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		News Archive     07/01/2010 07:00 PM After review of mountaintop mining, scientists urge ending it McClatchy Newspapers: The consequences of this mining in eastern Kentucky , West Virginia and southwestern Virginia are ""pervasive and irreversible," the article finds. Companies are required by law to take steps to reduce the damages, but their efforts don't compensate for lost streams nor do they prevent lasting water pollution, it says. The article is a summary of recent scientific studies of the consequences of blasting the tops off mountains to obtain coal and dumping the excess rock into streams in ... read more 09/01/2010 07:00 PM Climate change: Believe it Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: With the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen concluding a few weeks ago, all of us in Wisconsin should take a hard look at how climate change will affect Wisconsin and at the consequences of no action. The science now convinces us that calls for immediate action are warranted to avoid the worst consequences of climate change on Wisconsin's economy and environment, including the Great Lakes. While slowing the damaging effects of climate change poses challenges, we ... read more 07/01/2010 07:00 PM Warmer climate could stifle carbon uptake by trees, study finds ScienceDaily: As a result, more of the greenhouse gas will be left to concentrate in the atmosphere. "Our findings contradict studies of other ecosystems that conclude longer growing seasons actually increase plant carbon uptake," said Jia Hu, who conducted the research as a graduate student in CU-Boulder's ecology and evolutionary biology department in conjunction with the university's Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, or CIRES. Working with ecology and ... read more 09/01/2010 07:00 PM Food costs to soar as big freeze deepens Guardian: Britons have been warned to brace themselves for an increase in food prices as plunging temperatures leave farmers unable to harvest vegetables and hauliers struggle to distribute fresh produce. Gordon Brown, who will chair a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee early this week to discuss the freeze, was forced to reassure the country that it would not run out of gas or grit for its roads during the coldest weather in 30 years. Police confirmed last night that the ... read more 09/01/2010 07:00 PM China would never accept checks at Copenhagen: official Agence France-Presse: China was never going to accept outside reviews in Copenhagen of its efforts to slow greenhouse gas emissions, a top official said Saturday, after critics accused Beijing of blocking the talks. Xie Zhenhua, deputy head of the powerful National Development and Reform Commission, told a forum that Beijing achieved its goal at the climate talks by ensuring aid for developing nations was not linked to external checks. "Developing countries, especially China, would surely never ... read more 09/01/2010 07:00 PM EPA using grants to combat climate change United Press International: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says it is offering grants of up to $5 million to groups working on projects intended to combat global warming. The federal department said in a release Friday that U.S. and international organizations alike can get money through the Methane to Markets Partnership if they are working on projects aimed at limiting environmental pollution such as greenhouse gas emissions. The public-private partnership is already supplying other projects ... read more 09/01/2010 07:00 PM At Detroit auto show, small cars make this year's big splash Washington Post: The North American International Auto Show, the annual automotive gala in Detroit, may be best known as a stage for manufacturers to display their latest rolling leviathans. But to judge from this year's show, the next big thing may be small. Driven in part by the recession, and in part by shifting consumer tastes and global marketing strategies, the U.S. manufacturers who once obsessed over trucks and muscle cars are casting a spotlight on their diminutives. Chevrolet ... read more 09/01/2010 07:00 PM Prius No. 1 in Japan sales as green interest grows Associated Press: The Toyota Prius is so sought after in Japan it is the first gasoline-electric hybrid vehicle to top annual sales, with buyers willing to wait six months for deliveries of the curvaceous "green" car The Prius has caught on in the U.S. and other parts of the world as well, although not with quite the same passionate intensity as it has in Japan, Toyota Motor's (TM) home market. Its success underlines the shift among consumers to embrace green auto technology that appears to go ... read more 07/01/2010 07:00 PM The Copenhagen disaccord Nation: We have entered the post-Copenhagen era of climate politics--but just what that means is still