Top StoriesWhen goods get traded, who pays for the CO2?Popularly, China is a villain in climate change. But while China may be leading the world in carbon emissions, that output is in large part due to the fact that it is using energy to make clothes, cars and toys for the rest of us, a new study finds. Time Magazine World’s pall of black carbon can be eased with new stoves.With a single, concerted initiative, the world could save millions of people in poor nations from respiratory ailments and early death, while dealing a big blow to global warming - and all at a surprisingly small cost. Yale Environment 360 Solar industry learns lessons in Spanish sun.Two years ago, this gritty mining city hosted a brief 21st-century gold rush. Long famous for coal, Puertollano discovered another energy source it had overlooked: the relentless, scorching sun. New York Times Making clean technology cheap as well as green is key to success.It’s called clean technology’s “competitive conundrum’’: how to get people to pay for cleaner energy when electricity produced from traditional sources like nuclear power, coal, or natural gas costs less. Boston Globe Tapping offshore wind.It’s been nine years since developers first proposed a wind farm off Cape Cod. You can now find offshore wind proposals in just about any state with a coastline. But these are still just proposals. Environment Report Counting outsourced emissions.One of the stickiest points in international climate change negotiations is how to account for CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions produced to make goods that are then sold for export. Should the producing country or the consuming country be held accountable for those emissions? New York Times The wrong kind of green.As we confront the biggest ecological crisis in human history, many of the green organizations meant to be leading the fight are busy shoveling up hard cash from the world's worst polluters--and burying science-based environmentalism in return. Here is the real Climategate, waiting to be exposed. Nation Cool it on efforts against new rules, EPA chief asks.The head of the EPA on Monday pushed back against lawmakers' attempts to halt the EPA's regulation of greenhouse gases from power plants, refiners and other industrial facilities. Houston Chronicle California greenhouse gas law could cost some jobs.The Legislature's nonpartisan analyst says CA's landmark greenhouse gas reduction law could cost jobs in the near term, while its long-term impact is uncertain. Sacramento Bee Europe supergrid hopefuls form club to push project.Ten companies are pushing to build a pan-European offshore power network that could help cut carbon emissions but would cost customers 20 billion euros over the next decade - in addition to the tens of billions of euros necessary for the turbines themselves. Reuters Gardeners urged to stop using peat-based compost.Yesterday the Environment Secretary Hilary Benn announced a new target to phase out the use of peat compost in amateur gardens by 2020. Its extraction in the UK not only disturbs rare wildlife but also releases an estimated million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year. London Independent For Senators on the fence on climate, everything's in play.The fate of comprehensive energy and climate legislation rests in the hands of about 30 senators, including coal and Rust Belt Democrats, Westerners and moderate Republicans. ClimateWire Green buzz fails to warm UK home buyers.The British building industry wants to ease green home standards as the public balk at the 20 percent or higher costs of low-carbon homes, exhibitors told a major London conference this week. Reuters UK offshore wind costs at least twice nuclear: Study.Generating Britain's electricity from offshore wind farms is likely to be at least twice as expensive as nuclear power, according to a new report by engineering consultants Parsons Brinckerhoff. Britain plans to build over 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power capacity by 2020. Reuters EU faces court challenge over biofuels reports.Four environmental groups have sued the European Union's executive for withholding documents they say will add to a growing dossier of evidence that biofuels harm the environment and push up food prices. Reuters Nuclear energy gets new French-driven boost.Poor countries need nuclear power, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Monday, urging rich lenders to help pay for a global nuclear expansion in the interests of fighting climate change and feeding the growing world hunger for energy. Associated Press Climate forest deal in sight: Indonesia.Wealthy and developing nations should be able to seal an agreement this year on deforestation, unlocking a key part of the next treaty on global warming, Indonesian negotiators said Monday. Agence France-Presse Int´l scientists to launch environmental studies on "Third Pole".International scientists are preparing to launch a joint study on the environment of the "Third Pole" region centered on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, a Chinese scientist said Monday. Xinhua News Agency James Hansen keen on next-generation nuclear power.Renewable energy won't save the planet so it's time to go nuclear, according to one of world's most high-profile climate scientists. Sydney Australian Wal-Mart settles environmental complaints over California stores.Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Monday it has reached settlements with environmental groups over greenhouse-gas emissions associated with its operations, allowing planned expansions at three of its California stores to proceed. Wall Street Journal Global warming doubts could hamper climate legislation.A recent poll suggests that high-profile controversies regarding climate science are weakening public confidence in the validity of global warming. And that could endanger congressional efforts to pass climate legislation. Christian Science Monitor Charged cars that would charge.The idea of a vehicle-to-grid system, or V2G, has been around for at least a decade, and mathematicians and economists are racing to figure out how V2G could be profitable and energy-efficient. Science News Environment Agency maps hydropower hotspots.Thousands of small-scale hydroelectric schemes could power 850,000 homes and produce 1.5% of the UK's electricity needs, according to an Environment Agency study published today. Press Association Shanghai Expo to be low carbon, high tech.The Shanghai World Expo will be powered by wind and solar-generated electricity and feature energy efficient advanced technologies, China's Minister of Science and Technology Wan Gang said on Monday. Xinhua News Agency Sydinvest green themes fund eyes U.S. and China.U.S. and Chinese economic stimulus measures are likely to focus on energy efficiency and renewable energy, according to fund manager Sydinvest, which took a stake in a U.S. alternative fuel components company last month. Reuters Will the anaconda or the oyster rule wave power?From giant hydraulic oysters that sit on the sea floor, to long rubber snakes that writhe in the ocean swell, there's no shortage of creatures designed to harness the power of the waves. If wave power is to emerge as a viable form of green energy, we need to put them to the test and only the most reliable can expect to survive. New Scientist 'Gribble' marine pest may be key to biofuel breakthrough, say scientists.Gribble, which resemble pink woodlice, plagued seafarers for centuries by boring through the planks of ships and destroying wooden piers. But now a team of British researchers has learnt that gribble have a gift for digesting wood not seen in any other animal. London Times Lending scheme to bring solar to Cambodia's poor.With access to solar-powered energy products for Cambodia’s rural poor extremely limited, the solar energy company Kamworks and the Cambodia Mutual Savings and Credit Network are partnering to provide low-interest loans and installation of solar panels. New York Times Aging reactors put nuclear power plant 'safety cultures' in the spotlight.Across the U.S. nuclear energy sector, plant owners are seeking -- and gaining -- NRC approval to run first-generation plants for 20 years beyond the original license period. ClimateWire Markey requests GAO investigation into nuclear plant safety.The chairman of the Energy and Environment Subcommittee announced his request that the GAO commence a thorough review of nuclear reactor safety regulations and oversight, as well as the NRC’s process of granting licenses for nuclear power plants. Belmont Citizen-Herald China supports nuclear power development in orderly way.Nuclear power should be developed with due regulations and in an orderly way thanks to its strict requirement for human resources, technology, security and quality, a Chinese official said Monday here at the international conference on civilian use of nuclear energy. Xinhua News Agency Sarkozy makes nuclear energy plea.President Nicolas Sarkozy of France on Monday called for an international effort to finance civil atomic energy in developing countries, with an appeal to the World Bank to reverse a 50-year abstention from funding the construction of nuclear reactors. London Financial Times Conversation about growth in global energy demand begins with China.China is already the world's largest producer of heavily polluting coal, and the biggest emitter of carbon dioxide. But the Asian giant also "could well become the world's largest market for clean energy," said global energy expert Rob Barnett. Fort Worth Star-Telegram Coal-burning power firm turns to trees.Delta Electricity, operator of the Wallerawang power station west of Sydney, has begun planting more than 200,000 Mallee eucalypt trees in a scheme to create carbon-neutral fuel and cut its use of coal by 20 per cent. Australian Associated Press US still responsible for most CO2 emissions.Europeans import nearly twice as much carbon dioxide per head as US citizens – but the US still holds the dubious distinction of being