record in the NASA dataset. More significantly, following fast on the heels of the hottest March and hottest Jan-Feb-March on record, it's also the hottest Jan-Feb-March-April on record [click on figure to enlarge]. The record temperatures we're seeing now are especially impressive because we've been in 'the deepest solar minimum in nearly a century.' It now appears to be over. It's just hard to stop the march of manmade global warming, well, other than by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, that is. |
17th May 2010 |
| Arctic poised to see record low sea ice volume this year UPDATE: Two commenters pointed me to the Polar Science Center. They looks to have the best Arctic ice volume model around - and it's been validated (see below). The big Arctic news remains the staggering decline in multiyear ice - and hence ice volume. If we get near the Arctic's sea ice area (or extent) seen in recent years this summer, then this may well mean record low ice volume - the fourth straight year of low volume. And the latest extent data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center suggests we will: Of course, the anti-science crowd - and much of the media - remain stuck in two-dimensional thinking. |
17th May 2010 |
| Climate change threatens health by Mediterranean - Reuters UK People in cities around the Mediterranean including Athens, Rome and Marseilles are likely to suffer most in Europe from ever more scorching heatwaves this century caused by climate change, scientists said on Sunday. See also: Mediterranean most at risk from European heatwaves - Nature.com |
17th May 2010 |
| Africa's lake Tanganyika warming fast, life dying ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Africa's lake Tanganyika has heated up sharply over the past 90 years and is now warmer than at any time for at least 1,500 years, a scientific paper said on Sunday, adding that fish and wildlife are threatened. |
17th May 2010 |
| The Anthropocene Debate: Marking Humanity's Impact Is human activity altering the planet on a scale comparable to major geological events of the past? Scientists are now considering whether to officially designate a new geological epoch to reflect the changes that homo sapiens have wrought: the Anthropocene. BY ELIZABETH KOLBERT |
17th May 2010 |
| US senators unveil climate bill US senators unveil a long-awaited climate change bill, which includes divisive plans on offshore oil-drilling. See also: Does the New Climate Bill Provide the Answer to Our Environmental Woes or Just More Handouts for Big Energy? Why it's worth passing a crappy climate bill What the climate bill means for the US way of life |
17th May 2010 |
| Europe looking at bigger CO2 cut Europe's climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard is to set out the case for a unilateral 30% EU cut in CO2. |
17th May 2010 |
| Govt shifts focus to renewable energy The ETS may have been shelved but the federal government is trying a new tack on climate change - spending money on renewable energy and energy efficiency. |
17th May 2010 |
| Climate Change's Secret Weapon - Mother Jones Pretty much everyone agrees that it doesn't make a lot of sense to regulate greenhouse gases using the Clean Air Act. The mechanisms in the CAA just don't fit the problem very well. Still, it's better than nothing, and there's long been an implicit threat from the Obama administration that if Congress doesn't pass a climate bill then the EPA will step in and do the job for them. Today, they ratcheted up the pressure: |
17th May 2010 |
| Open letter: How to get to 350ppm In your widely publicized May 2010 letter to Bill McKibben, you ask for specific strategies to achieve a global CO2 reduction down to 350ppm. Here's how, from the United States arm of the international Transition movement: Understand the full magnitude of the problem. Think 'radical system change.' Plan for resilience. Begin the Transition today. Use teamwork. read more |
17th May 2010 |
| US could become leader in desert solar, says IEA As Senate considers climate law, report says desert solar farms can be as cheap as coal by 2025The United States could position itself as the global leader in producing utility-scale solar power from its vast deserts, with immediate and appropriate government support, a new report from the International Energy Agency says.The study by the Paris"based energy policy adviser for developed nations says with RD backing, adoption of feed-in tariffs and binding renewable energy portfolio standards, the U.S. and other sunny nations could accelerate the cost reductions needed for widespread deployment of concentrating solar power (CSP) plants. |
17th May 2010 |
| The crucial role of activism in scrapping Heathrow's third runway The distinguishing feature of the campaign was the way in which it galvanised people into repeatedly taking direct actionIt was more than four years ago when George Monbiot wrote on these pages: "At last the battlelines have been drawn, and the first major fight over climate change is about to begin. All over the country, a coalition of homeowners and anarchists, Nimbys and internationalists is mustering to fight the greatest future cause of global warming: the growth of aviation."Now the frontline in that battle, the third runway at Heathrow, has been officially cancelled, and so too have the new runways that Labour planned for Stansted and Gatwick. |
