e360 digest
23 Nov 2009:
Researchers Develop Machine
To Recycle Carbon Dioxide Into Fuel
U.S. researchers have demonstrated a technology that uses the sun’s heat to convert carbon dioxide and water into the building blocks of traditional fuels, a reverse combustion process that may emerge as a practical alternative to sequestration of CO2 emissions from power plants. The prototype “Sunshine to Petrol” system, developed by Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, uses concentrated solar energy to trigger a thermo-chemical reaction in an iron-rich composite located inside a two-sided cylindrical chamber. The iron oxide is designed to lose an oxygen molecule when exposed to 1,500 degree C heat, and then retrieve an oxygen molecule when it is cooled down, essentially converting an incoming supply of CO2 into an outgoing stream of carbon monoxide. Additionally, when researchers pump water into the chamber rather than CO2, the machine produces hydrogen. Combining those 
Sandia National Laboratories
23 Nov 2009:
Hacked Climate Change E-mails
Reveal Extent of Hostility Toward Skeptics
Scornful of the positions taken by so-called global warming skeptics, climate scientists discussed taking steps to prevent the skeptics’ work from being published in international reports and scientific journals, according to e-mails stolen from Britain’s Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia. The Washington Post reports that the center’s director, Phil Jones, wrote in an e-mail that he was adamantly opposed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change publishing the work of scientists who questioned the link between human activities and global warming. In one e-mail, Jones vowed to “keep them out somehow — even if I have to redefine what the peer-review literature is!” In another, Jones and a respected U.S. climate scientist — Michael Mann of Pennsylvania State University — discuss pressuring an academic journal not to accept the work of climate skeptics, suggesting that mainstream scientists stop submitting articles to the journal if it publishes the skeptics’ work. The hacked e-mails have set off widespread controversy in the climate science community, with global warming skeptics claiming the correspondence reveals a conspiracy among mainstream climate scientists to present a one-sided view of climate change.23 Nov 2009:
East Antarctic Ice Sheet
Appears to Be Melting Faster, Study Says
East Antarctica’s massive ice sheets, which scientists believed to be relatively unaffected by global warming, have been melting at an accelerating rate since 2002, according to a new study. Using a NASA satellite that can measure gravity and mass from space, researchers from the University of Texas estimated that East Antarctica lost an average of 57 billion metric tons of ice a year from 2002 to 2009, with the melt rate appearing to accelerate after 2006. The study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, said most of the ice loss occurred in coastal regions such as Wilkes Land and Victoria Land. The West Antarctic Ice Sheet has been melting at a rapid rate for more than a decade because of rising air and ocean temperatures, losing roughly 100 billion metric tons of ice annually. Some scientists questioned the Texas findings, noting earlier estimates that the massive dome of ice in East Antarctica, more than two miles thick in places, was either losing little ice or gaining as much as 22 billion tons a year. If all of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet were to melt in coming centuries, global sea level could rise 16 feet. East Antarctica holds at least 10 times as much ice as West Antarctica, and large-scale melting in the east could trigger even greater sea level rise.20 Nov 2009:
Using Enzymes from Termites
To Make Biofuel from Plants and Wood Waste
A U.S. company has come up with a new way of producing biofuels from cellulosic feedstocks, such as agricultural waste: Using enzymes from the guts of termites to more efficiently produce ethanol. The startup company, ZeaChem, says using the enzymes from the wood-eating insects has achieved ethanol yields in the laboratory 35 percent higher than other producers of cellulosic ethanol, according to MIT Technology Review. ZeaChem uses acid to break the cellulose into sugars, but instead of fermenting the sugars into ethanol using yeast — as is customarily done — the company feeds the sugars to an acetogen bacteria found in termites. The bacteria turns the sugars into acetic acid, which produces ethanol when combined with hydrogen. “It’s not the obvious, direct route, but there is a high yield potential,” said an official from the U.S. National Renewable Energy Lab in Colorado. ZeaChem’s CEO said the company has produced 135 gallons of ethanol per ton of cellulosic feedstock.
20 Nov 2009:
Emergency Rainforest Fund
Created by Prince Charles and 35 Nations
Britain’s Prince Charles has struck an agreement with 35 nations to contribute $22 billion to $36 billion to reduce the destruction of tropical forests by 25 percent by 2015. The Prince of Wales said the U.S. has agreed to contribute $275 million to the rainforest protection fund, which will pay countries such as Indonesia and Brazil to preserve forests rather than felling them for timber or agricultural use. Ed Miliband, the U.K.’s energy and climate change secretary, said a global mechanism for paying countries to protect tropical forests is on the agenda at next month’s Copenhagen climate summit and is “closer than it’s ever been” to being codified in an international treaty. Deforestation is responsible for nearly 20 percent of global carbon emissions, and various nations and conservation groups are working to develop programs known as REDD 
Prince Charles
19 Nov 2009:
Oceans’ Ability to Absorb CO2
May be Diminishing, New Study Says
A study of the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the world’s oceans from 1765 to the present shows that as humanity pumps more CO2 into the atmosphere, the capacity of the world’s oceans to continue absorbing carbon appears to be decreasing. Researchers from Columbia University and NASA estimate that since 2000, the proportion of fossil-fuel emissions absorbed by the oceans may have declined by as much as 10 percent. In effect, researchers say that industrial activity has been producing so much C02 since 1950 that the oceans are slowly becoming saturated with the gas. “The more carbon dioxide you put in, the more acidic the ocean becomes, reducing its ability to hold CO2,” said lead researcher Samar Khatiwala, an oceanographer at Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. The study, published in the journal Nature, estimated that the oceans currently hold about 150 tons of industrial carbon — a third more than in the 1990s. The researchers used data on ocean chemistry, salinity, temperature, and other measures to calculate the amount of industrial carbon in the ocean for the past 245 years. The study showed that the land may now being absorbing more carbon than it is producing, perhaps because higher atmospheric CO2 levels are increasing the rate of photosynthesis.
19 Nov 2009:
Kenya Evicts Squatters
From Beleaguered Mau Forest
The Kenyan government has begun evicting an estimated 30,000 families that have squatted illegally in the vital Mau forest and caused major environmental damage to the one-million-acre woodland. The Mau forest, located in the Rift valley, is Kenya’s largest water catchment area, the source of at least a dozen rivers that feed Lake Victoria, the Masai Mara nature reserve, and the tea fields of Kericho. Over the last 20 years, however, squatters and officials in the government of ex-President Daniel Arap Moi moved into the Mau and have destroyed roughly a quarter of the forest by clearing the land for timber production and agriculture. The forest destruction has created large-scale soil erosion and caused aquifer levels to fall, exacerbating a recent drought that caused many rivers to run dry. Prime Minister Raila Odinga has made clearing the Mau of squatters and restoring the forest the nation’s top environmental priority. Already, officials report, 3,500 squatters have moved out of the forest after being served with eviction notices.18 Nov 2009:
Companies Increase Commitment
To Tackling Climate Issues, Report Says
Major corporations in the U.S. have shown an increased willingness to voluntarily reduce their impact on climate change despite a sluggish economy, according to a new scorecard produced by the nonprofit group Climate Counts. Eighty-one of the 90 major companies assessed saw an average increase of 22 percent from last year’s scorecard, with Nike topping the list with a score of 83 out of a possible 100 points. Scores are based on 22-criteria in four general areas: measurement of impact on global warming; reduction of impact; engagement in climate-related public policy; and transparency. In Climate Counts’ third corporate scorecard, several companies saw major improvements, including eBay, which completed a company-wide inventory of its effects on global warming; US Airways, which set goals to reduce climate impacts; and Apple, which resigned from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce because of the chamber's opposition to climate legislation. Companies with leading climate ratings include Starbucks, General Electric, HP, IBM, Unilever foods, UPS, and L'Oreal. The scorecard was developed with oversight from an independent panel of business and climate experts from universities and non-governmental groups. See the full list.18 Nov 2009:
Massive CO2 Increases
Documented in Comprehensive New Study
Emissions of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels soared by 41 percent from 1990 to 2008 and have jumped 29 percent since 2000, according to one of the most comprehensive studies to date of global carbon emissions. The study’s lead author, Corinne Le Quere of the University of East Anglia and the British Antarctic Survey, said that unless these runaway emissions are soon brought under control, global temperatures would likely rise by 9 to 11 degrees F by 2100, an increase that most scientists say could lead to catastrophic changes, including rapid melting of polar ice sheets. Le Quere’s study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, said that humanity was pouring so much CO2 into the atmosphere that the ability of oceans, forests, and soils to absorb the gas was diminishing. These carbon sinks, which absorbed 60 percent of atmospheric CO2 in 1950, are now absorbing only 55 percent, the study said. The study reported that for the first time, more CO2 is being emitted by burning coal than burning oil, and that developing countries are now emitting more CO2
than developed countries. CO2 emissions increased at an average annual rate of 3.4 percent from 2000 to 2008 and, after a slight dip this year because of the global recession, are expected to rise rapidly again in 2010, the study said.17 Nov 2009:
Increase In GM Crops
Leads to Jump in Herbicide Use
The widespread use of genetically modified crops engineered to tolerate herbicides has led to a sharp increase of the chemicals in the U.S. and is creating herbicide-resistant “super weeds” and an increase in chemical residues in U.S. food, according to a new report. As more farmers have adopted variations of corn, soy beans, and cotton bred to tolerate weed killer in recent years, the use of herbicides has increased steadily, with herbicide use growing by 383 million pounds from 1996 to 2008, according to a report released by The Organic Center, the Union for Concerned Scientists, and the Center for Food Safety. Forty-six percent of that increase occurred during 2007 and 2008. The most popular genetically modified crops are known as “Roundup ready” for their ability to survive after being sprayed with the well known herbicide, Roundup. Officials with the Biotechnology
17 Nov 2009:
U.S. and China Establish
Extensive Cooperation on Clean Energy
U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao have announced the creation of a joint program to develop clean energy, including the creation of a $150 million clean energy research center. Meeting in Beijing, the two presidents agreed to a seven-point plan designed to speed the development of renewable energy and improve energy efficiency. The agreement includes initiatives to establish a U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center; launch a joint program to develop electric vehicles that will include pilot projects in more than a dozen cities; collaborate on improving the energy efficiency of buildings, factories, and consumer appliances; establish a renewable energy partnership to promote alternative energy technologies, including programs to promote cooperation between states and regions in the two countries; conduct joint research into developing methods of capturing CO2 emissions from coal-fired power plants and storing the carbon dioxide underground; and share U.S. expertise in extracting natural gas from underground shale deposits.
16 Nov 2009:
Dutch Cabinet Okays Tax
Based on Miles Driven by Motorists
In an effort to reduce automobile usage and greenhouse gas emissions, the Dutch cabinet has approved a driving tax that would charge motorists seven cents a mile. The plan, which must still be approved by parliament, would use GPS systems installed in each car to keep track of mileage and automatically bill drivers. The mileage charges would be higher at rush hour, for large cars, and for commercial vehicles. Dutch officials said the driving tax, which would replace existing road taxes and duties on new car purchases, is designed to cut traffic by 15 percent and reduce emissions from transport by 10 percent. Other European nations are considering similar driving taxes, and a driving tax experiment was recently tried in Oregon in the United States. The chances of a tax comparable to the Dutch tax being levied in the U.S. are slim, however, as that would more than triple the $260 a year that the average U.S. driver now pays in state and federal gasoline taxes.16 Nov 2009:
With Copenhagen Pact Stalled,
Leaders Look for Climate Treaty in 2010
With the announcement by President Obama and other world leaders this weekend that no binding climate agreement will be reached in Copenhagen next month, numerous officials expressed hopes that a treaty to limit greenhouse gas emissions could be signed by mid- to late-2010. Meeting in Singapore, Obama and other leaders agreed that lack of accord on setting precise emissions reductions targets would prevent the signing of a binding climate treaty in Copenhagen. But in a process that Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen labeled as “one agreement, two steps,” climate negotiators are hopeful that the 192 nations meeting in Copenhagen will sign a non-binding political agreement calling for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and for aid to developing nations to help
Lars Lokke Rasmussen
13 Nov 2009:
Clearing of Brazilian Amazon
Fell 45 Percent in Last Year, Officials Say
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell by 45 percent from August 2008 to July 2009, the largest annual reduction since Brazil started tracking rainforest destruction in 1988, government officials reported. Using satellite images from the National Institute for Space Research, Brazilian officials calculated that about 2,700 square miles of forest were removed during that span. About 5,000 square 
Mongabay.com
Land cleared for cattle ranching
13 Nov 2009:
U.S. May Endorse Scaled-Back
Agreement at Copenhagen, Report Says
The Obama administration, faced with the failure of Congress to pass climate legislation before global talks in Copenhagen next month, may endorse a more limited interim agreement and defer stronger U.S. commitments until next year, according to the Washington Post. While the scaled-back agreement would fall short of what European leaders wanted from the U.S., administration and congressional leaders say it will at least prevent the global talks from being seen as a failure. “An interim, operational deal is not meant to be seen as a substitute for a real agreement,” Todd Stern, the U.S. special envoy on climate change, told the Post. “It’s meant to be seen as substantive building blocks to a full, legal agreement, and perhaps the best chance of getting such an agreement.” The interim pact, outlined last month by Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen, would include “political commitments” from key nations on carbon emissions targets and agreements on how much money richer nations would be willing to spend to help developing nations adapt to the impacts of climate change.12 Nov 2009:
Colombian Farmers Sue Oil Firm
Over Long-Term Effects of Pipeline
A group of Colombian farmers has filed a lawsuit against the oil company BP, claiming that construction of a 450-mile pipeline in the mid-1990s has caused landslides, permanently damaging soil and crops and harming livestock. In the suit filed in a London court, 95 farmers claim that BP Exploration Company ignored evidence that the pipeline would damage the land, and never informed the property owners, many of them illiterate, of the risks. The pipeline, which delivers as much as 620,000 barrels of crude oil to an export terminal daily, crosses 192 rural villages. Farmers say that during construction, natural vegetation that protected their soil from the elements was removed, leading to significant erosion. Additionally, they say BP never paid them for the damage, which made their farms unsustainable. “The region has been profoundly and adversely affected causing many farms to close or drastically reduce production and causing some farmers to leave the land,” according to the suit. BP denies negligence, claiming the soil failed because the farmers removed forests for cattle grazing.12 Nov 2009:
Brown Pelican Removed
From U.S. Endangered Species List
The brown pelican, a bird once prized by hunters for its feathers and later imperiled by rampant pesticide use, has “fully recovered” and no longer requires federal protection, the U.S. Interior Department announced. Populations of the bird — a fixture in Florida, the Gulf Coast states and along 
Stock.xchng
A brown pelican
11 Nov 2009:
China's Yangtze Basin
Will See Weather Extremes, Report Says
Extreme weather events caused by a warming climate pose a growing threat to China’s Yangtze River basin, which encompasses Shanghai and some of the most productive agricultural land in the nation, according to a new study. The basin, which cuts through the center of China, has already seen a spike in floods, heat waves, and drought over the last two decades, according to the study conducted by the conservation group WWF. And over the next 50 years, the report predicts, temperatures will increase an average of 1.5 to 2 degrees C (2.7 to 4 degrees F). Of particular concern is the threat of rising waters as increasing glacier melt from the Himalayas flows into the basin, posing a greater threat of flooding to major cities and damage to corn, winter wheat, and rice crops. Sea level in Shanghai has risen by 4.6 inches in the last three decades, and will rise another 7 inches by 2050, according to the report. “If we take the right steps now, adaptation measures will pay for themselves,” said Xu Ming, lead author of the report.
11 Nov 2009:
High Levels of BPA
May Hamper Male Sexual Function
Exposure to high levels of bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical found in thousands of everyday plastics, appears to cause sexual problems for males, according to a new study. In the study published in the journal Human Reproduction, researchers followed 634 male workers exposed to BPA at four Chinese factories. Over the course of five years, those men were four times as likely to have erectile dysfunction and seven times more likely to have difficulty with ejaculation, according to De-Kun Li, a scientist at the Kaiser Foundation Research Institute. Li said BPA, the primary component of hard and clear polycarbonate plastics — including water bottles, baby bottles, and the linings of canned foods — appears to adversely alter the hormonal balance in humans. While researchers have made similar conclusions based on studies of mice or rats, this is the first evidence of effects on humans. While men involved in the study were exposed to chemical levels 50 times higher than the average American man, Li said the findings reveal a need to research how lower exposures affect males. 10 Nov 2009:
Retreating Antarctic Ice Has
Created New Carbon Sink, Study Says
The melting of Antarctic ice has allowed large blooms of tiny marine phytoplankton to flourish, creating a significant new biological sink for carbon, according to a new study by the British Antarctic Survey. Over the last five decades, retreating glaciers around the Antarctic Peninsula have opened about 24,000 square kilometers of open water that has been colonized by the carbon-absorbing phytoplankton, according to the study being published in the journal Global Change Biology. After the phytoplankton dies, it eventually sinks to the ocean floor where it can store carbon for thousands or millions of years. The researchers estimate this new carbon sink will absorb about 3.5 million tons of carbon from the ocean and atmosphere annually. “Although this is a small amount of carbon compared to global emissions of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, it is nevertheless an important discovery,” said the study's lead author, Lloyd Peck. The authors called the new bloom the second largest factor acting against climate change so far discovered on Earth (the largest being new forest growth in the Arctic).10 Nov 2009:
UK Approves Construction
of 10 New Nuclear Power Stations
The British government has approved 10 new sites for nuclear power stations in England and Wales, calling nuclear power a “proven and reliable” energy source that will help the UK reduce its carbon emissions and become more energy-independent. Just a year after the government lifted a moratorium on new nuclear power generation, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband called nuclear — along with renewables and clean coal — one of the “trinity” of future fuel options. “We need all of them in the long term because of the challenge of the low-carbon future is so significant,” he said. The government sees the new stations as an essential replacement for what is an aging nuclear infrastructure; some existing stations will have to be decommissioned as early as 2030, creating concerns that the nation could confront energy shortages. Government ministers hope some of the new stations, most of which would be built at the locations of existing plants, could be running as soon as 2018. A planning commission will make a final decision within a year. 09 Nov 2009:
Heat-Related Nitrogen Loss
Endangers Desert Plant Life, Study Finds
The loss of nitrogen from arid soils caused by a warming climate could make the world’s deserts even more inhospitable to plant life, according to a new study by researchers at Cornell University. Using highly sophisticated instrumentation that measures nitrogen in the parts per trillion — and using dark covers to remove sunlight as a factor in the measurements — researchers found that nitrogen loss in the arid soils of the Mojave Desert of the southwestern United States increased rapidly as temperatures reached 40 to 50 degrees C (100 to 120 degrees F). Noting that nitrogen is second only to water as a constraint on plant life in arid ecosystems, the researchers said a warming climate, as well as shifting precipitation patterns, could make soil arid ecosystems even more infertile. “We’re on a trajectory where plant life in arid ecosystems could cease to do well,” said Carmody McCalley, lead author of the study, which will be published in the journal Science. With deserts accounting for 35 to 40 percent of the planet’s surface, and future human developments likely to be targeted in arid and semi-arid regions, the researchers urged that climate models be altered to factor in these findings.09 Nov 2009:
Australia Invests in World's
First Utility-Scale Wave Power Project
A UK-based renewable energy company has received a $61 million grant from the Australian government to build the world’s first utility-scale wave power project. Ocean Power Technologies will begin construction of the 19-megawatt project in the waters off Victoria in 2010. The project will provide enough electricity to power 10,000 homes. Wave technology uses buoys riding up and down on waves to drive an electrical generator, and then sends the power ashore via underwater cable. The project is part of a larger $218 million government investment in renewable energy that officials say will help Australia meet its goal of generating 20 percent of its electricity demands with renewable sources by 2020. The other projects receiving government funds include two geothermal projects and a mini-grid that coordinates wind, solar, biodiesel and storage technologies.06 Nov 2009:
Philippines Targets Major
Investment in Geothermal Resources
The Philippine government plans to approve 19 new contracts to develop the nation’s massive geothermal energy resources in the next five months. A top energy official said financial incentives for the development of renewable energy projects could attract more than $2.5 billion in private dollars from domestic and international companies. “Incentives for renewable projects are giving geothermal development a much needed boost,” Alejandro Oanes, the Phllippine Energy Department's division chief for geothermal energy, said. The Philippines is already the world’s second-largest producer of geothermal energy. In fact, for more than three decades the nation has tapped into its remarkable geothermal resources, which are the result of volcanic pressures caused by the movement of the Philippine tectonic plate beneath the Eurasian plate. With about 2,000 megawatts of installed capacity, geothermal energy accounted for 17 percent of the nation’s total power output in 2008. The 19 new projects could add another 620 megawatts of power.05 Nov 2009:
Atlantic Fish Stocks Are
Moving North as Ocean Warms, NOAA Finds
About half of 36 fish stocks in the northwest Atlantic Ocean have shifted north over the last four decades as ocean temperatures have warmed, according to a new U.S. study. Comparing data for dozens of fish stock from 1968 to 2007 — and using ocean temperature records from the same period — researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) found that many species in the waters from Cape Hatteras, N.C., to the Canadian border have shifted northward or migrated farther offshore. Some species have nearly disappeared from U.S. waters altogether. “They all seem to be adapting to changing temperatures and finding places where their chances of survival as a population are greater,” said Janet Nye, a NOAA researcher and lead author of the study, which was published in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series. Researchers selected fish stocks that were consistently caught in greater numbers in NOAA's annual fish surveys and were considered important commercially or ecologically, including Atlantic cod and haddock, and yellowtail and winter flounder. 04 Nov 2009:
Seismic Fissure in Ethiopia
Evidence of Ocean in Making, Study Says
A 35-mile seismic crack that formed over a few days in 2005 in the Ethiopian desert
is evidence of a new ocean in the making, scientists report in a new study. The abrupt formation of the rift, which is 20 feet wide in places, is similar to the shifting that occurs on the ocean’s floor, according to the study in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. Using seismic data from the September, 2005 eruption of Dabbahu, a volcano located in Ethiopia’s remote Afar Region, scientists were able to reconstruct how,
Anthony Philpotts
The Dabbahu Fissure
Interview: IPCC’s Pachauri Still
Sees Hope for Copenhagen Talks
Despite growing pessimism that a global climate treaty will be signed in Copenhagen next month, Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, believes a flurry of 
Rajendra PachauriRead the interview with Pachauri here
03 Nov 2009:
U.S. Comes Under Pressure
in Final Session Before Copenhagen Summit
With just a month remaining before the Copenhagen climate summit, delegates from 192 countries are meeting in Barcelona to attempt to lay the groundwork for a climate treaty, with some influential figures saying the U.S. must be prepared to make firm greenhouse gas reduction commitments if Copenhagen is to be a success. Connie Hedegaard, the Danish minister for climate and energy, who is hosting the Copenhagen meeting, said the U.S. had risen to global challenges throughout the 20th century, adding, “I believe they have to deliver on this challenge.” The Obama administration has declined to commit to a firm greenhouse gas reduction target, saying it cannot make a commitment until Congress — which is now considering major climate legislation — passes a bill. That stance does not sit well with many in the European Union, which has committed to reducing emissions 30 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, and 85 to 95 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. Yvo de Boer, the UN’s chief climate negotiator, said an enormous amount of work remained to be done before Copenhagen. “Do any of you believe it will be easier next year or the year after?” he asked the delegates. Read a full e360 report.03 Nov 2009:
Glacial Ice on Kilimanjaro
Melting at Increased Rate, Study Says
Glacial ice atop Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania continues to melt at an accelerated rate, shrinking 26 percent since 2000, and about 85 percent since 1912, according to a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study’s lead author, Ohio State University glaciologist Lonnie G. Thompson, said melting of this level has not occurred on Kilimanjaro in 11,700 years. The study was based on aerial photographs and examination of long stakes of the ice core collected nine years ago.
Mount Kilimanjaro02 Nov 2009:
Prospects Dim for Passage
Of Climate Bill in U.S. Senate, Report Says
Passage of climate change legislation in the U.S. Senate appears increasingly unlikely in the face of divisions among Democrats and stiff opposition by Republicans, the Washington Post reports. Top Democrats have been unable to enlist key Republican lawmakers to support the bill, which would create a cap-and-trade system and gradually cut the level of carbon emissions allowed. One of the key Republicans targeted to back the bill, Sen. George V. Voinovich, R-Ohio, has instead led the opposition, organizing a boycott of the bill’s markup at a hearing of the Environment and Public Works Committee last week. In recent days, Democrats have offered to include amendments to make the bill more palatable to lawmakers on the fence by accelerating the approval of new nuclear power plants. But even that may not be enough. A spokesman for Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, another lawmaker targeted by Democrats, said a “tepid nuclear title isn’t enough to get her to support a bad climate bill.” Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., said a compromise remained possible since Americans are not divided on party lines when it comes to climate change. “Is there bipartisanship in the country? I think clearly there is,” Udall said.
02 Nov 2009:
New European Satellite
Will Monitor Fresh Water Globally
The European Space Agency (ESA) has launched a 315 million Euro ($465 Million) satellite that will monitor soil moisture, plant growth, and the salt content of sea water, all of which will be useful in tracking environmental changes as the planet warms. The satellite, called SMOS — Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity — has the capacity to measure the water content of soil across the planet every three days to a depth of seven feet, enabling it not only to gauge surface water sources but also to monitor photosynthesis and plant growth. The data also will be valuable to scientists interested in forecasting drought and flood risk. The SMOS satellite also will measure the salt content of ocean waters, crucial information in not only tracking an increase in freshwater in oceans from melting glaciers and ice sheets, but also valuable in understanding global ocean circulation patterns, which are partially driven by water temperature and salinity. The satellite will collect the data using a variety of technologies, including microwave radiation.
30 Oct 2009:
Canadian Actions Preserve
20 Percent of Its Vast Boreal Forest
With the addition of a new forest reserve in Manitoba, Canada has now set aside 250 million acres of its vast boreal forest as parks or preserves, prohibiting logging, mining or oil drilling in these areas. The protected areas, more than twice the size of California, represent roughly one-fifth of Canada’s 1.3
Wikimedia
Boreal forest30 Oct 2009:
Thick, Multi-Year Arctic Ice
Has Effectively Disappeared, Scientist Says
One of Canada’s top Arctic experts, recently returned from an expedition in the far north, has told the Canadian parliament that the Arctic’s thick, multi-year sea ice has largely vanished, removing the last barrier to ships navigating the polar region. David Barber, Canada’s Research Chair in Arctic System Science at the University of Manitoba, said his expedition aboard an icebreaker was looking for a huge pack of thick ice that has existed for tens of thousands of years in the Beaufort Sea. But that multi-year ice, often dozens of feet thick, has largely been replaced by one-year-old “rotten” ice less than 20 inches thick, which is not an impediment to navigation. “We are almost out of multi-year ice in the northern hemisphere,” Barber told Parliament. “I’ve never seen anything like this in my 30 years of working in the high Arctic... From a practical perspective, we almost have a seasonally ice-free Arctic now.” Barber’s icebreaker did find a 10-mile-wide floe of multi-year ice that was 20 to 26 feet thick, but he said the expedition watched as those floes began breaking apart after being hit large waves. In 2007, the extent of Arctic sea ice, most of it thin, was 40 percent below the long-term average.29 Oct 2009:
Electronic Fisheries Monitoring
Proves A Success in Danish Experiment
By outfitting six Danish fishing boats with GPS systems, closed circuit television cameras, and sensors that can gauge the weight of catches, scientists in Denmark have discovered that they can accurately track which fish were caught, the size and location of the catch, and what species were thrown back in the sea as by-catch. In a year-long experiment that ended last month, Danish fisheries scientists said the new system gives “100 percent documentation of fishing activities.” The Danish system would be of little help in halting illegal fishing carried out by unregistered boats on the high seas. But Danish scientists said their electronic monitoring system could be extremely useful in tracking and regulating legal fisheries for such species as cod, sand eel, sprat, blue whiting, and Norway pout in territorial waters. A Danish fisheries manager said that “determination of where an when a fishing event takes place can be made with a high degree of accuracy.”
29 Oct 2009:
Solar Power Potential
Is Huge in Developing Countries
The developing world, where 44 percent of people lack access to electricity, could soon be one of the biggest markets for solar power, according to participants at the Solar Power International conference in California. To date, just 1 percent of solar panel production has been installed in poor nations in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, a situation that Michael Eckhart, president of the American Council on Renewable Energy, called “a scandal for our industry.” Eckhart and other experts said that in addition to finding financing to help low-income residents install solar panels, a major challenge is purchasing and replacing the batteries to store electricity at night and on cloudy days. Another significant hurdle is replacing the energy-wasting incandescent bulbs and old, inefficient appliances and computers often used by village households. One expert who has installed off-the-grid solar arrays in Africa and China said in regions where villagers use compact fluorescent bulbs and efficient appliances the cost of installing an adequate solar array and battery can be 75 percent cheaper.