the world's largest emitter. New Scientist UK import emissions are the highest in Europe, figures show.Britain's demand for imported goods is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions abroad than any other European country, according to a new study published today. London Guardian For developing nations, exports boost CO2 emissions.A new study finds that worldwide, about a quarter of carbon dioxide emissions are the result of imported and exported goods and services. All Things Considered Consumption habits cause rich countries to outsource emissions.Over a third of the carbon emissions related to the consumption of goods in wealthy nations actually occur in developing countries, according to a new analysis by researchers with the Carnegie Institution. Mongabay S.Africa, India, Indonesia seek top UN climate job.South Africa, India and Indonesia are vying to win the United Nation's top climate change job, a key post to build trust between poor and rich in 2010 after the U.N.'s Copenhagen summit which set few binding targets. The choice is up to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Reuters IMF suggests how to raise climate change funds.The head of the International Monetary Fund on Monday proposed a plan for the world's governments to pool together to raise money needed to adapt to climate change, a rare step for an organization that normally does not develop environmental policies. Associated Press EPA piecing together regulatory framework for greenhouse gas rules.U.S. EPA has submitted the first piece of its suite of greenhouse gas rules to the White House for review – a signal that the agency is on schedule to finalize its first regulations to curb the heat-trapping emissions. Greenwire E-mail leaks that clouded climate issue.Sceptics have had much to celebrate in recent weeks, with “climategate” allowing them to challenge scientific findings as well as growing evidence they are swaying public opinion. London Financial Times EU climate chief delivers treaty blow.The world will almost certainly fail to draw up a new treaty on climate change this year, the minister in charge of last year’s Copenhagen summit has admitted, delivering a heavy blow to the barely flickering hopes for a swift global settlement. London Financial Times Germany's Merkel urges China, India to commit to climate target.German Chancellor Angela Merkel Monday called on China and India to commit themselves to binding climate targets. However, she expressed doubts a global climate agreement could be found this year. Dow Jones Newswires Asia seen as growth driver for voluntary CO2 market.Fear of Western-imposed carbon tariffs on goods and services from Asia is likely to drive growth in offsetting emissions by large firms in the region, a voluntary carbon market executive said. Reuters |
From the Daily Climate NewsroomEnterprise and investigative reporting by DailyClimate.orgCyber bullying rises as climate data are questioned.
Bullying UK
The e-mails come thick and fast every time NASA scientist Gavin Schmidt appears in the press. Rude and crass e-mails. E-mails calling him a fraud, a cheat, a scumbag and much worse.
To Schmidt and other researchers purging their inboxes daily of such correspondence, the barrage is simply part of the job of being a climate scientist. But others see the messages as threats and intimidation – cyber-bullying meant to shut down debate and cow scientists into limiting their participation in the public discourse.
Ethanol's contrasting carbon footprints.
PXLated/flickr
The federal government last week concluded corn-based biofuels help reduce emissions; California regulators say they don't. Who's right? Oddly enough, both may be.
Regulators and policy experts insist there's no conflict: Both rules match the science; it's simply a matter of what year you start counting emissions.
US loses opportunity with home energy efficiency.
Great Lakes Home Performance
Despite EPA gains with its Energy Star program, some 99 percent of American houses remain "sick" – damp, drafty, expensive to heat and cool – and could be made at least 30 percent more energy-efficient with "highly cost-effective, tried-and-true" improvements, according to experts.
Those experts add that economics and regulations are the root of the problem: Mortgages are structured in ways that fail to recognize efficiency's benefits, while a patchwork of inconsistent and ill-enforced energy codes provides conflicting signals to industry.
Stern: Copenhagen Accord 'best way to make progress.'
Demark Foreign Ministry
Lead U.S. climate negotiator Todd Stern said Thursday the Copenhagen Accord represents the best way forward for a binding global climate deal but that success likely rests with a smaller group of countries working outside the unwieldy, multi-national United Nations process.
In his first public remarks since the conclusion of the United Nations climate talks in December, Stern said the Copenhagen Accord – despite its shortcomings – included "significant breakthroughs in a number of respects."
