Opeds and Editorials
‘US has done least to address global warming’
07/03/2008
The US has done the least among the world’s eight biggest economies to address global warming, a study released on Thursday found.
The G8 Climate Scorecards 2008, released ahead of next week’s gathering of the Group of Eight on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, also found that none of the eight countries are making improvements large enough to prevent temperature increases that scientists think would cause catastrophic climate changes.--The Times of India, 7/3/08
Citing global warming, Georgia judge blocks coal plant
07/03/2008
In what is thought to be an unprecedented ruling, a Superior Court judge in Fulton County, Ga., halted the construction of a coal-fired power plant, saying that the plant must limit its emissions of carbon dioxide.
Citing an April 2007 US Supreme Court ruling that recognizes carbon dioxide - the primary gas responsible for global warming - as a pollutant under the federal Clean Air Act, Judge Thelma Wyatt Cummings Moore overturned a lower court’s decision to issue an air-pollution permit to Dynegy’s Longleaf power plant near Columbus, Ga. Her decision is believed to be the first one that links global warming to an air-pollution permit.--The Christian Science Monitor, 7/2/08
Huntsman calls for climate change plan to rival Kennedy moon challenge
07/02/2008
Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. is challenging the Western Governors Association to put together a comprehensive energy and climate change blueprint that the group can present to the next U.S. president, in hopes of driving the nation’s energy future.
Comparing it to President Kennedy’s challenge in 1961 to send a man to the moon, Huntsman said the country needs a goal, and as many specifics as possible how to reach it. Western governors, he said, are uniquely situated to provide the vision.
"We have geography and numbers on our side. We are the most energy relevant region in the world when you take a slice of Western Canada right through the Western United States and who isn’t going to listen to this part of the world speak out on energy issues?" Huntsman said.--The Salt Lake Tribune, 7/2/08
North Pole may have no ice this summer: US expert
07/01/2008
There could briefly be no ice at the North Pole this summer, a US scientist said Friday, an event that would mark a new stage in the melting of the Arctic ice sheets due to global warming.
"We could have no ice at the North Pole at the end of this summer," Mark Serreze, a scientist with the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, told AFP in an interview.
"And the reason here is that the North Pole area right now is covered with very thin ice and this ice we call first-year ice, the ice that tends to melt out in the summer."
If the ice, albeit briefly, were to break up completely this summer it would be the first time this had happened in human history.--AFP, 6/28/08
Penguins seen as ‘canaries in climate coal mine’
07/01/2008
Dee Boersma and her team of students hadn’t been in the Argentine penguin colony very long before they made a new friend.
A young penguin had lost his nest in a fight, so he decided the space under Boersma’s turbo-powered Ford truck would make a good alternative home.
Boersma, a biology professor at University of Washington, tagged the bird with a number. She also gave him a different kind of name—Turbo—after his new home.
But for Boersma, Turbo and the 200,000 other Magellanic penguins from the Punta Tombo colony on the Atlantic coast of Argentina are far more than new friends. They have become the canaries in the global warming "coal mine," signaling the effects of climate change on oceans through their rapidly declining population.--Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 6/30/08
India unveils National Action Plan on Climate Change
06/30/2008
India on Monday unveiled its climate change action plan which does not set target reduction of greenhouse gas emissions but seeks to promote sustainable development through use of clean technologies.
The National Action Plan on Climate Change categorically states that India’s per capita greenhouse gas emissions will "at no point exceed that of developed countries."
The plan, unveiled by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here, will be implemented thorough eight missions which represent multi-pronged, long-term and integrated strategies for achieving key goals in the context of climate change.--The Times of India, 6/30/08
EPA claims White House rejected pollution finding
06/26/2008
The White House in December refused to accept the Environmental Protection Agency’s conclusion that greenhouse gases are pollutants that must be controlled, telling agency officials that an e-mail message containing the document would not be opened, senior EPA officials said last week.
The document, which ended up in e-mail limbo, without official status, was the EPA’s answer to a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that required it to determine whether greenhouse gases represent a danger to health or the environment, the officials said.
This week, more than six months later, the EPA is set to respond by releasing a watered-down version of the original proposal that offers no conclusion. Instead, the document reviews the legal and economic issues presented by declaring greenhouse gases a pollutant.--Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 6/24/08
California air board announces plan for carbon-credit trading
06/26/2008
California air regulators today announced a bold plan to slash greenhouse gas emissions that would alter the way utilities generate electricity, automakers build cars and developers construct buildings, and launch the nation’s broadest market in carbon-credit trading.
California’s blueprint is the first comprehensive effort to combat global warming by any American state, and comes nearly three weeks after the U.S. Senate threw out a national greenhouse gas bill that would have set similar targets.
Virtually every sector of the state’s economy would be affected by the air board’s plan, including coal-fired power plants and oil refineries, landfills where rotting garbage emits methane gas and forests, which would be cultivated to reduce fires.--LA Times, 6/26/08
Global warming could increase terrorism, official says
06/26/2008
Global warming could destabilize "struggling and poor" countries around the world, prompting mass migrations and creating breeding grounds for terrorists, the chairman of the National Intelligence Council told Congress on Wednesday.
Climate change "will aggravate existing problems such as poverty, social tensions, environmental degradation, ineffectual leadership and weak political institutions," Thomas Fingar said. "All of this threatens the domestic stability of a number of African, Asian, Central American and Central Asian countries."
People are likely to flee destabilized countries, and some may turn to terrorism, he said.--CNN.com, June 25, 2008
Climate change threatens two-thirds of California’s unique plants, study says
06/25/2008
Two-thirds of California’s unique plants, some 2,300 species that grow nowhere else in the world, could be wiped out across much of their current geographic ranges by the end of the century because of rising temperatures and changing rainfall patterns, according to a new study.
The species that cannot migrate fast enough to higher altitudes or cooler coastal areas could face extinction because of greenhouse gas emissions that are heating the planet, according to researchers.
California’s flora face a potential "collapse," said David Ackerly, an ecologist at UC Berkeley who was the senior author of the paper. "As the climate changes, many of these plants will have no place to go."--LA Times, 6/25/08
Scientist: ‘We’re toast’ if no action on global warming
06/24/2008
Exactly 20 years after warning America about global warming, a top NASA scientist said the situation has gotten so bad that the world’s only hope is drastic action.
James Hansen told Congress on Monday that the world has long passed the "dangerous level" for greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and needs to get back to 1988 levels.
He said Earth’s atmosphere can only stay this loaded with man-made carbon dioxide for a couple more decades without changes such as mass extinction, ecosystem collapse and dramatic sea level rises.
