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Clean Coal? Don't Try to Shovel That 2008-03-02 18:57:00 By Jeff Biggers The Washington Post - March 2, 2008; Page B02 Original URL Every time I hear our political leaders talk about "clean coal," I think about Burl, an irascible old coal miner in West Virginia. After 35 years underground, he struggled to conjure enough breath to match his storytelling verve, as if the iron hoops of a whiskey barrel had been strapped around his lungs. In 1983, during my first visit to Appalachia as a young man, Burl rolled up his pants and showed me the leg that had been mangled in a mining accident. The scars snaked down to his ankles. "My grandpa barely survived an accident in the mines in southern Illinois," I told him. "He had these blue marks and bits of coal buried in his face." "Coal tattoo," Burl wheezed. "Don't let anyone ever tell you that coal is Read more:Clean
, Shovel
Thirsting for Energy in India’s Boomtowns and Beyond 2008-03-02 18:25:00 By Somini Sengupta The New York Times - March 2, 2008 Orginal URL Ruth Fremson/The New York Times Gurgaon, a New Delhi suburb, is an island of air-conditioned malls and offices in a nation where many people lack electricity. GURGAON, India
— It is Friday night in the mecca of new Indian ambition. The air is thick with the construction dust of new glass-fronted high-rise buildings. The traffic moves so slowly that commuters can gape all they want at the Burberry advertisement that lights up the facade of a shopping mall. In the din of car horns and cranes, Sucharita Rastogi, 27, a business school graduate, waits wearily for her office van to pull up and take her home; it will be at least a 90-minute crawl. “Mind-wise,” she says, “we are exhausted, sitting, waiting.” I Read more:Energy
All About: Eco-philanthropy 2008-03-02 18:16:00 By Rachel Oliver CNN - March 4, 2008 Original URL (CNN) -- If the excessive lifestyles of the rich have been partly to blame for destroying the environment, then it seems equitable that they use their money to preserve it. But the degree to which they are actually helping does largely depend on what they do with their money. And some 'beneficiaries' of that aid are yet to be convinced. Richard Branson, Bill Clinton and Al Gore at the Clinton Global Initiative last September. According to last year's Merrill Lynch survey of the world's wealth, there are 9.5 million U.S. dollar millionaires in the world today, who have pocketed a cool $37.2 trillion between them. By 2011, Merrill Lynch says, this tiny (but growing) group of people will have more than $50 trillion in their bank a
The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water 2008-03-01 10:58:00 Maude Barlow Editor: Erik Leaver Foreign Policy In Focus - February 25, 2008 Original URL Editor's Note: The following is an excerpt of Chapter 5 in Maude Barlow's latest book, Blue Covenant. She is touring with her book across the country; see Food and Water Watch for her full schedule. The Future of Water The three water crises – dwindling freshwater supplies, inequitable access to water and the corporate control of water – pose the greatest threat of our time to the planet and to our survival. Together with impending climate change from fossil fuel emissions, the water crises impose some life-or-death decisions on us all. Unless we collectively change our behavior, we are heading toward a world of deepening conflict and potential wars over the dwindling supplies of freshwater Read more:Global
, Crisis
, Battle
, Right
Crossroads at Mmamabula: Will the World Bank Choose the Clean Energy Path? 2008-02-27 07:27:00 David Wheeler Center for Global Development - 02/15/2008 Original URL Original Document At the recent U.N. climate change conference in Bali, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called for a revolutionary change in the world’s energy mix to minimize the risk of catastrophic global warming. The Secretary General's invocation is a sharp break with past practice and an immediate commitment to clean energy development. However, the World
Bank Group continues to help finance construction of coal-fired plants as if nothing has changed. This new working paper by CGD senior fellow David Wheeler focuses on the latest proposed venture, a huge coal-fired plant to be fueled by the Mmamabula coal field in Botswana. Using the latest estimates of generating costs for coal-fired electricity and Read more:Clean
, Energy
, Crossroads
, World Bank
Reducing deforestation rates 10% could generate $13B in carbon trading under REDD 2008-02-27 07:22:00 mongabay.com - February 25, 2008 Original URL Cutting global deforestation rates 10 percent could generate
up to $13.5 billion in carbon credits under a reducing emissions from deforestation ("REDD") initiative approved at the U.N. climate talks in Bali this past December, estimate researchers writing in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. But the researchers caution there are still substantial obstacles to overcome before carbon-credits-for-rainforest-conservation becomes a reality. Reviewing the potential for REDD, Johannes Ebeling and Mai Yasué warn that the climate change mitigation strategy will face numerous challenges, including overcoming difficulties with implementation and poor governance in tropical countries; ensuring permanence of emission reductions; address Read more:Reducing
