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Of Two Minds on Polar Bears (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 01-02-2008 at 06:00:36
| New York Times: Two agencies in the Department of the Interior are nearing significant yet contradictory decisions that will affect the fate of one of America's iconic animal species, the polar bear. As early as this week , the Fish and Wildlife Service could list the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, the result of severe habitat loss caused by global warming and the melting of Arctic sea ice. About the same time, the Minerals Management Service will announce its final ... |
Report Finds Deforestation Offers Very Little Money Compared To Potential Financial Benefits (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 01-02-2008 at 06:00:36
| Science Daily: Deforestation in tropical countries is often driven by the perverse economic reality that forests are worth more dead than alive. But a new study by an international consortium of researchers has found that the emerging market for carbon credits has the potential to radically alter that equation. The study, which was released this week at UNFCC Conference of Parties (COP-13) in Bali, compared the financial gains generated by deforestation over the last 10 to 20 years in areas of ... |
'Clean coal' is still coal (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 01-02-2008 at 06:00:36
| Herald-Tribune: Several Democratic and Republican presidential front-runners are touting "clean coal" technology as part of the solution to the nation's energy woes. Congress and President Bush have devoted funding to research and develop the effort. And coal companies, of course, are all for the concept. But some electric utilities appear to be losing enthusiasm for the idea because of uncertainty about costs, regulatory requirements and the reliability of a key part of the ... |
United States: Experts worry dry conditions threaten S.C. ecosystem (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 01-02-2008 at 06:00:36
| State: Three of the 11 driest years in 129 years of record-keeping in Columbia have come in the past eight years. Throughout South Carolina, only one year in the past nine has been remarkably wetter than normal. Now, scientists are wondering if the frequent long droughts and infrequent floods of the past decade could change the natural landscape in the state. "I worry about all species," said University of South Carolina naturalist Rudy Mancke. "The drought affects one or two ... |
Australia: Global warming could see corals migrate, expert says (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 01-02-2008 at 06:00:36
| Deutsche Presse-Agentur: Global warming could send Australia's corals migrating south to where the waters are cooler, scientists said Wednesday. Researcher John Pandolfi looked at the fossil record and found evidence that coral reefs shifted south along Australia's west coast during a warm spell 125,000 years ago. "Back then there used to be rich coral reefs dotted all along the West Australia coastline, from south of Perth to north of Dampier," Pandolfi said in a statement. "When the seas ... |
India: Govt to provide subsidy for solar power plants (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 01-02-2008 at 06:00:37
| Reuters: India will subsidise the running of solar power plants to help develop a renewable energy infrastructure, where high costs can be prohibitive, the minister for renewable energy said on Wednesday. Renewable energy accounts for about 7.5 percent of India's installed generation capacity of 127,673 MW, a rate that compares favourably with much of the rest of the world. Much of this capacity is wind-based, and the share of solar power is small. "My ministry will provide ... |
Time to get serious in the global fight against climate change (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 01-02-2008 at 06:00:37
| Jakarta Post: Global attention to climate change issues, including in Indonesia, hit a new high in 2007 after leading climate scientists bombarded the public with a string of reports describing the evidence for human-induced climate change as "unequivocal". The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) -- the United Nation's global body for assessing scientific knowledge of climate change -- issued four reports regarding the issue and its impacts during 2007. The first ... |
Canada's climate change boomtown (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 01-02-2008 at 06:00:37
| BBC: "The next economic boom is going to happen in northern Canada and Churchill's going to be a part of that." So says Mike Spence, a part Cree Indian and part Orcadian Scot who is mayor of the tiny Canadian settlement of Churchill on Hudson Bay. When I first arrived in the sub-Arctic town in early October, I found his claim hard to believe. No one was on the streets as I wandered alongside a freight train which had just arrived from Winnipeg, 1000km (600 miles) ... |
Climate change debate ignites in QLD (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 01-02-2008 at 06:00:37
