NB Climate Change Hub | News Monitoring | April

May 6, 2018 | Author: Anonymous | Category: Science, Environmental Science, Climate Change
Share Embed Donate


Short Description

Download NB Climate Change Hub | News Monitoring | April...

Description

New Brunswick Climate Change Hub News Monitoring | November 22 – 28, 2008 *old, but still relevant: CNews | Vivian Song | November 15, 2008

Got a spare Earth anywhere? We're using the planet's resources way faster than nature can possibly replace them If the world continues to pillage and plunder Earth's natural resources at the rate we are now, by 2030 we will need two planets to support us. If everyone on Earth consumed the equivalent resources of Canadians, it would take three Earths to meet the demand. Since the late 1980s, we have been in overshoot -- meaning our ecological footprint has exceeded Earth's biocapacity to sustain our rate of consumption -- by about 30%. [more] The Montreal Gazette | Dan Gardner | October 27, 2008

Don't believe in climate change? You still need a carbon tax Whenever I write about the urgent need to act on climate change, I hear from folks who say there is no such need. Climate change is bunk, they say. For today only, let's say they're right. Who knows? They might be. Scientific conclusions are never absolutely certain. Maybe all those thousands of scientists are wrong. Maybe the national science academies of the world screwed up when they issued a joint statement declaring the problem to be real and urgent. Anything's possible. And it would be awfully nice if the whole thing is nothing more than a colossal oopsy. [more] The Ottawa Citizen | Tom Spears | July 15, 2008

Global warming may expand 'kidney stone belt' OTTAWA - One of the first direct impacts that global warming has on our health may hit us where it hurts: In the kidneys. People will develop more kidney stones in a hotter climate, because the heat tends to make us dehydrated and that causes the stones to form, two Texas urologists say. [more] http://www.marklynas.org/2008/11/21/world-saved-planet-doomed

November 22 TIME | Bryan Walsh | November 22, 2008

Is Obama's Energy Plan Enough? With the possible exception of Barack Obama's puppy-anticipating daughters, no one is more eagerly awaiting the incoming Administration than the leaders of the renewable-energy industries. President-elect Obama campaigned on the promise to spend $150 billion over the next 10 years to support alternative energy, like wind and solar, as well as the green jobs that the sector has the potential to create. At California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's climate summit on Nov. 18, Obama, in taped remarks, reaffirmed that he would hold fast to those campaign promises, starting with mandatory caps on greenhouse gas emissions. "This is a crucial step forward," says Linda Church Ciocci, the executive director of the National Hydropower Association. [more] AlterNet | Herve Kempf | November 22, 2008

How the Rich Are Destroying the Earth We've got to think about our choices for the future collectively, seeking cooperation rather than competition. [more] The Guardian | Tania Branigan | November 22, 2008

Soil erosion to cut harvests in China's breadbasket by 40% Almost 100 million people in south-west China will lose the land they live on within 35 years if soil erosion continues at its current rate, a nationwide survey has found. Crops and water supplies are suffering serious damage as earth is washed and blown away across a third of the country, according to the largest study for 60 years. Harvests in the north-east, known as China's breadbasket, will fall 40% within half a century on current trends, even as the 1.3 billion population continues to grow. [more]

The Guardian | Alok Jha and Bobbie Johnson | November 22, 2008

San Francisco Bay to be electric car capital • Plan predicts 1m petrol vehicles replaced by 2015 • Charging points to be on offer throughout cities Officials in California have unveiled ambitious plans to turn the San Francisco Bay area - home to 7.6 million people - into one of the world's leading centres for electric vehicles. [more] The Guardian | Sue Branford | November 22, 2008

Food crisis leading to an unsustainable land grab Private companies across the world are buying huge quantities of foreign land for the mass production of food. Sue Branford wonders if this quick-fix solution risks creating an even bigger environmental crisis The world map is being redrawn. Over the past six months, China, South Korea, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other nations have been buying and leasing huge quantities of foreign land for the production of food or biofuels for domestic consumption. It's a modern day version of the 19th-century scramble for Africa. This year's bubble in food prices – driven by financial speculators, biofuels and compounded when some countries halted food exports to ensure their own supplies – led to pain for nations dependent on imports. [more]

November 23 The Sunday Times | John-Paul Flintoff | November 23, 2008

Energy: How low can you go? To take the heat out of global warming we must take radical action, learning to live on half the energy we currently consume. John-Paul Flintoff tries the low-watt diet. Somewhere upstairs, my wife is sitting in bright light beside a warm radiator, sipping tea, flicking through glossy magazines as she blow-dries her hair, and consuming in 30 minutes about half the energy used by the typical Bangladeshi all day. And I’m trying to make up for that. I’m sitting in the dark. The heating is off. I’m wearing two jumpers, a hat and a scarf and a pair of fingerless gloves I improvised out of old socks that had gone at the ankle. I’m writing this on an ancient manual typewriter. It’s not easy. [more] The Associated Press | Daniel Woolls | November 23, 2008

Solar panels on top of mausoleums helps give power to Spanish town MADRID, Spain - A new kind of silent hero has joined the fight against climate change. Santa Coloma de Gramenet, a gritty, working-class town outside Barcelona, has placed a sea of solar panels atop mausoleums at its cemetery. The move has transformed a place of perpetual rest into one buzzing with renewable energy. [more] The Observer | Ed Pikington | November 23, 2008

The eco machine that can magic water out of thin air Water, Water, everywhere; nor any drop to drink. The plight of the Ancient Mariner is about to be alleviated thanks to a firm of eco-inventors from Canada who claim to have found the solution to the world's worsening water shortages by drawing the liquid of life from an unlimited and untapped source the air. [more] The Observer | John Vidal | November 23, 2008

Coal's return raises pollution threat Rising prices are spurring plans for a big increase in mining despite a threat to climate change goals Britain is poised to expand its coal mining industry, despite fears that the move will lead to a rise in climate change emissions and harm communities and the environment. Freedom of information requests and council records show that in the past 18 months 14 companies have applied to dig nearly 60 million tonnes of coal from 58 new or enlarged opencast mines. [more]

November 24 The Wall Street Journal | November 24, 2008

Rubber Duckies to Help Track Speed of Melting Glaciers Challenged to probe under Greenland's glaciers, NASA robotics expert Alberto Behar wondered what mechanism might endure sub-zero cold, the pressure of mile-thick ice and currents that sometimes 2

exceed the flow rate of Niagara Falls. It was a daunting engineering proposition, even for someone experienced in conceiving robot explorers suitable for Mars and the moons of Jupiter. [more] The Guardian | Ben Willis | November 24, 2008

Listen to the children Many older-generation Filipinos view the effects of climate change with resignation - but not so younger people. [more] Reuters | Olivia Rondonuwu | November 24, 2008

Trees for kids: Indonesia's way of beating global warming JAKARTA (Reuters) - An Indonesian city battling the effects of deforestation has come up with a novel way of tackling the problem. Would-be families must plant a tree. "Everyone who wants to get married or apply for a birth certificate must plant a tree," Syahrum Syah Setia, the head of Balikpapan city's Environmental Impact Management Agency, said. [more] The Guardian | Alok Jha | November 24, 2008

Forest protection plan could displace millions, say campaigners Livelihoods of 60m indigenous people at risk from plans to tackle climate change by protecting forests, says Friends of the Earth International proposals to protect forests to tackle climate change could displace millions of indigenous people and fail to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, according to environmentalists. Friends of the Earth International (FoE) will argue in a report to be published on Thursday, that plans to slow the decline of forests, which would see rich countries pay for the protection of forests in tropical regions, are open to abuse by corrupt politicians or illegal logging companies. [more] The Guardian |David Hencke| November 24, 2008

Environment Agency chairman urges government to launch 'green new deal' Former culture secretary Lord Smith to call for a comprehensive long-term environmental strategy Lord Smith, the former cabinet minister and chairman of the Environment Agency, will today call on the government to follow US President-elect Barack Obama and launch a multi-billion pound "green new deal" to boost clean energy and create jobs. [more]

November 25 Bloomberg | Alex Morales | November 25, 2008

Oceans Acidifying Faster Than Predicted, Threatening Shellfish Nov. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Oceans are acidifying 10 times faster than predicted, threatening heightened damage to coral reefs and shellfish, University of Chicago scientists said. Researchers took more than 24,000 pH measurements over eight years and found the rate at which the ocean is becoming more acidic correlates with the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, or CO2, the university said in a statement. When CO2, which helps cause global warming, dissolves in water, it forms carbonic acid. “The acidity increased more than 10 times faster than had been predicted by climate change models and other studies,” University of Chicago ecology and evolution professor Timothy Wootton said in the statement. “This increase will have a severe impact on marine food webs and suggests that ocean acidification may be a more urgent issue than previously thought.” [more] Discovery News | Michael Reilly | November 25, 2008

Tibetan glaciers rapidly melting Glaciers high in the Himalayas are dwindling faster than anyone thought, putting nearly a billion people living in South Asia in peril of losing their water supply. Throughout India, China, and Nepal, some 15,000 glaciers speckle the Tibetan Plateau. There, perched in thin, frigid air up to 7200 metres above sea level, the ice might seem secluded from the effects of global warming. But just the opposite is proving true, according to new research [more] The Guardian | Terry Macalister | November 25, 2008

Duty on long-haul flights and funding for wind energy do not satisfy green campaigners Airline passenger duty (APD) on flights to destinations such as Thailand, South Africa and the Seychelles will increase by 25% from next year and by will rise by half from that in 2010. 3

Alistair Darling said the move would benefit the environment, but his decision to have a more draconian flight tax and to give only a small boost to a low-carbon economy angered the green movement. [more] Bloomberg | Mathew Carr | November 25, 2008

Brazil, Mexico Lawmakers Back Poor-Nation CO2 Limits (Update1) Brazilian and Mexican lawmakers backed a proposal to impose greenhouse-gas limits on some developing countries after 2020 as long as the richest nations first curb their output of emissions blamed for global warming. [more] Bloomberg | Joe Schneider | November 25, 2008

Canadian Groups Appeal Dismissal of Kyoto Suits (Update1) Canadian environmental groups appealed last month’s judge’s decision to throw out three lawsuits accusing the federal government of failing to draft a plan to meet pollution-reduction goals. “If the federal court’s decision was left unchallenged, Canada’s woeful inaction on the climate change crisis would be allowed to continue despite domestic law that clearly states the government must act,” Hugh Wilkins, a Canada Ecojustice lawyer, said today in a statement. “We simply cannot stand by while the government picks and chooses which laws to enforce.” [more] CNN.com | Matthew Knight | November 25, 2008

Carbon dioxide levels already a danger LONDON, England (CNN) -- A team of international scientists led by Dr James Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, say that carbon dioxide (CO 2) levels are already in the danger zone. Concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere currently stand at 385 parts per million (ppm) and are rising at a rate of two ppm per year. This is enough, say the scientists, to encourage dangerous changes to the Earth's climate. [more] Bloomberg | Adam Satariano | November 25, 2008

World’s Greenhouse Gases Hit Record Ahead of Talks (Update1) Heat-trapping gases blamed for global warming rose to their highest level last year, the United Nations said in a report indicating efforts to curb emissions have failed without the participation of the world’s biggest polluters. Carbon dioxide, the main man-made greenhouse gas, climbed 0.5 percent in 2007 from a year earlier, the same growth rate as in 2006, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization said today in its annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin from Geneva. Greenhouse gases trap radiation within the atmosphere, causing the Earth to warm. [more] Bloomberg | Angela Macdonald-Smith | November 25, 2008

Geodynamics, Macquarie Generation Win Renewable Energy Funding Geodynamics Ltd., the Australian company seeking to produce power from hot underground rocks, and state-owned Macquarie Generation were among companies granted A$27 million ($17 million) of funds for renewable energy plants. [more]

November 26 Civil Society | Janice Harvey | November 26, 2008

Consumption is killing us It makes for an interesting juxtaposition of worldviews: Just five days before North America's "Buy Nothing Day" (Nov. 28), Prime Minister Harper declared that to stem the economic downward spiral, Canadians need to buy more stuff. That's because our economy is totally dependent on consumer spending, or "consumer confidence." [more] The Canadian Press | November 26, 2008

UN talks chance for Canada to restore climate-change cred: environmentalists OTTAWA - A coalition of environmental groups says Canada can restore its credibility on the world stage at the coming round of climate-change talks in Poland. [more] The Daily Gleaner | Andrea Dimock | November 26, 2008

City merchants work toward a 'green' Christmas Green is the colour of the holidays, from the trees that dominate the living room to the lights that adorn our homes and businesses. Green is also fast becoming the colour of aware businesses in the 4

Fredericton area. Green Shops is a new initiative springing from the city's Green Matters program. Introduced in May and piloted throughout the summer, it was officially launched in October. [more] chinadaily.com | Li Jing | November 26,2008

Warm winter 'major threat' to crops Prolonged periods of drought resulting from China's 23rd consecutive "warm winter" will pose a serious threat to the country's crop yields, the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) said in a report published Tuesday. Some regions could experience droughts until the spring, the report said, adding that the warm weather might even continue until summer. [more] Planet Ark | Philip Pullella | November 26,2008

Vatican Set To Go Green With Huge Solar Panel Roof VATICAN CITY - The Vatican was set to go green on Wednesday with the activation of a new solar energy system to power several key buildings and a commitment to use renewable energy for 20 percent of its needs by 2020. The massive roof of the Vatican's "Nervi Hall", where popes hold general audiences and concerts are performed, has been covered with 2,400 photovoltaic panels -- but they will not be visible from below, leaving the Vatican skyline unchanged. [more]

November 27 The Daily Gleaner | Michael Staples | November 27, 2008

City teen to discuss climate change with peers at conference in Poland It's a chance to make a difference and Taryn McKenzie-Mohr intends to take full advantage of it. The 17year-old Grade 12 student at Fredericton High School is one of three people from the city selected to attend the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change set to run Dec. 1-12 in Poznan, Poland. [more] The Daily Gleaner | Heather McLaughlin | November 27, 2008

City waiting for verdict on climate change program How much progress is Fredericton making with its Green Matters initiative? Fredericton officials are hoping to soon hear back from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities - the auditor of the capital city's figures - on whether the city is winning or losing the war to curb greenhouse gases. [more] Physorg.com | November 27,2008

2008 saw record-breaking hurricane season: US agency The record-breaking 2008 hurricane season, which officially ends on Sunday, has been one of the most active since comprehensive reports began 64 years ago, a US government agency said Wednesday. For the first time on record, six consecutive tropical cyclones -- Dolly, Edouard, Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike -- struck the US mainland and three major hurricanes -- Gustav, Ike and Paloma -- made landfall in Cuba, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. [more] Bloomberg | Jonathan Stearns | November 27, 2008

Poland Accuses Germany, U.K. of Intransigence in Climate Talks Poland pressed Germany, the U.K. and other rich European Union nations to scale back a plan for tougher emission rules on electricity companies or risk deadlock over a climate-change package at an EU summit next month. The Polish government reiterated that forcing utilities to buy all their carbon-dioxide emission allowances beginning in 2013 would increase electricity prices too much in Poland, which depends on coal for power production. EU CO2 quotas on energy and manufacturing companies are made up of allowances now granted largely for free. [more] Fox News | Julhas Alam | November 27, 2008

Bangladeshis rally against climate change DHAKA, Bangladesh — Some 500 women rallied in Bangladesh's capital on Thursday, demanding richer nations cut their greenhouse gas emissions and compensate the impoverished countries that experts believe will be hardest hit by the impacts of climate change. The women, mostly rural poor, wore masks mocking leaders from wealthy nations such as France, Britain and the United States, and marched through Dhaka University's campus carrying banners that read "Cut emissions, save poor nations" and "Stop harming, start helping." [more] 5

Planet Ark | Benet Koleka | November 27, 2008

Europe bank aids Albania's waste paper recycling efforts TIRANA - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development will invest in Albania's only paper firm to help it produce recycled paper and set up waste paper recycling networks, the EBRD said on Wednesday. Dan Berg, the EBRD's Albania head, said the investment would create a precedent with environmentally friendly production backed by an organized collection and recycling network. [more]

November 28 Planet Ark | Scott Anderson | November 28, 2008

Canada's Loblaw To Charge For Plastic Shopping Bags TORONTO - Loblaw Co, Canada's biggest supermarket chain, said on Thursday that it will start charging customers a fee for every plastic shopping bag they use. The company, with more than 1,000 grocery stores across Canada, said it would begin charging customers 5 Canadian cents a bag on April 22, 2009, which is Earth Day. [more] Planet Ark | Alistair Thomson | November 28, 2008

