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		News Archive     06/01/2010 07:00 PM Poland: Footprints show creatures moved from water to land earlier than thought Times (UK): A reappraisal of ancient footprints discovered in Poland suggests that creatures emerged on to land from the sea much earlier than previously thought. The tracks, believed to be the oldest footprints ever discovered, date to 395 million years ago, long before the emergence of dinosaurs. They are likely to have been left by a large crocodile-like creature. Previously the earliest evidence for fully walking four-legged creatures, known as tetrapods, dated to 360 million years ... read more 06/01/2010 07:00 PM Anti-whaling ship's bow sliced off by Japanese Times (UK): A high-tech powerboat piloted by self-styled green "pirates' was run down by a Japanese surveillance ship yesterday in the latest violent collision between the country's whaling fleet and radical environmentalists. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society declared "whale war' on the Japanese fleet after its $2 million (£1.3 million) vessel was seriously damaged in a collision with the whaling ship. The Ady Gil, a unique fibreglass trimaran that holds the world record for the fastest ... read more 06/01/2010 07:00 PM Canada sets April hearings for Mackenzie pipeline Reuters: Canada's National Energy Board said on Wednesday it will start hearing final arguments on the C$16.2 billion ($15.7 billion) Mackenzie gas pipeline on April 12, more than four years after it began the regulatory process for the massive project. The schedule comes a week after the Joint Review Panel, which assessed the Northwest Territories project's socioeconomic and environmental impact, gave conditional support to it. The NEB said it will co-ordinate formal reaction to the ... read more 06/01/2010 07:00 PM Top British firms drag their feet to reduce carbon footprints Guardian: Greenhouse gas targets set by many of Britain's largest companies are too weak to meet UK commitments on climate change, a new analysis shows. A report from the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) says a lack of ambition from companies in the energy, materials and utilities sector threatens government plans to cut emissions by 2020. The CDP report found that 77% of FTSE 100 companies said they have a target to reduce emissions, with an average annual reduction rate of 2.5%. That ... read more 06/01/2010 07:00 PM Another two weeks of the big freeze still to come Independent (UK): Freezing conditions will continue for another two weeks with another major snowfall expected to blanket parts of Britain on Sunday and Monday when up to 20cm is forecast. Yesterday more than 1,500 schools were closed and thousands of hospital operations cancelled as nearly half the workforce stayed at home. Train services were badly hit while fears rose that councils were running out of grit to keep roads open. While Berkshire, Surrey and Hampshire were severely hit with some areas ... read more 06/01/2010 07:00 PM Energy: UK has enough gas for another 65 days Independent (UK): Demand for gas hit an all-time high yesterday during the UK's longest cold snap for more than 20 years. Demand rose to 453 million cubic metres (mcm), smashing the 449mcm record set in January 2003. And it is forecast to climb to 460mcm today. The National Grid insisted that the unprecedented consumption levels will not leave Britain short. "We are absolutely not going to run out of gas," said a spokesman. "The UK is well supplied." The shadow Energy Secretary Greg Clark ... read more 07/01/2010 07:00 PM Kenya green lights wind farm as Spain eyes expanding African renewables market Business Green: The Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) has this week invited tenders for the construction of a 10MW wind farm, following the award of a EUR20m concessional loan from the Spanish government to help finance the project. KenGen, which generates approximately 77 per cent of Kenya's electricity, has been assigned the responsibility of choosing a contractor for the project by the Kenyan energy ministry. An advertisement, published in the local Daily Nation stated: "KenGen ... read more 07/01/2010 07:00 PM Global carbon market expanded 68 per cent in 2009 Business Green: Despite global recession, falling carbon prices and ongoing questions about the effectiveness of carbon trading, credits equivalent to 82bn tonnes of carbon dioxide were traded last year, an increase of 68 per cent. According to research released yesterday by analyst firm Point Carbon, the falling price of carbon meant that the value of the global carbon market rose only marginally from EUR92bn (£82bn) in 2008 to EUR94bn (£84bn) in 