| Australian Broadcasting Corporation: As landholders in northern Queensland continue to watch a monsoon trough in the Gulf of Carpentaria, debate is raging over whether the state's climate is changing. There are hopes the trough, and another low off the east coast, will bring some good summer rain. Most of the state had below average totals in 2007, with Toowoomba, in the south, recording its lowest tally since 1919. In other places though, rain has been above average, with Longreach seeing a 32 per cent ... |
Global Warming Insurance Policy Is Worth Premium (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 01-02-2008 at 06:00:37
| Bloomberg: A decade after the U.S. Senate voted 95-0 to discourage the Clinton administration from signing the Kyoto agreement without dramatic commitments from India and China, it is worth asking how much the political climate for climate change has improved. Beyond Al Gore's Nobel Prize, there are some positive signs. Today, far more Republicans, such as Senators John McCain and John Warner, advocate some form of capping and trading of carbon emissions. Republican Governor Arnold ... |
Orangutan Plan To Curb Carbon Emissions (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 01-02-2008 at 12:00:37
| Science Daily: Indonesia's new 10 year action plan for conserving orangutans will have important benefits in mitigating climate change, according to WWF . These benefits were underlined by the launch of The Orangutan Conservation Strategy and Action Plan (2007 – 2017) during the Bali Climate Change Conference. Deforestation, for timber, pulp and palm oil plantations, have pushed Indonesia into the status of being a major carbon emitter, while threatening globally significant wildlife ... |
In US, Al Gore has more company on climate change now (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 01-02-2008 at 03:00:36
| Christian Science Monitor: Global climate change promises to be as big an issue in 2008, politically, as it was last year. In the United States, presidential and congressional elections are likely to be a major factor in this accelerating interest. That's particularly true since the issue is closely related to energy policy, not to mention the instability in Iraq, an oil-rich part of the world. The debate in Congress has shifted from what is causing rising global temperatures to the strategies for fighting it. ... |
California sues government for rejecting bid to curb emissions (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 01-02-2008 at 03:00:36
| LA Times: California and 15 other states filed suit against the federal government today for denying them the right to restrict carbon dioxide emissions from cars and trucks, a major cause of global warming. The lawsuit, filed in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, challenges the Environmental Protection Agency's Dec. 19 decision to deny California a waiver to pass its own tailpipe rules, which is permitted under the 1970 Clean Air Act. When it comes to air pollution, the act allows states to ... |
Investment in clean energy topped $100 billion for first time in 2007 (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 01-02-2008 at 03:00:36
| International Herald Tribune: Despite the global credit crunch in 2007, new investment in clean energy industries like wind and solar power rose sharply to break through the $100 billion barrier for the first time, a research group, New Energy Finance, said Wednesday. Michael Liebreich, chief executive of the group, which is based in London, said investments had risen 35 percent to reach $117.2 billion in 2007, from $86.5 billion the year before. The sector had performed well because important factors that ... |
Shifting heat layers above Arctic to blame for ice crisis: study (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 01-02-2008 at 03:00:36
| Agence France-Presse: The dramatic loss of the Arctic ice cap may have been triggered by disruption to the thermal layers of atmosphere stacked over Earth's far north, according to Swedish research to be published Thursday. The study, published in Nature, offers a new explanation for the rise in the Arctic's surface temperature, which over the past century has been nearly two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit), or twice the global average. Until now, the big suspect in "Arctic amplification" ... |
Calif. Sues EPA Over Greenhouse Gas Regs (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 01-02-2008 at 03:00:36
| Associated Press: California sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Wednesday for denying its first-in-the-nation greenhouse gas limits on cars, trucks and SUVs, challenging the Bush administration's conclusion that states have no business setting emission standards. Other states are expected to join the lawsuit, which was anticipated after the EPA on Dec. 19 denied California's request for a waiver, required under the federal Clean Air Act. The lawsuit was filed in the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court ... |
Global warming and hot air (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 01-02-2008 at 03:00:37
| Guardian: Republican candidates for president are straddling the fence on global warming, to rather clumsy effect. The only reason their awkward manoeuvres haven't brought them more grief is that nobody seems to be watching. The media shows no interest in pushing them on the issue, and they don't get asked about it in forums or debates - except for that debate in Iowa where Fred Thompson so courageously refused to raise his hand. (You gotta respect a guy who can make laziness a virtue.) Most of ... |
