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Russia: 'Siberian forest fires due to climate change' (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 08-02-2007 at 12:00:37
| Telegraph (UK): Devastating forest fires in Siberia that send a pall of smoke worldwide are happening more frequently because of climate change and in turn accelerating the pace of global warming, scientists claim. In Central Siberia alone fires destroyed 15,000 square miles in 2003, triggering plumes which were linked with air pollution measured as far away as America. The forest fires send as much greenhouse gas into the atmosphere as the total EU reduction commitment under the Kyoto ... |
`Asian Brown Cloud' threatens Himalayas, report says (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 08-02-2007 at 12:00:37
| Agence France-Presse: The haze of pollution that blankets southern Asia is accelerating the loss of Himalayan glaciers, bequeathing an incalculable bill to China, India and other countries whose rivers flow from this source, scientists warned yesterday. In a study released by the British journal Nature, the investigators said the so-called Asian Brown Cloud is as much to blame as greenhouse gases for the warming observed in the Himalayas over the past half century. Rapid melting among the 46,000 ... |
Clean Electricity Key to Greenhouse Cuts - Australia (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 08-02-2007 at 12:00:37
| Reuters: The world's electricity must be generated from zero or near zero-emission power plants by 2050 if a 50 percent cut in global greenhouse gas emissions is to be achieved by mid-century, Australia's Environment Minister said on Wednesday. Australia, a long-standing critic of the Kyoto Protocol and heavily reliant on traditional coal-fired power, says clean-coal technology, most notably carbon sequestration or burying carbon underground, is the key to achieving such a goal. ... |
United Kingdom: Heathrow seeks blanket ban on green protest (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 08-02-2007 at 12:00:37
| Telegraph (UK): Heathrow yesterday asked the High Court to ban a group of middle-class climate change protesters from its land and motorways leading to the airport. BAA is also seeking to prevent disruptive protesters from using Tube and rail services to the airport and has been accused of seeking "the mother of all injunctions". The injunction would see parts of the M4 and M25 declared a no-go area for those looking to interfere with the airport and passengers. BAA has ... |
US Senator takes aim at illegal logging in Asia (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 08-02-2007 at 12:00:37
| Agence France-Presse: Former US Democratic presidential candidate Senator John Kerry yesterday unveiled a landmark assault on illegal logging in parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America. The proposed law, hailed by environmental groups as the most significant such measure in the world, would ban the import and sale in the United States of illegally harvested timber and carry fines of up to 10,000 dollars. "Illegal logging is a criminal activity that is damaging our environment, destroying ... |
China Needs Stronger Green Tightening - Think-Tank (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 08-02-2007 at 12:00:37
| Reuters: China needs to redouble its efforts to curb wasteful investment and clean up its environment as a way to cool down the sizzling economy, according to a report by a government think-tank published on Wednesday. Environmental protection is becoming an important lever for the government to slow breakneck economic growth, especially in sectors that cause serious pollution. The State Information Centre, under the wing of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), ... |
New EU states seek court ruling allowing them to emit more CO2 (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 08-02-2007 at 12:00:38
| Independent (UK): An east-west split over the environment has opened up in the European Union, with six of the new member states now turning to the courts to challenge a cornerstone of the EU's climate-change strategy. Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Estonia and Latvia have all started legal action in the European Court to try to increase their permits to emit CO2 under the European emissions trading scheme. The former communist countries argue that capping their emissions will ... |
Nothing to Hear Here, UK Wind Turbine Study Shows (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 08-02-2007 at 12:00:38
| Reuters: Most British wind turbines do not make much noise as they spin around making electricity and people who complain about them should not be losing sleep, according to a study published on Wednesday. Some people living near wind farms complain they are kept awake by a phenomenon known as aerodynamic modulation (AM), low frequency noise made as the blades swoosh through the night air. A government-commissioned study by Salford University found the phenomenon -- sometimes ... |
Workshops focus on climate change reef impact (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 08-02-2007 at 12:00:38
| Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Coral reef managers and conservation practitioners from Australia and South-East Asia have gathered in central Queensland to discuss the effect of climate change on reefs. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority workshops will be focusing on what managers can do to protect the reef from further damage from rising water temperatures. The acting director of the climate change program, Dr Paul Marshall, says climate change is having huge impact on reefs around the ... |