Sahel Africans Face Hunger Despite Bumper Harvest DAKAR - Poor people in Africa's arid Sahel region will go without food despite bumper harvests this year, as wild price moves on world markets put staple cereals beyond many families' budgets, aid agencies say. Prices of imported foods have ballooned in recent years, pushing up prices for locally grown crops even though harvests are expected to be bigger than ever after abundant rains. [more] LiveScience.com | Robert Roy Britt | November 28, 2008

Wind Farms Could Change Weather A new study suggests that massive wind farms could steer storms and alter the weather if extensive fields of turbines were built, according to a news report. It is not the first study to come to this conclusion. The new research is an interesting "what if," but the installation of large wind turbines would have to be taken to the extreme to have the global effects portrayed. [more] Bloomberg | Katarzyna Klimasinska | November 28, 2008

Poland May Build First Nuclear Power Plant by 2023 in Zarnowiec Poland, which generates 93 percent of its electricity from coal, is considering building its first nuclear plant by 2023 in the northern town of Zarnowiec, as it seeks to cut greenhouse-gas emissions from power generation. [more]

*old, but still relevant: CNews | Vivian Song | November 15, 2008

Got a spare Earth anywhere? We're using the planet's resources way faster than nature can possibly replace them If the world continues to pillage and plunder Earth's natural resources at the rate we are now, by 2030 we will need two planets to support us. If everyone on Earth consumed the equivalent resources of Canadians, it would take three Earths to meet the demand. Since the late 1980s, we have been in overshoot -- meaning our ecological footprint has exceeded Earth's biocapacity to sustain our rate of consumption -- by about 30%. These are just some of the stark warnings sounded in the WWF's latest Living Planet Report, released last month and co-authored by the Zoological Society of London and The Global Footprint Network, and published biannually. "We are borrowing from our children to live beyond our means and our children will pay the price," said Gerald Butts, president of WWF Canada. What's happening is simple: Earth's regenerative capacity can no longer keep with demand, the report says. "People are turning resources into waste faster than nature can turn waste back into resources." In financial terms -- a language skeptics and laggards like to evoke when sounding off on the environment -- humanity is no longer living off nature's interest, but drawing down its capital. 6

In 2005, the global ecological footprint was 17.5 billion global hectares (gha), or 2.7 gha per person -also described as the world-average ability to produce resources and absorb wastes. But on the supply side, biocapacity was 13.6 billion gha, or 2.1 gha per person. New this year is also a water footprint index, which measures the world's consumption of fresh water resources. While water isn't considered a scarce resource globally, polluted waters, uneven distribution and availability are contributing to water stresses experienced by 50 countries. Not only are we "borrowing from our children," but humans are blatantly stealing resources from other species who share this planet with us. Since 1970, there's been a 30% decline in nearly 5,000 populations of 1,686 animal species, the report found. Deforestation and land conversions in the tropics, dams, diversions, climate change, pollution and over-fishing are killing species off, the reverberations of which are felt along the food chain. In 2005, the single largest demand humanity put on the biosphere was -- no surprise here -- the carbon footprint, which grew more than 10-fold from 1961. Below are some other key points the report found: - Canada has the seventh largest ecological footprint in the world. - Roughly half of Canada's footprint is a result of its carbon footprint, which comes mostly from transportation, heating and electricity consumption. - Canada has the 12th largest water footprint. The average Canadian consumes more than two million litres of water a year. That's like running the kitchen tap for more than 10 hours a day every day, or flushing the toilet 1,000 times a day every day - While Canada has large volumes of fresh water on a per capita basis, most of this water is inaccessible to most Canadians. The result: Regional shortages both for humans and species. - Canada's biocapacity is greater than its ecological footprint, making us an "ecological creditor country." But the rest of the world also uses our resources as our exports dominate our economy. - The U.S. and China have the largest national footprints, each consuming about 21% of the global biocapacity. But in the U.S., each citizen requires an average of 9.4 gha, or nearly 4.5 planet Earths, while the average Chinese citizen uses 2.1 gha per person, equal to one Earth. --HOW CAN I SHOP RESPONSIBLY? What are the "good" labels to look for? What can I trust? It depends on where you live. Go to the website of your local WWF office, or any other environmental organization that you trust and see what they say and recommend. A trustworthy, reputable label found in many countries is Fairtrade. There are also two global labels that aim to ameliorate the destruction of our forests and oceans. One is the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) and the other is the MSC (Marine Stewardship Council). -WHERE DOES OVER-CONSUMPTION LEAD? OVERCONSUMPTION Let's take beef as an example. Globally we eat too much of it. ECOLOGICAL DEBT In fact our demand for cheap beef has meant that rainforests have been cleared and drylands (such as savannahs) have been irrigated so that we can feed this consumption. ECOLOGICAL DEGRADATION But these converted lands are "marginal lands." They can only support so much before they start degrading. So our demands have led in some areas to more cows than the land can support in the longterm. ECOLOGICAL COLLAPSE These lands eventually "collapse" ecologically. This means they stop giving us services. Services such as the ability to stabilize soil, maintain its fertility and retain water, or maintain a balance between wild species. http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Environment/GreenPlanet/2008/11/15/7499501-sun.html The Montreal Gazette | Dan Gardner | October 27, 2008

Don't believe in climate change? You still need a carbon tax Whenever I write about the urgent need to act on climate change, I hear from folks who say there is no such need. Climate change is bunk, they say. For today only, let's say they're right. Who knows? They might be. Scientific conclusions are never absolutely certain. Maybe all those thousands of scientists are wrong. Maybe the national science academies of the world screwed up when they issued a joint statement declaring the problem to be real 7

and urgent. Anything's possible. And it would be awfully nice if the whole thing is nothing more than a colossal oopsy. So let's say that climate change really is bunk. Does that mean that we should forget about carbon taxes, the development of alternative energy, and all the other steps proposed to fight climate change? Not at all. In fact, there is only one such policy - carbon sequestration - that would be without value if anthropogenic climate change is a mirage. In every other case, the policies proposed to fight climate change are not only sensible, they are essential, even if climate change is dropped from the equation. Here's a fundamental fact about modern life: We are addicted to oil. It is the lifeblood of Western economies. If the flow of oil slows even slightly, the whole planet feels faint. If it were to slow to a trickle as it would if, for example, a war closed the Strait of Hormuz - we would fall to our knees. It is hard to overstate how vulnerable this addiction makes us. For the sake of economic and political security, the entire developed world must adopt policies in an effort to "destroy oil's strategic role." That's not me I'm quoting. It's none other than James Woolsey, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency and national security adviser to Republican candidate John McCain. In 1973, we were mugged by OPEC. The economic damage was profound. We took another hit when revolution broke out in Iran - a development which put the continued flow of oil from the Persian Gulf in doubt and forced the United States to become militarily involved in the region for the first time. If, in the years that followed, the U.S. had spent as much on kicking its oil addiction as it did safeguarding the supply of Persian Gulf oil, the West would be far more secure today. But it didn't. And we aren't. And so, instead of walking away from the otherwise insignificant swamp that is the Middle East - after telling the thugs and fanatics who rule the region to give us a call if they ever decide to straighten up and join the modern world -the West is in the swamp up to its neck. The recent crash in oil prices only underscores the point. Russia, Venezuela and Iran are all struggling to balance their budgets while maintaining the military expansions, foreign adventures, and popularitybuying domestic subsidies they had previously funded with sky-high oil revenues. Of course the petro-dictatorships' decline in fortunes is only temporary because oil prices are only falling in tandem with the global economic slump. When slump ends, oil will rise again - taking the fortunes of the petro-thugs with it. And remember that peak oil is coming, if it hasn't already arrived. If we don't start the long shift away from oil now, the vulnerability of the West will soar. Just imagine what someone like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad could do with oil at $300 a barrel. So what do we have to do to break our addiction to oil? Pretty much exactly what we have to do to fight climate change. Subsidies and other incentives for conservation. The same and more for alternative energy. Heavy investments in public transit. And most importantly, we need to slap big taxes on oil and natural gas. That will give every business and consumer incentives to conserve energy and demand alternatives. The free market will kick into gear and nothing gets things done like a fully engaged free market. Don't want to do all this? OK. But remember that every vote against carbon taxes is a vote for Hugo Chavez; every voice raised against subsidies for alternative energy is a voice raised in favour of Iranian theocrats; and every driver who demands cheap gas is a "useful idiot" of Vladimir Putin and the House of Saud. Now, personally, I think that alone clinches the case. But the benefits to be had go far beyond economic and political security. Remember that when we burn fossil fuels, carbon dioxide is only one of many emissions we produce. Think of the haze that forms like a dome over cities on warm summer days. That smog is the accumulated crap from our tailpipes and coal-fired generators and it does real harm, especially to old people and children. The Ontario Medical Association estimated smog causes roughly 9,500 premature deaths a year in that province alone. If we burn less oil, gas and coal in order to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, we will also reduce the other gunk in the air. Higher taxes on gas will also encourage people to find alternatives to driving, which will reduce traffic congestion and the accident rate. Anything else? Well, the revenues raised from new taxes could be used to lower income and corporate taxes. That would be nice, wouldn't it? And conservatives should be reminded that, for reasons of economic efficiency, they have traditionally favoured shifting the tax burden to consumption taxes - which is what a carbon tax is - instead of income taxes. It's a little odd that they recoil at making just such a shift the moment they hear the words "climate change." No matter. Let's not speak those words. Let's ignore climate change entirely. Let's just do what needs to be done to fight that unmentionable phenomenon for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with it. 8

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/features/viewpoints/story.html?id=8048cff3-f611-47fb-a542d28c6e7ef303 The Ottawa Citizen | Tom Spears | July 15, 2008

Global warming may expand 'kidney stone belt' OTTAWA - One of the first direct impacts that global warming has on our health may hit us where it hurts: In the kidneys. People will develop more kidney stones in a hotter climate, because the heat tends to make us dehydrated and that causes the stones to form, two Texas urologists say. Drs. Margaret Peale and Yair Lotan of the University of Texas say there's already a "kidney stone belt" in the hot, humid U.S. southeast, stretching from Louisiana to Florida and north to Tennessee. People in that belt run a higher risk of kidney stones than people in the rest of the United States. Expect that belt to move north with the warmer climate, increasing kidney stone rates outside today's belt by 30 per cent by 2050, they say in a paper published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study doesn't cover Canada, but it suggests changes coming close to our doorstep. Of two computer models used in their study, one predicts most of the increase will come in central states such as Kentucky and Kansas. But the other forecasts a greater increase in states bordering Canada such as Ohio and Pennsylvania, and the U.S. Eastern seaboard generally. Wherever the greatest effect happens, both models agree the kidney stone belt will expand northwards, approaching Canada, in some way. The study worked by comparing the rate of kidney stones reported in different geographic regions, and comparing these with temperature records by region. From there the team looked at forecasts of how the U.S. climate is likely to change by the year 2050. Kidney stones are a common ailment. They affect roughly one in 10 men in North America over a lifetime, though fewer women. Normally, urine carries waste chemicals out of the body. But people who become dehydrated in hot weather have trouble producing enough urine to do the job. Mineral salts left behind can form solid crystals in the kidneys, and eventually these can develop into painful "stones." The link between temperature and kidney stones is well known, Peale said. "When people relocate from areas of moderate temperature to areas with warmer climates, a rapid increase in stone risk has been observed. This has been shown in military deployments to the Middle East for instance." It's the second recent piece of bad medical news for people in the U.S. Southeast. In June, researchers reported that this area is also a "stroke belt," where the risk of stroke is about 10 per cent higher than in other regions, and even visiting increases the risk of a fatal stroke. http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/features/greenlife/story.html?id=5a1fc9b3-2c99-4083-abf97865dd4373a2

November 22 TIME | Bryan Walsh | November 22, 2008

Is Obama's Energy Plan Enough? With the possible exception of Barack Obama's puppy-anticipating daughters, no one is more eagerly awaiting the incoming Administration than the leaders of the renewable-energy industries. President-elect Obama campaigned on the promise to spend $150 billion over the next 10 years to support alternative energy, like wind and solar, as well as the green jobs that the sector has the potential to create. At California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's climate summit on Nov. 18, Obama, in taped remarks, reaffirmed that he would hold fast to those campaign promises, starting with mandatory caps on greenhouse gas emissions. "This is a crucial step forward," says Linda Church Ciocci, the executive director of the National Hydropower Association. The problem is, it won't be enough. As ambitious as Obama's campaign promises were — at least compared to his predecessor's — the future state of global energy will demand government policies with a much longer reach, according to alternative-energy leaders. The International Energy Agency's (IEA) annual World Energy Outlook, released Nov. 12, projects that global energy demand will increase by 45% between 2006 and 2030 — and that $26 trillion in power-supply investments will be necessary simply to meet those needs. Barring radical changes in our energy policy — beyond what Obama has pledged — 9

greenhouse gas emissions will rise 45% by 2030, and extreme global warming would be virtually unavoidable. See TIME's special report on the environment. The risks of unabated climate change are frightening: A detailed new study from the University of California, Berkeley, predicts that severe warming could cost California alone up to $50 billion annually, due chiefly to weather damage. "We have to have the foresight to avoid this crash," says David RolandHolst, a professor of economics at Berkeley and the author of the report. The question is: Do Obama — and other world leaders — possess that foresight? In a press conference last week the leaders of the solar, wind, geothermal and hydropower industries called on Obama and the incoming Congress to look ahead. First, energy leaders asked Obama to immediately adjust the alternative-energy production credit to provide green investors with a cash rebate, rather than a tax reduction. With the economy tanking, simple tax credits — which Congress renewed in October and without which the renewable-energy industry would not survive — aren't the lure they once were for companies looking to invest in new energy projects. Other items on the renewables industry's wish list: a national renewable-energy portfolio standard, which would require a certain percentage of U.S. electricity to come from alternative sources. (More than 20 states already have similar standards, but a national one would be tricky, given that utility regulation in the U.S. is localized.) Green energy leaders would also like to see an executive order that would greatly expand the federal government's procurement of renewable energy — a smart idea, easily doable — plus a major initiative to update and smarten the nation's aging, overworked electrical grid. That last item is a necessity, if the country has any hope of scaling up alternatives. A report published Nov. 10 by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation found that without drastic investment in a better grid, scaling up intermittent renewables like wind and solar could lead to frequent blackouts. And there's no better way to turn people off of renewable energy than to periodically plunge them into TV-less darkness. "[The grid] is the single largest long-term issue facing wind and other renewables," says Randall Swisher, the executive director of the American Wind Energy Association. "We can't solve the climate challenge without the green electricity superhighways that we are calling for." Indeed, pumping money into the renewable-energy sector while neglecting the antique electrical grid is like building a fleet of cars without laying down roads, but it's far from clear that the government is ready for that kind of investment. In any case, the grid is just one in a very long line of energy priorities that will need to be addressed over the coming decades, as the IEA's report makes clear. Take oil consumption, which the IEA predicts will rise from 86 million barrels a day to 106 million barrels by 2030 (one of the main reasons why the days of triple-digit oil prices will return soon enough). Production at many top oilfields is declining slowly, but that drop-off will accelerate over time. Just to make up for that decline, we'll need to add 45 million barrels a day of capacity by 2030 — roughly four times the current capacity of Saudi Arabia. That's going to cost roughly $1 trillion a year for all energy investments. And if we want to increase the share of renewables — and control the growth of greenhouse gas emissions — we'll need to spend an additional $9.3 trillion, if we're aiming to stay below the 2 degree C warming max recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (Of course, an increasing number of scientists argue that we need to avoid even that level of warming.) "We would need concerted action from all major emitters," said Nabuo Tanaka, the head of the IEA. Environmentalists point out that many actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions — like improving energy efficiency — can pay for themselves with long-term savings. But the sheer size of the figures involved point to the need for intelligent policymaking now, before we install hundreds of new coal power plants or begin ripping up the Rocky Mountains for oil shale. That's why renewables-industry leaders say Obama's first priority has to be energy. If we get this wrong now, we'll put ourselves in an enormous hole — and the consequences, as the Berkeley study makes clear, are pretty scary themselves. "It's like guiding a supertanker to avoid a distant collision," says Roland-Holst. It's time for all hands on deck. http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1859040,00.html?imw=Y AlterNet | Herve Kempf | November 22, 2008

