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		News Archive     20/07/2009 08:00 PM 'Weedy' Bird Species May Win as Temperatures Rise Physorg: Climate change is altering North American winter bird communities in ways that models currently favored by ecologists fail to predict. Based on patterns of animals found in different climate zones today, ecologists would expect that as habitats warm, numbers of species found there will increase, and that those species will be smaller in size and restricted to narrower geographic ranges. Ecologists at the University of California, San Diego have found that only one of those three ... read more 20/07/2009 08:00 PM Coal sales sink Rudd Business Spectator: I thought it a tad ironic last week that, while the Prime Minister was using Al Gore and a new blog as props in his campaign for the August passage of the emissions trading scheme through the Senate, the miners of his home State were telling the world that they have chalked up 887.4 million tonnes of export coal sales in the past six years. By comparison, Queensland`s power generators have consumed about 140 million tonnes of coal in the same period. Even allowing for the ETS ... read more 20/07/2009 08:00 PM Australia needs many energy options: MP Sydney Morning News: Australia needs a broad range of options to meet domestic and export demand for energy, federal Energy Minister Martin Ferguson says. The options include coal, liquefied natural gas (LNG), alternate fuels, uranium, wind, solar and geothermal energy which all must be developed as quickly as possible, Mr Ferguson told the bi-annual QREX resources conference in Rockhampton on Monday. He said an insatiable thirst for energy meant its security was one of the main issues confronting ... read more 20/07/2009 08:00 PM Co-operative gives £53000 to Canadian Cree for tar sands lawsuit Press Association: People in the UK are being urged to support a legal fight by a Canadian Cree community against "tar sands" – a form of fossil fuel which campaigners warn could help push the world into a climate disaster. The Co-operative Financial Services is backing the Beaver Lake Cree Nation, who are fighting the extraction of tar sands from their ancestral lands in the boreal forest of Alberta because of the damage it is doing to their environment. The Beaver Lake Cree claim the strip ... read more 20/07/2009 08:00 PM World starts to act on climate change New Scientist: IT'S like a giant game of Jenga. One by one, pieces of our green future are stacking up, some more precariously than others. At last week's summit in L'Aquila, Italy, leaders of the G8 declared formally for the first time that the world should not allow global temperatures to rise by more than 2 °C above pre-industrial levels. The group also backed Mexico's plan for a green fund to help the poorest countries develop clean-technology economies. Meanwhile, in London this week, ... read more 20/07/2009 08:00 PM Carbon market trading rose 61% last year: study MarketWatch: Trading in global carbon markets rose 61% last year, and European carbon trading during the first half of 2009 exceeded all of the activity during 2008, according to a report published Monday. International Financial Services, London, or IFSL, said global markets trading in carbon dioxide emissions last year rose 61% from 2007 to 4.81 billion metric tons, as opposed to 71% growth between 2006 and 2007. And trading in the European Union's Emissions Trading System rose to 3.2 billion ... read more 20/07/2009 08:00 PM Most Australian Businesses Plan to Reduce Carbon Emissions Bloomberg: Most Australian businesses plan to invest in technology that will reduce their carbon emissions as they prepare for the introduction of laws tackling climate change, a survey has found. Some 74 percent of companies have taken steps or plan measures in the next three years to manage their carbon footprint and 62 percent have invested in cleaner technologies or intend to, the survey of 400 businesses by the Australian Industry Group and accounting firm KPMG found. The government ... read more 19/07/2009 08:00 PM New worry: HCFs chip in on global warming United Press International: Scientists in the United States say hydrofluorocarbons, chemicals credited with helping save Earth's ozone layer, may be contributing to global warming. Some researchers fear HCFs are "super" greenhouse gases, far more capable than carbon dioxide of capturing heat. HCFs were developed as coolants for refrigerators and air conditioners after scientists determined that chlorofuorocarbons were eroding the protective ozone layer. The Washington Post said Sunday the ... read more 20/07/2009 08:00 PM Chemicals That Eased One Woe Worsen Another Washington Post: The chemicals, called hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), were introduced widely in the 1990s to replace ozone-depleting gases used in air conditioners, refrigerators and insulating foam. They worked: The earth's protective shield seems to be recovering. But researchers say what's good for ozone is bad for climate change. In the atmosphere, these replacement chemicals act like "super" greenhouse gases, with a heat-trapping power that can be 4,470 times that of carbon ... read more 19/07/2009 08:00 PM Australia Opposition Signals May Negotiate On Carbon Plan Dow Jones: Australia's main opposition Liberal-National coalition signaled Monday it may be willing to negotiate with the government over its proposed carbon trading scheme, seeking changes that, if agreed by the government, could see the scheme passed into law when it is debated in Parliament next month. The coalition had previously been expected to vote down the controversial legislation in a finely-balanced upper house, the Senate, when it goes to a vote in the week beginning Aug. 11, setting ... read more 19/07/2009 08:00 PM Arctic trek brings global warming into new focus Contra Costa Times: When Jessica Whitlock asks her students what they did over summer vacation, little will they know she has an interesting story of her own to share. The Torrance resident, who will teach biology in the fall at Frederick Douglass Academy High School in Los Angeles, recently spent 10 days in the Canadian Arctic tundra studying climate change with a team of researchers and fellow teachers. "We got to live 10 days in the life of a researcher," Whitlock said. "It was ... read more 20/07/2009 08:00 PM House climate bill was flooded with last-minute changes LA Times: Less than 24 hours before the House approved its landmark energy and climate bill last month, Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.) got several paragraphs added to the 1,200-page measure -- additions expected to be worth millions of dollars to companies that install solar panels. About the same time, Rep. Melissa Bean (D-Ill.) took the lead in adding another little-noticed provision to the legislation -- a section designed to prevent regulatory action she said could shut down the ... read more 20/07/2009 08:00 PM Fish 'shrinking due to global warming' Agence France-Presse: FISH have lost half their average body mass and smaller species are making up a larger proportion of European fish stocks as a result of global warming, a study has found. 