"We’re toast if we don’t get on a very different path," Hansen, director of the Goddard Institute of Space Sciences who is sometimes called the godfather of global warming science, told The Associated Press. "This is the last chance."--CNN.com, 6/24/08
Iowa-Like Floods to Increase With Global Warming
06/20/2008
The chances for extreme weather in the U.S. such as the record rainfall and flooding in Iowa this month are increasing as worldwide temperatures rise, a government agency that researches climate change said.
North America may get more abnormally hot days and nights, heavier downpours and deadlier storms from global warming, today’s report from the Bush administration’s U.S. Climate Change Science Program said. Elevated temperatures in recent decades already have led to more intense rainstorms in the Midwest, Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, said Thomas Karl, co-chairman of the report.
``The probability of heavy downpours is increasing, which leads to events like what we’re seeing in the Midwest,’’ said Karl, director of the National Climatic Data Center at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in an interview.--Bloomberg.com, 6/19/08
Fla.’s Crist has new view of offshore drilling ban
06/18/2008
Gov. Charlie Crist has dropped his long-standing support for the federal government’s ban on offshore oil drilling and endorsed Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting John McCain’s proposal to let states decide.
The governor said he reversed his position because of rising fuel prices and states’ rights. Crist is considered a possible running mate for the Arizona senator.
"I mean, let’s face it, the price of gas has gone through the roof, and Florida families are suffering," Crist said Tuesday. "And my heart bleeds for them."
Also backing a return to offshore drilling is President Bush, who plans to ask Congress on Wednesday to lift the drilling moratoria that have been in effect since 1981 in more than 80 percent of the country’s Outer Continental Shelf.--AP, 6/18/08
Survey: 74 percent of Congressional Republicans are climate deniers
06/16/2008
A National Journal survey of members of Congress found that 74 percent of Congressional Republicans do not believe that global warming is caused by humans.
The poll asked 39 Democrats and 39 Republicans if they thought that "it’s been proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the Earth is warming because of man-made pollution". The answers are anonymous, except for party affilliation. Only 26 percent of Republicans answered yes, with the rest answering no. Among Democrats, 95 percent answered yes.--The Christian Science Monitor, 6/13/08
NH governor signs global warming initiative
06/12/2008
New Hampshire became the 10th state Wednesday to participate in a regional effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Gov. John Lynch signed a law to implement the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative known as RGGI. New Hampshire will revisit the issue if Congress enacts a federal program. The law took effect immediately.
"With this legislation we are taking a major step forward in protecting our economy and our natural resources by reducing pollution and increasing energy efficiency," said Lynch. "Pollution and climate change threaten our state’s environment, our health and our economy."--The Boston Globe, 6/11/08
EU urges U.S. leadership in fight against climate change
06/11/2008
The European Union (EU) on Tuesday urged leadership from Washington in fight against climate change while U.S. President George W. Bush insisted on bringing emerging economies on board.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said leadership of the EU and the United States will make an international agreement involving developing countries more likely.
"We hope that the United States and Europe can work even closer on this issue," he told a press conference after Tuesday’s EU-U.S. summit.
"It is important now to move ahead," he said.--China View, 6/10/08
Climate Change Bill Dies, But Gains Support
06/10/2008
The Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act, which aimed to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions 66% by 2050 died on the Senate floor last friday, after debate that lasted less than a week.
The bill failed by 12 votes to pass a procedural vote, which would have limited discussion of the bill and avoided a filibuster by Republicans.
However, it should be noted that seven Republicans voted in support of the bill, and four Democrats opposed it. Six Senators, including presidential hopefuls Barack Obama, John McCain and Hillary Clinton, were not present for the vote, but sent letters expressing their support.--SustainableBusiness.com, 6/9/08
Finnish PM urges rich nations to take lead on climate change
06/09/2008
TOKYO (AFP) — Finland’s Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen on Monday urged developed countries to take the lead in reducing greenhouse gas emissions while helping emerging economies with clean energy technologies.
"Competition for vital natural resources, in particular water, may further intensify in many parts of the world as a result of changing weather patterns. This is likely to lead to increasing local and regional strife," he said.
While all countries must tackle climate change, industrialised nations have a historical responsibility for the greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere, Vanhanen told a press conference during a visit to Tokyo.
"It is the developed world that has to lead by example," he said.--AFP, 6/9/08
Climate change forces South Sea islanders to seek sanctuary abroad
06/06/2008
After years of fruitless appeals for decisive action on climate change, the tiny South Pacific nation of Kiribati has concluded that it is doomed.
Its president, Anote Tong, used World Environment Day to request international help to evacuate his country before it disappears.
Water supplies are being contaminated by the encroaching salt water, Tong said, and crops destroyed. Beachside communities have been moved inland.
But Kiribati—33 coral atolls sprinkled across two million square miles of ocean—has limited scope to adapt. Its highest land is barely 6 feet above sea level.
Speaking in New Zealand, Tong said i-Kiribati, as his countrymen are known, had no option but to leave. "We may be beyond redemption," he said.
"We may be at the point of no return, where the emissions in the atmosphere will carry on contributing to climate change, to produce a sea level change so in time our small, low-lying islands will be submerged."--Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 6/5/08
NASA ‘played down’ global warming to protect Bush
06/05/2008
The staff, who were appointed by the White House, "marginalised or mischaracterised" studies on global warming between 2004 and 2006, denying media access to top global warming scientist James Hansen, cancelling a press conference about a space mission that was set to monitor ozone pollution and, on more than a dozen occasions, unilaterally edited or downgraded press releases on climate change.--The Scotsman, 6/4/08
NATO poised to battle global warming threats
06/04/2008
ATO must expand its role in the coming decade to prepare for new threats provoked by the impact of global warming, energy shortages and the spread of nuclear technology, the alliance’s top diplomat warned Tuesday.
Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said the alliance must look beyond the day-to-day running of its operations in Afghanistan and Kosovo and focus on longer-term threats to its 26 members
"I see no choice but to scan the strategic horizon much more thoroughly," he told a conference of security experts.
He listed five emerging threats that allied leaders will need to confront as they shape the alliance’s future at NATO’s 60th anniversary summit on the Franco-German border next year:
"Climate change could confront us with a whole range of unpleasant developments — developments which no single nation state has the power to contain," he warned.--AP/MSNBSC, 6/4/08
Climate cash-in: Western farmers and ranchers use crops - and cows - to tap into the carbon market
06/04/2008
Seibert, Colo., farmer Curtis Sayles isn’t sure what he thinks about global warming.
