|
| News |
Climate Ark
Uranium mining focus of Va. forum (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 09:00:44
| Associated Press: Opponents of uranium mining in Southside Virginia and the people who want to end a state moratorium on mining the fuel for nuclear power plants have one more difference of opinion: the size of the deposit. A speaker at a forum Thursday organized by environmentalists said the deposit totals 5.5 million pounds, not the 119 million pounds estimated by Virginia Uranium Inc. Environmental analyst Paul Robinson said much of the uranium deposit is quot;too diluted to be reasonably minedquot; ... |
Climate change threatens US migratory bird populations, Interior Department report says (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 09:00:44
| Associated Press: Global climate change poses a significant threat to migratory bird populations, which are already stressed by the loss of habitat and environmental pollution, according to a report released Thursday. U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar joined scientists and conservation organizers at an Austin news conference to release the study, quot;The State of the Birds: 2010 Report on Climate Change.quot; The report says oceanic birds, such as petrels and albatrosses, are at particular risk from ... |
Feds: US birds declining due to changing climate (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 09:00:44
| USA Today: Nearly one-third of U.S. bird species quot;are endangered, threatened or in significant decline,quot; due to climate change, Department of the Interior chief Ken Salazar said Thursday. Salazar issued a report, quot;The State of the Birds: 2010 Report on Climate Changequot;, created by the U.S. Fish amp; Wildlife Service in collaboration with conservation groups. In it, researchers looked at five factors affecting bird species and weighed them against climate change effects. The factors were ... |
White House finalizing rules to cut car emissions (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 09:00:44
| Reuters: The White House is finalizing rules on the first U.S. greenhouse gas emission standard for automobiles, which would raise average fuel economy 42 percent by 2016 in a bid to slash oil imports and fight climate change. The Environmental Protection Agency and the Transportation Department sent the final rules this week to the White House's Office of Management and Budget, according to a notice posted on the OMB website. The higher mileage requirements will reduce U.S. greenhouse ... |
Tax break to flip switch on US smart grid roll out (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 09:00:44
| Business Green: The emerging US smart grid industry has vowed to accelerate the roll out of new intelligent grid systems, after the government this week confirmed the sector will not be taxed on the federal grants that will largely fund the first wave of projects. Economic stimulus legislation introduced last year included a $3.4bn fund for Smart Grid Investment Grants, designed to kick-start the installation of smart-grid systems that promise to enhance the reliability of transmission networks, ... |
Mysterious electric car firm bursts onto US market in job salvation push (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 09:00:44
| Business Green: A previously unheralded electric car maker emerged as an unlikely saviour for the US auto industry this week, announcing plans to step in and take over a Toyota factory in Fremont, California when the Japanese car manufacturer vacates the plant at the end of the month, potentially saving 4,700 jobs. Aurica Motors said that when Toyota vacates the NUMMI plant on 31 March it wants to convert the facility to make its planned E-Car -- an all-electric vehicle featuring swappable battery ... |
Guyana: Indigenous leaders' objections to LCDS, REDD+ 'malicious distortion' (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 09:00:44
| Stabroek News: The Office of Climate Change (OCC) last night described the objections by some indigenous leaders to the LCDS and REDD+ policies as quot;malicious misrepresentations and distortionsquot; and a deliberate attempt to mislead the public on the two policies. The OCC referred to articles published in this newspaper and the Kaieteur News following a statement issued after a workshop on 'Indigenous Peoples Rights, Extractive Industries and National Development Policies in Guyana.' The statement had, ... |
Group: polluters use offsets to avoid carbon cuts (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 09:00:44
| Associated Press: Major European polluters are buying their way out of making big cuts to greenhouse gas emissions by purchasing carbon offsets that pay for environmental programs in developing nations, a nonprofit group said Friday. To avoid the high cost of becoming greener, power companies and steel makers are using offsets to meet emissions-reduction requirements, and thus undermining the EU's cap-and-trade program that would otherwise punish them financially for not cleaning up their operations, ... |
Central American shrimp, lobster fast disappearing (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 09:00:43