'It's huge,' said study author Martin Daufresne of the Cemagref Public Agricultural and Environmental Research Institute in Lyon, France. 'Size is a fundamental characteristic that is linked to a number of biological functions, such as fecundity -- the capacity to reproduce.' Smaller fish tend to ... read more 20/07/2009 08:00 PM Carbon trading scheme 'target for scams' Agence France-Presse: AUSTRALIA'S proposed carbon trading scheme will be an easy target for organised crime groups, a legal expert warns. The federal government's carbon pollution reduction scheme aims to reduce Australia's carbon emissions through a cap and trade system. Under the proposed scheme, a company that pollutes less can sell credits to a company that needs to increase its emission allowance. Simon Harrison, a climate change law expert with Australian firm Herbert Geer, says the ... read more 20/07/2009 08:00 PM Taxing carbon gases a vital 1st step Arizona Daily Star: The Tucson community has a clear stake in the national climate-change legislation now working its way through Congress. Though the Waxman-Markey bill is imperfect in several ways, it does deserve enactment for many reasons important to our community. Critics complain that the time frames for greenhouse-gas reductions in Waxman-Markey are too distant, that the emission reductions sought are inadequate, that the carbon-trading mechanisms are too unwieldy. Yet despite its flaws, ... read more 20/07/2009 08:00 PM Coal on the slide as renewables top 11 per cent of US power mix Business Green: The renewable energy revolution under way in the US appears to be gathering pace according to new figures from the Energy Information Administration suggesting that zero carbon energy sources are successfully replacing fossil fuel-based forms of energy production. According to the Administration's July Electric Power Monthly report, green energy generation accounted for 11.1 per cent of total electricity production in the country between April 2008 and 2009. Input from ... read more 20/07/2009 08:00 PM World's deserts getting greener despite global warming Asian News International: Contrary to the assumption that global warming would cause an expansion of the world`s deserts, some scientists are predicting that water and life may slowly reclaim these arid places. According to a report by BBC News, the evidence is limited and definitive conclusions are impossible to reach, but recent satellite pictures of North Africa seem to show areas of the Sahara in retreat. It could be that an increase in rainfall has caused this effect. The Sahara is ... read more 20/07/2009 08:00 PM Tuvalu vows to go carbon neutral BBC,: The tiny Pacific island state of Tuvalu has said it wants all its energy to come from renewable sources by 2020. Public Utilities Minister Kausea Natano said his nation of 12,000 people wanted to set an example to others. Tuvalu is made up of a string of atolls with the highest point only 4.5m (15 ft) above sea level, making it extremely vulnerable to flooding. The government hopes to use wind and solar power to generate electricity, instead of imported ... read more 20/07/2009 08:00 PM Uganda likely to lose all forest cover in 50 yrs Stabroek News: Uganda will lose its entire forest cover in the next 50 years if the government does not embark on immediate efforts to halt rapid deforestation, a forestry expert warned yesterday. Forests and tree planting can help mitigate the effects of global warming by increasing carbon storage and cutting greenhouse gas emissions, experts say. Tropical deforestation accounts for a fifth of emissions from human activities. "We have been observing using satellite imagery that over the last ... read more 19/07/2009 08:00 PM India Gives Cold Shoulder to US on Climate Change Emission Caps ABC: Hillary Clinton has been received with feverish media attention here in India on her first visit to the country as secretary of state, but the warm welcome did not win her any of the concessions she sought from New Delhi on climate change, a perennial dispute between the two countries. Indian Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, in white, greets U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham... Indian Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, in white, greets U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham ... read more 20/07/2009 08:00 PM Carbon emissions trading system 'seriously flawed' Guardian: The system of trading carbon emissions at the heart of the ambitious low-carbon plan announced by the government last week is seriously flawed and close to becoming irrelevant, according to researchers behind a new analysis. So-called "hot air" carbon credits – those which do not result in any actual emissions cuts – could be so numerous that companies covered by the EU Emissions Trading Scheme would not have to make any cuts to their own emissions until 2015, says the report from ... read more 19/07/2009 08:00 PM India resists hard limits on emissions during Clinton visit CNN: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised India's efforts to reduce carbon emissions Sunday, but India's environment minister said the country won't agree to "legally binding" limits on greenhouse gases. Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh stands with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Sunday in Gurgaon. Clinton toured the ITC Green Center in Gurgaon, outside the Indian capital, with Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh, and she praised India's efforts to boost ... read more 19/07/2009 08:00 PM Will not succumb to any pressure on climate change, India tells US New Kerala: India today made clear to the United States that it would not succumb to any pressure to accept any mandatory cuts in its emission of Green House Gases(GHGs) that cause global warming leading to climate change. It told the US that it would not accept any measure that was not embedded in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Bali Action Plan. In his opening remarks at ITC Green Building Round Table on Green Technologies organised in ... read more 20/07/2009 08:00 PM India Refuses to Bend to U.S. Pressure on Carbon Caps Bloomberg: India won't bend to demands from the Obama administration or threats from the U.S. Congress to adopt legally binding caps on its carbon emissions, the country's environment minister told visiting U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton yesterday. "There is simply no case for the pressure" the U.S. is exerting, considering India produces among the lowest per capita emissions in the world, Minister Jairam Ramesh told Clinton during an unexpected discussion of climate negotiations during ... read more 19/07/2009 08:00 PM India to reveal nuke deal to Clinton: aides Agence France-Presse: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hoped to seal a defence pact boosting US arms sales to India in talks here Monday that should also see agreement on the siting of two US nuclear reactors. On the business end of her five-day visit to India, Clinton met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and was to meet later with Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna for talks aimed