How the Rich Are Destroying the Earth We've got to think about our choices for the future collectively, seeking cooperation rather than competition. There is an emergency. In less than a decade we will have to change course -- assuming the collapse of the U.S. economy or the explosion of the Middle East does not impose a change through chaos. To confront the emergency, we must understand the objective: to achieve a sober society; to plot out the way there; to accomplish this transformation equitably, by first making those with the most carry the burden 10

within and between societies; to take inspiration from collective values ascribed to here in France by our nation's motto: "Liberty, ecology, fraternity." What are the main obstacles that block the way? First of all, received wisdom -- prejudices really -- so loaded that they orient collective action without anyone really thinking about them. The most powerful of these preconceived ideas is the belief in growth as the sole means of resolving social problems. That position is powerfully defended even as it is contradicted by the facts. And it is always defended by putting ecology aside because the zealots know that growth is incapable of responding to the environmental issue. The second of these ideas, less cocky although very broadly disseminated, proclaims that technological progress will resolve environmental problems. This idea is propagated because it allows people to hope we will be able to avoid any serious changes in our collective behaviors thanks to technological progress. The development of technology, or rather of certain technical channels to the detriment of others, reinforces the system and fosters solid profits. The third piece of received wisdom is the inevitability of unemployment. This idea is closely linked to the two previous ideas. Unemployment has become a given, largely manufactured by capitalism to assure the docility of the populace and especially of the lowest level of workers. From a contrary position, the transfer of the oligarchy's wealth for the purpose of public services, a system of taxation that weighed more heavily on pollution and on capital than on employment, sustainable agricultural policies in the countries of the South, and research into energy efficiency are immense sources of employment. A fourth commonly associates Europe and North America in a community of fortune. But their paths have diverged. Europe is still a standard-bearer for an ideal of universalism, the validity of which it demonstrates by its ability to unite -- despite problems -- very different states and cultures. Energy consumption, cultural values -- for example, the critical significance of food -- the rejection of the death penalty and torture, less pronounced inequality and the maintenance of an ideal of social justice, respect for international law, and support for the Kyoto Protocol on climate are some of the many traits that distinguish Europe from the United States. Europe must be separated from the obese power and draw closer to the South, unless the United States shows it can really change. The Oligarchy Could Be Divided Then there are the forces at work. The first, of course, is the power of the system itself. The failures that will occur will not in themselves be sufficient to undo the system, since, as we have seen, they could offer the pretext to promote an authoritarian system divested of any show of democracy. The social movement has woken up, however, and may continue to gain power. But it alone will not be able to carry the day in the face of the rise of repression: it will be necessary for the middle classes and part of the oligarchy -- which is not monolithic -- to clearly take sides for public freedoms and the common good. The mass media constitute a central challenge. Today they support capitalism because of their own economic situation. They depend, for the most part, on advertising. That makes it difficult for them to plead for a reduction in consumption. On top of that, the development of free papers that depend solely on advertising further increases the pressure on widely distributed paid newspapers, many of which have entered the stables of big industrial groups. It's not certain that the information possibilities generated by the Internet, although immense -and for as long as these remain open -- will be adequate to counterbalance the weight of the mass media should it wholly become the voice of the oligarchy. Nevertheless, not all journalists are totally enthralled yet, and they could be galvanized around the ideal of freedom. The third, wobbly force is the left. Since its social-democratic component became its center of gravity, it has abandoned any ambition of transforming the world. The compromise with free-market liberalism has led the left to so totally adopt the values of free-market liberalism that it no longer dares -- except in the most cautious terms -- to deplore social inequality. On top of that, the left displays an almost cartoonish refusal to truly engross itself in environmental issues. The left remains pickled in the idea of progress as it was conceived in the nineteenth century, still believes that science is produced the same way it was in the time of Albert Einstein, and intones the chant of economic growth without the slightest trace of critical thinking. Moreover, "social capitalism" rather than "social democracy" is undoubtedly the more apposite term. Nonetheless, can the challenges of the twenty-first century be addressed by the currents of tradition other than the one that identified inequality as its primary motive for revolt? This hiatus is at the heart of political life. The left will be reborn by uniting the causes of inequality and the environment -- or, unfit, it will disappear in the general disorder that will sweep it and everything else away. And yet, let us be optimistic. Optimistic, because there are ever more of us who understand -unlike all the conservatives -- the historical novelty of the situation: we are living out a new, never-seen11

before phase of the human species' history, the moment when, having conquered the Earth and reached its limits, humanity must rethink its relationship to nature, to space, to its destiny. We are optimistic to the extent that awareness of the importance of the current stakes becomes pervasive, to the extent that the spirit of freedom and of solidarity is aroused. Since Seattle and the protests against the World Trade Organization in 1999, the pendulum has begun to swing in the other direction, toward a collective concern about the choices for the future, seeking cooperation rather than competition. The somewhat successful, although still incomplete, battle in Europe against GMOs, the international community's continuance of the Kyoto Protocol in 2001 despite the United States' withdrawal, the refusal by the peoples of Europe to participate in the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and the general recognition of the urgency of climate-change challenge are signs that the wind of the future has begun to blow. Despite the scale of the challenges that await us, solutions are emerging and -- faced with the sinister prospects the oligarchs promote -- the desire to remake the world is being reborn. http://www.alternet.org/environment/107988/how_the_rich_are_destroying_the_earth/ The Guardian | Tania Branigan | November 22, 2008

Soil erosion to cut harvests in China's breadbasket by 40% Almost 100 million people in south-west China will lose the land they live on within 35 years if soil erosion continues at its current rate, a nationwide survey has found. Crops and water supplies are suffering serious damage as earth is washed and blown away across a third of the country, according to the largest study for 60 years. Harvests in the north-east, known as China's breadbasket, will fall 40% within half a century on current trends, even as the 1.3 billion population continues to grow. While experts said farming and forestry were the main causes of the problem in more than a third of the area affected, the research team said erosion was damaging industrial areas and cities as well as remote rural land. About 4.5bn tonnes of soil are scoured away each year, at an estimated cost of 200bn yuan (£20bn) in this decade alone. The poor will be worst hit, warns the report from China's bio-environment security research team, with almost three-quarters living in erosion-hit areas. The country's 80,000 reservoirs are also affected, with sand and mud reducing their storage capacity each year. Like soil deposits along rivers, that increases the risk of flooding. "If we don't conduct effective measures, erosion will cause major damage to social and economic development," Chen Lei, director of the ministry of water resources, told the official People's Daily. Professor Mu Xingming of the Institute of Soil and Water Conservation told the Guardian that overpopulation was largely to blame. Story Date: 22/11/08 http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/nov/22/chinese-soil-erosion-farming-overpopulation The Guardian | Alok Jha and Bobbie Johnson | November 22, 2008

San Francisco Bay to be electric car capital • Plan predicts 1m petrol vehicles replaced by 2015 • Charging points to be on offer throughout cities Officials in California have unveiled ambitious plans to turn the San Francisco Bay area - home to 7.6 million people - into one of the world's leading centres for electric vehicles. If it succeeds, the strategy will see billions of dollars poured into a power infrastructure that will turn the region away from fossil fuels and persuade millions of people to switch to green transport technology. The plan, which will see the bay area become the first region of California to switch its transport systems entirely away from traditional fuels, is being supported by local government as well as the state's governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger. "California is already a world leader in fighting global warming and promoting renewable energy," he said. "This partnership is proof that by working together we can achieve our goals of creating a healthier planet while boosting our economy." Globally, cars generate about 20% of the world's output of carbon dioxide and California's cars account for 40% of the state's greenhouse gas emissions. Replacing around 1m petrol cars with electric cars by 2015, as is proposed under the new plans, will make a big difference.

12

At least $1bn is expected to be spent on improving green transport infrastructure to make the bay area encompassing the cities of San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose, as well as Silicon Valley - the leading centre for electric vehicles in America, and potentially around the world. The electric transportation company Better Place will build a network of kerbside charging points across cities in the area and create the equivalent of filling stations, where electric car owners will be able to replace their flat batteries for fully charged ones. With a full charge on one of Better Place's batteries, a typical car will be able to travel 100 miles, ideal for commuting around urban areas. The local government will also work to harmonise standards across the region so that drivers of electric vehicles can travel the length and breadth of the bay area without worrying about finding the right kind of charging station. Most users of the Better Place system would pay a monthly subscription for unlimited access to the company's services. Visitors with electric cars could also use the charging points for a one-off fee. "You can plug in any car," said Jason Wolf, the California business manager at Better Place. "In California, everyone who's bought Teslas, everyone who has bought plug-in hybrids or electric cars that are not in tight relationship with us, will be able to plug into our network." Speaking at the launch yesterday, Gavin Newsom, the mayor of San Francisco, said: "If we're going to get serious about advancing climate-action plans, we've got to get serious about getting into the business of alternative transportation." California, the world's eighth largest economy, has some of the most progressive climate-change legislation. The state aims to reduce greenhouse gas levels to 80% below 1990 levels by 2050. The plans will put California on a footing with other countries leading the attempt to introduce electric cars, including Israel, Denmark and Australia. Last month, the Britain pledged £100m to speed the commercial introduction of electric and low-carbon road transport to the country. Wolf said the first cars in the California scheme would be deployed in 2010. Story Date: 22/11/08 http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/nov/22/san-francisco-transport-alternative-energy-electriccar The Guardian | Sue Branford | November 22, 2008

Food crisis leading to an unsustainable land grab Private companies across the world are buying huge quantities of foreign land for the mass production of food. Sue Branford wonders if this quick-fix solution risks creating an even bigger environmental crisis The world map is being redrawn. Over the past six months, China, South Korea, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other nations have been buying and leasing huge quantities of foreign land for the production of food or biofuels for domestic consumption. It's a modern day version of the 19th-century scramble for Africa. This year's bubble in food prices – driven by financial speculators, biofuels and compounded when some countries halted food exports to ensure their own supplies – led to pain for nations dependent on imports. Alarm bells rang, with many governments alerted to what might lie ahead as climate change and soil destruction reduce the supply of food on the world market. The result, a huge international land grab, raises many troublesome issues. Although governments are encouraging the trend, the acquisitions are generally made by the private sector. Along with agribusiness, corporations and food traders, investment banks and private equity funds have been jumping on board, seeing land as a safe haven from the financial storm. Indeed, with the supply of the world's food under long-term threat, investment in land may prove a more solid bet than earlier speculation in dotcoms and derivatives. Yet from a global perspective, it is difficult to see how such investments can deliver long-term food security. The investors will want a quick return. They will practise an industrial model of agriculture that in many parts of the world has already produced poverty and environmental destruction, as well as farmchemical pollution. Furthermore, many local communities will be evicted to make way for the foreign takeover. The governments and investors will argue that jobs will be created and some of the food produced will be made available for local communities, but this does not disguise what is essentially a process of dispossession. Lands will be taken away from smallholders or forest dwellers and converted into large industrial estates connected to distant markets. Ironically, these very small communities may have a key role to play in helping the world confront the interlinked climate and food crises. Many such communities have a profound knowledge of local biodiversity and often cultivate little-known varieties of crops that can survive drought and other weather extremes. 13

Scientific studies have shown that farming methods that are not based on fossil-fuel inputs and are under the control of local farmers can be more productive than industrial farming and are almost always more sustainable. The reason why this year's food crisis had such a harsh impact, particularly in Asia and Africa, was that many countries had been pushed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other institutions to produce food crops for external markets. They would have been far less vulnerable if they had concentrated first and foremost on feeding their populations through local production. Many of the countries that are rushing to outsource their food supplies should perhaps be looking first to see if they can produce more of their food locally, even if it means carrying out difficult measures like land reform. By seeking a quick fix to their food shortage, they may well end up without a long-term sustainable solution. And even if they succeed in generating a steady stream of food imports, they may simply be exporting their food insecurity to other nations. Story Date: 22/11/08 http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/nov/22/food-biofuels

November 23 The Sunday Times | John-Paul Flintoff | November 23, 2008

Energy: How low can you go? To take the heat out of global warming we must take radical action, learning to live on half the energy we currently consume. John-Paul Flintoff tries the low-watt diet. Somewhere upstairs, my wife is sitting in bright light beside a warm radiator, sipping tea, flicking through glossy magazines as she blow-dries her hair, and consuming in 30 minutes about half the energy used by the typical Bangladeshi all day. And I’m trying to make up for that. I’m sitting in the dark. The heating is off. I’m wearing two jumpers, a hat and a scarf and a pair of fingerless gloves I improvised out of old socks that had gone at the ankle. I’m writing this on an ancient manual typewriter. It’s not easy. Unlike a computer, it doesn’t let you move blocks of text around, and there’s no word count. You can’t switch to the internet to look something up. It’s also bone-shakingly hard work, a bit like a workout at the gym. But I’m enjoying myself. There is no junk e-mail. And I’m extremely happy to think of all the electricity I’m saving. Because recent calculations suggest that IT will very soon overtake aviation as a guzzler of energy. All these videos on YouTube and unread blogs take up space on servers that suck everincreasing amounts from the grid. An avatar on the online game Second Life uses as much energy as the average Brazilian. Then there are all the gadgets we can’t seem to live without. All the batteries that need recharging. In fact, it was the batteries going on my mouse that got me thinking about using this typewriter. Now I’m planning to de-escalate my digital life altogether. Out with the computer unless strictly necessary, in with the typewriter. Out with the Palm Pilot, in with the paper diary. The planet is heating up, the weather turning ever more unpredictable. Forests are dying, and animal species too – at such a rate that it’s been described as the sixth great extinction (or was it the fifth? If I were online, I could look it up). On top of that, it is now accepted that world oil production will peak in as little as three years, if it hasn’t already, and go into terminal decline. For both these reasons it is imperative to save as much energy as we can – reducing emissions and preserving valuable fuels to help make the transition to a renewable energy infrastructure. And to do this we need a target. James Hansen, the Nasa scientist who has done so much to raise the issue of global warming, argues that we should focus on the safe level of CO2 in the atmosphere – 350 parts per million. He may be right, but it doesn’t work for me. More helpful is research from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology that identifies the energy use each of us must stick to if we’re to keep the planet hospitable: precisely 2,000 watts. As a rate of consumption, 2,000W would keep a two-bar electric fire running constantly, or 20 not-veryeco incandescent light bulbs. (Or, if you prefer, it’s the power you’d get from 22 humans trudging endlessly on a treadmill.) Watts are like the rate at which water flows out of a tap. The total energy used is measured by timing the flow (how long the tap has been running at that rate). This gives the total amount of water in the bath, or rather the watt-hours for which your utility company bills you. Thus, over 24 hours, consumption at a rate of 2,000W totals 48,000 watt-hours (48 kilowatt-hours or kWh). In a year, as I’ve tried to explain rather desperately to my wife, that comes to 17,520kWh. 14