Disappearing options.
Denmark Foreign Ministry
Climate policy has a tipping point. Failure to set and meet strict emissions targets over the next 40 years puts long-term goals – such as limiting planetary warming to 2ºC by 2100 – permanently out of reach, according to a study published Monday.
The study establishes the notion of "feasibility frontiers," the point at which end-of-century goals become unobtainable or increasingly unlikely unless specific mid-century benchmarks are met.
Top environmental health stories of 2009.In 2009, the team at Environmental Health News hand-selected and posted 71,143 stories that were published in the worldwide media. Here's a list of those we consider the year's most important. 2009 offered a trove of climate stories.
D.Fischer/Daily Climate
Journalists worldwide produced more than 32,000 stories on climate change last year, but the coverage failed to garner a spot on a map showing major news events of 2009.
Those articles were written by some 11,000 different reporters, columnists and editorial boards, based on an analysis of DailyClimate.org's archives. Reuters led the pack, publishing at least 2,550 different articles on the topic last year – the equivalent of seven stories a day. The Associated Press had 1,600.
One planet, different worlds.
Denmark Foreign Ministry
All eyes in Copenhagen were on China and President Barack Obama Friday night, but nothing captured the discord, distrust and distance separating all sides at these climate talks better than a pair of press conferences held simultaneously at the Bella Center earlier in the afternoon.
In the main room, refusing to cede the stage to other dignitaries, Venezuela' Hugo Chavez and Bolivia's Juan Evo Morales railed against the developed world's inability to accept responsibility for previous emissions obligations and the role it has played in warming the atmosphere.
Cities pushing nations toward deeper cuts.
Steve Oldham/flickr
Mayors of some of the world's largest cities flexed their muscle at the United Nations climate talks Wednesday, warning that "billions of people" are prepared to cut emissions far beyond whatever agreement world leaders may ink this week. "We at the local level have too much to lose," said Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels. more Samsø cuts the cord.
(c) Frosina Pandurska Drmikanin
Steve Chu and a host of foreign energy ministers announced Monday a $350 million initiative to boost renewable technologies worldwide. But out here on windswept Samsø, a remote rural island in Denmark, residents have already transited to the carbon-free world these ministers envision. They did so without the new technology or fancy investments envisioned by the ministers. Their secret? The residents themselves. And their desire to make a buck. more Copenhagen talks start minus a key player.
Pew Environment Group
No one at the Copenhagen climate talks is filling the role of the late Phil Clapp, director of the former National Environmental Trust and considered by some to be the most influential campaigner the United States offered.
Clapp – Harvard-educated chain-smoker, fluent in French, an expert on British royalty and an accomplished pianist – died of pneumonia in September 2008 while vacationing in Amsterdam. He was 54.
For clean energy, Britain looks out to sea.
(c) Jennifer Weeks
England has placed a big bet on offshore wind power to cut emissions radically by 2050 and is driving hard to get projects built. The government has shown a willingness to intervene heavily in energy markets and overrule local concerns.
"Offshore wind is going to be the greatest special use of the seas around the U.K. in a short period of time, which can be scary," said Victoria Copley, a senior energy specialist with the advocacy group Natural England. "But a lot of research has been done, and we're in a much better place than we were three years ago."
Special Report: 'New' economy rolls forward.
Douglas Fischer/Daily Climate
The low-carbon economy has arrived on the prairie north of Denver. Vestas is building the West's largest turbine factory, a $700 million investment in what Gov. Ritter calls a "new energy economy." Some say these efforts – not the Copenhagen talks – provide the most promising solutions to climate change.
Vestas isn't the only company spending millions of its capital. Several utilities are investing some $1 billion on an industrial-scale carbon capture and storage tests at coal plants in Wisconsin, West Virginia and Oklahoma. The race to perfect the batteries that will power the next generation of automobiles and buses has manufacturers in Europe, the United States and China scurrying to build plants and research centers.
Special Report: The escape route.
jasmic/flickr
Failure to confront hard decisions about emissions puts humanity in a box. But we have a way out. Call in the geoengineers.
