|
| News |
ClimatePatrol.com RSS News Archives
Climate Ark
GM Pledges to Make Plug-In Electric Vehicle (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 12-01-2006 at 09:00:25
| Reuters: General Motors Corp. on Wednesday became the first automaker to commit to make a rechargeable hybrid vehicle, a move intended to distance the world's largest automaker from its harmful reputation for producing gas-guzzling trucks. Plug-in hybrid vehicles have the potential to sharply increase fuel efficiency by using advanced batteries to power them over short distances, according to proponents. Environmental activists have long lobbied GM and other leading automakers to ... |
India Monsoons Worsen as Climate Changes - Study (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 12-01-2006 at 09:00:25
| Reuters: India's monsoon rains have intensified over the last half-century as average temperatures have risen, and more severe weather could be in store if global warming continues, scientists reported on Thursday. Heavy rains come more frequently and are more severe now than they were in 1951, the researchers wrote in the journal Science. At the same time, moderate rains -- the kind that are more easily absorbed -- decreased, leaving the mean rainfall record about the same as it was ... |
New Crops Needed to Meet Climate Crisis (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 12-01-2006 at 09:00:25
| Reuters: A group of leading agricultural research institutes will on Monday launch a major drive to prepare the most vulnerable people in the world for the devastating effects of global warming. With large parts of the world facing dramatic crop losses from rising temperatures and changed rainfall patterns, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) says action is needed immediately and at all levels. "Finding disaster scenarios is not hard. Getting ... |
Auto Industry Should Speed Fuel Economy Fixes - Expert (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 12-01-2006 at 09:00:25
| Reuters: While plug-in hybrids and hydrogen fuel cells are likely one day to help cut US gasoline consumption, major fuel savings can be achieved now if automakers put existing technologies to work under one hood. So says Jason Mark, clean vehicles director for the nonpartisan, nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists, who toured the Los Angeles Auto Show on Wednesday pointing to conventional gasoline-fueled cars and trucks that employ some of the fuel-savings ideas. While automakers ... |
Environment Agency Drops Part of Its Plan to Ease Pollution Reporting Rules (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 12-01-2006 at 09:00:25
| Associated Press: The Bush administration, looking at the prospect of stronger oversight from a Democratic-led Congress, is withdrawing a proposal to let big polluters report less often on what they spew from their smokestacks. The administration, however, is going ahead with a plan to make one-third less provide detailed figures at all. The government last year proposed easing air regulations to exempt some companies from having to tell the Environmental Protection Agency about what it ... |
U.S. Opposes European Global Warming Cuts Scheme for Airliners (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 12-01-2006 at 09:00:25
| Associated Press: The Bush administration opposes European plans to require airlines to curb greenhouse gases on grounds it would unfairly disadvantage U.S. carriers. "We are strongly opposed to the imposition of a tax. We think this will violate trade rules," James Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, told a group of international reporters Thursday. "It's also not a smart way to find your way to efficiency in the aviation (industry)," ... |
UK Transport Plan Gives Green Light To Road Tolls (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 12-01-2006 at 09:00:26
| Reuters: Britain must make motorists pay for using its crammed roads to cut congestion, reduce pollution and stop the country grinding to a halt, a government-sponsored report on transport after 2015 said. The report, to be published on Friday, also said Britain should expand its sea and air ports but ensure the cost of using all transport fully included its impact on the environment to help tackle global warming. The report's author, former British Airways chief Rod Eddington, said ... |
Kazakh Biofuel Pioneer Plans More Plants (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 12-01-2006 at 09:00:26
| Reuters: Biohim Co., the first bioethanol producer in the former Soviet Union, plans to build at least three more plants in Kazakhstan to produce fuel from wheat and other crops, a senior company official said on Thursday. The privately-owned company, which opened a $100 million plant in northern Kazakhstan in August, will decide by mid-2007 where to build its second factory, executive director Yevgeny Sutyaginsky told Reuters. "All our attention is on our current plant. We'll ... |