17th May 2010 |
| Harnessing Ocean Power Generating renewable energy from the ocean through Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion has been studied for nearly a century. Now, several companies are working toward commercial projects. |
17th May 2010 |
| Rising CO2 levels threaten crops and food quality Rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide interfere with plants` ability to convert nitrate into protein and could threaten food quality, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Davis. The scientists suggest that, as global climate change intensifies, it will be critical for farmers to carefully manage nitrogen fertilization in order to prevent losses in crop productivity and quality. |
17th May 2010 |
| Opinion polls underestimate Americans' concern about the environment and global warming When asked 'What do you think is the most important problem facing the country today?' about 49 percent of respondents answered the economy or unemployment, while only 1 percent mentioned the environment or global warming. But when asked, 'What do you think will be the most serious problem facing the world in the future if nothing is done to stop it?' 25 percent said the environment or global warming, and only 10 percent picked the economy. In fact, environmental issues were cited more often than any other category, including terrorism, which was only mentioned by 10 percent of respondents. |
17th May 2010 |
| Just How Leaky Are Assertions From the Anti-Global Warming Crowd? Skeptics cite 700 "scientists" who doubt global warming. Except few are climatologists. And Joseph Romm says they're conducting the greatest b.s. campaign in history. |
17th May 2010 |
| 16 tips for avoiding climate burnout by Gillian Caldwell I have spent my lifetime face to face with some of the most brutal and inhumane acts ever committed, but nothing has been as traumatizing for me as trying to get action to tackle the climate crisis. As a long time human rights defender and prior Executive Director at WITNESS, I helped produce and direct films on rape as a weapon of war and amputations in Sierra Leone's recent bloody conflict, I conducted an undercover investigation into the Russian mafia's involvement in trafficking women for forced prostitution, I investigated hit squads in apartheid South Africa, and I spent countless hours in editing rooms watching first hand images of death, destruction, and devastation. |
17th May 2010 |
| Dolphin, turtle deaths eyed for links to oil spill PORT FOURCHON, Louisiana (Reuters) - Scientists are examining the deaths of at least six dolphins and over 100 sea turtles along the U.S. Gulf Coast in recent weeks to see if they are victims of the giant oil spill in the region, wildlife officials said on Thursday. |
17th May 2010 |
| EPA issues rules on biggest carbon polluters WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama Administration finalized greenhouse gas rules for big factories and power plants on Thursday, giving momentum to the troubled climate bill in the Senate. |
17th May 2010 |
| Confronting the geopolitics of climate change Too much focus has been put on carbon cuts for nearly two decades, almost to the exclusion of other elements. |
17th May 2010 |
| WORLD: North Should Pay South Reparations for Climate Change JOHANNESBURG, May 14 (IPS) - The North should pay reparations to the South for the effects of climate change. |
17th May 2010 |
| Q&A: Fewer Protests, More Political Pressure to Fight Climate Change LA PAZ, May 16 (IPS) - Moving away from public protests and towards exerting political pressure on leaders in industrialised countries is the strategy chosen by the environmental movement 350.org to fight global warming, said its co-founder Kelly Blynn in an interview with IPS. |
17th May 2010 |
| Saving the casino: America's economic recovery strategy A surprising number of America's localities have made themselves increasingly dependent on casino gambling. Las Vegas and practically the whole state of Nevada need no introduction in this regard. There is also, of course, Atlantic City, New Jersey. And, there are the myriad riverboat casinos, Native American-run casinos, and casinos in many states limited to designated cities. The taxes from these gambling enterprises enrich both localities and states.But there is a much larger casino operating in the United States. It variously goes by the name banking, stock and bond investing, commodities speculation, asset-backed securities, and myriad instruments classified as derivatives which get their value from some underlying security or commodity. |
17th May 2010 |
| Campaigners believe war on climate change will be stymied Fears that the UK's fight against climate change will be lost in the confusion of the Liberal-Conservative coalition were underlined yesterday when divisions between the two parties were exposed over nuclear power, renewable energy, airport expansion and offshore oil drilling. |