at deepening strategic US ties with an emerging player on the world stage. Washington is especially hopeful of sealing a ... read more 19/07/2009 08:00 PM Global warming means continental crops could take root in Britain by 2030 Telegraph: A report by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), suggests there could be unexpected benefits to climate change with exotic fruits and vegetables thriving. But native species, such as potatoes could suffers as average temperatures rise by around 2C by 2030. Experts predict that within two decades, southerly counties like Devon and Cornwall will be warm enough to support dates, a staple of the Middle East as well as chickpeas. figs, aubergines, peppers ... read more 19/07/2009 08:00 PM France: Sarkozy pushes climate action Agence France-Presse: French President Nicolas Sarkozy and UN chief Ban Ki-moon discussed a variety of key international issues, with a specific focus on climate change, at a working lunch in New York yesterday. During the lunch at the French consulate Sarkozy called for new action on environmental issues, which were a major part of discussions at this month's G8 summit in Italy. "We will fight, hand in hand, a battle against the consequences of climate change. We must create a global organization ... read more 20/07/2009 08:00 PM Canada: Causes mysterious as most 'prairie pothole' lakes slowly dry up and blow away Canadian Press: Every spring, wardens at Elk Island National Park just east of Edmonton patrol the shores of Astotin Lake to clean up debris exposed by receding water. The junk that shows up on the ever-lengthening beach provides a kind of index for just how long it has been since water levels were that low. "This year, I found a tire from a Model A car," says Clayton Szafron. "It's kind of disconcerting." Astotin isn't alone. The verdant parkland between Edmonton and Saskatoon was once ... read more 19/07/2009 08:00 PM Tiny Tuvalu aims to be climate neutral by 2020 Associated Press: The tiny island nation of Tuvalu, already under threat from rising seas caused by global warming, vowed Sunday to do its part for climate change by fueling its economy entirely from renewable sources by 2020. The South Pacific nation of 12,000 people is part of a movement of countries and cities committed to going climate neutral. Since February 2008, 10 nations including New Zealand, Pakistan, Iceland and Costa Rica have vowed to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases as part of ... read more 19/07/2009 08:00 PM Fraudsters target tax on carbon credits Telegraph: HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has recently uncovered what is thought to be the first attempted UK tax fraud in the carbon emissions trading market. The tax dodge is a variation of the "carousel" VAT fraud. Carousel fraud, also known as "missing trader" fraud, has typically involved criminals importing goods such as mobile phones and computer chips VAT-free from European Union member states, selling the goods in the UK, including a VAT charge, and going missing without paying the VAT ... read more 20/07/2009 08:00 PM Scientists zoom in on carbon dioxide in NYC Associated Press: Wade McGillis peered up at the structure propped like a high-tech stick figure -- minus the head -- on an elementary school roof. Then he examined the electronics attached to its spindly metal frame, looking out over the Harlem brownstones nearby and the skyscrapers farther away. Within 15 minutes, a graph spiked in his office eight blocks away. The abrupt peak marked the carbon dioxide the Columbia University environmental engineering professor and three visitors had ... read more 19/07/2009 08:00 PM US, India Clash Over Climate Change Remedies Voice of America: U.S.-Indian differences about dealing with global warming were on display Sunday as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton began talks with Indian officials in New Delhi. India's environment minister said his country cannot accept binding limits on carbon emissions under a proposed global climate change treaty. The two governments say they want to see an agreement come out of the global climate change conference in Copenhagen in December. But comments by senior U.S. and Indian ... read more 19/07/2009 08:00 PM India to Resist US Pressure on Carbon Emission Caps Bloomberg: India will resist pressure from the Obama administration to accept legally binding caps on its carbon emissions, the South Asian nation's environment minister told visiting Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. "There is simply no case for the pressure that we, who have been among the lowest emissions per capita, face to actually reduce emissions," Jairam Ramesh said at a meeting today with Clinton in Gurgaon near New Delhi, according to a statement he issued to reporters. "And as if ... read more 20/07/2009 08:00 PM Should we deliberately move species? Associated Press: On naked patches of land in western Canada and United States, scientists are planting trees that don't belong there. It's a bold experiment to move trees threatened by global warming into places where they may thrive amid a changing climate. Take the Western larch with its thick grooved bark and green needles. It grows in the valleys and lower mountain slopes in British Columbia's southern interior. Canadian foresters are testing how its seeds will fare when planted farther north -- ... read more 20/07/2009 08:00 PM India will not take on emission cut targets, Jairam tells Hillary Times of India: Environment minister Jairam Ramesh asserted on Sunday in the presence of visiting US secretary of state Hillary Clinton that India would never take legally binding commitments to cut down on emissions. "India's position is clear and categorical that we are simply not in a position to take any legally binding emissions reductions," Ramesh said at conference on climate change he addressed along with the visiting secretary of state to mark the opening of ITC's Green Centre building in ... read more 20/07/2009 08:00 PM Slow progress on Kyoto replacement - minister Radio New Zealand: The minister in charge of international climate change negotiations, Tim Groser, is warning there is unlikely to be a treaty ready to replace the Kyoto Protocol this year. The protocol ends in 2012 and a major climate meeting is planned in Copenhagen in December to decide what will take its place. Mr Groser, who has been at a preliminary meeting in Greenland, says progress so far has been too slow to produce a ratifiable treaty from the Copenhagen meeting though points needing ... read more 19/07/2009 08:00 PM United States: Organization formed to combat global warming Associated Press: A new nonprofit organization in Wisconsin has been created to fight global warming. Gov. Jim Doyle says the Wisconsin Climate Change Action Initiative will bring together leaders in business, government, advocacy organization and researchers to work on the issue. Forming a nonprofit group like this was recommended by a Doyle task force that studied global warming. Doyle says the group will work to increase voluntary conservancy practices that will save money and have a ... read more 19/07/2009 08:00 PM U.S., India discuss climate change