Malaysia Firm, High on Biofuel, to Start 2nd Unit (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 12-01-2006 at 09:00:26
| Reuters: Malaysian palm oil producer Carotino Sdn Bhd aims to start its second biodiesel plant next year and has sold out the entire output of its first unit up to March, a top company official said on Thursday. High feedstock costs have spurred the company to raise its biodiesel price by $10 a tonne to $730 for April shipments, Executive Director Unni Krishnan Unnithan told Reuters. "We have a fairly good market, and we hope to capitalise on it and maintain this leadership ... |
Railroads, Oilfields Offer US Carbon Reductions (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 12-01-2006 at 09:00:26
| Reuters: Some of the things that make America unique, its vast distances and its aging oil fields, offer ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions unlike those used in other countries, a top US carbon credit developer said. The long distances that goods travel from ports in California to the U.S Midwest and East Coast offer opportunities to make shipping more efficient, reducing emissions scientists have linked to global warming, said Bill Townsend, CEO and founder of Salt Lake City-based Blue ... |
Australia: King coal under siege (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 12-01-2006 at 12:00:24
| Sydney Morning Herald: The executives of Centennial Coal thought they had found the perfect place for their annual meeting, in the bowels of the Menzies Hotel in Carrington Street in Sydney central business district, away from public view and protesters. Australia's largest independent coal company had been attracting media attention because of its proposed giant mine at Anvil Hill, in the Upper Hunter Valley, and executives feared its meeting would be disrupted by environmental activists. Police suggested ... |
China sees tackling climate change as urgent-Stern (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 12-01-2006 at 12:00:24
| Reuters: China's leaders recognise that tackling climate change is urgent and that reducing greenhouse gases does not mean slamming the brakes on growth, the author of an acclaimed report on global warming said on Friday. At a news conference to outline a study he presented to the British government in October, former World Bank chief economist Nicholas Stern disputed the premise of several questions that China was not doing enough to address global warming. "There is a sense of ... |
Exxon's chief urges allowing more drilling (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 12-01-2006 at 12:00:24
| Boston Globe: Exxon Mobil Corp.'s chief executive, making a Boston appearance yesterday, said the best hope for lowering gasoline prices is for federal officials to allow more oil exploration off US coasts and under federal lands and national parks. Rex W. Tillerson, speaking at the Boston College Chief Executives Club at the Boston Harbor Hotel, said: "It really is supply and demand driven. If you want to bring the price down, you've got to increase supply, and access to our own resources ... |
Judge: Ban on forest roads applies to oil exploration (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 12-01-2006 at 12:00:24
| Associated Press: A federal judge ruled that a Clinton-era ban on road construction in national forests applies to hundreds of oil and gas leases sold by the Bush administration. U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Laporte's ruling Wednesday means that holders of more than 300 leases that permit oil and gas exploration in national forests cannot build roads to access those areas. Laporte's order follows her September ruling that reinstated the 2001 "Roadless Rule" that prohibits logging, ... |
Old-growth forests 'are key carbon sinks' (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 12-01-2006 at 12:00:24
| SciDev.Net: Old-growth forest might store far more carbon than previously thought, making their preservation a higher priority in carbon trading and other efforts to tackle global warming. Classified as forests at least 100 years old, old-growth forests are widespread in tropical and subtropical developing countries. Until now, they were not thought to absorb and store significant amounts of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. In a study published in Science this week, however, ... |
Study finds unusual carbon rise in Chinese old-growth forest soil (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 12-01-2006 at 12:00:24
| Associated Press: Researchers have found soils in an old-growth forest in southern China are storing carbon at a rapid rate. If common to the soils of other old-growth forests, the finding could add combating global warming to the reasons for preserving them from logging, some scientists say. The finding from soils in southern China goes against the generally accepted idea that old-growth forests are in balance, giving up as much carbon through decomposition as they take in from falling leaves ... |