Asia's biggest security forum to address nuclear threats, climate change (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 08-02-2007 at 12:00:38
| Associated Press: Asia opened its biggest security forum on Thursday with calls for greater cooperation in battling climate change, energy shortages and nuclear threats. The ASEAN Regional Forum brings together the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and officials from 27 other countries, including China, Australia, Japan, EU, Russia and the two Koreas. In preliminary meetings this week, ASEAN foreign ministers focused much of the time on ending North Korea's nuclear weapons ... |
Seas swamp Australian islands (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 08-02-2007 at 12:00:39
| Courier-Mail: GLOBAL warming is not just a theory in Torres Strait – it is lapping at people's doorsteps. The phenomenon is a visible reality as rising sea levels threaten to erase centuries-old island communities. Roads have been swallowed whole, buildings washed out, graveyards swamped and houses flooded in six of the most vulnerable low-lying island communities. Authorities have ordered evacuation and relocation plans for more than 2000 people who face losing their land and ... |
Smog Over Indian Ocean May Contribute to Himalayan Glacier Melt (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 08-02-2007 at 12:00:39
| Bloomberg: A haze of polluted air over the Indian Ocean may contribute more to climate change in the region than previously thought, possibly helping to melt Himalayan glaciers that feed important Asian waterways, researchers say. Aerosol particles in the smog cause as much atmospheric warming as greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, researchers said today in the journal Nature. That probably caused air temperatures to increase in the Himalayan-Hindu-Kush region, where glaciers supply the ... |
U.S. Big Oil, Detroit face growing divide on energy (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 08-02-2007 at 12:00:39
| Reuters: The soaring popularity of ethanol fuel threatens to drive a wedge between U.S. Big Oil and Detroit automakers, two long-time allies who are both scrambling to dodge punitive proposals sought by Democrats in Congress. Oil companies like ExxonMobil Corp. (XOM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and automakers like General Motors Corp. (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) for decades shared mutual interests. Detroit made the cars, and oil companies blended the gasoline to fuel them. Both opposed ... |
Africa cannot turn a blind eye to climate change (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 08-02-2007 at 12:00:39
| SciDev.Net: African leaders need to stop ignoring climate change and incorporate mitigation and adaptation policies into development, argues Anthony Nyong. African governments need to be more proactive in dealing with the negative consequences of climate change on the continent. Almost every published report on the issue identifies Africa as one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change because of its high dependency on rain-fed agriculture and its low adaptive capacity. ... |
Study says pollution haze over the Indian Ocean contributes to the melting of glaciers (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 08-02-2007 at 09:00:26
| Associated Press: Huge haze clouds over the Indian Ocean contribute as much to atmospheric warming as greenhouse gases and play a significant role in the melting of the Himalayan glaciers, according to a study published Thursday. Scientist Veerabhadran Ramanathan and his colleagues sent unmanned measuring devices into the haze pollution, known as Atmospheric Brown Clouds, over the Indian Ocean in March 2006 near the island of Hanimadhoo. Measuring aerosol concentrations, soot levels and solar ... |
Hot, Dry Conditions Threaten US Midwest Soybeans (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 08-02-2007 at 09:00:26
| Reuters: Hot and dry weather around the US Midwest was threatening the soybean crop during its key pod-setting stage of development, agronomists said. The crop was in pretty good shape as it began the pod-setting stage, which determines how big the crop will be at harvest, but persistent dry conditions could cut into total production. "Despite (farmers) planting late, they (soybeans) have recovered OK," said Palle Pedersen, extension agronomist for soybeans at Iowa State ... |
New spotlight on climate change in Africa (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 08-02-2007 at 09:00:26
| Innovations Report: Africa has contributed less than any other part of the world to global warming, but is most vulnerable to the consequences. The effects of climate change are already evident on the ground, and the continent's policymakers can no longer afford to ignore it. SciDev.Net's latest 'spotlight' on climate change in sub-Saharan Africa brings you an overview of the key issues faced by the continent in adjusting to a warming climate: www.scidev.net/climate_africa Key stakeholders ... |
Asian Brown Clouds Intensify Global Warming (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 08-02-2007 at 09:00:27
