Monthly Archives: December 2009

United States: EPA questions New York state plan to drill for shale gas

By | Published: December 31, 2009
window.document.getElementById(‘post-7932′).parentNode.className += ‘ adhesive_post’;Reuters: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has "serious reservations" about allowing shale gas drilling in New York City’s watershed, warning of a threat to the drinking water for 9 million people. An EPA report on the divisive issue is the latest potential roadblock for energy companies seeking to exploit the Marcellus [...]
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Africa’s apocalyptic mood

By | Published: December 31, 2009
Guardian: The story is told of how two Ghanaian old ladies emerged from church one Sunday morning in June 1967. During the service, the minister had asked for prayers for the people of Israel, who were at war. "Akosua", one lady turned to the other, "what are we going to do?" "Do about [...]
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10:10: Meet Eugenie Harvey, the woman behind the campaign

By | Published: December 31, 2009
Guardian: In a way, Eugenie Harvey wasn’t an obvious choice to be director of the 10:10 campaign. "My initial reaction was: I’m not a climate change expert, I’m not a scientist, I’m not someone who has been campaigning in this area for 20 years," Harvey admits, "so do I have the credibility to take on [...]
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Permafrost thaw may accelerate Arctic groundwater runoff

By | Published: December 31, 2009
ScienceDaily: As the Arctic warms, permafrost will degrade, potentially resulting in increased groundwater runoff as frozen ground that had blocked the flow of water melts. To investigate how groundwater systems will evolve as surface temperatures rise, Bense et al. developed a model to simulate an idealized aquifer covered by a layer of permafrost. They [...]
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France to propose new carbon tax

By | Published: December 31, 2009
window.document.getElementById(‘post-7932′).parentNode.className += ‘ adhesive_post’;Reuters: France’s government wants to salvage a carbon tax, scrapped on constitutional concerns, by closing loopholes for some businesses, Economy Minister Christine Lagarde said on Thursday. The French Constitutional Council annulled the tax, hailed by President Nicolas Sarkozy as a ground-breaking tool to fight climate change, on Tuesday on the grounds [...]
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EU carbon price ends ‘09 down 21 percent for year

By | Published: December 31, 2009
window.document.getElementById(‘post-7932′).parentNode.className += ‘ adhesive_post’;Reuters: European Union carbon futures slipped in light trading on Thursday to end the year down 21 percent from 2008 closing prices. Dec-10 futures for EU Allowances closed down 17 cents or 1.3 percent at 12.53 euros a tonne in an abbreviated trading session on London’s European Climate Exchange (ECX). [...]
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Gore: Carbon Polluters Like Big Tobacco

By | Published: December 31, 2009
CBS News: This month, a poll of 3,000 Americans showed 49 percent were not that worried about global warming. That’s up from 39 percent in 2007, when Al Gore’s book and documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" was the hot topic in the climate change debate. So, does the political will to save the planet from [...]
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Snow isn’t erasing lingering drought

By | Published: December 31, 2009
San Francisco Chronicle: The recent dose of foul weather has raised the spirits of California’s water lords, but measurements taken Wednesday in the Sierra Nevada show there is still not enough snow to ease drought conditions. The ritual trek into the snowy wilderness to survey the state’s frozen water supply found less snow than [...]
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The India Climate-Change Calculus

By | Published: December 31, 2009
window.document.getElementById(‘post-7932′).parentNode.className += ‘ adhesive_post’;Wall Street Journal: China has been publicly excoriated by U.S. officials and others for opposing a binding climate-change deal at this month’s United Nations summit in Copenhagen. But the real loser was India. By aligning itself with China’s negotiating position, India bracketed itself with the world’s largest polluting nation. This tack [...]
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France’s Constitutional Court Throws Out Tax on Carbon Emissions

By | Published: December 30, 2009
window.document.getElementById(‘post-7932′).parentNode.className += ‘ adhesive_post’; France's new tax on carbon emission was set to take effect on January 1st. But France's Constitutional Court has struck down the law, according to Bloomberg, because it had too many loop holes.France's constitutional court rejected a proposed tax on carbon emissions, saying a web of exemptions violated the principal of equality [...]
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Indian Ocean climate event recurs quicker with global warming

By | Published: December 30, 2009
ScienceDaily: The Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), an oscillation of sea surface temperatures in the Indian Ocean, has become a major influence on the weather variations in the Indian Ocean region. During positive IOD events, abnormally warm sea surface temperatures in the western Indian Ocean are accompanied by severe droughts over the Indonesian region and heavy [...]
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As threats multiply and power fragments, the coming decade cries out for realistic idealism

By | Published: December 30, 2009
window.document.getElementById(‘post-7932′).parentNode.className += ‘ adhesive_post’;Guardian: An Islamist terrorist caught trying to crash a plane over Detroit creates a flash of illusory clarity. The decade might have ended with another 9/11. So was George Bush right after all? Is the "global war on terror" the defining struggle of our times? In which case, what about climate [...]
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Shell must face Friends of the Earth Nigeria claim in Netherlands

By | Published: December 30, 2009
Guardian: A judge in the Netherlands has opened the door to a potential avalanche of legal cases against Shell over environmental degradation said to be caused by its oil operations in the Niger Delta. The oil group expressed "disappointment" tonight that a court in The Hague had agreed to allow Friends of the Earth [...]
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Fuel cells and carbon capture combine for clean coal breakthrough

By | Published: December 30, 2009
window.document.getElementById(‘post-7932′).parentNode.className += ‘ adhesive_post’;Business Green: Australian clean coal technology specialist Linc Energy and British fuel cell firm AFC Energy have signed a major new partnerhip, paving the way for a pioneering demonstration project that the two companies believe could revolutionise the coal industry. Under the deal, which was signed earlier this month, Linc has [...]
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U.S. states strive to regulate shale gas industry

By | Published: December 30, 2009
Reuters: As U.S. energy companies scramble to mine natural gas from shale deposits, state regulators are struggling to keep pace amid criticism that they lack the resources to enforce environmental laws. Shale gas trapped deep underground is considered one of the most promising sources of U.S. energy and one that is generating jobs, royalties [...]
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