United Kingdom: Autumn was warmest on record (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 12-01-2006 at 12:00:24
| Reuters: Britain has experienced its warmest autumn on record, with average temperature across the United Kingdom beating the peak set in 2001, the Met Office said on Friday. "If you look at 2006 as a whole and look at the record-breaking autumn, the record-breaking July and September, the warmest ever May-to-September period -- all of those things support the notion this is climate change beginning to take effect," said a Met Office spokesman. The average temperature across ... |
United Kingdom: Blair seeks climate change 'ingenuity' (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 12-01-2006 at 12:00:24
| ePolitix: Concluding a Friends of the Earth online debate on global warming, the prime minister said there was also a growing determination to take action. "I believe strongly that just as human ingenuity has accidentally caused climate change, so the same ingenuity can help us undo the damage provided, of course, the will is there," he says in an article. "I think here that the balance has shifted dramatically towards action in the last few years. "The UK has ... |
China: Carbon rise found in old forest soil (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 12-01-2006 at 12:00:24
| Associated Press: Researchers have found that soils in an old- growth forest in southern China are storing carbon at a rapid rate. If common to the soils of other old-growth forests, the finding could add combating global warming to the reasons for preserving them from logging, some scientists say. The finding from soils in China goes against the generally accepted idea that old-growth forests are in balance, giving up as much carbon through decomposition as they take in from falling leaves and ... |
Cattle produce more global warming gases than cars (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 12-01-2006 at 12:00:24
| Mongabay.com: Livestock-rearing generates more greenhouse gases than transportation according to a new report from the United Nations (U.N.), which adds that improved production methods could go a long way towards cutting emissions of gases reponsible for global warming. "Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today's most serious environmental problems," said Henning Steinfeld, a senior UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) official and lead author of the report. "Urgent ... |
Ceres Power to show off fuel cell next year (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 12-01-2006 at 12:00:25
| Reuters: Fuel cell developer Ceres Power said it would give investors a long-awaited demonstration of its technology from mid-2007, boosting its shares on Friday. "They've not been prepared to give a time when the working technology will be available for everyone to see and this note is the first time they've nailed a date so it's a milestone we can all focus on," said Impax Asset Management director of investments Bruce Jenkyn-Jones. The environmental energy markets investment fund ... |
Merkel pledges to make climate protection key part of Germany's G-8, EU presidencies (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 12-01-2006 at 12:00:25
| Associated Press: Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday said climate protection would play a "major role" in Germany's upcoming presidencies of the European Union and Group of Eight and appointed two special advisers to help guide policy. Hans Joachim Schnellnhuber, head of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research, and Lars Goeran Josefsson of the energy company Vattenfall will bring the views of both science and industry to the table, Merkel said. "Climate change is one of the ... |
Researchers say climate change has caused worsening monsoons in India (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 12-01-2006 at 12:00:25
| Associated Press: Climate change is partly to blame for worsening monsoons in India, with warmer weather contributing to more frequent and extreme rain events in the country, researchers said Friday. Examining rain data from central India between 1951 to 2000, a team of Indian researchers writing in the December issue of the journal Science found that heavy rains have increased 10 percent each decade while the number of "very heavy events" has more than doubled. Temperatures, ... |
Scientists want to solve puzzle of excess water vapor near cirrus clouds (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 12-01-2006 at 12:00:25
| Innovations Report: A number of researchers in recent years have reported perplexing findings of water vapor at concentrations as much as twice what they should be in and around cirrus clouds high in the atmosphere, a finding that could alter some conclusions about climate change. Now a group of European and U.S. scientists is advocating a broad research effort to solve the puzzle and understand just what is occurring in cirrus clouds, wispy sheets of ice crystals 6 to 10 miles above the Earth's ... |
