Monthly Archives: March 2008
Australia: Canberra leads the nation in Earth Hour switch off
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Earth Hour organisers say Canberra led the nation in switching its lights off on Saturday night. Electricity consumption fell by more than 11 per cent and it is estimated that more than 70 per cent of Canberrans participated. All the major national capital icons participated in the event including Parliament [...]
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Japan: Global warming imperils rare fish in Lake Biwa
Daily Yomiuri: We are often warned about the deterioration of our living environment caused by global warming or cross-border pollution and its effects on the habitats of animals and plantlife. Another reminder of this deterioration came with the news that a rare fish is threatened in Lake Biwa. The fish, chaenogobius [...]
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Thailand: Government planning to cut CO2 emissions by 15-20 percent
Reuters: Extreme weather conditions, rising sea levels and health problems potentially related to environmental pollution have prompted Thailand’s new government to draft a plan that will require major industrial companies to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 15-20 percent. The plan, which should be completed in the next few months but still lacks a [...]
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Spain Unveils More Drought Relief Measures
Reuters: Spain’s government on Friday unveiled new measures to relieve the impact of the driest winter in memory, including diverting water between regions to ensure supplies to 2.5 million people in the parched southeast. In addition to human consumption, Spain depends on water to irrigate crops and cut its heavy dependence on imported [...]
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United Kingdom: TUC presses for clean coal decision
Guardian: The government comes under renewed pressure today to step up backing for the use of clean coal as part of future electricity generation. The call to speed up decision-making comes from the TUC’s clean coal task group, which includes representatives from unions and companies within the coal and power industries. It said delays [...]
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United Kingdom: Warning over green homes target
Press Association: Turning the UK’s existing housing stock into low carbon homes could be achieved by the end of the next decade if there is significant investment in "green" technology such as solar water heating, a report says. But without a radical shift in Government policy, the housing sector will not achieve its emissions [...]
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Land Once Preserved Now Being Farmed
US News and World Report: Since the mid-1980s, the U.S. government, in an attempt to reduce the environmental fallout from large-scale farming, has been paying farmers to set aside less-than-ideal land for conservation. The results have been overwhelmingly positive: Soil erosion has been reduced; chemical and fertilizer runoff has eased; habitats for game birds and [...]
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Poor nations fear being left in cold on global warming
Agence France Presse: Outraged poor nations bearing the brunt of global warming have become increasingly bold in UN-led climate talks, but some worry that recent trysts of large countries are leaving them out in the cold. A grouping of 192 countries under the United Nations is leading the way in negotiating a groundbreaking climate [...]
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‘Fossil Fools’ Protests Target Oil Industry
OneWorld US: Green groups are planning to celebrate April Fools Day Tuesday with a variety of actions designed to embarrass oil industry bosses gathering in Washington. "Our political and corporate leaders have been fooling around with our future by refusing to take the bold action needed to avert a climate crisis," said Brianna Cayo-Cotter [...]
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United States: Baby step to protect the coast from drilling
San Francisco Chronicle: California moved a step closer to permanently protecting its shores from offshore oil drilling Monday when the House approved legislation to ban development in federal waters along all 76 miles of Sonoma County’s coastline and off the southern tip of Mendocino County’s coast. The measure would more than double the size [...]
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Britain Introduces Biofuel Target Amid Concerns
Voice of America: Britain is stepping up the use of biofuels with new targets in the coming weeks – as the first step toward meeting an EU directive that five percent of all transport fuels come from renewable energy sources by the year 2010. Tendai Maphosa takes a closer look at the pros and cons [...]
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Chunk of Antarctic ice shelf collapses; global warming blamed
Canadian Press: A chunk of Antarctic ice suddenly collapsed, putting an even greater portion of glacial ice at risk, scientists said last Tuesday. Satellite images show the runaway disintegration of a 414-square-kilometre chunk in western Antarctica, which started Feb. 28. It was the edge of the Wilkins ice shelf and has been there for [...]
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Global Warming Bringing Early Spring Seasons To Eurasian Forests
Science Daily: With the help of satellite data, researchers from laboratories in France(1), the UK, Japan and Russia have completed the accurate and large-scale mapping of leaf appearance dates in boreal forests. Their work has revealed a remarkable trend towards earlier foliation, which occurred between 1987 and 1990, over a large part of northern Eurasia, [...]
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Global warming, global health: Campaign will raise awareness
USA Today: From deadly heat waves in the Midwest and Northeast to more intense Gulf Coast hurricanes and Southwest droughts, the effects of climate change will have an unprecedented impact on the health of Americans, a report said Monday. The connection between global warming and public health is the focus of a new campaign [...]
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Bringing home the truth on CO2 output