| Agence France-Presse: Illegal fishing and climate change are decimating shrimp and lobster populations in Central America, threatening a two-billion-dollar industry and 136,000 jobs, regional experts said Thursday. quot;Pollution and warmer waters are impacting our species,quot; especially shrimp and lobster, said Central American Organization of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Sectors (OSPESCA) regional director Mario Gonzalez. quot;The Pacific shrimp population, Panama excluded, has fallen dramaticallyquot; because ... |
Climate change pushing bird species 'towards extinction:' US (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 09:00:43
| Agence France-Presse: Climate change is pushing some bird species quot;towards extinction,quot; US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar warned Thursday as a new report on the threats facing North American birds was released. quot;For well over a century, migratory birds have faced stresses,quot; Salazar said. quot;Now they are facing a new threat -- climate change -- that could dramatically alter their habitat and food supply and push many species towards extinction.quot; Birds that depend upon the ocean for survival quot;are among ... |
Temperature rise spreads malaria, scientists insist (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 05:00:41
| SciDev.Net: A rise in temperature leads to the spread of malaria, according to a review of conflicting studies. The review, which assessed over 70 studies that set out to untangle the link between rising temperatures and malaria incidence, says those studies that have found a link are based on more robust statistical methods than those that have not. It is widely believed that vector-borne diseases are set to worsen with climate change. But the links are complex and some argue that ... |
Report says climate change threatens birds (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 05:00:41
| Associated Press: AUSTIN, Texas -- An Interior Department report says global climate change poses a significant threat to migratory bird populations already stressed by the loss of habitat and environmental pollution. U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar joined scientists and conservation organizers at an Austin news conference Thursday to release a study entitled quot;The State of the Birds: 2010 Report on Climate Change.quot; The report says oceanic birds, such as petrels and albatrosses, are at ... |
NYC judge allows Chevron arbitration to proceed (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 05:00:41
| Associated Press: A judge ruled Thursday that Chevron can proceed with an international arbitration claim against Ecuador related to a 17-year-old court battle over rain forest contamination in that South American nation. U.S. District Judge Leonard Sand in Manhattan rejected an attempt by Ecuador to block the arbitration but also said his decision was limited in scope and left the arbitration panel to decide what, if anything, it will hear and when. His ruling does not directly affect the ... |
Industries hoarding greenhouse gas emission permits (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 05:00:40
| Guardian: Companies across Europe are hoarding permits to produce greenhouse gas emissions worth hundreds of millions of pounds, the Guardian can reveal. The surplus credits have been amassed from over-allocation of permits to pollute from the European emissions trading scheme, and by buying cheap credits from carbon-cutting projects in developing countries and holding on to their more expensive official EU allowances. The saved permits can be used to meet future targets to cut the ... |
Group Will Review Climate Panel Work (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 04:00:46
| New York Times: A group of top scientists from around the world will review the research and management practices of the United Nations climate change panel so that it can try to avoid the kinds of errors that have brought its work into question in recent months, officials said Wednesday. Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general of the United Nations, said that the InterAcademy Council, a consortium of the world's most prestigious scientific societies, would name scientists to take a thorough look at the ... |
Battle over climate science spreads to US schoolrooms (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 04:00:44
| New Scientist: SCHOOLS in three US states - Louisiana, Texas and South Dakota - have been told to teach alternatives to the scientific consensus on global warming. The moves appear to be allied to efforts to teach creationism in public schools. Such efforts have in the past been thwarted when courts ruled them unconstitutional, but those advocating the teaching of sound science may find it harder to fight misrepresentations concerning climate change. Last week, South Dakota's state legislature ... |
Kenya thanks Japan prince for climate support (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 04:00:44
| Agence France-Presse: Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki thanked Japan's Crown Prince Naruhito Thursday for his country's support in programmes to combat climate change, the government said. The prince arrived in Nairobi late Wednesday for a three-day trip that follows a visit to Ghana. Kibaki hailed Japan's quot;continued financial and technical supportquot; notably in programmes to combat climate change, a statement from his office said. After meeting with Kibaki, the prince visited a Japanese school in ... |
