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ACTION: Detroit Bailout If you want to take a step to help ensure that the bailout has real restrictions and doesn't just shovel money to greedy, myopic companies who will continue their four-year-long assault on regulations of CO2 tailpipe emissions by California and other states, then go to http://www.40mpg.org/bailout to send an email urging that the bailout restrictions be supported by their members of Congress and the transition team of President-Elect Barack Obama.

EVENT: Nov 27th How Do We Get Back To Climate Safety? No screaming, no panic, no doom, no gloom. Just a short and simple summary of the latest climate science followed by a discussion of what we’re going to do about it. (Facebook users can click here)

ACTION: Dec 6th National Climate March March on Parliament to demand that the government acts on climate now ! Part of a Global Day of Action - see www.globalclimatecampaign.org Last year 70+ countries were involved !

STICKY: Why politicians dare not limit economic growth - New Scientist Visceral fear is not without foundation. If we do not go out shopping, then factories stop producing, and if factories stop producing then people get laid off. If people get laid off, then they do not have any money. And if they don't have any money they cannot go shopping. A falling economy has no money in the public purse and no way to service public debt. It struggles to maintain competitiveness and it puts people's jobs at risk. A government that fails to respond appropriately will soon find itself out of office. This is the logic of free-market capitalism: the economy must grow continuously or face an unpalatable collapse. With the environmental situation reaching crisis point, however, it is time to stop pretending that mindlessly chasing economic growth is compatible with sustainability. We need something more robust than a comfort blanket to protect us from the damage we are wreaking on the planet. Figuring out an alternative to this doomed model is now a priority before a global recession, an unstable climate, or a combination of the two forces itself upon us.

Obama vows climate 'engagement' - BBC News US President-elect Barack Obama promises to "engage vigorously" on climate change, ahead of a major UN summit.
Cap carbon to spur economy - US business leaders - AlertNet Source: Reuters By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent WASHINGTON, Nov 18 (Reuters) - U.S. business leaders including the troubled Big Three automakers offered a prescription on Tuesday for economic ...
Global warming data blunder: Worth the fuss? - Scientific American Despite broad consensus on the existence, origins and potentially catastrophic effects of global warming, a vocal minority continues to question the motives, methods and assumptions of climate scientists sounding the alarm. So when temperature data released by NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), one of the leading monitors of climate change, showed an unusually warm October, ...
Cane toads threaten freshwater crocs - The Age Cane toads threaten freshwater crocsThe Age, Australia. ... climate change and demands for water resources on the fresh water crocodiles," he said. Increasing demands on freshwater resources and global warming ...
Half the World's Population to Face Water Shortage in 2080 - The Irrawaddy News Magazine Half the World's Population to Face Water Shortage in 2080The Irrawaddy News Magazine, Thailand. Wong Poh Poh, a professor at the National University of Singapore, told a regional conference that global warming was disrupting water flow patterns and ...
Hesitation in pursuit of a Green New Deal - International Herald Tribune Hesitation in pursuit of a Green New DealInternational Herald Tribune, France. But it may not happen fast enough or on a sufficient scale to stimulate the economy, stop global warming or bring down for any length of time oil prices ...
Will Detroit's cash crisis kill the electric car? LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Call it an economic and environmental murder mystery in the making: Will a cash-strapped Detroit kill the electric car -- again?
Rainforest nations want coordinated carbon effort MILAN (Reuters) - Rainforest nations will lobby the United Nations to set up a single body to coordinate the use of carbon credit trading to stop deforestation at a conference next month in Poland, an official from the countries said on Tuesday.
For more news, click here >> News from previous days is below
A green New Deal - CBC.ca A green New DealCBC.ca, Canada. With climate change accelerating, droughts lengthening, forests, wetlands and species disappearing, today's financial crisis may be both our last and best ...	18th November 2008
Windfarm consortium to invest billions off UK coast - Guardian Unlimited Two of the world's leading wind farm operators have teamed up to make joint bids for the next round of offshore licences in Britain. ScottishPower Renewables, part of Spain's Iberdrola Renovables, is joining forces with Sweden's Vattenfall with the aim of developing 6,000 megawatts of installed capacity. The partners have not said how much the development will cost, but industry experts ...	18th November 2008
Soil May Release Less CO2 Than Expected - Discovery Channel Some good news: some soil may not release as much CO2 as expected when warmed.	18th November 2008
Abdicating The "A" Word, Frantically Fighting For The Familiar - CounterCurrents.org Abdicating The "A" Word, Frantically Fighting For The FamiliarCounterCurrents.org, India. People whose research I respected were warning of an economic collapse, an energy crash, and the catastrophic effects of global warming-none of which, ...	18th November 2008
Schwarzenegger convenes global climate summit - Sacramento Bee Schwarzenegger convenes global climate summitSacramento Bee, USA. He also has been critical of what he sees as a lack of meaningful action on climate change from the Bush administration. The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on ...	18th November 2008
Water vapor confirmed as major player in climate change - PhysOrg.com Water vapor confirmed as major player in climate changePhysOrg.com, VA. ... (PhysOrg.com) -- Water vapor is known to be Earth's most abundant greenhouse gas, but the extent of its contribution to global warming has been debated. ...	18th November 2008
Could fertilising trees save the climate? Nitrogen could be a switch for determining how much of the Sun's energy is bounced back into space by forests	18th November 2008
Climate change pushes hundreds of birds further north - KARE 11 Minneapolis-St. Paul There's new evidence wildlife is adapting to a warmer climate.	18th November 2008
California seeks one third renewable power by 2020 SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California committed to getting a third of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020 in a Monday executive order by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.	18th November 2008
World faces a climate war says expert - Pembroke Daily Observer Nobody lets their children starve unless there are no other options available. This from international affairs expert Gwynne Dyer, who spoke to a full house [...]	18th November 2008
'It's part of the addiction' By Kate Sheppard President-elect Obama was interviewed on 60 Minutes last night about the election and how he is preparing for the presidency. Obama noted early in the conversation that he's "talking to top economic advisers about how we're gonna create jobs, how we get the economy back on track and what do we do in terms of some long-term issues like energy and health care." He also mentioned that his team is figuring out how to sequence agenda items "in a way that we can actually get things through Congress." Interviewer Steve Kroft brought up energy in the course of their discussion of economic issues ...	18th November 2008
CO2 Seeping Into Water Supply - Discovery Channel CO2 levels in groundwater are going up faster than atmospheric levels, according to a new study.	18th November 2008
Duke Study Pinpoints Potential 'Green-Collar' Job Growth in US - Duke University Duke Study Pinpoints Potential 'Green-Collar' Job Growth in USDuke University, NC. “Meeting the challenge of climate change will ramp up the supply chains that wind their way through the heart of American manufacturing,” said Jackie ...	18th November 2008
Bad News for Big Oil Oil industry operatives are sweating bullets over whether the incoming Obama Administration will be keen to buy “dirty oil” from Alberta tar sands. The early news for them is not good. The president-elect last week sent Jason Grumet, a policy adviser mentioned for a possible energy post, to an environmental conference in Washington to offer reassurances that there would be swift movement on climate change legislation. Observers feel this is an early sign that Obama is taking a hard line on carbon. "The whole transition team felt it important to be here," Grumet said. "I think it is going to be a very very busy 2009, and I think we are going to need all of you to be on top of your game." Grumet is also no fan of the filthy oil coming from the tar sands.	18th November 2008