2009. However, the market still continued to ... read more 06/01/2010 07:00 PM Smog Standards Need Tightening, Activists Say HealthDay: A coalition of clean air advocacy groups wants the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to propose new standards that would reduce allowable levels of smog-causing ozone. Current standards, which have reduced smog by about 5 percent a year, are still too weak, with some 186 million Americans breathing unhealthy air, according to the American Lung Association. "The upcoming EPA plans to review national clean air standards for ground level ozone may be the single most ... read more 06/01/2010 07:00 PM Cold snap doesn't disprove global warming Associated Press: Beijing had its coldest morning in almost 40 years and its biggest snowfall since 1951. Britain is suffering through its longest cold snap since 1981. And freezing weather is gripping the Deep South, including Florida's orange groves and beaches. Whatever happened to global warming? Such weather doesn't seem to fit with warnings from scientists that the Earth is warming because of greenhouse gases. But experts say the cold snap doesn't disprove global warming at all - it's just ... read more 06/01/2010 07:00 PM After health care, Obama must arm-twist Senate on climate bill Christian Science Monitor: President Obama is making personal pitches with US lawmakers this week to resolve the last sticking points for passage of a final healthcare bill. That may be a model soon for the kind of hands-on persuasion he'll need for his other big legislative goal – a law on climate change. Mr. Obama's persuasive style will be required to convince a dozen or so senators from coal-dependent states who are reluctant to tackle global warming. In two weeks, the Senate is expected to vote on a ... read more 06/01/2010 07:00 PM Carbon trading expands in volume but not in value Associated Press: read more 06/01/2010 07:00 PM Site tracks climate change in Alaska backyards Anchorage Daily News: A new online tool hosted by the University of Alaska Fairbanks lets residents of any Alaska community have a look at projections for local temperature and rainfall under various climate-change scenarios. The SNAP program -- for Scenarios Network for Alaska Planning -- also offers maps with data overlays to community planners. "These new community charts allow people to get in touch with climate change at the local level," said SNAP director Scott Rupp. "It can be hard to digest the big ... read more 06/01/2010 07:00 PM US Biofuels Policies Flawed redOrbit: Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy paper cites economic, environmental and logistical shortcomings The United States needs to fundamentally rethink its policy of promoting ethanol to diversify its energy sources and increase energy security, according to a new policy paper by Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy. The paper, "Fundamentals of a Sustainable U.S. Biofuels Policy," questions the economic, environmental and logistical basis for the ... read more 06/01/2010 07:00 PM Denmark releases four "red carpet" climate activists Reuters: Danish police released four Greenpeace activists on Wednesday who were detained 20 days ago for sneaking into a gala dinner for heads of state to protest against what they deemed failed U.N. climate talks. Three of them, dressed in evening gown and tuxedo, walked up the red carpet on December 17, duped guards and entered Copenhagen's Christiansborg Palace to unfurl banners saying "Politicians Talk, Leaders Act" before dignitaries and TV cameras. The fourth man, who remained ... read more 06/01/2010 07:00 PM Scots power BBC: First Minister Alex Salmond believes Scotland has hit the energy jackpot for the second time. First came North Sea oil. Now, it's Scotland's abundance of wind and water which could prove to be our economic saviour. The big question is: How can Scotland cash in on its good fortune? Wind farms have become a common feature of the Scottish landscape. Indeed, many would argue they are all too common. The power companies themselves admit they are finding it harder and harder ... read more 06/01/2010 07:00 PM Energy use surges as cold shocks northern hemisphere Reuters: Icy conditions have driven a surge in energy demand in heavily populated parts of the northern hemisphere but some countries are enjoying a relatively mild winter, data shows. Severe weather, partly due to the El Nino weather phenomenon, has frozen parts of northwest Europe that usually escape the coldest winter temperatures, driving gas demand to records in Britain [ID:nWLA2033] and straining French power systems. In China there are energy rations. "I think the impression is ... read more 06/01/2010 07:00 PM 