28 Oct 2009:
Swiss Zinc-Air Batteries Store
Three Times the Energy of Lithium Ions
A Swiss company has introduced a rechargeable zinc-air battery that has three times the storage of lithium ion batteries and costs only half as much. ReVolt plans to commercialize a small version of the battery for use in hearing aids by next year, and then continue introducing larger versions, including batteries for cellphones and electric bicycles — and, perhaps eventually, electric cars. The technology is based on a battery designed by the Norwegian research institute SINTEF. While the typical battery contains the reactants needed to generate electricity, zinc-air batteries utilize oxygen from the atmosphere, which makes them less volatile and allows for a larger storage capacity. Company officials say the new battery overcomes one of the critical drawbacks of typical zinc-air batteries — they tend to stop working after a few charges. ReVolt has developed techniques to reduce the damage to the electrodes that convert oxygen into the hydroxyl ions that oxidize the zinc. The prototype lasts for more than 100 recharge cycles, according to James McDougal, ReVolt’s CEO. He hopes to increase that to 300 to 500 cycles before the technology is ready to be used in cellphones and electric bicycles.28 Oct 2009:
Surplus of Carbon Credits
Threatens EU Emissions Trading Plan
The European Union’s emissions trading scheme — which puts a price on carbon dioxide emissions with the aim of reducing greenhouse gas pollution — is threatened by a vast number of emissions credits earned by major industries and power plants in Russia, Ukraine, and Eastern Europe. Peter Zapfel, deputy director of the environment department at the European Commission, said that because of the Eastern European economic collapse of the 1990s and loopholes in the EU emissions trading scheme that began in 2005, Russian and Eastern European enterprises have racked up 10 billion emissions credits because they released fewer greenhouse gases than originally allocated under the Kyoto Protocol. As these enterprises begin selling these credits on the EU carbon market, the price of emissions allowances could plummet, thereby defeating the goal of slashing CO2 emissions by establishing a high price on carbon pollution. Zapfel called the surplus credits the “gorilla sitting in the background and nobody dares to touch it.” The price of EU carbon allowances has fallen from a peak of 30 Euros ($44) in 2006 to roughly 10 Euros ($15) this year. The EU’s emissions trading scheme, which covers more than 10,000 major carbon emitting power plants and factories, is designed to cut CO2 emissions by 21 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.27 Oct 2009:
U.S. Awards $3.4 Billion
to Create a "Smart" Electric Grid
The Obama administration is awarding $3.4 billion in grants to modernize the national electric grid. One-hundred companies, utilities, manufacturers, and cities will receive the grants — ranging from $400,000 to $200 million — for projects that help build a “smart” grid that cuts energy costs, reduces blackouts, and has the capacity to deliver more wind and solar energy to American homes and businesses. Calling the nation’s grid system “dilapidated,” Carol Browner, the Obama administration’s top adviser on climate and energy issues, said federal funds would be used to expand the national grid and make it work more efficiently. Among the award recipients are Baltimore Gas and Electric Company, which will get $200 million to implement a “smart” meter network for its 1.1 million customers, enabling them to better manage energy use in their homes. The San Diego Gas and Electric Co. will get $28.1 million to install 1.4 million smart meters. The administration's announcement represents the biggest single-day award of funding from the $787 billion economic stimulus package.27 Oct 2009:
Ocean Acidification’s Effects
Documented in New Study of Shellfish
Relatively small increases in ocean acidity significantly harm clams, bay scallops, and oysters, particularly in their crucial larval stage, according to a new study. Researchers at the State University of New York, Stony Brook, exposed shellfish to levels of acidity expected in Earth’s oceans later this century and next century, and found that modest increases in acidity led to a 50 percent decline in survival of clam and scallop larvae, reduced the size of the larvae, and caused the larvae to develop more
26 Oct 2009:
U.S. Agency Commits $151 Million
to Innovative Energy Research Projects
The U.S. Department of Energy will pump $151 million into 37 innovative energy-related research projects through a new federal agency modeled after the Defense Department program that helped commercialize microchips and the Internet. The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or Arpa-e, created in 2007 to support innovative and often-experimental projects, selected the first round of grant recipients from 3,600 proposals. While many of the ideas may never lead to practical breakthroughs, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said some could have a “transformative impact.” Among the first grant recipients are University of Minnesota researchers attempting to develop an organism that uses sunlight to convert carbon dioxide to sugars and diesel fuel; a Massachusetts Institute of Technology team developing an all-liquid metal battery that could better manage the output from intermittent energy sources such as wind and solar; and a United Technologies effort to capture carbon emissions from power plant stacks using enzymes. The agency — which will target research projects by small business, universities, and corporations — will be led by Arun Majumdar, a scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California.
26 Oct 2009:
Key Wolves in Yellowstone
Killed Near Park by Hunters in Montana
Hunters have killed some of Yellowstone National Park’s best-known alpha wolves, animals vital to studies conducted in the park since wolves were reintroduced there in 1995. Among those killed was an alpha female, known as wolf 527, who was born into Yellowstone’s Druid Peak pack, featured in a PBS
PBS
23 Oct 2009:
Fewer Americans Believe
in Global Warming, New Poll Finds
Fewer Americans say they see evidence of a warming world than a year ago, and a declining percentage say they view global warming as a “very serious problem,” according to a new survey published by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. The poll of 1,500 people, conducted from Sept. 30 to Oct. 4, found that only 57 percent think there is solid evidence that temperatures on Earth have increased in recent decades, compared with 71 percent in April, 2008. While 47 percent said last year that they believed temperature change is the result of human activities, only 36 percent said so this year. Yet despite the rising skepticism, 50 percent of the respondents support government limits on carbon emissions; 39 percent oppose such limits. Only 14 percent, however, say they know much about the proposed cap-and-trade mechanism that is favored by President Obama and is key to the climate legislation being debated in the Senate. While the rising skepticism is reflected across political party lines, it is most acute among independent voters. Only 53 percent of independent voters said they see solid evidence of global warming; about 75 percent said they saw that evidence last year.23 Oct 2009:
Protected Polar Bear Habitat
Proposed by U.S. Government in Alaska
The U.S. Interior Department is proposing that more than 200,000 square miles of land, sea, and ice in Alaska and nearby waters be given special protection to help preserve 3,500 polar bears threatened by the rapid loss of Arctic sea ice. The Interior Department has proposed designating the vast area as “critical habitat,” which means that any government agency or company must show that activities such as oil drilling and shipping will not affect the bears’ habitat or accelerate the extinction of the species. In 2008, the Interior Department declared that polar bears were threatened with extinction. Shell Oil this week was given permission to drill in the proposed protected area, and conservation groups have
22 Oct 2009:
Bark Beetle Infestation
Spreads in Monarch Butterfly Reserve
The world’s largest reserve for migrating Monarch butterflies, located in the Mexican highlands, is suffering from an infestation of bark beetles similar to outbreaks that have killed millions of acres of evergreens in the U.S. and Canada. In an effort to stem the spread of the infestation, Mexican officials 
stock.xchang
Monarch butterfly
22 Oct 2009:
Food Recycling Program
A Major Success in San Francisco
San Francisco’s new food recycling program — the first in the U.S. that requires all food waste from homes, apartments, businesses, and restaurants to be recycled and composted — has been enthusiastically embraced by city residents, officials say. Although the program was officially launched on Wednesday, city officials say residents have been recycling food for weeks and are already setting aside about half of the city’s 500 tons of daily food waste. The city requires residents and businesses to place food scraps in sealed buckets, and then collects the buckets and trucks them to San Francisco’s Organics Annex, where the food waste is composted. The compost is sold as fertilizer to area farms and vineyards. Seattle was the first U.S. city to require all households to recycle food waste, but San Francisco’s law covers businesses and apartments. Jared Blumenthal, the city’s environmental officer, said residents have strongly backed the food recycling plan because — overwhelmed by bad environmental news — this gives them something concrete to do. “This is not rocket science,” he said. “This is putting some food scraps into a different pile and turning them into compost.”21 Oct 2009:
Genetically Modified Crops
Needed to Avert Food Crisis, Panel Says
Further development of genetically modified (GM) crops will be needed to feed the estimated 9 billion people who will live on the planet by mid-century, according to a report from the U.K.’s Royal Society. The report said that rising populations, the impacts of climate change, and projected water shortages mean that new, drought-resistant and highly productive food plants must be developed to feed the world. The report said other economic and technological changes — such as improved irrigation and crop management — also will be necessary. The Royal Society scientists concluded that the development of new crops is an urgent priority if global agriculture and land-use problems are to be solved. The scientists’ conclusions drew fire from opponents of GM crops, who contend that the technique is unsustainable and could cause major environmental harm.21 Oct 2009:
Space Agencies and Google
To Monitor Deforestation From Satellites
Space agencies from Europe, the U.S., and several other nations are joining forces with Google Earth and a conservation organization to annually monitor deforestation rates around the globe using satellite imagery. The Group on Earth Observations (GEO), a global partnership of 80 governments and more than 50 organizations, is launching pilot projects in Australia, Brazil, Cameroon, Guyana, Indonesia, Mexico, and Tanzania to inventory forests and track rates of deforestation. Such annual monitoring — which until recently has been carried out every five years — will be instrumental in helping support programs in which governments, conservation groups, and investors pay to preserve tropical forests, GEO officials said. An international mechanism for preserving forests using carbon credits is expected to be approved at the Copenhagen climate conference in December. “The only way to measure forests efficiently is from space,” said Jose Achache, director of GEO. “Investors will want some sort of guarantee that... forests will remain there and remain in good condition.” Google Earth, which already is involved in using satellite technology to monitor deforestation, will participate in the GEO effort, Achache said.Interview: Researching the Potential and the Pitfalls of Geoengineering
Many scientists have shied away from the subject of geoengineering — the large-scale, deliberate manipulation of the Earth’s climate system — because they feel it is a wrongheaded and dangerous path to pursue. But climate scientist Ken Caldeira has not been so dismissive, in part because his climate modeling has demonstrated that some geoengineering schemes may indeed help reduce the risks of climate change. In fact, few scientists have thought harder about the moral, political, and environmental implications of geoengineering than Caldeira. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, Caldeira discusses the complexities
Ken CaldeiraClick here to read the interview
20 Oct 2009:
Copenhagen Talks Will Yield
Framework But No Treaty, UN Official Says
The U.N.'s top climate official predicts that the Copenhagen talks in December may yield a political framework for future greenhouse gas reductions, but will not produce an international treaty to replace the Kyoto protocol. In an interview with the Financial Times, Yvo de Boer, the head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, said there does not appear to be enough time to work out the details of a binding treaty that could be signed in Copenhagen. Rather, he said the conference needs to deliver an “overarching decision” that sets individual targets for industrialized countries, and determines what level of emissions reductions major developing countries are willing to make by 2020. Global leaders should also be ready to set a deadline for a treaty that works out those details. “If you look at the limited amount of time that remains to Copenhagen, we have to focus on what can realistically be done and how that can realistically be framed,” de Boer said. He also urged President Obama to attend the conference in Copenhagen, saying “we need a push at the highest possible political level” to reach a successful accord.20 Oct 2009:
Fossil Fuel Burning in U.S.
Estimated to Cause 20,000 Early Deaths
A National Academy of Sciences report on the hidden costs of burning fossil fuels estimates that 20,000 people die prematurely each year in the U.S. because of pollution associated with burning coal and oil. The report, commissioned by Congress and entitled “Hidden Costs of Energy,” also said that electric cars that run on energy produced by coal-fired power plants are no cleaner than gasoline-burning cars and may cause even more environmental damage when factoring in the cost of producing the batteries in electric vehicles. The report also estimated that the environmental cost of biofuels made from corn is
19 Oct 2009:
China Relocates 15,000 People
After Lead Poisoning, But Plants Stay Open
Chinese officials will move more than 15,000 people away from a lead smelting area in Henan province where more than 1,000 children tested positive for lead poisoning, but will allow the factories to continue operating. Several smelters and lead plants in Jiyuan — including China’s largest — were closed temporarily this summer when protests erupted after children living near similar Chinese smelters tested positive for cadmium and lead. The residents of 10 villages located near lead plants, including one owned by Yuguang Gold and Lead, will now be moved at a cost of 1 billion yuan, or about $150 million, according to Jiyuan's mayor. Once they are moved, the plant owner will rent their properties and plant trees to serve as a barrier to other villages. The local government just wants “to protect the plant, which pays a great deal of tax every year,” said Huang Zhengmin, whose 5-year-old grandson’s blood tests showed extremely high lead levels. “They don't care about the life and death of us ordinary people.” Lin Jingxing, of the Chinese Academy of Geological Science, said major studies of soil, water and wind patterns must be conducted before anyone can be sure just how far away from the plants would be safe. The lead industry has boomed across China after pollution concerns caused a collapse elsewhere in the world.19 Oct 2009:
Buses Using Ultracapacitors
Will Be Put To The Test in Washington
A U.S. company and its Chinese partner will test electric buses using ultracapacitors that would be chargeable at stops every few miles. The latest ultracapacitors store only 5 percent of the energy that
Sinautec Automobile Technologies
Recharging station
16 Oct 2009:
MIT Team Develops Roof Tile
That Changes Color as Temperatures Shift
A group of recent Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduates has developed a roof tile that remains white in summer to reflect the sun’s energy then turns black in winter to absorb the sun’s rays and heat buildings. The so-called “thermeleon” (rhymes with chameleon) technology uses a common 
MIT News
Color-changing tile
16 Oct 2009:
Kew Gardens Seed Bank
Has Collected 10 Percent of Plant Species
A repository created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, has collected nearly 10 percent of the seeds from the world’s estimated 300,000 seed-bearing plants, completing the first phase of an ambitious plan to preserve the seeds of all the species threatened by human development and climate change. The 
The Guardian
Musa itinerans
15 Oct 2009:
Major Arctic Ice Survey
Finds Significant Drop in Ice Thickness
A pioneering expedition to the North Pole, during which a team trekking across the Arctic Ocean drilled 1,500 holes in the ice, has found that most of the ocean is covered by thinner, first-year ice, leading scientists to forecast that the ocean will be largely ice-free in summer within a decade or two. The Catlin Arctic Survey, carried out last spring as the expedition trekked for 73 days across 280 miles of the northern Beaufort Sea to the North Pole, determined that the average thickness of ice in the area was
Catlin Arctic Survey
15 Oct 2009:
Update of IPCC Report
Says Pace of Warming Is Rapidly Increasing
A review of 400 major climate studies published since the 2007 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says that the world is warming more rapidly than the panel’s mainstream projections and concludes that the rapid buildup of greenhouse gases “has most likely committed the world to a warming of 1.4 to 4.3 degrees C” — 2.5 to 7.7 degrees F — by 2100. The updated report, compiled by the United Nations Environmental Program, said events that the IPCC forecast would occur long-term are already occurring or on the verge of occurring. These include rapid acidification of the oceans, faster-than-expected melting of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets, rising sea levels, shifting ocean and atmospheric currents, and warming polar land masses. “This compendium reminds us that the risks we face may be much greater than what’s generally represented in IPCC assessments,” said Ken Caldeira of Stanford University, one of roughly 60 scientific reviewers of the report. The report said that burgeoning economies in China, India, and other developing countries, coupled with a lack of emissions cutbacks in the industrialized world, have caused greenhouse gas emissions to grow more rapidly than the most extreme scenario presented by the IPCC.14 Oct 2009:
Salt Marshes and Mangroves
Cited as Vital in Combating Climate Change
Salt marshes, sea grasses, mangroves, and other forms of marine vegetation withdraw and store an enormous amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and should be preserved and restored by creating a new global fund, according to a U.N. report. The study, calling for the creation of a “Blue Carbon” initiative, said that although such marine vegetation covers less than 1 percent of the world’s seabed, these plants are estimated to store 1.6 billion tons of CO2 every year — more than half of all carbon buried in the ocean floor. The U.N. report said that these vital marine habitats are being destroyed at a rapid rate, with parts of Asia losing up to 90 percent of their mangrove forests since 1940 and an estimated 2 to 7 percent of salt marshes, sea grasses, and mangroves lost annually to human development. But the report said that such ecosystems can be restored, and that the restoration of large areas of marine vegetation, coupled with efforts to preserve tropical forests, could reduce global carbon emissions by 25 percent.
14 Oct 2009:
Non-Native Snakes in U.S.
Threaten Ecosystems and Other Species
Five giant invasive snake species threaten the health of native ecosystems in Florida and parts of the southern U.S. because the reptiles could decimate indigenous species of animals and birds, according to
USGS
Burmese python
13 Oct 2009:
First Passenger Flight Flown
Using Kerosene Made from Natural Gas
A Qatar Airways flight from London to Qatar has become the first passenger plane to be powered by cleaner-burning natural gas that was converted to kerosene. “Today’s flight opens the door to an alternative to oil-based aviation fuel,” said Malcom Brinded, international executive director of Royal Dutch Shell, which is partnering with Qatar Petroleum to produce so-called gas-to-liquid (GTL) kerosene from Qatar’s abundant natural gas reserves. During the five-hour flight, the Qatar Airways Airbus A340-800 jet was powered by a 50-50 blend of GTL kerosene and conventional oil-based kerosene jet fuel. An Airbus spokesman called the flight “a major breakthrough which brings us closer to a world where fuels made from feedstocks such as wood-chip waste and other biomass is available for commercial aviation.” The spokesman predicted that by 2030, 30 percent of jet fuel would be derived from GTL or biofuels. Shell and Qatar Petroleum are building a plant in Qatar capable of producing one million tons of GTL kerosene annually.13 Oct 2009:
U.S. Officials More Upbeat
On Climate Progress Before Copenhagen
The U.S. Energy Secretary, Steven Chu, and a leading senator predicted that Congress will make good progress on climate legislation — and may even pass a bill — before a meeting in Copenhagen in December to forge an international treaty to slow global warming. The remarks by Chu and Sen. Barbara Boxer of California were markedly more optimistic than those of President Obama’s chief climate and energy adviser, Carol Browner, who said 10 days ago that a U.S. climate bill would not be passed before Copenhagen. Speaking to reporters in London, Chu said, “Whether there will be a bill on the president’s desk and he’ll sign it, I’m hopeful it will be... It will be tight, but there’s a good shot.” Boxer, one of two co-authors of a carbon cap-and-trade bill in the Senate, said the legislation would be passed by her committee soon, adding, “Certainly before Copenhagen, and we’re hoping maybe to even have it on the floor (of the Senate).”
12 Oct 2009:
Fight Over Wind Turbines
Splits French Environmentalists
A battle over whether to place wind turbines within sight of France’s famous abbey, Mont-Saint-Michel, has touched off a dispute within the country’s environmental community over the visual impact of the alternative energy source. A coalition of local and national conservationists has opposed locating the wind turbines within view of the abbey on the Normandy coast, even though the windmills would be roughly 10 miles from Mont-Saint-Michel. The groups say that the three, 300-foot windmills would be the beginning of an arc of 80 wind turbines rising along a ridgeline in the surrounding countryside, some of which could be seen from the abbey. The Washington Post reports that one Paris-based group, the Durable Environmental Federation, is opposing on aesthetic grounds a proposal by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to expand the number of wind turbines in the country from 2,500 to 8,500 by 2020. Some local environmentalists and many local farmers, on whose property the wind turbines would be located, back the construction of wind turbines. More than 90 percent of France’s electricity comes from nuclear and hydroelectric power, and Sarkozy wants wind and solar to replace coal and oil as the source of the remaining 10 percent.
12 Oct 2009:
U.S. Scientists Back Reduction
In Drilling Plans Off Coasts and in Arctic
Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have recommended dramatically scaling back oil drilling plans off U.S. coasts and have proposed a ban on oil and gas exploration in the Arctic until oil companies significantly improve their ability to prevent and clean up oil spills. The non-binding recommendations to U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar represent a stark reversal from the pro-drilling policies of the Bush administration; the new administrator of NOAA, Jane Lubchenco, is an oceanographer who has vowed to restore science to federal environmental policy. The NOAA scientists recommended excluding large tracts of coastline off California, the Atlantic seaboard, the Gulf of Mexico, and Alaska from a proposed 2010 to 2015 drilling plan that had been pushed by the Bush administration. The scientists said the previous plan understated the risks that oil exploitation posed to marine life and coastlines. In recommending the temporary Arctic drilling ban, the scientists expressed concern about the impact of potential oil spills on commercial and subsistence fisheries in the North Aleutian Basin and Chukchi Sea.
Interview: Sylvia Earle Discusses
Restoring the Oceans to Health
Oceanographer Sylvia Earle has spent nearly half a century exploring the world’s oceans and breaking numerous barriers in deep-sea exploration, including holding the record walking untethered on the sea floor at a lower depth — 1,250 feet — than anyone ever has. In her new book, The World is Blue, Earle
Sylvia Earle
Click here to read the full interview.
09 Oct 2009:
Climate Change More Expensive
to Farmers than Climate Bill, Report Says
While the U.S. farm lobby tries to derail climate legislation it says would add crippling costs to production, the effects of climate change itself — including crop damage from increased flooding, higher temperatures, and drought — pose the real threat to the industry, according to a report by the Environmental Working Group. Proposed congressional legislation that would place a price and a cap on carbon emissions would increase production costs less than one half of one percent — increases the report says "are so small they would be lost in the background noise caused by annual swings in farm income." The far greater threat is the increase in costs associated with rising temperatures and changing weather patterns, the analysis says, citing a recent study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that predicts a 30 to 63 percent decrease in corn and soybean crop yields by the end of the century because of climate change. The Environmental Working Group urges the Senate to enact legislation that provides incentives for farmers to cut their own carbon emissions and allocates funding for local cooperatives that reduce carbon emissions and assist farmers in protecting their land against the threats of climate change. Read the report.09 Oct 2009:
Current CO2 Levels
May Be Highest in 15 Million Years
A new study suggests that concentrations of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere are higher now than they have been in 15 million years. Reporting in the journal Science, U.S. researchers said that by studying the shells of ancient marine algae, they were able to determine that the last time CO2 levels were this high occurred 15 to 20 million years ago when the earth was 5 to 10 degrees hotter, sea levels were 75 to 120 feet higher, and there was no permanent ice cap in the Arctic. Until now, the best available climate record — obtained by examining ice bubbles in Antarctic ice cores — showed that concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere are higher today than at any time in the past 800,000 years. If the research by Arhadhna Tripati of the University of California at Los Angeles proves correct, that would mean that science has been able to extend the climate record much farther into the past. Tripati and her colleagues determined CO2 levels in the algae shells by studying the ratio of the chemical element boron to calcium, and Tripati reported that her findings matched the overall CO2 trends seen in Antarctic ice cores. She called her findings “slightly shocking” and said that if CO2 levels, now at 387 parts per million, keep going up, the earth could be in store for the high temperatures and major sea level rises of the Middle Miocene period 15 million years ago.
08 Oct 2009: Solar Shingles Unveiled
Dow Chemical has developed a roof shingle that contains thin-film solar power cells and can be integrated into asphalt roofs, which are used in 90 percent of American homes. Dow executives said the solar shingles can be handled like a regular asphalt shingle and can be nailed right onto a roof and walked on by roofers. The company will begin test-marketing the shingles in mid-2010 and the company will initially target new home construction. By 2015, Dow estimates that the market for the solar shingles could be $5 billion a year as builders increasingly make the solar roofs standard on new construction. The thin-film solar cells, made by Global Solar of Tucson, are less efficient than traditional photovoltaic arrays, but a Dow researcher that with the solar shingles covering large portions of a roof they could meet 40 to 80 percent of a homeowner’s electricity demand. Electricians are not needed to install the solar shingles but do have to connect the completed array to the home’s electrical system.08 Oct 2009:
Former Industrial Sites
Ideal for Renewable Energy Projects
The U.S. government has identified 4,100 contaminated industrial sites, covering more than 5 million acres, suitable for building wind, solar, and geothermal power installations. With concern about 
First Wind
First Wind site in Lackawanna, N.Y.
07 Oct 2009:
From ‘Albatross Cam’
New Insights into Foraging Behavior
By attaching small digital cameras to the backs of several albatrosses in the sub-Antarctic, Japanese and British scientists have discovered that the great seabirds sometimes feed in conjunction with pods of killer whales, apparently picking up scraps left by the predatory mammals. The researchers affixed the cameras to four black-browed albatrosses captured on Bird Island in South Georgia in January, then retrieved three of the four cameras when the seabirds returned to their breeding colonies. The scientists collected nearly 29,000 digital images, some of which showed albatrosses flying behind killer whales and landing in the sea near the orcas. Reporting in the journal PLoS ONE, the scientists said that the albatrosses appeared to be feeding on scraps of Patagonian toothfish or other prey devoured by the killer whales. Such interactions between albatrosses and killer whales have rarely been observed, and the researchers said that one way albatrosses may locate prey in a vast, featureless sea is by spotting orcas and feeding in their vicinity. The cameras, each weighing 82 grams, captured other images of fellow albatrosses in flight, as well as icebergs adrift in the Southern Ocean.
07 Oct 2009:
U.S. Colleges Going Green
Despite Falling Endowments, Study Says
A growing number of U.S. colleges and universities supported green initiatives during the last year despite declining endowments, according to a report released by the Sustainable Endowments Institute. Twenty-six of 332 schools evaluated in the College Sustainability Report Card received the highest-possible grade of A-minus through sustainable management of campus operations and endowment practices. Now in its fourth year, the College Sustainability Report Card evaluates schools in nine categories, including climate change and energy, food and recycling, and green building. Among the schools called sustainability leaders are the University of Pennsylvania, which purchases 45 percent of its electricity from wind power; the University of New Hampshire, which buys produce from an on-campus organic garden; Oberlin College, which powers one building entirely by solar energy; Arizona State University, which operates 137 electric and 170 biofuel-powered vehicles; the University of Colorado, which retrofitted more than 75 buildings for energy efficiency; and Yale University, which has installed 10 micro-wind turbines on campus. See the full report here.06 Oct 2009:
Worldwide Recession Yields
Rare Drop in Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Global emissions of carbon dioxide will drop 3 percent in 2009, including a 5.9 percent decrease in the United States, as a result of the economic recession, according to energy forecasts. A decrease in industrial activity accounts for three-quarters of the global emissions decline, the International Energy Agency reported at U.N. climate talks in Bangkok. The rest of the decline is the result of nations switching to renewable energy sources and nuclear power. In the U.S., coal demand will likely drop 9 percent this year as electricity demand slips and more states switch to natural gas in the face of stiffer government oversight of greenhouse gas emissions, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Economic recovery would likely reverse the trend, and the agency predicts a 1.1 percent increase in CO2 emissions in 2010. Fatih Birol, chief economist for the International Energy Agency, said the rare drop in greenhouse gas emissions gives global leaders a chance to shift to cleaner energy generation. “Because of the financial crisis, many industries have the chance to move away from unsustainable power,” he said. 06 Oct 2009:
Arctic Sea Ice Extent
At Third-Lowest Level Since 1979
The extent of ice covering the Arctic Ocean reached its third-lowest level this summer since satellite observations began in 1979, rebounding from record lows in 2007 and 2008, according to the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). Arctic sea ice, measured at its low point in September, covered an area of two million square miles last month — 649,000 square miles below the September average from 1979 to 2000. This year’s summer sea ice extent was nevertheless 409,000 square miles greater than the record low ice extent set in 2007. Ice extent grew this year, scientists say, because cloudy skies in late summer kept sea surface temperatures lower and because atmospheric patterns in August and September helped to spread out the ice pack. Despite the rebound in extent, ice thickness continues to decline, with only 19 percent of the ice cover more than two years old — far below the 1981 to 2000 average of 52 percent. Arctic sea ice is still declining at a rate of 11 percent per decade. “It’s nice to see a little recovery over the past couple years, but there’s no reason to think that we’re headed back to conditions seen back in the 1970s,” said NSIDC director and senior scientist Mark Serreze. “We still expect to see ice-free summers sometime in the next few decades.”
05 Oct 2009:
Yale Environment 360 Honored
In International Online Journalism Awards
The Online News Association has honored Yale Environment 360 with its best “specialty site journalism” award at its annual Online Journalism Awards ceremony, citing content that is “taking debate to a higher level and is so needed in the journalism community now.” In recognizing Yale Environment 360 as the best small website in a specialized category, the judges praised its mix of reporting, commentary, and discussion, as well as the quality of its writing, the attractiveness of its design, and the level of debate on its interactive reader forum. “Such a well-done site,” the judges wrote. “When you read the comments, you know the incredibly knowledgeable audience is totally engaged with the site. It’s a nice place to be and learn.” Other publications honored by the Online News Association for online excellence included the New York Times, BBC News, ProPublica, and NPR.org. The winners were announced at an awards ceremony in San Francisco.
05 Oct 2009:
European Union Recommends
$73 Billion in Non-Carbon Energy Research
The European Union will unveil a proposal this week calling for $73 billion (50 billion euros) in research over the next decade into improving wind, solar, and nuclear power technologies, as well as the development of carbon capture and sequestration projects and energy-efficient “Smart Cities.” The report, prepared by the EU’s executive body, the European Commission, says the surge in investment is necessary if Europe hopes to meet its goal of slashing greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050. The plan, which calls for coordinated research on a continental level, proposes $23.4 billion in solar power research, $8.8 billion in wind power research, $10.2 billion in nuclear power research, $13 billion for developing energy from biomass and waste, and $19 billion in carbon sequestration technology. EU officials said the proposed research program will enable Europe to remain competitive with the U.S., China, and Japan in the race to develop alternative sources of energy.05 Oct 2009:
China And Developing Nations
React Angrily to U.S. Inaction on Climate
Three days after a top Obama administration official said the U.S. will not enact a carbon cap-and-trade bill this year, China and a group of developing nations accused America and other developing countries of trying to “sabotage” upcoming climate talks in Copenhagen. Yu Qingtai, China’s special representative on climate negotiations, said the U.S. wants to scrap the existing Kyoto Protocols and replace them not with another climate treaty, but with non-binding agreements in which individual countries set their own greenhouse gas reduction targets. “The reason we are not making progress is the lack of political will by Annex 1 [industrialized] countries,” said Yu. “There is a concerted effort to fundamentally sabotage the Kyoto protocol.” Yu made his comments at preliminary climate talks now being held in Bangkok. His remarks were echoed by the Sudanese chair of the G77, the U.N.’s largest organization of developing states, who accused wealthy countries of “a total rejection of their historical responsibilities” to take the lead in cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Their remarks come after Carol Browner, President Obama’s top climate and energy official, bluntly said at a conference that congressional passage of a climate bill before Copenhagen is “not going to happen.”02 Oct 2009:
Loss of World’s Large Predators
Causing Alarming Rise in ‘Mesopredators’
The decline of the world’s large, or “apex,” predators is leading to an increase in smaller, so-called “mesopredators,” causing significant ecological and economic damage, according to a new study. The populations of primary predators such as wolves, lions, and sharks have sharply declined because of hunting, fishing, and habitat disruption, researchers from Oregon State University say in a report published in the journal Bioscience. And in numerous cases worldwide, the next species in line — including birds, sea turtles, lizards, rodents, and insects — have flourished, often with unintended
stock.xchng
02 Oct 2009:
India’s Environment Minister
Calls U.S. Climate Bill Too Weak
Jairam Ramesh, India’s environment minister, criticized the climate change legislation introduced in the U.S. Senate this week, saying it would provide for only a “measly” reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Ramesh said the Senate bill, which calls for a 20 percent cut in emissions by 2020, fell short 
Jairam Ramesh
01 Oct 2009:
Drought in India
is Worst Since 1972, Government Says
With India’s four-month monsoon season now officially over, the nation’s meteorological department has announced that the country is experiencing the worst drought in 37 years, with rains 23 percent
UNEP
01 Oct 2009:
EPA Introduces New Rules
to Regulate Greenhouse Gas Emissions
The Obama administration has announced it will use its regulatory powers to limit CO2 emissions from 14,000 major sources, a move that puts pressure on Congress to pass a climate bill and signals to other nations the U.S.’s willingness to slow global warming. Lisa Jackson, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), said her agency would begin regulating CO2 as a pollutant at coal-burning power plants, refineries, and big industrial complexes, which account for 70 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. The EPA will initially use its authority to force these emitters to employ “best available technology” to implement energy-efficiency measures and reduce emissions, but eventually the agency could place emissions caps on these facilities. “We are not going to continue with business as usual,” Jackson said. “We have the tools and the technology to move forward today, and we are using them.” Her announcement came on the day that two key U.S. Senators unveiled a carbon cap-and-trade bill, a version of which has already passed the House of Representatives. Some emitters said they would challenge the EPA, but the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that the agency had the right
to regulate CO2 emissions under the Clean Air Act.