Global Warming May Reduce Carbon Sink Capacity In Northern Forests (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 01-02-2008 at 03:00:37
| Science Daily: An international study investigating the carbon sink capacity of northern terrestrial ecosystems discovered that the duration of the net carbon uptake period (CUP) has on average decreased due to warmer autumn temperatures. Net carbon uptake of northern ecosystems is decreasing in response to autumnal warming according to findings recently published January 3rd, in the journal Nature. The carbon balance of terrestrial ecosystems is particularly sensitive to climatic changes in autumn ... |
Vestas Announces Seventh Turbine Order in Two Weeks (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 01-02-2008 at 03:00:38
| Bloomberg: Vestas Wind Systems A/S, the world's biggest wind-turbine maker, will deliver 33 turbines to a wind farm in Kansas, its seventh order in the last two weeks. The V90-3 megawatt units were sold to RES Americas Inc., a unit of the U.K.'s Renewable Energy Systems Ltd., Vestas said in a statement today. The company will also deliver 27 V52-850 kilowatt wind turbines to Alerion Industries SpA for an Italian project, it said in a Dec. 28 statement on its Web site. Randers, ... |
Washington joins California lawsuit over car emission regulation (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 01-02-2008 at 03:00:38
| Associated Press: Washington is among 15 states joining California in a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency over greenhouse gas regulations. Washington wants to follow California in setting tougher restrictions on car emissions. But the federal agency said last month that states should follow a national policy and not set separate standards. Gov. Gregoire says Washington has a responsibility to challenge what she calls an " ill-conceived" decision by the Bush ... |
Warming seas threaten salmon in nation's rivers (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 01-02-2008 at 05:00:34
| Yomiuri Shimbun: Salmon may disappear from the nation's rivers by the end of this century if sea temperatures continue to rise as a result of global warming, according to researchers. The projection was made by a team of researchers headed by Prof. Masahide Kaeriyama and Prof. Michio Kishi of Hokkaido University. A separate study showed that the number of salmon returning to their native rivers has been declining on the eastern Korean Peninsula, which is located on about the same latitude as ... |
Australia: Drought relief to be tightened (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 01-02-2008 at 05:00:34
| Australian: DROUGHT-RELIEF payments to farmers will be revamped by the Rudd Government amid concerns taxpayers are supporting farms that will never be viable because of climate change. The Government plans to pay incentives to farmers on unviable land if they are prepared to modify their farming practices to regain long-term viability in a move that would reduce the drain on the public purse involved in subsidising marginal properties. And it will back the planned $75 million in research ... |
Australia: Four states swelter in year of extremes (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 01-02-2008 at 05:00:34
| Australian: LAST year will go down as the warmest on record for South Australia, Victoria, NSW and possibly Tasmania - but the year was also one of extremes. According to the World Meteorological Organisation, the February temperatures in Western Australia were more than 5C hotter than average. But Australia had its coldest June on record, with temperatures 1.5C below the average. As the Bureau of Meteorology prepared to release its annual weather review today, Don White from Weatherwatch ... |
Power firms to pocket £6bn from carbon 'handouts' in new emissions regime (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 01-02-2008 at 05:00:35
| Independent: The UK's biggest polluters will reap a windfall of at least £6bn from rising power prices and the soaring value of carbon under the new European carbon trading scheme that critics say fails to correct the flaws of the system it replaced. From yesterday, the second phase of the European Trading Scheme (ETS) took effect. Analysts have predicted that the price of carbon for 2008, already trading at about ¿22 per ton, could nearly double under the new regime, which sets much lower ... |
Scientists: We've Entered a New Epoch, the Anthropocene (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 01-02-2008 at 05:00:35
| ABC News: We humans are having such a dramatic impact on our planet that some leading scientists think the current era needs a new name. We're no longer in the Holocene epoch, they say. We're now well into what they are calling the Anthropocene. This planet is being changed by human activities in ways that will continue to alter Earth for millions of years. The most obvious example is global climate change precipitated by the release of greenhouse gases from fossil fuels, but there are many ... |
Cheney Repeatedly Met With Auto Execs Before White House Killed California's Emissions Law (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 01-02-2008 at 05:00:35