Nonetheless, last year Sayles enrolled in a program designed to help curb greenhouse gas emissions. He sells the rights to the 1,000 metric tons of carbon his farming methods keep in the ground (and out of the air) through the Chicago Climate Exchange, whose members purchase carbon credits to offset their own pollution. At about $5,000 annually, he isn’t getting rich off the deal. But with federal carbon regulations on the horizon, Sayles is betting that prices will rise. If so, he - and a growing number of farmers and ranchers around the West who choose soil-saving practices - may be able to cash in. "We believe this is going to be the world’s largest commodity market," says Ted Dodge, director of the National Carbon Offset Coalition, a Montana-based group that gathers and sells farm and ranch offsets to the CCX. In theory, better land-use practices in the West could keep over 19 million metric tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere per year, according to Colorado State University ecologist Richard Conant.--High Country News, 5/28/08
Study sees opportunities as U.S. curbs emissions, energy use
06/04/2008
Millions of workers in trucking, construction and other trades would see higher wages and more job opportunities in U.S. efforts to boost energy efficiency and fight global warming, according to a new study.
"New job activities will certainly be created in building the green economy and implementing global warming solutions, such as installing solar panels and researching new ways to build efficient biofuel engines," says the study, which was released this week by the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and sponsored in part by the Center for American Progress.
"But the vast majority of green jobs are in the same areas of employment that people already work in today, in every region and state of the country," the report continues.
In other words, greening industries will need roofers, insulators and engineers to make old buildings more energy efficient; electricians to help mass transit run more cleanly; and welders to make automobiles that guzzle less gasoline.
But the study sees demand for such labor increasing, which could mean higher wages and more job security.--E&E NewsPM, 6/3/08
Laggard states stand to win in new version of Lieberman-Warner
06/03/2008
Some new provisions in the emissions-capping bill on the Senate floor this week could help bring along states that are lagging in their efforts to address climate change, according to observers.
The bill is consistent with the previous version in that it does not pre-empt states wishing to enforce more stringent emissions standards. But it includes a number of additional incentives to entice them to give up their own goals in favor of the federal one, including more than $560 billion in free allowances over the next four decades (E&E Daily, May 22).
Other provisions aimed at those that haven’t done much include money for states that rely heavily on coal and manufacturing, as well as incentives for mass transit, rural utilities, energy efficiency and conservation, and funding for both cultural and resource adaptation.
The architect of the substitute amendment, Senate Environment and Public Works Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), said the provisions were designed to benefit all states.
"The whole notion and the reason we wrote the legislation is we want to make some states get help and that the states that are doing the right thing don’t get disadvantaged," she said. "You’re not going to have one state get all the money. That’s not the legislative intent."--ClimateWire, 6/3/08
Rising prices changing public views of energy facilities—survey
06/03/2008
K Street gets green as alt-energy companies gird for Hill battles
06/03/2008
Soaring fuel and electricity prices may be horrible for America, but they’re great for K Street.
Lobbyists are cashing in as alternative energy companies try to convince Congress that renewable power sources ranging from ocean waves to animal fat can help end the nation’s energy nightmare.
It wasn’t long ago that alternative energy had a small presence in Washington—spending $2 million on lobbying in 1998, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which compiles data from federal reports. No more.
Alt-energy companies spent about $16 million on lobbying last year, up from $9 million in 2006, the center said.
Make no mistake, the renewable energy sector’s lobbying is dwarfed by that of the oil and gas industry, which shelled out a whopping $83 million last year, while the auto industry spent $71 million. Still, the renewable energy sector has shown no signs of slowing amid rising electricity and fuel costs.--Greenwire, 6/3/08
WIND POWER: DOE teams up with turbine makers in new initiative
06/03/2008
The Energy Department announced a memorandum of understanding yesterday with six turbine manufacturers to help further DOE’s goal of expanding wind power to meet 20 percent of U.S. electricity needs by 2030.
DOE is working with the manufacturers on research and development, siting strategies, advanced manufacturing techniques, workforce development, standards for turbine certification and other issues, the department said.
U.S. wind power is growing at record levels and is among the suite of technologies eyed as cornerstones for meeting growing energy demand while curbing emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases.
DOE released a major report last month that outlines a roadmap to meeting the 20 percent goal, citing critical needs such as boosting transmission capacity and improved turbine technology.--Greenwire,6/03/08
Senate to take up climate bill
06/02/2008
Most senators acknowledge that climate change poses a major environmental threat, but getting agreement on how to deal with it is another matter.
The Senate on Monday will take up legislation that calls for cutting carbon dioxide and other so-called greenhouse gases by about 70 percent from power plants, refineries, factories and transportation by mid-century.
But the bill’s chances of passing the Senate are viewed as slim as its supporters are not expected to muster the 60 votes needed to overcome a certain filibuster threat. Prospects in the House are even less certain.
But both Democrats and Republicans appeared eager to debate global warming and both sides are preparing a string of amendments for later this week—some to make the legislation stronger, others to weaken it.
GOP senators hope to focus on the potential economic impact of the legislation, predicting the shift away from carbon-intensive fossil fuels like coal and oil will lead to higher costs for electricity, gasoline, natural gas and fuel oil for heating.
Meanwhile Democratic sponsors of the bill are trying to blunt the cost issue by proposing to funnel tens of billions of dollars a year to help people pay their energy bills, ease carbon-intensive industries’ transition away from fossil fuels, and spur development of alternative energy sources.--AP, 6/2/08
The cost of carbon rises in Europe—along with complaints
06/02/2008
As the U.S. debate over climate change regulation begins in the Senate, both U.S. lawmakers and Europeans are mulling over the painful lessons learned in the European Union’s pioneering experience with such market-based controls.
Europe accounts for three-fourths of the global carbon emission trade, but its toothless carbon trading scheme based on free allowances has so far only succeeded in increasing power prices without making a dent in greenhouse gas emissions. So the European Commission, the European Union’s executive body, has cut free permit quotas this year and plans to switch to an auction system for 2013.
The controversial plan is meant to drive up the cost of carbon and force companies to curb emissions and is being met with loud complaints from heavy industry.--ClimateWire, 6/2/08
Few transportation choices create big carbon footprints
05/29/2008
The Lexington-Fayette region in Kentucky has the worst per capita carbon footprint of the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan centers, while Honolulu and car-dependent Los Angeles, surprisingly, fare the best, according to a new survey of urban emissions.
An area’s mass transit use, level of sprawl, freight traffic, electricity pricing and air conditioning and heating use all played major roles in determining how it ranks in the study from the Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C., think tank.
The high emitters "tend to be in areas with few transportation choices," said Andrea Sarzynski, a senior research analyst in Brookings’ Metropolitan Policy Program. "They don’t allow for biking, walking and mass transit."
Many states and localities have passed their own climate initiatives in recent years, but the study’s authors argued that the government needs to do much more.