Brazil’s Energy Windfall 2008-02-27 07:16:00 by Stephanie Hanson Council on Foreign Relations - February 26, 2008 Original URL President Lula drenches his hands in oil on a government-run rig off Brazil
’s south Atlantic coast (AP/Patricia Santos). Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, boisterous and riding high just one year ago in his quest to spread a “socialist revolution” throughout Latin America, has quieted as that effort has ground to a halt. In December, Chavez’s bid to change his country’s constitution was voted down. An ongoing oil nationalization dispute with ExxonMobil, which threatens to freeze billions of assets (AFP) in Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, has raised questions about the sustainability of the country’s oil output. Most recently, major oil and gas discoveries off the Brazilian Read more:Energy
Climate secrets of marine snail 2008-02-27 07:11:00 By Helen Briggs - Science reporter BBC News - 26 February 2008 Original URL The pteropod is an important food for many marine animals It is one of the world's strangest and smallest sea creatures, growing to no bigger than the size of a lentil. But the tiny pteropod, with its translucent shell, could help scientists understand how marine animals will respond to the stresses of climate change. Thousands of the molluscs, also known as sea butterflies because of their wing-like lobes, have been collected from the shallows of Antarctica. After flying the samples thousands of kilometres to her laboratory at the University of California, Santa Barbara, marine biologist Dr Gretchen Hofmann plans to sequence the animal's genome. She hopes to find genes and molecular pathways th Read more:Climate
, snail
Sumatran deforestation driving climate change and species extinction, report warns 2008-02-27 06:52:00 Jessica Aldred Guardian - Wednesday February 27 2008 Original URL Logs being taken to a pulp and paper factory in Riau province, Sumatra. Photo: Dita Alangkara/AP The destruction of Sumatra's natural forests is accelerating global climate change and pushing endangered species
closer to extinction
, a new report
warned today. A study from WWF claims that converting the forests and peat swamps of just one Sumatran
province into plantations for pulpwood and palm oil is generating more annual greenhouse gas emissions than the Netherlands, and is endangering local elephant and tiger populations. The fastest rate of deforestation in Indonesia is occurring in central Sumatra's Riau province, where some 4.2m hectares (65%) of its tropical forests and peat swamps have been cle Read more:warns
INTERVIEW - Rich Nations Should Agree 2020 Carbon Targets – UN 2008-02-27 06:47:00 Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by David Gregorio Reuters' Planet Ark - 17/2/2008 Original URL NEW YORK - The world's rich countries should set a goal of cutting planet-warming gases by 2020, not by 2050 as some have suggested, so businesses can get a clearer signal on actions they need to take to fight global warming, the UN's top climate change official said on Monday. In UN climate talks in Bali late last year, Washington rejected stiff 2020 targets for greenhouse gas cuts by rich nations as part of a roadmap to work out a new global pact to fight climate change. The new pact would take effect in 2009, replacing the Kyoto Protocol. Also last year, then Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe proposed a global target to halve greenhouse gases by 2050. The target was shrugged Read more:Nations
, Carbon
Indonesia's Riau province major greenhouse gas emitter 2008-02-27 06:42:00 The Earth Times - 27 Feb 2008 Original URL Jakarta - The transformation of tropical forests and peat swamps into plantations in Indonesia
's Riau province is generating more carbon emissions each year than the Netherlands and almost half of Australia's, the World Wildlife Fund revealed Wednesday. The WWF study revealed that in Sumatra's Riau province nearly 10.5 million acres of tropical forests and peat swamp have been cleared in the last 25 years. "Forest loss and degradation and peat decomposition and fires are behind average annual carbon emissions equivalent to 122 per cent of the Netherlands total annual emissions, 58 per cent of Australia's annual emissions, 39 per cent of annual UK emissions and 26 per cent of annual German emissions," said the WWF in a statement made Read more:greenhouse
Urbanization and Environmental Sustainability 2008-02-25 22:20:00 by Crystal Davis Earth Trends - Feb 25, 2008 Original URL Now home to half of the world's people, cities are increasingly at the forefront of our most pressing environmental challenges. While the current pace of urbanization is not unique in human history, the sheer magnitude of urban growth--driven by massive demographic shifts in the developing world--is unprecedented, with vast implications for human well-being and the environment. However, where cities pose environmental problems, they also offer solutions. As hotspots of consumption, production, and waste generation, cities possess unparalleled potential to increase the energy efficiency and sustainability of society as a whole. Global Urbanization Trends Cities generate a disproportionate share of gross domestic product (GDP) Read more:Sustainability