'Frozen Gore' sculpture spouting hot air fuels global warming debate in Alaska LA Times: Another two-ton ice sculpture of former Vice President Al Gore is back in front of a Fairbanks liquor store. "Frozen Gore" is a dig at Gore's beliefs about climate change. The first statue went on display last year. This year's version is hooked up to the exhaust of a pickup truck to make it appear Gore is spouting hot air. The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports the smoke drew laughs from a crowd Tuesday as a Gore speech on climate change played over a ... read more 06/01/2010 07:00 PM Copenhagen climate accord avoids legally binding goals Brunswickian: While the Copenhagen Accord, released to the world in December, recognized the problem of climate change, it contained no legally binding emission reduction goals and was not formally adopted by participating countries. The Copenhagen Accord was the result of the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). COP15 represented the result of two years of planning and pre-negotiations, and took place Dec. 7-18 in Copenhagen, ... read more 06/01/2010 07:00 PM Report: Most money managers ignore climate risk to profit Bloomberg: In a survey of asset managers, almost three quarters said they don't take into account global warming when analyzing a company, CERES, whose investors have $8.5 trillion under management, said today in a report. Almost half said climate change isn't relevant to their investment decisions. Pension funds, governments and private institutional investors are beginning to ask asset managers to include climate risk in their due diligence, according to the report. U.S. regulators are trying ... read more 06/01/2010 07:00 PM Methane release 'looks stronger' BBC: Scientists have uncovered what appears to be a further dramatic increase in the leakage of methane gas that is seeping from the Arctic seabed. Methane is about 20 times more potent than CO2 in trapping solar heat. The findings come from measurements of carbon fluxes around the north of Russia, led by Igor Semiletov from the University of Alaska at Fairbanks. "Methane release from the East Siberian Shelf is underway and it looks stronger than it was supposed [to be]," he ... read more 06/01/2010 07:00 PM Four Nations Notify Support for Climate Accord; Cuba Is Opposed Bloomberg: Australia is among four nations to notify the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change of their support for the Copenhagen climate-protection accord. Cuba is the only nation so far to say it doesn't want to be associated with the plan struck last month in the Danish capital, UNFCCC spokesman John Hay, based in Bonn, Germany, said today by e-mail. Australia, Canada, Papua New Guinea and the Maldives have "notified us that they wish to be associated with the Copenhagen ... read more 05/01/2010 07:00 PM U.S. carbon market growth seen without climate bill Reuters: Voluntary carbon markets in the United States will grow especially at the regional level even if a stalled federal climate bill fails to impose "cap and trade" on American industry, the chairman of the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) said on Tuesday. "I think we will continue to see interest in voluntary carbon markets ... And I would expect that without a federal law you will continue to see growth in regional initiatives in the United States," Richard Sandor, the exchange's founder, ... read more 06/01/2010 07:00 PM America's love affair with cars stalls as car sales slump to record low Guardian: America's love affair with the automobile could be sputtering to an end. Some 14m cars were taken out of action in 2009, 4m more than rolled off the assembly lines and onto the roads, a report from the Earth Policy Institute said today. It was the first time more cars were scrapped than sold since the second world war, reducing the size of the US car fleet from an all-time high of 250m to 246m. Last year was an extraordinarily bad year for the US auto industry. Two of the three ... read more 06/01/2010 07:00 PM United States: Dorgan's Next Step: Coal Advocate? Washington Independent: Unlike Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), who was getting clobbered in his bid for reelection this year, Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) had a great shot of retaining the upper-chamber seat that he`s held for the past 17 years. (Indeed, his most competitive challenger, North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven (R), hadn`t even committed to entering the race before yesterday, when Dorgan announced his intent to retire at the end of this year.) So, for a moment, let`s take Dorgan at his word when he says that ... read more 06/01/2010 07:00 PM