| Environment News Service: Brown clouds of pollution over South Asia have multiplied solar heating of the lower atmosphere by 50 percent, finds new research by scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California-San Diego. The combined heating effect of greenhouse gases and the brown clouds is necessary and sufficient to account for the retreat of Himalayan glaciers observed over the past 50 years, the researchers conclude. Led by Scripps atmospheric chemistry professor ... |
Local campaigns are building transnational movements, but global citizenship remains a challenge (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 08-02-2007 at 12:00:23
| EurekAlert: The Internet and other communications technology are helping to speed up international mobilisation to causes and campaigns and are contributing to changes in governance structures. A new booklet entitled From local to global, published today by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), examines the implications for civil society organisations and other activists. It was produced following the fifth in a series of special seminars entitled 'Engaging Citizens', organised by the ... |
The Power in the Carbon Tax (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 08-02-2007 at 12:00:23
| Washington Post: Successful laws to protect the environment are built on simple concepts. They discourage harmful behavior -- the dumping of sewage or industrial waste into bodies of water, the destruction of habitat, the emission of toxic chemicals -- by a variety of measures, all of which raise the cost of engaging in certain behavior. You can't develop land, and profit, if you're endangering a threatened animal. You have to dispose of chemical substances responsibly. And so on. Good environmental ... |
United Kingdom: BAA denies seeking blanket ban on airport protest (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 08-02-2007 at 12:00:23
| Guardian: BAA backtracked yesterday from trying to get one of the widest-ranging injunctions ever sought in Britain and denied it was trying to stop 5 million members of the National Trust and other groups going to Heathrow to demonstrate against climate change. But BAA, which owns the airport, said it still wanted to ban the Camp for Climate Action, planned for August 14 to 21, because it was intended to disrupt the airport with direct action. BAA said in the high court that it was ... |
Flooded China warns of heat, drought - and snow? (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 08-02-2007 at 12:00:23
| Reuters: China, where more than 700 people have been killed in floods so far this summer, has now warned of the dangers of heatstroke and drought and said lightning killed a record 141 people last month. And a bizarre report in the national English-language China Daily on Thursday said the high temperatures increased the chances of sleet and snow. The heatstroke warning from the Central Meteorological Station and the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention said people in the ... |
Oregon Environmentalist Radical Sentenced to Four-Plus Years in Prison for Arson (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 08-02-2007 at 12:00:24
| Associated Press: A federal judge on Wednesday sentenced the last of 10 radical environmentalists convicted of arson to just over four years in prison for his role in burning down a horse slaughterhouse in central Oregon. U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken stuck to her initial sentence of 51 months for Jonathan Paul after a two-month delay to hear arguments for a lesser term. Aiken dismissed the arguments from Paul's attorney, Marc Blackman. She also told Paul and his attorney that they, like the ... |
The mirage of nuclear power: We've heard all this before (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 08-02-2007 at 12:00:24
| LA Times: In the last two weeks, the Chinese signed a deal with Westinghouse to build four nuclear power plants; a U.S. utility joined the French national nuclear juggernaut - with 60 reactors under its belt - to build stations throughout the United States; and the Russians neared the launch of the first of a dozen nuclear power stations that float on water, with sales promised to Morocco and Namibia. Two sworn opponents - environmentalists and President Bush - tout nuclear energy as a panacea ... |
China lightening kills record 141 (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 08-02-2007 at 12:00:24
| BBC: Lightning killed almost 150 people last month across China, the highest number since records began in 2000, a state body has said. According to the China Meteorological Administration (CMA), 141 people died in lightning strikes in July. China's top meteorological official blamed global warming for the extreme seasonal weather. More than 700 people have died in floods in central China, while millions of others have been hit by drought. "Extreme weather has ... |
United Kingdom: High Court confusion over exactly who BAA wants to ban from protesting at Heathrow (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 08-02-2007 at 12:00:24
| Independent (UK): BAA suffered further embarrassment in its attempt to block a climate change demonstration at Heathrow, when a High Court judge admitted yesterday to being confused over exactly who the company wanted to ban from travelling to the airport. Amid scenes of near farce at the Royal Courts of Justice, Justice Caroline Swift, asked Timothy Lawson-Cruttenden, the lawyer representing BAA's subsidiary, Heathrow Airport Limited, to clarify the terms of the injunction he was seeking, stating: ... |
Asia's brown clouds 'warm planet' (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 08-02-2007 at 03:00:22