US to set 'binding' climate goals 2008-02-25 10:55:00 By Richard Black - Environment correspondent, BBC News website BBC News - 25 February 2008 Original URL Mr Connaughton was part of the US delegation at UN climate talks The US is ready to accept "binding international obligations" on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, officials say, if other nations do the same. The comments came in a news conference in Paris given by James Connaughton and Daniel Price, environmental and economics advisers to President Bush. The US hopes the world's major economies will conclude a "leaders' declaration" before the July G8 summit. There was no indication of how much the US might be prepared to cut emissions. But the Bush administration is clearly looking for some kind of binding commitment from major developing countries such as Ch
Brazil's ecosystem payments system offers clues for REDD implementation 2008-02-25 03:25:00 mongabay.com - February 25, 2008 Original URL Brazil
's existing system for environmental services payments could offer insight for implementing carbon-credits-for-forest-conservation (REDD) initiatives in the Amazon rainforest, argues a London School of Economics researcher in a new paper published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. Reviewing the performance of Brazil's Programme for the Socio-Environmental Development of Rural Family Production (Proambiente), Anthony Hall writes that "despite being fraught with problems, Proambiente is one tool among many which could reward small producers for enhancing carbon sequestration and biodiversity conservation." Proambiente was launched four years ago as a way to compensate rural Brazilians for environmental services afford Read more:clues
Biofuel flight 'a publicity stunt' 2008-02-24 19:54:00 Google News - Feb 25, 2008 Original URL The world's first commercial aircraft to be powered partly by biofuel flew into controversy as environmental campaigners denounced the inaugural flight as a publicitystunt
. The Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 flew from London Heathrow to Amsterdam, with one of the four main tanks carrying 80% standard jet fuel and a 20% mix of coconut and babassu oil. Virgin Atlantic President Sir Richard Branson said the passenger-less test flight was a "historic" step towards using biofuels on commercial flights, with the aim of reducing carbon emissions. But he said fully commercial biofuel flights, still a few years away, were likely to use feedstocks such as algae rather than the mix used on the test run. The fuel was developed in partnership with Boeing, e Read more:publicity stunt
Smoke from Indonesian fires worsens air quality in Singapore 2008-02-24 19:52:00 The Earth Times - 25 Feb 2008 Original URL Singapore
- Smoke
from fires
raging in Indonesia's Riau province degraded air quality in Singapore, where environmental officials warned Monday of several days of haze. The annual scourge from land-clearing fires usually doesn't spew smoke over Singapore and other countries in the region until July. The city-state's Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) hit 53, exceeding the good range of 0 to 50. Readings of 51 to 100 are considered moderate, and above 100 on the index represents unhealthy conditions. Officials in Indonesia "know that we are concerned about this, and I hope they do something about it," The Straits Times quoted Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Yaacob Ibrahim as saying. Singapore has sent satellite images to I Read more:Indonesian
All About: Forests and carbon trading 2008-02-24 07:45:00 By Rachel Oliver CNN - February 11, 2008 Original URL (CNN) -- Cutting down trees is pretty much one of the worst things you can do when it comes to climate change. Deforestation, by varying accounts, contributes anywhere from 20 percent to 30 percent of all carbon dioxide (C02) emissions -- around 1.6 billion tons. A worker collects timber from a rain forest in Sumatra, Indonesia last November. When you cut down trees you get a double whammy. First of all, they are not called the lungs of the Earth for nothing -- we clearly need trees so that we and other animals can breathe. Trees also are in the front line against pollution, breathing in millions of tons of greenhouse gases a year that they store in their trunks. According to the United Nations' Environmental Pr
Chomsky on the Rise of the South 2008-02-24 05:38:00 Noam Chomsky
interviewed by Michael Shank Foreign Policy in Focus, January 30, 2008 Original URL Michael Shank: In December 2007, seven South
American countries officially launched the Bank of the South in response to growing opposition to the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and other International Financial Institutions. How important is this shift and will it spur other responses in the developing world? Will it at some point completely undermine the reach of the World Bank and the IMF? Noam Chomsky: I think it's very important, especially because, contrary to the impression often held here, the biggest country Brazil is supporting it. The U.S. propaganda, western propaganda, is trying to establish a divide between the good left and the bad left. The good left, like