very much undecided. The summit was widely regarded as humanity's last good chance to prevent catastrophic climate change. It plainly fell short of that goal, but giving up is not an option, not for anyone who cares about preserving a livable planet for our children. Instead, we need the most unfettered, open-minded discussion possible of the terrain confronting us post-Copenhagen and how best to ... read more 09/01/2010 07:00 PM Canada: Pine beetles transform B.C. forests into greenhouse enemy Globe and Mail: In a single season, an army of pine beetles has transformed our allies in the battle against climate change into the enemy. Now the province is in a race against nature, as one billion beetle-killed trees across the province slowly seep the greenhouse gases they had so generously stored up in their decades of growth. Such a turnaround seemed unimaginable back in February, 2008, when Premier Gordon Campbell first seized on the value of B.C.'s forests in his campaign against ... read more 09/01/2010 07:00 PM U.S. to give $2.3 billion in clean-tech credits San Francisco Chronicle: President Obama announced $2.3 billion in tax credits Friday for 183 ventures to build advanced batteries, wind turbines and other "clean energy technology" nationwide, including projects in the Bay Area. The tax credits, which are funded by the $787 billion economic stimulus package enacted in February, are designed to defray up to 30 percent of the cost of new investments in manufacturing facilities to produce clean energy products. "Building a robust clean energy sector is ... read more 09/01/2010 07:00 PM China says achieved goal in Copenhagen climate deal Reuters: Chinese negotiators achieved their goal at Copenhagen climate talks in ensuring financial aid for developing nations was not linked to external reviews of China's environmental plans, its top climate envoy said on Saturday. Britain, Sweden and other countries have accused China of obstructing the climate summit, which ended last month with a non-binding accord that set a target of limiting global warming to a maximum 2 degrees Celsius but was scant on details. China would never ... read more 09/01/2010 07:00 PM United States: Climate expert in the eye of an integrity storm Philadelphia Inquirier: Michael Mann switched from physics to climate science back in graduate school because he thought climate offered a better chance to work "on a frontier." He got his wish, and now, as the director of Pennsylvania State University's Earth System Science Center, he has experienced an aspect of frontier life more like the Wild West - a bounty on his head. After dozens of Mann's personal e-mails were hacked in November, the tenured professor has been called a fraud, a clown, and ... read more 09/01/2010 07:00 PM Thousands of wind turbines coming to British seas New York Times: In an ambitious bid to revamp Britain's energy strategy, Prime Minister Gordon Brown awarded contracts to major energy companies that are to erect wind farms along Britain's coastline. The project will be one of the biggest wind power initiatives anywhere in the world. Beginning construction in 2014, it promises to be a bold, even risky bet to erect thousands of turbines along Britain's 7,500 miles of turbulent waterfront. For Mr. Brown, who remains embattled politically just ... read more 09/01/2010 07:00 PM Comparing Earth's current warming to the Pliocene Christian Science Monitor: About 4.5 million years ago, during the early Pliocene period (3 to 5 million years ago), temperatures on Earth were some 3 to 4 degrees C (5.4 to 7.2 degrees F.) higher in the tropics, and perhaps 10 degrees C (18 degrees F.) warmer near the poles. To get that much warming, current climate models have to pump up atmospheric carbon dioxide levels to between 500 and 600 parts per million -- about twice the preindustrial level of 280 ppm. We're currently around 387 ppm. And, ... read more 09/01/2010 07:00 PM eSolar strikes deal to build power plants in China Bismarck Tribune: A U.S. solar power company said Saturday it will help build a series of solar thermal power plants in China, as the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases tries to decrease its heavy reliance on coal, imported gas and oil. California-based eSolar Inc. will provide Shandong Penglai Electric Power Equipment Manufacturing Co. with the technology and information to build the concentrated solar thermal power farms with a capacity totaling 2,000 megawatts. The $5 billion ... read more 09/01/2010 07:00 PM Philippines: A climate of insecurity Business Mirror: Sometime in May, mango producers belonging to the Mango Product Exporters Confederation Inc. (MPECI) complained that their output would go down by 15 percent year-on-year. The main culprit: erratic weather patterns due to climate change. MPECI president Roberto Amores complained that early and intermittent rains, coupled