17th May 2010 |
| Tar sands oil extraction spreading rapidly, report warns Friends of the Earth reports says extraction threatens environment as well as vulnerable communitiesThe successful development of Canada's tar sands has triggered a rush by Shell and other oil companies to set up similar operations in Russia, Congo and even Madagascar, a new report reveals.Soaring crude prices and an growing shortage of drilling sites have encouraged the energy industry to look at a series of "unconventional" hydrocarbon deposits threatening vulnerable environment and communities in places such as Jordan, Morocco as well as the US, Friends of the Earth says in a review called Tar sands " fuelling the energy crisis.The revelations come just 24 hours before Shell's annual general meeting and on the day when Ceres, a coalition of a investors and environmentalists, launches its own survey warning that Canadian tar sands extraction could pose an even bigger risk to an oil company share price than the US ... |
17th May 2010 |
| Petropolis: Aerial Perspectives on the Alberta Tar Sands | Film review This short, hallucinatory documentary by Greenpeace, Canada, takes us on a helicopter flight over the vast area containing the world's second largest oil reserve that is being despoiled, possibly for ever, to separate bitumen from sand. Sixty years ago, we might have been presented by the same powerful images as signs of technological progress. We now remember Tacitus's withering line: "They make a wilderness and call it peace."DocumentaryGreenpeacePhilip Frenchguardian.co.uk © Guardian News Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms Conditions | More Feeds |
17th May 2010 |
| World Warm, Chicago Cooling The planet is warming, but not in Chicago. |
17th May 2010 |
| Climate change a threat to MDGs: Spanish official Climate change posed an obstacle to the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), Spanish Secretary of State for International Cooperation Soraya Rodriguez said Saturday. Rodriguez made the remarks while introducing a debate session that will be held here Sunday ahead of the European Union-Latin America and the Caribbean (EU-LAC) Summit. Rodriguez forests had disappeared in large parts of Latin ... |
17th May 2010 |
| Nature loss 'to damage economies' Earth's ongoing loss of biodiversity and ecosystems losses may soon begin to hit economies, a UN report warns. See also: UN fears 'irreversible' damage to natural environment |
11th May 2010 |
| Ozone hole discoverer's warning The leader of the team which found the hole in the earth's protective ozone layer has urged world leaders to do more to safeguard the environment. Speaking to BBC News on the 25th anniversary of the reporting of the hole, Dr Joe Farman said the environment was still being recklessly damaged in many ways. He criticised politicians for failing to lead on issues like climate change - it was "damned stupid" to keep increasing emissions of CO2 when we know it is a warming gas, he said. See also: The chance discovery that averted ecological disaster |
11th May 2010 |
| Greenland glacier slide speeds 220 percent in summer OSLO (Reuters) - A glacier in Greenland slides up to 220 percent faster toward the sea in summer than in winter and global warming could mean a wider acceleration that would raise sea levels, according to a study published Sunday. |
11th May 2010 |
| 'Unless we change our present course soon, the future of human civilization will be in dire jeopardy. ' The Nobel-Prize-winning former VP has an article in The New Republic, 'The Crisis Comes Ashore: Why the oil spill could change everything.' Here are some excerpts: The continuing undersea gusher of oil 50 miles off the shores of Louisiana is not the only source of dangerous uncontrolled pollution spewing into the environment. Worldwide, the amount of man-made CO2 being spilled every three seconds into the thin shell of atmosphere surrounding the planet equals the highest current estimate of the amount of oil spilling from the Macondo well every day. Indeed, the average American coal-fired power generating plant gushes more than three times as much global-warming pollution into the atmosphere each day-and there are over 1,400 of them. See also: Bringing Perspective Out of Sight: BP's dispersants are toxic - but not as toxic as dispersed oil - Plus the threat the disaster poses to America's primary coral reef Video: Dolphins swimming through crude |
11th May 2010 |
| Odds of cooking the grandkids There is a horrible paper in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which looks at how the limits of human physiology interact with upper-range global warming scenarios. The bottom line conclusion is that there is a small - of order 5% - risk of global warming creating a situation in which a large fraction of the planet was uninhabitable (in the sense that if you were outside for an extended period during the hottest days of the year, even in the shade with wet clothing, you would die). read more |