$1 trillion carbon market in the U.S. by 2020 says study 2008-02-24 05:30:00 mongabay.com - February 14, 2008 Original URL The U.S. carbon emission trading market will top $1 trillion by 2020 if policymakers continue on their current path towards a comprehensive "cap-and-trade" program, estimates an analysis released at climate roundtable discussions at the UN General Assembly in New York. The U.S. market will be more than twice the size of the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme, presently the world's largest carbon trading marketplace. The study, published by research economists from New Carbon Finance, examined 13 climate change bills under discussion in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate and concluded that an economy-wide cap-and-trade system for U.S. greenhouse gases would likely begin operating within four to five years. A news release from
Analysis: China conservation doubts remain 2008-02-24 05:27:00 By Siobhan Devine - UPI Correspondent UPI - Feb. 22, 2008 Original URL WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 (UPI) -- The success of China
's amended Energy Conservation Law, which goes into effect this April with stronger regulations for transportation and construction, and improved administrative oversight, remains dubious and depends on the nature of its implementation and enforcement. "I think they've made considerable progress. I see a real focus in this revised law on administration and supervision," said Barbara Finamore, director of the China Clean Energy project at the National Resource Defense Council and founder and board member of the China-U.S. Energy Efficiency Alliance. But, she added, "It all is going to depend on how well it is implemented." While per-capita energy demand in China, calculat Read more:Analysis
Biofuels 'need strict standards' 2008-02-24 05:24:00 By Tim Hirsch - Environment reporter, Brasilia BBC - 22 February 2008 Original URL Strict benchmarks will help weed out unsound practices Biofuels
: Quick guide Biofuels should only be produced if they meet strict environmental standards, an international group of lawmakers have concluded. The legislators said the fuels also had to deliver significant savings of greenhouse gas emissions. If such criteria were met, they said there should be an urgent review of the tariffs that currently block imports into markets such as the EU and US. The forum was hosted by Brazil, one of the world's biggest biofuel producers. Biofuels have become a highly controversial issue, with claims that the rapid expansion of energy crops could threaten global food security, and add further pressure t
Survival roadmap for climate change 2008-02-24 05:17:00 By Jayanta Basu The Telegraph - February 21 , 2008 Original URL Calcutta is to have a “detailed, scientific plan” to combat the effects of climate changes, courtesy a World Bank initiative. A three-member team from the bank was in town recently to kick off the project, which will use a simulated model to predict Calcutta’s vulnerability to climate changes till 2050 and prepare a survival roadmap. “Calcutta is among the 10 cities in the world that are most vulnerable to climate changes. The Bengal government has okayed a World Bank proposal to launch an initiative to predict the changes,” said state environment secretary K.L. Meena. The Union ministry of environment and forests and the ministry of external affairs, too, are backing the project, partnered by the University
UN environment group sets up climate neutral forum 2008-02-24 05:14:00 By Gerard Wynn AlertNews, Reuters - 21 Feb 2008 Original URL MONACO, Feb 21 (Reuters) - The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) launched a new online network on Thursday to help countries, cities and firms aiming to be "climate neutral" exchange ideas on ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The Climate Neutral Network will connect people around the world who have committed to become climate neutral by reducing and offsetting their emissions of the gases blamed for heating the planet, said Achim Steiner, head of UNEP. "The idea is to share ideas," he said. UNEP, which is hosting 154-nation climate talks in Monaco, aims to be climate neutral itself in 2008, with the whole United Nations due to follow. Monaco said on Thursday it would become the fifth country to commit t
Britain, climate change leaders 2008-02-24 05:12:00 Nicholas Stern Times Online - February 22, 2008 Original URL Hesitation today in putting reductions into effect will have serious consequences tomorrow Climate change is the greatest market failure the world has seen. It requires large-scale and international action. By providing a strong policy framework to overcome this failure, governments can harness the tremendous power of markets to find effective, efficient, equitable and international responses to the challenge. For markets and entrepreneurship to work, that framework must be credible and predictable, but allow flexibility too. The Climate Change Bill, currently in debate in the House of Lords, provides a huge opportunity to demonstrate the UK's commitment. Targets must be consistent with the scale of the problem - that m Read more:Britain
