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		News Archive     13/01/2010 07:00 PM Baucus: Drilling leases along Front to be given up Associated Press: Montana Sen. Max Baucus plans to announce Thursday that five oil and gas companies will relinquish drilling leases they hold on the Rocky Mountain Front, an area prized by conservationists. In 2006, Congress banned new leasing of federal lands along the east side of the Montana mountain range, but existing lease holders could still develop the property. The same law also created tax incentives for relinquishing leases. Leases on at least 83,000 acres on the Front have been ... read more 13/01/2010 07:00 PM S.Africa to introduce new car tax despite concerns Reuters: South Africa's National Treasury will press on with plans to introduce a new tax on vehicles designed to curb carbon dioxide emissions, an official said Wednesday, despite concerns this could hamper the ailing auto sector's recovery. The motor industry is struggling to get back on its feet after being been hit by the global economic crisis and depressed local demand which saw new vehicle sales fall to 6-year lows in 2009. The new tax, mooted last February, is part of government ... read more 13/01/2010 07:00 PM Europe mulls deeper emissions cuts, deadline looms Reuters: European Union environment ministers will seek a strategy for reviving global climate talks at a meeting in Spain this week, after a U.N. meeting in Copenhagen last month ended in failure. A U.N. deadline is looming for countries to commit to emissions cuts as part of the U.N. process, and EU diplomats expect the bloc to make the lowest bid in its range of options. The talks in the Danish capital last month ended with a bare-minimum agreement that fell far short of its original ... read more 13/01/2010 07:00 PM Grasslands To Combat Climate Change Voice of America: A new report from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization says grasslands have vast untapped potential to limit climate change by absorbing and storing carbon dioxide. The report says proper land use can also help one billion people who depend on livestock. The United Nations report says if pastures and rangelands are properly managed, they can be a useful carbon sink - potentially more powerful than forests in the battle against climate change. The report says that ... read more 13/01/2010 07:00 PM Major Antarctic glacier is 'past its tipping point' New Scientist: A major Antarctic glacier has passed its tipping point, according to a new modelling study. After losing increasing amounts of ice over the past decades, it is poised to collapse in a catastrophe that could raise global sea levels by 24 centimetres. Pine Island glacier (PIG) is one of many at the fringes of the West Antarctic ice sheet. In 2004, satellite observations showed that it had started to thin, and that ice was flowing into the Amundsen Sea 25per cent faster than it had 30 ... read more 13/01/2010 07:00 PM Scrap-and-Trade: Would An Energy Bill Alone Do Any Good? Wall Street Journal: Is the climate part of energy-and-climate legislation about to get thrown under the bus? As Congress gets back to work, one of the big questions looming on the Hill is whether it's time to park plans for a national curb on greenhouse-gas emissions and focus on a narrower energy bill. The rationale? Energy reform, even to boost clean energy, enjoys some cross-aisle support. Capping greenhouse-gas emissions has proven a tough slog even within the majority Democrats. And the health-care ... read more 13/01/2010 07:00 PM A Cement Giant Tackles its CO2 Emissions New York Times: Bloomberg A Cemex cement plant in Monterrey, Mexico. The company is angling to reduce its carbon footprint at plants around the world. With cement production accounting for as much as 5 percent of global emissions of carbon dioxide -- and the potential for expanded carbon caps looming -- Cemex, one of the world's largest producers of building materials, is angling to bring down its carbon dioxide emissions and perhaps wind up with some credits it can sell. "We are preparing ... read more 13/01/2010 07:00 PM Colo. Dems want to raise renewable energy standard Assiociated Press: Colorado Democratic state lawmakers want to increase the amount of electricity coming from renewable sources, saying the move will help the environment and create jobs. Under current law, investor-owned utilities like Xcel Energy must get 20 percent of their power from renewable sources like wind and solar energy by 2020. Gov. Bill Ritter announced Tuesday that he is backing planned legislation requiring them to hit 30 percent over the next 10 years instead. Democratic state ... read more 13/01/2010 07:00 PM China, India, Brazil and South Africa prepare for post-Copenhagen meeting Guardian: One