11th May 2010 |
| Saudi-funded Fox News rejects ad by veterans group arguing against Middle East oil dependence Last week, progressive veterans organization VoteVets.org released an ad arguing that 'a clean energy climate plan would cut our dependence on foreign oil in half and cut oil profits for hostile nations.' The ad asserts that 'every day, Iran gets $100 million richer selling oil around the world and peddling hate.' TP has the story. While CNN and MSNBC have aired the ad, Fox News is refusing to do so. Politico reports Fox apparently found the ad 'too confusing.' Watch the 'confusing' ad: There is nothing confusing about the ad. VoteVets' assertion that hostile nations profit off our oil dependence is based on a Wonk Room analysis that finds, under the a strong carbon cap regime which restrains U.S. |
11th May 2010 |
| British summer is coming earlier each year Scientists say onset of British summer has become increasingly early in the last 50 years, consistent with global warmingBritain is broke and the bank holiday weekend was a washout, but scientists at Sheffield University have some rare good news in these uncertain times: summer is coming earlier each year.According to a new study, the English summer arrives some 18 days sooner than during the late 1950s, when Harold Macmillan succeeded Anthony Eden in No 10 and announced: "We have a difficult task before us in this country, all of us."Grant Bigg and Amy Kirbyshire of the department of geography at Sheffield University examined temperature records of central England over recent decades, together with observations of 140 types of summer flowering plant, such as geraniums and roses, and when they came into bloom.To determine the onset of summer, they looked for the third day of each year when ... |
11th May 2010 |
| Freak April Rain Showers Hit Canadian Arctic While the Gulf of Mexico continues to choke on oil from a man-made disaster, the Arctic is experiencing another form of man-made onslaught thanks to climate change. Late last month, British explorers hiking in the Canadian Arctic reported that their ice base off Ellef Ringnes Island had been hit by a three-minute rain shower. A team of Canadian scientists camped about 145 km west also reported being hit by rain at the same time.Pen Hadow, the British team's expedition director, told Reuters, "It's definitely a shocker ... the general feeling within the polar community is that rainfall in the high Canadian Arctic in April is a freak event." Hadow, whose team is gathering data on the effects of climate change on the Arctic Ocean in the Catlin Arctic Survey, said that "scientists would tell us that ... |
11th May 2010 |
| Politically impossible? Last week I spoke before a very committed group of juniors and seniors taking a college class on sustainable cities. In our discussion I suggested that one approach to improving public transit would be 1) to end all subsidies for fossil fuels, cars and trucks including road building and repair subsidies and 2) to place very heavy taxes on fossil fuels and the use and ownership of roadway vehicles. This I conjectured would make private investment in and ownership of city transit and intercity passenger rail attractive (which is the way it used to be) and could lead to a relatively rapid buildout and improvement of such services. |
11th May 2010 |
| Study Ranks Nations Based on Environmental Impacts Australian researchers have ranked the world's nations based on their environmental impact using seven key indicators, including forest loss, habitat conversion, greenhouse gas emissions, and species loss. The top 10 countries in terms of environmental impact are Brazil, the United States, China, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, India, Russia, Australia, and Peru. After correlating the ranking with socio-economic variables, the researchers found that total wealth was the most important factor driving environmental impact. 'The richer a country, Click to enlargeUniversity of AdelaideNations ranked on environmental impact the greater its average environmental impact,' said Corey Bradshaw, director of the University of Adelaide's Environment Institute and lead author of the study, which was published in the journal PLoS ONE. |
11th May 2010 |
| Deforestation failure sounds climate alarm (PhysOrg.com) -- Australia's failure to accurately measure and predict emissions from deforestation, and the difficulty it has had in reducing deforestation, should send a warning signal to the world, according to a study from The Australian National University. |
11th May 2010 |
| Obama's failure on climate change by David Roberts Last week, Josh Green had an op-ed in The Boston Globe called 'Even an oil spill won't move Washington,' which points out the bizarre fact that the BP Gulf oil disaster seems only to have entrenched politicians in their pre-existing positions. They asked me to write a short response for their website. I did, and it's called 'How Obama screwed up on climate change.' Here it is: --- Josh Green's assessment of the politics of the Gulf oil spill is grim but accurate. It's just the latest illustration of how sclerotic and rigid Senate politics have become. |