Predicting future climate: Networking initiative to support interdisciplinary research (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 04:00:44
| ScienceDaily: Specialists from various Earth system science disciplines recently gathered to address a major question: what will our environment look like in the future? Of course, possible answers to this question raise even more questions. For instance, if changing climatic conditions were to alter local vegetation, how would this new landscape react to future climatic trends? Answering these questions with certainty would allow us to manage better our natural resources by defining appropriate ... |
United States: Seas' acidity threatens life, livelihoods, film says (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 04:00:43
| Virginian-Pilot: Oceans are becoming more acidic, which poses another threat in Virginia to oysters, clams and crabs as well as to water quality and coastal ecosystems, a panel of scientists and environmentalists warned Wednesday. The experts, including researchers from Old Dominion University and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, spoke after a special screening of the documentary film quot;Acid Testquot; at the Naro Expanded Cinema in Norfolk. More than 100 attended the free event, intended to ... |
Unveiled: Scotland's carbon capture plans to challenge climate change (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 04:00:43
| Scotsman: THE Scottish Government has unveiled a vision for Scotland to lead the way globally in key technology to capture carbon dioxide from power stations and store it underground. A quot;road mapquot; for the development of carbon capture and storage (CCS) has been drawn up. It reveals that between 2015 and 2020 the Scottish Government is aiming to have two power stations furnished with CCS technology up and running. And the report reveals Holyrood is aiming for Scotland to have a ... |
Obama-Graham partnership emerges in climate debate (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 04:00:43
| Reuters: It's rare when a conservative Republican in Congress heaps praise on President Barack Obama, especially in regards to fighting global warming, but Senator Lindsey Graham did just that on Wednesday. The South Carolina lawmaker has, despite opposition from many in his party, worked with Obama and Democrats on a comprehensive energy and environmental bill, winning their support of more government aid for nuclear power and expanded oil and gas drilling. Nuclear power and domestic ... |
Los Angeles electric rate linked to solar power (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 04:00:43
| New York Times: Los Angeles averages more than 300 days of sunshine a year, and it often seems as if environmentalists outnumber rattlesnakes in many parts of the sprawling city. It would seem, then, that solar energy would be a thriving local industry here. But that has never been the case, and experts cite cost as the main reason. Now, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the largest municipal utility in the United States, is poised to pass a roughly 5 percent rate increase on ... |
Oil execs chortle as Obama admin promotes renewables (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 04:00:43
| Greenwire: Renewable energy is being praised in Washington, but it is generating snickers here in the nation's traditional energy capital, where oil, gas and utility leaders are gathered for a major industry conference. Leaders of two of the world's largest oil and gas companies used their addresses at CERAWeek, a sprawling conference sponsored by energy analysis firm IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates, to warn against unbridled optimism about wind and solar energy. Khalid Al-Falih, ... |
Australia: Now taxpayers face $100m bill to fix insulation mess (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 04:00:42
| Sydney Morning Herald: TAXPAYERS will pay up to $100 million to remove foil insulation or install electrical safety switches in 50,000 homes in a bid to fix the government's suspended insulation scheme. The Assistant Climate Change Minister, Greg Combet, said yesterday removing insulation or installing the switches were now the only ways to ensure safety in homes fitted with foil insulation under the rebate scheme. The government had promised safety checks for the 50,000 homes to test for ceilings ... |
A Case Against Biofuels: Corn Ethanol's Hidden Costs (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 04:00:42
| Yale Environment 360: In light of the strong evidence that growing corn, soybeans, and other food crops to produce ethanol takes a heavy toll on the environment and is hurting the world's poor through higher food prices, consider this astonishing fact: This year, more than a third of the U.S.'s record corn harvest of 335 million metric tons will be used to produce corn ethanol. What's more, within five years fully 50 percent of the U.S. corn crop is expected to wind up as biofuels. Here's another sobering ... |
Canada: Dying duck pics sent to Alberta premier (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 04:00:42
| CNews: An admission by Premier Ed Stelmach that he had not seen recent photos of dying ducks at a Syncrude tailings pond has ruffled the feathers of Greenpeace. The environmental group on Wednesday presented Stelmach's spokesman, Jerry Bellikka, with two enlarged photos of tar-covered ducks, hoping the premier would take a look at the images. They were entered as evidence at the ongoing trial against Syncrude, which faces environmental charges related to the April 2008 incident in ... |