Twenty light bulbs doesn’t sound much, considering that it must cover all our needs, in every part of our lives: not only energy we consume at home but our individual share of infrastructure such as roadbuilding and sewage, and the energy that goes into everything we buy. So if you want to run the oven or drive a car, you must turn off several light bulbs. In theory, it shouldn’t be difficult, because 2,000W is what the average human uses already. But that’s an average. In practice, consumption varies enormously. The typical Bangladeshi uses just 300W. Across Europe the figure is about 5,400W. And in the US it’s a stonking 11,400W. The Swiss have calculated that 2,000W is sustainable only as long as the whole world sticks to it. But the disparity between nations is unsustainable, they say. It’s a basic issue of fairness. That said, increasing energy use in developing countries beyond 2,000W would be catastrophic – so we must learn to use less. The Swiss minister for the environment, transport, energy and communications, Moritz Leuenberger, concedes that the target seems, initially, unrealistic. “But the necessary technology already exists.” Indeed, the Swiss have taken the 2,000 Watt Society into the mainstream. A large pilot scheme involving co-operation between industry, universities, research institutes and government bodies has been going for seven years in Basel. Zurich joined the project in 2005 and Geneva declared its interest in 2008. Roland Stulz, the project’s director, insists: “It’s not about starving; it’s not about having less comfort or fun.” Indeed, he tells me one of his colleagues has already attained the 2,000W life. “It’s about a creative approach to the future.” The three big areas of energy use are food, transport and the home, accounting for roughly a third each. On the first two I’ve made progress. I get my food from local, seasonal suppliers (including my own allotment). I don’t eat a lot of meat, and I often eat food raw. As for transport, I have an electric car but usually cycle or take the bus. (I work at home, so don’t travel that much – just as well, because it’s hard to live the 2,000W life if you drive or fly much, or even at all.) Home is a leaky Victorian terraced house in north London. Hoping to make savings here, I recently got my hands on several eco books. The most comprehensive is probably The Carbon-Free Home, by Stephen and Rebekah Hren, which has much to say about saving energy, including the suggestion that we install composting loos to save all the pumping and purification of water (to drinking standard) that we then simply flush away. The typical Briton uses 160 litres a day. But rather than install a composting loo yet, I fix two interruptible flush kits from Interflush inside my cisterns. Now I can flush exactly what I need to clear the pan – a tiny bit, a bit more, or the lot. As to the heating, I turn it off when I’m on my own. There are statistics on the internet about how much energy you save every degree you lower the thermostat. But turning the whole thing off is a lot more effective than saving the odd degree. To get to grips with my needs, I acquired an Electrisave monitor and wandered round the house turning on lights and appliances to see how much they all used. After a day or so I felt that I had got all I needed from it. Now it was just another pointless gadget, I felt responsible for all the “embodied” energy that had gone into making it. I decided to give it away so that someone else could benefit. I had discovered by myself the 2,000 Watt Society dictum that “using, rather than owning” is the way forward. I didn’t really need the Electrisave anyway. With a tiny bit of physics – which I missed at school – I could have conducted my own energy audit. If you know this already, forgive me: the consumption (in watts) of any given item can be calculated by multiplying the volts by the amps, and both are usually to be found on the plug. The Carbon-Free Home recommends making an inventory of every device in the house, then recording every time you turn an appliance on and off: “You may be thinking, ‘Wow, that would take too much time!’ If so, you’re probably using way too many appliances and your need for an energy diary is that much greater.” It recommends, unsurprisingly, that nothing be left on standby. The authors don’t much approve of devices that merely amuse: “Is there ever such a thing as an efficient use of a video console, or does it always represent a failure of imagination?” Clothes should be left to dry in the sun, or at least in the air, because tumble dryers eat up to 6 kilowatts. Indeed, “Appliances that use electric resistance heat must go.” I see what they mean. The iron uses 3,250W. The kettle uses a relatively modest 2,300W, so I decide henceforth to make tea using a Storm Kettle, designed for camping, which boils a whole litre using a few scraps of newspaper and two small sticks. Alas, this is not fast, and with the heating off I’m in constant need of hot drinks. Then there’s my wife’s hairdryer. This uses 3,250W, like the iron. “Instead of using a hairdryer,” the book’s authors suggest, “get a less maintenance-intensive haircut, shower in the evening, or dry hair with a towel or in sunshine”. They have obviously not met my wife, who has what she calls “bonkers” hair. If she doesn’t blow-dry it straight, it goes weirdly frizzy, which is why she does that every morning. I’ve tried suggesting that she 15

grow it a bit longer, so that the hair’s weight pulls it into some order, but she refuses to believe it would work. I’ve refrained, for now, from suggesting that she eliminate the problem altogether by shaving it all off. Mercifully, we can make enormous savings without yet banning hairdryers. Scientists estimate that roughly two-thirds of the primary energy used today is wasted, mostly in the form of heat that nobody wants or uses. (Primary energy is the energy contained in a lump of coal, whereas “useful” energy is the light emitted by a bulb once the coal has been burnt to make steam, the steam has powered a turbine, and the resulting electricity has been transmitted over the grid.) With currently available technologies we can reduce that waste significantly, according to the man who supplies electricity to my house. In the early 1990s, Dave Vincent was a hippie living in an old military vehicle and surviving off-grid with his own minimal energy arrangements, including a tiny windmill. It was this that gave him the idea of dropping back into the mainstream, where he set up Ecotricity, the first wind-powered electricity company in Britain. Today Vince lives in a house with all the usual fridges, freezers and so on, and he thinks it’s impractical to give them all up. Instead, we should buy the most efficient models when upgrading and put as much as possible of our domestic load into evenings and even the middle of the night. The national grid has massive spikes in demand and must run at a big surplus; a lot of energy is also wasted by running the grid down when demand is low. Some plants come on only to meet peaks – generally the dirtiest ones. We could save a lot of energy if we flattened the peaks and troughs. “If we put a chunk of electric demand into the night-time,” says Vince, “we could save the equivalent of all the nuclear power, or about 20% of the entire grid.” So just by setting the washing machine – or the oven when I’m baking bread – to work in the middle of the night, I can significantly reduce my share of national energy use. But is behavioural change, which Vince prescribes, really so simple? If I tell Harriet that she has left the lights on, or left doors open, she reacts as if I have poked her in the eye. Colin Mather, chair of North Yorkshire’s Esk Valley Community Energy Group, shares my experience of people being unwilling to change behaviour. His group was set up three years ago to promote simple things like insulation. “We did a survey of 600 homes and had a 50% response, which is extremely good. Then we targeted people and told them about grants – it’s difficult to find out what’s available. And they started to be taken up. But I still see people who say, ‘I know I should, but I haven’t got round to it yet.’ People are very hard to change.” It might help if people knew how much they could save. This year the average domestic fuel bill reached £1,000 for the first time. By reducing consumption to 2,000W per person, households could save more than £600 a year. The 2,000 Watt Society says that, as well as reducing consumption, it’s imperative that we move quickly towards generating three-quarters of our energy renewably. But Mather’s group, like so many around the country, is experiencing great frustration. Several sites in the Esk valley have been identified as suitable for generating hydropower, but the Environment Agency is opposed, because the river is good for salmon. “They’re not interested in energy, only fish.” A community group nearer me is Transition Belsize, part of the nationwide Transition Town movement preparing for life after cheap oil and amid climate chaos. One of the members I meet is Alexis Rowell, a journalist turned Lib Dem eco champion on Camden council. He tells me that 890 people looked round the Camden Eco Home, a show house, in a single weekend in September – “proof that people want to see how a Victorian property can be refurbished to reduce carbon emissions and energy bills by 80%”. I went to see the Camden Eco Home for myself. Builders had put thick insulation on the inside of exterior walls, because the house is in a conservation area and its appearance can’t be changed. I couldn’t see Harriet agreeing to that. We would have to move the ceiling mouldings and several bookcases, and lose a hefty chunk of floor space. But alas, it makes a lot more sense to do the walls, roof and floor than double glazing – about six times the energy saving at half the cost. On my way home, I bought insulation to put round the doors and windows, and a brush to cut draughts below the front door. I’m happy to report that the effect was perceptible at once, and without any hightech measuring device. After that, I went to a dinner party in a part of London where everyone seems to drive a 4x4. I sat next to a woman who listened politely as I described the steps I’d taken towards the 2,000W life. She wondered if I’d hit the target. Honestly, I had no idea: the online tool for assessing this is available only in German. Regardless, she said there was “no point”. I would be better off lobbying the UN or the government. Then she admitted that climate change and energy issues leave her feeling hopeless. “Look at India and China,” she said, meaning that they use more energy all the time. This was demoralising. For some time people had received no replies to the e-mails they sent me, and found my phone was usually turned off. Had I lost friends for nothing? No: her point was easy enough to refute. If we do nothing, we are in real trouble, whereas we might make a difference by taking action. If your car is heading for a cliff and the prospect of falling alarms you, you don’t say there’s no point applying the brake – far less lobby the government to tell you to apply it. 16

Like many people, this woman was paralysed by the scale of the problem combined with the urgency. But we can’t do everything at once. And the good news is that we don’t need to. The 2,000 Watt Society points out that infrastructure needs replacing at a rate of 2% a year anyway, so we can make a great deal of change incrementally. As for India and China, we don’t need to go round the world to find people who make our task more difficult. The person who does most to hold me up in my mission to save the world is Harriet, with her crazy hairdryer habit. But as I looked away from my miserable, paralysed neighbour, I glimpsed my wife talking animatedly, her hair immaculately straight and shiny, and remembered that, though she may not like the idea of insulating interior walls, or sticking polythene sheets over the windows as a budget alternative to double glazing, she has put up with me talking about composting loos, turning the heating down, wagging my finger at her about leaving the lights on, and making tea out of rainwater with a pair of damp sticks. She’s my wife, she uses far too many kilowatts, but I love her and we’re in this together. Anyway, I rather like the way she does her hair. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article5188314.ece The Associated Press | Daniel Woolls | November 23, 2008

Solar panels on top of mausoleums helps give power to Spanish town MADRID, Spain - A new kind of silent hero has joined the fight against climate change. Santa Coloma de Gramenet, a gritty, working-class town outside Barcelona, has placed a sea of solar panels atop mausoleums at its cemetery. The move has transformed a place of perpetual rest into one buzzing with renewable energy. Flat, open and sun-drenched land is so scarce in Santa Coloma that the graveyard was just about the only viable spot to move ahead with its solar energy program. The power produced by the 462 solar panels is equivalent to the yearly use of 60 homes. It flows into the local energy grid for normal consumption - one community's odd nod to the fight against global warming. "The best tribute we can pay to our ancestors, whatever your religion may be, is to generate clean energy for new generations. That is our leitmotif," said Esteve Serret, director Conste-Live Energy, a Spanish company that runs the cemetery in Santa Coloma and also works in renewable energy. In row after row of gleaming blue-grey, the panels rest on mausoleums holding five layers of coffins, many of them marked with bouquets of fake flowers. The panels face almost due south, which is good for soaking up sunshine, and started working on Wednesday - the culmination of a project that began three years ago. The concept emerged as a way to utilize an ideal stretch of land in a town that wants solar energy but is so densely built-up - Santa Coloma's population of 124,000 is crammed into four square kilometers - it had virtually no place to generate it. At first, parking solar panels on coffins was a tough sell, said Antoni Fogue, a city council member who was a driving force behind the plan. "Let's say we heard things like, 'they're crazy. Who do they think they are? What a lack of respect!"' Fogue said in a telephone interview. But town hall and cemetery officials waged a public-awareness campaign to explain the worthiness of the project, and the painstaking care with which it would be carried out. Eventually it worked, Fogue said. The panels were erected at a low angle so as to be as unobtrusive as possible. "There has not been any problem whatsoever because people who go to the cemetery see that nothing has changed," Fogue said. "This installation is compatible with respect for the deceased and for the families of the deceased." The cemetery hold the remains of about 57,000 people and the solar panels cover less than five per cent of the total surface area. They cost about C$1.1 million to install and each year will keep about 56 tonnes of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, Serret said. The community's leaders hope to erect more panels and triple the electricity output, Fogue said. Before this, the town had four other solar parks - atop buildings and such - but the cemetery is by far the biggest. He said he has heard of cemeteries elsewhere in Spain with solar panels on the roofs of their office buildings, but not on above-ground graves. http://www.canadaeast.com/search/article/489815

17

The Observer | Ed Pikington | November 23, 2008

The eco machine that can magic water out of thin air Water, Water, everywhere; nor any drop to drink. The plight of the Ancient Mariner is about to be alleviated thanks to a firm of eco-inventors from Canada who claim to have found the solution to the world's worsening water shortages by drawing the liquid of life from an unlimited and untapped source the air. The company, Element Four, has developed a machine that it hopes will become the first mainstream household appliance to have been invented since the microwave. Their creation, the WaterMill, uses the electricity of about three light bulbs to condense moisture from the air and purify it into clean drinking water. The machine went on display this weekend in the Flatiron district of Manhattan, hosted by Wired magazine at its annual showcase of the latest gizmos its editors believe could change the world. From the outside, the mill looks like a giant golf ball that has been chopped in half: it is about 3ft in diameter, made of white plastic, and is attached to the wall. It works by drawing air through filters to remove dust and particles, then cooling it to just below the temperature at which dew forms. The condensed water is passed through a self-sterilising chamber that uses microbe-busting UV light to eradicate any possibility of Legionnaires' disease or other infections. Finally, it is filtered and passed through a pipe to the owner's fridge or kitchen tap. The obvious question to the proposition that household water demands can be met by drawing it from the air is: are you crazy? To which the machine's inventor and Element Four's founder, Jonathan Ritchey, replies: 'Just wait and see. The demand for water is off the chart. People are looking for freedom from water distribution systems that are shaky and increasingly unreliable.' For the environmentally conscious consumer, the WaterMill has an obvious appeal. Bottled water is an ecological catastrophe. In the US alone, about 30bn litres of bottled water is consumed every year at a cost of about $11bn (£7.4bn). According to the Earth Policy Institute, about 1.5m barrels of oil - enough to power 100,000 cars for a year - is used just to make the plastic. The process also uses twice as much water as fits inside the container, not to mention the 30m bottles that go into landfills every day in the US. But the mill also has downsides, not least its $1,200 cost when it goes on sale in America, the UK, Italy, Australia and Japan in the spring. In these credit crunch times that might dissuade many potential buyers, though Ritchey points out that at $0.3 per litre, it is much cheaper than bottled water and would pay for itself in a couple of years. There is also the awkward fact that although there is eight times more atmospheric water than in all the rivers of the world combined, it is unevenly distributed. Those areas of the US that are most desperate for more water - such as the arid south-west where ground water levels are already dramatically depleted have the lowest levels of moisture in the air. The mill ceases to be effective below about 30 per cent relative humidity levels, which are common later in the day in states such as Arizona. To combat that problem, the machine has an intelligent computer built into it that increases its output at dawn when humidity is highest, and reduces it from mid-afternoon when a blazing sun dries the air. Story Date: 23/11/08 http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/nov/23/water-mill-eco-invention The Observer | John Vidal | November 23, 2008

Coal's return raises pollution threat Rising prices are spurring plans for a big increase in mining despite a threat to climate change goals Britain is poised to expand its coal mining industry, despite fears that the move will lead to a rise in climate change emissions and harm communities and the environment. Freedom of information requests and council records show that in the past 18 months 14 companies have applied to dig nearly 60 million tonnes of coal from 58 new or enlarged opencast mines. At least six coalfired power stations are planned. If all the applications are approved, the fastest expansion of UK coal mining in 40 years could see southern Scotland and Northumberland become two of the most heavily mined regions in Europe. The demand for new mines is being driven by dramatic increases in the price of coal. This has quadrupled in two years and has risen by 45 per cent since the start of this year. Opencast, or surface, mines are much cheaper than deep mines, but those living nearby can suffer years of pollution. The increase in mining will embarrass the Energy and Climate Change Secretary, Ed Miliband, who is arguing that Britain must reduce carbon emissions. Ministers must soon decide whether to approve a controversial new coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth in Kent, the first in 30 years. 'Attention has been 18

focused on the decision at Kingsnorth, but over the past 18 months local authorities have approved more than 24 new opencast mines and 16 expansions of existing mines,' said Richard Hawkins, of the Public Interest Research Centre (Pirc), which conducted the study. 'There is a clear contradiction between the government's 80 per cent target for climate change emissions cuts and investment in new coal. With industry and government saying carbon capture and storage is at least 20 years away, this shows that the 160m tonnes of carbon dioxide released by burning this coal would not be captured,' he said. Research shows that Scotland will bear the brunt of the expansion. Currently 11 mines produce about 5m tonnes of coal a year. A further 27 mines could extract a total of 22m tonnes of coal over just a few years. Thirteen of the 27 have already been approved and the rest are awaiting planning decisions. Northumberland is likely to become the centre of coal mining in England with plans to extract more than 20m tonnes of coal from some of the largest opencast mines in Europe. Wales, which has one of the biggest surface mines in Europe at Ffos-y-Fran, could have five large new mines. The research also suggests that power companies would like to build six new coal-fired power stations. These would replace existing power stations if given the go-ahead but could lock Britain into coal for the next 50 years at a time when it is trying to lead the world on reducing climate change emissions. According to the research, based on information provided by energy companies, Scottish and Southern, Scottish Power, Eon and RWE npower all have plans at different stages of development. Feasibility studies have been carried out on new plants at Cockenzie and Longannet in Scotland, as well as new stations at Tilbury in Essex, Blyth in Northumberland and Ferrybridge in Yorkshire. Only one application to build, at Kingsnorth in Kent, has so far been put forward. In the past six months 12 groups, made up of climate change activists and residents, have been set up to object to the plans. There have been big protests in Wales, Derbyshire and Yorkshire and a coal train heading for Britain's biggest power station at Drax in North Yorkshire was hijacked by protesters in June. Nearly half of all British coal is mined using opencast methods against just 12 per cent 10 years ago, but this is expected to increase significantly. In 2005, total UK production was 20m tonnes, with 9.6m tonnes coming from deep-mined production and opencast accounting for 10.4m tonnes. Nearly 70 per cent of all the coal burnt in UK power stations is imported from Russia, South Africa, Colombia and Australia. But coal prices have risen far above official projections. 'Part [of the increase in applications] is certainly due to the increase in the world coal price, which follows oil and gas,' said a spokesman for the Coal Authority, the body which regulates the licensing of UK coal mines.\ Story Date: 23/11/08 http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/nov/23/fossil-fuels-pollution