11th May 2010 |
| Windlings Methods of electricity storage are considered essential in grids that have large proportions of wind capacity. This is because, surprisingly, winds have been known to quieten down a bit from time to time. Some people take this fact too far. For example, there is the "Northern European Winter High Pressure" lobby, who continue to insist, in a number of forums, that low aerial flow entirely compromises wind energy expansion, just because there are several days in December or January that might be a little flat. A couple of examples :- |
11th May 2010 |
| Dont Wait Until The $#! Hits The fan By Mickey Foley Its hard to convince people we are in the early stages of collapse when things are still pretty good. Only when we have trouble meeting our basic needs will we begin to seriously question and fundamentally reform our society. And I believe, passionately, that we need to begin this process ASAP, while there are still enough fossil fuels, water and other natural resources to support 6.8 billion people. So my message is this: Dont wait until the $#! hits the fan, because by then it could be too late |
11th May 2010 |
| Global climate change talks at a 'dead end' because of US, China reluctance: Indian minister BEIJING (AP) The chance of a climate change agreement this year is remote because the United States and China are unwilling to make more commitments during the talks, India's environment... |
11th May 2010 |
| China needs reasonable carbon emission quotas to maintain growth: official China needs more reasonable carbon emission quotas to buoy the nation's fast economic development amid the progressing industrialization and urbanization, said an official with the nation's top economic planner Sunday. Economic development is still a priority for China as it has to enable the 1.3 billion people to live decent lives, Su Wei, director of the climate change department of the ... |
11th May 2010 |
| Uganda's highest ice cap splits The ice cap on Uganda's highest peak has split because of global warming, the country's wildlife authority says. |
3rd May 2010 |
| CO2 effects on plants increases global warming - EurekAlert - press release CO2 effects on plants increases global warmingEurekAlert (press release)For scientists trying to predict global climate change in the coming century, the study underscores the importance of including plants in their climate ...and more |
3rd May 2010 |
| Trees tell of shifting world (PhysOrg.com) -- Trees from the Harvard Forest to the Amazon rainforest are experiencing changing climactic conditions, with rising temperatures potentially making tropical trees a significant source of carbon dioxide. |
3rd May 2010 |
| Confronting the biodiversity crisis In 2002, the world's governments agreed to significantly slow the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010. Time is almost up, and by most accounts they've failed. Now that climate change is emerging as one of biodiversity's greatest threats, scientists are proposing new ways to tackle the crisis. Hannah Hoag reports. |
3rd May 2010 |
| New study sheds light on corals' susceptibility to temperature change An international team of marine biologists has found that existing diversity in some coral populations may significantly influence their response to extreme temperature disturbances - such as those predicted from climate warming. The team demonstrated that natural selection acting on the species of algae living within corals may determine which partnerships will survive when confronted with extreme temperatures changes. The results will be published online in the May 5 issue of the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. |
3rd May 2010 |
| Chinas Coal Price Rises as Drought Cuts Stockpiles - Update1 May 5 (Bloomberg) -- Coal prices at Qinhuangdao, Chinas largest port for the fuel, gained the most in more than four months as demand increased amid a drought in the southwest. |
3rd May 2010 |
| Earth Could Become Too Hot for Humans Earth's current warming trend could bring deadly heat for humans. |
3rd May 2010 |
| Diet SoapPodcast #55: The Economics of Needs and Limits Frank Rotering is the guest this week and we discuss his Economics of Needs and Limits, the limits of Marxism, and the timidity of the intellectual class especially in regards to the official story of 911. |
3rd May 2010 |
| Should you vote for the Greens? I urge everyone who understands the precipice on which we all stand to be highly tactical with their vote Parties' green policies shown to be science fiction National carbon calculator: Can you cut UK emissions?Many a politician is claiming that this is the most important election for a generation. I'd go further: it's the most important UK election ever. The government we elect tomorrow is the last that could still prevent catastrophic climate change, causing the greatest humanitarian disaster of all time. To give ourselves even a 50/50 chance of avoiding a global temperature rise of two degrees " at which point it's thought that unstoppable runaway climate change will be triggered " we must stabilise global emissions by 2015. |