Demand for upgraded energy efficiency at home is weak USA Today: The recession-driven drop in new home construction is forcing more companies to seek work upgrading the energy efficiency of U.S. homes. But consumer demand remains weak because of the cost and the dearth of strong financial incentives, which President Obama is now pushing Congress to provide. "The big companies are coming to this area. But it's been difficult to get consumers to dig into their pockets," says Larry Zarker, CEO of the Building Performance Institute trade ... read more 06/01/2010 07:00 PM Avatar, not Ed, will make the case on climate Times (UK): Checklist: thermal tights, gloves, hat, boots, shovel, ice pick. Ring the plumber to remind him that the boiler hasn't been working for the past three days, spend an hour scraping ice off the car with your fingers before discovering that the school is closed, turn round, inch your way back and slip on the steps before taking a binbag up the nearest hill. This is Britain 2010: freezing in the coldest winter for 30 years. Global warming, don't even try it, they're ice-skating in Delhi ... read more 06/01/2010 07:00 PM Global warming: Why Branson wants to step in Times: read more 06/01/2010 07:00 PM Australia endures hottest decade on record The Age: EXTREME bushfires and dust-storms with rainfall that was too much in some parts of the country and not enough in others characterised 2009 - Australia's second-warmest year on record. And as the first decade of the 21st century came to a close, authorities reached for the record books to confirm the 10 years to 2009 as Australia's warmest decade on record. The annual climate statement, released by the Bureau of Meteorology yesterday, is consistent with global warming trends and ... read more 06/01/2010 07:00 PM Scottish minister gives green light to controversial 137-mile power line Guardian: Britain's largest overhead power line project has been approved despite fierce protests over the decision to erect towering pylons along 220km of the Highland's finest scenery. The long-awaited go ahead for the power line, which will stretch from Beauly near Inverness to Denny near Falkirk on pylons up to 65m high, is expected to kickstart a huge overhaul of the UK's electricity network at a cost of up to £4.7bn. The decision was applauded by the renewable energy industry and ... read more 06/01/2010 07:00 PM Spread of animal disease to humans blamed on climate change Bolohealth: The year 2009 hit the headlines for many reasons, but ultimately emerged as the H1N1 year. Spread of the mutating H1N1 virus that causes swine flu affected thousands of people worldwide and the number of confirmed cases still continues. This transmission of animal virus to humans is majorly due to the global warming and effects of climate change. Diminishing glaciers, droughts and a list of infections spread from animal virus. Climate changes have a direct effect on the animals who ... read more 05/01/2010 07:00 PM London big build cutting carbon by third Edie: Big development projects in the capital are going well beyond the energy efficiency measures required of them by building regulations, according to City Hall. A study of planning applications referred to the Mayor's office - which includes all major developments - shows that developers are taking significant steps to making the capital's built environment more sustainable. The report, commissioned by the Greater London Authority and carried out by London South Bank University, ... read more 06/01/2010 07:00 PM Tipping elements in the Earth System: How stable is the contemporary environment? ScienceDaily: A Special Feature of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences presents the latest scientific insights on so-called tipping elements in the planetary environment. These elements have been identified as the most vulnerable large-scale components of the Earth System that may be profoundly altered by human interference. If one or more of those components is tipped -- especially in the course of global warming -- then the age of remarkably stable environmental conditions on Earth ... read more 06/01/2010 07:00 PM In Wake of Climate Research Controversy, MIT Faculty Discuss Validity of Concerns Tech: Last December, a panel of MIT faculty organized "The Great Climategate Debate" to address the media fallout from England's University of East Anglia's e-mail scandal preceding the Copenhagen climate summit. While examining the issue of scientific standards, panelists also raised concerns that the mass media and politics have taken the science out of climate science. Controversy emerged after so-called hackers released several thousand private e-mails and documents from that ... read