Associated Press: India stood firm Sunday against Western demands to accept binding limits on carbon emissions even as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton expressed optimism about an eventual climate change deal to India's benefit. "There is simply no case for the pressure that we -- who have among the lowest emissions per capita -- face to actually reduce emissions," India's minister of environment and forests, Jairam Ramesh, told Clinton and her visiting delegation in a ... read more 20/07/2009 08:00 PM India Rebuffs New Efforts for Binding Carbon Targets New York Times: India served notice on Sunday that it remains opposed to legally binding targets to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, digging in its heels against the United States as the Obama administration begins marshaling support for a new global agreement on climate change. India voiced its rejection of the American position in an awkwardly public forum: during a visit by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to an energy-efficient office building in this city on the outskirts of New ... read more 19/07/2009 08:00 PM Facing climate-change annihilation, Island nation goes solar Canwest News Service: A tiny island nation in the Pacific Ocean - that could be wiped off the map because of global warming - is seeking to to set an example for the world by shedding its dependency on oil and becoming powered entirely by renewable energy sources. Tuvalu is a Polynesian island nation located midway between Hawaii and Australia. It is made up of four reef islands and five atolls, with the highest elevation a little over four metres above sea level. The doomed archipelago is the ... read more 19/07/2009 08:00 PM Clinton, India's Ramesh Clash on Climate Change Washington Post: But the clash between developed and developing countries over climate change intruded on the high-profile photo opportunity midway through Clinton's three-day tour of India. Indian Environmental Minister Jairam Ramesh complained about U.S. pressure to cut a worldwide deal and Clinton countered that the Obama administration's push for a binding agreement would not sacrifice India's economic growth. As dozens of cameras recorded the scene, Ramesh declared that India would not commit to ... read more 19/07/2009 08:00 PM Climate tops Clinton India talks BBC: Visiting US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said she hopes India and the US can devise a new plan to deal with the issue of climate change. After arriving in Delhi, Mrs Clinton also sought to assure India the US would not try to impose conditions that might affect India's economic growth. Mrs Clinton is on a five-day visit and spent the first two in Mumbai. She is meeting PM Manmohan Singh, with relations with Pakistan also sure to be high on the ... read more 19/07/2009 08:00 PM United States: Digging for answers to climate change Philadelphia Inquirer: Forty miles off the Jersey Shore, an international team of scientists is grappling with a worrisome phenomenon: The oceans are slowly rising. The researchers are not studying the sea itself. Living for weeks at a time on this drilling platform, they are burrowing down into the past, pulling up cores of prehistoric sediment from nearly half a mile below the ocean floor. By studying how the Earth responded when the sea rose and fell at various times millions of years ago, the ... read more 19/07/2009 08:00 PM Clinton Urges India Toward Clean Energy National Public Radio: The Obama administration is trying to persuade India to help tackle climate change. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged development experts recently to help come up with ideas on projects that could encourage the Indians to turn to clean energy in a way that won't limit its economic growth. read more 19/07/2009 08:00 PM Clinton upbeat on climate change talks with India Reuters: An Indian official on Sunday complained about U.S. pressure on India to curb its greenhouse gas emissions, but U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton emerged from their talks upbeat about a solution. "There is simply no case for the pressure that we, who have among the lowest emissions per capita, face to actually reduce emissions," Jairam Ramesh, India's minister of state for environment, told Clinton in their talks. "And as if this pressure was not enough, we also face the ... read more 19/07/2009 08:00 PM India takes firm line with Clinton on climate change Agence France-Presse: India stood firm Sunday with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over carbon emission cuts, but she insisted their differences could be bridged before a high-stakes climate change summit in December. Meeting Clinton in New Delhi, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh sharply criticised developed countries like the United States for pressuring developing nations to accept binding targets on emissions reductions as part of any new global climate treaty. "There is simply no case ... read more 19/07/2009 08:00 PM Clinton: US, India to join hands on climate change Associated Press: India and the United States can jointly devise a breakthrough plan for fighting climate change that will generate massive new investments and millions of jobs, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Sunday. She also assured India that while the U.S. wants it to do more to fight climate change, Washington will never impose conditions that would limit India's economic growth. Clinton, who arrived in India late Friday, said that devising a comprehensive and strategic ... read more 19/07/2009 08:00 PM You call that a clunker? Washington Post: Washington's wordsmiths are at it again. A new federal program seems to have changed the very definition of the word "clunker." A vote, a stroke of the pen, a desire to get Americans buying cars and a mandate to shrink greenhouse gas emissions have turned a fleet of old Audis, BMWs, Acuras and other luxury cars into clunkers overnight. The Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save Act of 2009 -- also known as "Cash for Clunkers" -- will offer vouchers of up to $4,500 for car ... read more 19/07/2009 08:00 PM Arctic Mystery: Identifying the Great Blob of Alaska Tiime Magazine: But what was it? An oil slick? Some sort of immense, amorphous organism adrift in some of the planet's most remote waters? Maybe a worrisome sign of global climate change? Or, as folks wondered who followed from faraway via the internet, was it something insidious and, perhaps, even carnivorous like the man-eating jello from the old Steve McQueen movie that inspired the Alaska phenomenon's nickname? (Read Richard Corliss' review of The Thing, a sci-fi film set in the Arctic.) The ... read more 19/07/2009 08:00 PM India: Carbon count of burnt buses Telegraph (India): Calcutta is the bus-burning capital of the world. This mode of "protest" not only inconveniences millions and destroys public property worth crores but also affects the city's climate. "On an average, eight to 10 public vehicles are burnt in the city every year, unheard of even in cities like Karachi, Dhaka and Manila. The environmental cost of burning vehicles is huge," says environment expert S.M. Ghosh. Joyashree Roy, a climate expert and economics teacher from Jadavpur ... read more 19/07/2009 08:00 PM United Kingdom: Wind power plans 'flawed,' say critics Telegraph: Critics say the Government's Renewable Energy Strategy fundamentally underestimates how many wind turbines will be needed to meet its ambitious targets for a reduction in the use of fossil fuels. Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, last week announced that planning rules would be relaxed to make it easier for an extra 3,500 onshore turbines to be built as part of a £100 billion plan to generate more energy from wind power by 2020. Ministers want to increase the amount of power ... read more 18/07/2009 08:00 PM Most polluting postcodes in Britain identified in heart of middle England Telegraph: Carbon emissions per household by postcode were calculated by looking at official figures on energy use, travel and general consumption including food. People in wealthy areas eat more exotic and environmentally unfriendly food, such as prawns flown from Malaysia, green beans from Kenya and organic pears from New Zealand. They fly more often and take foreign holidays in more distant locations, drive more "gas guzzling" 4x4s, and live in bigger houses which cost more to heat and ... read more 19/07/2009 08:00 PM Canadians want to tackle climate change regionally McClatchy Newspapers: The debate over climate change is very different north of the border especially among conservatives. Gary Lunn, a Cabinet minister for Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, urged lawmakers from the Pacific Northwest and western Canada to work toward one regional system of regulating greenhouse gases last week. But he said whatever system is developed must allow the two countries to use the bounty of fossil fuels. "We have to be up-front about how dependent we are on ... read more 19/07/2009 08:00 PM Salt marshes losing diversity Study: Salt marshes losing diversity: A new study by researchers at Brown University finds that climate change is reducing the diversity of plants in New England salt marshes by causing a decline in small, flowering plants and allowing the spread of salt marsh grasses such as Spartina patens. The study, called "Experimental warming causes rapid loss of plant diversity in New England salt marshes," was published in the latest edition of the journal Ecology Letters and has been widely distributed on academic Web ... read more 19/07/2009 08:00 PM India, US must work together on climate change: Hillary Times of India: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Sunday said that strategic partnership is required between India and US on issues like climate change. ( Watch ) Addressing a joint press conference, Hillary Clinton said that she expects Pakistan to take strong action against terrorism. After winning over Mumbai with her charm, Clinton arrived in New Delhi on Sunday afternoon for talks with Indian government leaders to launch what she called a third phase in the India-US strategic ... read more 19/07/2009 08:00 PM United Kingdom: Green dream runs low on power Guardian: It was barely 18 months ago that council leaders on the Isle of Wight announced they had drawn up plans to become the world's first "eco-island", to be powered entirely by renewable energy. The small island would become self-sufficient and even an exporter of low-carbon power, local politicians boasted. They pointed out that it was already home to Vestas Blades, the UK subsidiary of the largest wind turbine manufacturer in the world. But Vestas's totemic manufacturing plant at ... read more 18/07/2009 08:00 PM Clinton seeks to narrow gap with India on climate Agence France-Presse: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Sunday she was confident of bridging key divisions with India on how to combat climate change ahead of a high-stakes conference later in the year. "I am very confident ... that the United States and India can devise a plan that will dramatically change the way we produce, consume and conserve energy," Clinton told reporters in New Delhi after what she described as a "very fruitful" meeting with Indian Environment Minister Jairam ... read more 19/07/2009 08:00 PM Himalayan glaciers have shrunk by 38% in 40 years Times of India: Himalayan glaciers are going through a phase of retreat, with some glaciers in specific basins having shrunk by up to an alarming 38% in 40 years while at the same time satellite mapping has not shown any accleration of the process even as the rate of Gangotri's shrinkage has slowed. The overall process of shrinking is leading glaciers to fragment and, therefore, paradoxically enough, the total number of glaciers in the Himalayas is increasing. These were some of the conclusions ISRO ... read more 19/07/2009 08:00 PM United States: Will global warming bill kill coal? Charleston Gazette: Organizers of a series of West Virginia rallies against the global warming bill working its way through Congress argue one of their goals is to "save coal." But will the Obama administration-supported "cap-and-trade" legislation really kill the coal industry? Experts disagree, and no one really knows how big a hit coal might take. Coal could be saved if scientists and engineers perfect and utilities widely deploy equipment to capture power plant greenhouse emissions and ... read more 19/07/2009 08:00 PM Australia: Rudd's 'clean coal': a folly of the highest order Green Left Weekly: There they all were at the recent G8/G20 summit in L'Aquila, Italy, nodding their approval as Kevin Rudd once again announced his global carbon capture and storage institute. But in truth, the L'Aquila photo-op only highlighted the chasm between the emission cuts demanded by the climate science and the steps political leaders are willing to take. We're all tempted to grasp at straws and, as straws go, "clean coal" is a doozy. After all, which world leader wouldn't seize on a promise ... read more 19/07/2009 08:00 PM India: Supreme court releases $2.3 bln for forests Reuters: The Supreme court has released $2.3 billion of frozen funds to be used to boost forest density and wildlife habitats, the Ministry of Environment and Forests said. The money would help improve tree cover on 6 million hectares (60,000 sq km) of degraded forest land, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has told local media. "This money has been released by the Supreme Court," said Kalpana Palkhiwala, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Environment and Forests. The decision ... read more 19/07/2009 08:00 PM Climate change: Hillary shares green thoughts with India Text Indo-Asian News Service: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Sunday began the Delhi leg of her five-day India visit with a conference on climate change and green technologies - a subject close to her heart and an emerging theme in burgeoning India-US ties. Dressed in a turquoise blue business suit, a beaming Ms. Clinton landed at the ITC Green Building in Gurgaon, a township adjoining Delhi, soon after arrriving in the capital on a two-day visit that will focus on expanding the scope of strategic dialogue ... read more 19/07/2009 08:00 PM India: Clinton seeks to narrow gap on climate change Agence