30 Sep 2009:
EPA Will Draft New Law
To Regulate Toxic Chemicals in Products
Lisa Jackson, administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is proposing a major change in the way the federal government regulates tens of thousands of chemicals in consumer products, one that would place more of a responsibility on industry to prove that the compounds are safe. Jackson is proposing an overhaul of a 1976 toxics law that she called “inordinately cumbersome and time-consuming” and said that her agency will immediately begin analyzing and regulating six widely-used chemicals found in countless consumer products. Among the six are bisphenol A, used in plastic bottles; phthalates, found in vinyl and cosmetics; and perfluorinated compounds used in making non-stick coatings and food packaging. Many scientists say these chemicals can mimic hormones and hurt development of fetuses and children, as well as possibly causing reproductive problems and cancer. “As more and more chemicals are found in our bodies and the environment, the public is understandably anxious and confused,” said Jackson. “Many are turning to government for assurance that chemicals have been assessed using the best available science.”30 Sep 2009:
Draft of Cap-and-Trade Bill
To Be Released by Key U.S. Senators
Two U.S. senators will release on Wednesday a draft climate bill that calls for slightly higher greenhouse gas cuts by 2020 than an earlier version approved by the House of Representatives, but that also includes provisions designed to ease the financial burden of cap-and-trade legislation on business and industry. The bill unveiled by Senators Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and John Kerry (D-Mass.) calls for a 20 percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions below 2005 levels by 2020, as opposed to a 17 percent cut in the House version. Both versions set a target of reducing emissions by 83 percent below 2005 levels by 2050, a goal they plan to achieve by placing a price and a steadily decreasing cap on carbon emissions. The Boxer-Kerry bill reinstates a provision — eliminated in the House version — that gives the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency the right to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. But the Senate bill contains elements that will soften the financial impact of cap-and-trade legislation, including provisions that would initially limit the price of carbon emissions permits and would enable industry to avoid some emissions cuts by purchasing offsets in projects — such as forest preservation — that lower overall CO2 emissions.
29 Sep 2009:
Prolonged Drought and Salinity
Threaten Water Supplies in Australian City
Portions of Australia’s largest river are running so low and have become so salty because of a crippling drought and increased consumption that the nation’s fifth-largest city may soon have to deliver bottled water to its residents. Government officials warn that some stretches of the Murray River could be
The Murray River
29 Sep 2009:
Stockholm’s Congestion Pricing
Reduces Traffic and Boosts Alternative Cars
Stockholm’s congestion pricing plan — which charges motorists for driving in the city center during rush hour — has cut CO2 emissions in the congestion zone by 14 percent, reduced traffic in the inner city by 18 percent, increased ridership on public transport, and spurred the use of alternative fuel vehicles, according to a new study. Instituted on a permanent basis in 2007 in a 24-square-kilometer (9 square-mile) area, the congestion pricing program exempted alternative fuel vehicles from the $1.50 to $3 per-trip surcharge. As a result, the number of registered alternative fuel vehicles in the city jumped from five percent of the vehicle fleet in 2006 to 14 percent in 2008, according to a study by the Stockholm Traffic Association. The association said that the reduction in traffic and emissions is not related to the recession, as sales in Stockholm’s retail core have actually increased. Stockholm’s congestion pricing plan is managed by I.B.M., which has set up a series of 18 gateways into the city center that read transponders on cars and levy the congestion toll.
29 Sep 2009:
Third World Population Growth
Contributes Little to Rising CO2 Emissions
Rapid population growth in the developing world does not significantly contribute to rising greenhouse gas emissions and focusing on the population explosion in poor countries diverts attention from the far more serious issue of over-consumption in rich countries, according to a new study. The study, conducted by the International Institute for Environment and Development, analyzed population growth and CO2 emissions from 1980 to 2005 and concluded that rising populations in sub-Saharan Africa and other poor regions have had a negligible impact on global warming. The study said that although sub-Saharan Africa accounted for 18.5 percent of world population growth, it had only 2.4 percent of the growth in C02 emissions. Overall, low-income nations accounted for 52 percent of population growth and 13 percent of growth in emissions, while high-income nations accounted for just 7 percent of population growth but 29 percent of emissions growth. The study, published in the journal Environment and Urbanization, said that a child born in the U.S. or Europe will contribute thousands of times more CO2 emissions than a poor child in Africa. World population is now 6.8 billion and is expected to rise to 9 billion this century.28 Sep 2009:
Impact of Mountaintop Mining
To Be Subject of Major Study by U.S. EPA
The Obama administration is quietly launching a major scientific review of the environmental impact of mountaintop coal mining on streams and rivers in Appalachia, according to a news report. The Charleston Gazette says that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is forming a scientific panel to study how mountaintop removal has affected headwater streams and impacted downstream water quality. The study, announced without fanfare in the Federal Register, will also examine whether coal mining companies are meeting their obligations to restore Appalachian streams where millions of tons of mining debris have been dumped. Mountaintop coal removal is an environmentally destructive practice in which companies blast off the tops of mountains to get at coal seams below, then dump the debris in Appalachian valleys. Hundreds of miles of headwaters streams have been buried in mining debris, and the proposed EPA review marks the first time that the agency will undertake a major review of mountaintop mining. The Obama administration has promised to take “unprecedented steps” to reduce the impacts of mountaintop removal.28 Sep 2009:
U.S. May Remove Humpbacks
From List of Endangered Species
The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service
may remove the humpback whale from its list of endangered species, citing evidence that the species has rebounded from near extinction. Since an international ban on their whaling in 1966, populations of the north Pacific humpback have increased about 4.7 percent 
Veer
A humpback breaches
25 Sep 2009: Fanged Frog and Striped Gecko Among New Species Discovered in Mekong
Scientists discovered 163 new species in the Greater Mekong region last year, including a fanged frog that eats birds and a striped gecko with cat-like eyes, according to a new report by WWF International. New species discovered in the area over the last year include 100 plants, 28 fish, 18 reptiles, 14 amphibians, two mammals and a bird, according to the conservation group's report. The Greater Mekong region includes Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, and China’s Yunnan province. From 1997 to 2007, 1,068 new species have been discovered in this area. But the effects of climate change, including rising sea levels and saltwater intrusion, could alter the ecosystems for these species, putting them at risk of extinction, researchers said. “Rare, endangered and endemic species like those newly discovered are especially vulnerable because climate change will further shrink their already restricted habitats,” said Stuart Chapman, director of the WWF Greater Mekong Programme.
25 Sep 2009:
New Mexico Utility Quits
Chamber Over Its Climate Change Stance
Another utility company is pulling out of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over its stand on climate change and its opposition to cap-and-trade legislation being debated in Congress. Calling climate change “the most pressing environmental and economic issue of our time,” the New Mexico-based utility PNM Resources announced it would not renew its membership at the end of the year. This comes a week after Pacific Gas & Electric, a major California utility, withdrew from the chamber over its climate change stance. The chamber, the largest business group in the U.S., opposes any cuts in carbon emissions that would drive up energy costs, and it has been critical of President Obama’s call for tighter regulations. The organization also threatened litigation if the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency doesn’t revisit its findings on the effects of climate change. PNM officials said they would prefer to spend company resources working with groups that share their view on the need for “thoughtful, reasonable” climate legislation. “The climate change issue is so compelling, we felt it best to focus on those relationships that are productive,” said Don Brown, a company spokesman.24 Sep 2009: EPA Puts Pharmaceuticals on List of Possible Drinking Water Contaminants
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has listed 104 chemicals, including a number of pharmaceuticals, as potential drinking water contaminants to be considered for government regulation. While the agency must evaluate possible chemical contaminants every five years under the Safe Drinking Water Act, this is the longest list ever compiled by the agency and the first time it has included pharmaceuticals. They include estrogens such as equilenin, equilin, estradiol, and mestranol, which are used for hormone replacement therapy and birth control. Also on the list are 12 microbes, including the hepatitis A virus. The EPA evaluated about 7,500 contaminants and biological agents when compiling the list. Researchers will continue to evaluate data on the 104 chemicals and 12 microbes, and by 2013 will determine whether drinking water standards should exist for at least five of them. Click here to read the full list of the EPA’s “contaminant candidates.”24 Sep 2009: Melting of Greenland and Antarctica Ice Sheets is Accelerating
Ice sheets on the edges of Greenland and western Antarctica are melting faster than expected, new satellite information shows, and scientists say in some regions the melt is accelerating at “runaway” speeds. Ice in some parts of Antarctica has lost about 30 feet of thickness each year since 2003, according to a report published in the journal Nature. The rate of melt during that span is about 50 percent faster than it was from 1995 to 2003. The findings, which are based on laser readings from a NASA satellite, confirm concerns among some climate scientists that the accelerating rate of ice sheet melting has become a self-feeding phenomenon — essentially, the more the ice melts, the more the water near the ice sheets causes more melting. “The question is how far will it run?” said Hamish Pritchard of the British Antarctic Survey and lead author of the study. “It’s more widespread than we previously thought.” According to researchers, 81 of the 111 Greenland glaciers are melting at an accelerated pace. The study does not indicate how this acceleration will affect sea level rise.23 Sep 2009: Ecuador Would Forego Drilling in Amazonian Rainforest for a Price
Ecuador says it will preserve a portion of its Amazonian rainforest — and forego drilling for the 900 million gallons of crude oil beneath it — if rich countries are willing to pay the South American nation $360 million annually. By not drilling for oil in the Yasuní rainforest, Foreign Minister Fander Falconi said, Ecuador could prevent about 410 million tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere. The $360 million fee is about half the amount of revenue that the 900 million gallons of petroleum beneath the rainforest would generate. The proposal comes as developing nations made the case during a United Nations climate conference this week that rich nations should compensate developing countries for taking steps to reduce carbon emissions. “We have to attack the cause of climate change, which is the elevated use of energy by industrialized countries,” Falconi told Reuters. Ecuador, a member of OPEC, produces about 450,000 barrels of oil daily.22 Sep 2009: Obama Urges Leaders to Find Compromise to Avert Climate “Catastrophe”
Warning that the global climate threat could produce “an irreversible catastrophe,” President Obama told world leaders gathered at the United Nations that developed nations should take the lead in finding solutions, but that emerging countries must also be ready to act. And while conceding that the economic recession has added to the challenge, he vowed that the U.S. “will meet our responsibility to future generations.” Obama urged leaders to find a compromise as the world approaches global climate talks in Copenhagen in December. “No nation, however large or small, wealthy or poor, can escape the impact of climate change,” he said. Obama delivered his speech at a time when some international leaders are questioning the U.S. commitment to carbon emissions cuts. Chinese president Hu Jintao also addressed the UN conference, noting that China still lagged behind more developed countries and that had to be taken into account in any plans to cut emissions. “Developing countries need to strike a balance between economic growth, social development, and environmental protection,” Hu said.22 Sep 2009: U.S. Judge Puts Yellowstone Grizzly Back on Threatened Species List
The Yellowstone grizzly bear, facing the duel threats of diminished food sources and increased killing by humans, has been placed back on the threatened species list. In issuing the court order, U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy cited the loss of whitebark pine, which produces nuts that many of the 600 grizzlies in the greater Yellowstone region — which includes parts of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming —
21 Sep 2009: U.S. Looks to Flywheel Technology to Make Grid Greener and More Efficient
The U.S. Department of Energy has granted a $43 million loan to a Massachusetts-based company to prove the value of a new technology in which spinning flywheels are used to improve the efficiency of the electric grid. Beacon Power Corp. will build a 20-megawatt flywheel plant in upstate New York in which flywheels spinning up to 16,000 times per minute will act as a sort of short-term power storage system for the state’s electrical distribution system, according to the Associated Press. Essentially, the spinning flywheels would suck excess energy off the electric grid when supply is high, store it in the spinning cores, and return the energy to the grid when demand grows. Currently, fossil fuel generation feeds such demands on the electric grid, but Beacon officials predict using flywheels would cut carbon emissions in half. “It’s a lower (carbon dioxide) impact, much faster response for a growing market need, and so we get pretty excited about that,” said Matt Rogers, a senior adviser to Energy Secretary Steven Chu.21 Sep 2009:
World’s River Deltas Sinking
Due to Human Activities, Study Says
Most of the world’s major river deltas are sinking as a result of human activity, making them vulnerable to increased flooding and posing a threat to tens of millions of people, according to a new study published by the University of Colorado. In addition to rising waters caused by global climate change, dams and reservoirs are trapping sediment upstream in river systems worldwide, man-made channels are sending sediment directly to the ocean, and the extraction of groundwater and natural gas is causing increased compaction of the floodplains, according to the report, which will be published in the journal Nature Geoscience. Twenty-four of the world’s 33 major river deltas are sinking, the authors say. And in recent years, 85 percent experienced major flooding, submerging some 100,000 square miles of land. According to the report, that flooding could increase by 50 percent by century’s end if the world experiences the 18-inch sea level rise forecast by the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. “This study shows there are a host of human-induced factors that already cause deltas to sink much more rapidly than could be explained by sea level alone,” said co-author Albert Kettner, of CU-Boulder’s Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research.18 Sep 2009:
Climate-Related Business
Surges Past Aerospace and Defense Sectors
The world’s climate-related business sector grew by 75 percent in 2008, with revenues climbing to $530 billion, passing global aerospace or defense industries, HSBC Global Research has reported. By 2020 it could reach $2 trillion, far exceeding a 2006 Stern Review analysis that predicted climate-related revenues reaching $500 billion by 2050. HSBC analysts say revenue has shattered forecasts because more and more businesses are adapting their business models in the face of climate change concerns. Seventy-six percent of revenue occurred in the United States, Japan, France, Germany, and Spain. To reach the projected $2 trillion figure by 2020, the report notes, the climate sector will need continued government support and the world must continue to change the types of energy it produces. According to the HSBC report, the major areas of investment will be production of low-carbon energy, energy efficiency, climate-related finance, and management of water, waste, and pollution.17 Sep 2009:
NOAA Reports World’s Oceans
Had Warmest Summer Temeratures on Record
Surface temperatures of the world’s oceans were warmer this summer than for any Northern Hemisphere summer since records were first kept in 1880, according to data released by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. From June to August, ocean temperatures reached an average of 62.5° F worldwide, about 1.04° warmer than the 20th century average of 61.5°. NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center also reported that the average global land and ocean temperature for August was the second-warmest on record, behind only 1998. In August, the average global land surface temperature of 58.2° F was 1.33° above the 20th century average of 56.9°. While some areas, including the central United States, had cooler temperatures than average, large portions of the world's land mass had warmer temperatures than average, including both Australia and New Zealand, which had their warmest Augusts ever.
17 Sep 2009:
Germany Creates Zones for
Construction of Offshore Wind Farms
Germany has endorsed zoning changes that promote construction of offshore wind farms in the North Sea, opening up the potential for 25,000 megawatts of new energy capacity by 2030. As it looks to offshore wind as a major part of its goal of meeting 30 percent of its energy needs with renewable sources by 2020, Germany is designating offshore zones where wind farms can be built without threatening the environment or shipping. The contribution of wind energy alone could double from six percent to 12 percent by 2020, German officials say. The Nature and Biodiversity and Conservation Union, one of Germany’s major environmental groups, said more than 20 offshore wind projects are already under review in Germany. “This initiative comes at the right time as the big energy utilities prefer to bank on a lengthening of old nuclear plants rather than building new wind parks in the sea,” the organization said in a statement.16 Sep 2009:
Rift Between U.S. and Europe
Could Jeopardize Climate Negotiations
Policy divisions between the Obama Administration and European leaders on how carbon reductions would be measured could jeopardize the chances of success during climate talks in Copenhagen, according to The Guardian. European leaders want to retain the way carbon reduction targets are counted according to a provision in the Kyoto Protocol, in which CO2 reductions are subject to an international system, but the U.S. wants each country to set its own rules. While the U.S. has not introduced specific details, a draft agreement suggested emissions cuts should be subject to “conformity with domestic law.” According to sources quoted in the London newspaper, European leaders are reluctant to challenge the Obama administration, which has shown more willingness to confront climate change than the Bush administration. But there is mounting concern that the divisions could jeopardize the chances of a meaningful agreement at the Copenhagen talks in December. Ban Ki-moon, the UN general secretary, said he is troubled by the lack of progress in climate negotiations. “We are deeply concerned that the negotiation is not making much headway,” he said.16 Sep 2009: Heat-Resistant Forests Could Reverse Warming in the Sahara, Study Says
Planting forests of quick-growing trees in the world’s most arid deserts and sustaining them with desalinated water from nearby oceans would cool the regions significantly and draw down billions of tons of carbon dioxide, according to climate simulations being published in the journal Climatic Change. The concept, proposed by cell biologist Leonard Ornstein of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, includes transporting desalinated water to parched deserts with aqueducts and pumps to support growth of such heat-resistant trees as eucalyptus. By watering the plants with drip irrigation, in which water is sent directly to the trees’ roots via plastic tubing, engineers could reduce water loss, says Ornstein, who calculated the climatic effects with NASA modelers. According to the models, planting heat-resistant trees in the Sahara Desert or the Australian outback could draw down about 8 billion tons of carbon annually. In the Sahara, temperatures in the forests could drop by as much as 8°C. The costs of building and running reverse-osmosis plants for desalination and transporting the water would be about $2 trillion per year. “Any solution to climate change has to be a multitrillion-dollar project,” Ornstein says. “The issue is what the payback is.”15 Sep 2009: U.S. Energy Secretary Urges Realistic Goals at Copenhagen Climate Talks
The climate talks in Copenhagen will not be the final chance for the world to confront climate change, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said. And while the historic negotiations should produce meaningful results on greenhouse gas reductions, he said, negotiators should avoid unrealistic goals. “You have to bring more people along,” he told reporters during a briefing in Vienna, “So don’t tee it up as now or never.” World leaders will gather in December in hopes of crafting the successor to the Kyoto Protocol.
Steven Chu15 Sep 2009:
Interior Launches Council
to Monitor and Tackle Climate Change
The U.S. Interior Department has formed a council to monitor the impacts of climate change and to suggest regional strategies for dealing with it, the Obama administration’s first coordinated plan to confront what Interior Secretary Ken Salazar called the “signature issues of the 21st century.” Salazar will coordinate monitoring and response by “regional climate change response centers” among Interior’s eight bureaus nationwide, which will in turn work with local groups and other federal agencies. Among other steps, Salazar said, the council will investigate ways to sequester carbon by storing it underground and by absorbing it through forests and rangelands. The Interior Department manages 20 percent of the nation’s land mass and almost 1.7 billion acres of submerged land on the Outer Continental Shelf. A recent U.S. government report concluded that the effects of climate change are already being felt nationwide and outlined the ways in which climate is expected to change in various regions of the country.14 Sep 2009:
Iraq Approves Plan to
Convert Rotting Dates to Bioethanol
Iraqi officials have endorsed a plan to convert dates into biofuel, an innovative project they hope will boost a once-thriving agriculture economy burdened by years of drought, government sanctions and war. A United Arab Emirates-based company will produce bioethanol from the dates that farmers can no longer use because they are rotting, said Faroun Ahmed Hussein, head of Iraq’s date palm board. The nation produces about 350,000 tons of dates annually, but consumes only about 150,000 tons. While Iraq once was a major date exporter, farmers now feed much of the rest to animals rather than export them because of the poor quality, Hussein said. Government sanctions and war have exacerbated entrenched problems such as high soil salinity and inefficient irrigation to ravage Iraq’s farming sector, the nation’s largest employer. “Farmers will be happy to sell their rotten dates instead of throwing them away,” Hussein said. He would not identify the company, how much bioethanol it would be able to produce, or how much it would cost.14 Sep 2009:
Report Says Wind Energy Could
Meet China’s Energy Needs for Two Decades
With steady growth in wind power capacity each of the last five years, China is expected to pass the United States as the fastest-growing market for wind installations this year. But
this may only hint at the potential for wind energy in China, according to a new study published in the journal Science. After modeling China’s wind availability and profitability, researchers from Harvard University and Tsinghua University in Beijing calculated that wind resources, particularly in the country’s northern and western regions, could meet all of China’s electricity demands until at least 2030. Specifically, researchers say wind turbines could produce 6.96 trillion kilowatt-hours of energy at a price of 0.516 Chinese yuan, or about 7.5 cents per kilowatt-hour, which is in keeping with the current government-set rates for wind energy. To accommodate this surge in wind energy production, however, the country would have to make significant improvements to its transmission system, including smarter and stronger power grids, researchers warn.11 Sep 2009: With Melting Arctic Ice, Ships Prepare to Complete Northern Passage
Aided by thawing sea ice, two German ships are en route to becoming the first commercial vessels to complete the Northern Sea Route through the Arctic from Asia to the West. The ships, which began their voyage in South Korea in July, are scheduled to depart a Siberian port this week for Rotterdam in the Netherlands. “It is global warming that enables us to think about using that route,” a spokeswoman for the shipping company, the Beluga Group, told the New York Times. The ships have been accompanied by Russian icebreakers, but reportedly so far have encountered only scattered ice floes. The Russian government declared the Northern Sea Route, or Northeast Passage, open for international vessels after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but no commercial ships have yet traveled all the way across. The Russians hope that the melting sea ice, combined with economic benefits, will eventually make the Arctic passage a strong competitor to longer southerly routes.10 Sep 2009:
Cell Phone Radiation Levels
Ranked by Environmental Advocacy Group
The controversy over whether radiation from cell phones can cause brain and mouth cancers has intensified now that the Environmental Working Group has posted an online tool that enables people to see levels of radiation emitted by 1,200 cell phones. Among the top-ten highest emitters are the popular Blackberry and Motorola models. Traffic to the site displaying the radiation rankings was so large that the Environmental Working Group — which works to protect children from toxic chemicals and 
10 Sep 2009:
Offshore Wind Advocates
Eye Collaboration on East Coast of U.S.
Proponents of offshore wind power along the United States’ eastern seaboard are promoting a collaborative network of state and industry leaders to help the nascent industry develop. Organizers of the so-called “U.S. Offshore Wind Collaborative” say the success of offshore wind depends on the construction of infrastructure, including transmission lines, ports to deliver the turbines, and maintenance stations. That will require collaboration between the region’s state leaders, said Greg Watson, leader of the group and senior energy adviser to Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts. It will also mean a single entity to lobby for federal research dollars, as well as policies to promote the industry, possibly including the extension of the production tax credit for wind projects. “There’s a difference between having a bunch of projects and having an industry,” Watson said. Among the early directors of the collaborative is Jim Gordon, developer of Cape Wind, a 130-turbine offshore project proposed off the Massachusetts coast. After years of local, state and federal review, the U.S. Department of Interior is expected to release its report on the project soon.09 Sep 2009:
EPA Seeks Revocation
Of Largest Mountaintop Coal Mine Permit
The Obama administration, which promised to take “unprecedented steps” to rein in the environmentally destructive practice of mountaintop coal mining, is attempting to revoke the permit for the largest mountaintop removal project in West Virginia. Citing the potential of the Spruce Mine “to degrade downstream water quality” and do other environmental damage, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to withdraw a previously issued permit. The EPA said the mine project would violate the Clean Water Act by blasting off the top of a mountain and then burying eight miles of streams in debris from the 2,300-acre mine. The EPA cited “new information” and data showing that the mine owners could never replace the environmental functions performed by the affected streams and that other so-called “valley fills” in Appalachia had seriously harmed stream ecology. The Spruce Mine project has been delayed by litigation, and the corps has asked a federal judge for time to study the EPA’s objections. Mountaintop coal mining has buried roughly 800 miles of Appalachian streams and destroyed hundreds of square miles of woodlands.
09 Sep 2009:
China and First Solar
Sign Accord for Major Solar Plant
U.S.-based First Solar has signed an agreement with the Chinese government to build the world’s largest photovoltaic power plant in Inner Mongolia. By 2019, the plant is expected to produce 2,000 megawatts of electricity, which the company said would be sufficient to power three million Chinese homes. The deal for the 16,000-acre plant, to be located in Ordos City, solidifies China’s position as the global leader in developing renewable energy, and further boosts the prospects of First Solar, the world’s largest photovoltaic cell manufacturer. First Solar CEO Mike Ahearn said the deal would not have been possible without commitments from the Chinese government to buy the power at preferred rates and to build the transmission infrastructure needed to send the power to China’s population centers. First Solar produces so-called thin-film solar cells, which are made of a material — cadmium telluride — that is less efficient at converting sunlight to electricity but can be manufactured far more cheaply than standard crystalline silicon cells. Construction will begin next year on the project, which is expected to cost several billion dollars.08 Sep 2009:
Half of Fish Consumption
Attributed to Aquaculture, Study Finds
Production of farmed fish has nearly tripled in volume since 1995 and aquaculture now provides 50 percent of the fish consumed globally, according to a new study. The study said that while aquaculture does provide some environmental benefits, the quantity of fishmeal and fish oil needed to produce the feed for carnivorous farmed fish — such as Atlantic salmon — is extracting a heavy toll on smaller species such as sardines and anchovies. Published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study said that the feed for aquaculture fish now consumes 68 percent of the fishmeal and 88 percent of the fish oil produced globally. The authors recommended that fish oil used in fish feed be reduced and replaced with omega-3 oils extracted from algae or genetically modified land plants. The authors said that a four percent reduction in the fish oil used in salmon feed would cut the amount of wild fish needed to produce one pound of salmon from five pounds to 3.9 pounds. The study also encouraged greater development of fish farms raising tilapia, carp, and other fish with a vegetarian diet.
08 Sep 2009:
Japan’s Incoming Premier
Vows Sharp CO2 Cuts — With Caveat
Japan’s recently elected premier, Yukio Hatoyama, has proposed that the country reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent below 1990 levels within 10 years. But Hatoyama, of the center-left Democratic Party, said his proposal is contingent on other industrialized nations setting similarly high greenhouse gas reduction targets. Hatoyama said he would push for such cuts at climate talks this December in Copenhagen. The European Union has promised to reduce CO2 emissions by 20 percent below 1990 levels in the next decade and by 30 percent if other wealthy nations agree to similarly sharp cuts. The incoming premier’s proposal, first made as a campaign pledge, is encountering stiff opposition from Japanese industry, with the country’s largest business federation saying it opposes any cuts bigger than six percent below 1990 levels. Meanwhile, French President Nicolas Sarkozy is reportedly considering placing a carbon tax on gasoline and home heating oil. His proposal reportedly will start at 14 euros ($20) for each ton of CO2 emitted and rise eventually to 100 euros ($143) per ton.
04 Sep 2009:
Solar Power at Coal Plants
Could Cut Energy Costs, CO2 Emissions
The pairing of solar technology with coal-fired power could reduce the amount of coal required to produce energy and cut the costs associated with solar production, according to proponents of a trial plan in Colorado. A proposal announced by Abengoa Solar and utility Xcel Energy would use solar heat concentrated by parabolic mirrors to generate steam to help drive the turbines of the coal plant. Adding the array to an existing power plant would cut the cost of actually converting solar power into electricity by 30 to 50 percent, according to estimates, and make the renewable source more competitive with conventional sources of electricity. At the same time, it will reduce the amount of coal needed in the coal-fired plant and cut carbon dioxide emissions. Engineers add, however, that solar power used at solar plants will probably contribute no more than 15 percent of total electricity produced. And they will only be effective in sunny areas.04 Sep 2009:
Millennia of Arctic Cooling
Came to Abrupt End in 20th Century
Greenhouse gases released by human activity have swiftly ended a millennia-long trend of cooling in the Arctic and may well halt the next cyclical descent into an ice age, according to a new study. The report — based on a study of glacial ice, lakebed mud, and tree rings that provide a decade-by-decade record of Arctic climate for the past 2,000 years — demonstrates that humankind is now pouring so many greenhouse gases into the atmosphere that we are interfering with ancient cycles of ice ages and inter-glacial periods that have occurred for millions of years. Writing in the journal Science, researchers reported that until 1900, the Arctic was cooling at a rate of half a degree Fahrenheit per millennium for the past 2,000 years. This was because of a natural cycle in which earth’s orbit is farther from the sun. But since 1900, the Arctic has warmed 2.2 degrees F, with 1998 to 2008 being the warmest decade in 2,000 years. This precipitous warming caused by heat-trapping greenhouses gases is not only melting Arctic Ocean ice and the Greenland ice sheet but, if not brought under control, may stave off the arrival of the next Ice Age, expected in roughly 20,000 years.04 Sep 2009:
Revisiting the Question
Of Corn Ethanol’s Carbon Footprint
Do biofuels made from corn emit significantly less carbon dioxide than gasoline? That debate flared up last year as global commodity prices soared and biofuel critics argued that planting corn and converting it to liquid fuel not only produced nearly as many greenhouse gases per gallon as combusting gasoline, but also drove up world food prices. The Journal of Industrial Ecology is taking another look at the question and concludes that corn ethanol probably produces about 35 to 40 percent fewer greenhouse gases than burning gasoline. The journal features several articles that debate the complicated issue of so-called life-cycle carbon intensity, which looks at all stages of fuel production to determine the quantity of greenhouse gases produced by different fuels. Scientists at the University of Nebraska argue in the journal that recent advances in refining efficiency, crop production, and utilization of by-products from corn ethanol production mean that corn ethanol generates roughly half as many greenhouse gases as gasoline. A researcher from the University of California, Berkeley, disputed that finding, saying that corn ethanol produces only about a third fewer greenhouse gases. The editors of the journal agree more with the Berkeley figures, and note that the debate is not merely academic: Accurately determining how many greenhouse gases corn ethanol generates will influence regulatory decisions on biofuel by both the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and states such as California.03 Sep 2009:
Deep Geothermal Project
Suspended in California After Setbacks
A $17 million renewable energy project designed to tap into the earth’s heat more than 2 miles deep has been suspended because of difficulty drilling through rock formations. The project, run by AltaRock Energy and partially funded by Google, was designed to drill down to about 12,000 feet, fracture rock at the bottom of the hole, and then circulate water to create steam. But the company reported that it had encountered “anomalies” in the rock that had prevented it from drilling deeper than 4,000 feet. State and federal officials and residents at the Geysers site, not far from San Francisco, also are concerned that the fracturing process could set off local earthquakes, as happened with a similar project in Switzerland. The U.S. Energy Department had allowed AltaRock to drill in California but not to fracture rock at great depth pending a review. AltaRock said it is suspending drilling and did not say when it intends to resume activity. Renewable energy advocates are hopeful that deep geothermal power may one day prove to be a potent source of steam-generated electricity.03 Sep 2009:
India’s CO2 Emissions
To At Least Triple in Next 20 Years
The Indian government says the country’s carbon dioxide emissions will grow three to five times by 2031 as its economy expands and its population continues to soar from 1 billion to 1.5 billion people. Government projections say CO2 emissions will increase from 1.4 billion tons last year to between 4 billion and 7.3 billion tons annually by 2031. India now produces about 5 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions. Indian officials have rejected assertions by developed countries that India needs to rein its CO2 emissions, saying the country has the right to improve its standard of living and that per-capita emissions — expected to double by 2031 — will still remain comparatively low. “Even with very aggressive GDP growth,” said Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh, “India’s per capita emissions will be well below developed country averages.” That contention offers little solace to negotiators hoping to forge a climate treaty in Copenhagen this December, as the U.S. and some other developed nations have expressed an unwillingness to sharply curb CO2 emissions if developing countries such as India and China make no commitment to rein in theirs.
Interview: Connecting to Nature
Through Architecture and Design
Social ecologist Stephen R. Kellert has spent much of his career thinking and writing about biophilia, the innate human affinity for nature. His work has explored how we cut ourselves off from nature in the
Stephen R. KellertClick here to read the full interview.