Germany Wants CO2 Relief For Energy Guzzling Firms - Planet Ark BERLIN - The German government wants extensive exemptions for energy intensive industrial sectors for their carbon emissions caps from 2013, Chancellor Angela Merkel's chief spokesman said on Friday.	17th November 2008
Floods under Antarctic ice speed glaciers into sea: study - AFP Floods under Antarctic ice speed glaciers into sea: studyAFP. Two forces -- both driven by global warming -- cause sea levels to rise. One is thermal expansion of sea water. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate ...	17th November 2008
Adoption of Climate Treaty by 2009 in Doubt - Environmental News Network Despite new leadership in the United States promising to cap the country's greenhouse gas emissions, some environmental leaders say it is unlikely that an international climate treaty will pass in the next year. During his campaign, U.S. president-elect Barack Obama supported a global cap-and-trade agreement for regulating his nation's carbon emissions. As a result, many international observers ...	17th November 2008
Climate change: Emissions from industrialised world still high - SpaceDaily PARIS, Nov 17 (AFP) Nov 17, 2008 Carbon emissions from the industrialised world in 2006 were higher than at the start of the century, mainly as a result of revived activity by former Soviet-bloc states, according to UN figures released on Monday.	17th November 2008
Pakistan and the melting glaciers If Pakistan is to dig itself out of its current crisis it needs two things to happen.  It needs strong economic growth to tackle poverty and undercut the appeal of hardline Islamists; and it needs peace with India if it is to permanently cut its ties with militants it has traditionally seen as a reserve force to be used against its much bigger neighbour.  Or so goes the prevailing view. This week's United Nations report on pollution in Asia -- and the melting of glaciers which feed the rivers of India and Pakistan -- suggest there are serious risks to that scenario of an ultimately prosperous Pakistan at peace with its neighbours.	17th November 2008
Global warming causes winter migratory birds to shun UK - guardian.co.uk Global warming causes winter migratory birds to shun UKguardian.co.uk, UK. Fewer birds will migrate to the UK each year as warmer temperatures caused by climate change will encourage them to spend winters closer to home, ...	17th November 2008
Jelly blobs may hold key to climate change - ABC Online Jelly blobs may hold key to climate changeABC Online, Australia. SIMON LAUDER: So salps potentially could play a significant role in climate change? JASON EVERETT: Yes, due to their really fast growth rates and their ...	17th November 2008
Making the case for a carbon tax in Canada - Times Colonist Making the case for a carbon tax in CanadaTimes Colonist, Canada. Climate change doesn't leave us with easy, free choices. Our choice is pay now or pay later. If we don't stop climate change soon, it's going to cost us way ...	17th November 2008
Obama won't visit UN climate talks in Poland: UN - Reuters Obama won't visit UN climate talks in Poland: UNReuters. ... attend United Nations talks in Poland next month working on a new treaty for fighting global warming, the UN Climate Change Secretariat said on Monday. ...	17th November 2008
The greenhouse gas that nobody knew - guardian.co.uk The greenhouse gas that nobody knewguardian.co.uk, UK. ... on Climate Change now lists it among five major new greenhouse gases likely to be included in the next phase of global warming regulation, after 2012. ...	17th November 2008

Experts think climate shift could spark more conflict - The Pantagraph The Earth's fast-changing climate has a range of serious thinkers - from military brass to geographers to diplomats - predicting a spate of armed conflicts driven by the weather.	16th November 2008
Not Sky-High - Newsweek With the global financial system in crisis and the economy in a downturn, there is a risk that momentum for investing in clean energy and tackling climate change may ebb. Some argue that action is too expensive when the economy is weak; others say it will hurt economic growth and force consumers to make changes in their lifestyle they will not like. But new research by the McKinsey Global Institute and McKinsey's Climate Change Special Initiative shows that this need not be the case. With the right mix of policies, investments, new technologies and changes in behavior, we can shift to a clean-energy economy while continuing to grow. The key is dramatically increasing the "carbon productivity" of the economy. Just as one can measure labor productivity—the amount of output created per hour worked—one can measure the "carbon productivity" of an economy as the amount of output produced per metric ton of carbon dioxide and other equivalent greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere. If we are to meet the twin goals of reviving the economy and tackling climate change, then we need to dramatically boost the world's carbon productivity.	16th November 2008
US dry pea, lentil production plummets; ND, Montana producers suffer - Grand Forks Herald Many pea and lentil farmers in Montana and North Dakota - the nation's top producing states - found themselves unlucky this year as drought depleted their crops. Production plummeted in the two states that typically account for two-thirds of the nation's lentil crop and more than three-fourths of the dry peas. The most recent Agriculture Department data show U.S. pea production down 24 percent from last year and lentils down 30 percent. Average yields nationwide for the commodities - known as pulse crops because they have pods and seeds - were only about three-fourths of what they were in 2007. U.S. production of dry peas this year totaled about 12 million hundred-pound bags; lentil production was about 2.4 million hundredweight. "What happened was drought. That's kind of a short story," Squires said. "The peas that were there were nice quality, but there was just very little production." The impact on prices might be anyone's guess.	16th November 2008
State of emergency declared in Los Angeles while fire raging - Eastday.com California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles County yesterday following the loss of at least 165 homes by a raging wildfire fire.	16th November 2008
Some see opportunity in China's coalfield fires - The Charlotte Observer China: The burning Shuixi Gou coalfield in far western China is terrible for the environment, belching smoke and noxious gases. Some experts look at the fire, however, and see hope for progress against global warming. That's because the burning coalfield in western Xinjiang province may not be that hard to put out. So it's become a guinea pig of sorts for the notion that big polluters in other parts of the world might pay to fix environmental problems in countries such as China to earn a break for themselves.	16th November 2008
Green Is for Sissies - New York Times As the world begins to shun dirty fuels, Exxon Mobil, undaunted, says oil will power economies for decades.	16th November 2008
EPA ruling over climate jeopardizes coal plants - Reuters NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. environment regulators late Thursday rejected a permit for a new coal-fired power plant in Utah over the issue of its greenhouse gas pollution, putting in question the future of new coal plants that do not to curb their emissions.	15th November 2008
Power-hungry Senegal to go solar in energy overhaul - Reuters DAKAR (Reuters) - Senegal hopes to rein in surging electricity prices, reduce frequent blackouts and power most of its street lighting through an energy policy using solar panels, the government said Friday.	15th November 2008
Australians march against climate change - Reuters SYDNEY (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of Australians took part in mass protests around the country Saturday to call for tough government action on climate change, organizers said.	15th November 2008
California ordered to prepare for sea-level rise - Reuters SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday ordered preparations for rising sea levels from global warming, a startling prospect for the most populous U.S. state with a Pacific Ocean coastline stretching more than 800 miles.	15th November 2008
Marine dead zones set to expand rapidly - Nature Rising carbon dioxide levels will make oceans more hostile to life.	15th November 2008
Drought worsening in Georgia, USA - BBC News The ongoing drought affecting much of the state of Georgia is growing worse. Northern parts of the state are hardest hit. Georgian officials have now described the drought as “exceptional” in the northeast.	15th November 2008
Fierce winds fan Calif. fires overnight - USA Today Fierce winds on Saturday fanned a fast-spreading wildfire in California as firefighters battled another major blaze that destroyed more than 100 homes in a wealthy, celebrity studded enclave.	15th November 2008
Financial crisis threatens climate-change momentum - The Christian Science Monitor Experts fear the credit crunch will discourage governments worldwide from turning to taxpayers for assistance in climate-change efforts.	15th November 2008