Poor May Need Insurance Against Climate Change 2008-02-24 05:07:00 By Linus Atarah Inter Press Service - February 21, 2008 Original URL HELSINKI, Feb 21 (IPS) - The poor may need insurance to deal with humanitarian needs arising from climate change, experts say. Demands for humanitarian assistance will grow significantly, and the biggest cause is likely to be climate change rather than wars and internal conflicts, they say. In 2006 the world experienced 427 natural catastrophes that affected about 143 million people, and the trend is rising, says Ulla-Maija Finskas, director of the department for humanitarian assistance in the Finnish ministry for foreign affairs. These included 254 floods and related disasters, 43 percent higher than the 2000-2004 average, says Sir John Holmes, under secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief co-o Read more:Climate
, Change
America's hottest export: Coal 2008-03-08 13:11:00 By Jeffrey Tomich St. Louis Post Dispatch - March 09, 2008 Original URL March 7, 2008--Bulldozers move around piles of coal at the America
n Commercial Lines Hall Street terminal to make room for the incoming train shipment from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming. (Emily Rasinski /P-D) Crippling snowstorms in China, floods in Australia and blackouts in South Africa might seem like problems a world apart. But they’re closer than you think. Since Jan. 1, crises such as these have strained coal markets already stretched thin by soaring Asian demand, and the impact is reverberating to mines in West Virginia and Wyoming, which are being counted on to fill the void.St. Louis-based Peabody Energy Corp. shipped more coal overseas in the first six weeks of this year than it did a Read more:export
Current generation of biofuels cannot save the planet 2008-03-08 07:54:00 Camilla Cavendish Times Online March 7, 2008 Original URL At first sight, biofuels are hugely exciting. They seem to offer a way to wean transport systems off oil. The city of Curitiba in Brazil, for example, has been famously running on sugar cane for years. The dream of a cleaner world, running on plant-power, is deeply attractive. But the current generation of biofuels cannot save the planet
. In individual cities and towns, they can make a difference. But at any scale, the dream dwindles. The picture is complicated because there are many different types of biofuel, and their effects differ depending on where and how they are grown. Brazil has an agricultural surplus and uses relatively little energy in fertilising, extracting and purifying the ethanol from sugar cane. This is Read more:Current
Thinking of its future 2008-03-23 02:23:00 Economist Intelligence Unit Briefing Mar 19th 2008 From the Economist Intelligence Unit ViewsWire Brunei gets ready for when the oil and gas run out With oil at over US$100 a barrel and the US dollar tumbling against major currencies, two of the biggest global economics stories of recent weeks seem of obvious interest to oil-rich Brunei. Crude oil accounts for almost two-thirds of the sultanate's export revenue (and natural gas for most of the rest), so in principle high oil prices mean an economic bonanza. The immediate problem, of course, is that a weak US dollar—the currency in which most oil trade is conducted—is reducing the value of oil shipments in local-currency terms. Yet despite the potential short-term impact on oil exporters' margins and tax revenues, what reall
Offsetting democracy 2008-03-27 09:52:00 Kevin Smith The Green Left Weekly - 14 March 2008 Original URL Carbon trading and offsets distract attention from the wider, systemic changes and collective political action that needs to be taken in the transition to a low-carbon economy. Promoting more effective and empowering approaches to climate change involves moving away from the blinkered reductionism of free-market dogma, the false economy of supposed quick fixes and the short-term self-interest of big business. The concept that underpins the whole system of carbon trading and offsetting is that a ton of carbon here is exactly the same as a ton of carbon there. That is, if it’s cheaper to reduce emissions in India than it is in Britain, then you can achieve the same climate benefit in a more cost-effective manner by Read more:Offsetting
, democracy
Accurate forest data will help guide climate policy 2008-03-30 17:37:00 FAO release mongabay.com - March 10, 2008 Original URL EDITOR'S NOTE: As forests are increasingly seen as a means for fighting climate change, proper forest assessment becomes all the more important. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the U.N. (FAO) says it will call on member states to provide "accurate data". FAO data has been criticized by analysts for offering an incomplete picture of forest cover and trends. FAO has called upon countries to participate in preparing the next Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA), the most comprehensive data collection on the state of the world's forests to date. Started over 60 years ago, the Global Forest Resources Assessment process provides information on how much forest exists, how it is being managed and how it is be Read more:Accurate
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