02 Sep 2009:
Summer Sea Ice in Arctic
Could Disappear by 2016, Scientists Say
Summer sea ice covering the Arctic Ocean could disappear by 2016 and the thawing of the Greenland ice sheet is occurring so rapidly that the meltwater from Greenland alone could raise sea levels by one meter this century. Meeting in Greenland, scientists from the Danish Meteorological Institute, the Greenland Climate Center, and other organizations said that the thickness and volume of Arctic ice is 
NASA
02 Sep 2009:
Plastic Debris in Pacific
More Extensive Than Original Estimates
The most extensive study of the so-called ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ has discovered a far higher density of debris, spread out over a larger area, than was originally believed. A three-week expedition, conducted by scientists on two vessels, found that every one of several hundred water samples taken between the waters near San Francisco and the so-called garbage patch — 1,000 miles to the west — contained tiny bits of broken-down plastic refuse. As the boats neared the garbage patch — an area twice the size of Texas where the confetti-like pieces of plastic have accumulated because of ocean currents — researchers discovered extremely dense concentrations of the debris. The sieves “would be completely clogged with tiny pieces of plastic,” said a researcher with the California Environmental Protection Agency. The small plastic bits are eaten by jellyfish and fish, and toxic substances in the plastics are believed to work their way up the food chain to fish, such as salmon, that are eaten by humans. The expedition collected thousands of pieces of plastic of all sizes, as well as 300 fish, to test how chemicals such as PCBs migrate up the marine food chain.01 Sep 2009:
Influential U.K. Panel
Outlines Possible Geo-engineering Ideas
The U.K.’s highly respected Royal Society has released a study outlining two major potential methods of cooling the earth if mankind fails to slow global warming by reducing CO2 emissions: removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and employing technologies to deflect solar radiation back into space. Stressing that emissions reductions were vital, the Royal Society nevertheless said that scientists must start investigating geo-engineering schemes to cool the planet. It said that CO2 could possibly be pulled from the air using various technologies, such as artificial trees and carbon sequestration, or by accelerating the reaction of rocks and minerals with CO2, which stores carbon dioxide. Land use changes and planting forests also could potentially play a smaller role, the group said. Methods to deflect solar energy back into space could include releasing stratospheric aerosols, pumping seawater into the atmosphere to produce more clouds, and launching mirrors or other devices into space to reflect the sun’s energy away from earth. The Royal Society dismissed a number of ideas as too risky, including a plan to seed the oceans with iron to stimulate the growth of CO2-absorbing algae. Last week, a group of British engineers suggested more modest and immediate ways to cool the planet.01 Sep 2009:
Europe Cuts Emissions,
Imposes Ban on Incandescent Bulbs
For the fourth year in a row, Europe has reduced its carbon dioxide emissions, with CO2 output falling by 1.3 percent in 2008. The recession appears to be the main factor in the emissions reduction, as factories were idled across the continent. But European Union Environmental Commissioner Stavros Dimas said the EU’s emissions trading scheme and development of renewable energy sources also is playing a part in the reduction. “This is a timely message to the rest of the world in the run-up to the Copenhagen climate conference,” said Dimas. The EU has now cut emissions 6.2 percent over 1990 levels and is on track to meet a target under the Kyoto Protocol for reducing emissions 8 percent below 1990 levels during the period 2008 to 2012. Meanwhile, the EU began restricting the sale of incandescent light bulbs, requiring that stores no longer be allowed to buy or import most incandescent bulbs. Once current stocks are exhausted, merchants will only sell more energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs.31 Aug 2009:
Growth in Wind Power
Gets Boost From Change in Subsidies
Large banks, including Morgan Stanley and Citigroup, are making major investments in wind farms because a change in federal renewable energy subsidies is providing investors returns of up to 15 percent, the Wall Street Journal reports. The surge in investment has been spurred in part by a new U.S. government policy, which now allows wind farm developers to receive 30 percent of the cost of the 
31 Aug 2009:
Broad Public Support
Still Exists For Obama Programs on Energy
A significant majority of Americans supports President Obama’s efforts to overhaul energy policy and a slight majority favors a controversial program to place a cap and price on carbon dioxide emissions, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll. The poll found that nearly 60 percent of Americans back administration and congressional efforts to combat climate change and develop renewable energy and 55 percent approve of Obama’s handling of the issue, compared with 30 percent who do not. A smaller majority, 52 to 43 percent, supports the cap-and-trade bill passed by the House of Representatives and now before the U.S. Senate. Support for a cap-and-trade plan grew slightly among independents, with a slight majority now favoring it, and only 5 percent of those polled said global warming is not an issue. Public support for wind power, solar power, and electric cars is overwhelming, with 80 to 90 percent of respondents approving of a shift to these technologies. In a separate report, the Washington Post describes how well-funded public relations campaigns by the oil and coal industries attacking the cap-and-trade bill are dwarfing efforts by environmentalists.28 Aug 2009:
A Call to Re-Think Expectations
For the Climate Summit in Copenhagen
Author and scholar Michael Levi says in the current issue of Foreign Affairs that the odds of signing a climate treaty in Copenhagen this December are extremely small and argues that policymakers and environmental advocates should rethink their expectations for the summit. Levi, a senior fellow for energy and environment at the Council on Foreign Relations, contends that the conventional treaty model – which focuses on high-level agreements on emissions caps and carbon trading schemes – is fundamentally flawed because emissions caps are largely unverifiable and unenforceable. Short of bullying with punitive sanctions, nothing can be done if caps are exceeded. In addition, Levi said developing countries will lobby for lenient emissions caps, in part because they can be a source of income; if emissions goals are coupled with a cap-and-trade carbon market, countries request easy targets so that they can sell carbon credits once they have exceeded their low emissions goals. Levi recommends a more bottom-up approach, saying that real change happens when individual nations adopt laws and programs to reduce carbon emissions. Rather than investing great hopes in occasional summits, Levi argues, nations should conduct ongoing climate talks — aimed, for example, at sharing technology — similar to international trade negotiations.28 Aug 2009:
A Rare Photograph
Of a Snow Leopard in Afghanistan
One of the most remote and beautiful regions in the world — Afghanistan’s Wakhan Corridor — is also home to one of the globe’s rarest creatures, the snow leopard. Researchers for the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) recently took some remarkable, close-up photographs of a snow leopard in the Wakhan, using a camera trap that automatically shoots a picture when a creature passes by. Afghanistan is believed to be home to fewer than 200 snow leopards, which live in the Hindu Kush mountains. The Wakhan is a narrow finger of land high in the Hindu Kush in northeastern Afghanistan. WCS researchers are conducting wildlife surveys in the Wakhan with the goal of including it in a network of parks and protected areas that the Afghan government is planning to establish in the war-torn nation. Snow leopards — found in mountainous regions of central and south Asia — are listed as an endangered species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
27 Aug 2009:
Drilling Chemicals Found
In Drinking Water Near Natural Gas Sites
For the first time, scientists have discovered chemicals used in a controversial natural gas drilling technique in water wells near the gas sites. Scientists for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), testing wells near a major gas drilling area in Wyoming, have found traces of drilling chemicals in three wells, and other contaminants — including oil, gas, and heavy metals — in 11 of 39 wells recently tested, according to the Web site ProPublica. The chemicals are used in a process called hydraulic fracturing, in which drilling fluids and sand are injected under high pressure to break up rock and release gas. Using the fracturing technique, gas reserves are being developed in 31 states, although New York officials have imposed a moratorium on the process — which uses large amounts of water — until its environmental impact can be assessed. Congress is also considering a bill to regulate the process, but the gas industry has said regulation is unnecessary because it is impossible for fracturing fluids to contaminate underground water supplies. The recent tests, which may refute the industry’s claim, are continuing.27 Aug 2009:
Three Geoengineering Ideas
Proposed By Researchers in Britain
The U.K.’s Institute of Mechanical Engineers has proposed three geoengineering schemes officials say could be immediately implemented to slow global warming: building artificial trees that absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide, using algae tubes to pull CO2 from the atmosphere, and painting the roofs of buildings white. The engineers said these three ideas, if carried out on a wide scale, could absorb much of the CO2 produced annually in the U.K. and cool temperatures. The engineers shied away from more ambitious geoengineering proposals — such as seeding the oceans with iron to encourage the growth of CO2-absorbing plankton — and focused instead on practical solutions that could be carried out soon. The artificial trees are machines the size of a standard shipping container, and the engineers said that 100,000 of these “trees” could absorb all of the emissions of the U.K.’s non-power plant sector each year. The CO2 could then be stored underground in depleted oil and gas fields. The CO2 absorbed by the algae tubes could be converted to charcoal and buried, the engineers said. The institute said a $16 million research program could be used to turn the three ideas into reality. 26 Aug 2009:
Lead-contaminated Paint
Still Used Widely Around the World
Paint with high levels of lead has been banned for several decades in the U.S. and other developed countries. But a new study shows that lead-tainted paint is still being produced and sold worldwide, posing a serious health risk to children. Researchers from the University of Cincinnati tested 373 samples of enamel paint from 12 countries and found that most nations allowed the sale of paints whose lead content often far exceeded the U.S. safety standard, which until recently was 600 parts per million and this month was reduced to 90 ppm. A third of the paint samples from China and Singapore exceeded the 600 ppm standard, while nearly all of the paint sampled in Thailand and Nigeria was above that level. Paint sampled from Ecuador contained an average of 32,000 ppm of lead. Children exposed to lead-tainted paint can suffer severe brain damage and other health effects. Paint manufacturers originally added lead to prevent paint from cracking. But the researchers — reporting their findings in the journal Environmental Research — said many low-lead alternatives are now available.26 Aug 2009:
Pachauri Supports Goal
Limiting Atmospheric CO2 to 350 ppm
Rajendra Pachauri, the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, says he supports the goal of cutting atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide to 350 parts per million, a highly ambitious target supported by many environmental activists. Speaking with Agence France Presse, Pachauri said that he cannot officially endorse the 350 target. “But as a human being I am fully supportive of that goal,” said Pachauri. “What is happening, and what is likely to happen, convinces me that the world must be really ambitious and very determined at moving toward a 350 target.” Current atmospheric concentrations of CO2 are close to 390 ppm, and if emissions are not brought under control, scientists say, levels could exceed 500 ppm this century, nearly twice as high as pre-industrial levels. Leading environmental activists, such as Bill McKibben, say that reducing CO2 levels to 350 ppm is the best way to avoid highly disruptive effects of global warming. Key climate talks will be held this December in Copenhagen.25 Aug 2009: Tree Advance Documented
A study of 166 sites around the world shows that trees are advancing to higher latitudes and higher elevations at more than half the locales, retreating in only two study sites, and remaining stable at the rest. Examining records from 166 areas where temperature and treeline records have been kept since 1900, scientists from New Zealand discovered that trees have advanced at 89 locations and remained stable at 77. The key factor in colonization of new areas appeared to be whether winter temperatures had risen in the past century, as treeline advance was most pronounced at sites where winters were warmer. Winter temperatures rose at 77 sites by an average of about 2 degrees C (3.6 F) over the past century, and summer temperatures increased at 117 of the 166 sites, rising by an average of 1.4 degrees C (2.5 F) since 1900. The findings, published in the journal Ecology Letters, seemed to suggest that rising winter temperatures were the crucial factor, because even if seedlings did colonize new areas in the warmer months, colder winter temperatures would kill them if they advanced to higher latitudes and elevations that had not warmed.25 Aug 2009:
U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Wants to Put Global Warming on Trial
Facing the prospect that the federal government may soon begin regulating greenhouse gas emissions, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is proposing a public hearing in which the chamber and allied scientists question whether human-caused global warming is real. William Kovacs, the chamber’s senior vice-president for environment, technology, and regulatory affairs, is asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to hold the rare public hearing, complete with witnesses, cross-examinations, and a judge who would rule whether man is indeed warming the planet. Kovacs likened the hearing to “the Scopes monkey trial of the 21st century,” referring to the famed 1925 court case in which a Tennessee teacher was illegally accused of teaching evolution. “It would be the science of climate change on trial,” said Kovacs, adding that if the EPA refuses to hold a hearing, the chamber will file a lawsuit in federal court challenging the notion of man-made global warming. The EPA — which is soon expected to declare that it will begin regulating carbon dioxide emissions because they are a threat to public health — said it had no intention of holding a global warming “trial,” calling the hearing a “waste of time” and the proposed lawsuit “frivolous.” The chamber, which represents three million businesses, is concerned not only about EPA regulation but also about a carbon cap-and-trade bill that has been approved by the U.S. House of Representatives and is now before the U.S. Senate.24 Aug 2009:
Small Hydropower Dams on Rise
As Concerns Grow About Big Power Projects
The number of small hydropower projects in the U.S. is increasing as utilities try to avoid concerns about the environmental impact of large dams, the Wall Street Journal reports. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission now has applications for 14,000 megawatts of hydropower projects — enough to power 7 million to 14 million homes — and most are located on small rivers, streams, and creeks.
24 Aug 2009:
China Closes Smelters
As Protests Rise Over Lead Poisoning
Chinese officials have temporarily closed at least five heavy metal smelters as concerns rise over high levels of lead found in children in nearby villages and towns. The closings have occurred after parents recently protested at a lead and zinc smelter in Shaanxi Province and a manganese smelter in Hunan Province, following the disclosure that hundreds of children near the two smelters have high levels of lead in their blood. Those two smelters, as well as lead smelters in at least three other locations, have been temporarily closed while officials conduct environmental assessments. Lead pollution can cause severe cognitive impairment and other ailments in children exposed to high levels of the metal. Reuters reports that lead poisoning is endemic in villages near Chinese smelters, and the problem is particularly acute in the ore-rich Qinling range, located in a poor and remote region of north-central China. As China’s environmental laws have been strengthened in recent years, lead smelters have moved from more populous and affluent metropolitan areas to poorer regions of rural China, where residents badly need jobs. But protests are rising as the health effects of lead poisoning are becoming more evident.21 Aug 2009:
World Ocean Temperatures
Set Record High in July, U.S. Agency Says
The world’s oceans were warmer in July than at any time in the 130 years of record-keeping, averaging 62.6 degrees F (17 C), according to the U.S. National Climate Data Center. July’s temperature was 1.1 degrees F warmer than the 20th century average. Scientists say the high ocean temperatures are primarily the result of global warming and an El Nino climate cycle in the Pacific, which boosts ocean temperatures. Unusually warm sea temperatures were recorded from the Gulf of Mexico — where temperatures hovered near 90 degrees F — to the Arctic, where ocean temperatures as much as 10 degrees F above normal were measured in some places. The Mediterranean Sea was roughly 3 degrees warmer than normal, the Indian Ocean also experienced higher than normal temperatures, and the usually frigid waters off the state of Maine rose to 72 degrees in some locales. Scientists are concerned that rising ocean temperatures will hasten the bleaching and destruction of coral. They also warn that, although it takes longer for the ocean to heat up than the air, once the ocean absorbs heat, it radiates it back into the atmosphere for a long time, further exacerbating global warming.21 Aug 2009:
Expansion of Arctic Fishery
Prohibited Until Further Study by U.S.
With Arctic summer sea ice rapidly disappearing, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke has prohibited the expansion of fishing into ice-free seas until scientists can study the marine life in the newly opened waters and devise a sustainable fishing plan. The new federal fisheries plan, hailed by environmental groups and commercial fishing interests, would prohibit commercial fishing in nearly 200,000 square miles of federal waters in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas. Scientists are beginning to study the areas within 200 miles of the Alaska coast to determine the type and abundance of fish species, after which they are to propose a plan for limited commercial fishing. Among the commercial species likely to be targeted are Arctic cod, saffron cod, and snow crab. Locke’s decision will not affect fishing for Pacific salmon, halibut, whitefish, and shellfish close to the Alaskan coast. Commercial fishing interests said the plan will prevent the over-exploitation of fisheries stocks in the newly opened waters, and environmental groups said the plan represented the first instance in which management guidelines will be developed before an area is opened to fishing.20 Aug 2009:
Slaughter of Lemurs
Rises After Madagascar Coup
Taking advantage of political turmoil in the island nation of Madagascar, hunters are slaughtering endangered lemurs at an unprecedented rate. An investigation by Conservation International reveals a growing market for lemur meat since the March overthrow of President Marc Ravalomanana. Madagascar's forest reserves have recently been invaded by illegal loggers and by poachers targeting lemurs, primarily for the restaurant trade. As enforcement has declined, poachers have targeted crowned lemurs and the golden crowned sifaka in conservation areas in the island nation’s northern forests, according to Conservation International and the Web site, Mongabay. Russ Mittermeier, president of Conservation International and a lemur expert, said the continuing decimation of lemurs is a major blow not only to the island's biodiversity, but also to its ecotourism business. “These poachers are killing the goose that laid the golden egg,” Mittermeier said, “wiping out the very animals that people most want to see, and undercutting the country and especially local communities by robbing them of future ecotourism revenue.”
20 Aug 2009:
Plastics in Ocean
Rapidly Leach Toxins, Study Says
The millions of tons of plastic bottles, bags, and garbage in the world’s oceans are breaking down and leaching toxins more rapidly than previously believed, posing a threat to marine life, according to a new study. Katsuhiko Saido of Nihon University in Japan, simulating ocean conditions in his laboratory, found that substances such as polystyrene began to decompose within a year, spreading chemicals proven to disrupt hormonal systems in animals. Among the substances being released in the world’s seas are bisphenol A, polystyrene-based oligomers, and styrene monomers and dymers, all of which can cause cancer or disrupt hormone production, according to Saido. “Plastics in daily use are generally assumed to be quite stable,” said Saido, who presented his findings at the American Chemical Society meeting in Washington, D.C. “We found that plastic in the ocean actually decomposes... giving rise to yet another source of global contamination that will continue into the future.”20 Aug 2009:
Australian Parliament Adopts
20 Percent Renewables Standard By 2020
Australia’s Parliament has passed a law requiring that 20 percent of the country’s electricity come from renewable sources by 2020, an increase from the current level of 8 percent. The standard, which matches the European Union’s, means that the households of all 21 million Australians could be powered by renewable energy in a decade. Green Party leaders said, however, that the standard should be 30 percent, and Climate Change Minister Penny Wong noted that even with the new renewable standard, the nation’s CO2 emissions are expected to be 20 percent above 2000 levels in 2020 because of the growth of the Australian economy. Meanwhile, a new report shows that electricity generated by renewable sources in the U.S. reached an all-time high in May, with alternative energy accounting for 13 percent of total electrical generation. That’s 7.7 percent higher than May 2008, with most of the growth coming from wind and solar power. Hydropower remains the largest source of renewable energy, accounting for 9.4 percent of U.S. electricity production.19 Aug 2009:
Fake Letters to Congress
Part of Campaign Against Climate Bill
A lobbying firm hired by a major coal industry group has mailed at least 13 fake letters to congressmen falsely claiming that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, senior citizens groups, and a Hispanic advocacy organization opposed a bill placing a cap on carbon emissions. Congressional investigators say that the firm working for the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCE) sent out a total of 58 letters to congressmen, and that others may have been fraudulent as well. The lobbying firm, Bonner and Associates, says the letters were sent by a temporary employee, who has since been fired. The House of Representatives passed the so-called cap-and-trade bill in June, and the legislation is now before the U.S. Senate. As part of a continuing effort by many energy companies to defeat the legislation, the American Petroleum Association helped sponsor the first of roughly 20 rallies against the climate bill. At the Houston rally — attended by several thousand people, most of them oil company employees bused in for the occasion —speakers attacked the bill as an energy tax that would have devastating effects on the economy.19 Aug 2009:
Major Solar Project
Announced for Mojave Desert
First Solar, a maker of thin-film solar cells, has signed an agreement with Southern California Edison to sell the utility 550 megawatts of electricity produced by two massive photovoltaic solar farms in the Mojave Desert. The plants, expected to go online by 2015 and produce enough electricity to power 170,000 homes, would be built on federal land set aside for such solar projects. Analysts say that the First Solar deal is a sign that large arrays of solar photovoltaic panels can produce electricity competitively with so-called solar-thermal plants, which generate electricity by using mirrors to focus sunlight on liquid-filled boilers to produce steam. Southern California Edison said that Nevada-based First Solar’s solar farms also will produce electricity at a price competitive with natural gas. “This is the very largest photovoltaic project we have done, demonstrating that at a utility scale, the time has come for such projects,” said a Southern California Edison executive.
18 Aug 2009:
Borneo Dam Developer
Illegally Burning Forest, Group Says
The developer of a massive dam project in Borneo is illegally burning thousands of acres of felled rainforest, contributing to a smoky haze blanketing parts of Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore, according to a conservation group. The Sarawak Conservation Action Network reports that the developers of the controversial Bakun Hydroelectric Power Dam project are in the process of felling 200,000 acres of rainforest, a significant portion of which is being set afire. The fires, carried out by the developer’s contractors and sub-contractors, are in direct violation of Malaysia’s laws against open burning, according to Mongabay.com. Local and international conservation groups have unsuccessfully sought to block the Bakun Dam for more than a decade, arguing that the project — which will have a reservoir the size of Singapore — will displace forest communities and destroy biologically rich rainforest. The dam will be used to generate electricity for mining projects and for Singapore and Malaysia. Extensive bush and forest fires in Indonesia and Malaysia have created a dense haze covering large portions of Southeast Asia.
17 Aug 2009:
Chinese Air Pollution
Contributing to Drought, Study Says
Severe air pollution in China’s heavily industrialized east is impeding the formation of rain clouds and contributing to a drought in northern China, according to a new study. The study, which looked at rainfall and pollution patterns for the past 50 years, concluded that pollution has reduced the number of days of light rain in eastern China by 23 percent. Atmospheric scientist Yun Qian of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory said that the large number of aerosols in China’s polluted skies has led to the formation of rain droplets that are up to 50 percent smaller than rain droplets in clean skies. The smaller droplets do not as readily form rain clouds, which means that lighter rainfalls valuable to agriculture — ranging from a drizzle to accumulations of .4 inch per day — are occurring less frequently, according to the study, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres. Qian said his research “suggests that reducing air pollution might help ease the drought in north China.” Meanwhile, a new U.N. study says major improvements in irrigation efficiency are needed to avoid large-scale food shortages that would effect 1.5 billion people in China, India, and Pakistan.17 Aug 2009:
Large Plumes of Methane
Discovered Off Spitsbergen in Arctic
British and German scientists have discovered 250 plumes of methane gas rising from the thawing seabed off the Spitsbergen archipelago in the Norwegian Arctic, apparently a result of the warming of the West Spitsbergen current. The researchers measured the plumes rising from the seabed at a depth of 150 to 400 meters (500 to 1,300 feet). The methane — a potent greenhouse gas — is being released by frozen methane hydrates on the sea floor, which are thawing as a result of a 1 degree C (1.8 F) warming of the West Spitsbergen current in the last 30 years, the scientists said. Most of the methane is absorbed by the ocean before it reaches the surface, but the gas increases the acidity of the ocean, which inhibits the ability of marine creatures to grow shells. Scientists fear that as the world’s oceans warm, huge amounts of methane will be released. The Spitsbergen researchers said they were surprised by the large number of methane plumes. “Our survey was designed to work out how much methane might be released by future ocean warming,” said one scientist. “We did not expect to discover such strong evidence that this process has already started.”14 Aug 2009:
Salmon Return to Seine,
Disappear from Major Canadian River
For the first time in nearly a century, Atlantic salmon are returning to France’s Seine River to spawn, drawn back because the river has become appreciably cleaner in recent years, officials say. “There has been a turning point,” said Charles Perrier of the National Institute for Agronomic Research. “The improvement in water quality means that salmon have returned to the Seine.” The National Federation for French Fishing estimates that roughly 1,000 Atlantic salmon may be in the river this year. Salmon populations effectively disappeared from the Seine in the early 20th century because of high levels of industrial pollution, as well as the discharge of human sewage into the river. The salmon are returning to the river without the restoration programs used in recent years to reintroduce Atlantic salmon to the Thames and the Rhine. Meanwhile, millions of sockeye salmon — a Pacific species — have failed to return to Canada’s Fraser River, which empties into the Pacific Ocean in British Columbia. As many as 10.6 million sockeye were expected to return, but fewer than 1 million have, forcing the closure of the fishery. Scientists say that changing ocean conditions and fish farms at the mouth of the river — which spread sea lice to the wild salmon — could be responsible for the decline.14 Aug 2009:
Four Democratic Senators
Call For Postponing Cap-and-Trade Bill
Four Democratic U.S. senators are calling on their leadership to pass legislation setting renewable energy targets but to postpone the key element of a major climate and energy bill, which would put a cap and a price on carbon dioxide emissions. The move by the senators — Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, and Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan, both of North Dakota — could pose a major challenge for cap-and-trade legislation that was passed by the House of Representatives in June and is now before the Senate. Referring to the renewable energy and cap-and-trade provisions, Sen. Lincoln told Bloomberg News, “The problem with doing them both together is that it becomes too big of a lift. I see the cap-and-trade being a real problem.” The Democrats control 60 seats in the 100-member Senate, but because of procedural reasons will need 60 to pass the bill. Despite the reluctance of the four Democratic senators, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid vowed to bring the legislation to a vote. Meanwhile, details continue to emerge about how the American Petroleum Institute and other interests plan to hold town hall meetings across the U.S. in late August to rally opposition to the cap-and-trade bill.
13 Aug 2009:
Non-food Biofuel Sources
Pose Risks as Runaway Weeds, Panel Says
A federal advisory panel has warned that some grasses and weed-like plants now being considered as
Arundo donax
13 Aug 2009:
Hurricane Activity High
In Medieval Warm Period, Study Shows
The Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean experienced a large number of hurricanes from 900 to 1200 AD, a period when air and sea temperatures were high, according to a new study. After examining sediment deposits in coastal lagoons at seven sites in the U.S. and one in Puerto Rico, meteorologist Michael Mann of Penn State University and colleagues determined that up to 15 hurricanes a year struck the western Atlantic about 1,000 years ago — roughly equal to the number recorded in the past 15 years. But Mann said that the current spate of hurricanes is due primarily to higher ocean temperatures in the Atlantic and Caribbean, while the greater incidence of hurricanes a millennium ago was attributable both to warmer Atlantic temperatures and anomalous conditions in the Pacific that weakened the jet stream and allowed more hurricanes to form in the Atlantic. Mann said his study indicated rising ocean temperatures will likely lead to more frequent and intense hurricanes. Meanwhile, a study by researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration suggests that one reason more hurricanes have been reported in recent decades is because storm detection techniques have improved markedly.
Interview: Obama’s Science Adviser
Urges U.S. Leadership on Climate
Six weeks after he was elected, President Obama nominated John Holdren to be chief science adviser and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Many scientists hailed the timing of the nomination — George W. Bush waited almost a year before naming Holdren’s predecessor — and the choice of Holdren, too, was seen as encouraging: He was trained in plasma physics, is a 
John HoldrenRead the full interview.
12 Aug 2009:
Obama Administration Okays
Major Mountaintop Removal Coal Project
After vowing to crack down on the controversial practice of leveling the tops of Appalachian mountains to get at the coal seams below, the Obama administration has quietly approved a major mountaintop removal project in West Virginia. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved the issuance of a Clean Water Act permit for CONSOL Energy’s Peg Fork Surface Mine, an 817-acre project that would permanently bury nearly three miles of Appalachian streams in mining debris. The Peg Fork mine was one of six mountaintop removal projects that Obama’s EPA initially said it opposed because “they all would result in significant adverse impacts to high-value streams.” Environmental groups criticized the administration for failing to carry through on its pledge to crack down on mountaintop removal, with a Sierra Club official expressing disappointment that the EPA failed to “adopt new regulations or policies that would end this destructive practice.” Mountaintop removal mines in Appalachia have destroyed more than 1,500 square miles of forests and buried more than 800 miles of streams in debris.12 Aug 2009:
General Motors’ ‘Volt’ Car
Will Get up to 230 Miles Per Gallon, GM Says
The electric Chevrolet Volt will achieve a fuel rating of 230 miles per gallon in city driving and will get more than 100 miles per gallon in combined city-highway driving, according to General Motors. GM 
Chevrolet
The Chevy Volt11 Aug 2009:
Satellite Data Confirm
Rapid Depletion of Indian Groundwater
A pair of satellites that measures changes in the earth’s gravity has shown that the intense irrigation of a 1,200-mile swath of northern India is depleting groundwater at a rate of 1.5 to 4 inches per year. The satellites, part of a joint U.S.-German mission known as GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment), show that the region — inhabited by 600 million people heavily dependent on irrigated agriculture — is withdrawing 13 cubic miles of water per year from underground aquifers. Reporting in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, U.S. and Indian scientists analyzed satellite data from 2002 to 2008 and concluded that Indian farmers are pumping out groundwater 70 percent faster than estimated by the Central Ground Water Board of India in the 1990s. The GRACE satellites, orbiting in tandem and flying roughly 135 miles apart, use sophisticated instruments to detect changes in the earth’s gravitational pull, mainly due to water moving on or under the surface. The satellites, which have been used to measure the rapid thinning of ice sheets in the Arctic, “can help regional water managers by giving them a holistic view” of major aquifers, according to James Famiglietti, a University of California hydrologist who worked in the Indian project.
11 Aug 2009:
Global CO2 Emissions
Rose by Nearly 2 Percent in 2008
Despite a global recession, carbon dioxide emissions rose by 1.94 percent in 2008 to 31.5 billion tons, the 10th straight year of significant increases, according to the German renewable energy institute, IWR. The institute calculated the increase using official government figures, noting that CO2 emissions have risen by 40 percent since 1990 — the year against which emissions reductions were to be measured for the 1997 Kyoto Protocol limiting greenhouse gases. “Kyoto is not working out,” said IWR Managing Director Norbert Allnoch, who called on countries with high CO2 emissions to agree to proportionately high investments in renewable energy. Meanwhile, Yvo de Boer, the head of the U.N.’s Climate Change Secretariat, said that “time is running out” to lay the groundwork for a successful meeting in Copenhagen this December to draft a successor treaty to Kyoto. Speaking to delegates in Bonn who have gathered to forge a draft text for the Copenhagen summit, de Boer said the Bonn conclave has an “enormous amount of work to do” to pare down a draft text that has burgeoned from 50 to 200 pages.10 Aug 2009:
Hundreds of New Species
Discovered in Eastern Himalayan Region
More than 350 new species — including the world’s smallest deer, a flying frog, and an ultramarine blue flower that changes color in response to temperature — have been discovered in the past decade in the eastern Himalayas, according to the conservation group WWF. But in a report entitled “The Eastern Himalayas: Where Worlds Collide,” WWF said that many of the species are threatened by human development and by rising temperatures that are rapidly melting the region’s glaciers and endangering water supplies. The conservation group said that among the new species discovered between 1998 and 2008 are 244 plants, 16 amphibians, 16 reptiles, 14 fish, two birds, two mammals, and at least 60 new invertebrates. The eastern Himalayas — which include eastern India, Nepal, Bhutan, northern Myanmar, and parts of Tibet — are one of the most biologically diverse regions on earth, yet rapidly expanding human populations have left only 25 percent of the area’s original habitat intact, WWF said. Tariq Aziz, head of WWF’s Living Himalayas Initiative, also said that the region’s biodiversity risks being “lost forever unless the impacts of climate change are reversed.”