The idea of tinkering with planetary controls is not for the faint of heart. Even advocates acknowledge that any attempt to set the Earth's thermostat is full of hubris and laden with risk.
Special Report: Busting emissions in the 'Boulder bubble.'
350.org/flickr
Amid increasing gloom that the Copenhagen talks will produce a global climate accord, state and local leaders pushing their own reductions efforts in the United States see only one choice: Proceed.
The number of cities and regional governments undertaking this transition to a low-carbon economy is growing. These efforts, leaders vow, will continue whatever the outcome of political debates in Copenhagen, Brussels or Washington, D.C.
Special Report: An 'all-in' bet for the planet.
Lucas Janin/flickr
This is the consequence of failure at Copenhagen: A marked shift in scientific effort from solving global warming to adapting to its consequences, a hodge-podge of uncoordinated local efforts to trim emissions – none of which deliver the necessary cuts – and an altered climate.
Climate experts, scientists and negotiators say that, absent international agreement, the children and grandchildren of those living today will negotiate a world where planetary geo-engineering is a part of daily life, sea-walls defend coastal cities, the world's poor are hammered by drought, floods and famine and our planet is heading toward conditions unseen for the last 100 million years.
Rapid change threatens foundations of human health - report.
Medecins Sans Frontieres
Rapid changes already underway to the Earth's climate, ecosystems and land cover threaten the health of billions, undermining key human life-support systems and threatening the core foundations of healthy communities worldwide, according to a new report released Wednesday. The disruption represents the greatest public health challenge of the 21st century and leaves poor populations mostly in developing nations most vulnerable – even though they contribute the least to many of the problems. more A day built around a data point goes viral.
350.org
Organizers of 350 Day aim to stabilize the climate and prevent disaster. Turns out many more are paying attention than they expected. Organizers credit the increasing inter-connectedness of Web, cellular and social networks for the spread, saying such random and organic growth would have been impossible even two years ago. more Forest's death brings higher temps, researchers suspect.
(c) Carlye Calvin/NCAR
Forests of dead beetle-kill pine could be speeding regional climate change, increasing temperatures and decreasing rainfalls across the American West. "The local impacts where the forest has been destroyed will be fairly dramatic," said Peter Harley, an associate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. "The big question is how much of an impact will this have?" more A man, a plane, a very big picture.
(c) Ecoflight
From his Cessna, Bruce Gordon provides politicians, reporters and others with an eye-opening view of an American West increasingly fractured by energy and resource development. That awareness of scale, over both time and vast distances, is what gives Gordon - and his many passengers – the ability to piece together a startling and disturbing picture. Whether it's clear-cut forests in the Pacific Northwest, coal bed methane development in Wyoming, pine beetle blight across the Western Slope of Colorado, giant open pit gold mines in Nevada, scars from a decades-long natural gas boom in New Mexico or melting Montana glaciers, his vantage point connects the disparate dots that reveal a tattered Western tapestry. With video. more Green shoots rise from brownfields.
Courtesy First Wind
Uncle Sam looks to eliminate the biggest hurdle to expanding renewable energy – the need for suitable sites to place commercial-scale wind and solar farms – by reusing hundreds of old mines, landfills and industrial sites. Using already disturbed lands would help avoid conflicts between renewable energy developers and environmental groups concerned about impacts to wildlife habitat. These conflicts have stalled some high-profile projects despite the fact that renewable energy sources do not produce heat-trapping emissions of carbon dioxides, the primary greenhouse gas driving global warming. more Op-ed: The fate of our civilization.
Mary Harrsch/flickr
Forget about protecting the Earth. It's the underpinnings of our civilization that climate change most endangers. If I had one thing to impart to our leaders and opinionmakers, it would be this: Start worrying instead about the fate of human civilization. The Earth will survive the assault of the modern era. The urgent question is whether the Earth will remain a place that can support a complex, interconnected global civilization like our own. more Altered climate shifts Andes culture.