United Kingdom: Transport plan gives green light to road tolls (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 12-01-2006 at 12:00:25
| Reuters: Motorists must pay to use roads to cut congestion, reduce pollution and stop the road system grinding to a halt, a government-sponsored report on transport after 2015 said on Friday. Britain should also expand its sea ports and airports, and ensure the cost of using all forms of transport fully included the impact on the environment to help tackle global warming. The report's author, former British Airways chief Rod Eddington, said properly targeted and priced road tolls could ... |
United States: Anti-coal groups seek promotion of renewable energy (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 12-01-2006 at 12:00:25
| Capital-Journal: A coalition of environmental groups joined Thursday in pressuring Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to vigorously promote renewable energy sources and impose a moratorium on building coal-fired power plants. "We ask the governor to stop new coal plant construction and take steps to move Kansas forward without endangering the health of Kansans," said Jennifer Byer, of True Blue Women. That group is among five sponsoring a rally 11 a.m. Saturday at the Statehouse to express ... |
Biofuel increasing China's corn imports (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 12-01-2006 at 12:00:25
| Interfax: China may become a net corn importer in a few years partly as a result of robust demand from ethanol production. While it's still unclear when the shift will happen, some analysts already see signs of farmers reacting to the growing demand by shifting to corn and away from other crops like soybeans. "Corn stocks have fallen this year as a result of domestic demand," an official from the Ministry of Commerce, who asked to remain anonymous, recently told state owned Xinhua, ... |
United Kingdom: Cameron climate policy 'too soft' (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 12-01-2006 at 12:00:25
| BBC: David Cameron is being pressed to adopt tougher targets to deal with climate change, the BBC has learned. The Quality of Life group, reviewing Tory environment policy, has said his target of "at least" 60% cut in carbon emissions lacks "credibility". It says the party should instead be calling for carbon cuts of 80% by 2050. The group is also critical of a key part of the Stern Report into the costs of global warming, saying it does not go far ... |
United Kingdom: Carbon emissions to be cut by 15% (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 12-01-2006 at 12:00:25
| Times (UK): The British Government is planning to spend £1 billion replacing 78,000 ministerial and civil service vehicles under a programme to cut costs and reduce carbon emissions from its fleet by 15 per cent. The Government has recruited 15 manufacturers from Europe, Asia and North America to supply cheaper, greener cars over the next four years, The Times has learnt. The cost will be shared by 38 government departments and agencies which have agreed to "green'' their fleets in ... |
Climate expert: Rockies snowpack shrinks at margins (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 12-01-2006 at 12:00:25
| Associated Press: The Rocky Mountains are seeing more rain than snow at the start and end of winter, an indication of global warming, an expert said. Another sign of climate change: The spring snowmelt is starting a week earlier than it did 50 years ago. Both trends could shorten the ski season. The Rockies, however, are expected to handle the changes better than New England, where low-elevation ski areas are more vulnerable to dwindling snowpacks. And Utah and Colorado's ski ... |
CO2 disposal idea holds some promise (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 12-01-2006 at 12:00:25
| Argus: SCIENTISTS are exploring a plan to deal with the human-generated greenhouse gas that is warming the planet. Their idea? Bury it in the Delta. The strategy aims to dispose of the harmful byproducts of coal-burning power plants and other industrial facilities by pumping the liquefied carbon dioxide deep into underground caverns, almost a mile beneath the surface. The experiment, which has yet to be approved, is set to take place in the spring near the town of Thornton and at two ... |
Global warming 'behind India's heavier rainfall' (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 12-01-2006 at 12:00:25
| Yorkshire Post Today: India is being drenched by more intense and frequent monsoon downpours as a result of global warming, say experts. Researchers found extreme monsoon events became more common in central India between 1951 and 2000. Daily rainfall records showed "significant rising trends" both in frequency and magnitude. Climate models predict just such a pattern as the Earth warms, say the scientists. Yet observational evidence of the trend has been scarce. The increase ... |
Let market fight global warming (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 12-01-2006 at 12:00:25