In particular, they urged lawmakers on Capitol Hill to put a price on carbon, pass a national renewable electricity standard, invest in research and development and help states reform electricity regulations so utilities are rewarded for efficiency.--ClimateWire, 5/29/08
‘Clean tech’ emerges from gritty town, dirty fuel
05/29/2008
As the clean energy revolution builds up steam, a group of five engineers and dreamers here is hoping to put this long-suffering, hardscrabble town back on the nation’s technology map.
Housed at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, the small team is busy enhancing and improving upon two patented technologies that could revolutionize how energy is produced and vehicles are powered in the United States. Although their facilities are sparse and the technology is still a work in progress, the group’s members feel that with the right corporate partnership their ideas and designs could have a big impact in a relatively short period of time.
One of their more promising ideas is "a solid fuel drive turbine system," explained Tony Chow, inventor of the technology and chief executive of New Energy Technology & Development Inc., which is located at NJIT’s Enterprise Development Center. "It is absolutely clean," Chow said.
The patented solid fuel power generation design proposes using waste coal dust to power turbines. The coal dust is fused into a fuel rod and injected into the turbine mechanism. The dust is highly flammable and has been the cause of many explosions and accidents at coal mines, but is mostly discarded as waste. But its explosive tendency—Chow compared it to black gunpowder—also makes it a potential power source, since a relatively small spark will produce a large bang.
While Chow and his team admit that this solid fuel turbine system will still release some fossil fuel pollution, the resulting emissions are a fraction of what is produced by simply burning coal. And the group has a plan for eliminating those emissions, too.
In an interview, Chow, an immigrant from Taiwan, explained how his emissions filtration idea originated from an ancient Chinese design for a tobacco pipe. In the same way the Chinese pipe uses water to cycle through and filter out smoke, Chow plans to use a water basin to cleanse greenhouse gases and other pollutants from the solid fuel turbine system.
"We get a very easy explosion, and the explosion pushes the turbine system and underneath is water," he said. "The water is like a swimming pool coming in and coming out, like a filter, automatic."
What does come out of the pipe is mostly water vapor, he said. "Almost entirely clean, zero. No carbon dioxide," Chow said.--ClimateWire, 5/29/08
Sapphire Energy turns algae into ‘green crude’ for fuel
05/29/2008
A San Diego company said Wednesday that it could turn algae into oil, producing a green-colored crude yielding ultra-clean versions of gasoline and diesel without the downsides of biofuel production.
The year-old company, called Sapphire Energy, uses algae, sunlight, carbon dioxide and non-potable water to make "green crude" that it contends is chemically equivalent to the light, sweet crude oil that has been fetching more than $130 a barrel in New York futures trading.
Chief Executive Jason Pyle said that the company’s green crude could be processed in existing oil refineries and that the resulting fuels could power existing cars and trucks just as today’s more polluting versions of gasoline and diesel do.
"What we’re talking about is something that is radically different," Pyle said. "We really look at this as a paradigm change."
Sapphire’s announcement is the latest development from companies and researchers focused on finding ways to cut harmful emissions from the nation’s giant fleet of cars, trucks, trains and planes.
Sapphire’s process would help curb the nation’s reliance on imported crude and alleviate concerns about the world’s dwindling supply of oil, Pyle said. And by using carbon dioxide spewed out by such things as coal plants, the production process would help remove harmful emissions from the atmosphere.
The green crude also would produce fewer pollutants in the refining process and fewer harmful emissions from vehicle tailpipes, Pyle said.--Los Angeles Times, 5/29/08
Climate-Bond Plan by UN Official Aims to Boost Energy Investing
05/29/2008
The United Nations is considering a new type of bond that would spur investment in clean-energy projects in the developing world.
The so-called climate bonds would be sold to investors by developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, Yvo de Boer, the UN’s top climate-change official, said in an interview yesterday from Bonn. Each security would finance projects designed to reduce greenhouse gases blamed for global warming. Mature bonds could be exchanged for credits that allow industrial plants to emit a certain amount of carbon gases, he said.
The UN runs the world’s second-biggest greenhouse-gas credit market, valued at 11.7 billion euros ($18.3 billion) last year. The proposal would simplify the funding of windfarm and solar projects because each bond would group together multiple clean- energy projects. The plan would encourage investment in nations struggling to meet their renewable-energy targets, de Boer said.
``This is a mechanism that allows market players to engage without having to get involved in the nitty-gritty of projects,’’ said de Boer, head of the Bonn-based UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. It would ``create an opportunity of blending of public and private money,’’ he said.--Bloomberg, 5/29/08
Report Details Effects of Climate Change Across U.S.
05/29/2008
Global warming is already affecting the nation’s forests, water resources, farmland and wildlife, and will have serious negative consequences over the next 25 to 50 years, according to a report issued yesterday by the federal government.
The scientific assessment by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, which was commissioned by the Agriculture Department and carried out by 38 scientists inside and outside the government, provides the most detailed look in nearly eight years at how climate change is reshaping the American landscape. The report, which runs 193 pages and synthesizes a thousand scientific papers, highlights how human-generated carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels have already translated into more frequent forest fires, reduced snowpack and increased drought, especially in the West.
Anthony C. Janetos, director of the Joint Global Change Research Institute of the University of Maryland and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, said the document aims to inform federal resource managers and dispel the public’s perception that global warming will not be felt until years from now.
"They imagine all these ecological impacts are in some distant future," said Janetos, one of the lead authors, who noted that many animals and plants have shifted their migratory and blooming patterns to reflect recent changes in temperature. "They’re not in some distant future. We’re experiencing them now."--The Washington Post, 5/28/08
Markey unveils bill for slashing emissions 85 percent
05/28/2008
Massachusetts Democrat Ed Markey’s climate bill—to be formally introduced Tuesday—seeks to curb midcentury carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions by 85 percent through a cap-and-trade system that would start operating in 2012. Speaking at the Center for American Progress in Washington, Markey said his bill was the byproduct of lessons learned during his 17 months as chairman of the Pelosi-created House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.
The climate legislation takes a more aggressive stance on emission limits compared with the Senate bill due on the floor next week from Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), John Warner (R-Va.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.). That bill would reduce emissions by 71 percent in 2050.
Markey’s plan also reaches further than the Lieberman-Warner-Boxer bill in heeding environmentalists’ calls for the distribution of hundreds of billions of dollars in emission credits.
At its start, the Markey bill would auction 94 percent of the program’s allowances. The auction proceeds would be used for a cross-section of items Markey sees as helping to make the U.S. economy more climate-proof, including tax cuts for low- and middle-income Americans, energy technology research, energy efficiency and adaptation.