(c) Walter Hupiú
For ages Qoyllur Rit'i pilgrims have hauled themselves ever upward to celebrate the glaciers' life-giving waters. As that world rapidly melts, the Andes' Quechua-speaking farmers face a profound change in their relationship with their environment.
While governments seek technical solutions to climate-related problems, farmers in the Andes are struggling to understand events that are altering their livelihood. Drip irrigation and water reservoirs are only a partial response.
Op-Ed: One giant leap ... on Earth.
NASA
Our continued focus on economic growth makes clear that we remain seriously mistaken about the geography of the future. This radical experiment with the Earth's metabolism is our predicament, the unifying force of our planetary era. The greatest challenges of the 21st century will not be those of the space age, but rather urgent earthly ones in a new planetary era that arrived in the second half of the 20th century. If any single event marked this profound watershed in the human journey, it was the sudden appearance of a yawning hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica first reported in May 1985. With the explosive, exponential expansion of modern industrial civilization following World War II, human activity reached a scale great enough to disrupt essential, but invisible planetary systems, in this case, the ozone layer which shields the Earth from deadly ultraviolet radiation. The human enterprise had become agent of risky global change. more Seeking change in human behavior.
joiseyshowa/flickr
Frustrated by society's inability to tackle pressing environmental dilemmas, Stanford ecologist Paul Ehrlich has launched a new endeavor aimed at changing human behavior.
Called the Millennium Assessment of Human Behavior, or MAHB (pronounced "mob"), the venture seeks to change human activities to better confront issues threatening humanity's future – among them climate change, declining food security, loss of biological diversity, water shortages, pollution, land use changes.
Rising acidity erodes Alaska's fisheries.
Corey Arnold/flickr
New research suggests Alaska's marine waters are particularly susceptible to acidification, with potentially dire consequences to the state's rich crab and salmon fisheries.
"Everything is acting in unison on the environment – it's not just the ice loss or the warming or the acidification," said UAF chemical oceanographer Jeremy Mathis. "The Arctic is taking a multilateral hit."
Op-Ed: The return of the population bomb.No driver of environmental deterioration is more obvious than population growth, and none has been more taboo to talk about. A collapse of civilization now seems ever more likely than it did back in 1968, when the Population Bomb was written. The role of population growth and related issues (especially patterns of rising consumption) as drivers of some of our most serious problems has been largely ignored. That makes a collapse of civilization now seem ever more likely than it did back in 1968, when the Population Bomb was written. more Climate change solution: one billion emitters.
Adreina Lairet Morreo/flickr
A new framework for reducing carbon emissions takes a crack at the knottiest dilemma confronting a global climate solution: how to divvy cuts between rich and poor nations. The study, published Monday, attempts to sidestep the rancor, finding that virtually every country has a class of individuals – the so-called "high emitters" - enjoying a rich, carbon-intensive lifestyle. If those individuals, no matter their locale, are forced to take responsibility for their emissions, a great swath of countries become participants in the climate effort, the study claims. more Calling for action, White House underscores climate impact.
chascar/flickr
A report showing that climate disruption is already leaving deep imprints on every sector of the environment and that the consequences of these changes will grow steadily worse in coming decades was released Tuesday by the Obama Administration. The 196-page report crisscrosses the United States and finds that global warming has touched every corner: Heavier downpours, strengthened heat waves, altered river flows and extended growing seasons. more Climate change hitting poor in U.S. hardest.
GreenAction
Climate change is disproportionately affecting the poor and minorities in the United States – a "climate gap" that will grow in coming decades unless policymakers intervene. Everyone, the researchers say, is already starting to feel the effects of a warming planet, via heat waves, increased air pollution, drought, or more intense storms. But the impacts – on health, economics, and overall quality of life – are far more acute on society's disadvantaged, the researchers found. more Drought, conflict and tension in Andes.