France-Presse: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in the Indian capital Sunday hoping to narrow a wide gap with her hosts on fighting climate change ahead of a high-stakes conference later in the year. On the second leg of her first visit to India since becoming chief US diplomat in January, Clinton will also hold talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna on a range of issues from regional security and counter-terrorism, to trade and arms ... read more 18/07/2009 08:00 PM By Degrees: A New Enforcer in Buildings, the Energy Inspector New York Times: Peering behind a bathtub in a newly built house, an inspector, John Umphress, spotted a big gap in the wall insulation. "Somebody took a lunch break!" he complained to the builder, who sheepishly agreed to patch the hole. With the fix, the house, already a model of energy efficiency, will use even less energy and save its residents money – for decades. But that small catch would not have been made in many American towns. Mr. Umphress is a particular kind of inspector, an energy ... read more 17/07/2009 08:00 PM Tennessee Valley Authority Increases Hazard Ratings on Coal Ash Sites New York Times: The Tennessee Valley Authority has raised the hazard ratings on several of its coal ash disposal sites to "high," two weeks after environmentalists complained that the Environmental Protection Agency had allowed the utility to rate its own facilities. The complaints came last month when the E.P.A. released a list of 44 "high hazard" coal ash dumps, defined as sites where a dam failure would put human life at risk. The environmental agency compiled the list after the failure of ... read more 18/07/2009 08:00 PM Clinton urges India to address climate change Associated Press: read more 18/07/2009 08:00 PM India: Clinton defends US demands for anti-terror help Associated Press: Off the injured list and back on the world stage, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday gave an impassioned defense of American demands that India and other countries do more to tackle terrorism and global warming. Opening a three-day visit to India, Clinton sought to emphasize common interests, symbolized by the terrorist attacks in this seaside city last November that killed 166 people. "It must be stopped," she said, adding that the United States cannot do it ... read more 18/07/2009 08:00 PM Indonesia: Activists warn of huge forest fires should El Niño occur Jakarta Post: With severe drought predicted later in the year, environmental activists are urging the government to take swift action to prevent resulting huge forest fires. WWF Indonesia and Forest Watch Indonesia said Friday the government should warn forestry companies, plantations and local people living near forests to stop slash-and-burn methods to clear the land. "Otherwise, we will suffer again from large-scale forest fires during the El Niño phenomenon this year," the WWF's Hariri ... read more 18/07/2009 08:00 PM Study shows significant savings in alt-fuel cars MarketWatch: Eco-politics aside, there's a real cash advantage to opting for hybrid and diesel vehicles over gas-powered offerings, despite the costlier price tag, according to a survey. "The longtime knock against 'green' cars, trucks and SUVs is that their sticker prices do not justify the gas savings," said James Bell, editor of automotive industry research Web site IntelliChoice.com, which conducted the study. "The point we make is that it is not just about fuel," he added in the ... read more 18/07/2009 08:00 PM Catholic carbon audit with Gore's blessing Sydney Morning Herald: Climate change believers in the church are seeking earthly salvation, writes Ben Cubby. GOD puts down a mighty carbon footprint in Australia, but the Catholic Church is doing its best to lighten His tread. With the support of the former US vice-president Al Gore, the church is starting a carbon audit of thousands of churches and parish buildings, about 1500 schools and more than 300 hospitals and aged-care facilities. It estimates its many activities release up to 1.5 ... read more 18/07/2009 08:00 PM Farm leaders call for defeat of cap-and-trade bill Salt Lake Tribune: The cap-and-trade bill before the U.S. Senate will put an even greater burden on the backs of farmers who already are strapped with staggering debts, Utah agricultural leaders said on Friday. The nation's financial meltdown has weakened the beef, swine and poultry industries and pushed U.S. dairies to the brink, said Utah Farm Bureau President Leland Hogan on Friday during the midyear conference of the state's largest agricultural organization. Milk prices are at about half of ... read more 17/07/2009 08:00 PM Czechs expect to sell most CO2 rights in '09 Reuters: The Czech Republic expects to sell most of its 100 million metric tons of surplus greenhouse gas emissions rights this year to European Union governments and private companies, a government official said on Friday. The central European country had been re-thinking such sales earlier this year after the global economic crisis pushed the price of emissions rights to record lows. But sales of sovereign pollution credits under the Kyoto Protocol climate pact are back on the table ... read more 18/07/2009 08:00 PM Fight against poverty can go with low-carbon economy Indo-Asian News Service: There is "no inherent contradiction between poverty eradication and moving towards a low-carbon economy", US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Saturday, signalling her government's approach towards India in the area of combating climate change. "The United States fully supports India's efforts to move all its people out of poverty," Ms. Clinton said at a news conference here. "But we acknowledge that we've made mistakes and we, along with other developed countries, are ... read more 18/07/2009 08:00 PM Already spreading in Brockton area, solar power set to expand statewide Enterprise: Dan Porrazzo of Brockton knows the solar power industry has a strong ally in Gov. Deval Patrick. Porrazzo -- who works for groSolar, a solar power company with a branch in Raynham -- believes Patrick`s pledge to boost solar energy is putting pressure on interested parties in the state to "get it done." "What happens with the governor wanting to make it happen is that it becomes a front-and-center focus for everybody," said Porrazzo, a solar panel installer and salesman for ... read more 18/07/2009 08:00 PM Experts encourage hybrids and electrics, despite critics CTV: Much has been made of hybrid cars. Many see them as a way to reduce greenhouse gases and our overall environmental impact while breaking our addiction to foreign oil. With these possibilities in mind, several governments have taken steps to encourage their production. In fact, earlier this year, U.S. President Barack Obama pledged to put one million plug-in hybrids on the road by 2015 and committed US$2.4 billion towards developing U.S. battery technologies. Dr. Constantine ... read more 17/07/2009 08:00 PM W.Va. groups rally to oppose 'cap-and-trade' Associated Press: As far as political rallying cries go, "no cap-and-trade" might initially sound obscure. The planners of Saturday rallies in Charleston and Beckley, though, think