Vietnam forest fires rise sharply in drought (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 04:00:42
| Deutsche-Presse Agentur: Drought-driven forest fires in Vietnam this year have already consumed an area greater than the entire area burned in 2008 or 2009, officials said Tuesday. Fires have destroyed 1,600 hectares of forest so far this year, said Do Thanh Hai, a senior official at Vietnam's Forest Protection Department. That area is more than 10 times the rate measured in the first two months of 2008 or 2009, which each saw just more than 140 hectares destroyed. Hai blamed the fires on a drought that has ... |
Explained: Radiative forcing (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 04:00:42
| Physorg: When people talk about global warming or the greenhouse effect, the main underlying scientific concept that describes the process is radiative forcing. And despite all the recent controversy over leaked emails and charges of poorly sourced references in the last Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, the basic concept of radiative forcing is one on which scientists -- whatever their views on global warming or the IPCC -- all seem to agree. Disagreements come into play in ... |
Prehistoric response to global warming informs human planning today (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 04:00:42
| Physorg: Since 2004, University at Buffalo anthropologist Ezra Zubrow has worked intensively with teams of scientists in the Arctic regions of St. James Bay, Quebec, northern Finland and Kamchatka to understand how humans living 4,000 to 6,000 years ago reacted to climate changes. Credit: Office of Communications, University at Buffalo Since 2004, University at Buffalo anthropologist Ezra Zubrow has worked intensively with teams of scientists in the Arctic regions of St. James Bay, Quebec, ... |
New study shows how farms can lower emissions (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 04:00:42
| Physorg: A joint report from the law schools at UC Berkeley and UCLA recommends ways that farmers and ranchers can mitigate the impact of climate change. quot;Room to Growquot; identifies barriers to lowering emissions and proposes concrete steps to overcome them. California's agriculture sector plays a huge role in the state economy. But the farming industry is currently threatened by altered growing seasons, limits on water supplies, and record temperature changes. Room to Grow states that finding ... |
IEA calls for low-carbon revolution (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 04:00:41
| United Press International: The International Energy Agency and technology officers from 30 global companies in Paris called Wednesday for dramatic action to usher in a low-carbon economy. quot;The global energy system must be transformed to a low-carbon system,quot; the statement read. quot;This will require a dramatic ramp up of our annual investment in a portfolio of low-carbon energy technology solutions within the next decade bearing in mind technology shifts take decades to create material impacts.quot; The IEA ... |
Gas emissions law once again a target in California (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 04:00:41
| McClatchy Newspapers: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday simultaneously defended the state's greenhouse gas reduction law and repeated his support of expanded oil drilling off the Santa Barbara coast. On Monday, the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office concluded that AB 32, the landmark 2006 law that mandates cuts in greenhouse gas emissions would cost the state jobs in the near term, and have uncertain effects in the long term. Speaking to reporters after a luncheon speech at a downtown ... |
Drought ravages famed Philippine rice terraces (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 04:00:41
| Agence France-Presse: A worsening drought is exacting a terrible toll on the world-famous mountain rice terraces of the northern Philippines, local officials said Tuesday. A state of calamity was this week declared for the Banaue area that is home to many of the ancient stone-walled paddies and one of the Southeast Asian nation's most popular tourist destinations, the officials said. quot;The tourists still come here, but all they see are parched fields and forest fires and leave disappointed,quot; Abriol ... |
Is "More Jobs" Sustainable or Necessary in the Post-Peak Oil World? (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 04:00:40
| Culture Change: What was required for a growing economy, that was supposed to uplift all of modern humanity, is at root a false notion for the manipulated public: the overwhelming majority must work for others to enrich the few so that all of society benefits through unlimited expansion. This problematic profit-scheme is failing to hold up, what with general economic uncertainty on the rise (apart from quot;Hopequot;) and the advanced depletion of easily extracted, cheap oil. To put even greater pressure on ... |
US greenhouse gas emissions fell 2.9 per cent in 2008 (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 04:00:40