The [Climate Policy] Change We Need by Sheril Kirshenbaum A week ago, Barack Obama addressed the nation that had just elected him the 44th President of the United States. When he named America's greatest challenges, “a planet in peril” was a centerpiece. After the Bush administration's eight-year war on our air, oceans, and wildlife, concerned citizens everywhere had justified reason to celebrate, feeling that they too had possibly won a great victory that night. Two days later, Obama returned calls from nine presidents and prime ministers. Accounts of these conversations made world news, with many reports highlighting that climate change had served as a dominant theme.	15th November 2008
Mankind 'will regret' not taking action to tackle global warming - Irish Independent Dr Rajendra K Pachauri, head of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC), told a conference in Cork that mankind would "regret" not taking action, and raised the possibility of global conflict unless greenhouse gas emissions were reduced.	15th November 2008
U.S. military worries about climate change - Washington Times In recent months, U.S. military planners have discussed the impact on personnel, equipment and installations of extreme weather events, rising ocean temperatures, shifts in rainfall patterns and stresses on natural resources.	15th November 2008
Pssst! It's OK to cut the defense budget! - Gristmill USA: Cut defense spending in favor of clean-energy investing. We're spending close to $1 trillion per year for national security. But what could possibly be more important for our long-term national security than building a healthy economy and preventing Florida from going under water?	15th November 2008
Coal power plants may have to limit emissions - USA Today About 100 proposed coal-fired power plants in the USA may be required to limit their greenhouse gas emissions after the Environmental Protection Agency was blocked Thursday from issuing a permit for a proposed Utah plant without addressing the issue of global warming.	14th November 2008
Global Investors With $6 Trillion Call for CO2-Emission Targets - Bloomberg Nov. 13 (Bloomberg) -- A group of 135 investors including HSBC Holdings Plc and Germany's DWS Investments that manage more than $6 trillion are calling for binding targets on carbon-dioxide emissions ahead of United Nations talks next month.	14th November 2008
Are Human Beings Hard-Wired to Ignore the Threat of Catastrophic Climate Change? - Alternet Climate scientists wonder why people don't do more about global warming. Social scientists have some troubling answers.	14th November 2008
Northern exposure - Gristmill October is sixth warmest on record	14th November 2008
MIT analysis shows how cap-and-trade plans can cut greenhouse emissions - EurekAlert! ( Massachusetts Institute of Technology ) Researchers at MIT's Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research have produced a report concerning key design issues of proposed "cap-and-trade" programs that are under consideration in the United States as a way of curbing greenhouse gas emissions. See also: INTERVIEW - Obama Should Compromise On Carbon Policy - Planet Ark	14th November 2008
Is the Nation Ready for Obama's Energy Plan? Obama's 30-point energy agenda calls for big changes to address carbon emissions, fuel efficiency, renewable power and efficiency.	14th November 2008
How fast can Obama fix US environment policy? With just 12 months to go until the world decides on a new Kyoto protocol, the president-elect has little time to bring the US into line	14th November 2008
Giant Asian Smog Cloud Masks Global Warming Impact - UN - Planet Ark BEIJING - A three-kilometre thick cloud of brown soot and other pollutants hanging over Asia is darkening cities, killing thousands and damaging crops but may be holding off the worst effects of global warming, the UN said on Thursday.	14th November 2008
Polish PM Says EU Nearing Climate Deal In Dec - Planet Ark PARIS - Poland's prime minister said on Thursday he believed a deal in December on a European Union climate package had come closer following his talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy on the issue.	14th November 2008
Study: Warming could cost Calif. trillions - Moldova.org A study released Thursday estimates around $2.5 trillion of California's real-estate value is at risk from climate change.The study conducted at the University of California Berkeley is the first to examine the potential economic damage the state faces from global warming and warns that everything from agriculture, energy and tourism would be affected.	14th November 2008
Obama's message to the world: we will act quickly on climate change - Guardian Unlimited Barack Obama, who has spent much of the time since his election closeted with his advisers in Chicago, sent a strong signal yesterday that he plans a decisive break with George Bush on environmental policy once he moves into the White House.	13th November 2008
CUBA: No Choice but to Adapt to Storms - IPS HAVANA, Nov 12 (IPS) - Three hurricanes have caused a total of 10 billion dollars in damages in Cuba in less than three months, according to the latest official estimates, while highlighting the vulnerability of Cuban housing to storms.	13th November 2008
Marine invasive species advance with a rate of 50 kilometers per decade - innovations report The fast migration of invasive marine species from the south to the north, caused by global warming, is one of the results disclosed today Tuesday during the presentation of the First World Conference on Marine Biodiversity in the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias, in Valencia.The investigators report that invasive species of macroalgae spread at 50 Km per decade, a distance far larger than that covered by invasive terrestrial plants, possibly due to the rapid dispersion of their propagules in the ocean, according to Nova Mieszkovska, from the Marine Biological Association of the U.K.	13th November 2008
Bush's Parting Shots at the Environment Are Major - Alternet Last ditch efforts by Bush to undermine environmental policy will affect water, climate change, endangered species and public lands.	13th November 2008
Greenhouse gases: saints, villains or future saviours from an Ice Age? - Reuters It's not often that greenhouse gases spewed out by human activities get praise as potential saviours of the planet in a leading scientific journal - they're normally viewed as villains for causing global warming. But a study in Nature today shows that heat-trapping gases such as carbon dioxide can help avert an even worse problem in thousands of years' time - a shift to a freeze worse than an Ice Age that could blanket much of the northern hemisphere with ice (see picture on the left and story here). The scientists say that the Earth is close to a natural tipping point, partly based on shifts in the orbit around the sun, that could abruptly end swings between warm periods, like the present, and Ice Ages like the one that ended 10,000 years ago. “I’m sure some headline writers will want to say ‘CO2 good for the atmosphere’, or ‘CO2 is good for us’. That’s not the case,” said Thomas Crowley, an American scientist at Edinburgh University who was one of the two authors. See also: Humans may have prevented super ice age - New Scientist None of the researchers contacted by New Scientist thought the model's predictions are worth taking seriously. It appears to have a bias to forming large and stable ice sheets, says Ridgwell. "So it does not come as a shock that they find a transition point to an even greater ice mass state."	13th November 2008
Greenwash: Fred Pearce driven mad by Toyota's carbon claims - Guardian A car that could one day clean the air as it drives it not what it seems. It's a classic case of highly selective statistics, says Fred Pearce What the ad copywriters are talking about is not carbon dioxide, but carbon monoxide. This is nasty stuff in large quantities, to be sure. But it isn't warming the planet. What BMW's hydrogen car does "in tests" is emit gas through its tailpipe that contains less carbon monoxide than the surrounding air. In fact, somewhere deep in the system the engine breaks down carbon monoxide. Well done, guys. But it is not cleaning the air in any sense that you or I might understand it. Sure, hydrogen cars don't emit much carbon dioxide either, but very large amounts are emitted where the hydrogen is made.	13th November 2008
Why Bail Out the Car Companies When They Bailed Out on Us? Detroit has been lobbying against the future of all Americans who want to end our oil addiction.	13th November 2008
Crisis is opportunity - Ban Ki-moon, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Donald Tusk and Anders Fogh Rasmussen UN - Crisis - Op - Ed As world leaders gather in Washington, they would do well to remember that we face two crises. The global financial crisis is most immediate; the more existential is climate change. The urgency of the first is no excuse for neglecting the second.	12th November 2008