Icelight/flickr
Rapid disappearance of Andean glaciers is already producing conflicts in the region and is likely to force major human migrations in the relatively near future. With cities growing and agriculture expanding throughout South America, experts predict that climate change will exacerbate water scarcity, increasing conflicts between competing users, pitting city dwellers against rural residents, people in dry lands against those in areas with abundant rainfall, Andean mining companies against neighboring farm communities, and eucalyptus plantation operators on the Argentinian and Uruguayan plains against farmers who say the trees are sucking the water table dry. more The Andes' triple bottom line.
(c) Walter Hupiú
Climate change is hitting South America with a triple whammy: More water stress, more migration, more disease.
Rising temperatures can change the way diseases behave, while collateral effects — from the retreat of glaciers that provide vital drinking and irrigation water to more frequent, intense storms and flooding — increase the burden on developing economies.
Andes at risk: Slideshow.
Walter Hupiú
Climate change is further straining Peru's already stressed public health system. Two minute slideshow. Cherry growers, deciphering models, find uncertainty.
Andrew McFarlane/absolutemichigan.com
A novel interdisciplinary effort strives - and struggles - to give Michigan's $44 million tart cherry industry a roadmap for a warmer future. Their work provides insight on the promises and pitfalls of what researchers and policy makers agree is an urgent task of climate science: translating the global problem to backyard consequences. more First fruits of cap-and-trade.
(c) Doug Struck
Some of the first workers on energy efficiency programs are now hitting the streets with salaries paid by proceeds of the cap-and-trade program started by 10 Northeast States. The initiative may or may not be a good model for the Obama Administration, but it already has raised millions for efficiency programs. And there is little dispute the program is achieving one main goal, to finance an aggressive expansion of energy efficiency programs. The first reductions of carbon dioxide allowances raised $262 million for the programs, just the beginning of a steady stream of funds being funneled to the 10 participating states. more California takes on King Corn.
fafou, flickr
California regulators, trying to assess the true environmental cost of corn ethanol, are poised to declare that the biofuel cannot help the state reduce global warming.
As they see it, corn is no better – and might be worse – than petroleum when total greenhouse gas emissions are considered.
Valley fever blowin' on a hotter wind.
Christopher Taggart, flickr
Harsher weather conditions – hotter temperatures and more intense dust storms fueled by global warming – are spreading the transmission of valley fever, a fungal disease endemic to the southwestern United States. Forecasts of rising temperatures and moisture levels and alternating hot-dry and wet periods create a hospitable environment for the disease, and researchers believe climate change may impact it more than other infectious ailments. more Steep cuts avert the worst problems - study.
NCAR
Drastic, economy-changing cuts to greenhouse gas emissions will spare the planet only half the trauma expected over the next century as the Earth warms. And that’s the good news. Because a failure to significantly curb these planet-warming gases will truly transform our world in less than 100 years. more All tapped out.
(c) David Biello
All farming depends on the weather, but few foods are more dependent on a specific climate than maple syrup. And change underway in New England suggests the region's sugar country faces a bitter future.
After all, for the sugar maple's sap to run at all requires cooperative weather — freezing nights followed by warmer days.
Clean fuels are a social panacea - EPA.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Shifting the United States to clean-burning renewable fuels has the potential to solve long-standing social ills across the entire spectrum of American life, from manufacturing to national security to clean water, the country’s top environmental cop said on Wednesday.
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said weaning the country from fossil fuels remains a top priority of the Obama administration because it offers such a broad suite of solutions across all aspects of American life: rewarding innovation, discouraging pollution, investing in jobs and encouraging energy independence.
Climate change comes to your backyard.
Darien Library/flickr
A standard gardening reference – the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Plant Hardiness Zone Map – is about to make very clear how much rising temperatures have shifted planting zones northward. By injecting climate change into one of America’s favorite pastimes, the revised USDA map could become an important public education tool, experts say. “Hopefully the new map will clear up a lot of confusion about what’s happening to the climate,” said Charlie Nardozzi, a National Gardening Association horticulturist. more Changing climate ups West Nile threat in U.S.
ikkoskinen/flickr
The higher temperatures, humidity and rainfall associated with climate change have led to increased outbreaks of West Nile Virus infections across the United States in recent years, according to a study published this week.
