Sen. Gregg says Global Warming legislation deserves serious consideration

Republican Sen. Judd Gregg says a new Senate bill to combat global warming "deserves serious consideration," even though one of the bill's sponsors says it goes beyond President Bush's proposals on global warming.

Leading environmentalists in New Hampshire also support the legislation, which has bipartisan support in Congress. Sens. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., and John Warner, R-Va., introduced the bill this week.

Supporters say it would reduce greenhouse gases from the largest sources by 15 percent by 2020 and 75 percent by 2050. The bill would establish a greenhouse gas emissions cap that covers electric utilities, manufacturing sources and transportation. It also contains provisions for energy efficiency standards for appliances and buildings. Fully implemented, supporters say the bill has the potential to cut greenhouse gas emissions by more than half by mid-century.

Feds take aim at corruption by officials in New Orleans

The voice on the radio assumes the tone of a high school principal: "Public service is not about stealing from the people — it's about giving to the people."

The voice belongs to James Bernazzani, the FBI's special agent in charge in New Orleans. He, along with the U.S. Attorney's Office here and a new inspector general at City Hall, is launching a very public assault on public corruption.

The FBI's New Orleans office has tracked a 452% jump in corruption indictments the past five years. Corruption convictions in eastern Louisiana climbed 33% in the same period, making it one of the top spots in the country for such convictions, according to Justice Department statistics.

Among those convicted: 23 Orleans Parish school officials, 16 workers from city hall and 14 traffic court employees, along with judges, councilmen and other officials, said Jim Letten, U.S. Attorney for eastern Louisiana. "We're going after anyone — whether it's a teacher or minor public official — who engages in any kind of public corruption," he said.

Many of the investigations were launched before the 2005 floods and destruction unleashed by Hurricane Katrina. But the post-storm recovery, with billions of dollars in federal aid streaming into the area, can lead to further corruption and triggered agents to step up investigations, Bernazzani said.

Robert Cerasoli, a former inspector general for the state of Massachusetts who has a long résumé of fighting waste and corruption, was recruited this summer for the position. Cerasoli stunned city officials by not taking a city car, opting instead to use his personal car, and moving into a small, loaned office on the third floor of Loyola University's Monroe Library.

Unlike the FBI, which investigates individuals, Cerasoli said his job will be to examine the system to see where changes can be made to prevent corruption. He said his first task will be to study the city charter and its many agencies, commissions and quasi-governmental bodies, looking for conflicts of interest. "I'm certainly going to find corruption along the way," he said.

Though hired by the city, Cerasoli said it is still not known whether the city will block access to records and files or give him the money and access needed to do his job. The City Council is expected to announce his budget Nov. 1.

Congress to consider Global Warming Wildlife Survival Bill

"Calling global warming the single greatest threat to the world’s natural environment, U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, today announced new legislation laying the groundwork for a national strategy to address the impacts of climate change on America’s wildlife.

The bill is the first of its kind and includes components for the most imperiled plants and animals in the United States. It would convene regional scientific discussions and a National Academy of Sciences panel to examine the impacts of climate change on endangered, threatened, and otherwise imperiled species and recommend action.

Senator Barbara Boxer, the California Democrat who chairs the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works, will be an original cosponsor of the bill.

A member of the committee, Whitehouse said global warming has already begun to have a severe and lasting impact on wildlife populations and marine ecosystems in Rhode Island and around the world." |Read more|

Global Warming Starts to Divide G.O.P. Contenders

"While many conservative commentators and editorialists have mocked concerns about climate change, a different reality is emerging among Republican presidential contenders. It is a near-unanimous recognition among the leaders of the threat posed by global warming.


Within that camp, however, sharp divisions are developing. Senator John McCain of Arizona is calling for capping gas emissions linked to warming and higher fuel economy standards. Others, including Rudolph W. Giuliani and Mitt Romney, are refraining from advocating such limits and are instead emphasizing a push toward clean coal and other alternative energy sources.

All agree that nuclear power should be greatly expanded.

The debate has taken an intriguing twist. Two candidates appealing to religious conservatives, former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas and Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas, call for strong actions to ease the effects of people on the climate, at times casting the effort in spiritual terms just as some evangelical groups have taken up the cause.

The emergence of climate change as an issue dividing Republicans shows just how far the discussion has shifted since 1997, when the Senate voted, 95 to 0, to oppose any international climate treaty that could hurt the American economy or excused China from responsibilities.

The debate among Republicans is largely not about whether people are warming the planet, but about how to deal with it." |Read more|

Global Warming makes Mount Blanc grow

"Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in France and western Europe, has grown more than two metres in two years - ironically as a result of global warming, experts have found.
# Pacific island could be submerged due to global warming

The Alps' tallest peak was measured at 4,810.90 metres (15,784 feet) last month, surveyors from France's Haute-Savoie region announced.

The volume of ice on Mont Blanc has doubled since 2005
Volume of ice on Mont Blanc has doubled since 2005

Generations of French schoolchildren were taught the famous peak was 4,807 metres tall, but it has been growing since 2003 and at a faster rate in recent months.

"The height as well as the volume of Mont Blanc has increased considerably, because the snow has massed on the summit over the last two years," said Philippe Borel, one of the survey team, at a meeting in the nearby resort of Chamonix." |Read more|

Gore's Nobel winnings go to Palto Alto Global Warming Alliance

A year-old Palo Alto nonprofit will receive the $750,000 former Vice President Al Gore received along with his Nobel Prize.

The Alliance for Climate Protection, which was once lauded by Gore as the planet's "PR agent," is a think tank focused on letting people know about the effects of global warming and helping them become activists against it.

The alliance also works alongside other environmental groups, such as the Sierra Club, for climate change education.

In concert with Gore's Current TV and actors that included George Clooney and Orlando Bloom, the alliance created a contest letting people submit videos on environmental action.

Gore also gave the alliance money from his documentary "An Inconvenient Truth."

Linking Global Warming, Global Peace

"What does global warming have to do with global peace? The globe may find out sooner than we think, experts say.

"Climate change is and will be a significant threat to our national security and in a larger sense to life on Earth as we know it to be," retired Gen. Gordon R. Sullivan, former U.S. Army chief of staff, told a congressional panel last month.

The Nobel Peace Prize Committee agrees. In awarding the prize Friday to climate campaigner Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a U.N.-sponsored network of scientists, the Norwegian committee said the stresses of a changing global environment may heighten the "danger of violent conflicts and wars, within and between states."

Those like Sullivan who study the issues point particularly to the impact of drought and altered climate patterns on food and water supplies, leading to shortages that could spur huge, destabilizing migrations of people internationally.

In a report in May, scientists advising the German government noted specific scenarios that could upend the lives of millions, driving them across borders to overwhelm other lands.

"The dieback of the Amazon rain forest or the loss of the Asian monsoon could have incalculable consequences for the societies concerned," said the German Advisory Council on Global Change." |Read more|