month after the Copenhagen climate summit ended in recriminations and and a weak outline of a global deal, key groups of developing countries will meet to try to explore ways to get to agree a legally binding final agreement. As the dust settles on the stormy Danish meeting, environment ministers from the so-called Basic countries – Brazil, South Africa, India and China – will meet on January 24 in New Delhi. No formal agenda has been set, but observers expect the emerging ... read more 13/01/2010 07:00 PM United States: Composting center plans to profit from food waste Reuters: On a windswept industrial site near the Port of Wilmington, a front-end loader tips a fetid mass of half-rotted food and plastic bags onto a 20-foot heap inside a large blue shed. It's the start of a process that will turn thousands of tons of rotting food, yard waste and paper products into rich compost that will be used to help farmers grow crops and homeowners nurture their shrubs. The compost also reduces the volume of landfill waste, saves waste-disposal fees, cuts ... read more 11/01/2010 07:00 PM Big-city buyers seem ready for electric cars Time Magazine: Hold the vroom and bring on the zoom because the theme of the most important motor show in the U.S. is electricity, with carmakers ranging from Chrysler to Ford to Volkswagen presenting battery-powered new models. After nearly two decades of failed promise, 2010 could finally be the year of the electric car, with at least two major models -- the plug-in hybrid Chevrolet Volt and the all-electric Nissan Leaf -- set to hit dealers' lots by the end of the year. Automakers will still need ... read more 13/01/2010 07:00 PM Arctic a growing security issue for U.S Canadian Press: The CIA normally concerns itself with terrorism and other threats to U.S. security, so the recent revelation that it is routinely monitoring the Arctic's rapidly shrinking ice cap, and now sharing spy satellite photos with climate-change scientists, caught some by surprise. The little-known CIA program has been restarted after being shuttered by the George W. Bush administration for several years. The CIA is once again giving a select group of environmental scientists access to ... read more 13/01/2010 07:00 PM Australia: Relentless summers create dam dilemma Sydney Morning Herald: RISING average temperatures are reducing run-off into Sydney dams when it rains, putting the future of the city's water supplies under a cloud. As a result, Sydney Water wants to operate the Kurnell desalination plant even when there are several years' water supply in the Sydney dam network. Trials are under way at the desalination plant, which is expected to be in full operation soon. The State Government is yet to decide how soon the desalination plant will begin operations ... read more 14/01/2010 07:00 PM Australia: Sydney's new seat of solar power Sydney Morning Herald: SYDNEY Town Hall has been brought into the era of carbon emissions and climate change, with the City of Sydney converting the 121-year-old building into the largest photovoltaic installation in the central business district. The council was yesterday installing 240 cutting-edge solar panels on the roof, capable of producing up to 48 kilowatt hours of energy. That is enough to supply the Town Hall, the council chambers and the council offices next door. ''The solar panels ... read more 13/01/2010 07:00 PM Biomass seen fueling California economic revival Sacramento Bee: California could tap the energy stored in wood, garbage, plants and animal waste to fuel a job creation engine that could pull the state out of its economic doldrums, biomass energy advocates said Tuesday. So far, though, the engine has barely crept out of the station, said James D. Boyd, vice chairman of the California Energy Commission. "(Biomass) is a treasure sort of waiting to be discovered," he said. Boyd on Tuesday addressed attendees of the Pacific West Biomass ... read more 12/01/2010 07:00 PM EU trade chief-designate rejects carbon border tariffs Reuters: The European Union should not impose border tariffs on goods from countries that fail to cut back their climate-damaging emissions, the EU's trade commissioner-designate said on Tuesday. "I don't think that's the right approach myself," Karel de Gucht told members of the European Parliament, which will vote whether to approve the European Commission line-up on January 26. "It's an approach that will run into many practical problems." Europe has pledged to cut its emissions of ... read more 12/01/2010 07:00 PM As Senate climate bill languishes, lobbyists press EPA on carbon regulations Greenwire: Skeptical about the prospects of climate legislation in the Senate, energy companies and environmental groups have shifted their lobbying efforts toward U.S. EPA. Energy businesses