The remaining 6 percent of the allowances would be given away to U.S. manufacturers most vulnerable to trade competition, including the steel, aluminum, paper, iron and cement sectors. By 2020, those industries would no longer get any allowances for free as the cap-and-trade program transitions to a complete, 100 percent auction.--Greenwire, 5/28/08
RENEWABLES: Germans struggle to resolve new sources’ conflicts with electricity grid
05/28/2008
In a plain office above the busy streets of Berlin, seven people are trying to make the path run smooth for renewables, easing the way as grid operators and regular citizens learn to work together in new ways.
Set up in the fall of last year, the Clearingstelle EEG, or Renewable Energy Sources Act Clearinghouse, is a quasi-legal group set up by the German environment ministry to mediate disputes that arise as people take advantage of generous supports for clean power from a wide range of sources.
The organization aims to help individual citizens and other small power producers clear the hurdles to selling power into their local electricity grid. In the United States, such challenges, thrown up by well-meaning bureaucrats and wary utilities, have slowed and stopped many early adopters seeking to bring clean power online.
Under German law, anyone who has a supply of renewable energy is allowed to feed it into the national electric grid. Grid operators are required to connect renewable energy plants "with priority" and to transmit those electrons upon connection, paying plant owners handsome per-kilowatt rates that are hand-tuned to support different technologies at the level each requires to stay afloat.
In the United States, the laws around grid interconnection are not nearly so simple as in Germany, rendering dispute resolution exponentially more complex. Different states have different legal requirements, and system owners often have to work with multiple state agencies. Individual utilities have their own rules, too, and some are friendlier than others to the idea that customers can also be suppliers.--ClimateWire, 5/28/08
Climate change will bring violent conflicts—study
05/28/2008
Sinking water levels in the Jordan River could inflame tensions over water rights between Israel and Jordan. Ethiopia’s uneasy peace with Eritrea could shatter if food and water scarcity hits new peaks. And almost any catastrophic weather event in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city and a hotbed of international terrorism, could destabilize the country.
That’s just for starters, warns a new study out of Germany linking climate change and international security.
"Climate change may in the future become a key factor determining the eruption of violent conflict and crisis beyond locally and regionally limited, low-intensity conflicts," the authors cautioned.
Food and water scarcity brought on by weather disasters, coupled with mass immigration and an urban growth explosion, they wrote, "may indeed ultimately change the international security architecture."
The report, "Climate Change and Security: Challenges for German Development Cooperation," offers a sweeping analysis of global risks in a warmed world. Drawing on findings from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the U.S. Center for Naval Analyses and others, the authors said the aim is to spur Germany and other governments to act quickly to address the looming threats.--ClimateWire, 5/28/08
TRANSPORTATION: Ministers tackle one of climate’s toughest issues
05/28/2008
Transport ministers from 51 countries as well as industry leaders, top researchers and others are converging on Leipzig, Germany, to attend the first meeting of what officials say will become a major annual conference on transportation, energy and climate change.
Energy efficiency, changing behaviors in passenger transport and the reduction of CO2 emissions in goods transport will be parts of the agenda of the International Transport Forum’s three-day annual meeting, starting today. The ITF is an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development intergovernmental organization, successor to the European Conference of Ministers of Transport.
Jack Short, secretary general of the ITF, outlined the daunting problem the ministers will face. Not only is the transport sector responsible for a significant and growing share of greenhouse gas emissions, but most indicators predict that transport activity and emissions will at least double in the next 30 years. "On the other hand, political objectives have set global emission reductions of the order of 50 percent by the middle of the century," Short added. "The stark conclusion is that we do not have the policies in place or planned that can stabilize, let alone reduce, transport emissions.--ClimateWire, 5/28/08
EVERGLADES: Rising seas threaten park species
05/28/2008
Rising sea levels threaten to overtake large portions of the Everglades, damaging sensitive ecosystems and potentially frustrating expensive efforts to restore the massive marsh, according to scientists observing the project.
Projections indicate that sea level rises associated with melting ice sheets and expanding, warming water could cause saltwater to move "well into the Everglades," degrading animal and plant species as it makes its way toward the center of southern Florida, said Hal Wanless, a scientist with the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Miami.
"What we simply see is when saltwater moves into the freshwater marshes, the marshes die," Wanless told reporters Tuesday, indicating that scores of species, from fish to birds, could be displaced.
He said the focus of the park’s $10.9 billion restoration project—said to be the largest rehabilitation program in the world—should be on measures strengthening the area’s defenses against impending sea water, such as rebuilding mangrove forests.
"It’s going to take a major commitment," he said.--ClimateWire, 5/28/08
How Green Is the College? Time the Showers
05/27/2008
OBERLIN, Ohio — Lucas Brown, a junior at Oberlin College here, was still wet from the shower the other morning as he entered his score on the neon green message board next to the bathroom sink: Three minutes, according to the plastic hourglass timer inside the shower. Two minutes faster than the morning before. One minute faster than two of his housemates.
Mr. Brown, a 21-year-old economics major, recalled the marathon runner who lived in the house last semester, saying: “He came out of the shower one morning and yelled out: ‘Two minutes 18 seconds. Beat that, Lucas!’ ”
So it goes at Oberlin’s new sustainability house — SEED, for Student Experiment in Ecological Design — a microcosm of a growing sustainability movement on campuses nationwide, from small liberal arts colleges like Oberlin and Middlebury, in Vermont, to Lansing Community College in Michigan, to Morehouse in Atlanta, to public universities like the University of New Hampshire.
While previous generations focused on recycling and cleaning up rivers, these students want to combat global warming by figuring out ways to reduce carbon emissions in their own lives, starting with their own colleges. They also view the environment as broadly connected with social and economic issues, and their concerns include the displacement of low-income families after Hurricane Katrina and the creation of “green collar” jobs in places like the South Bronx.
The mission is serious and yet, like life at the Oberlin house, it blends idealism, hands-on practicality, laid-back community and fun.--The New York Times, 5/26/08
Don’t rely on Congress to fund low-carbon technologies, experts say
05/27/2008
A leading member of the Environmental Protection Agency’s independent financial advisory board warned this week that Congress cannot be relied upon to fund the technology vital to fighting climate change.
"When the government dabbles in business, it generally gets burned," said Michael Curley, who sits on EPA’s Environmental Financial Advisory Board.
Speaking to the agency’s annual science forum on climate technology, Curley said that depending on the whims of congressional appropriators to dole out federal dollars is a "real bad idea."
"Venture capital and finance requires certainty," he said. "So relying on a congressional appropriation: If you got to do it, you got to do it, but you’re shooting yourself in the foot."
Tony Kreindler, a spokesman for the Environmental Defense Fund, agreed. He dismissed the idea of government subsidies in favor of a cap-and-trade system like the one proposed in sweeping climate legislation sponsored by Sens. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) and John Warner (R-Va.) slated to hit the Senate floor as early as June 2.