| Baltimore Sun: Maryland Governor-elect Martin O'Malley faces a legislative mandate to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative by next June. New York, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, New Jersey and Delaware are signatories to this initiative. In Massachusetts, Governor-elect Deval Patrick has committed to join RGGI but is interested in improvements. Although there is a wide and growing consensus on the importance of reducing emissions of greenhouse gases to prevent drastic climate ... |
Mixed reaction to road report (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 12-01-2006 at 12:00:26
| Guardian: The transport secretary, Douglas Alexander, welcomed Sir Rod Eddington's "rigorous, evidence-based" report on the future of transport in the UK as a "major contribution" to long-term policy decisions. "The depth and quality of the analysis demands, and will receive, serious consideration. It provides a solid foundation on which to ensure transport supports sustainable economic growth while minimising the impact upon the environment," he said. Mr ... |
New round of carbon trading seeks to introduce scarcity to market (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 12-01-2006 at 12:00:26
| Edie: The ETS works by allocating carbon credits to energy companies and energy-intensive industries. Those which emit less carbon than the set limit can cash in their credits, while those which exceed it need to buy in more. Credits can be bought from within the market or earned through paying for carbon offsetting, generally in the developing world, under schemes accredited by the UN-regulated Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Critics of the system say it failed to have a real ... |
Perth records lowest 11 months of rainfall (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 12-01-2006 at 12:00:26
| Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Perth's rainfall over the past 11 months has been at a record low. The Bureau of Meteorology's Grahame Reader says 462 millimetres of rain fell in the city between January and November, which is almost 46 per cent below the average of 846 millimetres. "It's a very sad state of affairs," he said. The Conservation Council of Western Australia's Chris Tallentire says there is no doubt climate change has become a reality and Perth people should do everything they ... |
United Kingdom: Report calls for road pricing to ease congestion (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 12-01-2006 at 12:00:26
| Guardian: Road pricing schemes could reduce congestion on Britain's roads by 50%, a Treasury-backed report said today. Speaking at the launch of the report, Sir Rod Eddington said charging drivers could reduce carbon emissions and save the economy up to £28bn in time wasted by delays by 2025. The document said "a staggering" 61bn journeys were made in Britain every year, and a 5% reduction in travel time would save an annual £2.5bn. It envisaged a road pricing scheme under which ... |
Road-pricing the 'only answer' to cut UK traffic jams (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 12-01-2006 at 12:00:26
| Times (UK): A Treasury-commissioned report gave a stark warning today that the UK had no choice but to adopt widespread road-pricing as the only practical means to alleviate the growing problem of congestion. The report by Sir Rod Eddington, the former British Airways chief executive, said that road-pricing schemes could cut congestion by half and produce economic benefits worth a total of £28 billion a year by 2025. The alternative was a massive new programme of road-building or a ... |
Scientists set out to prove greenhouse gases can be locked away (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 12-01-2006 at 12:00:26
| Seattle Times: Pete McGrail knelt at the base of a towering basalt cliff, picked up a chunk of rock and tilted it to catch the sunlight. "That's what we're interested in," he said, pointing to a Swiss-cheese network of tiny holes. "That porosity." The cavities are the remnants of gas bubbles trapped in lava that flooded the Pacific Northwest millions of years before humans appeared on Earth. Now, McGrail hopes these rocks will help solve a man-made problem of global ... |
Australia: Scientists focus on shellfish to help research climate change (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 12-01-2006 at 12:00:26
| Australian Broadcasting Corporation: New scientific research is focusing on shellfish in an attempt to unlock the affect of humans on the climate. A PhD student at the Australian National University is using oysters and mussels from Tasmania, Queensland and New South Wales to track changes in salinity and temperature. Sarah Tynan says scientists around the world are starting to do similar work. "I'm hoping to add to the overall picture of climate change," she said. "No-one's really ... |
|
|
| Site Stats |
Registered Users: 150
Topics: 4077
Posts: 20632
News Stories: 147457
Satellite Images: 1099418
|
|