November 24 The Wall Street Journal | November 24, 2008

Rubber Duckies to Help Track Speed of Melting Glaciers Challenged to probe under Greenland's glaciers, NASA robotics expert Alberto Behar wondered what mechanism might endure sub-zero cold, the pressure of mile-thick ice and currents that sometimes exceed the flow rate of Niagara Falls. It was a daunting engineering proposition, even for someone experienced in conceiving robot explorers suitable for Mars and the moons of Jupiter. Worried about climate change, many researchers are eager to learn how rising temperatures may be undermining Greenland's ice cap where, according to recent satellite measurements, glaciers are melting much faster than expected. Should Greenland's 2.17 million square miles of ice ever melt completely, the water could raise sea level world-wide by 24 feet, swamping coastal cities that are home to millions of people. As Dr. Behar at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory soon discovered, though, there isn't much money for global-warming experiments in Greenland. Unfazed, he thought of one device that might survive such extremes at a cost his field expedition could readily afford — a two-dollar rubber duck. Consequently, Dr. Behar and his colleagues at the University of Colorado this past August released 90 yellow rubber ducks into the melt water flowing down a chasm in the largest of Greenland's 200 glaciers — the Jakobshavn Isbrae — which has been thinning rapidly since 1997. Each duck was imprinted with an e-mail address and, in three languages, the offer of a reward. 19

If all goes well, Dr. Behar hopes that one day they will emerge 30 miles or so away at the glacier's edge in the open water of Disko Bay near Ilulissat, bobbing brightly amid the icebergs north of the Arctic Circle, each one a significant clue to just how warming temperatures may speed the glacier's slide to the sea. Story Date: 24/11/08 http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,456164,00.html The Guardian | Ben Willis | November 24, 2008

Listen to the children Many older-generation Filipinos view the effects of climate change with resignation - but not so younger people. I saw roofing flying, rocks and mud flowing down the hill, and people didn't know what to do," recalls Josephine Espinosa. "It was so fast, everything was like a dream. I saw children running like rats, looking for a space to hide, but it was impossible to hide. The rocks just crushed them." Eighteen-year-old Josephine is a bright and positive young woman, but when she remembers the events of two years ago, her pain is plain to see. On February 17 2006, part of a mountain straddling the geological fault line beneath the Philippines collapsed, sending millions of tons of mud and rock plunging down on the village of Guinsaugon. Within minutes the landslide had overcome the village, killing 1,126 inhabitants, including 200 children. Rescuers tried desperately to find survivors, but only 20 were pulled alive from the debris. One of these was Josephine. She spent four hours buried in the wreckage of her home with barely enough space to breathe before rescuers dug her out. Both her parents and brother were killed, but she escaped with relatively minor injuries. She has spent the past two years rebuilding her life. The landslide that wiped out Guinsaugon was the largest of a number of similar incidents that struck the province of Southern Leyte in February 2006. In an area known for seismic activity, the spate of landslides was blamed partly on a series of small earthquakes. But the Guinsaugon tragedy followed a period of unseasonably heavy rain, during which 200cm fell in just 10 days, prompting environmentalists and scientists to point the finger at the region's changing climate. As a developing island state, the Philippines is regarded as a world climate change hotspot. A 2005 report by environmental group Greenpeace warned that global warming would leave the country open to the full gamut of climate disasters: erratic rainfall, worsening typhoons, flooding, landslides and more. Last year, international development body Germanwatch placed the Philippines at the top of its annual climate risk index, which measures the impact of weather-related catastrophes on countries around the world. With a third of the Philippines' 90 million-strong population below the age of 15, children are expected to be especially vulnerable to climate change. Baltz Tribunalo, disaster risk reduction coordinator for children's charity Plan in the Philippines, says that climate change threatens to undermine all other aspects of the country's development. "In terms of the millennium development goals, reducing risk from climate disaster is fundamental, because it can wipe out everything else we do," he says. The Guinsaugon tragedy impelled Plan to raise the priority of its efforts to protect vulnerable youngsters such as Josephine from future climate-related disasters. Plan's disaster programme engages children in a range of practical activities such as tree planting in areas at risk of flooding or typhoons. It also includes extensive training for children to help them identify and map the potential local hazards of climate change, how to respond to them should the worst happen, and, where necessary, how to take pre-emptive action in areas where the risks are greatest. Such action was deemed necessary in the village of Santa Paz. Only a few miles from Guinsaugon, Santa Paz is also in an area prone to landslides. Using data from the local Mines and Geosciences Bureau, pupils from Santa Paz high school produced a risk map of their area, which revealed that the school was right in the path of a potential landslide. Seventeen-year-old Honey, a former Santa Paz pupil, remembers how the risk map galvanised her and others into action "We were warned that if ever it rained for several days, the mountain may collapse on our school," Honey says. "We decided we had to relocate it; if we had stayed where we were, none of us would have been able to concentrate on our studies." A poll of students showed a majority in favour of the relocation. Honey and her peers began a letterwriting campaign to school and local government officials to win their backing for the transfer. Eventually their request was rubber-stamped and the entire school relocated to a new site a few miles away. The move drew fierce opposition from conservative locals resistant to the idea of the school relocating because of vague warnings of future catastrophe. Even today, there is lingering resentment over the move, which some feel was based on a false premise. Samson Sabandal, who runs the Santa Paz village shop next to the site of the old school, encapsulates the view of many. "I'm not worried about climate change," he says. "It's been raining here for a long time, and nothing has ever happened." 20

But it was precisely because of this mindset among older Filipinos that some felt the will of Santa Paz's children had to be obeyed. Rosette Lerias was the provincial governor of Southern Leyte at the time and was instrumental in pushing through the relocation. "The older generation had the idea that nothing has happened to us, ergo nothing will happen to you, which has no logic at all, especially when all the signs are telling us it will," Lerias says. "In Santa Paz, it was the children who were pressing to move because they felt in danger." This example of children taking a lead in adapting to a changing climate sends a powerful message to the rest of the world as it gears up for the key round of climate negotiations in Copenhagen next year. The aim of the Copenhagen talks is to agree an enhanced version of the legally binding UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and Plan, which is part-funded by DFID, is lobbying to ensure it contains an explicit recognition of the rights of children like Josephine Espinosa to a secure future. Bernaditas Muller, a Filipino and the lead coordinator for the G77 and China group of developing countries in the negotiations, believes children must be heard in the talks, not just because of their vulnerability but because they have a strong vested interest in driving forward real action on climate change. "If you look at the Philippines, it is clear children are not just victims, but an active force for addressing climate change," Muller says. "The kind of change in lifestyle we're asking for now is hard for adults who have become used to a certain way of living. If we want to do something about it then children will be the ones to do it. They are the future." Story Date: 24/11/08 http://www.guardian.co.uk/journalismcompetition/listen-children Reuters | Olivia Rondonuwu | November 24, 2008

Trees for kids: Indonesia's way of beating global warming JAKARTA (Reuters) - An Indonesian city battling the effects of deforestation has come up with a novel way of tackling the problem. Would-be families must plant a tree. "Everyone who wants to get married or apply for a birth certificate must plant a tree," Syahrum Syah Setia, the head of Balikpapan city's Environmental Impact Management Agency, said. "The city's condition is already worrying, and we must act to tackle global warming." The areas around Balikpapan city in East Kalimantan province have lost some of their forest cover to deforestation from the mining and timber sectors. East Kalimantan loses 350,000-500,000 ha (865,000-1.24 million acres) of forest land a year and the government can only replant 30,000 ha (74,000 acres) of that, local environmental group Walhi said. Indonesia has lost an estimated 70 percent of its original forest land, although it still has a total forest area of more than 91 million ha (225 million acres). (Editing by Sugita Katyal and Jeremy Laurence) Story Date:24/11/08 http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE4AN2CO20081124?feedType=RSS&feedNam e=environmentNews The Guardian | Alok Jha | November 24, 2008

Forest protection plan could displace millions, say campaigners Livelihoods of 60m indigenous people at risk from plans to tackle climate change by protecting forests, says Friends of the Earth International proposals to protect forests to tackle climate change could displace millions of indigenous people and fail to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, according to environmentalists. Friends of the Earth International (FoE) will argue in a report to be published on Thursday, that plans to slow the decline of forests, which would see rich countries pay for the protection of forests in tropical regions, are open to abuse by corrupt politicians or illegal logging companies. Forests store a significant amount of carbon and cutting them down is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions — currently this accounts for around 20% of the world's total. Deforestation also threatens biodiversity and puts the livelihoods of more than 60 million indigenous people who are dependent upon forests at risk. Working out a way to protect forests will be one of the key issues discussed next week in the United Nations climate change summit in Poznan, Poland, which marks the start of global negotiations to replace for the Kyoto protocol after 2012. 21

Government representatives at the meeting will consider the adoption of the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (Redd) mechanismin which richer countries pay to maintain forests in tropical regions to offset their own emissions. The idea was based on Nicholas Stern's 2006 review of the economics of climate change. Stern said that £2.5bn a year could be enough to prevent deforestation across the eight most important countries. But Stern also argued that, for such a scheme to work, institutional and policy reforms would be required in many of the countries that would end up with the protected forests, such as Indonesia, Cameroon or Papua New Guinea. FoE agrees that forests could be included in climate change targets but argues that, in its current form, Redd is fraught with problems. In its report, the group says that the proposals seem to be aimed at setting up a way to generate profits from forests rather than to stop climate change. "It re-focuses us on the question, who do forests belong to? In the absence of secure land rights, indigenous peoples and other forest-dependent communities have no guarantees that they'll benefit from Redd," said Joseph Zacune, a climate and energy coordinator at Friends of the Earth International. "There's increased likelihood of state and corporate control of their land especially if the value of forests rises." During the climate talks next week, Zacune said FoE will lobby for forests to be kept out of carbon markets and that land rights are enforced as the basis of any future forest policy. "We want some kind of mechanism to stop deforestation," said Zacune. "If there was to be any agreement, it would have to be developed through a joint process with other relevant forest conventions and human-rights instruments like the UN declaration on the rights on indigenous peoples." Redd also has no clear definition for what a forest is — the FoE report highlights that the UN includes single-species plantations, such as those grown for palm oil or other agriculture agriculture, which are often grown in areas that have been cleared of virgin rainforests. "Even at their very best, they store only 20% of the carbon that intact forests do. In Brazil, they're now talking about 'net deforestation', and this probably means designing Redd and forest policies to match the amount of trees being cut down due to the expansion of plantations," said Zacune. FoE's conclusions echo those of the Rights and Resources Initiative, an international coalition of global NGOs which has argued that the rush to protect forests could have unintended consequences. In two reports published in July, the Rights and Resources Initiative said that the money aimed at protecting trees might end up in the hands of central government officials in areas of the world where they were closely tied to illegal logging and mining activities. "It is widely acknowledged that poor governance and corruption also need to be addressed if deforestation is to be stopped," said the FoE report. "The question is whether Redd can address these issues and how it links to existing established processes intended to deal with illegal deforestation (which includes illegal logging and illegal forest conversion to agriculture). Furthermore, would the use of a Redd fund rather than carbon markets improve governments' ability to reign in such illegal activities?" Zacune said that the best way to manage forests was to devolve the responsibility to localm people — an idea proposed by Tuvalu. "The idea is that they would provide incentives for protecting and retaining their forests. It's the communities and indigenous people who have managed the forests for generations that should be in control of the forest." The FoE report also argues that protecting forests should not become a way for rich countries to pay their way out of reducing their emissions. "If governments are serious about tackling climate change, deforestation must be stopped once and for all," said Zacune. "To do this we need to tackle the consumption of agrofuels, meat and timber products which is driving deforestation and support good governance of forest resources." Tony Juniper, a sustainability adviser to the Prince's Rainforests Project, a group set up by the Prince of Wales to work out way to fund forest protection, said there was no single solution to the complex challenge posed by tropical deforestation. "There are clearly dangers in raising finance via a tradable commodity from forest carbon, but there are also dangers in closing off options that could make a positive difference assuming adequate safeguards are put in place. It is also important to remember that the market is one approach among several possible funding mechanisms. For example, major finance could be mobilised via the auctioning of pollution credits under the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme, or through taxes on aviation fuel for example." Story Date: 24/11/08 http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/nov/24/forests-climatechange

22

The Guardian | David Hencke | November 24, 2008

Environment Agency chairman urges government to launch 'green new deal' Former culture secretary Lord Smith to call for a comprehensive long-term environmental strategy Lord Smith, the former cabinet minister and chairman of the Environment Agency, will today call on the government to follow US President-elect Barack Obama and launch a multi-billion pound "green new deal" to boost clean energy and create jobs. Speaking at the annual conference of the agency only hours before Alistair Darling, the chancellor, announces his tax cutting and public spending package, the former culture secretary will call for a comprehensive long-term strategy to cover investments in renewable energy, green technology, energy efficiency and developing new technologies liked carbon capture and storage. His speech comes as Ed Miliband, the climate change secretary and Hilary Benn, the environment secretary, have been pressing Gordon Brown and the Treasury, for a big boost for green policies in the pre-budget statement today. The signs are that they have only been partially successful. Today's announcement is set to include a boost for job-intensive home insulation programmes which could create 10,000 or more jobs through lagging lofts and installing other energy saving measures. It will also include upgrading of council and housing association homes. Some extra money is expected for flood protection measures. What appears to be missing is the implementation of an overall coordinated strategy across Whitehall, beyond pressure from the Cabinet Office for more green procurement orders by government. This is despite pressure from Miliband for a coordinated approach from developing hybrid cars to boosting renewable energy from wind farms to solar power. Two major oil companies with interests in developing renewable energy - BP and Shell - have recently pulled out of major wind farm and solar projects in the UK - to develop renewable energy schemes in the United States, where big subsidies were made available by George Bush and are to be extended by Barack Obama. Both comapnies have complained about the difficulties of obtaining planning permission and lack of tax incentives for renewable energy. Lord Smith will say today that the government should go ahead with major wind farms, solar power, tidal barrages and coal fired power stations with carbon capture equipment as part of a massive renewable energy programme. He wants more incentives for energy efficiency homes and businesses, greater use of combined heart and power programmes and new feed-in tariffs to help householders develop sustainable energy which can be fed into the national grid. Lord Smith said: "We must hold our nerve and invest in green technology despite the current pressures on the economy. We should take the lead on developing carbon capture so we can develop new industries that create new jobs." Story Date: 24/11/08 http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/nov/24/climatechange-pre-budget-report

November 25 Bloomberg | Alex Morales | November 25, 2008

Oceans Acidifying Faster Than Predicted, Threatening Shellfish Nov. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Oceans are acidifying 10 times faster than predicted, threatening heightened damage to coral reefs and shellfish, University of Chicago scientists said. Researchers took more than 24,000 pH measurements over eight years and found the rate at which the ocean is becoming more acidic correlates with the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, or CO2, the university said in a statement. When CO2, which helps cause global warming, dissolves in water, it forms carbonic acid. “The acidity increased more than 10 times faster than had been predicted by climate change models and other studies,” University of Chicago ecology and evolution professor Timothy Wootton said in the 23

statement. “This increase will have a severe impact on marine food webs and suggests that ocean acidification may be a more urgent issue than previously thought.” The study adds to a body of evidence pointing to the degradation of the world’s oceans. More than twofifths of the world’s maritime environment have had at least “medium-high” damage as a result of fishing, pollution and climate change, University of California-led researchers said in February. More acidic oceans are already affecting marine life, the latest study, carried out at Tattosh Island off Washington state, found. “The study documented that the number of mussels and stalked barnacles fell as acidity increased,” the University of Chicago said. Populations of smaller shelled species and some algae increased, it said. The findings appeared in yesterday’s online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal. Reefs First Victims? Earlier this month, Oceana, a Washington-based conservation group, said coral reefs in the cold deep seas off Alaska may now be among the first victims of global warming in a marine environment that’s home to half of the U.S.’s commercial fishing. The resulting acidification prevents marine life such as coral, crabs, lobsters and oysters from building calcium carbonate skeletons and shells, impairing their ability to survive and reproduce. The loss of Alaska’s cold-water reefs may be a precursor to the extinction of reefs worldwide because of acidification, which occurs when oceans absorb carbon dioxide, according to an analysis by Ocean. Cold water absorbs more carbon dioxide that’s blamed for warming weather globally from such modernday sources as coal-fired power plants than tropical waters. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aybjnXJtOihg Discovery News | Michael Reilly | November 25, 2008