"Congress or other bureaucrats are not the people who should be picking winners or losers in the marketplace," he said. "We think the market itself should do that.--ClimateWire, 5/27/08
Rising temps increase risks of crop failure, livestock mortality—USDA
05/27/2008
Farmers face higher risks of crop failures, livestock mortality and weed invasions as the climate warms over the next 50 years, according to a new federal study.
The Agriculture Department released the peer-reviewed report today, the result of a two-year effort by 13 federal agencies and 38 authors from universities, government and nonprofit groups. The report—a domestic response to the sweeping assessments last year from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change—was also vetted by the White House Office of Management and Budget.
Extreme temperatures and variability in precipitation could decrease overall production of U.S. crops. The report predicts that grain and oilseed crops will mature more rapidly but have a higher risk of crop failure.
Corn yields, which have been steadily increasing, could drop 5 percent if other changes are not made to the crop, according to the assessment.
"A lot of our crops could suffer reduction in production," said Jerry Hatfield, a scientist at USDA. "We project declines in corn production and rice production."
Corn is sensitive to higher temperatures, especially at critical stages for the crop of pollination and reproduction.
Higher temperatures will harm livestock. The quality of Western forage is expected to decrease, and cows could see higher mortality on hotter summer days. Hotter temperatures also cause reduced productivity of dairy herds.--Greenwire, 5/27/08
Climate change ‘will cost Andes US$30 billion’
05/27/2008
Climate change could cost Andean countries US$30 billion per year by 2025, according to a study.
The study was commissioned by the Andean Community of Nations and carried out by the Peruvian University of the Pacific, with the support of specialists from Bolivia, Colombia and Ecuador.
The figure represents 4.5 per cent of the countries’ combined gross domestic product.
The researchers extrapolated data from a range of international studies about the economic impact of natural disasters in the four countries, such as floods and avalanches. They analysed the cost of rebuilding houses and infrastructure, as well as the relocation of the affected population, Amat y Leon told SciDev.Net.
They conclude that investment in scientific research is crucial to evaluate changes in Andean and Amazonian ecosystems — namely their effects on biodiversity, economic and social infrastructure — and the development models of the countries themselves.
The study also highlights the key role in the region played by the Andes, which provides ten per cent of global water sources through to its glaciers. Experts say that the melting of glaciers in central Andes has accelerated over the last 25 years.
The researchers say that the Andean countries provide a clear indication of the impact of climate change worldwide in the future, making it the ideal place to try technologies and scientific methods to prevent, reduce and adapt infrastructure to a range of challenges.--Science and Development Network, 5/22/08
U.S. inaction on warming could cost $3.8T a year—report
05/23/2008
Environmental damage and other hardships caused by unmitigated climate change could cost the U.S. economy $3.8 trillion a year by the end of the century, according to a report released today by the Natural Resources Defense Council.
The report prepared by Tufts University economists employs models that assume a "business-as-usual" approach to reducing domestic carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases and present a bleak picture of what the U.S. citizens and business owners will face in a world of unchecked climate change.
"If you think it’s expensive to do something about climate change, this tells you how expensive it will be to do nothing about climate change," said Frank Ackerman, research and policy program director for Tufts’ Global Development and the Environment Institute.
The study estimates the economic impacts of unmitigated climate change in two ways. First, researchers examined four critical outcomes associated with global warming—hurricane damage in coastal zones, real estate losses due to sea-level rise, higher energy costs caused by rising temperatures and water scarcity due to persistent drought.
The researchers found, using the most pessimistic of forecasts, that those four effects alone would cost $1.9 trillion, roughly 1.8 percent, of gross domestic product, annually.--Greenwire, 5/22/08
Used cooking oil stolen — by biodiesel pirates
05/23/2008
A few years ago, drums of used french fry grease were only of interest to a small network of underground biofuel brewers, who would use the slimy oil to power their souped-up antique Mercedes.
Now, restaurants from Berkeley, Calif., to Sedgwick, Kan., are reporting thefts of old cooking oil worth thousands of dollars by rustlers who are refining it into barrels of biofuel in backyard stills.
"It’s like a war zone going on right now over grease," said David Levenson, who owns a grease hauling business in San Francisco’s Mission District. "We’re seeing more and more people stealing grease because it lets them stay away from the pump, but it’s hurting our bottom line."
Levenson, who converted the engine in his ‘83 Mercedes to run on straight canola oil, has built up contracts to collect the liquid leftovers from 400 restaurants in the last two years.
Grease is transformed into fuel through a chemical process called transesterification, which removes glycerine and adds methanol to the oil, leaving a thinner product that can power a diesel engine. Biodiesel can also be blended with petroleum diesel, and blends of the alternative fuel are now sold at 1,400 gas stations across the country--AP, 5/20/08
Landmark local emissions fee passed in N. Calif.
05/22/2008
Bay area air regulators voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to impose the first-ever carbon fees in the United States.
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD), in the face of hostile opposition from petroleum companies, approved a 4.4-cent charge per metric ton of carbon dioxide equivalent on businesses in the agency’s nine-county region. The fee targets greenhouse gas emissions from stationary sources such as refiners, cement plants and retail gasoline outlets.
Opponents showed up in large numbers at a public hearing to accuse district officials of overstepping their bounds and creating confusion between local laws and the state’s landmark emissions bill, A.B. 32.
"It’s not about the fee, it’s about the jurisdiction," Dennis Bolt, manager of the Bay Area Region for the Western States Petroleum Association, told the district’s board of directors.
ome time "as a preliminary step that is requisite" to A.B. 32.
"This is not a new or sudden program," Uilkema said. "This is a short-term way to adopt some of the long-term goals."
She added: "We understand the concern about patchwork rules, and we’ll make sure to work to that concern."
Proponents of the rule argued the fee is minor and will only affect a handful of emitters. Of the 2,500 facilities subject to the fee, only seven operations—mostly refineries and power plants—would pay over $50,000 to comply, according to data compiled by the air district.--ClimateWire, 5/22/08
Change your menu and save the planet?
05/22/2008
Climate change means different things to different people. To Tim LaSalle, chief executive of the Rodale Institute, it has brought opportunity: the acceleration of a trend his group has been pushing for years. He wants to make people more aware of where their groceries come from and how they are produced. To the Rodale folks, saving the planet can begin by altering your dinner menu.
"People are concerned about their health, and they’re getting worried about the chemicals and pesticides that are in regular farming," LaSalle said. "They’re trying to get cleaner, safer food and many understand they’re making an environmental commitment."