10 Aug 2009:
Wind Power in Texas
Begins to Reduce Electricity Costs
The rapid growth of wind power in Texas is already reducing consumption of natural gas and lowering the cost of electricity generation in the state, according to a Wall Street research group. Bernstein Research reports that the rising output of wind turbines in Texas — the world’s sixth-largest producer of wind power — has eliminated the need to fire up natural gas-powered generators to meet the last bit of demand during periods of low energy usage. Powering up natural gas generators is expensive, and Bernstein reports that the spreading use of wind turbines “can have a material impact on the price of power.” The report predicted that the “growth of wind power in (Texas) over the next three years will markedly lower the consumption of gas and coal by conventional generators.” The state is anticipating a glut in natural gas production, and the rise in wind power generation is expected to further depress prices for natural gas and reduce consumer costs per kilowatt hour, Bernstein Research reported.Satellite Image: Carajas Mine in Brazil
Gouged out of the Amazon, the Carajas mine — one of the world’s largest deposits of iron ore — stretches across more than six miles of rainforest in northeastern Brazil. Discovered in 1967, Carajas is an open pit mine where minerals are removed from the surface one layer at a time, as shown in this photograph taken by NASA’s EO-1 satellite in late July. In 2007, 296 million metric tons of iron ore were dug out of the mine, which is estimated to contain a total of 18 billion tons of iron ore, gold, manganese, copper, and nickel. The mine is one of scores of mining, hydropower, agricultural, and road projects that are increasingly denuding the world’s largest rainforest.
31 Jul 2009:
Arctic Tundra Undergoing
Major Changes As it Warms, Studies Show
Several recent studies show that the rapid warming of Arctic tundra is leading to a host of sweeping changes, including more extensive fires, the growth of larger vegetation, more absorption of solar energy, melting permafrost, and substantially larger releases of carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases. Taken together, the studies demonstrate that rising temperatures set in motion a vicious circle of more warming and higher releases of greenhouse gases. In Alaska, scientists studying a 2007 fire that burned nearly 400 square miles of the Brooks Range found that the burned tundra lost 40 to 120 grams of carbon per square meter, while pristine tundra absorbed 30 to 70 grams. Burned tundra also absorbed 71 percent more solar radiation than normal and caused permafrost to melt to a depth of several inches. A study in the Canadian Arctic has shown that tundra vegetation is becoming weedier, larger, and darker, significantly increasing the amount of absorbed sunlight and further boosting temperatures. The study also showed the warming tundra giving off unexpectedly high levels of methane and nitrous oxide. And in Scandinavia researchers found that by warming Arctic peatlands by nearly 2 degrees F over eight years, the tundra released an extra 60 percent CO2 in spring and 52 percent in summer, according to a study in the journal, Nature.30 Jul 2009:
Energy Efficiency Gains in U.S.
Could Cut Sharply Energy Use, Study Says
A crash program to improve the energy efficiency of American homes, offices, and factories could slash energy consumption by 23 percent by 2020 and produce $1.2 trillion in savings, according to a report by the McKinsey consulting firm. McKinsey said that taking steps such as better insulating buildings, replacing old appliances, and sealing ducts is the fastest and best way to cut the country’s energy consumption. The firm recommended an investment of $520 billion in energy efficiency programs over the next 10 years, an amount that dwarfs the $10 billion to $15 billion included in the Obama administration’s economic stimulus package. McKinsey executives acknowledged that carrying out such an efficiency program on a large scale faces numerous challenges, including the reluctance of homeowners and businesses to invest sizeable sums of money and a lack of tax breaks and other financial incentives for efficiency improvements. Still, the McKinsey report said that better education of homeowners and businesses, tighter building codes, stricter efficiency requirements for appliances, and the creation of greater incentives could go a long way toward cutting the U.S.’s wasteful energy use.
29 Jul 2009:
China and U.S. Sign Pledge
To Cooperate on Climate and Energy
China and the U.S. have signed an agreement to combat climate change and to work together to help each other make the transition to a low-carbon economy. Although neither country committed to concrete CO2 emissions reduction targets or to the amount of technical aid the U.S. might give to China, the agreement nevertheless represents a commitment on the part of the world’s two largest greenhouse gas emitters to work to wean themselves from fossil fuels. The agreement, signed at the U.S. State Department and with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in attendance, stipulated that the two nations will cooperate on research and development of energy conservation and efficiency, renewable energy, carbon capture and storage technology, sustainable transportation, modernization of the electric grid, and combating climate change and promoting low-carbon economic growth. The gap between the two countries on emissions reductions remains strong, however, as evidenced by the comments of a top climate official in Beijing. Xie Zhenhua, who coordinates climate policy in China, said that “the key to success” at upcoming climate talks in Copenhagen is “large, quantifiable mid-term emission-cutting targets for the developed nations.”29 Jul 2009: Wave of Extinctions in Oceana
Habitat destruction, overfishing, and the spread of invasive species now threaten a large number of species in Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands with extinction, and governments must act quickly to create far more extensive parks and reserves on land and sea, according to a new study. An international team of 14 scientists combed through 24,000 scientific publications to put together a sobering picture of biodiversity loss across much of the southern Pacific Ocean. Published in the journal Conservation Biology, the report said that more than 1,200 bird species have become extinct on southern Pacific islands in recent centuries, that 50 percent of Australia’s forest ecosystems have been modified or destroyed by agriculture and that nearly three-quarters of remaining forests have been degraded by logging, that habitat destruction accounts for 80 percent of all threatened species in Oceana, and that invasive species have caused 75 percent of all terrestrial vertebrate extinctions on the region’s islands. Among other measures, the scientists recommended setting aside 10 percent of terrestrial regions and 50 percent of marine areas as parks or reserves, as well as restoration of degraded ecosystems such as wetlands.28 Jul 2009:
Sichuan Earthquake Destroyed
One-Quarter of Panda Habitat in Key Area
The 2008 Sichuan Earthquake, which killed 69,000 people and left 4.3 million homeless, also devastated more than 23 percent of a key swath of territory inhabited by endangered giant pandas, according to a study by Chinese scientists. The study, published in the journal Frontiers of Ecology, said 
27 Jul 2009:
Chilean Salmon Industry
Using Massive Amounts of Antibiotics
The Chilean government has reported that the country’s salmon farmers use roughly 350 times more antibiotics to control disease in fish pens than the Norwegian salmon farming industry. Chile’s Economy Ministry said that the country’s salmon operations used 718,000 pounds of antibiotics in 2008 and 850,000 pounds in 2007 — 350 to 600 times more than the roughly 2,000 pounds used in all of Norway’s salmon farms in 2008. Norway remains the world’s largest producer of farmed salmon and has developed vaccines to better control disease outbreaks in fish cages, where thousands of Atlantic salmon swim in tightly packed conditions. The Chilean salmon industry, the world’s second largest, has been plagued by outbreaks of infectious diseases that have killed tens of thousands of farmed salmon. Chile is the largest supplier of farmed salmon to the U.S., but concerns about environmental conditions at Chile’s fish farms have caused Wal-Mart and Safeway to recently reduce purchases of Chilean salmon.27 Jul 2009:
Biofuel Startup Announces
Huge Yields from Engineered Organism
A Massachusetts company, Joule Biotechnologies, has unveiled what it says is a technological breakthrough that uses genetically engineered organisms, sunlight, water, and concentrated carbon dioxide to produce up to 20,000 gallons of biofuel per acre. The much-watched startup claims that its secret organisms, coupled with photo bioreactors, not only directly produce an ethanol-like fuel but also secrete the fuel continuously. As a result, Joule officials say, its so-called “helioculture process” can produce up to 20,000 gallons of biofuel per acre — four to 10 times greater than algae-based biofuel experiments — and can do so at $50 per gallon, which is far cheaper than other algal biofuel processes. Independent observers said that while Joule’s technology looks promising, it still faces many hurdles as it attempts to take its breakthrough from the lab and mass-produce fuel. Joule says it will open a pilot plant in the Southwest early next year and commercially produce biofuels by the end of 2010. Joule’s project is one of several well-financed efforts to genetically engineer organisms to produce biofuels.
Interview: Sen. Kerry’s Blueprint
For Passing Climate Legislation
John Kerry of Massachusetts, the party’s 2004 presidential nominee, is at the heart of efforts to shepherd a climate bill through the U.S. Senate. And after watching previous versions of climate 
John KerryClick here to read the full interview.
24 Jul 2009: Melting Ice Off Baffin Island
A rare cloudless day in the Arctic summertime allowed a NASA satellite to capture this image of melting sea ice off the coast of Canada’s Baffin Island. Coastal eddies create the swirling patterns as ice, which clings to the shore during the winter, begins to melt and retreat in the summer sunshine. While this summertime melt, captured by NASA’s Terra satellite on July 11, is typical for the season, satellite imagery shows that the extent of Arctic sea ice has declined sharply in recent decades, with this year's Arctic sea ice extent expected to be the second-lowest ever recorded.
24 Jul 2009:
New Study Indicates That
Warming May Decrease Low-level Clouds
Contrary to the supposition of many climate modelers, a new study suggests that rising temperatures over the world’s oceans may actually decrease the formation of low-level clouds, which in turn amplifies warming. In a study that examined more than 50 years of data, U.S. researchers found that as temperatures rose over a large section of the eastern Pacific Ocean, the incidence of low-altitude clouds decreased. Conversely, the researchers — reporting in the journal Science — discovered that during periods of cooling the amount of low-level clouds actually increased. Most climate models have projected that rising temperatures would mean the formation of more clouds, which would help cool the earth as more sunlight is reflected back into space. But the recent study — led by a scientist from the University of Miami — suggested that as ocean temperatures rose and atmospheric pressure fell, the opposite occurs. The study examined reports of cloud cover from mariners who were in the area between Hawaii and Mexico from 1952 to 2006. It also examined satellite records from 1984 to 2005, and both sets of data showed the correlation of higher temperatures and decreased formation of low-altitude clouds. Independent climate scientists said that the results could cause modelers to increase projections of expected warming this century.23 Jul 2009:
Reintroduction of Wolves
Would Boost Ecology of Scottish Highlands
The reintroduction of grey wolves in the Scottish Highlands would create a beneficial “landscape of fear” that would prevent red deer from severely overgrazing the region, according to a new study. U.S. and Australian researchers studied the beneficial ecological effects of the reintroduction of grey wolves in 
23 Jul 2009:
Spread of ‘Feed-in Tariffs’
Will Expand U.S. Renewable Energy Use
A popular consumer program that has helped catalyze Germany’s solar-power boom is beginning to spread throughout the United States. The policy, known as feed-in tariffs, offers homeowners and other small-scale producers of renewable energy favorable long-term contracts — often above market rates — when they sell electricity to the central power grid. The New York Times reports that Washington state, Vermont, and cities such as Sacramento, Calif. and Gainesville, Fla. have all adopted feed-in tariff programs. The program approved by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, which serves 1.4 million people, will offer homeowners with solar panels or windmills contracts of up to 20 years to sell electricity to the grid. The utility said that some homeowners have already inquired about installing additional solar or wind capacity on their spare land and generating electricity for the region. Feed-in tariffs have been a boon to solar development in Germany, as they assure homeowners that the initial up-front investment for solar panels or windmills can be recouped over time.22 Jul 2009:
China Offers Solar Subsidy;
Spanish Wind Firm Seeking U.S. Funds
The role of government in stimulating the development of renewable energy was on display this week on two fronts. In China, the Ministry of Finance announced that it will subsidize 50 percent of the investment in new solar projects, including helping pay for expansion of power transmission networks. In remote regions, the ministry said, subsidies could reach up to 70 percent of the cost of solar projects. The government also is mandating that operators of the electricity grid buy the entire surplus electricity output from solar power projects. In the U.S., Spain’s Iberdrola company — the largest wind energy firm in the world — announced that it will be seeking $500 million of the $3 billion that has been earmarked in the financial stimulus bill this year for certain clean energy projects. Iberdrola officials said they plan to use the government subsidies to boost its wind power production in the U.S. nearly four times in the near future, from 850 megawatts to more than 3,000 megawatts.22 Jul 2009:
From Skins of Onions,
Farmers Develop Promising Biogas
A large onion processor in California is taking 300,000 pounds of onion waste a day — skins, tails, and tops — and converting much of it into a biogas that he uses to power his operation. Steven Gill, a partner in Gills Onions — which dices, slices, and purees onion for wholesale and retail customers — has worked with Southern California Gas Company to create an energy recovery system that produces 600 kilowatts per day, which meets up to 40 percent of the electricity needs of his processing plant. The onion waste is shredded and pressed to squeeze out the juice, which is then diverted to an anaerobic digester. Workers add microbes that convert the juice into methane gas, which helps power Gill’s facility. Gill used to spread the onion waste on fields but soon ran out of room. Southern California Gas provided $2.7 million in incentives for the $9.5 million energy recovery system. Gill estimates that converting the onion waste to biogas will save him $700,000 a year in electricity costs and $400,000 in waste disposal costs, meaning the plant will pay for itself in about six years. Nearby carrot and wine producers are interested in installing similar systems.21 Jul 2009:
Cost of Carbon Capture
Will Drop Sharply in Future, Report Says
The cost of capturing and storing CO2 emissions from coal-fired power plants is likely to double the price of electricity in the near-term, but technological advances are expected to significantly reduce the costs of carbon sequestration in the long term, according to a report from Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Existing technologies would allow plants to capture and store underground about 90 percent of C02 emissions at a cost of $100 to $150 per ton of carbon, according to the report. That would add 8 to 12 cents per kilowatt hour to the cost of generating electricity, effectively doubling the current average price of about 9 cents per kilowatt hour. But as the technology matures, the costs will come down. Future generations of CCS — or carbon capture and storage — will cost about $30 to $50 per ton, adding 2 to 5 cents per kilowatt hour. “The range of estimated costs for [future] plants is within the range of plausible future carbon prices,” the researchers concluded, “implying that mature technology would be competitive with conventional fossil fuel plants at prevailing carbon prices.” The report also noted that capturing and storing nearly all of a plant’s CO2 emissions costs little more than capturing only a fraction of emissions.21 Jul 2009:
U.S. Meteorological Group
Is Set to Endorse Geoengineering Research
The American Meteorological Society is preparing to endorse research into geoengineering schemes as part of a three-pronged approach to cope with global warming, according to New Scientist magazine. The group — the umbrella body for U.S. meteorological scientists — would be the first major scientific group to support research into geoengineering, which would attempt to slow or reverse global warming through a variety of engineering projects, ranging from releasing light-reflecting aerosols into the atmosphere to seeding the oceans with iron to promote blooms of CO2-absorbing algae. The other two approaches the group will endorse are emissions reduction, or mitigation, and adaptation to climate change. In a position paper to be released soon, the society will support research into “deliberately manipulating physical, chemical, or biological aspects of the Earth system,” according to New Scientist. Concluding that neither mitigation nor adaptation will fully blunt the impact of climate change, the group states that “it is prudent to consider geoengineering’s potential benefits, to understand its limitations, and to avoid ill-considered deployment.”
20 Jul 2009:
Malaysian Forests Felled
For Massive Rubber Tree Plantations
Malaysia’s remaining rainforests are rapidly being clear-cut and replaced with plantations of cloned trees that yield latex rubber and can also be harvested for timber, according to a report in The Star in Malaysia. The newspaper says that permanent forest reserves — protected areas in which some selective logging is allowed — are being converted to monoculture plantations that grow not only the latex-timber clone but also stands of African mahogany, teak, Acacia, and other species. Up to 80 percent of Malaysia’s remaining intact rainforests are threatened by the plantations, which harbor a fraction of the biodiversity found in pristine rainforests, the newspaper reported. “What we’re seeing today is wholesale clearing of permanent forest reserves and massive conversion to plantations,” said Surin Suksuwan, protected areas conservation manager for WWF-Malaysia. 20 Jul 2009:
Visit by Hillary Clinton
Highlights India-U.S. Split on Climate
A top Indian official bluntly told U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that there is “simply no case” for the U.S. and the West to push India to agree to a cap on carbon dioxide emissions, especially considering that India has among the lowest per capita emissions worldwide. Visiting an energy-efficient office building with Clinton, India’s environment and forests minister, Jairam Ramesh, added that, “If this pressure is not enough, we also face the threat of carbon tariffs on our exports to countries such as yours.” He was referring to an energy and climate bill, recently approved by the U.S. House of Representatives, that would impose import tariffs on goods from countries that do not put a price on carbon emissions. Clinton assured Ramesh that the U.S. “will not do anything that would limit India’s economic progress.” But she argued that, given India’s rapidly growing population and rising standards of living, per capita emissions are not a fair measure of climate impact. To some degree, the public debate is posturing before climate talks later this year in Copenhagen; Ramesh said that while India will not agree to emissions reduction targets, “it is possible for us to narrow our positions.”17 Jul 2009: Blueprint for Viable Biofuels
Biofuels can be produced in large quantities and with a relatively small carbon footprint, but only if they are made from certain sources, according to a report in the journal Science. Authored by scientists from the University of Minnesota, Princeton University, and three other universities, the paper said that biofuels will only be sustainable if they are largely produced from non-food crops. The authors identified five types of biofuels that can be produced in volume and with minimal greenhouse gas emissions: perennial plants grown on degraded lands or abandoned agricultural lands, crop residues, sustainably harvested wood and forest residues, mixed cropping systems, and municipal and industrial waste. The paper said that these sources could yield 500 million tons of biomass per year, which would meet a significant amount of the U.S. demand for transportation fuels.17 Jul 2009:
U.S. Agency Releases
Spy Satellite Images of Arctic Ice
The U.S. government has released 1,200 photographs of Arctic sea ice taken by spy satellites, a trove of images that scientists say will better help them understand the dynamics of the melting northern ice cap. The U.S. Geological Survey released the images just hours after the National Academy of Sciences 
USGS
Satellite image of East Siberian Sea
16 Jul 2009:
Home Solar Arrays
Expand Rapidly in California
The number of California homes with solar panels has grown from 500 a decade ago to 50,000 today, helping California produce 500 megawatts of solar-powered electricity — equivalent to a major coal-fired power plant — during peak solar periods in early afternoon. The lobbying group Environment California reported that the state’s solar market has more than doubled in the past three years, making the state by far the largest solar power generator in the United States. New Jersey is second, with a peak 
16 Jul 2009:
Wal-Mart Labels
Will Rate Sustainability of Products
Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, is planning to place labels on products that will rate them for sustainability, including their carbon footprint, the quantity of water used in their production, and the air pollution left in their wake. Wal-Mart said it will soon ask its 100,000 global suppliers 15 questions about the environmental practices of their companies, including whether the firms have publicly set greenhouse gas reduction targets. Wal-Mart will then use that information, along with independent verification of a supplier’s claims, to give products in its stores an overall sustainability score, including a numerical index that rates goods on their climate impact, pesticide use, and overall environmental damage. Environmental groups praised Wal-Mart’s plan, saying it would force the company’s suppliers to produce their products in less environmentally harmful ways. Wal-Mart has taken several major steps to make its massive operation more environmentally friendly, including significantly reducing packaging, cutting energy use in its stores, and selling only concentrated laundry detergent that uses 50 percent less water in its manufacture.15 Jul 2009:
UK Eyes Low Carbon Economy
Through Investment in Clean Energy
In a sweeping effort to shift the UK economy away from fossil fuels, the nation’s energy secretary has unveiled a national plan that he says would cut CO2 emissions by 34 percent by 2020 and generate 40 percent of the nation’s electricity through low-carbon sources. The comprehensive proposal includes a major investment in renewable sources of energy, increased emphasis on green transportation, and incentives for British citizens who generate energy in their own homes, including wind turbines and solar panels. On a larger scale, officials want to build 4,000 new land-based wind turbines and another 3,000 offshore. “What we are trying to do is to set out not simply targets for 2020 — which have been set — but a route map to get there,” Energy Secretary Ed Miliband told the BBC. A 2008 analysis concluded that efforts to meet green targets could bump energy bills by almost £230 — or about $377 — each year. While Miliband conceded that switching to a greener economy will be more expensive for consumers, the prices of carbon-based fuels like coal and gas will also likely rise because of surging demand in China and India.15 Jul 2009:
Ancient Warming of Earth
Not Entirely Explained by Rise in CO2
Scientists have long wondered what caused a dramatic warming of the planet 55 million years ago, when temperatures rose 5 degrees C to 9 degrees C (9 F to 16 F) in 10,000 years. A new study by U.S. researchers says, however, that only about 40 percent of the sharp rise in temperatures can be explained by increasing CO2 levels, meaning that our current understanding of how earth will react to humankind’s massive release of carbon dioxide is incomplete, the researchers say. Studying deep-sea sediments and other evidence of climate change, the researchers calculated that increases in CO2 during the Paleo-Eocene Thermal Maximum should have at most caused global temperature rises of 3.5 degrees C, or 6.3 F. Yet temperatures rose within 10,000 years by as much as 9 degrees C, the researchers reported in the journal Nature Geoscience. One possibility is large releases of other greenhouse gases, such as methane, while another is that the high temperatures during the period — when no ice existed on earth — set in motion other changes that further warmed the planet. “If this additional warming... was caused as a response to CO2 warming, then there is a chance that a future warming could be more intense than people anticipate,” said one of the study’s authors.14 Jul 2009:
Exxon Makes Investment
In Craig Venter’s Algal Biofuel Startup
Exxon will invest $600 million in a venture by human genome mapper J. Craig Venter that is seeking to mass produce liquid transportation fuel from algae. The “collaborative research project” between the oil giant and Venter’s Synthetic Genomics gives a major boost to the effort to produce algal biofuels, although both companies stressed that it would likely be five to 10 years before small-scale algal biofuel plants are operating. The joint project will dip into Exxon’s deep pockets to try to solve three major challenges: finding the most suitable strain of algae, determining the best way to grow it, and figuring out how to mass produce it economically. Exxon officials said they decided to invest in algal biofuel over other forms of biofuels because its production does not require arable land or fresh water and algae consumes large quantities of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. Synthetic Genomics has been using genetic engineering in an effort to produce strains of algae that would automatically secrete a “hydrocarbon-like” liquid.14 Jul 2009:
Euphrates River Dwindles
Due to Dams and Long Drought
The legendary Euphrates River has dwindled to perilously low levels in Iraq because of a severe two-year drought, the construction of dams in Turkey and Syria, and wasteful water management by the Iraqi government and farmers, the New York Times reports. The flow of the 1,730-mile river has been so sharply reduced that lakes and wetlands are drying up; rice, wheat, and barley farmers are unable to irrigate their fields; renowned Mesopotamia date crops are withering; and fishermen are losing their livelihoods. Unless the situation improves, the Euphrates’ flow could soon be only half that of several years ago, the Times reports. Particularly hard-hit are the marshes between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, which had been drained by Saddam Hussein but were on their way to being restored several years ago. Once again, however, many sections of marshland are dry. A major reason for the Euphrates’ reduced flow is the network of seven dams in Turkey and Syria, which limit the water downstream. Turkey has recently released more water into the Iraqi section of the river.
13 Jul 2009:
Protected Brazilian Timber
Reportedly Being Sold as “Eco-Certified”
The Brazilian government is investigating charges that illegal timber is being cut in protected reserves and laundered as “eco-certified” to markets abroad, including the United States and Europe, according to a report in the newspaper O Globo. A federal prosecutor says wood taken from reserves and indigenous lands in the Brazilian state of Pará was classified as certified timber, a designation that earns a higher price from international buyers interested in purchasing and marketing sustainably harvested wood. The alleged operation involves as many as 3,000 companies, according to the report. Pará, which has emerged as a major timber market in recent years, also has the highest deforestation rate in the Brazilian Amazon, accounting for 43 percent of total forest loss.13 Jul 2009:
Concern for Crop Safety
Leads to Damaging Farming Practices
Concerned about outbreaks of E. coli bacteria, farming groups and food buyers have instituted a series of environmentally damaging agricultural practices in California and could soon be replicating the program nationwide, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The practices — spurred by a 2006 E. coli outbreak in spinach that killed four people and left 35 with acute kidney failure — include poisoning or draining irrigation ponds, creating 450-dirt buffers around fields, and killing amphibians and wildlife in and around cropland. The new practices are being implemented by the large growers and major corporate buyers of greens that are washed, bagged, and distributed nationwide. So far the new practices are mainly being carried out in California, but the prepackaged greens industry has submitted a proposal to have similar rules apply at farms nationwide. Critics contend the new agricultural practices not only cause environmental harm, but do little to improve food safety. “Sanitizing American agriculture, aside from being impossible, is foolhardy,” said author Michael Pollan who has written extensively on the food industry.10 Jul 2009:
New Bus Systems Reduce
Traffic, Pollution in Developing Cities
Large, low-emission buses being introduced in developing cities from Mexico City to Ahmedabad, India are reducing congestion on crowded roadways and cutting pollution and carbon dioxide emissions, all at a much lower cost than constructing subways. In Bogota, Colombia, city leaders took control of two to four center lanes of major boulevards for the TransMilenio rapid transit system. Small walls isolate the “tracks” of the bus lines from other traffic, and passengers are able to board the long, segmented buses from the center platforms of modern stations. Since 2001, the TransMilenio bus system has allowed the city to remove 7,000 small private buses from roadways and has slashed fuel use by more than 59 percent, according to a New York Times report. As a result, TransMilenio last year became the only large transportation system allowed by the United Nations to generate and sell carbon credits. Climate researchers say that emissions reductions related to transportation will become increasingly urgent in coming decades, particularly in the developing world. Projects similar to Bogota’s TransMilenio are planned in Cape Town, Mexico City, and Jakarta, Indonesia.10 Jul 2009:
Floating Nuclear Plant
To Be Built By Russians in Far East
A Russian company has announced that it will build the world’s first floating nuclear plant, opening up the possibility that the Russians could use such reactors to power operations to extract oil and minerals in remote regions of the Arctic. Russia’s United Industrial Corporation said its floating reactor will go into operation in 2012 off the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East and will be used to help power Vilyuchinsk, a small city that serves as an atomic submarine base. The 472-foot plant will be built in the shape of a ship, will accommodate two 35-megawatt reactors, and will cost $316 million to construct, United Industrial said. Nuclear power experts said that such floating reactors could be used to supply power to extractive industries in the Arctic as sea ice melts and Russia moves in to exploit oil, natural gas, and minerals. But putting reactors at sea, particularly in such an environmentally sensitive area as the Arctic, raises concerns about safety in extreme weather, disposal of radioactive waste produced by the reactors, and vulnerability to terrorism.
09 Jul 2009:
Poaching for Horns Driving
Extinction of Rhinos, Report Says
A surge in the illegal trade of rhino horns in Asia and Africa is pushing the already endangered animal closer to extinction, according to a new report. Increased poaching by Asian-based gangs has produced a 15-year high in rhino deaths, particularly in South Africa and Zimbabwe, according to the report by WWF-International and the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The poachers are feeding a demand in Asia for horns to be used in folk remedies, including the horns’ alleged — and disproven — boost in male potency. “Rhinos are in a desperate situation,” said Susan Lieberman of WWF. While only about 3 rhinos in Africa were killed illegally each month from 2000 to 2005, about 12 of the continent’s estimated 18,000 rhinos are now killed monthly. Meanwhile, 10 rhinos have been killed for their horns in India since January. Another seven have been killed this year in Nepal. The total rhino population in those two nations is about 2,400. Lieberman said it was time for governments "to crack down on organized criminal elements responsible for this trade" and to increase funding for enforcement efforts.09 Jul 2009:
Obama Says Climate Deal
Still Possible Despite Setback at G8 Meeting
President Obama says a deal to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions is still possible, despite the failure of the Group of Eight major industrialized nations to agree on a plan to halve CO2 emissions by 2050. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Obama told Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva that “there was still time in which they could close the gap on that disagreement” before a key climate summit in Copenhagen in December. On Wednesday, China and India objected to setting a goal of cutting global emissions by 50 percent by mid-century, saying the industrialized Western nations first needed to agree to steeper interim emissions cuts and to generously fund efforts to help poorer nations develop alternative sources of energy. The G8 did embrace a goal of limiting future temperature increases to 3.6 degrees F, but U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon said the action was “not enough,” adding that making steep CO2 reductions was “politically and morally imperative and (an) historic responsibility... for the future of humanity.”
Interview: NOAA’s New Chief on
Restoring Science to Climate Policy
Last December, when President-elect Obama named Jane Lubchenco to head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the reaction among climate scientists was an almost audible sigh of relief. 
Jane LubchencoClick here to read the full interview.
08 Jul 2009: Rapid Thinning of Arctic Ice
The amount of thick, long-lived sea ice covering the Arctic Ocean has declined dramatically in the last six years, with ice thinning by an average of 2.2 feet from 2003 to 2008, according to a study by scientists from NASA and two universities. In 2003, 62 percent of the Arctic’s total ice volume was stored in the yards-thick ice that forms over decades, while 28 percent of ice volume was thinner ice that melts from summer to summer. But by 2008, those percentages had been reversed, with only 32 percent of Arctic ice composed of thicker, multi-year floes while 68 percent was thin, first-year ice. The study, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, used satellites to measure how high the ice rose above sea level — a gauge of the ice’s thickness. The rapid loss of Arctic sea ice volume and extent is due to rapidly rising air temperatures and changing circulation patterns in the Arctic Ocean, scientists said. The thinning of sea ice is significant because the first-year ice melts in summer, exposing the dark ocean beneath, which then absorbs more heat from the sun, further intensifying Arctic warming. The loss of sea ice is having a detrimental effect on polar bears, which use the ice as a feeding platform.08 Jul 2009:
Billionaire Pickens Shelves
Massive Wind Farm Project in Texas
Texas billionaire T. Boone Pickens has shelved his plan to build the world’s biggest wind farm in Texas, citing a tight credit market, low natural gas prices, and inadequate transmission lines. The ambitious 
T. Boone Pickens
08 Jul 2009:
Researchers Discover New Monkey
In Isolated Amazon Region of Brazil
Researchers have discovered a new species of monkey in the isolated upper Amazon of northwestern Brazil. The creature is nine inches tall, has a 12-inch tail, and weighs less than three-quarters of a pound. It also has distinctive gray and light green mottling on its back that looks like a saddle. The monkey, whose discovery was announced by the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, was first seen by scientists during a 2007 expedition in the state of Amazonas. Researchers have named the creature saguinus fuscicollis mura, or Mura’s saddleback tamarin, after the Mura Indians who live in the Purus and Madeira river basins where the monkey was found. Conservationists are concerned that development — including a new highway through the Amazon, a proposed gas pipeline, and two hydroelectric dams — poses a threat to the rainforest habitat where the Mura’s saddleback tamarin lives. “This discovery should serve as a wake-up call that there is still so much to learn from the world’s wild places, yet humans continue to threaten these areas with destruction,” said Fabio Röhe of the Wildlife Conservation Society, lead author of a paper announcing the discovery of the species. The paper was published in the International Journal of Primatology.