3rd May 2010 |
| Carbon calculator reveals policy science fiction Economic growth is incompatible with cutting carbon emissions, most of which are produced by manufacturing and consumption National Carbon Calculator: Can you cut UK emissions? See how the Liberal Democrats, the Conservatives and Labour would cut emissionsIt's not surprising that neither Labour nor the Tories wanted to run the Guardian's National Carbon Calculator. Had they done so, they would have had to acknowledge that the figures on which they base their climate change policies are a work of science fiction. The government claims that our total emissions amount to 627 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent (MtCO2e). The Tories have never disputed this figure. |
3rd May 2010 |
| Kyoto risks collapse; U.N. urges government action OSLO (Reuters) - Governments must confront risks that the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol for fighting climate change will collapse because of splits about a successor treaty, the U.N.'s top climate official said on Monday. See also: U.N. forecasts less than 1 bln Kyoto offsets by 2012 |
3rd May 2010 |
| Norway Delays Carbon Capture and Storage Project The Norwegian government has delayed until 2014 a highly touted project to capture and sequester carbon dioxide on a large scale, saying the project had become too complex to develop in the next several years. The project, to be located at Mongstad in western Norway and developed in conjunction with the oil firm Statoil, was designed to capture carbon on an industrial scale, proving that the technology could safely and effectively be used to sharply reduce carbon emissions from coal-burning power plants. The Norweigian Prime Minister, Jens Sotltenberg, had called the proposed Mongstad facility Norway's 'moonlanding' project. But the country's oil minister said that an industrial-scale sequestration project was not feasible at this time and should be revived in four years. |
3rd May 2010 |
| Google invests nearly $39 million in wind farms Google puts $38.8 million into two North Dakota wind farms to boost the supply of renewable energy and earn a return on its investment. |
3rd May 2010 |
| Vans, light trucks face speed limiters in EU: draft BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Vans and light trucks should be fitted with mandatory speed limiters in the European Union to prevent them exceeding 120 km per hour and improve their fuel efficiency, according to an EU report. |
3rd May 2010 |
| Warmer Nights Threaten India's Rice Production Climate change has made nights warmer in India over the past decade, an ominous sign for the nation's vital rice crop. This d... |
3rd May 2010 |
| When the Numbers Lie: Despite What Pollsters Want You Think, Climate Change Remains an Important Issue for the Public But key parts of the media have reverted to their longstanding posture of scientific illiteracy and de facto complicity with the deniers' disinformation campaign. |
3rd May 2010 |
| California may vote to freeze landmark climate law LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Organizers of a California ballot measure that would suspend the state's landmark climate change law, possibly for years, said on Monday they had enough signatures to qualify it for the November ballot. |
3rd May 2010 |
| Brussels to argue for 30% CO2 reduction target The economic slump has cut the cost of meeting the EU's current 2020 emission reduction target by nearly a third, making a move to a 30% cut affordable, according to a draft European Commission communication seen by EurActiv. |
3rd May 2010 |
| Tories' climate commitment under fire Tories accused of 'shallow' support for green agenda after just four party candidates sign up to Friends of the Earth climate pledges campaign Listen to the live audio stream of Ed Miliband, Greg Clark and Simon Hughes debating climate change and energyThe depth of support for green policies in the Conservative party came under severe scrutiny today with the revelation that almost none of their prospective parliamentary candidates backed the simple environmental pledges of a voter-led campaign.Just four of the 635 Conservative candidates contacted gave their support to a quartet of pledges put to them by supporters of Friends of the Earth (FoE). |
3rd May 2010 |
| Interview: Divining Secrets from the Ice In a Rapidly Warming Antarctic Region Earlier this year, climatologist Ellen Mosley-Thompson led an expedition to drill into glacial ice on the Antarctic Peninsula, one of the world's fastest-warming regions. Working for 42 days in frigid temperatures at 6,500 feet, Mosley-Thompson and her six-person team encountered numerous hardships and difficulties, including the loss of ice drills, before eventually boring 1,462 feet to bedrock. Mosley-Thompson's work is part of a larger research project analyzing the impact of the spectacular collapse of the Larsen B Ice Shelf in 2002 Ellen Mosley-Thompson and understanding that event in the context of Antarctica's climate history. |