with the early onset of the typhoon, is projected to slash mango production this year to 650,000 metric tons (MT), from 750,000 MT in 2008. "Two years ago, ... read more 09/01/2010 07:00 PM Why Antarctica isn't melting much - yet New Scientist: Antarctica is warming, but not melting anything like as much as expected. In fact, during the continent's summer this time last year, there was less melting than at any time in the 30 years that we have had reliable satellite measurements of the region. The apparent contradiction is explained by the seasonal pattern of warming, say two glaciologists writing in Eos, the weekly newspaper of the American Geophysical Union. The continent's winters and springs have warmed most, but it is ... read more 09/01/2010 07:00 PM United States: State lawmakers, business groups reject proposed greenhouse gas limits Various: A bipartisan legislative panel Friday voted to delay the creation of rules to regulate greenhouse gases as a pollutant in Montana, after a host of business interests objected to the initiative. "I think we need to slow things down and get some answers," said Rep. Mike Milburn, R-Cascade, who made the motion to formally object to the Board of Environmental Review's rule-making process. The Environmental Quality Council, a legislative and citizen panel that examines environmental ... read more 09/01/2010 07:00 PM Hurricane propels Jackson's justice quest at EPA Associated Press: More than four years after Hurricane Katrina, the single-story brick rancher in Pontchartrain Park where Lisa Perez Jackson grew up stands empty. Floodwaters long ago ate away the walls of her corner bedroom, where the current head of the Environmental Protection Agency once hung Michael Jackson and Prince posters and studied her way to the top of her high school class. Faded spray paint, left by search teams to indicate that no bodies were found, serves as a reminder of the ... read more 09/01/2010 07:00 PM Biographical information on EPA's Lisa Jackson Associated Press: Lisa P. Jackson. AGE-BIRTH DATE-LOCATION -- 47; Feb. 8, 1962; Philadelphia. EXPERIENCE -- Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency, 2009-present; member of President-elect Barack Obama's energy and natural resources transition team; chief of staff, New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, 2008; commissioner, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, 2006-08; assistant commissioner for land use management, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, 2005; assistant ... read more 07/01/2010 07:00 PM United Kingdom: Multi-billion off shore wind farm bid winners announced Edie: Bidders have been awarded the rights to nine sites around the British coast for wind farm construction. In all the sites have the potential for 6,400 turbines, which will generate around 32GW of power. The sites have the potential according to Gordon Brown to create a £75 billion offshore wind industry supporting up to 70,000 clean energy jobs by 2020. The successful bidders for the sites, part of round three of the process, were announced this morning (January 8) by The ... read more 07/01/2010 07:00 PM Disappointing Copenhagen talks still made important progress - Miliband Edie: Energy & Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband has told Parliament that, while disappointing, December's Copenhagen talks did make 'significant progress'. Speaking in the House of Commons following the Christmas break, Mr Miliband recognised there had not been the global agreement that had been hoped for, but said that the Copenhagen Accord was valuable and could be built upon. Even though it was agreed by only a quarter of the world's countries, those countries account for over ... read more 08/01/2010 07:00 PM United Kingdom: Fears for gas shortage as National Grid issues two balancing orders Edie: The Government needs to take tough decisions to maintain the country's gas supplies according to a leading energy consultancy. Yesterday (January 7) the National Grid took the unprecedented step of issuing a second Gas Balancing Alert in one week, and opposition parties believe Britain has less than eight days of gas in reserve. The National Grid has not issued a balancing order for four years, this week's there's a possibility of others being issued following the ... read more 07/01/2010 07:00 PM Concern Over Deteriorating Food Security in Somaliland IRIN: Low agricultural production, caused by poor rainfall last year in Somalia's self-declared republic of Somaliland, has put at least half of its three million people at risk of food insecurity, agricultural officials warn. "We are very worried that the situation could get worse because last year the crop production in the western regions of Somaliland - particularly Awdal, Gabiley and Hargeisa - decreased so much compared to 2008," Abdulkadir Jibril Tukale, director-general of the ... read more 