want to stop EPA from proceeding with its plan to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act, a move expected to come in March. If the agency does decide to impose restrictions, industry wants them delayed until 2012 or later. Meanwhile, environmentalists are urging the agency to move as ... read more 12/01/2010 07:00 PM World's communications network due an energy diet New Scientist: The internet and other communications networks could use one-ten-thousandth of the energy that they do today if smarter data-coding techniques were used to move information around. That's the conclusion of Bell Labs, the research centre in Murray Hill, New Jersey, where both the laser and transistor were invented. The lab has launched a consortium of networking and computing firms called Green Touch that is committed to developing new power-saving technologies. The initial goal is to ... read more 13/01/2010 07:00 PM United States: Bio energy backers stay upbeat despite setbacks Atlanta Journal-Constitution: The December announcement from a small Atlanta company vowing to turn wood scrap into fuel in nearby Thomaston rang all too familiar: Yet another bold promise to create rural jobs, help wean the country from foreign oil and stem global warming. Enlarge photo Brant Sanderlin, bsanderlin@ajc.com Cosmas Bayuadri with American Process calibrates a machine for testing samples of advanced yeast for ethanol production from woody biomass. American Process hopes their technology will finally ... read more 13/01/2010 07:00 PM United Kingdom: Baillie and Rothes wind farm projects approved Scotsman: WIND FARM projects capable of supplying power to about 45,000 homes were given the green light by ministers today. The Scottish Government approved the 52.5-megawatt Baillie wind farm near Thurso and agreed to an extension of Rothes wind farm near Elgin. The £80 million Baillie wind farm could create power to supply almost 25,000 homes and will feed electricity into the upgraded Beauly-Denny power line, given the go-ahead last week. And the production capacity of Rothes ... read more 13/01/2010 07:00 PM India: Temperature shift shrinking Siachen glacier India Today: The Siachen glacier has undergone a shift in temperatures over two decades. A study has shown that the glacier has warmed between 1° and 1.5° Celsius at its ablation zone - where the ice melts - and cooled by about 0.5° to 1° Celsius in its accumulation zone - where it bulks up ice. It was also found that the accumulation zone was shrinking and the ablation zone was expanding. The study was conducted by A. P. Dimri of the School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal ... read more 13/01/2010 07:00 PM Canada's climate change plan should not single out oilsands Edmonton Journal: Canada's comprehensive climate change plan must strike a balance between energy producers and consumers and not single out the oilsands as the source of Canada's poor record on greenhouse gas emissions, the Conference Board of Canada said Tuesday. In its publication Getting the Balance Right: The Oil Sands, Exporting and Sustainability, the national independent research organization gathers all the facts related to the oilsands and its environmental impacts, assesses those facts and ... read more 13/01/2010 07:00 PM China-led group to meet ahead of climate deadline Reuters: Four of the world's largest and fastest-growing carbon emitters will meet in New Delhi this month ahead of a Jan 31 deadline for countries to submit their actions to fight climate change. The meeting, to be held either on Jan 24 or 25, would be attended by the environment ministers of Brazil, South Africa, India and China -- the BASIC bloc of nations that helped broker a political accord at last month's Copenhagen climate summit. The non-binding accord was described by many as ... read more 13/01/2010 07:00 PM Democrats rally to defend climate bill and EPA ruling Business Green: The row over the proposed US climate change bill rumbled on this week, as a number of Democrat Senators called on the architects of the bill to scale down its ambitions and Republicans moved forward with efforts to block the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from regulating against carbon emissions. Both moves brought a robust response from senior Democrats and White House officials who said they remained committed to passing a cap-and-trade bill this year and would defend the ... read more 13/01/2010 07:00 PM Spanish firm green lights giant UK recycled paper mill Business Green: Spanish paper firm SAICA has announced it will build one of Europe's largest paper recycling mills at a site near Manchester. Construction work on the £290m development will start later this year, and the plant is expected to begin operating from February 2012. The company