3rd May 2010 |
| Poll says Australian government loses support after shelving climate change law CANBERRA, Australia (AP) Australia's ruling Labor Party is less popular than the conservative opposition for the first time in almost four years, an opinion poll indicated Tuesday, a wee... |
3rd May 2010 |
| Officials downbeat at world climate conference in Germany Berlin - A summit this year on cutting greenhouse gas emissions will again fail to agree on a global warming treaty, but it might make some progress on the issues, officials predicted Tuesday on the last day of climate talks in Bonn, Germany.... |
3rd May 2010 |
| Solar The new novel Solar by Ian McEwan, Britain's 'national author' (as many call him) tackles the issue of climate change. I should perhaps start my review with a disclosure: I'm a long-standing fan of McEwan and have read all of his novels, and I am also mentioned in the acknowledgements of Solar. I met McEwan in Potsdam and we had some correspondence while he wrote his novel. Our recent book The Climate Crisis quotes a page of McEwan as its Epilogue. And of course I'm not a literature critic but a scientist. So don't expect a detached professional review. |
3rd May 2010 |
| Illegal Logging in Indonesia Undermines Sustainable Market, Report Says Rampant illegal logging in Indonesia is undermining the sustainability and strength of the forest products industry in Indonesia and the United States and thwarting efforts to preserve forests to slow global warming, according to a new report. The report by the BlueGreen Alliance and several U.S. environmental and labor organizations said that 40 to 55 percent of Indonesia's timber is harvested illegally, often from protected areas. Widespread illegal logging in Indonesia and elsewhere has depressed timber prices worldwide, Click to enlargeWWFDeforestation in Borneo, 1950-2020 costing the logging, wood, paper and cabinetry industries more than $1 billion in the U.S. |
3rd May 2010 |
| Storing green electricity as natural gas ( Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft ) Renewable electricity can be transformed into a substitute for natural gas. Until now, electricity was generated from gas. Now, a German-Austrian cooperation wants to go in the opposite direction. In the future, these researchers and entrepreneurs would like to store surplus electricity -- such as from wind power or solar energy -- as climate-neutral methane, and ... |
3rd May 2010 |
| Nature target 'will not be met' Governments will not meet the target of curbing the loss of species and nature by 2010, a major study confirms. |
2nd May 2010 |
| So we 'scramble' on This week has seen what may be only a short delay towards climate legislation in the USA, but a potential long-term hold in Australia as the Rudd government has shelved plans for an emissions trading scheme, at least until 2012/2013. Both countries are struggling with bipartisan support for action. As a result, the notion of a broad response to the Copenhagen Accord by developed countries looks increasingly unlikely, at least in the run-up to COP16 in Mexico and maybe even COP17 in South Africa. With action in developed countries slowing down, it is hard to build the case for comprehensive action globally. |
2nd May 2010 |
| Global Warming For Dummies - EPA Releases New Climate Change Indicators Report The Environmental Protection Agency has just launched a new Climate Change Indicators in the United States report (and slideshow) that really breaks down the science and effects of global warming. Not quite sure it will convince anyone who has already been convinced by the plethora of information, both scientific and popular, already released, but it is a very clear overview of the situation. Here are some interesting highlights to commit to memory: |
2nd May 2010 |
| The Price of Carbon The Price of Carbon by Jo Abbess 20 April 2010 1. Introduction Policy strategy for controlling risky excess atmospheric greenhouse gas (Gowdy, 2008, Sect. 4; McKibben, 2007, Ch. 1, pp. 19-20; Solomon et al., 2009; Tickell, 2008, Ch. 6, pp. 205-208) mostly derives from the notion that carbon dioxide emissions should be charged for, in order to prevent future emissions; similar to treatment for environmental pollutants (Giddens, 2009, Ch. 6, pp. 149-155; Gore, 2009, Ch. 15 'The True Cost of Carbon'; Pigou, 1932; Tickell, 2008, Ch.4, Box 4.1, pp. 112-116). |
2nd May 2010 |
| Global floating ice in "constant retreat": study LONDON (Reuters) - The world's floating ice is in "constant retreat," showing an instability which will increase global sea levels, according to a report published in Geophysical Research Letters on Wednesday. |
2nd May 2010 |
| Melting icebergs boost sea-level rise Ice cubes don't increase the water level in your cup as they melt, so why are melting icebergs raising the oceans? |
2nd May 2010 |