What’s new is that this message is resonating well beyond the crunchy granola set. In recent months, organically grown food has been a better bet than the stock market. Food producers are beginning to prick up their ears. According to the Agricultural Marketing Resource Center, a consortium of Iowa State University, Kansas State University and the University of California, the organic food market has grown nearly 20 percent per year for the last seven years as climate-consciousness has spread.
"If you go organic, you eliminate fossil fuel, which is the primary carbon footprint around food," LaSalle said. "If we converted every farm in the United States to our methods, we could take out about a quarter of the greenhouse gases. There is nothing else that big out there."--ClimateWire, 5/21/08
EU report calls for faster climate change curbs
05/21/2008
Global temperature rises should be kept well below the European Union’s target of 2 degrees Celsius to avoid costly damage to people and their lifestyles, according to a European Parliament report.
European consumers must be given better information about the "carbon footprint" of goods they buy, including products imported from outside the 27-nation bloc, it added.
The European Union has said that any warming of the climate by more than 2 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels would be a dangerous change, bringing more damaging heatwaves, storms, coastal flooding and water shortages.
EU leaders have adopted ambitious targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by one-fifth by 2020 from 1990 levels to combat global warming.
But the report by German conservative Karl-Heinz Florenz, to be debated by EU lawmakers ahead of a vote on Wednesday, seeks to go further.
"All efforts to curb emissions should in fact aim at staying well below the 2 degrees target, as such a level of warming would already heavily impact on our society and individual lifestyles," Florenz wrote.
"The window of opportunity for starting the mitigation efforts needed to achieve the 2 degree target will close by the middle of next decade," he added.
The report called for the "rapid development" of eco-labeling to allow shoppers to trim their carbon footprints, and it touched on the divisive issue of so-called food miles.--Reuters, 5/20/08
Climate change raising extinction risk among birds: study
05/21/2008
Climate change has emerged as a major factor behind the growing risk of extinction facing birds, the world’s leading conservation agency warned on Monday.
"Long-term drought and sudden extreme weather are putting additional stress on the pockets of habitat that many threatened species depend on," the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said in a report issued on the sidelines of a global biodiversity convention.
"This, coupled with extensive and expanding habitat destruction, has led to an increase in the rate of extinction on continents and away from islands, where most historical extinction has occurred."
The Swiss-based organisation issued an update of its "Red List," the highly respected catalogue of species at threat.
Of the 1,226 birds on the list, 190 are "critically endangered," the highest category of threat.--Agence France-Presse, 5/19/08
New Lieberman-Warner plan shows $5.6T payoff to overhaul U.S. economy
05/20/2008
A major global warming bill due on the Senate floor early next month would raise more than $5.6 trillion through midcentury to overhaul the U.S. economy, according to a summary of the newest version of the legislation obtained by E&E Daily.
Senate Environment and Public Works Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) is leading efforts to rewrite the climate bill that would set a first-ever domestic cap on heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions. The summary Boxer circulated to Senate offices late Friday gives only a broad overview of the changes she hopes to make to the bill, including six additional titles.
Foremost, Boxer does not plan to tighten the emission limits from earlier versions of the bill. The midterm target will remain at a 19 percent cut below 2005 levels in 2020, while the 2050 limit stays at 71 percent below 2005 levels.
But new language added to the bill would help industry cope with volatile compliance costs by creating a bank of extra greenhouse gas emission allowances to be released if the price for a carbon credit reaches a predetermined range. Another fix would allow industry to meet up to 10 percent of its compliance requirements by funding international reforestation projects.
To pass the bill, supporters will need 60 votes to clear expected procedural obstacles, no easy task given the myriad of concerns from conservative and some moderate lawmakers.
Gearing up for that fight, Boxer is trying to convince senators that the climate bill will confront global warming while creating vast sums of new revenue that can stimulate the economy.
Big ticket payouts would include: $911 billion for consumers to help with energy costs and energy efficiency projects; $566 billion for states to deal with greenhouse gas cuts; $307 billion for fossil fuel electric utilities; $254 billion for states that rely on manufacturing and coal; $253 billion for state and tribal adaptation efforts; $237 billion for wildlife conservation; and $213 billion for carbon-intensive manufacturers such as iron, steel, paper, cement, glass and ceramics.--E&E Daily, 5/20/08
Most would accept higher electric bills to battle warming—survey
05/20/2008
A majority of Americans say they are willing to pay slightly higher electricity bills to help curb greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, according to a survey released today by the consulting firm Deloitte.
More than 36 percent of respondents said they would accept a 5 percent increase, and 17 percent of respondents would accept a 10 percent annual boost in their power bills. Acceptance plummets as costs rise—3.5 percent of those surveyed would accept a 15 increase in their bills, and almost 5 percent would stomach even greater increases.
Almost 48 percent of the Deloitte poll respondents said they are "very concerned" about global warming as a result of greenhouse gas emissions, 26 percent said they are somewhat concerned and 22 percent said they are unconcerned.
The survey of at least 1,000 interviews also found almost 53 percent would support building new nuclear plants to meet future power needs, 36 percent are opposed and almost 11 percent did not know.
Fifty-five percent of respondents said they would support buying power from a "clean coal" power plant, even if this meant a 5 percent hike in electricity costs.--Greenwire, 5/19/08
Edison aims to curb greenhouse gases voluntarily
05/20/2008
Southern California Edison on Friday proposed $23 million in projects to reduce greenhouse gases by powering California cars, forklifts and agricultural pumps with electricity, and by taking a series of other steps, including cutting harmful emissions in Brazil.
The eight projects, which would be funded by the utility’s customers, could cut the equivalent of 3.7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions, an amount comparable to taking 800,000 cars off the road, the utility said.
Rosemead-based Edison said it would ask the state Air Resources Board to clear the voluntary projects and would seek approval from the state Public Utilities Commission to add the cost into electricity rates.
John Fielder, president of the utility, said such voluntary actions were encouraged by regulators as part of California’s ambitious greenhouse gas reduction act.
Formal rules implementing the law won’t be ready until 2012, and the state doesn’t want companies to wait until then to start cutting emissions, he said.
Fielder said the increase for ratepayers would be "minuscule."--Los Angeles Times, 5/17/08
GREENLAND: Goodbye glaciers, hello broccoli
05/19/2008
Climate experts don’t talk about it much, but global warming will create economic winners as well as losers.
Greenland, where glaciers are retreating and ice sheets melting at a rapid pace, is expected to see both.
Seal hunting, the backbone of Inuit culture and heavily dependent on abundant drift ice, is disappearing. In its place: broccoli, growing where it never could before. Cold-water shrimp, which accounts for about 70 percent of Greenland’s exports, also is vanishing. But cod, not seen in Greenland since the 1960s, is making a comeback. Then there’s the gold. Melting ice caps have revealed a wealth of once-hidden riches—including, possibly, oil.