said that when fully operational, the plant will produce approximately 400,000 tonnes of recycled paper a year, which will be used to manufacture recycled corrugated boxes. It added that its new ... read more 13/01/2010 07:00 PM A Smoking Dragon in Sheep's Clothing New York Times: China presents itself as a schizophrenic power: a developing country on select international issues, but in other matters a rising superpower with new muscular confidence that supposedly is in the same league as the United States. At the recent Copenhagen climate-change summit, China was the former: It loudly emphasized its membership in the developing world and quietly used poor countries, especially from Africa, to raise procedural obstacles in the negotiations. Make no ... read more 13/01/2010 07:00 PM Insurance Group Says Stolen E-Mails Show Risk in Accepting Climate Science New York Times: A major trade group for the insurance industry is warning that it is "exceedingly risky" for companies to blindly accept scientific conclusions around climate change, given the "serious questions" around the extent to which humans cause atmospheric warming. The assertion was made in a letter (pdf) to insurance regulators, who will administer the nation's first mandatory climate requirements on corporations in May. Large insurers will have to answer about a dozen questions related to ... read more 13/01/2010 07:00 PM Climate change: investors ignore it at your peril Telegraph: In the investment world it is a challenge to predict with accuracy what will happen in the next week, let alone the next decade. But there are three trends which are set to unfold in the coming years which will have such a major impact on the global economy that the investment implications are reasonably easy to foresee. The first and most potentially calamitous trend is climate change, both in terms of costs of mitigating its effects and also adjusting global energy use to ensure ... read more 13/01/2010 07:00 PM South Africa: Was Copenhagen the Death of Multilateral Environmental Agreements? All Africa. Com: What do secret declassified documents from the Clinton era tell us about the future of climate negotiations? While a great hope hung on the Copenhagen Climate Summit, right up to the end, the meeting was bogged down with uncertainty and controversy. There were no targets, no binding agreements and there was no real money to show. Some governments didn't even bother with the requirements of science or the immorality of not acting with urgency. Denmark's inability to play ... read more 13/01/2010 07:00 PM Exaggerating the impact of climate change on the spread of malaria Guardian: A recent press release from the UK Department for International Development (DFID) suggested that millions more people in Kenya are susceptible to malaria as a result of mosquitoes colonising higher ground as global temperatures rise. ('New evidence of a link between climate change and malaria', 30.12.09 – see below). The press release was extensively covered in UK newspapers and elsewhere. Simple analysis shows that the claims of the press release are almost entirely without ... read more 13/01/2010 07:00 PM Tourist killed by 'dinosaur-sized' shark off South African beach Guardian: Witnesses today described their horror at seeing a tourist being eaten by a "gigantic" shark in South Africa's most popular holiday destination. Lloyd Skinner was pulled under the surf and dragged out to sea by the shark, believed to be a great white, off Fish Hoek beach in Cape Town. His diving goggles and a dark patch of blood were all that remained in the water. "Holy shit. We just saw a gigantic shark eat what looked like a person in front of our house," witness Gregg ... read more 13/01/2010 07:00 PM India: Climate policy needs a basic shift Economic Times: India's climate policy is at a crossroads. The Copenhagen Accord has transformed the global climate discourse, fostered new groupings of countries and created a policy vacuum at the global level. We now need to develop our vision of a climate constrained future. For eight years after the Rio Conference we were in a state of denial. Seven years ago, when the annual climate conference was held in Delhi, we stated what we will not do "" our per capita emissions will never exceed the ... read more 10/01/2010 07:00 PM United States: Air of uncertainty around carbon offset plan San Francisco Chronicle: A groundbreaking effort to regulate air pollution in California to head off the potentially cataclysmic effects of global warming is plagued by uncertainty and concerns among critics about the potential for misuse and outright fraud. Limits on carbon dioxide emissions that are scheduled to go into effect in California in 2012 are being used as a model for national legislation now working through