Tibetan glaciers rapidly melting Glaciers high in the Himalayas are dwindling faster than anyone thought, putting nearly a billion people living in South Asia in peril of losing their water supply. Throughout India, China, and Nepal, some 15,000 glaciers speckle the Tibetan Plateau. There, perched in thin, frigid air up to 7200 metres above sea level, the ice might seem secluded from the effects of global warming. But just the opposite is proving true, according to new research published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. Professor Lonnie Thompson of Ohio State University and a team of researchers travelled to central Himalayas in 2006 to study the Naimona'nyi glacier, expecting to find some melting. Mountain glaciers have been receding all over the world since the 1990s and there was no reason this one, which provides water to the mighty, Indus, and Brahmaputra Rivers, should be any different. But when the team analysed samples of glacier, what they found stunned them. Radioactive signals Glaciers can be dated by looking for traces of radioactivity buried in the ice. These are the leftovers from US and Soviet atomic bomb testing in the 1950s and 1960s. In the Naimona'nyi samples, there was no sign of the tests. In fact, the glacier had melted so much that the exposed surface of the glacier dated to 1944. "We were very surprised not to find the 1962-1963 horizon, and even more surprised not to find the 19511952 signal," says Thompson. In more than twenty years of sampling glaciers all over the world, this was the first time both markers were missing. He suspects the reason for this is that high-altitude glaciers, despite residing in colder temperatures, are more sensitive to climate change. As more heat is trapped in the atmosphere, he said, it holds more water vapour. And when the water vapour rises to high altitudes it condenses, releasing the heat into the upper atmosphere, where high mountain landscapes feel the brunt of warming. "At the highest elevations, we're seeing something like an average of 0.3°C warming per decade," says Thompson. "The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projects 3°C of warming by 2100. But that's at the surface; up at the elevations where these glaciers are there could be almost twice as much, almost 6°C." "I have not seen much as compelling as this to demonstrate how some glaciers are just being decapitated," says Associate Professor Shawn Marshall of the University of Calgary. Marshall, who studies glaciers in North America, says it's striking how much worse glaciers near the equator are than those in the Canadian Rocky and Cascade mountain ranges. Water supply 24

The finding has ominous implications for the hundreds of millions of people who depend on the waters of the Naimona'nyi and other glaciers for their livelihoods. Across the region, no one know just how much water the Himalayas have left, but Thompson says it's dwindling fast. "You can think of glaciers kind of like water towers," he says. "They collect water from the monsoon in the wet season, and release it in the dry season. But how effective they are depends on how much water is in the towers." http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/11/25/2428885.htm?site=science&topic=latest The Guardian | Terry Macalister | November 25,2008

Duty on long-haul flights and funding for wind energy do not satisfy green campaigners Airline passenger duty (APD) on flights to destinations such as Thailand, South Africa and the Seychelles will increase by 25% from next year and by will rise by half from that in 2010. Alistair Darling said the move would benefit the environment, but his decision to have a more draconian flight tax and to give only a small boost to a low-carbon economy angered the green movement. The APD is presently levied at £10 on an economy-class flight to European destinations and £40 for longhaul flights. The chancellor has introduced four new bands with a starting level of £11 on tickets for destinations within 2,000 miles of London; £45 for flights of up to 4,000 miles; £50 for 4,000-6,000 miles and £55 for flights over 6,000. The changes do not come into effect until next November. The duty will rise again the following year so by 2010-11, the tax on the lowest band will be £12; band B will be £60; a band C flight to Bangkok or Johannesburg will be £75, and the top band will be £85. "I have decided to reform APD into a four-band system ensuring that those who travel further and have a larger environmental impact meet that cost," Darling explained. His decision to drop a previously proposed airline duty worried airlines but delighted the Airport Operators Association, which said it had "won the battle". The World Development Movement argued that the end of a possible airline duty was "bad news for the UK taxpayer, the environment and the world's poor". The government did give a significant boost to the wind power industry by extending the Renewables Obligation (RO) of financial support until 2037. Darling also brought forward what he said was more than £500m worth of spending to be used on insulating homes and other energy-efficiency initiatives. But there was no wider green New Deal, whereby large amounts of public money would be poured into creating a low-carbon future, as had been called for by environmentalists. The chancellor said the RO, which legally requires electricity suppliers in Britain to source a growing percentage of their power from green sources, would run for a further 10 years to 2037. This would ensure "investors can plan with confidence for the future", he said. The British Wind Energy Association said it was "really encouraging" and would stimulate those companies looking at plans to build expensive projects far out in the North Sea. "Under the old regime, many companies were worried that the current RO was going to run out half way through their schemes," said a spokesman. Darling also said that £535m of capital spending to promote government environmental objectives would be brought forward to sustain 350,000 jobs in the low-carbon sector. About £100m of new money would be spent on helping 60,000 low-income homes cut their energy bills through insulation. Despite these measures, John Sauven, Greenpeace executive director, said he was disappointed. "This was an historic opportunity to invest billions in a low-carbon, high-technology future but the chancellor blew it. We can only hope that by the time he formulates the budget itself, he will have grasped the potential of hi-tech climate solutions to get us out of this recession. "Once again the aviation industry has been given a free pass at a time when its contribution to climate change is rising." The government also highlighted expected changes to the North Sea tax regime that are likely to please the oil and gas industry, which feared a windfall tax. Story Date: 25/11/08 http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/nov/25/pre-budget-report-economics1

Bloomberg | Mathew Carr | November 25,2008

25

Brazil, Mexico Lawmakers Back Poor-Nation CO2 Limits (Update1) Brazilian and Mexican lawmakers backed a proposal to impose greenhouse-gas limits on some developing countries after 2020 as long as the richest nations first curb their output of emissions blamed for global warming. The plan represents a departure from the traditional negotiating stance of most poor nations to reject any binding targets. The proposal was formed during a meeting of legislators from North and South American countries in Mexico City to address ways to stem carbon-dioxide emissions that contribute to climate change. The group, known as Globe, aimed to boost communication between rich and poor nations ahead of United Nations-sponsored climate talks starting Dec. 1 in Poznan, Poland. The new proposal, which is not binding on their governments, hinges on developed countries acting first. “The most advanced developing countries should aim to reduce the rate of increase of their own greenhouse-gas emissions between now and 2020, with a view to taking on binding absolute emissions reductions thereafter,” the Globe Americas Legislators Forum said in a statement posted on the Web site of Carbon International, a London-based consultant. Any agreement must require that industrialized countries “deliver on their commitments” to trim emissions, and aid the transfer of technology that reduces CO2 emissions, the note said. Globe, a London-based group of lawmakers founded in 1989 to protect the climate and provide energy security, didn’t immediately provide a list of nations that backed the proposal. ‘Reduce Intensity’ “In the period up to 2020, major developing countries should take on nationally appropriate commitments that reduce the carbon intensity of their development,” supported by richer nations, the lawmakers agreed. Carbon International provides communications services for Globe. Developed nations need to slash their production of greenhouse gases at least 25 percent by 2020, compared with 1990 levels, according to Globe, a target that matches proposals to the UN from at least 36 countries, including European Union members and China. An alternative, supported by at least 49 poorer nations, advocates more lenient reductions, of least 10 percent, by 2020, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change said last week on its Web site. That document summarizes proposals for the two weeks of talks beginning next month. The U.S. opposed inclusion of targets last year in an agreement drafted in Bali, Indonesia, to guide two years of international climate talks that are scheduled to end with a global deal in Copenhagen late next year. To contact the reporter on this story: Mathew Carr in London at [email protected] Story Date: 25/11/08 http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=apFa_y8GcYDs

Bloomberg | Joe Schneider | November 25,2008

Canadian Groups Appeal Dismissal of Kyoto Suits (Update1) Canadian environmental groups appealed last month’s judge’s decision to throw out three lawsuits accusing the federal government of failing to draft a plan to meet pollution-reduction goals. “If the federal court’s decision was left unchallenged, Canada’s woeful inaction on the climate change crisis would be allowed to continue despite domestic law that clearly states the government must act,” Hugh Wilkins, a Canada Ecojustice lawyer, said today in a statement. “We simply cannot stand by while the government picks and chooses which laws to enforce.” Ecojustice and Friends of the Earth sued the government in 2007 and asked a judge to order Prime Minister Stephen Harper to comply with a June law requiring it to prepare a plan to meet the emissions targets of the Kyoto Protocol. The law passed with the support of opposition parties, which held a majority of the votes in Parliament. John Baird, then environment minister, said in April 2007 that Canada couldn’t meet its commitments under the Kyoto Protocol without causing a recession. According to an economic- impact report presented by Baird, implementing the Kyoto plan would result in 275,000 job losses in 2009 while the cost of electricity would rise 50 percent after 2010 and gas prices would increase 60 percent. Friends of the Earth and Ecojustice sued the government in May 2007, alleging it had contravened the Canadian Environmental Protection Act by not meeting international commitments to reduce polluting 26

emissions. The groups withdrew that suit after the June law was passed and filed three new complaints in September 2007. ‘Meaningless’ Order Federal Judge Robert Barnes in Vancouver dismissed the lawsuits Oct. 20, saying an order would be “meaningless” because the government can’t be forced to implement the policy. Barnes also said he doesn’t believe the court has a role to play in reviewing the reasonableness of the government’s response to Canada’s Kyoto commitments. Canada is required by 2012 to reduce polluting emissions to 6 percent below 1990 levels under the Kyoto Protocol, the 1997 international agreement to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases that most scientists say contribute to global warming. Under the government’s plan, emissions would be reduced to a level 30 percent higher than the Kyoto targets. Baird said the proposal would put the country on track for further reductions later. The case is Between Friends of the Earth and Her Majesty the Queen, T-1683-07, Federal Court of Canada (Vancouver). To contact the reporter on this story: Joe Schneider in Toronto at [email protected]. Story Date: 25/11/08 http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aZJV5QQpAq6Y

CNN.com | Matthew Knight | November 25,2008

Carbon dioxide levels already a danger LONDON, England (CNN) -- A team of international scientists led by Dr James Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, say that carbon dioxide (CO 2) levels are already in the danger zone. Concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere currently stand at 385 parts per million (ppm) and are rising at a rate of two ppm per year. This is enough, say the scientists, to encourage dangerous changes to the Earth's climate. As a result we risk expanding desertification, food shortages, increased storm intensities, loss of coral reefs and the disappearance of mountain glaciers that supply water to hundreds of millions of people. The report, "Target Atmospheric CO2: Where Should Humanity Aim?" appears in the latest edition of the Open Atmosphere Science Journal and brings together the expertise of ten scientists from the United States, the UK and France. It is a departure from the previous climate estimates which predict that perilous CO 2 levels will be reached later in the century. Drawing on improved paleoclimate records and current global observations has prompted the authors to reach new conclusions about what constitutes a safe level of CO 2. Dr Hansen told CNN: "In the paleoclimate data, the Cenozoic data is the most alarming -- burning all the fossil fuels clearly would send the planet back to the ice-free state with sea level about 250 feet higher." Hansen thinks these sorts of changes would take several centuries, but he said we would have to deal with a "holy mess...as ice sheet disintegration unfolded out of our control". As far as current global observations are concerned, Hansen cites both the decline of Arctic sea ice and the worldwide retreat of mountain glaciers as causes for major concern. "Once they are gone," he said, "the fresh water supplies for hundreds of millions of people dependent on rivers originating in the Himalayas, Andes and Rocky mountains will be severely reduced in summer and fall." In light of the new data the authors believe that merely stabilizing CO 2 emissions might not be enough to avoid catastrophic changes. "Humanity must aim for an even lower level of greenhouse gases", the report concludes. To achieve these reductions they propose phasing out coal-fired power stations by 2030 and scaling down the use of unconventional fossil fuels like tar sands. Reforestation programs on degraded land and instigating the widespread use of natural fertilizers could also help to draw down CO2 by around 50 ppm. Dr Hansen says it's impossible to say when we will reach the point of no return. "It's like the economy, it's a non-linear problem," he said. "You knew, given the continued input of big deficit spending that things would go to pot, but nobody could predict the time of collapse with any confidence. We had better start reducing emissions soon and get back below 350 ppm within several decades -- otherwise I doubt that the ice sheets can stand such a long strong pressure." Story Date: 25/11/08 http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/11/21/climate.danger.zone/index.html?section=cnn_latest 27

Bloomberg | Adam Satariano | November 25, 2008

World’s Greenhouse Gases Hit Record Ahead of Talks (Update1) Heat-trapping gases blamed for global warming rose to their highest level last year, the United Nations said in a report indicating efforts to curb emissions have failed without the participation of the world’s biggest polluters. Carbon dioxide, the main man-made greenhouse gas, climbed 0.5 percent in 2007 from a year earlier, the same growth rate as in 2006, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization said today in its annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin from Geneva. Greenhouse gases trap radiation within the atmosphere, causing the Earth to warm. Negotiators from 190 countries will gather starting Dec. 1 in Poznan, Poland, to craft a new climate change treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The UN report suggests the previous treaty, the Kyoto Protocol expiring in 2012, hasn’t curbed output because the U.S. refused to join the effort and developing nations expanded their economies, said Stephen Schneider, a climatologist at Stanford University. “Countries like the U.S. have continued to go up, especially because we did nothing about big new cars and coal plants,” said Schneider, co-director of the Palo Alto-based university’s Center for Environmental Science and Policy and member of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “But the big reason for this large jump is China and India playing catch-up.” CO2 Concentration The concentration of CO2 gas has increased 37 percent since the Industrial Revolution to 383.1 parts for every million parts of air, the WMO said. Before the use of coal, oil and natural gas in the mid-18th century, that figure was about 280 parts per million. U.S. President-elect Barack Obama pledged last week the country will “engage vigorously” in the international climate change negotiations scheduled to conclude in December 2009 in Copenhagen. He said the U.S. would attempt to cut greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by 2020, and another 80 percent by 2050. “We have no time at all to get started,” said Kevin Trenberth, head of climate analysis at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, and a member of the UN intergovernmental panel. Emissions-reduction efforts in many parts of the world are being “overwhelmed” by the growth of India and China, he said. “This is a global problem -- it can’t be solved by one country,” he said. “It doesn’t help much if just California is doing something in the U.S. or just Europe does it.” World Pace Schneider said the world at its current pace will triple the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by the end of the century, an amount that exceeds the UN panel’s worst-case scenario and may trigger temperature increases of 3 degrees to 7 degree Celsius. That would cause sea-level rise, melting of polar ice caps, and increased fire and hurricane intensity, he said. The Harvard Project on International Climate Change Agreements issued a report yesterday arguing the international agreement ratified in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan is flawed because it doesn’t require large polluters such as China and India to make emissions cuts. The U.S. is the only industrialized nation that refused to ratify the accord. China and India have maintained that cutting emissions would hamper economic growth as they attempt to pull their people out of poverty. Developed nations such as the U.S., which are responsible for a majority of the rise in greenhouse gases since the Industrial Revolution, should be the first to make cuts, representatives from the two countries said last week at the Governors’ Global Climate Summit in California. According to reports by individual countries, 20 nations, including Japan, Italy and Australia, may not be able to meet their Kyoto pledges to reduce emissions. ‘Global Consensus’ The Greenhouse Gas Bulletin is published each year by the UN as the “global consensus” on the latest trends on greenhouse gases. In addition to carbon dioxide, other emissions reaching new highs include methane, which climbed 156 percent from pre- industrial levels, and nitrous oxide, which increased 19 percent, according to the report. The most abundant ozone-depleting gases, chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, are decreasing slowly as a result of the Montreal Protocol, an international agreement adopted in 1987 to protect the world’s ozone layer, the report also said. The WMO said its measurements came from a network of observatories in more than 65 countries. 28

To contact the reporter on this story: Adam Satariano in San Francisco at [email protected] Story Date: 25/ 11/08 http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aNfa8yi6HI0c