Mountains and molehills - RealClimate As many people will have read there was a glitch in the surface temperature record reporting for October. Unlike in other fields of citizen-science (astronomy or phenology spring to mind), the motivation for the temperature observers is heavily weighted towards wanting to find something wrong. As we discussed last year, there is a strong yearning among some to want to wake up tomorrow and find that the globe hasn't been warming, that the sea ice hasn't melted, that the glaciers have not receded and that indeed, CO2 is not a greenhouse gas. Thus when mistakes occur (and with science being a human endeavour, they always will) the exuberance of the response can be breathtaking - and quite telling...	12th November 2008
Is Detroit worth saving? - Salon.com Reducing greenhouse gas emissions to avert catastrophic climate change requires cutting automobile oil consumption by a factor of five over the next three decades. Yet Detroit has been waging a four-year legal battle against efforts by California and other states to regulate tailpipe emissions of greenhouse gases. In other words, Detroit has not only been suicidally lobbying against its own inescapable future, but it has been lobbying against the future of all Americans who want to end our oil addiction, and against the future of all humans who want to preserve the health and well-being of our planet for future generations. And for this they are to be rewarded with billions in taxpayer money?	12th November 2008
IEA stokes doubts over world's climate fight LONDON (Reuters) - The world will have to bet on extreme measures to avoid serious global warming, the International Energy Agency said on Wednesday, adding to growing worries that governments have under-estimated the problem.	12th November 2008
Humidity increases greenhouse gas warming - Moldova.org U.S. scientists say if greenhouse gases levels are not reduced soon, significantly warmer global conditions are nearly a certainty during the next century.Texas AM University scientists Zhibo Zhan and Ping Yang, and Professor Andrew Dessler conducted a study of the Earth's temperature variations from 2003 to 2008. Using measurements of water vapor from NASA's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder aboard the Aqua satellite, the researchers confirmed that from 2003 to 2008, the humidity in the atmosphere followed temperatures during that five-year period. Enhanced humidity resulting from more greenhouse gases is viewed as a major factor in projected warmer global temperatures, according to their research. "This new data shows that as surface temperature increases, so does atmospheric humidity," Dessler said. "Thus, if we dump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, we'll be making the atmosphere more humid. And since water vapor is itself a greenhouse gas, the increase in humidity amplifies the initial warming." [To all those sceptics who claim water vapour is more of a greenhouse gas that CO2, well, you're right, but not in the way you had hoped]	12th November 2008
2008 Set To Be About 10th Warmest Year - Expert - Planet Ark OSLO - This year is on track to be about the 10th warmest globally since records began in 1850 but gaps in Arctic data mean the world may be slightly underestimating global warming, a leading scientist said on Tuesday. [Remember folks, this is a La Niña year - it's meant to be colder...]	12th November 2008
BIODIVERSITY: Ten-Year Probe Reveals Oceans in Peril UXBRIDGE, Canada, Nov 11 (IPS) - A thousand points of light are being shone into the dark ocean depths as scientists from 82 countries work to complete the decade-long global research effort called the Census of Marine Life.	12th November 2008
Fires, not logging, now bigger threat to old growth - The Bulletin Threats to old-growth trees in the region's federal forests have changed over the decade and a half since the Northwest Forest Plan went into effect in 1994. While logging of the big, old trees has dropped dramatically since the plan, wildfires are now consuming more acres of the valuable habitat.	12th November 2008
ENVIRONMENT-AUSTRALIA: Harvesting Stormwater as Drought Bites Hard MELBOURNE, Nov 12 (IPS) - With large parts of southern and eastern Australia enduring an ongoing drought, the regional centre of Orange -- some 260 km west of the nation's largest city, Sydney -- is developing Australia's first scheme to harvest stormwater in order to service the town's requirements.	12th November 2008
European tax on U.S. airlines heading for legal challenge - Austin American-Statesman A new European Union rule imposing tougher pollution limits on U.S. airlines violates international law, U.S. government officials say, and will probably result in a legal challenge.	12th November 2008
Germany Gives Away Most of 2008 CO2 Certificates, Agency Says - Bloomberg Nov. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Germany is giving away about two- thirds of the allowances energy producers need this year to generate electricity and emit carbon dioxide as the next phase of emissions trading begins, the environment agency said.	12th November 2008
Japanese greenhouse emissions hit record high - Financial Times TOKYO, Nov 12 – Japanese greenhouse gas emissions hit a record high in the year to March, the government said on Wednesday, raising more questions about whether Japan will fail to meet its commitments under the Kyoto Protocol climate pact.	12th November 2008
Deep Thought - Energy Bulletin A climate change conversion We cannot tackle global warming by technology alone: we will need ethics, as individuals and as a society Dmitry Orlov's "Reinventing Collapse": Thom Hartmann 'Independent Thinker' Review “Reinventing Collapse” is a short 160-page, story-rich, and wonderfully readable book about how and why societies collapse. Orlov’s insights are necessary for all of us, and startling. His conclusions and suggestions seem at first overstated, but as somebody who was in Russia during its collapse, I think, if anything, they may be conservative. Ecology and the Transition from Capitalism to Socialism An ecological perspective is pivotal to our understanding of capitalism’s limits, the failures of the early socialist experiments, and the overall struggle for egalitarian and sustainable human development.	12th November 2008
Dreaming the Future Can Create the Future - HuffingtonPost We stand at the threshold of a singular opportunity in the human experiment: To re-imagine how to live on Earth in ways that honor the web of life, each other and future generations. It's a revolution from the heart of nature -- and the human heart. Then again, in the immortal words of Yogi Berra, "The future ain't what it used to be." We also stand at the brink of worldwide ecological and civilizational collapse. We face a reckoning from the treacherous breach in our relationship with nature. We've been acting like a rock star trashing a hotel room, and it's the morning after. But this hotel is planet Earth. The guest rules are non-negotiable. If we don't change our ways fast, management may vote us off the island.	11th November 2008
Earth to Washington - Mother Jones What will it take for DC to wake up to global warming?	11th November 2008
Obama will have difficulty passing a climate change bill - Guardian Unlimited Brian Beutler: Obama – the transition Barack Obama says his top priority will be to tackle energy, but getting a climate change bill through Congress won't be easy. The problem with the climate crisis – and it's a peculiar problem – is that it hooks far-flung, disparate interest groups and drags them together into a powerful political coalition opposed to drastic action. Corporate Republicans (which is to say almost all of them) and Democrats from coal and oil states like West Virginia, Montana and Louisiana will add up to more than the 41 senators required to block a floor vote on climate legislation. And many of them will have to be mollified if anything significant is to be done at the level of federal law. See also: Waxman v. Dingell - Why polluter lobbyists are rallying to protect 'Tailpipe Johnny'	11th November 2008
Activist: U.S. should be leader on greenhouse gas reduction - Post-Tribune Governmental representatives from 170 countries, including Obama, are expected to attend a climate conference in Copenhagen in late November 2009. They will negotiate a new treaty to succeed the so-called Kyoto Protocol from 1997, which established legally binding commitments for reducing greenhouse gases for more than 180 parties.	11th November 2008
Greenhouse gases imperil oceans' web of life - PhysOrg Corals, lobsters, clams and many other ocean creatures - including some at the bottom of the food chain - may be unable to withstand the increasing acidity of the oceans brought on by growing global-warming pollution, according to a report Tuesday from the advocacy group Oceana.	11th November 2008
Carbon cost fears won't dent EU climate plan: analysts - Reuters LONDON (Reuters) - Cutting carbon costs for power plants and factories under European Union plans from 2013 will not harm the bloc's fight against climate change but could hold back energy market liberalization, say analysts. "It is not desirable to leave a member state behind in terms of this scheme. You run into a whole lot of competitive cross-border issues which the Commission will not want to deal with," said Trevor Sikorski, carbon analyst at Barclays Capital.	11th November 2008