Congress, but critics claim a key element of the so-called cap-and-trade program would let ... read more 13/01/2010 07:00 PM Indonesia forest plan at odds with carbon target Jakarta Globe: The Indonesian government's pledge to cut greenhouse emissions growth via forestry efforts can't be achieved under its own existing and proposed forest policies, according to a local non-government policy research organisation. Greenomics Indonesia say the country's proposed Forestry Program for Climate Change and existing forest concessions would result in the release of up to 850 millions tonnes over the next ten years. This would seriously undermine the national target to cut ... read more 12/01/2010 07:00 PM Predicting Seasonal Weather redOrbit: Large-scale weather patterns which occur in various locations around the Earth, from the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) in the tropics to the high latitude Arctic Oscillation (AO) play a significant part in controlling the weather on a seasonal time scale. Knowing the condition of these atmospheric oscillations in advance would greatly improve long-range weather predictions. Scientists search for clues in the earth's surface conditions such as tropical sea surface temperatures and snow ... read more 12/01/2010 07:00 PM Ecuador foreign minister quits over Amazon project Reuters: Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Fander Falconi quit on Tuesday after President Rafael Correa criticized the way he was negotiating a project to protect the Amazon rain forest. "Falconi presented his resignation," a government statement said. He had served as the Andean country's chief diplomat since December 2008. Under Correa's Yasuni initiative, OPEC-member Ecuador would leave 850 million barrels of oil, worth $6 billion, underground in its Amazon region as a contribution to ... read more 12/01/2010 07:00 PM Expectations Not Met in Copenhagen All Africa: Expectations for southern Africa and the rest of the continent were not met at the recent United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference at Copenhagen. The conference ended without a legally binding agreement but a political agreement termed the Copenhagen Accord. Southern Africa expressed dissatisfaction with the contents of the Accord as expectations were not met especially regarding binding emission targets and binding financial contributions to tackle the impacts ... read more 12/01/2010 07:00 PM Seeking a Consumer Culture Revolution Inter Press Service: The last 50 years have seen an unprecedented and unsustainable spike in consumption, driven by a culture of consumerism that has emerged over that period, says a report released Tuesday by the Worldwatch Institute. This consumerist culture is the elephant in the room when it comes to solving the big environmental issues of today, the report says, and those issues cannot be fully solved until a transition to a more sustainable culture is begun. "State of the World 2010", ... read more 12/01/2010 07:00 PM US cult of greed is now a global environmental threat Guardian: The average American consumes more than his or her weight in products each day, fuelling a global culture of excess that is emerging as the biggest threat to the planet, according to a report published today. In its annual report, Worldwatch Institute says the cult of consumption and greed could wipe out any gains from government action on climate change or a shift to a clean energy economy. Erik Assadourian, the project director who led a team of 35 behind the report, said: "Until we ... read more 12/01/2010 07:00 PM Organic farmers must embrace GM crops if we are to feed the world, says scientist Times (UK): The organic movement should overcome its hostility to genetically modified crops and embrace the contribution that they can make to sustainable farming, one of the world's leading agricultural scientists has told The Times. Although organic farmers are among the most implacable opponents of genetic engineering, it should be accepted as legitimate, according to Gordon Conway, Professor of International Development at Imperial College London and a former government adviser. In an ... read more 12/01/2010 07:00 PM United Kingdom: Wild boar forage in bins as cold weather drives them out of the woods Times (UK): Forest of Dean Wild boar raid rubbish bins to find food. Sub-zero temperatures have left the ground so hard that the animals cannot forage on the forest floor. Elsewhere, local authorities have been told to reduce the amount of gritting salt they are using by up to 50 per cent to help to meet critical shortfalls in parts of the country. The Highways Agency has ordered 100,000 tonnes of rock salt from the United States and Spain but the European supplies will not arrive until ... read more 13/01/2010 07:00 