| BBC: Clouds of pollution over the Indian Ocean appear to cause as much warming as greenhouse gases released by human activity, a study has suggested. US researchers used unmanned aircraft to measure the effects of the "brown clouds" on the surrounding area. Writing in Nature, they said the tiny particles increased the solar heating of the lower atmosphere by about 50%. The warming could be enough to explain the retreat of glaciers in the Himalayas, the scientists ... |
US Senators lay out new global warming plan (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 08-02-2007 at 03:00:23
| Agence France-Presse: Two veteran US Senators on Thursday rolled out a market-based proposal which they said would reverse the catastrophic worst-case impact of climate change, but still safeguard the US economy. Senators Joseph Lieberman and John Warner said their plan would focus on 80 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, to cut these by 70 percent below current levels by 2050, and could be used as a blueprint in the fight against global warming. "We hope it will be a turning point," ... |
United Kingdom: Climate change worries for bird (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 08-02-2007 at 03:00:23
| BBC: A rare mountain bird is to be radio tracked following concerns that its numbers are declining because of climate change. Ring ouzels could be struggling because warmer weather is drying out soil making it harder for them to catch earthworms, according to RSPB Scotland. Fledglings in the Cairngorms National Park are to be monitored in a project backed by other organisations. Also known as mountain blackbirds, they winter in Spain and Morocco. Innes Sim, RSPB ... |
China: Emission cuts will let city breathe and avoid acid rain (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 08-02-2007 at 06:00:22
| Shanghai Daily: SHANGHAI announced yesterday it will cut emissions from industry by up to 90 percent over the next three years - a move that will lessen the chance of acid rain developing. It is also a key part of the city's ambition to reduce its overall industrial emissions by 27 percent from 2006 to 2010. This year's reduction target is two percent, double that of last year. Details on the levels of emission reduction were published yesterday on the official Website of the Shanghai ... |
Russia plants flag on sea floor at North Pole (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 08-02-2007 at 06:00:22
| International Herald Tribune: A Russian expedition traveled Thursday in a pair of submersibles more than four kilometers under the ice cap and deposited a Russian flag on the seabed at the North Pole, making a symbolic claim to vast fields of oil and natural gas believed to be beneath the sea north of the Arctic Circle. The expedition, covered intensely by Russian news organizations and state-controlled television, mixed high-seas adventure with the Russian tradition of polar exploration, but it was also an openly ... |
Math used in new climate change assessment (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 08-02-2007 at 06:00:23
| United Press International: A team of U.S. scientists has used mathematics to assess the effect of natural solar variation on climate change. Charles Camp and Ka Kit Tung of the University of Washington's department of applied mathematics said that to accurately assess effects from human sources on the planet's climate, scientists must first be able to quantify the contribution of natural variation in solar irradiance to temperature changes. Camp and Tung said that while the existence of a long-term ... |
Business Books: Clean Tech Becomes Big Business (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 08-02-2007 at 09:00:32
| Reuters: Clean technology is evolving from an environmental issue to big business, opening a world of opportunities for companies, entrepreneurs and investors who see a chance to -- yes -- clean up, says a new book. "Clean technology is everywhere," write Ron Pernick and Clint Wilder in "The Clean Tech Revolution: The Next Big Growth and Investment Opportunity" (Collins, US$26.95). They describe clean tech as "any product, service, or process that delivers value using limited or zero ... |
Food, water and oil - the hidden link (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 08-02-2007 at 09:00:32
| Science Alert: Since World War II, agricultural research and development has dramatically increased crop productivity, which along with an increase in the areas under irrigation and cultivation, has allowed us to feed an ever increasing global population. Unfortunately, regional conflicts and droughts still cause famine, and poverty is largely responsible for 850 million people still suffering malnourishment. If we could overcome economic inequity, corruption and food distribution issues, we would be able ... |
United Kingdom: Judges should enforce climate bill targets, say MPs (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 08-02-2007 at 09:00:32
| Guardian: Judges should have the power to compel the prime minister to set out the remedial measures his government will take if it fails to hit targets to reduce carbon emissions, a cross-party committee of MPs and peers has recommended. A bill due to be introduced in the next parliament places a legal duty on the environment secretary to reduce carbon emissions by 60% by 2050. The bill sets out a series of milestones, including five yearly "carbon budgets" setting out the projected ... |
Russia claims North Pole (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 08-02-2007 at 09:00:32