it should be on the lips of all West Virginians. The planned demonstrations could draw more attention to a global warming bill, and test the strength of a grass roots movement born out of anti-tax protests earlier this year. "'Cap-and-trade' doesn't immediately sound like a sexy issue to a lot of folks," said Mike ... read more 18/07/2009 08:00 PM Climate negotiator on Clinton team has Congress worried Times of India: With Hillary Clinton landing in India along with key climate negotiator Todd Stern, disquiet has seeped into the Congress about how the government may deal with pressure on an issue that will be central to the US secretary of state's visit. Speaking to TOI, senior Congress leaders expressed concern about how strong a defence the government would be able to put up especially in the wake of the recent shifts from India's traditional position at the Major Economies Forum at ... read more 18/07/2009 08:00 PM Next generation of solar dishes use less steel Associated Press: Sandia National Laboratories scientist Chuck Andraka is excited about what's missing from a new generation of solar dishes that will be in the field by next year. There's far less steel - about 2 tons - in the structure that supports the SunCatcher, developed for Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Stirling Energy Systems, or SES. Overall, the design is 5,000 pounds lighter than its prototype. "You've got to get the cost down because there's so little margin," said Andraka, lead engineer ... read more 18/07/2009 08:00 PM Higher tides affecting entire East Coast region Virginian-Pilot: Scientists are closely watching unusually high tides along the entire East Coast, especially in mid-Atlantic states including Virginia, where average daily levels are running between 6 inches and 2 feet above predicted norms. One veteran researcher at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, John Boon, said he suspects the trend could be the beginning of a decade-long phenomenon of high water caused by an El Niño-like effect in the Atlantic. "It's possible we're entering a new ... read more 18/07/2009 08:00 PM Japan starts sales of biofuel made from rice RIA Novosti: The Niigata Prefecture in Japan has pioneered the sales of a mixture of gasoline and bioethanol made from rice for animal feed, local media said on Saturday. The Mainichi Daily News newspaper said that bioethanol, produced from brown rice and blended with gasoline at a ratio of up to 3 percent, makes a mixture that "is equivalent to regular gasoline both in quality and mileage, and will be available in a similar price range." The new biofuel will be initially sold at 19 gas ... read more 19/07/2009 08:00 PM India Sets Goal to Harness Renewable Energy Washington Post: In the new India, villagers in far-flung areas might have cellphones but live in darkness because they have no access to electricity. The cellphone network towers in the villages run on diesel-powered, smoke-spewing, portable generators. Indians say this is a clear example of how the country's woefully inadequate power supply lags behind an expanding consumer market. About 56 percent of India's 1.1 billion people do not have access to electricity. And as coal deposits dip and ... read more 17/07/2009 08:00 PM Temperate forests store more carbon than tropical forests, finds study Mongabay: Temperate forests trump rainforests when it comes to storing carbon, reports a new assessment of global forest carbon stocks published July 14th in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The findings have important implications for efforts to mitigate climate change by protecting forests. Sampling and reviewing published data from nearly 100 forest sites around the world, Heather Keith, Brendan G. Mackey, and David B. Lindenmayer of Australian National University ... read more 17/07/2009 08:00 PM India and Climate Change Wall Street Journal: As the world community gears up for another round of climate-change talks -- and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrives in Delhi on Sunday for meetings with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh -- a central issue will be how to bring developing countries into a climate-change pact. Developing countries such as India do not want to pledge to reduce their emissions until industrial countries have first demonstrated not just pledges but actual emissions cuts. Industrial countries, ... read more 17/07/2009 08:00 PM Sarkozy, UN chief talk climate change in New York Agence France-Presse: French President Nicolas Sarkozy met with UN chief Ban Ki-moon for a working lunch Friday, ahead of a concert here this weekend honoring South Africa's Nelson Mandela at which the French first lady will perform. During the working lunch at the French consulate in New York at 2:30 pm (1830 GMT), Ban and Sarkozy discussed a variety of key international issues, with a specific focus on climate change. Sarkozy called for new action on environmental issues, which were a major part ... read more 17/07/2009 08:00 PM Coal carbon capture gets U.S. boost United Press International: The United States and China are racing to see who can make dirty coal cleaner by trapping emissions and pumping them deep underground, sources said. The technology, called carbon capture storage, got a boost last month when President Barack Obama announced a $1 billion revamp of a near-zero-emissions coal-fired power plant in Illinois called FutureGen. China's project is named GreenGen. The first country to prove that carbon capture works would be in the enviable position of ... read more 17/07/2009 08:00 PM Government rejects oil drilling deal in Alaska refuge Reuters: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has rejected a controversial land trade that would have allowed oil and gas drilling in part of a national wildlife refuge in Alaska. The service said it had made a preliminary decision to reject a Bush administration proposal in the works since 2004 to trade out land in the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge so that it could be explored for oil. Opposition from residents of Native American villages near the proposed drill sites, new ... read more 17/07/2009 08:00 PM UK Low Carbon Transition Plan Puts Government In Charge of Renewables Reuters: The government announced Wednesday it will intervene directly to accelerate the rollout of renewable and low-carbon technologies as part of its wide-ranging Low Carbon Transition Plan. Presenting the new strategy to the House of Commons, energy and climate change Secretary Ed Miliband said that he would exercise powers in the Energy Act that allow the government to take direct control over the grid access regime that manages how renewables projects are connected to the grid from ... read more 17/07/2009 08:00 PM US Secretary of State Clinton arrives in India Agence France-Presse: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in India Friday for a three-day visit aimed at deepening strategic ties with a country viewed as a global player on trade, arms control and climate change. Her first stop in Mumbai includes meetings with key business leaders, educational professionals and a women's group and will see her pay tribute to the 166 people