| Coastal Post: Before EPA administrator Stephen L. Johnson "answered the pleas of industry executives" by announcing his "decision to deny California the right to regulate greenhouse gases from vehicles," auto executives directly appealed to Vice President Cheney. EPA staffers told the LA Times that Johnson "made his decision" only after Cheney met with the executives. On multiple occasions in October and November, Cheney and White House staff members met with industry ... |
Clean energy investment up one third in 07 -report (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 01-02-2008 at 05:00:35
| Reuters: Investment in clean energy worldwide rose by a third last year to $117 billion, boosted by widespread concerns over global warming, researchers New Energy Finance said on Wednesday. Government measures to combat climate change and support clean energy sources such as wind, biofuels and solar have drawn investment funding into the sector, helping it weather a wider credit crunch which has strained markets and threatened lending elsewhere. The amount of new money invested in ... |
Concern growing over Great Lake water levels (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 01-02-2008 at 05:00:35
| Owen Sound Sun Times: Concern continues to grow over the local effects of declining water levels in the Great Lakes. In his inaugural address, Bruce County Warden Milt McIver promised to make water levels a priority during his term of office. He wants the county to be involved in discussions on Great Lakes water levels, which are beginning to impact several Bruce County municipalities. "It's having a huge impact for all of us but especially those of us on the lakefront. We see lake levels ... |
India's population will harm the country and the planet - III (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 01-02-2008 at 05:00:36
| Merinews: APART FORM the list of four reasons discussed in the previous article as to why a burgeoning population does not make economic and environmental sense, there are some other important factors: 5. Health: Quoting from a Wikipedia article on Healthcare in India, "In the mid-1990s, health spending of India amounted to 6 per cent of GDP, one of the highest levels among developing nations. Healthcare facilities and personnel increased substantially between the early 1950s ... |
Japan to buy China rights on emissions (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 01-02-2008 at 05:00:36
| Yomiuri Shimbun: The Japanese and Chinese governments reached a basic agreement Wednesday under which the Japanese government and domestic firms would purchase a portion of China's greenhouse gas emissions quotas that fall under reductions achieved by the country through Japanese yen-loan projects, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned. The two nations will seek formal agreement on the matter during Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to Japan, scheduled for late March. The move is seen as a major boost ... |
2007 Was One of the 10 Warmest Years, Met Office Says (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 01-02-2008 at 05:00:36
| Bloomberg: 2007 was one of the 10 warmest years ever, based on global recorded temperatures, according to the Met Office, the U.K. weather forecaster. Last year ``was certainly a top-10 year,'' Barry Gromett, a Met Office spokesman, said today by telephone. ``It was maybe the seventh-warmest year'' based on preliminary figures, since estimates began around 1850, Gromett said. The Met Office said in June that 2007 may be the world's warmest year. The National Oceanic Atmospheric ... |
German Dirty Car Ban Fails to Please Greens, Drivers (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 01-02-2008 at 05:00:37
| Bloomberg: Environmental activists patrolled the streets of Berlin and other German cities today to monitor a car badge system meant to curb pollution, a step green lobbies say doesn't go far enough and motoring groups condemn as unfair. As many as 100 people manned unofficial checkpoints in the German capital, Cologne and Hanover to monitor compliance with new regulations, which require vehicles to carry a badge certifying their level of exhaust emissions. Volunteers handed out chocolates to ... |
India to set up solar power plants (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 01-02-2008 at 05:00:37
| United Press International: India has decided to launch a program to support setting up grid-connected solar power generation plants. "The ministry has decided to launch a demonstration program to support setting up of megawatt capacity grid-connected solar power generation plants in the country," Minister for New and Renewable Energy Vilas Muttemwar told a news conference Wednesday. He said the move is aimed at developing and demonstrating technical performance of megawatt-sized grid ... |
Parched Australia Hoping for Wet New Year (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 01-02-2008 at 05:00:37
| Voice of America: There is cautious hope that Australia's long drought is about to break. The La Nina weather pattern has drenched parts of the arid continent in recent months. Sydney had its wettest November in more than a decade, up the coast in Queensland tropical storms have provided relief to hard-pressed farmers. From Sydney, Phil Mercer reports. The grey skies over much of eastern Australia in recent weeks have been welcome. For the past several years, the country has been gripped by the worst ... |