07 Jul 2009:
Cap-and-Trade Bill
To Face Tough Fight in U.S. Senate
The U.S. Senate has begun hearings on legislation to place a ceiling and a price on carbon emissions, and Democratic leaders say they are as many as 15 votes short of the number to ensure passage. The Washington Post reports that to pass the 1,400-page bill, Senate Democratic leaders may be forced to make so many concessions to industry that the legislation could lose the support of environmental groups, most of which have endorsed the bill. The U.S. House of Representatives narrowly approved the legislation last month after softening emissions targets and agreeing to initially give away — rather than auction — the permits that large-scale emitters must obtain to release greenhouse gases. The Post said that to ensure passage in the Senate, the leadership may be forced to add controversial provisions, such as allowing more drilling off the U.S. coasts. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he hopes various committees will complete work on the bill by Sept. 18 and that the legislation will come up for a vote by late fall.
07 Jul 2009:
Climate Treaty Should Target
World’s Wealthiest Citizens, Study Says
The best way to ensure that industrialized and developing nations fairly share the burden of reducing greenhouse gas emissions is to set national targets based on the number of wealthy people in each country, a new study suggests. Reporting in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from Princeton University said that the level of CO2 that each country is permitted to emit under a new climate treaty should be based on the number of affluent people in that nation. Most of those 1 billion, well-to-do “high emitters” live in the U.S., Europe, Japan, and other developed countries, but an increasing number of affluent people with a large carbon footprint will live in China, India, Russia, Brazil, and other developing nations. A climate treaty that focuses on levels of affluence in each country will help bridge a major negotiating divide between rich and poor countries, the study said. Developing countries, such as China, have refused to accept emissions limits and argue that high-emitting industrialized nations should bear the burden of reducing greenhouse gases. But wealthy nations say China and other developing countries should accept emissions limits as their standards of living rise.06 Jul 2009:
Incandescent Light Bulbs
Live on in New, More Efficient Form
Spurred by U.S. government regulations requiring improved lighting efficiency by 2012, researchers around the country are successfully turning the old, energy-burning incandescent bulb into a more efficient source of light. The New York Times reports that one company has already succeeding in producing incandescent bulbs that are 30 percent more efficient than older bulbs, which produce far more heat than light. The new generation of incandescent bulbs still does not match the efficiency of compact fluorescent light bulbs, which use 75 percent less energy than old-style bulbs. But researchers say incandescent bulbs might one day become as energy-efficient as compact fluorescent bulbs by using new filaments and reflective coatings that bounce heat back onto the filament and convert that heat into light. The new incandescent bulbs are expensive, but researchers say that as efficiency improves and prices decline, the bulbs will be embraced by people who prefer the quality of incandescent light to fluorescent light.06 Jul 2009:
Chinese to Break Ground
On Massive Wind Power Installation
China will break ground this month on a gigantic, $17 billion wind power farm in the northwestern part of the country that will produce 5 gigawatts of power by next year and 20 gigawatts by 2020, according to the official Xinhua news service. The installation in Gansu Province is known as the “Three Gorges of Wind Power” after the gigantic Three Gorges hydroelectric dam on the Yangtze River. As the Wall Street Journal notes, the Gansu wind power installation is scheduled by 2020 to produce five times the power of T. Boone Pickens’ proposed wind power project on the U.S. Great Plains. The Chinese are building wind farms at about one-third the cost of European and U.S. rivals because the price of manufacturing the turbines and installing them is so much cheaper in China. In addition to its huge installation in Gansu — which is expected to produce power for more than 10 million Chinese households by 2020 — the Chinese also are planning a half-dozen similarly large projects, many on the windy western plains. China is planning to boost its wind power capacity to eight times the current level by 2020.
02 Jul 2009: Turkey Resumes Dam Project
The Turkish government will revive a $1.6 billion dam project on the Tigris River despite concerns that it will displace tens of thousands of people, damage wildlife habitat, and destroy historic archaeological sites. Preparations for the Ilisu hydroelectric dam were suspended for six months after financial institutions in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria announced that they were withholding financial support because of environmental concerns. But Veysel Eroglu, Turkey’s environmental minister, said the financing would be made available for what the government considers an important part of a $32 billion plan to boost the economy in the nation’s southeastern corner, a region disrupted by armed conflict between the government and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party. Eroglu said improvements have been made to assure the project will meet international standards. Turkish officials say the dam, part of a larger proposed network of dams called the Southeastern Anatolia Project, would generate 1,200 MW of electricity after it is completed in 2013. But environmental advocates warn that the project would inundate as many as 80 towns, villages, and hamlets, and displace up to 80,000 people.02 Jul 2009: Environmental Toll of Plastics
The amount of plastic that will be produced this decade will nearly equal the total produced in the 20th century, and the substance is increasingly taking a toll on human health and the environment, a new study says. Reporting in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, more than 60
01 Jul 2009:
Oil Companies and Nigeria
Accused of Mass Pollution in Niger Delta
Amnesty International says Royal Dutch Shell, other oil companies, and the Nigerian government have violated the human rights of residents of the Niger Delta by polluting their land and harming their health with oil spills, natural gas flaring, and waste dumping. In a 141-page report, the human rights group said that at least 9 million barrels of oil may have been spilled in the past 50 years in the delta, home to an estimated 500,000 Ogoni people. “People living in the Niger Delta have to drink, cook with and wash in polluted water,” said the report. “They eat fish contaminated with oil and other toxins. The land they farm on is being destroyed... yet neither the government nor oil companies monitor the human impacts of oil pollution.” A Shell spokesman said that, despite its efforts to protect the environment, 85 percent of the pollution from its operations comes from attacks and sabotage carried out by criminal bands operating in the Niger Delta.
01 Jul 2009:
India Will Reject Curbs
On Its Carbon Emissions
India will not accept limits on its greenhouse gas emissions at climate talks later this year and instead will focus on economic growth and lifting its people out of poverty, according to Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh. He said that a legally binding emissions target would endanger India’s food security and transport, adding, “India cannot and will not take emission reduction targets because poverty eradication and social and economic development are first and overriding priorities.” India has low per capita greenhouse gas emissions, but its population of 1 billion and the country’s rapid economic development now make it the world’s fifth largest emitter of greenhouse gases. In advance of international climate talks in Copenhagen in December, China has also said it would reject limits on its CO2 emissions, and India’s declaration further complicates prospects of securing an international agreement. Both nations have called on the developed world to commit to sharp emissions reductions, with China saying the U.S. should slash CO2 emissions by 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. Chinese officials have criticized a climate bill recently passed by the U.S. House of Representatives for falling far short of that goal.30 Jun 2009: Decline of Seagrass Beds
Seagrass beds, which play an important role in coastal marine ecosystems and absorb large quantities of carbon dioxide, are increasingly being destroyed or degraded by development and pollution, according
30 Jun 2009:
Obama To Open U.S. Lands
To Large-Scale Solar Power Projects
U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said his department is studying whether 670,000 acres of federal lands in six Western states are suitable for the construction of large-scale solar power projects. Salazar, appearing in Las Vegas with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, said the Obama administration is doing “everything we can to put the bulls-eye on the development of solar energy on our public lands.” He predicted that by the end of next year, 13 commercial-scale solar power projects could be under construction on U.S. government lands in Nevada, Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Energy announced new efficiency standards for fluorescent and recessed lighting fixtures, set to take effect in 2012. Energy Department officials said the tighter standards would save as much as $4 billion annually in energy costs and avoid 594 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions from 2012 to 2042 — the equivalent of removing 166 million cars from the road for a year.
29 Jun 2009:
Large `Bycatch’ of Whales
Reported Off Coasts of Japan and Korea
As many as 150 minke whales are being caught annually in the waters off Japan and South Korea, reportedly as incidental bycatch while fishermen pursue other marine species, according to a new study. The catch of minke whales — sold for as much as $100,000 apiece in South Korean and Japanese markets — equals the approximately 150 minke whales the Japanese now kill annually in the Southern Ocean as part of a controversial hunt for alleged scientific purposes. The study, presented by two 
A minke whale
29 Jun 2009:
Obama Opposes Tariffs
As Part of U.S. Cap-and-Trade Bill
President Obama praised the climate bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives as “an extraordinary first step,” but said the final version should not impose tariffs on imports from countries that lack systems for pricing carbon. The House bill contains such a provision, but Obama said he hoped it would be removed in the Senate version because “I think we have to be very careful about sending any protectionist signals out.” Obama rejected criticisms that the House bill — which imposes a cap and a price on fossil fuel use designed to slash U.S. CO2 emissions by 83 percent below 2005 levels by 2050 — had been badly weakened by too many concessions to industry. He told reporters the bill was part of his administration’s “comprehensive approach” to energy and climate that included massive economic stimulus spending on renewable energy development and energy efficiency programs, as well as tougher automobile mileage standards. “Over the first six months we’ve seen more action on shifting ourselves away from dependence on foreign oil and fossil fuels than at any time in several decades," Obama said.
26 Jun 2009:
U.S. House of Representatives
Passes Historic Bill Limiting CO2 Emissions
After intensive lobbying by President Obama, the U.S. House of Representatives narrowly passed an historic bill that places a cap and a price on carbon dioxide emissions contributing to the warming of the planet. The legislation, approved by the House in a 219 to 212 vote, now moves to the U.S. Senate, where a tough fight is expected. Republicans voted overwhelmingly against the bill, as did 44 Democrats. The 1,300-page bill would require all major sources of fuels that emit carbon dioxide — including utilities, oil refiners, and manufacturers — to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 and by 83 percent by 2050. The bill would place a steadily decreasing cap on carbon dioxide emissions beginning in 2012, with emitters initially receiving most pollution permits for free but soon being required to purchase them. The goal of the Waxman-Markey bill, named for its sponsors, is to force steady reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and stimulate the development of renewable sources of energy. Calling the bill “decisive and historic,” Rep. Henry Waxman (D.-CA) said, “This legislation will break our dependence on foreign oil, make our nation a leader in clean energy jobs, and cut global warming pollution.” But Republicans sharply criticized the bill as an energy tax that would inflict serious harm on the economy.26 Jun 2009:
Spreading Desertification
Affecting Mediterranean, Group Says
Growing depletion of aquifers and climate change are turning parts of Italy, Spain, and France into desert, according to the Italian environmental group, Legambiente. The group said that 11 percent of arable land in Sicily, Sardinia, and sections of southern Italy already shows signs of drying up and could eventually affect the livelihoods of 6.5 million people. The main cause is the depletion of underground aquifers, which can result in seawater intruding into the groundwater, effectively poisoning water supplies, Legambiente said. The group reported that 74 million acres of land in Italy, Spain, and the French Riviera were gradually turning to desert because of overexploitation of water resources, with 20 percent of the Iberian Peninsula already experiencing desertification. Legambiente said that nearly half of Egypt’s farmland had been compromised by brackish groundwater caused by saltwater intrusion. U.N. officials confirmed the threat of desertification to large areas bordering the Mediterranean, and Legambiente said that unless water and land-use policies are changed “the risk will become concrete and irreversible.” Climate scientists say that rising temperatures also are contributing to spreading desertification in Spain and around the Mediterranean.25 Jun 2009:
Large Majority in U.S.
Supports Regulation of CO2, Poll Shows
Three-quarters of Americans believe that the government should regulate greenhouse gas emissions, with a majority supporting restrictions on carbon even if they raise the price of goods and lead to higher utility bills, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll. The poll, released on the eve of a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives on a carbon cap-and-trade bill, showed that a slim majority — 52 percent — supports that specific legislation. Sixty-two percent of those surveyed said they would support carbon regulation even if it means higher prices for goods, 56 percent expressed support if CO2 regulation leads to a $10 increase in monthly utility bills, and 44 percent said they would back a cap-and-trade program even if it means paying $25 more per month for electricity. Roughly 60 percent said the U.S. should reduce carbon emissions even if other countries do little to confront global warming. The poll respondents were split along lines of age and income, with two-thirds of those under 30 saying they supported cap-and-trade regulations. Households earning more than $50,000 per year more strongly supported CO2 regulation than households earning less than $50,000.
25 Jun 2009:
Tallest Building in U.S.
To Undergo Green Energy Makeover
The owners of the 110-story Sears Tower in Chicago — the tallest building in the U.S. and the Western Hemisphere — will spend $350 million to install new energy and water systems that they say will slash the tower’s electricity consumption by 80 percent and its water usage by 40 percent. American Landmark Properties, principal owner of the 1,450-foot skyscraper, announced that the green retrofit will replace 16,000 single-pane windows with insulated windows, install natural gas boilers with a new fuel cell technology, renovate 104 elevators and 15 escalators to cut their electricity usage by 40 percent, install lighting that will automatically dim based on available sunlight, plant green roofs, erect wind turbines, conserve 24 million gallons of water with new plumbing fixtures and “condensation capture,” and install solar panels to heat water. The project architect said it would be a "benchmark" for green retrofitting of high-rises.24 Jun 2009:
Obama Hails Climate Bill
As Democratic Leaders Set Vote for Friday
A flurry of last-minute deal making has cleared the way for a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives on historic legislation to cap carbon emissions, with President Obama urging lawmakers to pass what he called an “extraordinarily important” bill. The vote is expected to be close, with Republicans in near-unanimous opposition and Democrats from coal and farm states wavering. To secure the support of conservative Democrats, congressional leaders are making last-minute concessions in the 1,201-page bill, including extra emissions allowances for rural electric cooperatives and allowing the U.S. Department of Agriculture, rather than the Environmental Protection Agency, to administer farm and forestry projects designed to offset industrial emissions. Democratic leaders are predicting passage. Speaking at a press conference, President Obama said the legislation “will spark a clean energy transformation that will reduce our dependence on foreign oil and confront the carbon pollution that threatens our planet.” The bill would cap and set a price on carbon emissions, but opponents say it includes so many concessions to industrial and agricultural lobbies that it will be ineffectual.24 Jun 2009:
NASA’s James Hansen
Arrested During Coal Mining Protest
NASA climate scientist James Hansen and 30 other demonstrators were arrested in West Virginia while protesting the practice of mountaintop-removal coal mining, which Hansen says President Obama must ban as the U.S. weans itself off fossil fuels. Hansen; actress Darryl Hannah; Michael Brune, executive director of the Rainforest Action Network; and Ken Hechler, a 94-year-old former congressman, were among those arrested as they blocked traffic on a highway in front of a Massey Energy coal plant in Sundial, West Virginia. “We have to phase out greenhouse gas emissions over the next 20 years,” said Hansen. “Where should you start? Well mountaintop removal is producing only seven percent of the nation’s coal and it’s a destructive practice.” The mining technique, which involves blasting the tops off Appalachian mountains to get at coal seams below, has buried more than 800 miles of streams in mining debris and has severely damaged or destroyed an area of forest nearly as large as Delaware. Protesters have recently carried out acts of civil disobedience against companies involved in mountaintop removal, including chaining themselves to mining equipment.23 Jun 2009:
Focus on Fuel Economy
Would Boost Profits for U.S. Car Makers
Detroit car makers would increase profits by $3 billion annually and significantly boost sales if they improve the fuel economy of their vehicles by 30 percent to 50 percent, according to a new study. Conducted by the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute, the study found that a major reason for the precipitous decline of Detroit’s sales and profits in recent years was the refusal of the Big Three automakers to recognize the importance of fuel economy to consumers. That failure meant the steady loss of market share to foreign car companies whose vehicles got significantly better mileage, the study said. Had the Big Three paid attention to their own market research showing the importance of fuel economy, “they would not be in Chapter 11 today,” said a co-author of the study. The study concluded that increasing average mileage to 35 to 40 miles per gallon would boost profits and increase sales equal to the production from two large vehicle assembly plants.23 Jun 2009:
Rising Use of Refrigerants
Poses Severe Global Warming Threat
The explosive growth of modern refrigerants, originally developed to replace ozone-destroying chemicals, could become a significant cause of global warming if they are not soon replaced by a new class of coolants, according to Dutch and U.S. researchers. Reporting in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the scientists said that hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) — now used in most air conditioning in cars and buildings — are a potent greenhouse gas whose heat-trapping effects currently equal less than one percent of all CO2 emissions worldwide. But booming economic growth in the developing world and the rapid spread of air conditioning mean that by 2050 HFCs could cause at least 25 percent of human-induced global warming, the study said. HFCs came into widespread use when they replaced ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons two decades ago. The good news is that industry is now developing a new class of more benign refrigerants, and researchers and policy makers are calling on the global community to phase out HFCs, much as chlorofluorocarbons were eliminated under the 1989 Montreal Protocol.
22 Jun 2009:
Cost of Solar Power in Italy
Could Soon Rival Coal-Generated Power
Southern Italy, with it abundant sunshine and high electricity tariffs from coal-generated power plants, could by 2010 produce solar power that is economically competitive with conventional power. That’s the assessment of Winfried Hoffmann, president of the European Photovoltaic Industry Association, who also predicted that solar power could meet 12 percent of Europe’s electricity demand by 2020. Hoffman said that the cost of producing power from photovoltaic cells is steadily declining, so much so that by next year solar power in southern Italy could be produced as cheaply as the 25 euro cents ($.35) per kilowatt hour that residents there now pay for coal-generated electricity. Hoffmann asserted that 12 percent of the continent’s electricity could come from solar power by 2020 if the European Union enforces rules on renewable power quotas and continues state-subsidized programs that pay generators of renewable power a premium for channeling their electricity into centralized power grids.22 Jun 2009:
Swiss Glaciers Shrank
By 12 Percent in Past Ten Years
Switzerland’s glaciers have shrunk by 12 percent since 1999, the fastest rate in the past 150 years, according to a study by the Swiss University ETH. In the past decade, the warmest on record in the Swiss Alps, the nation’s glaciers lost 9 cubic kilometers (2.1 cubic miles) of ice, the study said. The World Glacier Monitoring Service has reported that since 1850, glaciers in the Alps have shrunk by half and that nearly 90 percent of the region’s glaciers are now smaller than four-tenths of a square mile. Another study by scientists at the University of Buffalo shows that large glaciers and ice sheets in the Arctic melted extremely rapidly as the last ice age ended. The study, based on an analysis of rock samples, showed that Arctic ice sheets rapidly lost mass — and raised sea levels — as their edges slid deeper into the sea. Published in the journal Nature Geoscience, the study said huge volumes of glacial ice melted within several hundred years, and the authors warned that similar tidewater glaciers and ice sheets in Greenland and West Antarctica also could melt swiftly.19 Jun 2009:
New Diesel Engines
Emit 90 Percent Less Soot, Smog
A new generation of diesel engines for trucks and buses has slashed harmful exhaust, including soot and smog-causing hydrocarbons, by more than 90 percent, according to a new study. Conducted by the Boston-based nonprofit Health Effects Institute, the study showed that the new diesel engines — some of which are already in use — have so sharply reduced harmful pollution that they far exceed emissions reductions targets set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The study said that ultra-fine particulates — the tiny pieces of soot that can lodge in lungs and cause respiratory and heart problems — are 99 percent lower in 2007-model trucks and buses than in 2004 models. Smog-causing hydrocarbon emissions in the new “clean-diesel” engines are 95 percent lower than in older models. The new engines are so much cleaner, the study said, that it would take 60 of the new truck or bus models to emit the same soot as one 1988 model. The spread of the new clean-diesel engines is expected to improve public health in major metropolitan areas, such as Los Angeles and New York, that have high levels of particulate air pollution caused by older diesel engines.19 Jun 2009:
Giant Carbon Clock
Unveiled in Center of New York City
Deutsche Bank has erected a seven-story sign in the heart of New York City that ticks off the tons of carbon dioxide being emitted into the atmosphere — a public relations move designed to raise awareness of global warming. Designed by scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and hanging outside Madison Square Garden, the giant counter shows that the amount of carbon dioxide in earth’s atmosphere is at 3.64 trillion metric tons, the highest level in 800,000 years. Numbers whirring on the counter show that CO2 is being added to the atmosphere at the rate of 800 tons per second. Unveiling the sign, Deutsche Bank officials said it was designed to highlight the crisis of global warming and the urgency of reducing CO2 emissions. “The minute you convert that (carbon) to a real-time number, it can serve as a backdrop to a lot of conversations,” said one Deutsche bank executive.
18 Jun 2009:
Pine Beetle Infestation
Threatens Water Source for U.S. Southwest
The destruction of 2.5 million acres of Rocky Mountain forest because of a pine beetle infestation could threaten the water supplies of 33 million people, according to the U.S. Forest Service. Rick Cables, chief forester for the Rocky Mountain region, told a congressional committee that the dead and dying forest at the headwaters of the Colorado River could burn extensively and reduce water supplies to residents in Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, and Tucson, Ariz. Roughly 25 percent of the water piped to these cities originates in national forests in the Rockies that have suffered extensive damage from infestations of pine bark beetles, Cables said. He said that the loss of the trees and subsequent wildfires would “literally bake the soil” and lead to excessive runoff and rapid snowmelt, both of which reduce flow to the Colorado River. The fires also could destroy reservoirs, pipes, and other infrastructure, Cables said. Outbreaks of pine beetles — which scientists attribute to warmer winters that fail to kill beetle larvae — have destroyed 8 million acres of trees in the western U.S. and 22 million acres in Canada.17 Jun 2009:
Solar Power from Satellites
Gains Momentum among U.S. Companies
The dream of launching satellites into space to harness the sun’s energy and beam it back to earth is looking increasingly realistic as U.S. companies aggressively research the technology. One firm, PowerSat Corp. of Everett, Wash., has filed for patents that it says could overcome two of the major hurdles facing satellite solar technology. The company said it is developing technology that could link as many as 300 satellites together in space, allowing satellites covered in photovoltaic cells to beam energy to one big satellite, which would then transmit the energy to earth. The second technology would help lower the high cost of launching satellites into orbit by using solar-powered electronic thrusters to send the satellites from low-earth orbit to geosynchronous orbit 22,000 miles above the earth. The Pentagon has studied solar satellite technology for decades, but has not aggressively pursued the program because of its high costs. But PowerSat said in a news release, “The underlying technology components are proven and systems will be deployable within a decade.”
17 Jun 2009:
U.S. Government Report:
Effects of Warming Already Being Felt
U.S. government scientists have issued a report saying that evidence of climate change is already “unequivocal” and that warming this century could significantly alter the nation’s weather and coastlines. The report, “Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States,” says that average U.S. temperatures have increased by 2 degrees F in the past 50 years and can be expected to rise 4 to 11 degrees F by 2100, depending on the success of cutting carbon dioxide emissions. “In our backyards, climate change is happening and it’s happening now,” said Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “It’s not too late to act. Decisions made now will determine whether we get big changes or small changes.” The report said that in the past 50 years, heavy rainstorms have become 67 percent more common in the northeast because warmer weather is evaporating more water vapor and forming storm clouds. The report also forecast that by 2100 parts of the South could experience 150 days a year with temperatures above 90 degrees F, up from 60 days today; that warmer weather could lead to longer growing seasons but could also increase agricultural pests and devastate New England’s maple sugar industry; and that sea levels could increase by as much as three feet, inundating large parts of South Florida.16 Jun 2009:
U.S. Government Report:
Effects of Warming Already Being Felt
U.S. government scientists have issued a report saying that evidence of climate change is already “unequivocal” and that warming could reach extreme levels in the coming decades unless greenhouse gas emissions are sharply reduced. The report, “Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States,” said that average U.S. temperatures have increased by 2 degrees F in the past 50 years and can be expected to rise 4 to 11 degrees F by 2100, depending on the success of cutting carbon dioxide emissions. Unveiled at a news conference by chief presidential science adviser John Holdren and Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the report also said that the amount of rainfall in major storms has increased 20 percent nationwide in the past century, that northern regions will become wetter while southern and western regions become drier, that extreme heat waves will become far more common, and that sea levels have already increased eight inches in some places in the past 50 years and could rise an additional three feet along parts of the East Coast. The report is being released as Congress debates a controversial bill to cap and place a price on carbon emissions.16 Jun 2009: Hydrogen Car Unveiled
A new hydrogen car that weighs 772 pounds and can travel 186 miles on just 2.2 pounds of liquid hydrogen has been unveiled in London. The Riversimple Urban Car is powered by a cheap, 6-kilowatt fuel cell that combines hydrogen with oxygen from the atmosphere and produces only water as a byproduct. Riversimple’s founder and automotive engineer, Hugo Spowers, said that the company’s original, light design helps it overcome some of the drawbacks that have hampered the development of hydrogen cars, including the ability to store enough hydrogen to power a vehicle. He said that the hydrogen/oxygen reaction will power four electric motors, each attached to a wheel, and that energy will be stored in a series of ultracapacitors that can take on and release energy much more efficiently than conventional batteries. The Riversimple’s fuel cell is 1/16th the size of the fuel cell in Honda’s prototype FCX Clarity hydrogen car. The Riversimple vehicle, which has a top speed of 50 miles per hour and is roughly the size of a Smart car, will be available in limited quantities in 2011 and will be mass-produced in 2013, Spowers said.
15 Jun 2009:
Solar-powered Aircraft
To Be Unveiled Soon in Switzerland
The Solar Impulse — the world’s first large aircraft to be entirely powered by the sun — will be unveiled June 26 in Switzerland. The prototype airplane will contain 11,628 photovoltaic cells affixed to the Solar 
Solarimpulse.com
15 Jun 2009:
Oyster Die-Off in Pacific
May Be Linked to Ocean Acidification
The oyster industry in parts of Washington state in the Pacific Northwest is experiencing its fifth year of a massive die-off of oyster larvae, a condition that may be linked to increasing acidification of ocean waters from high levels of CO2 in the atmosphere. The Seattle Times reports that the larvae have been dying before they have a chance to attach to hard surfaces, such as rocks or other oyster shells, and grow their own shells made from calcium carbonate. Researchers have noticed periodic drops in the pH of the surrounding ocean waters, apparently linked to upwellings of deep, more acidified water. Those waters can easily corrode the calcium carbonate that is vital to oyster shell formation, the newspaper reports. The high larval mortality is causing steep financial losses in the Pacific Northwest’s $110 million oyster industry, although scientists say that other causes, such as outbreaks of an ocean-borne bacteria, Vibrio tubiashii, may also be taking a toll on the oyster larvae. Scientists are concerned that high atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide are quickly making the world’s oceans more acidified and are already damaging corals worldwide.
12 Jun 2009:
Benefits of Deforestation
in Brazilian Amazon are Temporary
The clear cutting of rainforests may yield a quick payoff for local villagers in the Brazilian Amazon, but in the end typically leaves the community just as poor as before, according a study in the journal Science. The study said that deforestation to clear land for cattle ranching or agriculture often provides a short-term jolt to the local economy as new resources lure investment dollars and development, including new roads. But once the timber disappears, the loggers move on, and the soil is depleted, the quality of life soon falls back below the national average, researchers concluded after an analysis of life expectancy, income, and education data from 286 Brazilian communities. “We found that the level of development in a region that has been through deforestation is indistinguishable from in a region prior to deforestation,” said Robert Ewers of Imperial College London. Much of the land cleared for agriculture was quickly abandoned, Ewers said.12 Jun 2009:
U.S. Vows Tighter Controls
Over Mountaintop Mining in Appalachia
The Obama administration will impose tougher controls over the controversial practice of mountaintop coal mining, the environmentally damaging practice of shearing off the tops of mountains in Appalachia to exploit the coal below. Administration officials vowed to take several steps to limit environmental damage from mountaintop removal, including ending fast-track permitting of projects, closing loopholes that allow coal companies to dump waste rock into streams, and reasserting federal oversight over lax state reviews. An Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) study estimated that by 2012, mountaintop removal projects will have destroyed or seriously damaged an area larger than Delaware and buried more than 1,000 miles of mountain streams in mining debris. The White House said that the EPA, the Department of the Interior, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will work together to more closely monitor mountaintop removal projects, but officials offered few specifics about how the new guidelines would work in practice. A recent EPA review allowed 42 of 48 mountaintop removal projects to proceed, prompting some environmental groups to accuse the administration of continuing the lax standards of the Bush administration.