who died in last year's Islamist militant strikes on the city. On Sunday she moves to the capital New Delhi for talks ... read more 17/07/2009 08:00 PM Clinton in India to strengthen links with 'global player' Agence France-Presse: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in India Friday hoping to deepen strategic ties with an emerging player on the world stage in security, trade, arms control and climate change. Her first stop in the country's financial and entertainment capital Mumbai, includes meetings with key business leaders, educational professionals and a women's group, as well as leading Bollywood actor Aamir Khan. In her maiden trip to the South Asian nation as Washington's chief diplomat, ... read more 17/07/2009 08:00 PM United States: Mystery methane belched out by megacities New Scientist: The Los Angeles metropolitan area belches far more methane into its air than scientists had previously realised. If other megacities are equally profligate, urban methane emissions may represent a surprisingly important source of this potent greenhouse gas. Atmospheric researchers have long had good estimates of global methane emissions, but less is known about exactly where these emissions come from, particularly in urban areas. To fill this void, a research team led by Paul ... read more 17/07/2009 08:00 PM Hot climates may create sluggish economies National Public Radio: New research suggests that higher temperatures can have a damaging effect on the economies of poor countries. The study, by economists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, found that in years with higher temperatures, poor countries experienced significantly slower economic growth. The research adds to an economic puzzle that dates back hundreds of years: Why do the poorer economies of the world tend to be in hot places, while the more successful economies are found in cooler ... read more 16/07/2009 08:00 PM India cannot afford to be a climate sceptic Indo-Asian News Service: India`s poor will have enormous problem in arranging their livelihood due to climate change, and it will be better the country stops being a climate sceptic, a government official said Thursday. "There is enough scientific evidence to corroborate the fact that climate change poses unprecedented risks to both human life and in fact, to human civilisation," New and Renewable Energy Secretary Deepak Gupta said at a conference on climate change. He said the climate change will have ... read more 17/07/2009 08:00 PM Pond scum finally gets some respect - as oil resource Star Tribune: There were chuckles a few years ago when University of Minnesota researcher Roger Ruan set up a tiny still in his biofuels lab to experiment with oily strains of algae. This week, ExxonMobil and a partner, Synthetic Genomics, announced they would invest $600 million to develop bio-based diesel fuel from algae, which can be fertilized with carbon dioxide from power plants. Ruan has a similar experiment going at a pilot plant next to a Metropolitan Council sewage treatment plant ... read more 16/07/2009 08:00 PM U.S. lawmakers debate climate bills' economic impact Reuters: U.S. lawmakers on Thursday clashed over what impact climate change legislation would have on U.S. employment and American consumers. With the economy struggling, Democratic lawmakers have touted legislation establishing a system to cap greenhouse gas emissions as a way to bolster the economy. "When we unleash the American innovative spirit, we will drive economic growth and create jobs and whole new industries here at home," Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman Barbara ... read more 16/07/2009 08:00 PM U.S. releases unclassified spy images of Arctic ice Reuters: The United States released more than a thousand intelligence images of Arctic ice to help scientists study the impact of climate change, within hours of a recommendation by the National Academy of Sciences. In an unusually fast move by a U.S. government agency, the Interior Department made the images public on Wednesday. The academy's report urging this action was released at 11 a.m. on Wednesday. Some 700 images show swatches of sea ice from six sites around the Arctic Ocean, ... read more 17/07/2009 08:00 PM Some see Exxon investments into alt energy signaling 'paradigm shift' for Big Oil Greenwire: Is Big Oil warming at last to the notion of an alternative-energy future? So say some analysts who are pondering Exxon Mobil Corp.'s recent moves. Breaking from years of steadfast commitment to fossil fuels, the behemoth has announced big investments in electric cars, unconventional natural gas and algae-based biofuels (Greenwire, July 14). "I think they see changes to the energy system coming over the next decades," said Michael Webber, an energy expert and engineering ... read more 17/07/2009 08:00 PM Obama admin scraps logging plan in Oregon carbon sinks ClimateWire: The Interior Department is dropping controversial plans to dramatically increase logging in western Oregon's forests, some of the nation's densest carbon stores. The move scraps a Bush-era decision to rezone 2.6 million acres of Bureau of Land Management forests, which would have tripled current logging production and opened old-growth forests to clear-cutting. The attempt prompted a lawsuit by 13 environmental groups after the rule was finalized late last year. Interior ... read more 16/07/2009 08:00 PM Power industry infighting heats up over climate legislation New York Times: The feuding clans of the electric power industry are quarreling over newer ground: which of them most deserves the free carbon emission allotments that would be distributed if the House-passed climate bill became law. An unlikely alliance of public power providers, electric cooperatives, utility consumer advocates and utility commissioners joined together yesterday to attack the allotments provision of the House bill that they say would give windfall profits to merchant power ... read more 17/07/2009 08:00 PM Ocean current switch due to warming could be slower than feared Agence France-Presse: The nightmare global warming scenario which provided the plot for a Hollywood blockbuster -- the Atlantic Ocean current that keeps Europe warm shuts down and triggers rapid climate change -- has long worried scientists. But a study published Thursday in the journal Science found it may not occur as quickly as previously feared. There is evidence that this current has shut down with some regularity in the past -- and sometimes quite rapidly -- in response to large influxes of ... read more 17/07/2009 08:00 PM Clouds, seas to be targeted by U.N. climate report Reuters: Cloud formation, sea level rises and extreme weather events are among areas set to get more attention in the next U.N. report on global warming due in 2014, the head of the Nobel Peace Prize winning panel said on Friday. Rajendra Pachauri also said the panel did not plan to issue more frequent reports as suggested by some governments, reckoning that several years were needed to come up with robust findings. The last series of reports was in 2007. "We would certainly have much ... read more News Archive     Back to Homepage
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