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		News Archive     30/07/2008 07:00 AM 3 West Coast governors oppose new offshore oil drilling Los Angeles Times: West Coast governors urged the federal government Tuesday to keep new oil drilling rigs out of their waters and to spend more money on programs to restore the health of the Pacific Ocean. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, joined with Democratic Govs. Ted Kulongoski of Oregon and Chris Gregoire of Washington to reaffirm their opposition to opening undersea oil fields to new drilling, as part of an elaborate action plan for preserving coastal waters. The 116-page ... read more 30/07/2008 07:00 AM Big Coal's Campaign of Lies Rolling Stone: It took Congress more than three decades to consider a major initiative to ward off global warming, but only a few days to kill it. In June, the Senate rejected the Climate Security Act, which would have put America on track to slash greenhouse-gas emissions by 71 percent by 2050. The bill was specifically crafted to soften the blow to the nation's coal industry – coal generates more than a third of all carbon-dioxide pollution – by providing coal-burning power companies with $300 billion in ... read more 30/07/2008 07:00 AM Biofuels Major Driver of Food Price Rise - World Bank Reuters: Large increases in biofuels production in the United States and Europe are the main reason behind the steep rise in global food prices, a top World Bank economist said in research published on Monday. World Bank economist Don Mitchell concluded that biofuels and related low grain inventories, speculative activity, and food export bans pushed prices up by 70 percent to 75 percent. The remaining price rise reflected a weaker US dollar, higher energy costs and related rises in ... read more 30/07/2008 07:00 AM California considers ban on plastic bags to protect marine life San Jose Mercury News: Should California become the first state to ban plastic bags? One of the state's top environmental officials embraced the idea Tuesday, citing the devastating impact on marine animals, which die after ingesting plastic bags or becoming entangled in them. Secretary of Resources Mike Chrisman is head of a cabinet-level panel - the California Ocean Protection Council - that is mulling over a list of proposals, including the bag ban, to improve the health of the ocean. While the ... read more 30/07/2008 07:00 AM Climate fear as giant ice sheets break off Arctic shelf Times (UK): Giant sheets of ice measuring over seven square miles have broken off the largest remaining ice shelf in the Canadian Arctic, in a development consistent with climate change predictions. Officials said that the chunks of ice split off the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf off Ellesmere Island last week, forming two floating islands of 1.9 and 5.4 square miles. More could follow later this year, they warned. It was the largest fracture of its kind since the nearby Ayles ice shelf - roughly ... read more 30/07/2008 07:00 AM Giant Chunks Break Off Canadian Ice Shelf Reuters: Giant sheets of ice totaling almost eight square miles (20 square km) broke off an ice shelf in the Canadian Arctic last week and more could follow later this year, scientists said on Tuesday. Temperatures in large parts of the Arctic have risen far faster than the global average in recent decades, a development that experts say is linked to global warming. The ice broke away from the shelf on Ward Hunt Island, an small island just off giant Ellesmere Island in one of the ... read more 30/07/2008 07:00 AM Global Warming Skews Fish Sexes Time Magazine: Once scientists began studying the impact of global warming on everything from tourism to asthma, it was only a matter of time before they got around to sex. Now two biologists at Spain's Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) have done just that, at least when it comes to fish. You may have missed it in biology class, but in some finned species like the Atlantic silverside – as well as in many reptiles – sex is determined not by genetics, but by temperature: the ... read more 30/07/2008 07:00 AM GOP blocks action on tax, renewable energy package Associated Press: For the fourth time this summer Republicans stopped the Senate from taking up wide-ranging legislation that extends tax breaks for teachers, businesses and parents and provides tax credits to an array of renewable energy entrepreneurs. Major business groups, usual GOP allies, have implored Congress to act on the tax credits, many which expired at the end of last year or will run out at the end of this year. But for many Republicans, it's a matter or principle and politics: many oppose ... read more 30/07/2008 07:00 AM Oceanic Acidification - The Scenario In 100 Years' Time Environmental News Network: A new study by scientists into the future effects of acidic sea water shows that the reduced pH value of the oceans' surface waters will have drastic results in around 100 years' time. The scientists, from Sweden and Australia, carried out the world's first research into how a lowered pH of the sea's surface water affects marine animal life. In their project, they allowed sea urchins of the species Heliocidaris Erythrogramma to fertilize themselves in water where the pH has been ... read more 30/07/2008 07:00 AM Three senators call for EPA chief to resign Reuters: Democratic senators called on Tuesday for the resignation of Stephen Johnson, head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, saying he sided with polluters instead of fighting global warming and other ecological problems. The three senators, all active in the climate change debate, also asked the U.S. attorney general to investigate whether Johnson has made false or misleading statements in sworn testimony