more 06/01/2010 07:00 PM Japanese project aims to turn CO2 into natural gas Agence France-Presse: Japanese researchers said Wednesday they hoped to enlist bacteria in the fight against global warming to transform carbon dioxide buried under the seabed into natural gas. The researchers at the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology aim to activate bacteria found naturally in earth to turn CO2 into methane, a major component of natural gas. A team led by chief researcher Fumio Inagaki have already confirmed that the bacteria exists in the crust deep under the ... read more 06/01/2010 07:00 PM United States: Cape Wind project in balance as US wind farms face stiff opposition Business Green: The US government is edging towards a final decision on the controversial Cape Wind offshore wind project following a landmark ruling by a federal agency that could render the proposed site unusable. The Department of the Interior has said it is aiming to reach a resolution over the future of the development by March 1. The announcement came as the chances of the project getting the go ahead this week received a further blow when the National Park Service's (NPS) Keeper of the ... read more 06/01/2010 07:00 PM Indonesia: Australia helps REDD projects in Jambi Jakarta Post: Indonesia and Australia are set to launch the first-ever forest carbon project in Jambi following the adoption of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) scheme at the recent UN Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen. The A$30 million project, to be launched this month, will be held in production, protected, conservation and communal forests in the province. "This will be the first REDD application in communal forests," Wandojo Siswanto, head of the ... read more 06/01/2010 07:00 PM Namibia's landmark trees dying from climate change Agence France-Presse: An old man gently touches the trunk of the huge quiver tree with a worried look on his wrinkled face, as he points at several dead branches lying on Namibia's rugged terrain. "When I was a boy, my grandfather made my first quiver from a branch of this old tree about seventy years ago, but I fear the tree is dying -- too many dead branches. Things changed over the past few years, and these trees just die," he tells AFP. Aaron Kairabeb works on a farm 200 kilometres (125 miles) ... read more 06/01/2010 07:00 PM Cold snap spurs power rationing in China Reuters: Cities across eastern and central China are rationing power for industry and urging residents to limit gas use after a wave of icy weather sent energy demand soaring while straining supplies of coal that were already tight. Much of China's manufacturing and farming heartland shivered on Wednesday under snow, sleet and unusual cold that drove south after dumping big snowfalls on Beijing and much of the country's north in past days. Daytime temperatures in Shanghai and across the ... read more 06/01/2010 07:00 PM Bolivia proposes world conference on climate change Xinhua: Bolivian President Evo Morales on Tuesday called for a world conference to discuss the effects of climate change and ways to tackle it. "Due to a historical responsibility for the mankind, we decided to summon the First World Conference of the People on Climate Change," Morales told a press conference. He urged all leaders of the world's indigenous ethnic groups, scientists and experts on environmental issues to attend the Conference, which was scheduled for April 20-22 in the ... read more 06/01/2010 07:00 PM Forests & REDD: US climate bills compared Carbon Positive: The two climate and energy bills in the US Congress, one passed in the House last June, the other being drafted in the Senate, both make provision for large use of international forest carbon offsets as a cornerstone of emissions reduction efforts. But the role of the growing project-based forest carbon sector, where mainly private project developers initiate forest activity, remains very much up in the air in these bills. The Congressional Research Service has released a detailed ... read more 05/01/2010 07:00 PM North America's Cooling Due to Natural Causes in 2008? National Geographic: Average temperatures across North America dropped in 2008–which may seem to contradict global warming theory. Not so, scientists say. The cooling, caused by natural changes in global air circulation, temporarily masked the effects of global warming, which is getting worse, a new study says. New computer-model simulations suggest that the continent-wide dip resulted from an unusually long cooling of the Pacific Ocean, driven by the La Niña phenomenon. During a La Niña, ... read more 06/01/2010 07:00 PM United States: Native tribes fight Cape Cod wind farm