Transport for London scraps plans for six-lane road bridge - Guardian Unlimited UK: Plans for a motorway-scale road bridge that would cross the Thames Gateway and regenerate east London were scrapped today in one of the most significant rejections of car traffic. The decision by Transport for London follows a year-long public inquiry which rejected the £450m bridge proposed by government and business for environmental, social and economic reasons.	11th November 2008
Global investors urge action on climate change - Reuters via Yahoo! News Global institutional investors holding more than $6 trillion in assets pushed policymakers Tuesday to quickly hash out a binding agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions and promote clean technology.	11th November 2008
NASA to host carbon dioxide seminar - UPI WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- The U.S. space agency is planning a seminar that will focus on the current state of knowledge of how Earth influences levels of carbon dioxide. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said the Friday seminar, to start at 11 a.m. EST, will be held at NASA's headquarters in Washington.	11th November 2008
Carbon regulation to change all aspects of life - Energy Bulletin “The average American has no clue what is about to hit them. Neither does the average investor. The magnitude of the life changes we're about to see is simply incredible.” This is how Catherine Elder, an energy expert at noted consultancy R.W. Beck, describes what will be the impact of a federally-imposed system to regulate the U.S.'s carbon dioxide emissions.	11th November 2008
Canada's Oil Sands: $1.4 Trillion Worth of Trouble The Canadian tar sand deposit - the largest oil deposit in North America and the second-largest in the world - is worth $1.5 trillion or $34,591 for every man, woman and child in the country, according to the (quite credible) Canadian think tank, the Centre for the Study of Living Standards. That's one and a half trillion tons of trouble for environmental policymakers in Canada and the United States.The CSLS report is basically a scold to Statistics Canada, which had been working on a total-value estimate less than one quarter this size. The CSLS conclusion implies a bonanza that much outstrips environmental considerations and other social costs.But closer reading shows:the social cost of greenhouse gas emissions created in the mining and refining stage is nearly $70 billion.the CSLS ignored the social cost of downstream emissions (accounting for ...	11th November 2008
Gov't wants to change course of forest experiments - PhysOrg (AP) -- For more than a decade, the federal government has spent millions of dollars pumping elevated levels of carbon dioxide into small groups of trees to test how forests will respond to global warming in the next 50 years. Some scientists believe they are on the cusp of receiving key results from the time-consuming experiments.	11th November 2008
A future with cars: have your say - Autocar Fill in our online poll about cars, carbon emissions and climate change.	11th November 2008
Securing Canada's future in a climate changing world - Dr. David Suzuki speaks at the NRTEE (video) Tthe National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy hosted a unique round table forum entitled "Securing Canada’s Future in a Climate Changing World". Dr. David Suzuki was the keynote speaker. "We have passed the fifty ninth minute ... we can't keep pissing around" [Essential listening whereever you are]	10th November 2008
‘The Big Necessity – The Unmentionable World of Human Waste, and Why it Matters' by Rose George Book review: Every day, you handle the deadliest substance on earth. It is a Weapon of Mass Destruction sloshing beneath your feet and festering beneath your fingernails. In the past ten years, it has killed more people than all the wars since Adolf Hitler rolled into one; in the next four hours, it will kill the equivalent of two jumbo jets full of kids. It is not anthrax, or plutonium, or uranium. Its name is shit – and we are in the middle of a shit-storm.	10th November 2008
The price of our oil addiction - CNN Addiction exposes the deepest forms of physical and psychological dependency. It is typically considered a personal affliction or an individual failing. But the deadly solicitations of any addictive substance -- cocaine, alcohol, nicotine -- rely upon a social, economic, and political infrastructure.	10th November 2008
Australia acts to save 'Alps' from climate change - The Independent Australia's most spectacular mountain landscapes, home to unique native species, have been placed on the national heritage register.	10th November 2008
Maldives leader says island paradise needs to buy new 'homeland' - Monsters and Critics The Republic of Maldives, known to most as a holiday paradise in the Indian Ocean, will set aside a proportion of its annual tourism revenue to buy land as an insurance policy against climate change, its president-elect has said.	10th November 2008
Greenpeace says blocks palm oil ships in Indonesia - Reuters JAKARTA (Reuters) - Greenpeace has blocked three tankers due to transport crude palm oil to China and Europe from leaving an Indonesian port in a bid to highlight deforestation caused by the cash crop, the environmental group said on Monday.	10th November 2008
Recession Will Allow Lower Emissions Caps, Carbon Investor Says - Bloomberg Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) -- The prospect of a global recession will allow governments to set lower emission targets, an investor in carbon credits said. The U.S. and European Union can afford to set tougher limits on emissions because slower economic activity will cut greenhouse gas output and lower emission permit prices, said James Cameron, executive vice chairman of Climate Change Capital, a London fund manager with more than $1 billion to invest in credits.	10th November 2008
Climate Activists Disrupt Australian Power Plant - Planet Ark CANBERRA - Protesters forced the evacuation of an Australian power station on Friday, attempting to chain themselves to a coal conveyor-belt and ratchet up pressure on an industry blamed for half the nation's greenhouse gas emissions.	10th November 2008
Are you ready to go on a carbon diet? - The Christian Science Monitor British retailer displays 'carbon footprint' label on everyday items. US retailers are hesitant to follow.	10th November 2008
INTERVIEW - Tax Polluters For Global Warming Funds - UN Official - Planet Ark BEIJING - The global financial gloom will make citizens of rich nations reluctant to use their taxes to fight global warming and any plan to help poor nations should make the polluters pay, a top UN climate official said.	10th November 2008
We're going to need a mental bailout, too - Grist Magazine The intellectual bankruptcy of conservatism: Heritage even opposes energy efficiency. Conservative think tanks remain oblivious and impervious to the facts. They cling to global warming denial and delay even in the face of the remarkable advances both in scientific understanding about global warming and in clean technology solutions.	10th November 2008
The Energy Challenge of Our Lifetime - Alternet After all, energy policy -- so totally mishandled by the outgoing Bush-Cheney administration -- figures in each of the other major challenges facing the new president, including the economy, the environment, foreign policy, and our Middle Eastern wars. Most of all, it will prove a monumental challenge because the United States faces an energy crisis of unprecedented magnitude that is getting worse by the day.	10th November 2008
Electric car race - BBC News Bolivia: High in the Andes, in a remote corner of Bolivia, lies more than half the world's reserves of a mineral that could radically reduce our reliance on dwindling fossil fuels. Lithium carries a great promise. It could help power the fuel efficient electric or petrol-electric hybrid vehicles of the future. But, as is the case with fossil fuels, it is a limited resource.	10th November 2008

When Science Fiction Morphed Into Politics - New York Times The death of Michael Crichton gives us the opportunity to re-evaluate his role in nourishing the sceptics.	9th November 2008
Which way to a sustainable future? - Green Left Weekly Review: “Now Or Never” By Tim Flannery.“Now or Never” surveys the technology available now to move away from the use of fossil fuels and begin the necessary task of cooling the planet. The massive potential of geothermal power in Australia is explained. The hot rocks in the Cooper Basin in South Australia alone have the potential to supply cheap, renewable, emissions-free energy to all of Australia. Flannery also outlines the changes that could rapidly be made to agriculture in order to both increase food yields and recapture increasingly large amounts of carbon in the soil.	9th November 2008
The environment: Green giant step for mankind - Scotsman The clue to its ambition is in the name. Barack Obama says his No 1 priority on getting into the Oval Office will be something he calls "the Apollo project". By giving his plans for a green energy revolution, the same name as Nasa's programme to put a man on the moon, he has shown the importance he attaches to it, and signalled the amount of effort and vision it will require to work.	9th November 2008