| Deutsche-Presse Agentur: US greenhouse gas emissions fell 2.9 per cent in 2008 amid a recession and record high petrol prices, according to a preliminary estimate Tuesday from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Lower demand for electricity and petrol helped drive down energy use over the course of the year in the United States, which along with China is the world's largest polluter. Total greenhouse gas emissions, which are blamed for global warming, have climbed nearly 13.6 per cent in the US ... |
Americans Less Concerned About Climate Change, Gallup Poll Says (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 04:00:40
| Bloomberg: Americans are less concerned about the threat of climate change than they were two years ago and almost half say the seriousness of global warming is overblown, a Gallup Organization Inc. poll shows. Thirty-two percent of people questioned said they believe climate change will affect them or their way of life, down from a high of 40 percent in 2008, according to the survey by Gallup, a Washington-based polling company. Two-thirds say global warming won't affect them in their ... |
Aquatic 'dead zones' contributing to climate change (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 04:00:40
| Physorg: The increased frequency and intensity of oxygen-deprived quot;dead zonesquot; along the world's coasts can negatively impact environmental conditions in far more than just local waters. In the March 12 edition of the journal Science, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science oceanographer Dr. Lou Codispoti explains that the increased amount of nitrous oxide (N2O) produced in low-oxygen (hypoxic) waters can elevate concentrations in the atmosphere, further exacerbating the impacts of ... |
Italy to host Europe's biggest solar plant: company (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 04:00:40
| Agence France-Presse: Europe's most powerful solar power plant is set to start operations in Italy later this year, the US company building the installation on an area as large as 120 football pitches said on Thursday. The plant in Rovigo near Venice in northeast Italy will take up 850,000 square metres (9.15 million square feet) and produce 72 megawatts, SunEdison said in a statement announcing the start of construction. The current biggest plant in Europe, located in Spain, produces 60 megawatts ... |
EPA to let states address rising ocean acidity (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 04:00:40
| Associated Press: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says it will consider ways the states can address rising levels of carbon dioxide in oceans. The agency on Thursday settled a lawsuit filed last year by the Center for Biological Diversity in San Francisco. The problem stems from oceans absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and results in the rising acidity of the water. It seriously threatens shellfish and other marine life. The lawsuit accused the EPA of acting improperly ... |
Panel Will Review U.N. Climate Work (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 03:00:42
| New York Times: Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general of the United Nations, said that the InterAcademy Council, a consortium of the world's most prestigious scientific societies, would name scientists to take a thorough look at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The panel has come under sharp attack after revelations of several mistakes in its most recent report, published in 2007, including a poorly sourced and exaggerated account of how quickly the Himalayan glaciers are ... |
Independent body to review climate panel (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 03:00:42
| Agence France-Presse: A respected international scientific body will review the UN's Nobel prize-winning climate panel, under fire for errors in a key report on global warming, UN chief Ban Ki-moon has said. Ban told reporters that the Amsterdam-based InterAcademy Council (IAC), which groups presidents of 15 leading science academies, will carry out the task quot;completely independently of the United Nations.quot; Ban however defended the work of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), ... |
Japan weakens climate bill after industry pressure (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 03:00:41
| Reuters: Japan watered down legislation to fight climate change Thursday after weeks of wrangling within the government over plans for an emissions trading system that has met stiff resistance from industry. The proposed climate bill, set to be enacted in parliament by mid-June, left room for the trading scheme to set caps on emissions per unit of production, which would allow rises in emissions when output grows. The government had earlier pledged a quot;cap-and-tradequot; scheme setting ... |
Trusting science on climate change (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 03:00:40
| CNN: Those beating the global warming drum have sure taken a few lumps lately. First there were the hacked e-mails from climate scientists, which critics say show an effort to massage some data and keep some scientists out of the debate. Facebook Digg Twitter Buzz Up! Email Print Comment on this story Then there was an admission from the Untied Nations' top climate body saying that it relied on some flawed numbers to predict a Himalayan glacier would soon melt. Add to ... |