11 Jun 2009:
Green Jobs Sector “Poised
for Explosive Growth,” Study Says
The green jobs sector, buoyed by private investment and an infusion of federal stimulus dollars, is among the fastest-growing sectors in the U.S. economy and is poised for increased growth, according to a study published by the Pew Charitable Trusts. The clean-energy economy generated 777,000 new jobs from 1998 to 2007 — a 9.1 percent increase. Overall jobs grew only 3.7 percent during that time, according to the study. Several trends have contributed to this growth, including a surge in venture capital investment and a bump in clean-energy generation, said Lori Grange, interim deputy director of the Pew Center on the States. In 2008, for instance, the clean-energy sector received about 80 percent of venture capital investments. Meanwhile, the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, signed by Preisdent Obama in February, includes about $85 billion in spending and incentives for energy- and transportation-related programs. “These jobs are driving economic growth and environmental sustainability at a time when America needs both,” Grange said.11 Jun 2009:
China Will Not Accept
Binding CO2 Targets at Copenhagen
China will not accept a cap on its carbon emissions at upcoming climate talks in Copenhagen, Chinese officials said. After several days of U.S.-China climate meetings in Beijing, Chinese officials said that placing a ceiling on its greenhouse gas emissions would stunt its economic growth. “China is still a developing country and the present task confronting China is to develop its economy and alleviate poverty,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said. “Given that, it is natural for China to have some increase in its emissions, so it is not possible for China... to accept a binding, compulsory target.” U.S. officials had said they would press China to accept some limits on its CO2 emissions, but the China Daily newspaper reported that Todd Stern, the chief U.S. climate negotiator, had backed off from that stance. “We don’t expect China to take a national cap at this stage,” Stern reportedly said. China said it would play a constructive role in Beijing and would set domestic energy savings targets and accelerate growth in its renewable energy sector. The success of the December climate talks in Copenhagen depends in large part on the ability of the U.S. and China to find agreement on a global plan to begin reducing greenhouse gas emissions.10 Jun 2009: Jatropha ‘Wonder Crop’ Requires Huge Quantities of Water, Report Finds
The oil-rich biofuel crop jatropha, once hailed as a “green gold” because of its ability to grow in arid regions, actually requires more water than other food and biofuel crops, according to a new report published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Jatropha requires five times as much water per unit as corn and sugarcane, and 10 times as much water as sugar beet, the most water-efficient biofuel crop, according to research conducted by the Netherlands-based University of Twente. Native to Central America, and well-adapted to tropics and subtropics, Jatropha Curcas has generated intense interest because it was believed that it would not displace food crops from land with fertile soil, a drawback of other biofuel crops. As a result, governments and private companies from Latin America to Asia have planted millions of acres of the plant. But, as recently reported in Yale Environment 360, the results show that just because jatropha can grow in arid places doesn’t mean the plant will produce much oil. To flourish, the plant needs good growing conditions just like any other plant, said study co-author Arjen Hoekstra. “The claim that jatropha doesn’t compete for water and land with food crops is complete nonsense,” Hoekstra said.10 Jun 2009:
Vast Expansion of Park
In Canada’s Northwest Territories
The Canadian government and the Dechko First Nation have approved a major expansion of Nahanni 
Nahanni National Park09 Jun 2009:
U.S. Environmental Groups
Call for Stronger Cap-and-Trade Bill
A coalition of environmental organizations has written a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urging her to reinstate several stronger conservation measures recently removed from a draft carbon cap-and-trade bill now working its way through Congress. The group – which includes the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club, and the World Wildlife Fund — asked Speaker Pelosi to reinstate a provision that would allow the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate carbon dioxide emissions under the Clean Air Act. That provision was removed as a compromise that the bill’s sponsors — Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif) and Ed Markey (D-Mass) — made with industry. The environmental groups also urged Pelosi to mandate that 20 percent of utilities’ energy come from renewable sources by 2020, with only three of the 20 percent attributable to energy efficiency. The current version would allow utilities to meet the 20 percent renewable standard by counting 8 percent from efficiency gains. The environmental coalition called on the speaker not to further weaken a provision in the bill calling for a 17 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions below 2005 levels by 2020. 09 Jun 2009:
Shell to Pay Settlement
In Nigerian Environment, Rights Case
Royal Dutch Shell has agreed to pay $15.5 million to family members of a slain environmental activist 
Ken Saro-Wiwa08 Jun 2009:
Train Travel May Produce
More Emissions than Flying, Study Says
A new study that has examined all greenhouse gas emissions created by different modes of transportation concludes that supposedly green methods of travel, such as trains, may actually produce as many or more emissions as flying. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, said that while a large jet produces three times as many greenhouse gases per mile as a train during operation, the two modes of transport actually generate about the same amount of greenhouse gases per mile when the manufacture of steel rails and other train infrastructure is taken into account. Using this measure, cars generally were the highest greenhouse gas emitters per mile, with the exception of off-peak, largely empty buses, which had emissions levels per passenger mile exceeding even SUVs. Reporting their findings in the journal Environmental Research Letters, the scientists said planners should look beyond what comes out of the tailpipe and work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transportation infrastructure by using such materials as low carbon dioxide cement.08 Jun 2009:
Peru Declares Curfew
As Violent Amazon Clashes Continue
The Peruvian government has declared a curfew in its Amazon region after several days of clashes have left more than 60 dead, including 23 policemen and approximately 40 Indians protesting the rapid development of the tropical forest. President Alan Garcia, a free-trade advocate, has been instrumental in allocating more than 70 percent of the Peruvian Amazon for oil and gas extraction, and indigenous tribes are protesting recent decrees that would break up their communal property and sell the parcels for development. Protests turned violent late last week as police and soldiers attempted to reoccupy roads and pipeline installations seized by the tribes. Meanwhile, the Brazilian Congress has approved a controversial law allowing companies and individuals who illegally deforested land in the Amazon before December 2004 to obtain legal title to those holdings. The law, which would bestow title on illegally cleared parcels up to 3,700 acres, has been sharply criticized by environmentalists, who say it will spur further deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon. President Lula da Silva is expected to sign the bill into law.05 Jun 2009:
Obama May Attend Global
Climate Talks in Copenhagen
President Obama may attend the global climate negotiations this December in Copenhagen, where negotiators will try to craft the successor to the Kyoto Protocol, U.S. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said. If he goes, Obama would be the first U.S. president to attend major international climate talks since President George H.W. Bush in 1992. Just weeks after he was elected, Obama proposed that the U.S. reduce CO2 emissions by 15 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 as part of a U.N. treaty. While some experts have warned against expecting too much of the U.S. because of the struggling economy, Obama, traveling in Germany, said he was hopeful about the prospects of forging a new climate treaty. “I’m actually more optimistic than I was about America being able to take leadership on this issue, joining Europe, which over the last several years has been ahead of us on this issue,” Obama said.05 Jun 2009:
Selling Forest CO2 Credits
Could Equal Profits from Palm Oil Farms
Preserving Indonesia’s tropical forests by selling credits for the billions of tons of carbon they contain could be as profitable as razing the forests to grow palm oil, according to a new study. The study, published in the journal Conservation Letters, said that saving the forests could generate just as much money as destroying them if a global carbon market is established that prices carbon at $10 to $33 per ton. Under the conservation program known as REDD — Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation — governments, businesses, and investors would buy credits on a global market that would enable them to emit more carbon than allocated under so-called cap-and-trade programs. The money spent on those credits could be used to pay the Indonesian government or landowners not to destroy tropical forests to grow palm oil, a highly profitable crop. The spread of oil palm plantations has led to massive destruction of Indonesia’s tropical forests. The study, conducted by an Australian biologist, said that 8.2 million acres of forest on Kalimantan on the island of Borneo are soon scheduled to be cleared for palm oil plantations.
04 Jun 2009: New Roll-Up Solar Panels
MIT Technology Review reports on an Ohio startup that has succeeded in manufacturing thin-film silicon solar cells that can be mass produced in long rolls and installed on roofs and building facades. The company, Xunlight of Toledo, Ohio, has produced solar film affixed to thin sheets of stainless steel that can be manufactured in rolls 18 feet long and roughly three feet wide. Such amorphous thin-film solar cells are highly inefficient, but Xunlight has boosted their efficiency by using three different materials that absorb energy from different parts of the solar spectrum, the MIT publication said. Still, the efficiency of Xunlight’s solar panel sheets is only about 8 percent, compared to the 20 percent efficiency of some conventional solar panels. The advantage of Xunlight’s product is that it can be installed in large quantities on a variety of building surfaces and at a lower price than conventional solar panels, Technology Review said.04 Jun 2009:
Kenya Considers Ban
On Pesticide Used to Kill Lions and Wildlife
The Kenyan Parliament is considering a ban on the highly toxic pesticide, Furadan, used by herdsmen to poison lions and other carnivores. The pesticide, originally manufactured by the U.S.-based FMC 
Wildlife Direct
Interview With Freeman Dyson,
Reluctant Global Warming Skeptic
Freeman Dyson is a renowned theoretical physicist at Princeton University, but since the New York Times Magazine published a controversial profile of him in March, the 85-year-old scientist has become a reluctant symbol of global warming skeptics. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, the first 
Freeman DysonClick here to read the full interview.
03 Jun 2009:
Coal Industry Inserts
Carbon Capture Provision in Climate Bill
A powerful coal-state Democrat has inserted a 24-page provision into the U.S. Congress’s proposed cap-and-trade bill that would create a $10 billion Carbon Storage Research Corporation, including up to $500 million in “administrative expenses” over the next 10 years. The Web site Solve Climate said the institute would be operated by the coal industry and would research methods of storing carbon dioxide underground; it would be funded with a 50-cent-per-month surcharge on the utility bills of all U.S. households. Critics contend that the Carbon Storage Research Corporation is a massive pork barrel project, and say it was included in the so-called Waxman-Markey bill to win the vote of U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher, an influential Democrat from Virginia. Said one analyst, “This is every industry’s dream — to have the proceeds of a monopoly tax dedicated entirely to your interests.”03 Jun 2009:
Investment in Clean Energy
Exceeded Fossil Fuel Investment in 2008
In a sign of the growing importance of renewable sources of energy, global investment in wind power, solar power, and other alternative forms of energy last year exceeded investments in coal, oil, and carbon-based energy for the first time. The United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) reported that in 2008, 56 percent of all money invested in the energy sector went to green sources of power, with $140 billion in investments in renewable energy compared to $110 billion in fossil fuel technologies. Wind power attracted the most investment, with $51.8 billion worldwide, while investments in solar power rose 49 percent to $33.5 billion, UNEP reported. Investment in geothermal energy rose most rapidly, increasing 149 percent over 2007, to $2.2 billion. China drove much of the growth in investment in renewable sources, particularly in wind power. Despite booming investment in green energy, the renewable sector still only accounts for 6.2 percent of total power generating capacity.
02 Jun 2009:
Emperor Penguin Colonies
Discovered by Spotting Guano from Space
Poring over satellite photographs, researchers from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) have discovered 10 new emperor penguin colonies in Antarctica by spotting telltale brown excrement patches on snow and ice. Emperor penguins — the world’s largest penguin, reaching four feet tall and weighing more than 80 pounds — spend eight months breeding and rearing chicks on sea ice around Antarctica, creating large fields of guano. Studying satellite photographs taken from 1999 to 2004, BAS researchers discovered 10 previously unknown emperor penguin colonies and learned that four previously known colonies had disappeared. Based on this research, published in the journal Global Ecology and Biogeography, the researchers concluded that 38 emperor penguin colonies now exist in Antarctica, harboring a population of 200,000 to 400,000 breeding pairs. The life cycle of emperor penguins is heavily dependent on sea ice, and numerous researchers have predicted recently that as Antarctica warms and sea ice melts, emperor populations will decline sharply.
01 Jun 2009:
Brazil Investments Drive
Amazon Deforestation, Report Claims
The Brazilian government has invested $2.65 billion in three major beef trading and leather processing companies that are key players in driving deforestation of the Amazon, according to a three-year investigation by the environmental group, Greenpeace. The group also said that shoe companies such as Nike, Adidas, Reebok, and Timberland, which claim not to buy leather from cattle raised on cleared Amazon land, are in fact doing so — perhaps unwittingly — by purchasing leather from three companies that trade in cattle from the Amazon. Greenpeace identified the three companies involved in buying cattle grazed on illegally cleared Amazon land as Bertin, the world’s largest leather trader; JBS, the world’s largest beef trader; and Marfig, the world’s fourth-largest beef trader. The Brazilian government has a financial stake in all three companies, Greenpeace said in its report, “Slaughtering the Amazon.” Largely because of the clearing and burning of the Amazon — much of it for cattle production — Brazil is the world’s fourth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases.
01 Jun 2009:
Science Academies Warn
Of Threat From Ocean Acidification
Rising carbon dioxide emissions are causing the world’s oceans to become dangerously acidic, threatening the health of coral reefs and shellfish, according to a statement from the national science academies of 69 nations. Saying that the rate at which the ocean is turning acidic is faster than at any time since the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, the academies called for cuts in greenhouse gas emissions of 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2050, followed by steeper cuts thereafter. The academies warned that if atmospheric concentrations of CO2 — now at 387 parts-per-million and rising rapidly — should hit 450 to 500 parts-per-million by mid-century, many of the world’s coral reefs and shellfish may have trouble building the shells necessary to their survival. As the oceans absorb more C02, increasing levels of carbonic acid are produced, impeding the process of shell formation. “These changes in ocean chemistry are irreversible for many thousands of years and the biological consequences could last much longer,” said the statement from the academies, which includes those from the U.S., U.K., and China. The group said that the threat of ocean acidification should be a major reason for ratifying an international treaty reducing greenhouse gas emissions at this December’s climate summit in Copenhagen.
29 May 2009:
Study Claims 300,000 Deaths
Attributable to Global Warming Each Year
A controversial study claims that global warming already is causing 300,000 deaths and $125 billion in economic losses annually. The report, issued by the Global Humanitarian Forum — an organization headed by former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan —attributed most of the supposed climate-related deaths to worsening floods and droughts in the developing world. The study also said that rising temperatures were causing increased mortality in poor nations from malnutrition, spreading malaria, diarrheal diseases, and heat-related ailments. Some scientists, however, are questioning the reliability of the study, saying it did not distinguish between deaths related to global warming and those related to other causes, such as overpopulation and poor health care. Still, experts who vetted the report — including Jeffrey D. Sachs, of Columbia University — said the study is important because it draws attention to the growing threat climate change poses to people in the developing world.29 May 2009:
Arctic Oil and Gas Reserves
Are Extensive and Accessible, Study Says
The Arctic region contains roughly 30 percent of the world’s remaining undiscovered natural gas reserves and 13 percent of the untapped oil reserves, according to a new study by the U.S. Geological Survey. The study, which took five years to complete and is the most comprehensive survey to date of Arctic energy reserves, estimated that about 1,550 trillion cubic feet of natural gas lies below the Arctic, enough to meet world demand for 14 years. The region also contains an estimated 83 billion barrels of oil, enough to satisfy global demand for three years. Most of the natural gas lies within Russian territory — which will only solidify that nation’s position as the world’s major producer of natural gas — while most of the untapped oil lies within Alaskan waters. The study, published in the journal Science, said most of the oil and gas lies offshore and under less than 1,500 feet of water, which makes it accessible to drilling. The findings are likely to further heighten the concern among environmentalists that, as Arctic sea ice rapidly disappears, the region will experience a rush to develop oil and gas that will threaten the sensitive Arctic environment and creatures such as polar bears and beluga whales.
28 May 2009:
Eastern U.S. and Canada
May Experience Higher Sea Level Rise
A new study says that the northeastern United States and maritime Canada are likely to experience a higher rise in sea level than many other regions, with expected increases in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean of at least two to three feet this century. Scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., say that the higher sea level rises will be due to the rapid melting of the Greenland ice sheet, currently experiencing melt rate increases of 7 percent a year. The colder waters from the melting ice sheet will alter currents in the Atlantic, directing warmer water onto the coasts of the northeastern U.S. and maritime Canada, the scientists reported in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. Because water expands as it warms, that influx of warmer water is expected to increase sea levels in the region by one to two feet. Those rises would be on top of an expected global sea level rise this century of at least one to two feet, according to a conservative estimate by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The melting of parts of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet could add another 1.5 feet to the overall global sea level rise.28 May 2009:
Global Energy Forecast
Foresees Large Jump in Demand by 2030
Worldwide demand for energy will increase by 44 percent in the next 20 years, with developing economies — particularly those in China, India, Brazil, and Russia — accounting for nearly 75 percent of the demand growth, according to a forecast from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). The agency predicts that oil will supply about 32 percent of the world’s energy needs by 2030 — down from about 36 percent today — and that wind and solar power will account for 11 percent of global energy supplies. The EIA forecast does not take into account the impact of a possible global agreement on reducing greenhouse gases. Without such an accord, global emissions of carbon dioxide are expected to rise by a third in the next 20 years, reaching 40 billion metric tons a year — a level that scientists say would sharply increase temperatures and destabilize the global climate system. The EIA forecasts that oil prices will begin to rise next year as the global recession eases, hitting $110 a barrel by 2015 — nearly double the average 2009 price.27 May 2009: U.N. Lists 22 Biosphere Reserves
A large, mountainous region in southern Siberia and a peatland forest in Sumatra that features sustainable logging and two wildlife sanctuaries are among 22 biosphere reserves named by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). That brings the number of biosphere reserves to 553 in 107 countries. Although the designation offers no legal protection, it does honor and focus attention on unique ecosystems where humans sustainably interact with nature. Among the 22 new reserves are the Altai region in Siberia, a mountainous enclave — nearly the size of Switzerland — developing a strong ecotourism sector; the Giam Siak Kecil peat forest in Indonesia; Mount Myohyang in North Korea, a 6,000-foot summit that harbors 30 endemic plants and numerous threatened animal species; the Orinoco Delta in Venezuela, home to an indigenous Warao community and more than 2,000 species of plants and a wide variety of marine life; and the Biosphare Bliesgau in southern Germany, a populous area, surrounded by designated green space, that is the site of an ongoing study of climate change.
27 May 2009:
Most Damaged Ecosystems
Recover in Decades, New Study Finds
Nearly 75 percent of ecosystems that have been degraded by humans or damaged by hurricanes and other natural disturbances fully or partially recover within decades, a new analysis has found. Reviewing 240 studies of disturbed ecosystems from 1910 to 2008, researchers at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies found that most forest ecosystems recovered in an average of 42 years, while ocean bottoms recovered in less than 10 years. Recovery times ranged from as little as five years for some ecosystems damaged by oil spills or bottom trawling to 56 years for ecosystems damaged by multiple causes. The researchers found that ecosystems degraded by humans took longer to recover than ecosystems that suffered natural disturbances. While 72 percent of ecosystems did fully or partially recover, the remainder showed no recovery or were beyond recovery, according to the study, published in the journal PLoS One. Overall, said Yale professor and study co-author Oswald Schmitz, “The damages to these ecosystems are pretty serious. But the message is that if societies chose to become sustainable, ecosystems will recover. It isn’t hopeless.”26 May 2009:
Carbon Plan in Ecuador
Would Leave Jungle Oil Reserves Untapped
Conservationists are working on a plan that would leave a vast oil deposit in the pristine jungle of the Ecuadorean Amazon undeveloped, in exchange for billions of dollars in payments from governments and companies looking to purchase carbon offsets. The oil fields — which contain about 20 percent of Ecuador’s oil reserves — lie under the Yasuni National Park in northeastern Ecuador, an undeveloped area that harbors some of the richest biological diversity on earth. Under the conservation plan, Ecuador would sell certificates on fledgling carbon markets that would allow governments or companies to emit carbon dioxide in amounts equal to the carbon left underground in Yasuni. Scientists have estimated that if the oil extracted from Yasuni was extracted and combusted, it would produce roughly 400 million tons of carbon dioxide; the sale of those carbon offsets could yield the country and the Yasuni Indians $4 billion to $7 billion. Bringing such a plan to fruition faces many hurdles, including the need for a December climate summit in Copenhagen to create the legal mechanisms for such carbon offset projects to operate.26 May 2009:
U.N. Secretary-General
Issues Climate Warning to Business Group
Speaking at the World Business Summit on Climate Change in Copenhagen, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that excessive reliance on fossil-fuels “is destroying our planet’s resources” and called on business leaders to take the lead in developing renewable energy and slowing global warming. Ban told the 700 delegates — members of six business groups concerned about global warming — that “climate change is the defining challenge of our time” and that a December meeting in Copenhagen to forge a climate treaty comes “at a critical moment in human history.” Ban told the businessmen that “you and your colleagues have the ingenuity and vision to lead by example, where others, including governments, are lagging behind.” Earlier, Ban told reporters that while President Obama is making commendable efforts to combat climate change, a draft cap-and-trade bill approved by a congressional committee last week does set sufficiently tough targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.22 May 2009:
Nantucket Sound Offshore
Wind Farm Passes Critical Hurdle
A $1 billion plan to build an offshore wind farm near Cape Cod on the Massachusetts coastline
has passed a critical state hurdle, a major victory for a developer that has endured a seven-year regulatory process and a well-financed campaign to kill the project. The Massachusetts Energy Facilities Siting Board unanimously approved Cape Wind Associates’ plan, which would plant 130 wind turbines over a 24-square-mile area of Nantucket Sound, a shallow area of water that sits within view of resort communities on the Cape, Nantucket, and Martha’s Vineyard. A coalition of politicians, business owners, and fishermen have challenged the project, saying the turbines would pose a threat to wildlife, fishing boats, and the local tourist economy. Cape Wind Associates is now awaiting approval from the U.S. Department of the Interior, which just last month released the long-awaited guidelines for leasing areas offshore for energy projects. In January, the project received a favorable review from the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service, which concluded that the project would have minimal negative impact. If approved, the project would power 400,000 homes.22 May 2009:
Cap-and-Trade Legislation
Approved By Congressional Committee
A key U.S. congressional committee has approved historic legislation that for the first time would put a cap and a price on carbon dioxide emissions. After weeks of debate and an intensive, multi-million dollar lobbying campaign by industry and environmental groups, the House Energy and Commerce Committee passed a bill calling for a 17 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions below 2005 levels by 2020 and an 83 percent reduction by 2050. The bill passed by a 33 to 25 vote, largely along party lines, and the legislation now faces many hurdles — including debate by several other committees — before it will be considered by the full House and Senate later this year. Opposition to the bill from conservative Democrats and nearly all Republicans was so strong that, in order to win committee approval, Chairman Henry Waxman agreed to initially give away 85 percent of permits to emit carbon dioxide; President Obama had called for auctioning all permits. The 1,000-page bill, the “American Clean Energy and Security Act,” sets a declining cap on national carbon emissions that will eventually require all major sources of fossil fuels to purchase permits to emit CO2. The bill also calls for 15 percent of the country’s energy to come from renewable sources by 2020.21 May 2009:
Latest MIT Computer Models
Show Rapidly Accelerating Warming Trend
Running 400 computer simulations that take into account everything from economic growth to the ocean’s ability to absorb CO2, MIT scientists say there is a 90 percent chance that global temperatures will increase 3.5 to 7.4 degrees Celsius (6.3 to 13.3 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of the century. The MIT simulations estimate a median rate of surface warming of 5.2 degrees C (9.4 degrees F) by 2100. That is twice the median temperature increase estimated by the same scientists six years ago, and they said their higher projections were based, in part, on data showing rapid growth of greenhouse emissions in the developing world and a lower probability of greenhouse gas reductions in the decades to come. The scientists said that extreme warming could be significantly reduced if the world community takes rapid action to cut greenhouse has emissions. “There is significantly more risk than we previously estimated,” said Ronald Prinn, director of MIT’s Center for Global Change Science. “This increases the urgency for significant policy action.”
20 May 2009: Disappearance of Aral Sea
In a dramatic series of satellite photos, NASA has documented one of the great environmental disasters of the last century: the disappearance — and near death — of the Aral Sea in Central Asia. Once the world’s fourth-largest lake, the Aral Sea became the victim of a grand Soviet public works project that diverted the water bound for the inland body of water and pumped it into the desert to grow cotton and other crops. By 2000, when the first photograph in this series was taken by NASA’s Terra satellite, the Aral Sea had already shrunk by more than half since the diversion projects began in 1960. The photographs show that by 2009, the sea has nearly disappeared altogether, with its once extensive southern portion little more than a swirling cloud of dust and salts heavily contaminated by agricultural chemicals. The Kazakhstan government completed a dam in 2005 that has restored some water to the northern lobe of the sea, but has led to the near-complete desiccation of the southern half.
Interview: Previous Warming Eras Hold Warnings On Extinctions
Anthony D. Barnosky, a paleoecologist who studies the earth’s climate history, can sum up his concerns about the current era of human-caused climate change in one phrase: Too much warming, too fast. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, the University of California, Berkeley, scientist discussed his
Anthony D. BarnoskyClick here to read the full interview.
19 May 2009:
Largest Nesting Population
Of Leatherback Turtles Is Found in Gabon
The world’s largest nesting population of the critically endangered leatherback turtle has been found along the 372-mile coastline of Gabon in Central Africa. In a study spanning 6 years, researchers from 
NOAA
Leatherback sea turtle19 May 2009:
Stricter Fuel Standards
To Be Unveiled by President Obama
With the support of the beleaguered auto industry and Congress, President Obama will unveil tougher vehicle fuel standards that require average fuel efficiency of 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016, a 40 percent increase over today’s federal requirements. The new standards, which are to be phased in from 2012 to 2016, will cut carbon emissions from vehicles by more than a third and save 1.8 billion barrels of oil by 2016, Obama administration officials said. The new regulations would match the higher level of fuel efficiency that California had been seeking to establish, and California officials said they would drop their effort to set their own target and embrace the one proposed by Obama. The heads of General Motors, Toyota USA, and the Alliance of Auto Manufacturers announced their support for Obama’s proposal, saying it would create a single national standard that would simplify their manufacturing process. Detroit had long resisted tougher federal mileage standards, but with Chrysler in bankruptcy, General Motors facing the same prospect, and both companies taking billions in federal bailout money, the industry had no choice but to accede to the Obama’s new standard.18 May 2009:
US EPA Clears Most
Mountaintop Removal Permits
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved 42 mountaintop removal coal mining permits in the Appalachian Mountains, dashing hopes among many environmentalists that the Obama administration would move quickly to crack down on the destructive and controversial practice. U.S. Rep. Nick J. Rahall (D-W.V.), chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, said the EPA has given the green light to 42 of 48 mountaintop removal projects currently under review by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In mountaintop removal mining, coal companies blast and bulldoze the tops off mountains to get at coal seams below. In recent years, the practice has destroyed nearly 1 million acres of Appalachian forests and buried close to 1,000 miles of streams in mining debris. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said recently that the agency was reviewing the permits because the projects might violate the U.S. Clean Water Act, but she added that “the bulk” of the pending permits did not appear to raise environmental concerns. Environmental leaders criticized the EPA for not taking a stronger stand and called on the White House Council on Environmental Quality to take action to stop the 42 projects from proceeding.
18 May 2009:
Australia Introduces Plan
To Build World's Largest Solar Plant
The Australian government plans to build the world’s largest solar power station, a 1,000-megawatt plant that would generate three times as much electricity as the world's largest solar electric plant, now located in California, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced. Preliminary plans call for the construction of four individual plants — two
solar thermal plants that use mirrors to focus the sun's heat on steam-generating pipes or towers and two plants that use photovoltaic cells. Over all, the proposed facility would cost about U.S. $1 billion, Rudd said, and would generate electricity equivalent to a large coal-fired power plant. Calling solar energy “Australia's biggest natural resource,” the prime minister said he hopes the plants will be the first in a network of solar installations across Australia, making the nation a global leader in solar power. Construction plans will be developed over the next six months and the government hopes to open the new solar power power station by 2015.
15 May 2009:
Massive California Plant
Emerges as Test For Desalination
Water officials in California have approved a $320 million desalination plant north of San Diego, an ambitious project that would pump 100 million gallons of seawater daily and become one of the largest plants outside the Middle East. Poseidon Resources’ plant, which would be built in Carlsbad, Calif., would provide 50 million gallons of drinking water to nine municipal water agencies — filling 10 percent of San Diego County’s drinking water needs — by 2011. Numerous environmental groups, concerned with the potential threats to fish and ocean ecosystems, have challenged the project. But this week, it was approved by the last of four agencies required for permitting. While numerous other desalination plants are being discussed across California, experts predict the Carlsbad project will become a test case for desalination technology in the U.S. “I think there’s going to be some hesitancy to really expand desalination until this plant is up and running,” said Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute, a research group based in Oakland.15 May 2009:
Study Halves Projected
Sea Rise if Antarctic Ice Sheets Melt
The disintegration of Antarctica’s vast western ice sheets would cause seas to rise only half as much as previously estimated, according to a new report. While previous studies projected that a partial or total collapse of Antarctica's massive western sheets would raise seas by about 20 feet, a new report published in the journal Science suggests that sea levels would rise by only about 11 feet. The study combined computer modeling with measurements of the ice and the underlying bedrock. “Our calculations show those [earlier] estimates are much too large, even on a thousand-year timescale,” said the study's lead author, Jonathan Bamber, of the University of Bristol. Scientists consider West Antarctica vulnerable to collapse because so much of the ice sits on bedrock well below sea level. But while the new report is less dire than earlier projections, the authors called for renewed investment in satellite monitoring to clarify the global risk. They predict seas will rise 25 percent more on both U.S. coasts because shifting such a mass of ice would alter gravity locally and cause water to build up in the northern oceans.14 May 2009:
Arctic Expedition Finds
Lack of Thick, Multi-Year Ice on Ocean
The leader of an expedition measuring sea ice thickness in the Arctic says that his team discovered far less of the thick, semi-permanent ice that once covered much of the Arctic Ocean. Pen Hadow, head of the Catlin Arctic Survey Team, said that the average thickness of the ice along their 270-mile route was six feet, as opposed to the 10-foot-thick ice scientists had predicted the team would discover. The three-member team was airlifted from the ice Wednesday after a 73-day trip from northern Canada toward the North Pole. Along the way, the expedition made 1,500 sea ice measurements.
Hadow said that the data “raises more questions than it answers,” but the expedition’s findings are in line with other research showing that thick, multi-year Arctic sea ice is disappearing and being replaced by thinner, seasonal ice. That ice is far more likely to melt in summer, a key reason why the extent of Arctic sea ice is at record historic lows, covering roughly half as much of the Arctic Ocean as in 1950.
14 May 2009:
Rise of Electronic Devices
Negates Advances in Energy Efficiency
The rapid global proliferation of computers, cell phones, plasma TVs, iPods and other energy-hungry devices is offsetting global gains in energy efficiency, according to a report by the International Energy Agency (IEA). Unless manufacturers, governments and consumers make a concerted effort to use far more efficient electronic equipment, energy consumption from such devices will double by 2022 and triple by 2030, the IEA said. Since 1990, household energy consumption has been rising worldwide at 3.4 percent a year, in large part because of the rapid spread and increasing sophistication of electronic devices. U.S. electricity consumption by television sets, for example, has tripled in the past 10 years, mainly because of the popularity of energy-sucking plasma TVs.
The IEA report said that technologies already exist to improve energy efficiency of devices by 40 percent, but consumers and manufacturers often opt instead for more high-tech devices that consume large amounts of energy.13 May 2009: New GE Plant Will Introduce Batteries for Hybrid Locomotives
General Electric plans to build a $100 million factory to manufacture high-tech batteries for heavy equipment — including the batteries that will power the company's forthcoming hybrid railroad locomotive. While the facility would initially focus on the production of large batteries for use in rail, marine, telecommunications, and utility backup systems, it may eventually be used to produce smaller scale batteries, including for hybrid or plug-in electric cars. The batteries will use sodium-metal halide technology, which GE officials say will provide large amounts of energy over long periods of time. “Battery technology is a core part of the energy future globally,” said Jeff Immelt, chief executive of GE. Company officials hope the plant will open by 2011 in upstate New York. GE would become the first company to produce batteries for a hybrid locomotive. Officials say those batteries will be able to capture energy dissipated during the braking of locomotives — a technology they say will reduce fuel consumption by 15 percent and cut emissions by 50 percent compared to the typical freight locomotive.13 May 2009:
Moderate Rise in Utility Bills
Projected in Study of Cap-and-Trade Law
A Texas study projects that the average household would pay $17 to $27 more a month by 2013 if the U.S. Congress passes carbon cap-and-trade legislation. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which operates the state’s power grid, projected that utility bills could rise by $27 if electricity use remains the same, and by as little as $17 if higher energy prices created by cap-and-trade legislation encourage consumers to use less energy. In March, the average utility bill in Texas ranged from $110 to $160. Analysts said the ERCOT study did not consider a major long-term benefit of cap-and-trade legislation: The accelerated development of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies brought about by rising prices for fossil fuels.12 May 2009:
Climate Bill May Contain
Free Permits, Lower Renewables Goal
Roughly half of the permits issued to major carbon dioxide emitters will initially be given away for free, rather than auctioned, according to cap-and-trade legislation being hammered out in a key congressional committee. ClimateWire reported that Henry Waxman, chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, is working on a plan that would give away about 35 percent of total emissions permits to utilities, 10 to 15 percent to trade-intensive industries such as steel and cement, and up to 5 percent to petroleum refiners. In addition, Waxman is expected to agree to lower the national target for renewable energy generation from about 25 percent of the country’s energy needs by 2020 to roughly 20 percent, with some of that target being met by improved energy efficiency. Waxman and some members of the Obama administration had hoped to require all major carbon dioxide emitters to purchase emissions permits at auction, but cap-and-trade proponents have had to soften their stance to win over conservative Democrats. The legislation, if approved by the full Congress, would move to a 100 percent auction system within 10 to 15 years, ClimateWire reported.