| Sea ice loss driving Arctic warming cycle, scientists confirm Study identifies cycle of ice loss and temperature rise that could see Arctic's icy cover disappear sooner than expectedThe Arctic is locked into a destructive cycle that could see its icy cover rapidly disappear, scientists have confirmed. A new analysis shows that dwindling levels of sea ice are responsible for unusual levels of global warming in the region. The findings reinforce suggestions that a positive feedback between ice loss and temperature rise has emerged in the Arctic, which increases the chances of further rapid ice loss and warming.The study could re-ignite claims that the Arctic has passed a key tipping point, which could see ice disappear much sooner than expected. |
2nd May 2010 |
| Climate change will speed spread of invasive fish to northern Europe Spanish and French researchers have evaluated the spread of the invasive mosquitofish Gambusia holbrooki, which is native to the United States and lives in Mediterranean rivers in Spain and France. The scientists warn that climate change will extend the current distribution area of this and other invasive species to the north. |
2nd May 2010 |
| Fears for crops as shock figures from America show scale of bee catastrophe The world may be on the brink of biological disaster after news that a third of US bee colonies did not survive the winterDisturbing evidence that honeybees are in terminal decline has emerged from the United States where, for the fourth year in a row, more than a third of colonies have failed to survive the winter.The decline of the country's estimated 2.4 million beehives began in 2006, when a phenomenon dubbed colony collapse disorder (CCD) led to the disappearance of hundreds of thousands of colonies. Since then more than three million colonies in the US and billions of honeybees worldwide have died and scientists are no nearer to knowing what is causing the catastrophic fall in numbers.The number of managed honeybee colonies in the US fell by 33.8% last winter, according to the annual survey by the Apiary Inspectors of America and the US ... |
2nd May 2010 |
| U.S., Canada and Mexico Join Forces to Eliminate Super Greenhouse Gases Proposals Would Tackle HFCs at Montreal Protocol, Reap Huge Climate Benefits |
2nd May 2010 |
| U.S. conservatives vs. U.K. conservatives If a climate bill doesn't become law this year, the inclination among many progressives will be to blame President Obama for his lack of leadership. And frankly progressives should be critical of Obama: In a bunch of pretty speeches he has repeatedly said the climate and clean energy jobs bill was a signature issue that would determine whether America achieves 'lasting prosperity' or 'decline' (see 'Success or failure for Obama Presidency hangs in the balance' with climate bill). But two recent stories remind us of who really is to blame for two decades of inaction. |
2nd May 2010 |
| Why I stopped believing in environmentalism and started the Dark Mountain Project Former deputy editor of the Ecologist, Paul Kingsnorth, explains why he became disillusioned with the parables of environmentalism, so decided to write his own insteadIt started last year with two men in a pub. It spiraled from there, and gathered in thousands of people from across the world who shared its vision. It is still expanding; so much so that the two men now have rather less time to spend in the pub, because much of their day is spent just trying to keep up with a minor global movement which they have accidentally brought into being.This is the story of the Dark Mountain Project, a new cultural movement for an age of global disruption, of which I was one of the co-founders less than a year ago. |
2nd May 2010 |
| BBC on the impact of biofuels on Paraguay’s ecology and farmers by Tom Philpott A soy plantation in the Amazon rainforest, Brazil. Nilton Ricardo, BrazilPhotosEveryone should listen to this BBC report (unfortunately not embedabble) on the 'price of biofuels.' It digs into a key question: what does Europe's appetite for biodiesel mean for people and ecosystems in the countries that produce the feedstocks? Focusing on Paraguay, the BBC comes up with answers that aren't pretty. The economic benefits of the biofuel craze accrue to large plantation owners and the global agribusiness firms that buy their soy and provide the inputs. Tracts of of the Amazon get leveled for soy production. |
2nd May 2010 |
| Politics trumps a moral challenge KEVIN Rudd's credibility-sapping decision on Tuesday to delay the introduction of his carbon pollution reduction scheme until 2013 at the earliest, means that he goes into this year's election with a less crystallised climate change policy than John Howard took to the 2007 election. |
2nd May 2010 |
| World needs clean energy revolution: UN chief Rich and poor nations need a "clean energy revolution" in order to cut greenhouse gas emissions responsible for global warming, UN chief Ban Ki-moon said here Wednesday. |
2nd May 2010 |
| Want to Prevent Oil Spill Disasters? Stop Driving A submerged oil well is spewing a river of oil toward Louisiana and the Gulf Coast. Birds and fish will die, wetlands and beaches will be ruined -- all because we drive cars. |
2nd May 2010 |
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