Bloomberg | Angela Macdonald-Smith | November 25, 2008

Geodynamics, Macquarie Generation Win Renewable Energy Funding Geodynamics Ltd., the Australian company seeking to produce power from hot underground rocks, and state-owned Macquarie Generation were among companies granted A$27 million ($17 million) of funds for renewable energy plants. Geodynamics secured A$10 million of the funds granted by the New South Wales government to develop a geothermal project in the Hunter Valley north of Sydney, the Brisbane-based company said today in a statement. The grant will enable exploration to be accelerated, with a well to be drilled in early 2009, it said. The grants, from the state’s climate change and renewable energy development program, will support seven projects including solar-thermal and biogas generation, and will lead to investment of about A$200 million, New South Wales Environment and Climate Change Minister Carmel Tebbutt said yesterday. The funding for the Hunter Valley geothermal project will be phased over the life of the project, with the full amount to be received once a small power plant starts up in 2012, said Geodynamics, whose shareholders include Origin Energy Ltd. and India’s Tata Power Co. Macquarie Generation owns and operates the Liddell and Bayswater power stations in the Hunter Valley. Story Date: 25/ 11/08 http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=agAXwjD6q4wc

November 26 Civil Society | Janice Harvey | November 26, 2008

Consumption is killing us It makes for an interesting juxtaposition of worldviews: Just five days before North America's "Buy Nothing Day" (Nov. 28), Prime Minister Harper declared that to stem the economic downward spiral, Canadians need to buy more stuff. That's because our economy is totally dependent on consumer spending, or "consumer confidence." Camera shots of either full or empty stores in Toronto's Eaton Centre generally accompany television news stories on the state of the economy. When people stop spending money - no matter what on or what for - the economy slows down and goes into recession. In order to keep people spending, a vast array of unnecessary and short-lived products and services are invented while a multi-billion dollar advertising industry convinces us we can't live without them. Consumption for the sake of consumption is the name of the game. Between 1980 and 2001, the average home size in the United States grew by more than 30 per cent, probably because people need more space to house all the stuff they buy. Who among us doesn't undertake the annual ritual of cleaning out shelves, cupboards, closets and toy boxes in anticipation of the new influx at Christmas? Boxes and bags full of stuff are hauled off to various goodwill operations or yard sales. Most discarded items are hardly used, perhaps useless, and most certainly unnecessary. If it were a necessary item, it would have been worn out by use and thus unfit for passing on to someone else. Then there's the equally large volume of stuff that has broken down, is unrepairable, or never worked properly and didn't get returned, or has become 'obsolete' (a computer that can't handle YouTube, a television that isn't a flat screen HD version, or a cell phone that doesn't order pizza). This stuff ends up in the landfill, or as we saw recently in a sobering CBC documentary, in horrific toxic electronic dumping grounds in China. In the 1970s, the issue of planned obsolescence was hotly debated as corporations began designing and building products for short rather than long lifespans, ensuring a quick turnover of our money into their profits. A Future Shop brochure describes their program to replace rather than repair failed electronics. No fuss, no muss, no questions asked - all you have to do is buy into the plan. This craziness is what makes the Canadian economy tick. Unless we continue to buy ever more stuff (how about those leaf blowers?), build more and bigger houses, trade in the two-year old car, or put apple sauce packaged in the new squeezable plastic tubes in the kids' lunch boxes, everything tanks. Growth in 29

GDP slows, then stalls, then goes into negative numbers. Everyone watches the numbers like hawks, stepping in with massive infusions of public money, tax and interest rate cuts, to prime the consumption pump again. Meanwhile, other related indicators and their implications are ignored completely. It might do to reflect a moment on another meaning of consumption: a disease causing wasting of tissues, according to Oxford, especially pulmonary tuberculosis. Rampant consumerism, while building a shiny lifestyle facade, has eaten away the foundation of family, community and planetary security with both personal and ecological debt. Most consumer spending has been financed by debt. Canadians' personal indebtedness has reached a record high, even higher per capita than in the United States. Personal debt is eating away at the stability of families and, therefore, communities. Urging more consumer spending (which by definition means more borrowing, as opposed to saving, paying down debt and building a financial buffer against hard times) is irresponsible in the extreme. The other indicator of consumption is the wasting away of the earth's superstructure and infrastructure that supports all life. All the stuff we consume comes from the earth's limited supply of air, water, land and resources, and all the waste and pollution associated with its production, use and disposal is injected back into it. According to the UN's Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, the World Wildlife Fund's latest prognosis on the fate of the world's mammals, and the reports of International Panel on Climate Change, our consumption-dependent economy is destroying the stuff we really can't live without. Recycling is OK for things you need to buy, but it sits at the bottom of the waste hierarchy. At the top is, buy less stuff. Reduce both personal and ecological debt. Start to break the addiction to consumption by participating in Buy Nothing Day coming up this Friday (see www.adbusters.org for more information). http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/search/article/492616 The Canadian Press | November 26, 2008

UN talks chance for Canada to restore climate-change cred: environmentalists OTTAWA - A coalition of environmental groups says Canada can restore its credibility on the world stage at the coming round of climate-change talks in Poland. The Climate Action Network says Canada has an opportunity to shed its image as a laggard on climate change with a new, less bellicose environment minister at the helm. The environmental groups say Canada must be less rigid in its rejection of any global climate-change pact that doesn't include targets for big polluters like China and India. The environmentalists say that while these emerging economies must curb their greenhouse-gas emissions, they cannot be expected to take on the same measures as developed countries. The meetings in Poland follow last year's climate-change talks in Bali, Indonesia, and are seen as a stepping stone to next year's major climate-change conference in Copenhagen. The Copenhagen conference aims to produce a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement that sets targets for lowering greenhouse gases which expires in 2012. http://www.canadaeast.com/search/article/493137 The Daily Gleaner | Andrea Dimock | November 26, 2008

City merchants work toward a 'green' Christmas Green is the colour of the holidays, from the trees that dominate the living room to the lights that adorn our homes and businesses. Green is also fast becoming the colour of aware businesses in the Fredericton area. Green Shops is a new initiative springing from the city's Green Matters program. Introduced in May and piloted throughout the summer, it was officially launched in October. "Green Matters was introduced to get the community engaged in dealing with greenhouse gases and environmental issues," said Alycia Morehouse, climate change co-ordinator for the city. "Green Shops is the natural next step in involving the business community." To date, the initiative has garnered 20 members who go through an audit that has 30 components. The audit takes about an hour. "Each component has a different credit value. Using a grey water system earns five credits while stopping the use of chemical pesticides is worth two credits," she said. "There are guidelines to follow and levels to reach. "We have a mixture of bronze, silver and gold members. We are encouraging the members to continue to keep improving their green practices." 30

The companies can take baby steps or undertake more substantial measures. Examples include such actions as installing programmable thermostats, upgrading the installation, and reducing the amount of packaging. "We are fortunate that business associations, such as Business Fredericton North, Downtown Fredericton Inc. and the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce, have taken an active interest in the Green Shops initiatives and are encouraging their members to become involved," said Morehouse. "This will definitely get the message across to consumers. We do provide each business with a decal to display their membership in Green Shops." One member has taken the decal to another level by painting it on the storefront window. Radical Edge, a business operating for almost 20 years in the city, is a bronze member. "We try to keep up with what the city is doing in many areas, especially when it concerns the environment. That is an important issue to us," said Mike Davis, co-owner along with his wife, Mary. Radical Edge became involved with Green Shops during the summer. The business worked closely with Morehouse. "There was some tweaking done to the program during that time and some specifications were changed," said Davis. "But given the nature of our business, it only made sense to be involved. "Our client base is very aware of environmental concerns and I would classify the majority as thinking people. They are devoted to the outdoors as much as we are." The business had a leg up when the auditing process began - all staff members were already riding bikes or walking to work. There was, however, a significant drawback to the store's location. "We rent the premises in an older building on Queen Street, so that was a negative. We have done some work to reduce heat loss from the store," he said. "We have replaced light bulbs with more efficient types and installed a low-flow toilet. "It's difficult to be green in this economy. It costs more to incorporate green practices and that needs to change." Another change Davis would like to see is more recycling facilities close to businesses. As it stands now, a lot of packaging is just being thrown out. "I can say the city is aware of how difficult it is for some companies to recycle more rather than less and is working on the problem," said Davis. "I know one retailer who breaks down all his boxes, stores them and then makes a weekly trip to dispose of them. "We don't have that option at our location but would like to have the opportunity to decrease what we throw away." To Davis, it is simply a matter of being conscience of what needs to be done to protect the environment today and tomorrow. "We make the effort to sell quality merchandise that will last. The 70s and 80s were all about consumption," he said. "I know it doesn't make sense from a retailer's point of view but we want our customers to wear out what they bought from us before they purchase something new." And, in the long term, being green benefits the city, businesses, consumers and, most importantly, the environment. "It's the smart choice and saves money over the long term," Morehouse said. "The types of the businesses embracing the Green Shops initiative range from Avalon SalonSpa to Carmen Creek Golf Course. "The response has been extraordinary and we encourage more companies to become involved. They can go to greenmattersfredericton.com and get more information." http://dailygleaner.canadaeast.com/search/article/492765

chinadaily.com | Li Jing | November 26, 2008

Warm winter 'major threat' to crops Prolonged periods of drought resulting from China's 23rd consecutive "warm winter" will pose a serious threat to the country's crop yields, the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) said in a report published Tuesday. Some regions could experience droughts until the spring, the report said, adding that the warm weather might even continue until summer. In contrast, extreme falls in temperature are forecast for the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, where "natural disasters such as snowstorms and freezing rains are likely to hit Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan and Guizhou provinces", the report said. The CMA forecasts come just days ahead of the United Nations summit on climate change in Poznan, Poland, which opens on Monday. 31

In its report, the CMA urged the Ministry of Agriculture to take steps to avoid agricultural losses caused by the warmer weather. "Over the next three months, the average temperature in most parts of the country will be slightly higher than normal for the time of year," the report said. "This winter will be warmer than last year," it said. Spring and summer temperatures will also be higher than normal, it said. Although last year's average winter temperature was the lowest since the mid-1980s, the season was still officially classed as "warm", the CMA said. Experts have said the effects of global warming are becoming increasingly clear to see, and the threat to crop yields should not be understated. Xiong Wei, an expert on the correlation between climate change and agriculture with the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, told China Daily Tuesday that prolonged periods of warm weather and drought are clear signs of climate change, and will have a huge impact on the country's agricultural output. "Warm winters create an environment in which plant diseases and pests thrive, and these pose a serious threat to crops," he said. Also, after decades of warm winters, some wheat varieties grown in the north of China have become less resistant to cold. So if a spring freeze does occur, the crop is at risk and harvests are hit, Xiong said. The CMA report also said that from next month until February, rainfall in western Liaoning, northeastern Hebei and northeastern Shandong provinces is forecast to be down by 20 to 50 percent on the seasonal average. Some areas of the country, including the Northeast, the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, and south of the Yangtze could experience droughts throughout the whole of the winter and into next spring, the report said. Droughts in the south will have a huge impact on the nation's agricultural output, Xiong said. "I am very concerned the dry weather will seriously affect grain yields," he said. Story Date: 26/11/08 http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2008-11/26/content_7240372.htm

Planet Ark | Philip Pullella | November 26, 2008

Vatican Set To Go Green With Huge Solar Panel Roof VATICAN CITY - The Vatican was set to go green on Wednesday with the activation of a new solar energy system to power several key buildings and a commitment to use renewable energy for 20 percent of its needs by 2020. The massive roof of the Vatican's "Nervi Hall", where popes hold general audiences and concerts are performed, has been covered with 2,400 photovoltaic panels -- but they will not be visible from below, leaving the Vatican skyline unchanged. The new system on the 5,000 square metre roof will provide for all the year-round energy needs of the hall and several surrounding buildings, producing 300 kilowatt hours (MWh) of clean energy a year. The system, devised by the German company SolarWorld, will allow the 108-acre city-state to cut its carbon dioxide emissions by about 225,000 kilograms (225 tonnes) and save the equivalent of 80 tonnes of oil each year. The Holy See's newspaper said on Tuesday that the Vatican planned to install enough renewable energy sources to provide 20 percent of its needs by 2020, broadly in line with a proposal by the European Union. The 1971 Nervi Hall is named after the renowned architect who designed it, Pier Paolo Nervi, and is one of the most modern buildings in the Vatican, where most structures are several centuries old. The hall can hold up to 10,000 people. It has a sweeping, wavy roof which made the project feasible and the solar panels virtually invisible from the ground. Church officials have said the Vatican's famous skyline, particularly St Peter's Basilica, would remain untouched. An editorial in Tuesday's newspaper appealed for greater use of renewable energy. "The gradual exhaustion of the ozone layer and the greenhouse effect have reached critical dimensions," the newspaper said. By producing its own energy the Vatican will become more autonomous from Italy, from where it currently buys all its energy. The Vatican is surrounded by Rome. Pope Benedict and his predecessor John Paul put the Vatican firmly on an environmentalist footing. 32

Benedict has made numerous appeals for the protection of the environment. The Vatican has hosted a scientific conference to discuss the ramifications of global warming and climate change, widely blamed on human use of fossil fuels. Environmentalists praised the pope last year after he made a speech saying the human race must listen to "the voice of the earth" or risk destroying the planet. Story Date: 26/11/08 http://www.planetark.org/enviro-news/item/50675

November 27 The Daily Gleaner | Michael Staples | November 27, 2008

City teen to discuss climate change with peers at conference in Poland It's a chance to make a difference and Taryn McKenzie-Mohr intends to take full advantage of it. The 17-year-old Grade 12 student at Fredericton High School is one of three people from the city selected to attend the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change set to run Dec. 1-12 in Poznan, Poland. "Last year, the youth at the conference had an amazing impact on influencing leaders, co-operating with other countries and making connections that previously had not been available until youth were attending the conference," said McKenzie-Mohr, who is being sponsored by British Council Canada. "As a youth delegate, I have a unique opportunity to communicate with the media and Canadian youth so that they understand and know what sort of decisions our government is making." Joining McKenzie-Mohr are fellow Frederictonians Nicolas Nadeau, 24, and Caroline Lee, 24. All are part of the Canadian Youth Delegation, a group of 26 young leaders from across Canada. Nadeau, an Ecole Sainte-Anne graduate, recently moved to Montreal to work on environmental education projects at a non-profit organization, ENvironnement JEUnesse. He attended last year's climate negotiations in Bali, Indonesia. Lee, an organizer of UNB's first comprehensive waste audit, co-organized the university's Youth Environmental Symposium before heading off to Simon Fraser University in Vancouver to pursue her master's in global climate change policy. The high-profile UN conference sets the agenda for international efforts to tackle the challenges posed by climate change. "I am really excited and looking forward to meeting the international youth who will be attending the conference," said McKenzie-Mohr, who will be one of the youngest delegates. "It's really unique because you don't often see such a wide variety of nations represented and youth coming together to work to try and fight climate change." McKenzie-Mohr was trained last April by Al Gore and Climate Project Canada to be a presenter of Gore's documentary about the environment An Inconvenient Truth. She said she's concerned about climate change and believes the federal government is taking a backseat with regard to tackling the issue. McKenzie-Mohr said she is also concerned the environment will get lost in the economic crisis. She said there's a misconception that people can't be both environmentalists and economists. McKenzie-Mohr said there will be huge opportunities coming out of the recession that will help the environment, such as creating jobs in renewable energy. She will be sharing her experiences with classmates after she returns from Poland. McKenzie-Mohr's progress at the conference can be monitored on her blog at http://capefarewellcanada.ca/news-events-blogs.php. http://dailygleaner.canadaeast.com/search/article/494065 The Daily Gleaner | Heather McLaughlin | November 27, 2008

City waiting for verdict on climate change program How much progress is Fredericton making with its Green Matters initiative? Fredericton officials are hoping to soon hear back from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities - the auditor of the capital city's figures - on whether the city is winning or losing the war to curb greenhouse gases. "We're waiting, rather impatiently, for them to get back to us," said Alycia Morehouse, the city's climate change co-ordinator. "They know that we'd like that number." Fredericton is a member in the federation's partners for climate change program. 33

