Australian officials plan to build a 140-turbine wind farm in Victoria, the nation’s most densely populated state, by 2013, a billion-dollar project that would be the largest in the Southern hemisphere. The wind farm will provide enough electricity for 220,000 homes and is key to the nation’s new target of meeting 20 percent of its energy needs with renewable
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carbon emissions
This just in: Polluting Texas oil men don’t like California’s greenhouse gas law.
You heard it here first folks. Ok, maybe you’ve already heard it in the pre-election hubbub. And either way, it’s certainly no surprise. But here’s the skinny, just in case: The out-of-state oil biggies Valero and Tesoro have poured $4.5 million into
Having major corporations advising government isn’t anything new… but in the UK they have begun a refreshing approach. Instead of having major oil companies and other big polluters working hard to water down any legislation aimed at controlling the damage caused by their operations, the UK is taking a different tack and having some of their most prominent corporations become
Nine vehicles remain in competition for the $10 million Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize, which is seeking to spur development of commercially viable cars that average 100 miles-per-gallon. The competition, the brainchild of Peter Diamandis’ X Prize Foundation, began 15 months ago with 136 entries and will end on Sept. 16 in Washington D.C. with the
Ample blame exists for the demise of climate legislation in the U.S. Senate, from President Obama’s lack of political courage, to the environmental community’s overly ambitious strategy, to Republican intransigence. A way forward exists, however, to build on the rubble of the Senate’s failure to cap carbon emissions.
(Reuters) – President Barack Obama pledged on Tuesday to keep pushing for legislation to fight climate change despite a move in the U.S. Senate to focus energy reform more narrowly on offshore drilling.
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid is expected to unveil a bill later on Tuesday that does not include setting caps on carbon emissions — the key element of a more comprehensive energy and climate bill that
(Reuters) – U.S. Senate Democrats said on Thursday they will wait until September at the earliest to take up broad climate-change legislation, a potentially fatal blow to the White House push to curb greenhouse gases.
The delay means Democrats have little time to advance the complex
Reid is meeting with his Democratic caucus on Thursday to talk about what may be included in the bill. A bill is seen as key priority for the Obama Administration but a number of lawmakers say time is running out in the legislative calendar and votes are not there for a broad package.
The following are highlights of legislation
Flying dwarfs any other individual activity in terms of carbon emissions, yet more and more people are traveling by air. With no quick technological fix on the horizon, what alternatives — from high-speed trains to advanced video conferencing — can cut back the amount we fly?
In most departments I have excellent green credibility, and my carbon footprint is small. I have not owned a car in more than 20 years and commute to work by subway. I walk to the market and generally no longer buy produce flown in from far away. I recycle. I have an air-conditioner, but use it only on the hottest of days. I have gone paperless with all my bills.
But my good acts of responsible environmental stewardship are undercut by one persistent habit that will be hard to break, if it is possible at all: I am a frequent flyer, Platinum Card. Last year, I traveled nearly 100,000 miles of mostly long-haul travel. And that figure puts me in the minor leagues compared to legions of business consultants, international lawyers, UN functionaries — and even climate scientists — who certainly travel much more.
While many environmentalists were disappointed after the Copenhagen Accord , one positive development was a renewed focus on forestry. Over the past several months there has been a growing commitment from countries including the United States, Norway, Britain, and Japan, to make significant financial contributions to forests, carbon offsets, and climate change.
Eighty percent of people polled held positive opinions about forestry offset projects, up from 58 percent in 2009, according to the second Forest Carbon Offsetting Report. It focuses on corporations’ attitudes regarding forest offsets from forestry projects.
EcoSecurities, Conservation International, the Climate, Community & Biodiversity Alliance, the Norton Rose Group and ClimateBiz produced the report, which gathered in-depth responses from more than 200 organizations around the world.
Among the report’s findings:
Australian researchers have ranked the world’s nations based on their environmental impact using seven key indicators, including forest loss, habitat conversion, greenhouse gas emissions, and species loss.
The top 10 countries in terms of environmental impact are Brazil, the United States, China, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, India, Russia, Australia, and Peru.
After correlating the ranking with socio-economic variables, the researchers found that total wealth was the most important factor driving environmental impact.
Carbon dioxide emissions dropped significantly in the United States in 2009. The economy played an obvious role; not so obvious was the influence of power generation and its increasing efficiency.
Emissions of CO2 have been trending down for the last decade by about 0.9 percent. But the 2009 drop was far more dramatic — seven percent — the largest decline since the Energy Information Administration began keeping energy data more than 60 years ago.
This tells us a lot about just how bad economic conditions were (As if we needed to be told!).
“Wetlands are wastelands” was the explanation the chair of a local trust in my city gave for opposing a grant to a wetlands restoration project. He’s a rabid climate change denier and hence unlikely to read Melanie Lenart’s book Life in the Hothouse: How a Living Planet Survives Climate Change.
If he did he would discover how wrong he was. Not that he needed wait for her book: it has been evident for many years that wetlands are vital to ecological health. So are forests, which play an equal part in Lenart’s explanation of how Gaia, or, if you don’t like metaphor, the complex interacting system of the biosphere, responds to maintain a temperature within a range suitable for life.
A scientist with a background in journalism, Lenart is well placed to provide a coherent account for the general reader of the work of a host of researchers who have explored some of the intricacies of response to warming in Earth’s ecosystems.
Two separate high-level diplomatic events last week gave more credence to the notion that in the months leading up to the next round of U.N. climate talks in Mexico in December, developing countries are working on building some strategic alliances — strategic alliances structured around the principle that it will be harder to develop without the help of fossil fuels like coal and oil, than it was to develop with them.
If there is ever going to be an international climate treaty that puts limits on the emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, developing nations are going to make sure they don’t get the short end of the stick.
Making sure they don’t end up with that deal, the environment ministers of Brazil, South Africa, India and China (BASIC) met in Cape Town over to discuss their approach at upcoming global climate change negotiations. In a joint statement issued by the environment ministers, the BASIC countries said that a legally binding follow-up treaty to the Kyoto protocol should be agreed no later than the U.N. climate summit late 2011 in Cape Town.
The BASIC countries are responsible for about 30 percent of global carbon emissions, but represent a much larger proportion of the world’s population. In some respects, they command more bargaining power than the industrialized countries of the global North.