08/01/2010 07:00 PM Tidal energy: Tapping the power of the sea Spiegel: In Great Britain and other European countries, companies are preparing to use the energy of ocean waves and tides to produce electricity. The UK is hoping to produce as much as 5 percent of its electricity needs with tidal power plants. Great Britain hopes to soon to take the global lead in tapping the power of tides to produce clean energy. A single power plant is expected to cover 5 percent of the country's electricity needs by providing 8.6 gigawatts of CO2-free electricity, the ... read more 07/01/2010 07:00 PM Businesses oppose Wisconsin clean energy plan Associated Press: Wisconsin's business community is divided over Gov. Jim Doyle's clean energy plan that calls for increasing the use of renewable fuels and opens the door to nuclear power, with opponents saying the new mandates will weaken Wisconsin's already struggling manufacturing sector. Doyle's plan was introduced in the Legislature on Wednesday and the governor discussed it Thursday at a news conference in Madison. He and other proponents, including large employers like auto parts and ... read more 07/01/2010 07:00 PM United States: Feinstein desert bill attempts to reconcile landscape protection, clean energy Greenwire: When Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) announced a sweeping desert preservation bill last month, it garnered national attention for placing nearly 1 million acres of Mojave Desert off-limits to development -- a move that some believe would derail a dozen proposed solar-power projects. But a close reading of the "California Desert Protection Act" reveals a nuanced piece of legislation that includes several proposals to encourage renewable energy in the Mojave Desert and across the ... read more 07/01/2010 07:00 PM Community bids to bypass utilities facing hurdles in California Greenwire: Efforts by California municipalities to end-run electric utilities for greener electricity and lower rates have yet to succeed and might soon face longer odds if investor-owned power companies have their way. The appeal of so-called Community Choice Aggregations, or CCAs, comes from their low rates -- as government entities, they do not need to make profits -- and their high proportion of renewable energy. Their backers say CCAs are simpler to run than full utilities, which own ... read more 08/01/2010 07:00 PM Study raises cost estimate for electric cars New York Times: As General Motors began assembling batteries for the coming Chevrolet Volt on Thursday, a new study cast doubt on the likelihood that electric cars will be widely popular in the near future. The study, conducted by the Boston Consulting Group, said battery costs were not expected to fall as much as automakers have projected, making electric vehicles too expensive for most consumers even 10 years from now. The firm predicted that electric cars would account for just 6 percent of ... read more 08/01/2010 07:00 PM China: Innovation in electric bicycles Irish Times: CHINA HAS gone crazy for electric bicycles -- they are far and away the biggest selling form of transport on the streets, with 120 million of the battery-powered two-wheelers whizzing up and down the thoroughfares. All over China you see them -- migrant workers heading to the building sites on their e-bikes, traders carrying their wares stacked onto small flat-beds at the back, bureaucrats and office workers zipping around on them and increasingly foreigners avoiding the nightmare of ... read more 08/01/2010 07:00 PM United Kingdom: Norfolk scientists find 'thermometer' gene in plant EDP24: It is the plant that doesn't feel the cold. And this scientific breakthrough by Norwich researchers may help to breed new plants capable of overcoming climate change. Two scientists at the John Innes Centre (JIC) at Colney have discovered the "thermometer" gene in plants, which controls growth rates. They checked all 30,000 genes in a model plant, arabidopsis or thale cress, to investigate how plants cope with massive changes in temperatures. And Dr Vinod Kumar, who ... read more 08/01/2010 07:00 PM Animal health body to study meat impact on climate Reuters: The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) is to study the impact of meat output on climate change in the light of debate about meat's contribution to greenhouse emissions, the Paris-based body said on Thursday. The initiative, which will be the OIE's first on an environmental issue, follows requests from its member countries to look at a question that has prompted calls to eat less meat. Meat production is estimated to account for 18 percent of all greenhouse gas ... read more 08/01/2010 07:00 PM United Kingdom: Offshore wind schemes given green light BBC: Contracts have been awarded for a major expansion of offshore wind power in the seas around Scotland. Moray Offshore Renewables and SeaGreen Wind Energy