OUR COMMON CAUSE Ten steps to stop climate change - Green Left Weekly Australia: The latest reports by climate scientists, which reveal that global warming is taking place at a faster pace then first thought, indicate that the Socialist Alliance climate change charter, produced for last year’s federal election, is now out of date.	9th November 2008
Revised Theory Suggests Carbon Dioxide Levels Already In Danger Zone - Medical News Today If climate disasters are to be averted, atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) must be reduced below the levels that already exist today, according to a study published in Open Atmospheric Science Journal by a group of 10 scientists from the United States, the United Kingdom and France.	8th November 2008
World needs climate emergency backup plan, says expert - PhysOrg In submitted testimony to the British Parliament, climate scientist Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution said that while steep cuts in carbon emissions are essential to stabilizing global climate, there also needs to be a backup plan. Geoengineering solutions such as injecting dust into the atmosphere are risky, but may become necessary if emissions cuts are insufficient to stave off catastrophic warming. He urged that research into the pros and cons of geoengineering be made a high priority.	8th November 2008
The coming IEA report - Energy Bulletin IEA's World Energy Report 2008 (PDF) - executive summary now online The world’s energy system is at a crossroads. Current global trends in energy supply and consumption are patently unsustainable — environmentally, economically, socially. But that can — and must — be altered; there’s still time to change the road we’re on. It is not an exaggeration to claim that the future of human prosperity depends on how successfully we tackle the two central energy challenges facing us today: securing the supply of reliable and affordable energy; and effecting a rapid transformation to a low-carbon, efficient and environmentally benign system of energy supply. What is needed is nothing short of an energy revolution. This World Energy Outlook demonstrates how that might be achieved through decisive policy action and at what cost. It also describes the consequences of failure.	8th November 2008
Michael Pollan: Eating Is a Political Act - Alternet Michael Pollan discusses food production, consumer choices, the future of organics and climate change.	8th November 2008
Calif. drought forces cattle ranchers to downsize - AP via Yahoo! News USA: California's worst drought in decades is forcing the state's cattle ranchers to downsize their herds because two years of poor rainfall have ravaged millions of acres of rangeland used to feed their cows and calves. The parched, yellow pastures on Joe Gonzales' cattle ranch attest to the severity of a dry spell that is devastating the economic fortunes of many of the state's beef producers. Gonzales, who normally runs 500 cows on his 2,000-acre spread about 30 miles south of San Jose, cut his herd by half over the past year and may have to sell more if the drought persists.	8th November 2008
Is It Time to Kill Off the Flush Toilet? - Time Magazine At the 2008 World Toilet Summit and Expo in Macau, the common Western toilet, whose design hasn't changed much since the sixteenth century, comes under fire for failing the green test. "The human body is designed to separate solids from liquid waste," and we should follow suit, he says. By separating fecal matter from urine at the source in what's called a "urine diversion toilet," a wider ecological system of waste disposal becomes possible. Solids can be composted for fertilizer and harvested for methane gas. Urine can be used to produce phosphorous and nitrogen and clean, drinkable water.	8th November 2008
DAVID SUZUKI: The answer is blowing in the wind - Victoria News Energy underpins everything we do. Human societies have become increasingly complex, requiring ever larger-scale sources of continuous energy. Now, energy fuels not only our activities but our economies as well. If we don't choose our energy sources wisely, we can do more harm than good.	8th November 2008
100 percent renewables in 10 years - Gristmill Following up on Wednesday's "Now what?" ads, the Alliance for Climate Protection has launched a new website, RepowerAmerica.org, calling for 100 percent of U.S. electricity to be drawn from renewable sources within the next 10 years.	8th November 2008
Is Arnie's green revolution on its way to the White House? - vnunet.com Rumours circulating that Governor Schwarzenegger could be offered energy secretary post in Obama administration Having already modelled many of his energy and climate change proposals on those pioneered by California, US president-elect Barack Obama is now reportedly considering asking the state's governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, to take on the role of managing US energy policy.	8th November 2008
MEPs in Moscow for talks on climate change - Environmental Expert A nine-strong delegation of MEPs from the temporary Committee on Climate Change held talks with Russian MPs, members of the Russian government and NGOs in Moscow from 27-29 October, to explore attitudes towards a possible Kyoto deal.	8th November 2008
Obama climate policy caught in Democratic tussle - PhysOrg (AP) -- A fight within the Democratic Party over control of the House Energy and Commerce Committee could influence the outcome of President-elect Obama's efforts to limit the heat-trapping gases blamed for global warming.	8th November 2008
BP quits contest to build emissions plant - Financial Times BP has pulled out of the UK government's competition to build a prototype power station that will capture and store its carbon dioxide emissions, in a setback to plans to develop technologies for cutting the output of greenhouse gases while continuing to use fossil fuels.	8th November 2008
Energy Agency warns of 6°C rise in temperatures - New Scientist The International Energy Agency says that our rate of oil consumption could result in temperature rises that are more than the environment can cope with	7th November 2008
EU global warming limit may not be possible: IEA - Reuters LONDON (Reuters) - A European Union target to limit warming of the planet to no more than 2 degrees Celsius may not be technically achievable, the International Energy Agency said in a report to be published next week.	7th November 2008
The slippery business of palm oil - Guardian Palm oil is used in a third of all foods. But can it ever be produced without causing environmental devastation as some big companies are promising?	7th November 2008
Global warming may hasten carbon release from world's peat bogs - Fresh News A new analysis has determined that billions of tons of carbon sequestered in the world’s peat bogs could be released into the atmosphere in the coming decades as a result of global warming.	7th November 2008
Newspapers neglect food impact on climate - Earth & Sky In recent years, scientists have estimated that agricultural activities – including livestock production and clearing land for farming – contribute 30 percent of the greenhouse gases now warming our planet. But a new study shows that you wouldn’t know it from reading the newspapers. Out of 4,582 climate change articles, we found that only 109 even mentioned food and agriculture contributions to climate change. That’s 2.4 percent.	7th November 2008
'Unprecedented' warming drives dramatic ecosystem shifts in North Atlantic - PhysOrg (PhysOrg.com) -- While the planet has experienced numerous changes in climate over the past 65 million years, the most significant climate change of the last 5,000 years has been in recent decades. That change is global warming.	7th November 2008
Turtles alter nesting dates due to temperature change - PhysOrg Turtles nesting along the Mississippi River and other areas are altering their nesting dates in response to rising temperatures, says a researcher from Iowa State University.	7th November 2008
Al Gore Group Urges Obama To Create US Power Grid - Planet Ark WASHINGTON - Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection has some environmental advice for the incoming Obama administration: focus on energy efficiency and renewable resources, and create a unified US power grid. See also Yes we can... build the smart grid - Independent	7th November 2008
Portable Power: Tiny Solar Cells Show Promise - Planet Ark CHICAGO - Researchers have developed some of the tiniest solar cells ever made and said on Thursday the organic material could potentially be painted on to surfaces.	7th November 2008
China set to take the initiative in climate talks - Reuters BEIJING (Reuters) - China is seeking to seize the initiative in talks on cutting the world's greenhouse gas pollution, pressing rich nations even as global financial turmoil and Barack Obama's victory recast climate change diplomacy. See also: Rich nations should ditch 'unsustainable' lifestyles: China's Wen - AFP Tax polluters for global warming funds-UN official - Reuters AlertNet	7th November 2008
Ecologists use oceanographic data to predict future climate change - PhysOrg Earth scientists are attempting to predict the future impacts of climate change by reconstructing the past behavior of Arctic climate and ocean circulation. In a November special issue of the journal Ecology, a group of scientists report that if current patterns of change in the Arctic and North Atlantic Oceans continue, alterations of ocean circulation could occur on a global scale, with potentially dramatic implications for the world's climate and biosphere.	7th November 2008