France: Sarkozy to press G20 on climate funding (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 03:00:40
| Reuters: France will push the Group of 20 countries to impose a tax on financial transactions to raise billions of dollars to help developing nations fight climate change, President Nicolas Sarkozy said Thursday. Speaking at a conference on forests, Sarkozy repeated his call for a renewed effort on climate change after the quot;frustratingquot; Copenhagen conference in December, aiming his fire at quot;all those who, behind their fine words, want to do nothing.quot; quot;Those who don't want to do anything ... |
More maize ethanol may boost greenhouse gas emissions (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 03:00:40
| ScienceDaily: In the March issue of BioScience, researchers present a sophisticated new analysis of the effects of boosting use of maize-derived ethanol on greenhouse gas emissions. The study, conducted by Thomas W. Hertel of Purdue University and five co-authors, focuses on how mandated increases in production of the biofuel in the United States will trigger land-use changes domestically and elsewhere. In response to the increased demand for maize, farmers convert additional land to crops, and ... |
Climate change affects indigenous peoples most: Scholar (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 03:00:40
| CNA: Indigenous peoples worldwide contribute little to global warming but suffer the most from its impact, a local professor said Thursday at an international indigenous conference in Taiwan. quot;Most indigenous peoples around the world are not the major source of air pollution, energy overuse or carbon dioxide emissions,quot; said Jolan Hsieh, an associate professor at the College of Indigenous Studies of Taiwan's National Dong Hwa University. quot;However, who sustains the most damage of all ... |
Tanzania: Weather changes turn farming into gamble with nature (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 03:00:40
| Inter Press Service: Changes in weather patterns have turned agriculture into a gamble with nature for Tanzanian farmers. Prolonged droughts and floods have made the lives of small-scale farmers, who don't have access to irrigation, extremely difficult. In Tanzania, where the economy is largely driven by agriculture, the largely poor, rural population has become even more vulnerable. According to the national Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), agriculture accounts for up to 60 percent of the country's ... |
German solar subsidy cuts muddy 2010 outlook (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 03:00:40
| Reuters: Global solar demand has surged on brisk buying from Germany, but analysts are split over whether the market will break down once incentives in the world's largest solar market are pared back. The recent surge in sales has helped the industry recover from a brutal 2009, when prices for the modules that turn sunlight into electricity tumbled by more than 40 percent as a glut of supplies and difficult financial markets slowed growth. That rebound may be short-lived. UBS, in a ... |
Fashion muses on global cooling (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 03:00:40
| Reuters: An event based around hundreds of fashionistas flying in from all over the world was never going to be a convincing platform for environmental campaigning, but designers in Paris haven't let that stop them. While British designer Vivienne Westwood regularly rails against global warming, fashion king Karl Lagerfeld trumped her with a rival theory at the Chanel show on Monday: the globe is in fact cooling, and he has an iceberg to prove it. quot;Have you felt any warming this ... |
Can you fit a wind turbine in a housing estate? (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 03:00:40
| BBC: How many people are actually going to be able to install renewable energy-generating technology in their homes? That is the burning question which goes unanswered in the government's strategy document called quot;Warm Homes, Greener Homesquot;, which outlines how it plans to cut carbon emissions from homes by 29% by 2020. The plan includes helping as many households as possible install loft and cavity wall insulation within the next five years, and fitting seven million homes with ... |
Scientists take another run at climate change (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 03:00:39
| USA Today: Eight Nobel-prize winning economists and scientists have joined more than 2,000 others in signing a letter today that urges the Senate to take swift action on climate change. quot;The longer we wait, the harder and more costly it will be to limit climate change and to adapt to those impacts that will not be avoided,quot; reads the letter, which is available on the Union of Concerned Scientists' website here. quot;Many emissions reduction strategies can be adopted today that would save consumers ... |
BP joins Brazilian oil rush with $7bn deal to exploit deep sea reserves (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 03:00:39
| Guardian: BP has bought into the Brazilian oil rush with a $7bn (£4.65bn) deal that will boost the group's potential reserves by about 2bn barrels of oil. The deal, with Devon Energy of the US, will also create a joint venture to develop BP's controversial oil sands in Canada. A number of recent huge finds in water up to two miles deep and below a thick layer of salt on the seabed off the coast of Brazil has made the country the focus for international oil companies looking for new ... |