"This can be a boon financially," Alequa Hammond, Greenland’s minister for finance and foreign affairs, acknowledged in Washington recently.
But whether the changes coming to the land first colonized by Eric the Red are good, bad or just different, Hammond said all will be a hurdle for the nation of about 56,000 people. An entire generation has never fished cod, for example, and the resurgence means overhauling the industry’s fleet and machinery. New mining opportunities could bring wealth, but also stark environmental concerns.
Taken altogether, Hammond said, "It’s the biggest challenge we’ve ever had."
According to satellite studies, Greenland’s ice cap, which helps keep the rest of the world cool, is melting at an even faster rate than scientists once predicted.--ClimateWire, 5/19/08
Sizing Up Carbon Footprints
05/19/2008
Kelsey Schroeder was "born green," according to her mother Angela, and she takes that environmental enthusiasm to class with her at the Oak Knoll School of the Holy Child in Summit, N.J. The 12-year-old has been a driving force in greening her school since she was a fourth-grader, pushing teachers and classmates alike to cut waste and use less energy. But what really motivates kids--especially the sort of achievers who attend an exemplary private school like Oak Knoll--is a little competition. So when Schroeder and her classmates found out about a website launched last year that pits teams from around the country against one another in a contest to see who could be greener, they jumped on board. Her seventh-grade Royal Acorns team is Carbonrally.com’s reigning champ, having saved 11.21 tons of climate-changing CO2 to date.
As Americans grow more green-minded, more of them want to approach environmentalism in concrete terms. Thanks to websites like Carbonrally, one increasingly popular way to do so is by measuring and measurably reducing our carbon footprints--the greenhouse gases we’re responsible for emitting. The more dependent we are on fossil fuels, the bigger our carbon footprints; unsurprisingly, Americans, who are responsible for more than 20 tons of CO2 per capita annually, have some of the biggest feet in the world. How big? A recent study by a class at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that even a homeless American would have a carbon footprint of 8.5 tons--twice the global average. "We have contributed more than our fair share to this problem," says Katherine Wroth, a senior editor at the green website Grist.org "It seems logical that we would want to contribute to the solution."--Time, 5/15/08
Climate change threatens French truffle
05/19/2008
The black truffle, one of the most exclusive and expensive delicacies on the planet, is under threat from climate change.
A mysterious species of underground fungi with reported aphrodisiac and therapeutic properties, the aromatic truffles are also highly fragile and cannot withstand more than three weeks without water.
But prolonged drought in many of their prime growing regions in Europe and predictions about global warming suggest the future is about as black as the truffles themselves, to the despair of the growers.
"The bad harvest years, which used to be the exception, are becoming the norm," Jean-Charles Savignac, President of the Federation Francaise des Trufficulteurs (FFT), told Reuters.
The three main producers—France, Italy and Spain—provide about 100 tonnes of the gastronomic luxury per year. In the 19th century it was an estimated 1,000-1,600 tonnes.
In France, this winter’s harvest yielded just over 20 tonnes of the high quality black truffle, half what had been expected.--Reuters, 5/16/08
ENERGY EFFICIENCY: A climate solution ‘hidden in plain sight’
05/16/2008
According to a new study by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, investments in energy efficiency—reducing energy use for any given application—were three times greater than conventional energy investment, totaling $300 billion in 2004.
That means private businesses and regular people are spending three times as much on things like double-paned windows, high-efficiency appliances and more efficient electric motors as on oil drilling, new power plants and standard low-efficiency household appliances.
"Energy efficiency is often hidden in plain sight," said Karen Ehrhardt-Martinez, a co-author of the report, in a conference call. It can include "anything from insulation to appliances that we use every day in our households," she said.
Rising energy prices have started to catch the public’s attention, bringing renewed attention to energy efficiency as a "fuel" in its own right, the study’s authors said.
The report says that if efficiency investment continues to grow, it could total $700 billion by 2030, potentially reducing American energy consumption by a quarter and creating 2 million jobs.
But even as the economy has become more efficient over time, some experts believe an overemphasis on efficiency can miss the really big picture: climate change.
Randy Udall, an energy consultant based in Colorado, said that "efficiency is a mixed story": While it has improved in the last few decades, the real problem is that overall consumption keeps growing. People may use less energy than ever before, but the number of people keeps growing. And as the population grows, the inefficiencies in the economy may outweigh whatever efficiency improvements occur.--ClimateWire, 5/16/08
IBM set to unveil new cost-effective solar cell
05/16/2008
At a technology conference, IBM researchers plan to show off a new type of so-called "concentrator photovoltaic cell" that uses a large lens to focus the sun’s power on the cell, much like a child might use the sun and a magnifying glass to burn a hole in a leaf.
IBM claims its technology can boost by five-fold the electric power density generated by a typical solar cell today. As a result, researchers say, it could take substantially less equipment — and in turn, substantially less money — to build solar electric systems in the near future.
"The idea is that you use a smaller photovoltaic cell … and a big lens to focus (sunlight) on to it," said IBM researcher Supratik Guha.
Developed at its labs in New York, IBM’s technology relies on water and a special liquid metal surface to take excess heat away from photovoltaic cells. In tests, IBM researchers have been able to reduce the heat of concentrator solar cells from nearly 3,000 degrees to about 185 degrees.--Cox News Service, 5/15/08
Senate emissions bill would reduce oil imports, boost clean energy—NRDC
05/15/2008
A Senate global warming bill expected on the floor next month would lead to a dramatic reduction in U.S. oil imports while spurring production of more low-carbon energy and fuel-efficient vehicles, an environmental group said in a report today.
The Natural Resources Defense Council is the latest organization to model "America’s Climate Security Act," S. 2191. The bill from Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and John Warner (R-Va.) would establish a cap-and-trade program that seeks a midcentury reduction in heat-trapping greenhouse gases of about 70 percent compared with 2005 emission levels.
NRDC said it focused on the lowest-cost energy solutions that industries would likely reach for as they face new greenhouse gas emission restrictions under the Lieberman-Warner bill.
The report projects renewables and carbon capture with storage at coal-fired power plants becoming the most economical options for producing energy in the United States. By midcentury, NRDC said renewables—biomass, geothermal, solar and wind—will grow to between 50 and 60 percent of total U.S. electricity supply if the Lieberman-Warner bill became law.
NRDC’s study also found an increase in coal use through 2025 as carbon storage technologies become more widespread. Natural gas demand would decrease while nuclear power remains constant—a pair of findings that run counter to recent estimates from industry, U.S. EPA and the Energy Information Administration.--E&ENews PM, 5/15/08