Monsoon link to fall of dynasties - BBC News The demise of some of China's ruling dynasties was linked to changes in the strength of monsoon rains, a study suggests. Scientists say the natural archive shows that climate change can have devastating effects on local populations - even when this change is mild when averaged across the globe.	7th November 2008
The Climate Change Trap - Forbes How carbon emissions could turn into a "Hillary Care" fiasco for the new administration.	7th November 2008
Obama triggers first environmental dividend - DeSmogBlog Canada moves to protect U.S. market for dirty oil The world enjoyed the first environmental dividend of an Obama presidency yesterday when a worried Canadian government proposed a joint North American action plan to address climate change. Although it appeared that Canada's real goal was to ensure a continued U.S. market for its huge dirty-fuel tar sands project, this could still be a solid step toward a continental cap-and-trade program - which would be the first significant gesture from the world region that, so far, has been the least responsible in its approach to global warming.	7th November 2008
The damage has already been done - Mail and Guardian It is already too late to reverse the damage humans have done to the environment, says Mozambican scientist Filipe Lucio.	7th November 2008
Indian temperature rise 'will exceed projected rainfall' - SciDev.net The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has projected India will become hotter and wetter by the end of the century due to global warming (see India predicts suffering from climate change). But Krishna Kumar cautions that the expected benefits of rainfall "will be nullified" by the rise in temperature; and higher day and night temperatures over the country will impact its crops, water resources, ground water supplies and health issues such as heat stroke and extension of malaria-prone areas.	7th November 2008
Obama May Put Renewable-Energy Plan Ahead of Climate Package - Bloomberg Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) -- President-elect Barack Obama may pursue legislation early next year to speed a transition to an economy fueled by renewable energy sources and delay a fight on climate change until the economy improves. See also: Under Obama, Dark Days Seen Ahead For Fossil Fuels - CNNMoney.com	6th November 2008
President Obama's Big Climate Challenge - AlterNet The bills are coming due. And not just from a failed Bush presidency, but the bills from 200 years of burning fossil fuel. See also: Will Obama Be the Leader We Need on Climate Change?	6th November 2008
Infrastructure 'hit by climate change' - Sydney Morning Herald All forms of infrastructure in Australia including electricity, dams, roads and even footpaths will be severely affected by climate change, a new report has found.	6th November 2008
Manx sea water temperature rises - BBC News A report on the quality of sea water around the Isle of Man shows its temperature has risen by one degree.	6th November 2008
Lemmings in Norway hit by global warming - Reuters OSLO (Reuters) - Lemming numbers are dwindling in Norway because of climate change, ending a historic cycle of population booms and busts that inspired a myth of mass suicides by the rodents, scientists said on Wednesday.	6th November 2008
Climate may force pandas to move - BBC News Climate change could force pandas to move to different parts of China as bamboo growth patterns shift.	6th November 2008
Extreme weather postpones the flowering time of plants - PhysOrg Extreme weather events have a greater effect on flora than previously presumed. A one-month drought postpones the time of flowering of grassland and heathland plants in Central Europe by an average of 4 days. With this a so-called 100-year drought event equates to approx. a decade of global warming.	6th November 2008
Little bugs, lots of sun, make great deal for one lucky business interested in alternative energy - Observer The New Jersey Meadowlands Commission is getting even more inventive with their use of Kearny's landfills. Ever since 1987, the Commission has been successfully converting methane gas into energy on neglected landfills throughout the meadowlands.	6th November 2008
A green lesson from Iceland - The Christian Science Monitor Since the 1970s, Iceland has gone from relying on imported coal for 75 percent of its energy to getting more than 82 percent of its energy from geothermal and hydro power.	6th November 2008
Rocks could be harnessed to sponge vast amounts of CO2 from air, says study - PhysOrg Scientists say that a type of rock found at or near the surface in the Mideast nation of Oman and other areas around the world could be harnessed to soak up huge quantities of globe-warming carbon dioxide. Their studies show that the rock, known as peridotite, reacts naturally at surprisingly high rates with CO2 to form solid minerals - and that the process could be speeded a million times or more with simple drilling and injection methods. The study appears in this week's early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.	6th November 2008
Californians reject renewable power measure - Reuters LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A California ballot measure that called for a dramatic increase in the share of renewable power to half of electricity generation by 2025 appeared headed for defeat on Tuesday night.	6th November 2008
Lack of political will slowing Europe's renewables revolution, engineers say - Guardian Unlimited Leading European engineers say governments are slow to pass legislation that will implement renewable energy technology that is already available.	6th November 2008
Canada to seek climate deal with Obama - CNews OTTAWA - Canada hopes to negotiate a North American climate-change deal with U.S. president-elect Barack Obama and will begin working on the file within weeks, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said Wednesday.	6th November 2008
In hot water - Nature The ocean's enormous capacity for soaking up greenhouse gases has gone some way toward softening the blow of escalating emissions; over the last century, the upper ocean has soaked up over 500 billion tonnes of fossil fuel carbon. But in acting as a buffer for the planet, the ocean itself has begun to suffer. Some of the harm is obvious; some is more obscure. Most notably, the seas are warming, having taken up around 20 times more heat than the atmosphere since 1960. For some time, it has been realized that the ocean will also become more acidic in a carbon-rich world. Now studies show it will become saltier and, rather surprisingly, noisier too. If, as predicted under some scenarios, the ocean's pH drops 0.3 units from its current value of 8.1 units by 2050, sound waves at one kilohertz and below could travel up to 70 per cent further underwater.	5th November 2008
The end is nigh - Gristmill Geologists predict that oil production will decline within a decade.	5th November 2008
Companies regulating carbon emissions create business opportunities: Survey - Canada.com Canada's largest companies are starting to report more business opportunities than risks as a result of emerging regulations to address the greenhouse gas emissions linked to global warming, a new international study has revealed.	5th November 2008
David Suzuki: renewable energy requires strength of will - Georgia Straight Energy underpins everything we do. Human societies have become increasingly complex, requiring ever larger-scale sources of continuous energy. Now, energy fuels not only our activities but our economies as well. If we don’t choose our energy sources wisely, we can do more harm than good. Non-renewable energy sources such as fossil and nuclear fuels are not sustainable and have also taught us that technological advances often come at great cost. These fuels can never be a long-term solution because they will run out. They also create emissions that pollute our air, water, and soil, and contribute to global warming or long-term radioactive-waste problems. Renewable energy sources will not run out, and they don’t cause the same kinds of environmental problems as non-renewable sources. But that doesn’t mean we should adopt renewable energy without any forethought. Biofuels can create problems if fuel production comes at the expense of food production. And wind power, if not properly planned and sited, can harm birds and bats (although Danish studies of 10,000 bird kills revealed that almost all died in collisions with buildings, cars, and wires; only 10 were killed by windmills).	5th November 2008
The need for speed - Gristmill Hansen et al: We must phase-out coal emissions by 2030 and stabilize at or below 350 ppm. In a few days, James Hansen and several other leading climate scientists will release a major new study, "Target Atmospheric CO2: Where Should Humanity Aim?" in the Open Atmospheric Sciences Journal. You can read a first draft of the study and my commentary on it here: Hansen (et al) ultimatum: Get back to 350 ppm or risk an ice-free planet. Hansen has just put online a draft press release and FAQ.	4th November 2008