Independent (UK): The plan to build an enormous wind farm in Nantucket Sound, off the coast of Cape Cod in Massachusetts, has seen off a string of formidable enemies. They include the Kennedy clan, and others among the old money families of the coast, and Bill Koch, the billionaire oil and coal tycoon, the main financial force behind the opposition. The struggle to obtain the necessary permits has been under way for almost a decade. The installation would, if constructed, be the biggest offshore wind ... read more 06/01/2010 07:00 PM Heavy snowfall sees Met Office put Britain on high alert Independent (UK): Millions of people living in southern England and the Home Counties were told to prepare themselves for up to 40cm (16in) of snow last night, as Britain remained in the grip of the longest prolonged spell of cold weather in 30 years. The Met Office issued its highest level of alert, warning of an impending "extreme weather event" that would bring travel chaos and threaten power supplies. Worst hit overnight will be Dorset, Wiltshire, Hampshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire -- parts of ... read more 06/01/2010 07:00 PM Global warming is happening, even if it doesn't feel like it Independent (UK): You might think the current weather conditions are almost Siberian -- and you'd be right. Britain's most prolonged spell of freezing weather since 1981 is being caused by a huge mass of intensely cold air over north-east Russia, with easterly winds sweeping its glacial temperatures across northern Europe to the UK. And just as in the 20th century's coldest ever winter in Britain, of 1962-63 -- although not on such a severe scale -- the cold is being held in place over the British ... read more 06/01/2010 07:00 PM Secretive carbon startup brings Condoleezza Rice and $26m on board Business Green: A secretive US startup specialising in energy and emissions management has revealed that it has raised $26m (£16m) in funding and put together a board dominated by influential political and business figures including former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice. The company, known as C3, was founded a year ago by Thomas Siebel, the entrepreneur who sold his business software firm Siebel to Oracle $5.7bn, and over the past two weeks has filed documents with the Securities and Exchange ... read more 06/01/2010 07:00 PM Miliband: UK will push EU to raise emissions target to 30 per cent Business Green: Energy and climate change secretary Ed Miliband yesterday said that he would continue to press other European countries to raise the EU's emissions reductions targets, as part of efforts to secure a legally-binding international climate change deal in Mexico at the end of the year. Updating the House of Commons on the failure of last month's Copenhagen Summit to deliver an ambitious and binding international deal, Miliband vowed that the government would continue to lobby other ... read more 06/01/2010 07:00 PM Tobacco: bad for you, good for the planet? Business Green: It may be bad for your health, but it appears that tobacco might yet prove good for the environment. Researchers at Thomas Jefferson University's Biotechnology Foundation Laboratories in the US have genetically engineered the plant's leaves to create a biofuel that they claim is more efficient than biofuels made from any other agricultural crop. "Tobacco is very attractive as a biofuel because the idea is to use plants that are not used in food production," said Dr Vyacheslav ... read more 04/01/2010 07:00 PM Giant Carbon "Vault" Proposed Near New York City National Geographic: Several new underwater "vaults" that could stash the potent greenhouse gas carbon dioxide have been found--and one of them is right outside New York City, a new study says. Such close-in vaults would be convenient, but could pose an earthquake risk, experts say. Some of Earth's largest ancient lava flows lie below the Atlantic Ocean seafloor not far from the Big Apple. The vault regions include rubble-filled, fractured, and otherwise porous volcanic layers in which ... read more 05/01/2010 07:00 PM The Blowback Effect: 2020 Huffington Post: As the second decade of the twenty-first century begins, we find ourselves at one of those relatively rare moments in history when major power shifts become visible to all. If the first decade of the century witnessed profound changes, the world of 2009 nonetheless looked at least somewhat like the world of 1999 in certain fundamental respects: the United States remained the world's paramount military power, the dollar remained the world's dominant currency, and NATO remained its foremost ... read more News Archive     Back to Homepage
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