U.S. judge rules for Chevron in Ecuador case (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 03:00:39
| Reuters: Chevron Corp may pursue an international arbitration claim over environmental pollution allegations in Ecuador, a judge ruled on Thursday, part of a long-running case that carries a potential $27 billion liability for the second-largest U.S. oil company. The government of Ecuador had asked Manhattan federal court Judge Leonard Sand to prevent Chevron from taking the 17-year-old case to arbitration under the U.S.-Ecuador Bilateral Investment Treaty. U.S. courts had previously ... |
Nearly half of Americans believe climate change threat is exaggerated (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 03:00:39
| Guardian: Public belief in climate science has seen a precipitous slide in the US, according to new polling that suggests fewer Americans are concerned about the threat posed by global warming. Nearly half of Americans ndash; 48% ndash; now believe the threat of global warming has been exaggerated, the highest level since polling began 13 years ago, the poll published today by Gallup said. It directly linked the decline in concern to the controversies about media coverage of stolen emails from the ... |
The Real Climategate: Conservation Groups Align with World's Worst Polluters (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 10:00:42
| Democracy Now: Major environmental groups are coming under criticism from within their own ranks for taking positions that some say are antithetical to their stated missions of saving the planet. In the latest issue of The Nation magazine, the British journalist Johann Hari writes, quot;As we confront the biggest ecological crisis in human history, many of the green organizations meant to be leading the fight are busy shoveling up hard cash from the world`s worst polluters--and burying science-based ... |
China tells US to do more on climate change (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 10:00:42
| Associated Press: China told the United States on Wednesday to make stronger commitments on climate change and provide environmental expertise and financing to developing nations. China's top climate change negotiator, Xie Zhenhua, acknowledged the current U.S. administration's greater stress on greenhouse gas reductions, but said its pledges thus far fall short of expectations. quot;So we hope the United States will do more ... we hope the United States will not shift the responsibility for taking ... |
Why Europe needs an electricity Supergrid (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 10:00:41
| Business Green: Over the next 12 years 360GW of new electricity-generating capacity -- 50 per cent of Europe's current supply structure - needs to be built to replace ageing power plants and meet the expected increase in demand for electricity. The time is ripe for a complete overhaul of our electricity supply structure. We must use the next ten years to change the way the electricity is produced, transmitted and consumed in Europe. Europe must use this opportunity to construct a new, modern power ... |
Italy: SunEdison eyeing plans for the world's largest solar PV farm (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 10:00:40
| Business Green: US solar energy firm SunEdison looks set to accelerate its push into the booming southern European solar market with plans to build the world's largest photovoltaic solar power plant in Italy. According to reports from news agency Reuters citing sources close to the project, SunEdison is at the advanced stage of planning for a new 60MW solar PV development in the northern Italian province of Rovigo and is expected to formally announce the project at an event later today. The ... |
UK's low carbon market defies recession to clear £110bn mark (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 10:00:40
| Business Green: The UK's low carbon market defied the recession throughout 2009, exceeding expectations to grow 4.3 per cent during the year to £112bn, according to new figures to be released later today. The data, which was compiled by consultancy firm Innovas on behalf of UK Trade amp; Industry (UKTI), also revealed that over 900,000 people are now employed by businesses providing environmental goods and services. In a further indication of the burgeoning strength of the carbon market, the ... |
Bolivia: Noel Kempff project is 'saving the forest' by forcing destruction elsewhere (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 10:00:40
| Guardian: It is the ultimate greenwash nightmare. A tough international deal to curb emissions of greenhouse gases is passed in Mexico later this year. Companies then meet their targets not by cutting their own pollution but by buying into hundreds of forest quot;conservationquot; projects round the world. But those projects then fail to deliver real benefits for forests or staunch the flow of carbon into the atmosphere. Some big-time green groups prosper but the planet burns. Exhibit A in this ... |
Time for next stage of sustainable business (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 10:00:40