Global warming pollution up 3 percent; surpassing dire predictions - The Chesapeake Bay Journal The world pumped up its pollution of the chief man-made global warming gas last year, setting a course that could push beyond leading scientists' projected worst-case scenario, international researchers said in September.	4th November 2008
Drought land 'will be abandoned' - Guardian Unlimited Parts of the world may have to be abandoned because severe water shortages will leave them uninhabitable, the United Nations environment chief has warned. Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environment Programme, said water shortages caused by over-use of rivers and aquifers were already leading to serious problems, even in rich nations. With climate change expected to reduce rainfall in some places and cause droughts in others, some regions could become 'economic deserts', unviable for people or agriculture, he said.	4th November 2008
ENERGY-EU: Zero Carbon Communities - IPS MOURA, Portugal, Nov 3 (IPS) - This small municipality in the south of Portugal is becoming increasingly well-known for its alternative energy initiatives. The latest is the Sunflower project, which also involves communities in seven other European Union countries. The aim of the project is to transform communities in Bulgaria, Britain, the Czech Republic, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain into what the EU’s Intelligent Energy - Europe programme (IEE) calls a "Zero Carbon Community." The IEE seeks to convert the communities into areas free of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, where only renewable energies are used.	4th November 2008
Quebec greenhouse gas emissions drop - Montreal Gazette Quebec's greenhouse gas emissions have dropped for the fourth year in a row, the Ministry of the Environment announced Monday.	4th November 2008
Coating helps solar panels soak up more of the sun - Reuters CHICAGO (Reuters) - A new type of reflective coating can make solar panels far more efficient, soaking up nearly all available sunlight from nearly any angle, U.S. researchers said on Monday.	4th November 2008
Scientists discover Patagonian diesel that grows on trees - Guardian Unlimited A tree fungus could provide green fuel that can be pumped directly into vehicle tanks, US scientists say. The organism, found in the Patagonian rainforest, naturally produces a mixture of chemicals that is remarkably similar to diesel. "This is the only organism that has ever been shown to produce such an important combination of fuel substances," said Gary Strobel, a plant scientist from ...	4th November 2008
Manipulative COMPAS poll bolsters skeptics' position - DeSmogBlog A COMPAS poll (attached) sponsored by the neo-con Frontier Centre for Public Policy offers an embarrassing example of a survey that sacrifices the discovery of new information in favour of eliciting specific answers for later use in building a political case.This poll appears to have been designed to promote the phony debate over whether human activity causes climate change - a debate long since settled in science, but still raging in the media.The poll begins with this question:Politicians talk about spending billions to fight carbon gases and also about higher taxes on gasoline and heating oil.	4th November 2008
Britain and Abu Dhabi to sign clean energy accord - Reuters ABU DHABI (Reuters) - Britain and an Abu Dhabi renewable energy company are to sign an agreement to cooperate on clean energy technologies, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Monday.	4th November 2008
In Bush's end-game, lots of changes on environment - Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As the U.S. presidential candidates sprint toward the finish line, the Bush administration is also sprinting to enact environmental policy changes before leaving power. Whether it's getting wolves off the Endangered Species List, allowing power plants to operate near national parks, loosening regulations for factory farm waste or making it easier for mountaintop coal-mining operations, these proposed changes have found little favor with environmental groups. The one change most environmentalists want, a mandatory program to cut climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions, is not among these so-called "midnight regulations."	3rd November 2008
Chilean glacier will vanish in 50 years: study - PhysOrg Chile's official water authority warned Saturday that the Echaurren glacier near Santiago, which supplies the capital with 70 percent of its water needs, could disappear in the next half century.	3rd November 2008
Drought, climate change double whammy for farmers - Queensland Country Life The release of Treasury economic modelling on climate change mitigation and the Productivity Commission's report on drought and climate change adaptation highlight the double challenge facing farmers, according to the Queensland Farmers' Federation.	3rd November 2008
Will cheaper gas nix energy reforms? - The Christian Science Monitor via Yahoo! News Watching the recent gasoline price drops, former CIA director Jim Woolsey, now a McCain energy adviser, says he is reminded of similar price-cutting tactics by Saudi Arabia and OPEC in the 1980s and 1990s in the face of US government attempts to ease dependence on foreign oil. Both candidates' plans pose a significant strategic threat to oil producers, he says, because they focus on tax breaks for hybrid and plug-in vehicles that would gradually move consumers from liquid fuels onto the national power grid. "I don't think oil could get down to $10, $20, or $30 [per barrel], but [oil producers] would be giving alternative fuels a difficult time with their ability to manipulate the market," says Mr. Woolsey. "But there is no way that the Saudis or any other oil producer can come close to competing with electricity."	3rd November 2008
Save the planet: Get on the bus - The Spokesman Review Save the planet: Get on the busThe Spokesman Review, WA. Using mass transit is the single biggest thing the average person can do to slow global warming, a national leader in public transportation said in Spokane last week.	3rd November 2008
FAQ on climate models - RealClimate We discuss climate models a lot, and from the comments here and in other forums it's clear that there remains a great deal of confusion about what climate models do and how their results should be interpreted. This post is designed to be a FAQ for climate model questions - of which a few are already given. If you have comments or other questions, ask them as concisely as possible in the comment section and if they are of enough interest, we'll add them to the post so that we can have a resource for future discussions. (We would ask that you please focus on real questions that have real answers and, as always, avoid rhetorical excesses).	3rd November 2008
Dried mushrooms slow climate warming in Northern forests - PhysOrg The fight against climate warming has an unexpected ally in mushrooms growing in dry spruce forests covering Alaska, Canada, Scandinavia and other northern regions, a new UC Irvine study finds. When soil in these forests is warmed, fungi that feed on dead plant material dry out and produce significantly less climate-warming carbon dioxide than fungi in cooler, wetter soil. This came as a surprise to scientists, who expected warmer soil to emit larger amounts of carbon dioxide because extreme cold is believed to slow down the process by which fungi convert soil carbon into carbon dioxide. Knowing how forests cycle carbon is crucial to accurately predicting global climate warming, which in turn guides public policy to curb greenhouse gas emissions. This is especially important in northern forests, which contain an estimated 30 percent of the Earth's soil carbon, equivalent to the amount of atmospheric carbon.	3rd November 2008
Doing well by clearing the air - CNN Money Investing in carbon credits takes an appetite for risk and complexity. But this market is doing much better than most.	3rd November 2008
The Art and the Urgency of Measuring Your Carbon Footprint - GreenBiz PODCAST: George Ahn, president and CEO of Tririga, talks about the importance and the challenges of measuring carbon footprints - and why businesses large and small should act now.	3rd November 2008
US vote: 'change, global warming' top campaign buzzwords - Hindu US vote: 'Change', 'climate change' and 'gasoline' have been named the top political buzzwords of the US Presidential Campaign, with the phrase 'financial meltdown' also finding a place in the list of 30.	3rd November 2008

ACTION: The Arctic Front Demand government leadership on global warming and the Alberta Oil Sands. The bears are here to demand action and raise awareness - you can help by joining up and asking your friends to join as well. Find out more on Facebook or at DeSmogBlog.

ACTION: 350.org If we don't get our Co2 level down to 350 parts per million we're all going to be toast. Bill McKibben of Step It Up wants this magic number to be imprinted, implanted, implaneted and indelibly fused into the minds of everyone on this planet. If you're on side visit www.350.org

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