will develop offshore wind power in the Moray Firth and the Firth of Forth. The energy companies have been awarded the contracts by the Crown Estate, a UK government agency. It is believed the development could lead to 1,000 new turbines generating nearly five giga watts of power. Jobs could also be created in ... read more 08/01/2010 07:00 PM Australia: Ban new homes in bushfire areas: Curtin expert WA Today: In the wake of the devastating Toodyay bushfires, a Curtin University bushfire expert has urged authorities to ban the building of new houses in fire prone areas. Grant Wardell-Johnson called on governments and local councils to cut urban sprawl in an age when climate change was increasing the likelihood of more devastating fires. "The era of business as usual is over," Associate Professor Wardell-Johnson said. "Although prescribed burning can protect communities near ... read more 08/01/2010 07:00 PM Wind farms could power half of Britain's homes, but jobs could go overseas Times (UK): Nine giant new wind farms in the seas around Britain will be announced today, but few of the 6,000 turbines needed are likely to be built here. Ed Miliband, the Energy and Climate Change Secretary, will say that the world's biggest expansion of offshore wind power, costing £75 billion, will create 70,000 jobs in Britain by 2020. However, the Government has failed to persuade any of the major wind turbine manufacturers to open a factory in Britain. The companies granted licences today ... read more 08/01/2010 07:00 PM Glacial meltdown to bring floods, then drought The News: The glacial meltdown in Himalayas and Karakoram due to global warming will first bring in heavy floods in the river system in South Asia and China followed by drought like conditions. This was stated by Higher Education Commission Chairperson Dr Javaid R Laghari while addressing the inaugural session of 2-day International Seminar on 'Impact of climate change on water resources and glaciers: concerns and challenges' organised by Department of Earth Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University ... read more 08/01/2010 07:00 PM Canada: Nunavut's polar-bear hotline bucks conventional wisdom Globe and Mail: Polar bears have been wandering into hamlets and chasing children. People in the North have noticed their food caches plundered by the bold carnivores. And some say the thinning sea ice actually makes it easier for the big white seal hunters to catch their prey. Polar-bear numbers, they say, are on the rise, not in decline. Those sentiments, some perhaps counterintuitive to the commonly held belief that polar bears are casualties of global warming, have been captured by a new ... read more 09/01/2010 07:00 PM UK plans for most ambitious offshore wind project in the world will need 'supergrid' Telegraph: The most ambitious offshore wind project in the world would see 6,400 turbines built around the coast by 2020 -- the equivalent of building almost two turbines every day for the next ten years. In the most significant boost for industry in the UK since the exploration of North Sea oil in the 1970s, the Prime Minister announced the power companies that will raise around £100bn to construct the new turbines including major players like E. ON, RWE Npower, Scottish Power and ... read more 08/01/2010 07:00 PM How cold is Europe? Even Norway's buses can't take it. Christian Science Monitor: After three years sans snow, Paris got hit twice this week. The city doesn't do snow plows, and the novelty of icicles on the Eiffel is wearing off. Even city birds seem to be shivering. "Global warming I care about, but look outside," offered a denizen of the 8th District. "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow," is fine at Christmas. But in post-holiday Europe, bus engine oil is freezing in Norway. Ireland reports the lowest temperature in 50 years. In Britain, the Army got called ... read more 08/01/2010 07:00 PM Ark. environmental chief backs delay in air rules Associated Press: The state's top anti-pollution official said utilities that operate power plants in Arkansas should be allowed to wait and see what air-quality standards are imposed by federal authorities, instead of meeting a current 2013 deadline for complying with emission rules. Teresa Marks, director of the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, said in a news release Friday that she is recommending that the state Pollution Control and Ecology Commission grant a variance from the state's ... read more 08/01/2010 07:00 PM US solar company to build power plants in China Associated Press: Southern California's eSolar Inc. has signed a major agreement to build a series of solar power plants in China. Under the agreement announced Friday, the Pasadena, Calif.