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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 lithium-ion batteries can hold, making them impractical for passenger vehicles. But proponents say the fact that buses have to stop frequently — and at predictable locations — make them a more logical use of the technology. Virginia-based Sinautec Automobile Technologies and Shanghai Aowei Technology Development Company, a partnership that has run 17 similar runs outside Shanghai for the last three years, will test the technology this week at American University in Washington, D.C. Unlike traditional trolleys that stay connected to electric lines throughout their route, there is a collector on top of the Sinautec vehicle that would connect to a re-charging line at bus stops every two or three miles. Within three minutes, banks of ultracapacitors located beneath the seats of the bus would re-charge. Sinautec officials say that each bus requires one-tenth the energy cost of a typical diesel-fueled bus, which would save about $200,000 during the life of the vehicle.
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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 of what would be needed to get India to make binding commitments of its own at upcoming international climate talks in Copenhagen. But Ramesh, who has criticized the developed nations for failing to take the lead on battling climate change, said India was prepared to move forward with its own national programs, including imposing vehicle emissions standards, assuring energy efficiency in buildings, increasing renewable and nuclear energy, and expanding forest cover. Speaking at a U.S.-India energy conference in Washington, D.C., sponsored by Yale University and The Energy and Resources Institute, Ramesh expressed optimism that the Copenhagen talks would make progress on such issues as energy-technology transfer among nations, forest conservation, and adaptation to climate change. He said India was “not going to be a stumbling block in Copenhagen,” but that a follow-up conference might be needed next year.
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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 below normal. Especially hard-hit have been the region’s major rice- and cereal-growing regions in the northern and western states of Punjab, Haryana, and Rajasthan, where rains this year were 36 percent below normal. That region is also rapidly depleting its underground water supplies, as farmers with inexpensive diesel pumps extract irrigation water at an unsustainable rate, a trend that scientists warn could threaten Indian agriculture in the coming decades. The Indian government says the country has 52 million tons of wheat and rice in reserve, enough to last a year. But the drought and feeble monsoon rains have caused economic hardship for many of the 600 million Indians who still depend on agriculture for their livelihood.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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11 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.
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