EU to Help Poor Nations Fight Global Warming

"The European Commission this week announced the creation of a fund to help developing nations battle climate change, putting in 50 million euros ($69 million) itself to kick it off.

Louis Michel, EU Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, proposed the global alliance to help developing nations deal with and adapt to the effects of climate change." |Read more|

Groups Vow To Clear "Coastal" Hurdles

"Senior Army Corps of Engineers officials agreed Wednesday to work with state officials and representatives of environmental and other nongovernmental groups to quickly identify and solve scientific and engineering concerns to speed construction of four major coastal restoration and hurricane protection projects.

The agreement resulted from a request of an environmental leader who suggested forming small teams to solve problems that might crop up in preparing to build major projects. The request came during a meeting of corps and state officials working on proposals to protect the state's coast from storm surge from large hurricanes with independent scientists and environmental and civic groups." |Read more|

Environmentalists Split Over Duke's Plan For Plant

"Duke's new facility would produce about 45 percent less carbon dioxide per kilowatt hour of electricity it generates than the current plant; however, because it will produce nearly 10 times the power, total carbon dioxide emissions will increase.


The company has pledged to study options for capturing at least some of that carbon dioxide and storing it underground. It is a move many think holds promise for reducing air pollution, but it is dividing Indiana environmentalists.


Those opposed to the plant say the technology for storing the gas is cost-prohibitive and unproven. Supporters argue it will be a major step forward in the effort to stop global warming." |Read more|

Study Sheds New Light On Global Warming

"METHANE released from wetlands turned the Earth into a hothouse 55 million years ago, according to research released yesterday that could shed light on a worrying aspect of today's climate-change crisis.

Scientists have long sought to understand the triggers for an extraordinary warming episode called the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), which occurred about 10 million years after the twilight of the dinosaurs.

Earth's surface warmed by at least five degrees Celsius in just a few hundred or a few thousand years. The Arctic Ocean was at 23 degrees Celsius _ about the same as a tepid bath _ before the planet eventually cooled." |Read more|

San Francisco Will Go "Dark" To Save Energy

"The Golden Gate Bridge, City Hall, Alcatraz and other parts of the city will go almost completely dark for an hour next month as part of a campaign to conserve energy and fight global warming.

Organizers of Lights Out San Francisco are asking city residents and businesses to install energy-efficient bulbs and turn off all unnecessary lights for an hour on the night of Oct. 20, a Saturday. The goal is to save 15 percent of the electricity consumed on an average Saturday night." |Read more|

"Climate" Enters State Investment Equation

"Oregon Treasurer Randall Edwards joined environmentalists, institutional investors and financial officers from other states Tuesday in formally petitioning securities regulators to force publicly traded companies to disclose the emerging risks they face from global warming.

The coalition also asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to immediately scrutinize the adequacy of companies' climate change disclosures under existing laws.

The group maintains that most companies haven't been giving investors the full story on their climate change risks, whether it's a bank or insurance company looking at more extreme weather events or a utility facing potentially expensive climate change regulations." |Read more|

Al Gore opens FEX SIM Launch

"The launch of a clean technology market on Wednesday had some serious pulling power including the former United States vice-president Al Gore.

Mr Gore was at the launch in Sydney of the FEX Sustainability and Cleantech Investment Market (FEX-SIM), and spoke about global warming and the opportunities it presented for businesses and for companies aiming to become sustainable." |Read more|

Governor Ritter & Congressman Udall To Testify Before Congress About Renewable Energy

"Renewable energy and global warming are among the topics Colorado's Governor Bill Ritter will testify about in Washington, D.C. this Thursday. He will appear before the U.S. House Select Committee on Energy Independent and Global Warming.

Ritter is expected to talk about the economic and environmental benefits of implementing a renewable energy standard like Amendment 37, a voter approved measure passed in Colorado in 2004. Amendment 37 requires 10 percent renewable energy production for the state by 2015. Colorado is the first state in the country to approve a measure like Amendment 37." |Read more|

Scientists Warns Of Climate Change Impact

"Climate change could mean higher temperatures, less winter precipitation and less spring runoff for the Southwest, a climatologist says.

Temperatures in New Mexico could increase by a few degrees by the end of this century, said Gregg Garfin, project manager of the Climate Assessment Project for the Southwest at the University of Arizona." |Read more|

Young Entrepreneurs Target Global Warming

"An increasing number of young people are concerned about global warming, according to recent studies, and some are working to fight it through business initiatives, such as credit cards that invest in renewable energy.

Andy Rossmeissl and Jake Whitcomb, both 24, founded Brighter Planet in late 2005 after taking an environmental economics course together at Middlebury College in Vermont. Challenged by their professor Jon Isham to devise innovative ways to bring more people into the discussion about climate change, Rossmeissl and Whitcomb decided to take a business approach.

"We were pretty inspired from the beginning. The ideas started to take a life of their own, and we just sort of ran with it," said Rossmeissl.

They founded Brighter Planet, a for-profit business with the goal of creating products that involve consumers in combating global warming." |Read more|

Electronics Help Predict Global Warming

"The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that the ice-packed caps may disappear between 2050 and 2100, but the panel admits that its prediction of the year they completely melt is only a guess. Now, by making detailed measurements of the polar ice's permeability, using models originally conceived for solid-state semiconductors, scientists are refining global warming predictions. University of Utah mathematician Ken Golden is currently on an Australian research ship in the Antarctic, pioneering the electronic modeling of ice permeability." |Read more|

Global Warming Increases Infectious Diseases

"Global warming likely will lead to an increase in infectious disease around the world, as viruses, microbes and the agents that spread them flourish, experts at a medical conference warned Tuesday.

The problem is already evident and has become particularly acute in just the past decade, according to researchers at a meeting of the American Society for Microbiology." |Read more|

States Tackle Global Warming

"State governments, impatient with the lack of leadership from Washington on global warming, are going it alone with some nods of encouragement from the federal bench.

Last week, a U.S. District Court judge in Vermont ruled against the auto industry in its lawsuit challenging that state's efforts to curb emissions of greenhouse gases emitted by cars and light trucks. The ruling could add momentum to similar initiatives being undertaken in several other states." Read more..

Polluting Factories Will Operate During 2008 Olympic Games

"Beijing has not demanded polluting factories around the capital suspend operations ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games to improve air quality, the Financial Times reported Tuesday.


Liu Qi, chairman of the Beijing Games organizing committee and the capital's highest-ranking official, said in an interview that factories would have to watch their emissions but would not have to shut for the August 2008 Games.

"The main thing is to strengthen factories. Â’ management of gases and reduce emissions of pollutants," Liu, chief of the Beijing Communist Party, was quoted as saying. "We have not made any demand for suspensions of operations."

Liu, who serves on the powerful Politburo of the ruling Communist Party, had previously said that some factories may be ordered to close before and during the Games to improve air quality.

Beijing is one of the world's most polluted cities and poor air quality has long been a grave concern for athletes, officials and fans.

Speaking at the one-year countdown celebrations last month, International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said events could be rescheduled if pollution was extremely bad.

"Definitely the endurance sports like the cycling race where you have to compete for six hours, these are examples of competitions that might be postponed or delayed to another day," Rogge said.

"We are completely confident that Olympic athletes will be able to take part in their competitions normally next August," Liu told the Financial Times."