-based eSolar will provide China Shandong Penglai Electric Power Equipment Manufacturing Co. with the technology and information to build solar farms with a capacity totaling 2,000 megawatts over the next decade. Company chairman Bill Gross says China is emerging as a major market for solar energy and is ... read more 09/01/2010 07:00 PM Heavy Rains End Drought for Texas New York Times: The worst drought to strike Texas in the last 50 years has broken, ending a year-and-a-half dry spell in which farmers and ranchers suffered devastating losses, climatologists and agronomists said this week. Heavy rains since September have replenished reservoirs, filled stock tanks and quenched huge expanses of parched earth across Central and South Texas, where state officials estimate that farmers and ranchers suffered losses of around $4 billion. John Nielsen-Gammon, the ... read more 09/01/2010 07:00 PM China Tries a New Tack to Go Solar New York Times: As it moves rapidly to become the world`s leader in nuclear power, wind energy and photovoltaic solar panels, China is taking tentative steps to master another alternative energy industry: using mirrors to capture sunlight, produce steam and generate electricity. So-called concentrating solar power uses hundreds of thousands of mirrors to turn water into steam. The steam turns a conventional turbine similar to those in coal-fired power plants. The technology, which is potentially ... read more 08/01/2010 07:00 PM E.P.A. Seeks Stricter Rules to Curb Smog New York Times: The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday proposed a stricter standard for smog-causing pollutants that would bring substantial health benefits to millions of Americans while imposing large costs on industry and local governments. The standard would replace one set by the Bush administration in March 2008, which has been challenged in court by state officials and environmental advocates as too weak to adequately protect human health and the environment. The Obama ... read more 09/01/2010 07:00 PM United Kingdom: £100bn wind farm plan heralds green energy era Independent (UK): Revolutionary plans for a massive expansion of offshore wind farms have been unveiled in a £100bn project designed to usher in a new era of green energy for Britain. A quarter of the country's electricity needs would be met through wind power by 2020 under the strategy, with the construction of 6,400 turbines within nine sites dotted around the coast. The programme amounts to the biggest energy supply shake-up since the discovery of the North Sea oil and gas fields more than 40 years ... read more 09/01/2010 07:00 PM United Kingdom: If I hear another global warming joke, I'll . . . Times (UK): Right, there is something that is going to have to stop right this second, and that is people making jokes about "If the globe is warming up then where did all this snow come from, eh? Eh? Tell me that?' Because it is driving me crazy. And when I say "people', I mean mostly columnists, cartoonists and comedians. I know there is nothing else to write about at the moment (God help me, I'm writing about people writing about the snow) and I grant that it was a nice little coincidence that ... read more 08/01/2010 07:00 PM Both sides gird for bruising Senate debate over EPA amendment Greenwire: Senate climate legislation advocates are bracing for a floor battle this month over a Republican campaign that they fear could drag down efforts to pass a major global warming bill before the real legislative debate can start. Republican Lisa Murkowski of Alaska has the green light to offer an amendment on the Senate floor as soon as Jan. 20 that is aimed at halting U.S. EPA regulations on climate change. Democratic leaders agreed late last month to let Murkowski have the roll call ... read more 09/01/2010 07:00 PM Maldives: Paradise threatened? LA Times: Here's what happens when you travel to the Maldives with someone who followed an Indian guru for 20 years: You find yourself convinced that the dazzling liquid topaz ocean surrounding you is energizing your chakras and healing your inner turmoil. You may not have been aware of any inner turmoil, but apparently most of us suffer it, and isolated tropical islands such as the Maldives are just the sort of place to wrestle it to the ground. Sally Tagg, a dear friend from New Zealand, was ... read more 08/01/2010 07:00 PM Three-quarters of hungry are rural poor Inter Press Service: Climate change, associated with a four-fold increase in natural disasters in the last decade, and the growth of world population, which is expected to reach nine billion by 2050, pose new challenges for aid initiatives like those of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). This warning comes from Gemmo Lodesani, head of the WFP office in Brussels, who is in charge of relations with the European Union and of fund-raising to fulfil the organisation's primary commitment: fighting ... read more News Archive     Back to Homepage
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