Monthly Archives: August 2007

DiCaprio’s ‘11th Hour’ tells too much, too fast

By | Published: August 31, 2007
Associated Press: There is no doubt that Leonardo DiCaprio’s intentions are honorable in trying to inform us about the state of crisis our planet is in with "The 11th Hour," or that his knowledge of the subject matter is secure. DiCaprio, who narrated, co-produced and co-wrote the documentary, created a foundation to make people [...]
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Australia’s Carbon Trading Proposal Isn’t Enough, Group Says

By | Published: August 31, 2007
Bloomberg: Australia’s planned emissions trading system by itself will fail to drive the investment in technology needed to meet greenhouse gas reduction targets, according to a group including Rio Tinto Group and a BP Plc unit. The trading system needs to be accompanied by a broader strategy to support low-emissions technologies for climate [...]
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Aust, US ‘lack credentials’ to lead climate change talks

By | Published: August 31, 2007
Reuters: Malaysia says Australia and the United States should not hijack next week’s summit of Asia-Pacific leaders to discuss climate change, saying it is not the right forum. Australia has written to leaders of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum to put climate change at the top of the agenda at the September [...]
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Ecuador: $350m to leave oil in the ground

By | Published: August 31, 2007
Guardian: Long before you reach the site the jungle changes. Birds and insects fall quiet, streams turn inky and trees become stunted, their leaves blackened and scrunched up, like fists. The trail turns wider and muddier, for vehicles come here, and there is an unfamiliar sound, a sort of whooshing, followed by crackling. [...]
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Australia’s Qantas plans pollution offset program

By | Published: August 31, 2007
window.document.getElementById(‘post-7932′).parentNode.className += ‘ adhesive_post’;Reuters: Australia’s largest airline, Qantas Airways Ltd, said it plans to start a carbon credit program in September to partly offset the pollution emitted by its aircraft. Travellers will be offered a choice when they purchase a ticket to buy carbon credits to offset the carbon dioxide emissions from their trip, [...]
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Dispelling the myth of bipolar glaciation 41 million years ago

By | Published: August 31, 2007
window.document.getElementById(‘post-7932′).parentNode.className += ‘ adhesive_post’;Innovations Report: Large continental ice sheets did not exist in both hemispheres around 41 million years ago during the warmer-than modern conditions of the time. This is the finding of scientists from the University of Southampton’s School of Ocean and Earth Science at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (NOCS), reported in [...]
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A global warning: Gore did it better

By | Published: August 31, 2007
window.document.getElementById(‘post-7932′).parentNode.className += ‘ adhesive_post’;Baltimore Sun: "The United States invariably does the right thing after having exhausted every other alternative." A variation on that Winston Churchill quote triggers the only laugh to be had in The 11th Hour. As the narrator of this sprawling documentary about climate change, Leonardo DiCaprio makes the Al Gore of An [...]
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Canada: 3 Greenpeace members held in Lake Erie stunt

By | Published: August 31, 2007
window.document.getElementById(‘post-7932′).parentNode.className += ‘ adhesive_post’;Toronto Star: On a breezy Lake Erie yesterday, two young people climbed a rickety scaling ladder up the side of a massive freighter and locked themselves to the conveyer belt device that helps to unload the ship’s cargo. A third used mountaineering gear to attach herself to the stern, just above [...]
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Cheap coal, dirty air

By | Published: August 31, 2007
window.document.getElementById(‘post-7932′).parentNode.className += ‘ adhesive_post’;LA Times: Coal is one of the most environmentally destructive substances on Earth. Coal-fired power plants, which produce more than half the nation’s electricity, are the biggest source of airborne toxic substances in the U.S. and are responsible for about half the particulate matter polluting our skies. They are also often fingered [...]
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Australia: Business heavyweights leaning on Govt over emissions

By | Published: August 31, 2007
window.document.getElementById(‘post-7932′).parentNode.className += ‘ adhesive_post’;Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Nine companies from the mining, finance, resource and energy sectors have joined forces to urge the Federal Government to develop a low-emissions technology strategy. Companies including BP, Rio Tinto, Santos, Westpac and Mirvac have formed an alliance called the Australian Business and Climate Group. They want [...]
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In DiCaprio’s ‘The 11th Hour,’ it’s do-or-die time for Earth

By | Published: August 31, 2007
window.document.getElementById(‘post-7932′).parentNode.className += ‘ adhesive_post’;Union-Tribune: The facts are in. Flooding in (Katrina was an early sprinkle). If you didn’t quite go for "An Inconvenient Truth" – maybe had some twinge of resistance to former candidate Al Gore, or didn’t quite trust the snappy seminar packaging – another chance has come to pay attention and to [...]
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Climate change may delay Ice Age by 500000 years

By | Published: August 31, 2007
Bloomberg: The next Ice Age may be delayed by as much as 500,000 years as a result of climate changes triggered by the burning of fossil fuels, according to a new report. Carbon dioxide from the burning of coal, oil and gas will affect ocean chemistry and the climate long after the fuels are [...]
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Merkel backs climate deal based on population

By | Published: August 31, 2007
Reuters: German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she wanted to offer developing countries a compromise climate change pact based on population size, but warned on Friday that negotiations will be tough. Merkel, who helped draw up the Kyoto Protocol on climate change as Germany’s environment minister in 1997, made global warming and talks over a [...]
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Global food crisis looms as climate change and population growth strip fertile land

By | Published: August 31, 2007
Guardian: Climate change and an increasing population could trigger a global food crisis in the next half century as countries struggle for fertile land to grow crops and rear animals, scientists warned yesterday. To keep up with the growth in human population, more food will have to be produced worldwide over the next 50 [...]
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US vehicle emissions drop

By | Published: August 31, 2007
Reuters: CLIMATE-WARMING carbon emissions from new cars and light trucks in the US fell by 3 per cent in 2005, the first decrease in nearly 20 years, a report has found. "We see some signs of good news here," John DeCicco of Environmental Defence said. High fuel prices and tighter fuel efficiency standards for [...]
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