UK seen giving green light to new nuclear plants (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 01-02-2008 at 05:00:37
| Reuters: Britain is expected to give the go-ahead to a new generation of nuclear power stations next week, sparking a frenzy of deal-making by nuclear firms as well as a fresh challenge from environmental campaigners. "I don't think the government has any other option," said analyst David Cunningham at Arbuthnot Securities. "It's a necessary evil." Nuclear operators say they could have new plants running by 2017, helping Britain to meet its 2020 goals for combating ... |
Italy: Milan's Pollution Charge Gets Off to Smooth Start (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 01-02-2008 at 06:00:37
| Reuters: The Italian city of Milan introduced a "pollution charge" for drivers on Wednesday in an effort to cut smog levels, with light traffic ensuring the system suffered only a few teething troubles. Several motorists complained about a scarcity of outlets selling the pass that allows entrance to the centre of the Italian financial capital and the council Web site allowing online payment collapsed on the eve of the launch. Under the innovative "EcoPass" system ... |
Beijing Introduces Cleaner Fuel Standards (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 01-02-2008 at 06:00:37
| Reuters: China has introduced cleaner fuel standards in its capital Beijing, its latest effort to curb the city's notorious pollution ahead of the Olympic Games in August. Under the new standards, retailers will be required to supply gasoline and diesel equivalent to the Euro IV standard, a move that will cut emissions of acid rain-causing sulphur dioxide by 1,840 tonnes, the China Daily said on Wednesday, citing Beijing's Environmental Protection Bureau. Earlier reports have said the ... |
Indonesia Flood Death Toll Climbs as Waters Recede (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 01-02-2008 at 06:00:37
| Reuters: At least 112 people have been killed and nine are still missing after landslides and floods hit Indonesia's Java island over the past week, officials said on Wednesday. Some of the 60,000 displaced residents have returned to their homes in parts of Central Java and East Java provinces as floodwaters started to subside. But rescue workers continued their search for several people who may still be buried under thick mud after landslides slammed into their homes following heavy rain ... |
New research suggests longer autumns inhibit carbon uptake in forests (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 01-02-2008 at 06:00:39
| Canadian Press: New research suggests that longer autumns resulting from climate change may be diminishing the role northern forests can play in the fight against global warming. Soil microbes warmed by the summer and fed by falling leaves emit more carbon than the trees absorb through photosynthesis, said Hank Margolis, one of the authors of the paper published Wednesday in the respected journal Nature. "Our thinking is that the microbes gain more from the autumn warming than the tree ... |
United States: Forest protection group closes, turns duties over to new group (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 01-02-2008 at 06:00:40
| Associated Press: A 14-year-old organization dedicated to creating more federally protected wilderness in Vermont while protecting what now exists is closing its door. Forest Watch is handing over its mission to the larger and better-funded Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity, which is opening a regional office in Richmond. One of Forest Watch's recent efforts was to protect 80,000 more acres of wilderness in the Green Mountain National Forest. But Jim Northup of Forest Watch ... |
California sues EPA over tailpipe rules (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 01-02-2008 at 08:00:34
| Associated Press: California sued the federal government Wednesday in its ongoing bid to set the country's first greenhouse gas limits on cars, trucks and SUVs, providing new data to show its program is superior to a federal plan. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court of Appeals asks the federal Environmental Protection Agency to review its own decision last month to deny California a waiver it and 16 other states need to regulate greenhouse gases from new cars and trucks. EPA Administrator ... |
Germany begins ban on polluting cars in city centres (View Original Story)
Source: Posted: 01-02-2008 at 08:00:35
| Agence France-Presse: Three German cities, including the capital Berlin, began implementing a new air pollution system on Tuesday that bans the dirtiest vehicles from their centres. Drivers in Berlin, Cologne and Hanover are now required to display a coloured badge showing the level of pollution caused by their vehicle, with a scale of red, yellow and green. Some vehicles, notably an estimated 1.7 million old diesel cars and vans, will not qualify for even the most polluting red badge and will be ... |
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