| Reuters: Corporate America needs to track its use of energy and resources as closely as it does its hiring and cash flow if it wants to keep pace with social concern about climate change and other sustainability issues, an activist U.S. investor group argues in a new report. Population growth and a rising standard of living across the world will bring opportunities -- but also risks of higher energy costs, scarcer water and other possible consequences of climate change, the Ceres coalition of ... |
Going green vs. going broke (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 10:00:40
| LA Times: Will cutting carbon kill jobs in California? That's the premise of a November ballot initiative proposed by Republican lawmakers, whose cause got a boost this week from a report by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office that concluded the state's landmark global warming law might hurt employment. The report made headlines because it contrasts sharply with an earlier analysis by the California Air Resources Board, which concluded that the law, AB 32, would actually create 120,000 jobs ... |
China calls on US to make stronger pledges on climate change (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 10:00:40
| Business Day: CHINA yesterday told the US to make stronger commitments on climate change and provide environmental expertise and financing to developing nations. At the same time, China said its own efforts to reduce energy intensity had been hampered by its economic recovery in the latter part of last year, which brought growth in heavy energy-consuming industries. Climate change negotiator Xie Zhenhua acknowledged the Obama administration's greater stress on greenhouse gas reductions, but ... |
Solar PV failed in Germany and will fail here (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 10:00:40
| Guardian: Let me begin with a plea to tone down this debate on feed-in tariffs. Jeremy Leggett and I have addressed each other politely and stuck to the facts. I have no ill feelings towards him; I simply believe that he is wrong about solar power. But the level of viciousness displayed on the comment threads, by email and on other sites has to be seen to be believed. Where does fury of this kind come from? In my experience it's often associated with denial. People who don't like the outcomes ... |
France: Sarkozy calls for UN reform, blasts Copenhagen summit (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 10:00:40
| Agence France-Presse: French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday demanded reforms of the United Nations and urged negotiations under a small group of countries to accelerate efforts to fight climate change. Sarkozy, opening a one-day conference on deforestation, stood by the UN, saying there was quot;no alternative strategyquot; to a forum that gave all nations, rich and poor, a voice in a global arena. But he said changes to the UN were way overdue. quot;The UN is absolutely indispensable and yet at ... |
Sarkozy: more funds needed to fight deforestation (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 10:00:39
| Associated Press: Rich nations must contribute more to a climate change fund and help fight deforestation, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in opening a conference Thursday on saving the world's forests -- a key defense against global warming. Ministers from some 40 nations were attending the one-day Paris meeting, including Indonesia and other heavily wooded countries in the Amazon and Congo river basins. Efforts to halt deforestation, one of the culprits in climate change, have been ... |
Research casts doubt over green credentials of "degradable" plastics (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 10:00:39
| Business Green: Some plastics presented as being quot;degradablequot; are no better for the environment than conventional plastics and could even result in negative impacts on soil and wildlife, according to a major new government-backed study. The year long research programme from Loughborough University assessed the environmental impact of oxo-degradable plastics, which are widely used to make plastic bags and packaging that is frequently presented as being quot;degradablequot; by retailers. They work by ... |
Cyprus conflict closes leaders' eyes to water shortage (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 10:00:39
| BBC: The war I'm interested in is the water war - not an armed conflict, but a struggle nonetheless, between people and a rapidly disappearing resource. The alarming thing, for those working to ease this new conflict, is that Cypriots don't even seem to realise that hostilities between them and nature have begun. Charalampos Theopemptou is the Greek Cypriot side's Environment Commissioner, and it was he who told me the story about the old man in the classroom. He explains its ... |
EU to exceed 2020 green energy target: forecasts (View Original Story)
Source: climateark.org Posted: 03-11-2010 at 10:00:39
| Reuters: New forecasts suggest the European Union will exceed its target of getting 20 percent of its energy from renewable sources in 2020, the European Commission said Thursday. The latest national projections submitted by governments to the EU executive suggest the 27-nation bloc could reach an overall renewable share of 20.3 percent by the end of the decade. quot;These forecasts show that member states take renewable energy very seriously and are really dedicated to pushing their ... |
|
|
| Site Stats |
Registered Users: 192
Topics: 4496
Posts: 24926
News Stories: 227088
|
|