before the Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee. "Mr. ... read more 30/07/2008 07:00 AM Australian opposition to support carbon emissions trading Radio Australia: The Australian opposition's climate change spokesman says public wrangling over the coalition's stance on emissions trading has produced a "sharper" policy. The coalition partyroom yesterday approved a policy to support an emissions trading scheme in principle, along with the development of clean energy sources. Opposition leader Brendan Nelson says a Coalition scheme would "probably" start in 2012, and the speed of emissions cuts would depend on other ... read more 30/07/2008 07:00 AM Australians Strongly Back Carbon Trade Scheme - Poll Reuters: Australians overwhelmingly back government plans to introduce one of the world's biggest carbon trading schemes, a poll found on Tuesday, despite a lack of detail about how much it will cost and how it will work. More than eight in 10 people supported carbon trading, with 60 percent backing the introduction of a scheme even if other major polluting countries refused to cut their emissions, a Newspoll in The Australian newspaper showed. The poll of 1,200 people, the second in ... read more 30/07/2008 07:00 AM Beijing Says "Sauna" Haze Will Not Last Over Games Reuters: Beijing authorities said sauna-like weather trapping hazy pollution in the Olympic host city will not last throughout the Games, state media reported on Tuesday, as organisers consider more pollution controls. The Chinese capital's skies remained grey on Tuesday morning, but a breeze overnight had scattered some of the sultry haze that has Olympic organisers worried the city's restrictions on vehicles and industry have not done enough to staunch pollution. Officials have ... read more 30/07/2008 07:00 AM Bush calls on Democrats to allow drilling Guardian: President George Bush today called for Democrats to open American coastal waters to oil drilling, urging Congress to allow a vote on the matter before its members leave Washington for their August break. Although Bush's White House is winding down, Washington's and Congress is unlikely to overturn a decades-old policy within the next several days, Bush nevertheless took the podium to browbeat legislators he sees as blocking action that would lower fuel prices. "American ... read more 30/07/2008 07:00 AM Canada is melting InTheNews.co.uk: A chunk of ice more than seven square miles has broken off an ice shelf in the Canadian Arctic, according to scientists. The ice broke free from the Ward Hunt ice shelf, a small area off the larger Ellesmere Island. Scientists have warned that further splitting could occur later this year. Derek Mueller, a researcher at Trent University, told the Associated Press that global warming is not necessarily to blame and said the event was consistent with the theory that the ... read more 30/07/2008 07:00 AM China Coal Shortages Strain Shanxi Environment - Media Reuters: China's worsening coal shortages have exerted unprecedented pressure on Shanxi, the country's top coal-producing region, to push output beyond approved levels and worsening environmental strains, official media reported on Tuesday. Demand from users who normally get their coal from Shanxi is expected to exceed its output by more than 200 million tonnes this year, despite the region's all-out efforts to boost production, the official China Securities Journal said. Shanxi ... read more 30/07/2008 07:00 AM Coal protesters at power station BBC: Up to 100 activists have arrived at a power station in Kent where environmental campaigners are holding a climate camp next week. A week-long protest is getting under way on Monday against plans to build a coal-fired plant on the Hoo peninsula. Activist Phil Thornhill said the camp at Kingsnorth was the start of a global fight against burning coal. E.On UK has said it will demolish the existing power station and replace it with a 20% cleaner coal-fired unit. ... read more 30/07/2008 07:00 AM Democratic senators call for investigation of US environmental agency Guardian: Amid intensifying scrutiny of the US environmental protection agency's (EPA) refusal to act on climate change, four Democratic senators today asked federal prosecutors to investigate the EPA chief for alleged perjury and obstruction of Congress. The call for a justice department probe of EPA administrator Stephen Johnson – coupled with a plea for his resignation from Democrats – follows a darkening cloud of controversy surrounding the agency. "Johnson's EPA has shown an ... read more 30/07/2008 07:00 AM Driscoll: US needs renewable energy Missoulian: John Driscoll, the Democratic challenger to U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., said Tuesday that America needs a crash course to wean itself from oil as its main energy source, switching to resources like solar, wind and nuclear power. "It's time to break an addiction," he said. "And there's only one way to do it, and that's to stop. (Petroleum) is not the mainstream any more." Driscoll, who uses solar energy to help power his Helena home, said he opposes calls by Rehberg and ... read more 30/07/2008 07:00 AM United States: Farmers can cut carbon for cash Janesville Gazette: It's like a commodity you can't see or feel. But it's still worth cash, and the Wisconsin Farm Bureau wants farmers and foresters to get in on the ground floor of this emerging market. The product for sale is carbon credits. Major manufacturers want those credits to supplement their attempts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Farmers using some environmentally friendly practices naturally create carbon credits by sequestering, or holding, carbon in fields and ... read more News Archive     Back to Homepage
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