12 May 2009:
Endangered Blue Whales
May Have Resumed Past Migration Pattern
In a sign that populations of blue whales — the largest animals on earth — are slowly recovering, scientists have documented the migration of four of the 100-foot creatures from the coast of California to waters off British Columbia and Alaska. That historic migration pattern appears to have been largely interrupted in the mid-20th century when hunting of the whales drove the giant creatures to near-extinction, leading to a ban on commercial whaling in 1965. Reporting in the journal Marine Mammal Science, U.S. and Canadian researchers said they had identified 15 blue whales off British 
11 May 2009: ‘Smart Meters’ In All UK Homes
The British government has unveiled a plan that will require the installation of ‘smart’ electric meters in all homes and businesses by 2020. The meters — to be placed in 26 million residences and several million businesses — will give residents real-time digital information on energy consumption and can also be programmed to perform certain tasks, such as charging an electric car, during off-peak hours of energy use. Utilities also can monitor customers’ energy consumption and recommend ways to reduce energy demand. The government said installation of the smart meters could save 2.5 to 3.6 billion British pounds over the next 20 years. The cost of installation could reach 8 billion pounds, but utilities say they can recoup most of those costs because meter readers will no longer be needed and the practice of estimating utility bills will be stopped. British officials said their program will make the U.K. the largest user of smart meters in the world and called the switchover the “the greatest revolution in energy use” since British Gas converted all the nation’s homes to natural gas in the 1970s.11 May 2009:
Brazil’s Atlantic Forest
Has Lost 90 Percent Of Original Habitat
Much attention has been focused on the steady destruction of the Brazilian Amazon, but a recent study confirms that the country’s “other” rainforest — which once stretched along the Atlantic coast — is in far worse shape. Analyzing satellite images and vegetation maps, researchers have concluded that the Atlantic forest — once three times the size of France — has been reduced to 10 percent of its original size, largely because of development in the past century. As a result, the region’s rich flora and fauna — which included 20,000 species of plants, 700 species of birds, and 260 species of mammals — is severely threatened, with iconic creatures such as the golden lion tamarind and northern wooly spider monkey facing extinction. Seventy percent of the nation's population — including the cities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro — is located in what was once the Atlantic forest. Reporting in the journal Biological Conservation, the researchers said that 80 percent of the remaining patches of forest are split into fragments of less than .5 square kilometers and that only 14 percent of the undisturbed forest is protected. Conservationists have called for the creation of reserves in the few remaining large tracts of Atlantic forest, including the Sierra do Mar mountains near Sao Paulo.08 May 2009:
Burning Corn More Efficient
Than Manufacturing Biofuels, Study Says
The most efficient way to convert corn into energy is to burn the kernels to generate electricity, rather than processing the plant into biofuels, according to a study in the journal Science. Research by a scientist at the University of California, Merced, showed that burning corn to produce electricity for electric-powered vehicles produces 56 percent more energy per acre than converting the corn to biofuels. The combustion of corn to generate electricity for cars also produced about half the greenhouse gases as the conversion of corn to ethanol, according to the study. Meanwhile, a study by the environmental groups Friends of the Earth and Earth Track projects that the continuing expansion of federal subsidies to produce ethanol from corn and cellulosic materials, such as cheatgrass, could cost taxpayers $420 billion through 2022. The Obama administration is calling for the rapid expansion of biofuel production from non-food crops, and anticipated federal subsidies for the program are likely to average $28 billion a year, according to the study.08 May 2009: Large Increase in Wind Power
Global wind power generation grew by 29 percent in 2008, with the United States overtaking Germany to become the world’s leading producer of wind-driven electricity, according to the Worldwatch Institute. The Washington, D.C.-based research organization said that wind power now generates enough electricity to power 27 million homes globally and that 1.5 percent of the world’s energy demands are now met by wind — up from .1 percent a decade ago. Worldwatch said that wind power generation increased by 50 percent in the U.S., which now produces 21 percent of global wind power. Europe generates 55 percent of global wind power. China, which is rapidly erecting wind-driven turbines, now accounts for about 10 percent of global capacity.07 May 2009: U.N. Seeks Ban on DDT by 2020
The United Nations has unveiled a plan to eliminate the use of DDT worldwide by 2020, replacing the toxic pesticide with other measures that sharply reduce the spread of malaria. In a joint statement, the United Nations Environmental Programme and the World Health Organization said they aim to achieve
07 May 2009: Ford SUV Factory Will Now Produce Smaller, Electric Vehicles
The Ford Motor Company is converting a factory that manufactured some of the company's largest sport utility vehicles into a plant that will produce the automakers' all-electric Focus and a new generation of smaller, alternatively powered cars. The Michigan Assembly Plant was one of the world's most profitable plants during the SUV boom of the 1990s, producing such popular, gas-guzzling SUVs as the Expedition and Lincoln Navigator. Company executives say the $550 million plant conversion represents a major transformation for the automaker. “This is about investing in modern, efficient and flexible American manufacturing,” Alan Mulally, Ford’s president and chief executive, said in a statement. “It is about fuel economy and the electrification of vehicles.” Ford says it will introduce the all-electric Focus in 2011, and deliver four new electric vehicle models to the U.S. market by 2012.07 May 2009:
Most CO2 Emissions Permits
To Be Given Away Initially, Lawmaker Says
A key Democratic congressman says a proposed bill to cap and trade carbon emissions would give away most of the permits to polluting industries for an initial period of 10 to 15 years. The statement by U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle (D.-Pa.) comes amid reports that the congressional subcommittee attempting to forge a
cap-and-trade bill is badly split between Democrats who want to move ahead with tough legislation to cap carbon emissions and Republicans and conservative Democrats who are insisting that oil refineries, coal plants, utilities, and heavy industries in their districts not be penalized by legislation that would place a high price on carbon emissions. President Obama said earlier that nearly all the permits should be auctioned. Doyle said that initially distributing the permits for free would give industries time to adopt technology to reduce carbon emissions and would ensure that U.S. industries were not at a competitive disadvantage with foreign firms.
06 May 2009:
‘Cash-for-Clunkers’ Deal
Advances in a Congressional Committee
Americans who trade in their gas-guzzlers for more fuel-efficient vehicles could receive as much as $4,500 in government vouchers under a climate change bill being negotiated in the U.S. House of Representatives. The so-called "cash-for-clunkers" plan would provide vouchers to consumers who exchange a car that gets an average of 18 miles-per-gallon or less for a new vehicle that gets at least 10 more miles-per-gallon. Lawmakers hope the incentive will get low-mileage vehicles off the road and prompt a million new car purchases to boost the staggering U.S. auto industry. A similar program in Germany has been a major success, leading to a large increase in car sales. The car initiative was introduced by Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and was endorsed by President Obama, who met with Democrats from the committee and urged them to draft a bill this month placing a cap on greenhouse gas emissions.06 May 2009:
Rubber Sea Snake
Harnesses Power Of Waves
A British manufacturer has unveiled a new wave energy generator called the Anaconda — a giant snake-like device they say could be deployed off the coast of Britain within five years. Tethered to the ocean floor and floating under the surface of the sea, the Anaconda uses the motion of rolling waves to drive a turbine in its tail. A wave's swell creates a bulge in the snake, which travels the length of the tube, producing a burst of energy captured by the turbine. While the trial version of the Anaconda is about 30 feet long, manufacturers say the mass-produced version would be about 650 feet. At that length, they say, a single Anaconda could produce 1 megawatt of power — enough to provide electricity for 1,000 homes. The Carbon Trust, a government-created nonprofit that helps U.K. companies reduce greenhouse gas emissions, has endorsed the technology.
06 May 2009:
U.S. to Tighten Standards
For Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Biofuels
The Obama administration has proposed renewable fuel rules
aimed at cutting CO2 emissions from the manufacture of biofuels, but maintained support for corn-based ethanol and advanced biofuel research. In calling for emissions reductions in growing corn-based-ethanol and other biofuels, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said it would now factor in “indirect land use change” worldwide. That means that when production of biofuels displaces food crops, forcing farmers to clear forest or grasslands to grow new crops, the EPA will take into account the increase in carbon dioxide resulting from that land disturbance. The production of biofuels made from food crops, such as corn and sugar cane, has been sharply criticized for driving up global food prices and leading to increased land-clearing for agriculture. The new EPA guidelines factoring in the true cost of biofuel production could limit the expansion of corn ethanol in the U.S., but Obama administration officials vowed to quickly release federal economic stimulus funds to help the struggling corn ethanol industry. “Corn-based ethanol is a bridge to the next generation of biofuels,” said EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson.05 May 2009:
Gray Wolf in U.S.
Is Removed From Endangered List
Three decades after being hunted to near-extinction in the Lower 48 states and 14 years after being reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park, gray wolves in the United States have been removed from the Endangered Species List. “We have a recovered wolf population,” said Ed Bangs, wolf recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “The populations are viable, they are in great shape, they have extreme genetic diversity, and so the Endangered Species Act did its job to bring wolves back.”
U.S. Fish & Wildlife
In Bolivia, A Major Glacier Disappears
Bolivia’s Chacaltaya glacier — an 18,000-year-old ice cap that once was the world’s highest ski resort — has melted entirely, according to Bolivian scientists. “Chacaltaya has disappeared,” said Dr. Edison Ramirez, head of an international team of scientists that has studied the glacier since 1991. “It no longer exists.” Located 17,388 feet above sea level, the glacier once served as the foundation of a ski resort that dated back to 1939 and attracted tens of thousands of visitors over the years; it was Bolivia’s only ski resort. As temperatures in the Andes have risen steadily in recent years, Ramirez and his team have documented the rapid retreat of Chacaltaya, which lost 80 percent of its mass since 1987. Ramirez predicted the glacier would disappear by 2015, but the rate of thawing increased threefold in the last decade, hastening the Chacaltaya's demise. The loss of Chacaltaya is the latest sign that glaciers in the Andes are melting faster than earlier projections, threatening the drinking water supplies of 77 million people in the region. Most glaciers in the Andes could disappear in the next several decades, scientists predict.
04 May 2009: Steep Rise in Ocean Mercury
Mercury levels in the Pacific Ocean have risen by 30 percent in the past 20 years and are expected to increase by 50 percent in the next few decades as emissions from power plants and other industrial sources rise, according to a new study. Scientists from Harvard University and the U.S. Geological Survey discovered the increases after sampling mercury levels at 16 locations in the Pacific Ocean and comparing them with historical data, according to the study, published in the journal Global Biogeochemical Cycles. The mercury eventually settles in large predatory fish, such as tuna, and can cause neurological and other health problems in people who consume large quantities of fish. The study also documented for the first time how mercury emitted from coal-fired power plants and other industrial sources winds up in fish. The researchers determined that the mercury is absorbed by algae that filters down to mid-ocean depths of 200 to 700 meters, where the algae is decomposed by bacteria and the industrial mercury is “methylated” and transformed into methylmercury, a neurotoxin. The methylmercury then moves up the food chain from phytoplankton, to zooplankton, to fish.04 May 2009: Australia Delays Carbon Plan
Facing a global recession and stiff political opposition, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has delayed by a year the start of an emissions trading scheme and also increased concessions to big polluters. Rudd announced that a plan to cap and trade CO2 emissions would begin in July 2011 instead of July 2010, thus starting the new regime after the next elections. Once the scheme is launched, Rudd said that the price of emitting a ton of carbon would be fixed for a year at the low-level of $7 U.S. per ton and that certain emissions-intensive industries that could be at a competitive disadvantage internationally would be able to pay less for CO2 permits for a “finite period.” Rudd pledged that if an international agreement on fighting climate change is reached in Copenhagen in December, Australia would vow to make even greater cuts in its greenhouse gases, reducing them by 25 percent below 2000 levels by 2020. But if no agreement is reached, Australia will only commit to cutting emissions by 5 to 15 percent, Rudd said.01 May 2009: China Studying Carbon Tax
Chinese officials have asked a state-run think tank to draft proposals for taxing coal, oil, and other fossil fuels, according to a report in China’s National Business Daily. The newspaper said that the ministries of finance and environmental protection have asked the think tank for proposals on a range of taxes on environmental damage, from a carbon tax to a levy on sulphur dioxide emissions, which cause acid rain. “At a time when calls for the globe to control emissions of carbon dioxide are growing louder... promotion of environmental taxes is much needed,” said Su Ming, deputy director of a think tank in the Ministry of Finance. The ministries asked the researchers to present the tax proposals within a month, but analysts cautioned that these proposals are preliminary and that China — the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases — is only now beginning to consider the ramifications of a carbon tax on its economy.30 Apr 2009:
To Limit Warming to 2° C, Oil And
Coal Burning Must Largely Stop, Study Says
The world must largely cease burning oil, coal, and natural gas by 2050 and can only use one-quarter of remaining carbon reserves if the goal of limiting global warming to 2° C is to be met, according to a study in the journal Nature. Researchers at Oxford University and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research forecast that there is a 50-50 chance of limiting warming to 2° C if cumulative carbon emissions are capped at 1 trillion tons. From the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century to the present, human activity has emitted 500 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere, the study said. Yet given current rates of combustion of coal, oil, and natural gas, it will take less than 40 years to emit the second 500 billion tons, according to Myles Allen of Oxford University. Once the threshold of 1 trillion tons is passed, warming could easily exceed 2° C, which would likely lead to severe disruption of the global climate system and rapid sea level rises, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. To limit emissions to 1 trillion tons, the study said that three-quarters of fossil fuels must be left in the ground as nations switch to renewable energy sources.
30 Apr 2009: Dubai’s Urban Sprawl
In these photographs, NASA satellites capture the explosive growth of Dubai on the Persian Gulf between 2002 and 2008. These false-color thermal images of Dubai — one of the 7 United Arab Emirates — depict vegetated areas in red, buildings in gray, and the desert in beige. The image at left, taken in October 2002, shows the early stages of construction of Palm Jumeirah, a vast commercial development built by dredging 3.9 billion cubic feet of sand from the gulf and depositing it in the shape of a giant palm tree. The finished look of Palm Jumeirah — which contains shops, hotels, and apartments and is protected from the gulf by 7 miles of rocky breakwater — can be seen in the image at right, taken in November 2008. That recent image also shows the exponential growth of Dubai, a city-state of 1.2 million and a major commercial hub in the oil-rich Persian Gulf region. Just to the east of Palm Jumeirah, the fairways of an irrigated golf course, pictured in red, can be seen.
29 Apr 2009:
China Can Attain Rapid Growth
And Low Emissions Under Renewables Plan
The Chinese economy could grow 10 times larger than it is today and still sharply reduce greenhouse gas emissions if the country aggressively embraces renewable energy and receives help from the West with carbon sequestration and other sophisticated technologies, according to a new report. Britain’s Tyndall Center for Climate Change Research says that the Chinese economy could expand between 8 and 13 times by 2050 yet cut greenhouse gas emissions sufficiently so that global atmospheric CO2 concentrations would remain below 450 parts per million, an upper limit recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. To rein in its emissions, China — the world’s largest source of greenhouse gases — must wean itself from coal and adopt a host of renewable energy technologies, develop energy-efficient homes and transport for consumers, and receive large-scale financial and technological help from wealthy nations to employ carbon capture and storage, the Tyndall report said. If China embraces such a sweeping plan, its CO2 emissions would peak between 2020 and 2030 at about double today’s levels, and then decline by roughly 90 percent by 2100, the report said.28 Apr 2009: Wilkins Breakup Continues
The recent collapse of a vital buttress in Antarctica’s Wilkins Ice Shelf is now leading to the fracturing of large icebergs from the massive floating ice sheet, according to recent satellite photos from the European Space Agency. The pictures show that since the disintegration of a 25-mile-long ice bridge on April 2, icebergs equaling the size of New York City have split off from the ice shelf and floated into a nearby bay. The image, captured by the space agency’s Envisat satellite, shows the area — outlined in pink — where icebergs have calved from the northern end of the Wilkins Ice Shelf since the disintegration of the ice bridge that had connected the shelf to Charcot Island. The area once occupied by the ice bridge is outlined in white. Rapidly rising temperatures along the Antarctic Peninsula, where the Wilkins Ice Shelf is located, have led to the full or partial breakup of 10 ice shelves in recent decades. The Envisat image shows scores of other icebergs that have broken off recently from the shelf.
28 Apr 2009:
U.S. Seeks to Reverse
Lax Rule on Mountaintop Coal Mining
Ken Salazar, secretary of the U.S. Interior Department, vowed to overturn a Bush-era regulation allowing coal companies to dump millions of tons of waste from mountaintop mining into Appalachian streams. Calling the relaxed environmental regulations a “major misstep,” Salazar said the Interior Department will go to court to strike down the Bush-era rule, which allows coal companies to dump mining debris in and around streams if other disposal options are “not reasonably possible.” The Bush rule overturned a 1983 regulation that only allowed mining companies to dump mining waste within 100 feet of a stream if the dumping would not “adversely affect” water quality. Mountaintop coal mining in the Appalachians — which involves blasting the tops off mountains to get at coal seams below — is a widespread and environmentally destructive practice. Environmental advocates said that reinstating the older, more restrictive rule was insufficient, since lax enforcement of old and new regulations has led to 1,600 miles of Appalachian streams being buried under mining waste.
27 Apr 2009:
U.S. Will Lead on Warming,
Clinton Tells Forum of Top CO2 Emitters
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a gathering of the world’s leading greenhouse gas emitters that the U.S. is “fully engaged and ready to lead” at global warming talks this December in Copenhagen. Speaking before the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate in Washington, Clinton told delegates from the European Union, China, India, Japan, Russia, and other nations that “the president and his entire administration are committed to addressing this issue and we will act.” While acknowledging that the U.S. and other industrialized nations have been responsible for most of the planet’s man-made greenhouse gas emissions, she said she hoped that developing countries would agree to some limits on their emissions and work to elevate their peoples’ living standards without relying as heavily on fossil fuels. Clinton said that recent actions by the U.S. government — including a ruling by the Environmental Protection Agency that greenhouse gases can be regulated under the Clean Air Act — are a “decisive break with past policy.” Referring to the lack of action on climate change by the Bush administration, Clinton said, “The United States is no longer absent without leave.”27 Apr 2009: Map of Renewable Energy Sites
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has produced interactive maps showing promising sites for developing renewable energy in the United States. The maps show, on a county-by-county basis, areas that have the most natural potential to generate energy from the sun, wind, biomass from wood and crop waste, and biogas from animal waste at livestock and poultry farms. The NRDC maps also depict renewable energy projects already in operation. The NRDC says that its interactive maps are designed to be used by legislators, investors, farmers, and other people interested in identifying private lands that might be suitable for renewable energy projects. Earlier this month, the NRDC, working with Google Earth and the Audubon Society, released maps showing areas on public lands in 13 western states where renewable energy should not be developed because of environmental concerns or legal restrictions on development.
24 Apr 2009: Industry Lobby Ignored Its Own Scientists on Global Warming, Report Says
An industry coalition spent more than a decade refuting the idea that greenhouse gas emissions could result in global warming, even though its own scientific and technical experts were advising that the science “cannot be denied,” according to a New York Times report. The Global Climate Coalition, which during the 1990s led a multimillion-dollar lobbying effort on behalf of the oil, coal and auto industries, routinely advised U.S. lawmakers that the role of greenhouse gases in climate change “is not well understood.” Meanwhile, the coalition's own scientists confirmed in an internal report in 1995 that “the scientific basis for the Greenhouse Effect and the potential impact of human emissions of greenhouse gases such as CO2 on climate is well established and cannot be denied.” That lobbying took place during the buildup to the 1997 international climate agreement that would become the Kyoto Protocol, even as the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported that human activity was contributing to climate change.24 Apr 2009:
Study Finds That Fires
Are Accelerating Climate Change
Carbon dioxide emitted by fires worldwide is accelerating climate change, which in turn is causing more fires, a vicious cycle that is becoming increasingly damaging to the environment, according to a new report. While scientists had realized that a warmer world leads to more fires, the new research, published in the journal Science, confirms that those fires are releasing huge amounts of heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere — an amount about equal to 50 percent of the emissions generated by the burning of fossil fuels. The fires include massive deforestation projects in places like the Amazon, where stretches of forest are torched to create space for pasture. “The scary bit is that, because of the feedbacks and other uncertainties, we could be way underestimating the role of fire in driving future climate change,” said Thomas Swetman, a researcher at the University of Arizona and co-author of the report. The authors say the significant role of fire has not been considered when creating models on how climate will change, and called on the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to pay closer attention to fire impacts in future modeling.23 Apr 2009:
New Coal and Nuclear Plants
May Not Be Needed, U.S. Energy Official Says
Renewable energy technologies have come far enough that the U.S. may not need to build any new coal or nuclear plants, the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said. “We may not need any, ever,” Jon Wellinghoff said at a forum of the U.S. Energy Association. The development of smart grid technologies that better store capacity from wind, solar and biomass sources, he said, will eventually meet the nation’s energy demands — and make coal-fired and nuclear plants unnecessary. His statement goes further than the publicly stated policy of the Obama administration, which supports expanded development of renewable sources but has maintained that power from nuclear and fossil fuel plants will remain a significant source of the nation’s power supply. Jay Apt, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s Electricity Industry Center, questioned Wellinghoff’s assessment, saying there will be a need for “firm power” from gas-fired, coal-burning and nuclear plants “when the wind doesn’t blow.” Wellinghoff insists the existing concept of baseload capacity will be an “anachronism” as the technology develops to store power capacity, such as a system for concentrated solar plants that currently allows 15 hours of storage.
Interview: Bill McKibben On
Climate Action’s Urgent Moment
Bill McKibben first warned about global warming and its implications for the planet in his 1989 book, 
Bill McKibbenClick here to read the full interview.
22 Apr 2009:
Climate Change Threatens
World's Great Rivers, Study Says
Some of the world’s major rivers are drying up, with climate change being a major contributing factor, according to a new study by the National Center for Atmospheric Research. The problem is particularly acute in densely populated regions where communities depend on the rivers for food and water supplies, including those near the Niger in West Africa and the Ganges in South Asia, according to the study, which will be published next month in the American Meteorological Society's Journal of Climate. “In the subtropics this is devastating, but the continent affected most is Africa,” said the center's Kevin Trenberth. While researchers said direct human influence such as dam construction and the diversion of rivers for agriculture was a factor, that influence "is likely small" compared to changes in climate. The scientists looked at data and computer models of the flow of 925 rivers from 1948 to 2004, and found that about one-third of the rivers have been affected by climate change; of those, twice as many saw a decrease in flow as those that saw flow increase. Many of the rivers with increased flow are near the Arctic Ocean, where ice and snow is melting more rapidly than before, according to the report.22 Apr 2009:
EPA Gives High Grades
to the Waxman-Markey Climate Bill
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released a positive review of the energy and climate bill now before the House Energy Committee. In a 43-page analysis, the EPA — which last week declared carbon emissions a threat to human health that must be regulated by the Clean Air Act — said the Waxman-Markey bill will “drive the clean energy transformations” of the U.S. economy and cut carbon emissions and energy consumption. According to the EPA analysis, low-carbon energy sources such as wind, solar and nuclear would comprise about 26 percent of the nation’s energy portfolio by 2030 if the plan is enacted; by 2050, that share could jump to about 46 percent. Without the plan, low-carbon sources will remain at about 14 percent, the EPA stated. Democratic lawmakers say the legislation would cut carbon emissions by 20 percent by 2020, establish a carbon cap-and-trade system, and boost U.S. renewable energy sources. The legislation is expected to face a tough fight in the Senate, where Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has called it a “giant government slush fund." The EPA analysis said the bill's cap-and-trade policy would have “a relatively modest impact on U.S. consumers.”21 Apr 2009:
Increase in Sea Ice in Antarctica
Linked to Hole in Ozone Layer, Report Finds
The increase in sea ice around Antarctica over the last 30 years, a trend that stands in marked contrast to the thawing of sea ice in the Arctic, is the result of the hole in the ozone layer, according to a new study. But that trend is only temporary, scientists with the British Antarctic Survey and NASA concluded. Damage caused by man-made chemicals to the ozone layer, which protects Earth from ultraviolet rays, has altered weather patterns near Antarctica, they noted, leading to increasing winds off the shore that have cooled the surrounding seas and promoted more ice. Sea ice around Antarctica has expanded at a rate of about 38,610 square miles each decade since the 1970s and now covers about 11.8 million square miles in the winter. In the Arctic, meanwhile, sea ice in 2007 dwindled to the smallest area since satellites began tracking in the 1970s. "Although the ozone hole is in many ways holding back the effects of greenhouse gas increases on the Antarctic, this will not last," said John Turner, the report's lead author, who noted the ozone layer is expected to recover by the end of the 21st century.21 Apr 2009:
U.S. Lawmakers Begin
Hearings On Major Climate Legislation
A key House committee was set to begin hearings on a climate bill that Democratic leaders hope will limit greenhouse gas emissions. Nearly 60 witnesses were expected to testify over four days before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on a bill introduced by Chairman Henry Waxman, (D-Calif.), and Energy and Environment Subcommittee Chairman Ed Markey, (D-Mass.), that would cut carbon emissions by 20 percent by 2020, establish a carbon cap-and-trade system, and boost U.S. renewable energy sources. Witnesses will include representatives from the business, energy and environmental communities, as well as key members of the Obama administration, including EPA chief Lisa Jackson, Energy Secretary Stephen Chu and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. The hearings will shape the legislation that Democrats hope will pass the House by the end of summer. Also this week, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is holding a hearing on international climate change negotiations, with State Department climate envoy Todd Stern set to testify.20 Apr 2009:
Developing Nations Will Need
$267 Billion A Year To Fight Climate Change
Nations in the developing world will need up to $267 billion annually to confront the effects of climate change, a coalition of African nations concluded in a report prepared for the U.N. climate treaty negotiations. That figure is more than double the amount of development aid currently provided. In 2008, the amount was $120 billion. A coalition called The African Group, consisting of more than 50 nations, called for an investment of $200 billion by 2020 so developing nations can reduce carbon emissions by improving energy efficiency and bolstering renewable energy sources. “Africa is one of the most vulnerable continents to climate change, with major development and poverty eradication challenges and limited capacity for adaption,” according to the text submitted by the group to the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat. Among other priorities, African nations will need an infusion of cash to build stronger defenses to rising sea levels and develop drought-resistant crops. 20 Apr 2009:
Chinese Leaders Consider
National Target on Carbon Emissions
A key figure on China's climate negotiating team says China is for the first time considering a national target for reduced carbon emissions, a potentially significant development as world leaders prepare to craft a successor to the Kyoto agreement later this year in Copenhagen. Su Wei told the Guardian that China may consider a national target that would limit emissions relative to economic growth in a five-year plan beginning in 2011. “It’s an option,” he said. “We can very easily translate our [existing] energy reduction targets to carbon dioxide limitation.” Chinese leaders have so far rejected a cap on carbon emissions, arguing that Western nations should fix climate change since they have made by far the greatest contribution to it. Environmentalists noted the debate over carbon emissions in China, which is now the world’s biggest CO2 emitter, was at least moving into new areas, a significant step. “Chinese leaders recognize China’s responsibility,” said Hu Angang, a leading Chinese economist and green advocate. “The question is whether or not they make a public commitment about how much they will do and by when.”17 Apr 2009:
EPA Issues Ruling
That Greenhouse Gases Must Be Regulated
Lisa P. Jackson, the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, has declared that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases pose a threat to public health and must be regulated under the Clean Air Act. The historic “endangerment finding” marks the first time that the U.S. government will seek to limit the emissions of the gases that cause global warming. Jackson said the evidence of the harm caused by the gases was “compelling and overwhelming” and called greenhouse gas pollution “a serious problem now and for future generations.” The announcement triggers a 60-day comment period before any proposed rules are published. The EPA’s action comes as Congress is set to debate legislation that would limit — and place a price on — carbon emissions, and the Obama administration has said it prefers to address the problem through legislation, not EPA action. Jackson’s ruling will almost certainly add momentum to Congress’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gases, as industry would prefer to have Congress control CO2 emissions rather than face more severe administrative action from the EPA. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that the EPA had the right to control greenhouse gases, but the Bush administration took no action.17 Apr 2009:
Climate Change Could Worsen
'Mega-droughts' in Sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa has experienced extended periods of drought — some lasting 300 years — in recent millennia and could be at risk for even more severe dry spells as temperatures rise in the coming centuries, according to a new study. Reporting in the journal Science, researchers said that a detailed analysis of lake sediments in Ghana showed that severe droughts have developed every 30 to 65 years and that several centuries-long droughts occurred in the past 3,000 years, most recently from 1400 to 1750. Several recent African droughts — including one in the Sahel that killed 100,000 people in the 1960s — have been far less severe than some of the droughts in the climate record, a conclusion researchers were able to draw after studying how sharply water levels dropped in Lake Bosumtwi in Ghana. The researchers say their findings highlight the potential for devastating droughts in densely-populated West Africa as the region warms. “Clearly much of West Africa is already on the edge of sustainability, and the situation could become much more dire in the future with increased global warming,” said study co-author Jonathan Overpeck.17 Apr 2009:
Obama Unveils Major Spending
For High-Speed Rail Network in the U.S.
President Obama has proposed spending $13 billion as a “first step” toward building a series of high-speed rail lines connecting major metropolitan areas in the United States. Among other places, the proposed lines — which would ultimately cost hundreds of billions to construct — would run from Washington to Boston; San Diego to San Francisco; Chicago to Minneapolis; Kansas City to Louisville, Ky.; Eugene, Ore. to Seattle, Wash.; Miami to Tampa, Fla.; and San Antonio, Texas to Tulsa, Okla. Obama said that $8 billion for the rail lines will come from his economic stimulus plan with another $5 billion to be allocated in the next several years. “High-speed rail is long overdue, and this plan lets American travelers know that they are not doomed to a future of long lines at the airports or jammed cars on the highways,” Obama said. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said his state hoped to receive a “significant portion” of the federal funds to help build a proposed $30 billion “bullet train” that would whisk travelers from Los Angeles to San Francisco in 2 hours.
16 Apr 2009:
EPA May Regulate
Ocean Acidification From CO2
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is considering using the Clean Water Act to regulate carbon dioxide emissions because of their role in sharply increasing the acidity of the oceans. The agency, acting in response to a petition from the Center for Biological Diversity, filed a notice in the Federal Register saying it was considering tightening pH standards of marine waters. Carbon dioxide emissions from the U.S. and around the world are causing the world’s oceans to absorb roughly 22 million pounds of CO2 a day, resulting in increased acidity that impairs the ability of corals and other marine creatures to maintain protective shells and build skeletons. The notice about regulating CO2 emissions under the Clean Water Act comes as the EPA is poised to announce that it will regulate CO2 emissions as a harmful pollutant under the Clean Air Act.16 Apr 2009:
Sea Level Rose Rapidly
121,000 Years Ago, Study Suggests
A four-year examination of fossil coral reefs in Mexico shows that global sea levels abruptly rose 6.5 to
Paul Blanchon
Fossil coral reefsat Mexican resort