| Independent (UK): Russia has taken a giant leap for the Kremlin by planting its flag on the ocean floor under the North Pole in a politically charged symbolic gesture to claim the rights to the sea bed which could be rich in oil and gas. In a dramatic technical feat testing international law, the Russians dispatched two mini-submarines 2.5 miles to the ocean floor in what is believed to be the first expedition of its kind. Both submersibles, with crews of three on board, completed their ... |
Ivory Coast Seeks to Adapt Crops to Climate Change (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 08-02-2007 at 09:00:32
| Reuters: World top cocoa grower Ivory Coast is researching ways to maintain output from the wide range of crops it produces amid rainfall levels it says are decreasing due to climate change, state researchers said on Thursday. Farmers in Daloa in the centre-west of Ivory Coast said drought-like conditions, which lasted for months earlier this year and killed younger cocoa plants, were the worst in living memory. Rains have been good in the cocoa zones since late March when the ... |
Climate change contributes to forest fires (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 08-02-2007 at 09:00:32
| United Press International: A British-led team of scientists has determined global warming is influencing forest fires around the world, increasing the frequency of such events. "Last century a typical forest in Siberia had about 100 years after a fire to recover before it burned again," said study leader Professor Heiko Balzter of the University of Leicester. "But new observations ... have shown that fire now returns more frequently, about every 65 years. At the same time annual temperatures in ... |
General Assembly needs extra day for first climate change meeting because worried nations wanted to speak (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 08-02-2007 at 09:00:33
| Associated Press: The first-ever U.N. General Assembly meeting devoted exclusively to climate change needed an extra day on Thursday to hear speakers from nations worried about the impact of global warming and impatient for international action. Calling climate change "the most pressing and important international issue of our time," Britain's U.N. Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry said "the world is actually motivated on the issue in a way it wasn't" in January – "and the political ... |
An incomplete energy bill (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 08-02-2007 at 09:00:33
| International Herald Tribune: The House will begin debating Friday on an energy bill that would increase energy efficiency, encourage more responsible oil and gas development on public lands and stimulate investment in cleaner fuels. Yet the bill is incomplete. If it truly hopes to address the problems of global warming and energy independence, three vital issues need to be addressed. The first is fuel economy. The House bill does not now require stronger fuel economy standards - a critical part of any energy ... |
EU: July fires among worst on record (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 08-02-2007 at 09:00:33
| Associated Press: The forest fires that ravaged southern Europe last month, fed by dry conditions that turned woods into tinder, were some of the worst on record, the European Commission said Thursday. Some 2,100 square miles of forest have burned already this year, close to the 2,230 square miles consumed all of last year, the EU executive said, quoting provisional figures from its European forest fire information system. "It shows that July 2007 was one of the worst months on record and ... |
Senators map new plan for climate bill (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 08-02-2007 at 09:00:34
| Associated Press: Senators are lining up behind a carbon trading plan to slow global warming, with the aim of cutting 70 percent of U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by 2050. Sens. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and John Warner, R-Va., outlined a plan Thursday to create a federal Climate Change Credit Corp. to auction pollution credits among electric utilities, transportation and other industries. A new government board could give more credits to companies suffering too much ... |
Western North American group works on carbon goals (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 08-02-2007 at 09:00:34
| Reuters: Western U.S. states and Canadian provinces eyeing a joint carbon trading market are hoping to resolve differences over issues such as how emissions are calculated. Representatives of the six U.S. states and two Canadian provinces in the Western Climate Initiative began three days of meetings in Vancouver on Thursday. Two provinces and two states that are thinking of joining the group are also expected to attend. British Columbia Environment Minister Barry Penner hopes the ... |
Money men key to carbon trade (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 08-02-2007 at 09:00:35
| Australian: AUSTRALIA is trying to use the meeting of APEC finance ministers to win support from developing nations for a market approach to reducing greenhouse emissions. Although finance ministers do not carry portfolio responsibility for global warming, they can influence the approach that is taken to tackle it, with Treasury having had extensive involvement in the Howard Government's climate change strategy. Peter Costello said the APEC forum was unique in bringing together finance ... |
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