One of the largest surveys of West Nile Virus cases to date links warming weather patterns and increasing rainfall – both projected to accelerate with global warming – to outbreaks of the mosquito-borne disease across 17 states from 2001 to 2005.
Climate science: A call to think big - and think policy.
Peter Rejcek/NSF
Researchers question whether our scientific institutions can solve the climate dilemma, arguing that daunting pressures require a new degree of political cooperation - from the county commission up to the United Nations. Without a fundamental shift in emphasis, they caution, the scientific infrastructure so painstakingly erected to identify the problem will find itself impotent to ensure that global warming will be mitigated and civilization will adapt. more Saving the oceans: 'Mission Possible.'
Claire Fackler, NOAA
Marine scientist Joanie Kleypas was one of the first to link ocean acidification to coral death. Now she's working to bolster reef health to help them weather the climate crisis. Losing a third of the coral species on a reef “is like losing a third of the colors from a Van Gogh painting,” she said. “The loss of biodiversity is like having a football team with only tight ends.” more Climate science: Where next?
(c) Charles Meertens, NCAR
With the human role in climate change largely settled, researchers see a need to shift science's focus from discovery to mitigation, solutions and policy.
The climate community, in other words, must emerge from field and lab to point the way out of this mess.
Malaria rates, drug resistance tied to climate.
Pierre Holtz, UNICEF
Warmer temperatures are at least partly to blame for a surge in malaria cases in the highlands of East Africa and the increasing development of drug-resistant strains of the disease, according to a University of Michigan researcher.
The malaria parasite is highly sensitive to changes in temperature, and even subtle warming can dramatically increase populations of the mosquitoes that transmit the disease, said ecologist Mercedes Pascual.
Climate change erodes marine preserves.
Nick Lucey
Climate change has undermined fundamental assumptions about oceanic conservation, challenging the notion that today’s sanctuaries will protect tomorrow’s fish.
Conservationists have long assumed fish harvested at a sustainable rate will forever be available for future generations.
First glimpse of global greenhouse gases comes into view.
NCAR
Scientists have taken the first crack at a climate mystery, criss-crossing the globe in a souped-up jet to map where and when greenhouse gases enter and leave the atmosphere. An understanding of how these climate-warming gases move about the globe is a critical prerequisite for any policy aimed at curbing global warming, scientists said Thursday. Information gained over the next three years will play a crucial role in sharpening future predictions and improving their accuracy. more Rx for Arctic warming.
(c)Elizabeth Grossman
The quickest way to curb Arctic melting now underway may be to turn off the tap of short-lived pollutants swirling north from cities and industry far to the south, say scientists. Preliminary data suggest that these pollutants can increase Arctic surface temperatures as much as three degrees. more Climate change is killing forests, scientists say.
Eric Magnuson/flickr
The death rate of the most stable and resilient forests in western North America has doubled during the past few decades.
These new data from a team of 11 scientists provide more evidence that climate change is having a broad and significant impact, independent of other human activities such as logging and development. A tale of two pollutants.
Brian Parmeter
Excess nitrogen mitigates carbon dioxide's effects – but with considerable risk, scientists say. Coal is the great danger as 'peak oil' approaches, scientist warns.The most important question about peak oil - and the largest source of uncertainty in climate models - is whether the end of oil will usher in a century of coal. Science must evolve to tackle the challenges of warming, researchers say.As the science of climate change matures, scientists must change their focus to advise local and regional leaders on how best to adapt to a warmer future, senior climate researchers said Monday. Cleaning the air helps cool planet.
John B. Mueller/flickr
Local and state regulators have new ammunition in the fight to justify expensive air pollution rules: Cutting smog and soot has an immediate impact on climate change. Solar thermal comes out of the shadows.There is energy to be harvested in deserts of Southern California, Arizona, Spain and Africa: Sunlight focused so intensely it can melt salt, vaporize water and run air conditioners from Phoenix to Seville long after the sun has set. This is concentrated solar power, and it represents the best hope for utility-scale power from renewable energy and the surest way to get energy-sucking Sun Belt cities off carbon. more |