PM 42 tons of poison to purge island of rats Independent: Lord Howe, an idyllic island off the Australian mainland, carefully conserves its natural treasures. The World Heritage-listed chunk of rock has strict quarantine laws, and limits the number of tourists who may visit. But its unique birds, insects and plants are under threat from an implacable foe: the black rat. Accidentally introduced in 1918 when a ship ran aground, rats are blamed for the extinction of five endemic bird species. Wildlife experts warn that 13 other native birds, ... read more 12/01/2010 07:00 PM U.S. carbon emissions to rise next two years-EIA Reuters: U.S. carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels like coal and oil should rise this year and next as the economy recovers, making the Obama administration's goal to cut emissions by 2020 a tougher task, the government's top energy forecaster said on Tuesday. U.S. emissions of the main planet-warming gas should rise 1.5 percent this year to 5.53 billion tonnes as "projected improvements in the economy" boost demand for the fuels, the Energy Information Administration said in its monthly ... read more 12/01/2010 07:00 PM Ecuador ForMin, criticized for Amazon project, quits Reuters: Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Fander Falconi stepped down Tuesday, a source at the ministry said, after President Rafael Correa criticized the way that Falconi was negotiating an Amazon rain forest protection project. "He resigned this morning," said the source, who has direct knowledge of the situation and asked to remain anonymous. Under Correa's Yasuni initiative, Ecuador would leave 850 million barrels of oil, worth $6 billion, underground in the country's Amazon region as a ... read more 12/01/2010 07:00 PM Largest U.S. farm group: Stop EPA on greenhouse gases Reuters: The largest U.S. farm group called on Congress on Tuesday to prevent the government from regulating greenhouse gases if lawmakers kill climate change legislation. The 6-million-member American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) also underlined its firm opposition to legislation to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases blamed for boosting global temperatures. In their first item of policy work, delegates at the AFBF annual meeting voted to support "any legislative ... read more 12/01/2010 07:00 PM Dem candidate promotes energy in bid for Utah gov Associated Press: Democrat Peter Corroon launched his gubernatorial bid Tuesday by saying Utah should become energy independent within 10 years by investing in renewable energy. "While our federal government talks about it, Utah can achieve it." the mayor of Salt Lake County said in a speech officially announcing his candidacy. "We can and should become self-sustaining like the pioneers before us." Utah has an abundance of energy resources -- including coal, natural gas and wind energy -- to ... read more 12/01/2010 07:00 PM The sustainability of the tar sands Globe and Mail read more 12/01/2010 07:00 PM Texas town welcomed drilling, now fears pollution Associated Press: Like thousands of other Texans living atop one of the country's most productive natural gas fields, folks in this tiny town were giddy when drillers started offering up the fat checks. The mayor likened it to the Gold Rush, and many of the 200 residents of a town that once sold its name to a satellite television company were hoping to be next in a long line of landowners to strike it rich by drilling into the Texas earth. Many in the town on the rural plains of Fort Worth ... read more 12/01/2010 07:00 PM Group seeks chicken farm records from Md. agency AP: An environmental group says it has filed a Public Information Act request with Maryland's Department of the Environment for records about a Berlin chicken farm it says is polluting waterways. The Waterkeeper Alliance has threatened to sue the Hudson Farm and Perdue Farms, which buys chickens from the farm. State officials said last month that a mound photographed by the group on the Berlin farm was treated sewage sludge, not poultry manure. MDE spokeswoman Dawn Stoltzfus says ... read more 12/01/2010 07:00 PM NH officials: Ag has key role in saving energy Associated Press: A state official told a gathering of farmers Tuesday that they will play a big part in the push for energy efficiency as climate change affects New Hampshire. Thomas Burack, commissioner of the Department of Environmental Services, reviewing the state's climate action plan at a farm energy conference, said research indicates that New Hampshire and the rest of the Northeast will see more rain and shorter, warmer winters, which means changes such as the pest population moving ... read more News Archive     Back to Homepage
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