A number of communities from every province have signed up for the program. They're trying to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent and community emissions by six per cent by 2010, in line with the objectives of the Kyoto Protocol. Of the 15 New Brunswick communities in the program, only Fredericton has met four of five milestones after joining in June 2001. Those milestones - both as a corporate government body and as a community - include creating a greenhouse gas emissions inventory and forecast, setting emissions reductions goals, writing a local action plan and implementing it, and measuring results. "We are in pretty good standing nationally. In the Top 10 per cent," Morehouse said. "Since we have submitted our community action plan, we are just waiting for them to verify our numbers through their independent testing and quality control ... to ensure we're as accurate as possible." But despite meeting most of the program's set-up criteria, Fredericton actually saw an increase in corporate greenhouse gas levels between 2000 and 2004, when municipal emissions rose 1.96 per cent. Since 2004, the city has had record growth and millions of dollars worth of construction is now on the power grid, so it's a tough battle to curb pollution in a growing economy. To create its first batch of figures, which include not just corporate calculations, but community emission levels, the city has had to gather and submit to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities data from NB Power, Enbridge Gas New Brunswick, propane suppliers and oil companies. "You're looking at water, waste, street lights. It's quite onerous and we need to get all that information," Morehouse said. "There's a lot of variables in there. "Our corporation (the city) is measured differently. We would look at our buildings, at the facilities we have, our fleet, that type of thing. Fredericton set 2000 as its base year. The results it expects to have verified by the federation are between from 2000-04. Those figures won't reflect what's been happening at the community level since 2007 when the city unveiled its plan to invite community support to curb energy use. "The feedback we've received with Green Matters, and that only launched in 2007, has far exceeded our expectations. The buy-in we've gotten from the community, has been extraordinary," she said. Neither Moncton, which joined in November of 2001, nor Saint John, which joined in May 2006, has met any of the program milestones. http://dailygleaner.canadaeast.com/search/article/494056

Physorg.com | November 27,2008

2008 saw record-breaking hurricane season: US agency The record-breaking 2008 hurricane season, which officially ends on Sunday, has been one of the most active since comprehensive reports began 64 years ago, a US government agency said Wednesday. For the first time on record, six consecutive tropical cyclones -- Dolly, Edouard, Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike -- struck the US mainland and three major hurricanes -- Gustav, Ike and Paloma -- made landfall in Cuba, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). And for the first time the North Atlantic region witnessed major hurricanes for five consecutive months, reaching between category 3 and category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale, the agency added. Hurricanes Bertha in July, Gustav in August, Ike in September, Omar in October and Paloma in November were all intense storms, resulting in serious damage in the US and the Caribbean. "The information we'll gain by assessing the events from the 2008 hurricane season will help us do an even better job in the future," said National Hurricane Center Director Bill Read. "With this season behind us, it's time to prepare for the one that lies ahead," he warned. A total of 16 named storms formed during the season, which runs for six months between June 1 and November 30 in the North Atlantic, according to the agency's Miami-based National Hurricane Center. Eight of those tropical storms became hurricanes, five of which were major hurricanes with a Category 3 strength or higher -- numbers well above normal. A season has an average of 11 storms, six hurricanes 34

and two major hurricanes. Story Date: 27/11/08 http://www.physorg.com/news146933748.html

Bloomberg | Jonathan Stearns | November 27, 2008

Poland Accuses Germany, U.K. of Intransigence in Climate Talks Poland pressed Germany, the U.K. and other rich European Union nations to scale back a plan for tougher emission rules on electricity companies or risk deadlock over a climate-change package at an EU summit next month. The Polish government reiterated that forcing utilities to buy all their carbon-dioxide emission allowances beginning in 2013 would increase electricity prices too much in Poland, which depends on coal for power production. EU CO2 quotas on energy and manufacturing companies are made up of allowances now granted largely for free. “I can only appeal for more flexibility and solidarity,” Mikolaj Dowgielewicz, Poland’s minister for European affairs, told reporters today in Brussels. “We want to limit the damage that this package will do for our economy.” Along with Germany and the U.K., he accused the Netherlands and Scandinavian countries of being uncompromising. Poland heads a group of eight ex-communist countries that are threatening to try to block tougher European emissions legislation unless they are given special treatment. EU leaders are due to discuss the proposals aimed at fighting climate change on Dec. 11- 12. The EU aims for a deal by year-end, saying an accord among rich and poorer European nations would encourage the U.S. and China to sign up to a new United Nations treaty. Governments worldwide are due to gather in the Polish city of Poznan in December to seek a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. Emission Caps The draft EU legislation would tighten emission caps on European power plants and factories in 20132020. In reducing annual quotas on installations currently in the EU emissions- trading system by 11 percent on average, the draft law would also allocate fewer allowances that make up those quotas for free. Auctions would be used to allocate all allowances for electricity companies as of 2013 under the January proposal by the European Commission, the EU’s regulatory arm. Manufacturing companies such as steel, cement and paper would face 100 percent auctioning in 2020 after a phase-in starting at 20 percent in 2013 under the commission proposal. France, current holder of the 27-nation EU’s rotating presidency, proposes a compromise that would allow a three-year exemption until 2016 from full auctioning for power plants in coal-dependent nations like Poland. Poland gets 95 percent of its electricity from coal, which emits more than twice as much CO2 as natural gas when used by power plants. The Polish government prefers a proposal of its own under which the number of free allowances to utilities would be based on efficiency standards, or “benchmarks,” with innovative power plants being entitled to more than higher-polluting competitors, said Dowgielewicz. Greenhouse Gases The EU measures to tighten the emissions-trading system, which requires companies that exceed their CO2 quotas to buy permits from businesses that emit less, underpin the bloc’s goal to reduce greenhouse gases by a fifth in 2020 compared with 1990 levels. The price of EU emission allowances for 2013 on the European Climate Exchange in London are higher than the prices of 2008 permits because of the EU plan to reduce quotas. Poland also proposes to establish a “corridor” for market prices that would allow for special measures such as earlier allowance auctioning in the event of volatility. The “accepted fluctuations” should be within a limit of 15 euros ($19), based on an assumption that EU allowance prices will be 24 euros a metric ton in 2013 and 39 euros a ton in 2020, according to the Polish proposal described in a statement distributed by Poland’s mission to the EU in Brussels. Dowgielewicz said “some progress” had been made on this idea with French-government support while saying the U.K. position on the matter was unsupportive. The EU climate-change proposals need the support of a majority of national governments and the European Parliament to become law. Government and Parliament representatives are negotiating over the details and may leave the most politically contentious aspects such as allowance auctioning for EU leaders to settle. 35

To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Stearns in Brussels at Story Date: 27/11/08 http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=arva1lxTAd3M

Fox News | Julhas Alam | November 27, 2008

Bangladeshis rally against climate change DHAKA, Bangladesh — Some 500 women rallied in Bangladesh's capital on Thursday, demanding richer nations cut their greenhouse gas emissions and compensate the impoverished countries that experts believe will be hardest hit by the impacts of climate change. The women, mostly rural poor, wore masks mocking leaders from wealthy nations such as France, Britain and the United States, and marched through Dhaka University's campus carrying banners that read "Cut emissions, save poor nations" and "Stop harming, start helping." Organizers from the Campaign for Sustainable Rural Livelihood, an Oxfam-funded network of domestic labor and rights groups, said the rally was timed to send a message to delegates who will gather Dec. 1 in Poznan, Poland for a United Nations conference on climate change. "We are here with a message that we are suffering, and our sufferings will increase manifold if rich countries do not act aggressively," said Ahsan Uddin Ahmed, a Bangladeshi expert on climate change. "Rich nations like the U.S. and emerging countries such as China and India must act properly," he said. "We need development but not at the cost of our future." Bangladesh, a densely populated nation of 150 million people, suffers annual floods, frequent cyclones and increasing salinity in its coastal regions Experts say more frequent flooding due to global warming could eventually put as much as one-third of Bangladesh's land mass permanently under water. Story Date: 27/11/08 http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2008Nov27/0,4670,ASBangladeshClimateChange,00.html

Planet Ark | Benet Koleka | November 27, 2008

Europe bank aids Albania's waste paper recycling efforts TIRANA - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development will invest in Albania's only paper firm to help it produce recycled paper and set up waste paper recycling networks, the EBRD said on Wednesday. Dan Berg, the EBRD's Albania head, said the investment would create a precedent with environmentally friendly production backed by an organized collection and recycling network. "Not only is this investment good for business, but we hope it will help change attitudes toward recycling in Albania," Berg said. "The investment...should stimulate other companies to look for opportunities to recycle waste into profits." The EBRD will make an equity investment of two million euros (US$2.59 million) in Edipack Sh.a. to support its plans to install a recycled paper production line and establish waste paper recycling networks throughout Albania, Europe's second poorest state. Edipack, based in the port town of Durres, will use the funds to diversify and expand its products range and services, including the packaging and shipment of agricultural produce. The company will install waste-paper bins in much-frequented areas, such as shopping malls, warehouses of importers, especially of vegetables and fruits, ministries, municipalities, universities and printing houses. Story Date: 27/11/08 http://www.planetark.org/enviro-news/item/50684

November 28

36

Planet Ark | Scott Anderson | November 28, 2008

Canada's Loblaw To Charge For Plastic Shopping Bags TORONTO - Loblaw Co, Canada's biggest supermarket chain, said on Thursday that it will start charging customers a fee for every plastic shopping bag they use. The company, with more than 1,000 grocery stores across Canada, said it would begin charging customers 5 Canadian cents a bag on April 22, 2009, which is Earth Day. The company said it would also encourage customers to use alternatives to plastic bags and enhance its offer of affordable reusable bag options. Loblaw currently offers reusable fabric bags to its customers for a small fee. "We believe this ... represents the next natural step forward as we continue to acknowledge and respond to Canadians' desire to support environmental initiatives," Galen Weston, Loblaw executive chairman, said in a release. Loblaw's move comes just days before city council in Toronto, Canada's biggest city, debates passing a controversial bylaw to put a surcharge of 5 Canadian cents on all plastic shopping bags used in the city. Loblaw competitor Sobeys, which is owned by Empire Company, said on Thursday it plans to redirect the money it receives from the Toronto plan into environmental and sustainability initiatives in the city. Sobeys operates 16 stores in Toronto. "This is about reducing bags from the waste stream and doing the right thing for the environment," said Tracy Chisholm, a spokeswoman for Sobeys' Ontario division. "We believe that the money generated from that needs to go back into the cause that is in the spirit of the bylaw and goes toward environmental initiatives in supporting the environment." Chisholm said it was too early to say whether the company would match Loblaw and charge for plastic shopping bags nationwide. San Francisco became the first North American city to ban nonrecyclable plastic bags made from petroleum products in 2007, while the tiny town of Leaf Rapids in northern Manitoba last year became the first Canadian municipality to prohibit plastic shopping bags. Countries including China, South Africa, Ireland and Taiwan have placed fees, taxes or outright bans on plastic shopping bags. (US$1=$1.23 Canadian) ( editing by Peter Galloway) Story Date: 28/11/08 http://www.planetark.org/enviro-news/item/50701

Planet Ark | Alistair Thomson | November 28,2008

Sahel Africans Face Hunger Despite Bumper Harvest DAKAR - Poor people in Africa's arid Sahel region will go without food despite bumper harvests this year, as wild price moves on world markets put staple cereals beyond many families' budgets, aid agencies say. Prices of imported foods have ballooned in recent years, pushing up prices for locally grown crops even though harvests are expected to be bigger than ever after abundant rains. "The nature of food insecurity has changed in West Africa," Alexander Woollcombe, Food Security Advocacy Advisor at Oxfam GB told Reuters. "It's not a problem of production. The problem is, poor people can't afford to buy it." Oxfam expects cereal production across five countries in the dry Sahel belt south of the Sahara -- Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal -- will be a record 18.5 million tonnes this year, but the food on sale will be beyond the budget of many in these, some of the world's poorest countries. Launching a study in partnership with Save the Children in the Senegalese capital on Wednesday, Oxfam said food prices in general rose by 83 percent between 2005 and 2008. This has been felt in poor households whose major expense is food. "The rise in price of food commodities has severely hit the poorest people, who allocate up to 80 percent of their income to food," Aboubacry Tall, regional director for Save the Children UK, said in a statement. FOOD CRISIS, FINANCIAL CRISIS African countries have come to rely on imported food. Prices were so cheap at the start of the decade that buying from international markets took the place of growing locally. But now those prices are much higher, Sahelians are struggling to afford foreign rice and other cereals. "An important structural effect is dependence on imports," said Eric Hazard, Oxfam's regional campaign manager for economic justice in West Africa. 37

"In Mauritania, 75 percent depend on imported food and food aid, and in such a context the situation is difficult." Neighbouring Senegal is a major importer of rice from Asia, high prices of which were in part behind a government campaign launched earlier this year to boost agricultural production. The benchmark Thai rice contract closed on Wednesday at $580/tonne, well down from the peak of $1,080 it hit in April but still around double its price in November 2005. In the long term, African government policy should permit local farmers to profit from high food prices, the agencies' report said. "The putting in place of a protective common external tariff, and safeguard mechanisms appropriate for farmers and agro-industries of (West African economic bloc) ECOWAS has become a priority," it said. For the time being, wild price fluctuations are likely to continue as a result of the state of the world economy, according to a European Commission draft paper this week. Though isolated to a degree from the international banking system, Africa may suffer knock-on effects from the global financial crisis if remittances to family members from Africans working in the West, a crucial part of local economies, shrink as more people in Europe and United States lose their jobs. Rich nations pledged billions to tackle hunger at a United Nations summit in Rome earlier this year, but those sums have since been dwarfed by the money spent on saving failing financial institutions. Aid agencies worry that with banking meltdowns and the effects of recession hogging the headlines and the political priorities of rich countries, food shortages in Africa will slip down the world's agenda, Woollcombe said. "We are concerned that the financial crisis will mean less attention on the food crisis, which disproportionately affects the world's poorest," he said. Story Date: 28/11/08 http://www.planetark.org/enviro-news/item/50707

LiveScience.com| Robert Roy Britt | November 28,2008

Wind Farms Could Change Weather A new study suggests that massive wind farms could steer storms and alter the weather if extensive fields of turbines were built, according to a news report. It is not the first study to come to this conclusion. The new research is an interesting "what if," but the installation of large wind turbines would have to be taken to the extreme to have the global effects portrayed. The scientists, Daniel Barrie and Daniel Kirk-Davidoff of the University of Maryland, calculated "what might happen if all the land from Texas to central Canada, and from the Great Lakes to the Rocky Mountains, were covered in one massive wind farm," according to Discovery News. The result of such an unlikely installation: a real serious Butterfly Effect. Such massive wind farming would slow wind speeds by 5 or 6 mph as the turbines literally stole wind from the air. A ripple effect would occur in the form of waves radiating across the Northern Hemisphere that could, days later, run into storms and alter their courses by hundreds of miles. The researchers "acknowledged the hypothetical wind farm was far larger than anything humans are likely to build," according to the Web site, but if Department of Energy projections for wind farming are met by 2030 (for the country to get 20 percent of its electricity from wind), "it could probably have an effect," James McCaa of 3Tier, Inc., a renewable energy forecasting company based in Seattle, is quoted as saying. In 2004, two separate groups of scientists did similar calculations. One group found the opposite effect. Somnath Baidya Roy of Princeton University and colleagues simulated the effect of extensive wind farms on local weather. They found a drying and warming effect in the morning that would warm the air across moist and cool overnight soil, causing the local wind speed to increase slightly. Also in 2004, David Keith of the University of Calgary and his colleagues estimated the drag from wind farms if they covered 10 percent of the Earth's land surface. They concluded that global cooling would occur in polar regions and global warming would result in temperate regions such as North America at about 30 degrees North latitude. When that study was released, Keith had an interesting take on the possibility: "The message here is climate change, but that doesn't equal global warming," Keith said. "It's possible this would have benefits," by working against the atmospheric effects of fossil fuel consumption on global climate, he said. Story Date: 28/11/08 http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20081127/sc_livescience/windfarmscouldchangeweather 38

Bloomberg| Katarzyna Klimasinska | November 28,2008

Poland May Build First Nuclear Power Plant by 2023 in Zarnowiec Poland, which generates 93 percent of its electricity from coal, is considering building its first nuclear plant by 2023 in the northern town of Zarnowiec, as it seeks to cut greenhouse-gas emissions from power generation. “We will need nuclear energy if it turns out that renewable sources aren’t efficient enough, or if it’s too difficult to lower emissions from technologies based on coal,” Economy Minister Waldemar Pawlak said today at a press briefing in Warsaw. The country may build an atomic plant in 10 to 15 years, he said. Poland is set to host a meeting of more than 190 nations in the western city of Poznan over the next two weeks, at which delegates will discuss a successor treaty to the United Nations Kyoto Protocol, a global agreement to curb carbon emissions. Without an international effort, the world’s temperatures may rise by 6 degrees Celsius (10.8 Fahrenheit) by 2100, the International Energy Agency has said. Carbon dioxide is the main gas blamed by scientists for climate change. Story Date: 28/11/08 http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=apEGc8fHGPUY

39

View more...

Comments

Copyright � 2017 NANOPDF Inc.
SUPPORT NANOPDF