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Ontario to Sign Cap-and-Trade Climate Plan
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July 18, 2008 - The Ottawa Citizen
| | Quebec City -- Ontario will join a transcontinental environmental network devoted to fighting climate change as early as today, increasing pressure on Alberta and Saskatchewan to ramp up their efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Ontario will sign on to the Western Climate Initiative, joining seven U.S. states, British Columbia, Manitoba and Quebec. The WCI includes plans to establish North America's first transcontinental cap-and-trade system in 2012.
| | | By Lee Greenberg © 2008 Canwest Digital Media
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Arctic Could See First Ice-Free Summer This Year
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June 27, 2008 - ABC News
| | There is distinct possibility that the North Pole could be free of sea ice for the first time in recorded history. Scientists predict that there is a 50 percent chance that ice at the highest point in the Arctic will melt by the summer's end.
| | | By Bill Blakemore and Tuan C. Nguyen © 2008 ABC News Internet Ventures
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White House Refused to Open Pollutants E-Mail
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June 25, 2008 - New York Times
| | The White House in December refused to accept the Environmental Protection Agency’s conclusion that greenhouse gases are pollutants that must be controlled, telling agency officials that an e-mail message containing the document would not be opened. The document, which ended up in e-mail limbo, without official status, was the E.P.A.’s answer to a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that required it to determine whether greenhouse gases represent a danger to health or the environment. As a result of the White House not opening the email, the E.P.A. is set to respond by releasing a watered-down version of the original proposal. Among the omissions are large sections of the original analysis that supported regulation, including a finding that tough regulation of motor vehicle emissions could produce $500 billion to $2 trillion in economic benefits over the next 32 years.
| | | By Felicity Barringer © The New York Times Company
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Atlas Shows Effects of Climate Change on Africa
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June 11, 2008 - PhysOrg.com
| | The United Nations environment agency unveiled a new 400-page atlas which features over 300 satellite images taken in every African country. The before and after photographs, some of which span a 35-year period, appear to show striking environmental changes across the continent. Although Africa produces only 4 percent of the world's total carbon dioxide emissions, its inhabitants are expected by some officials to suffer most from the consequences of climate change.
| | | By Devon Hayne © 2008 Associated Press © 2003-2008 PhysOrg.com
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City Dwellers Have Smaller Carbon Footprint
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May 29, 2008 - redOrbit.com
| | The Brookings Institution has released a report which rates the carbon footprints of US cities. The study examined sources and use of residential electricity, home heating and cooling, and transportation in 2005 in the largest 100 metropolitan areas. Lexington, Ky., had the biggest per capita carbon footprint with 3.81 tons of carbon dioxide in energy use. Honolulu ranked as the best city with 1.5 tons per person.
| | | By H. Josef Herbert © 2002-2008 redOrbit.com
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US Issues Climate Assessment Forced by Court Order
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May 29, 2008 - Reuters
| | New York -- The Bush administration released a climate change assessment on Thursday -- four years late and pushed forward by a court order -- that said human-induced global warming will likely lead to problems like droughts in the U.S. West and stronger hurricanes. The "Scientific Assessment of the Effects of Global Change on the United States" synthesized previous reports, including those by the government's climate change science program and last year's work by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It is intended to give U.S. government agencies and lawmakers in Congress a single document to refer to when forming climate policy. In 2006, the Bush government was accused of censoring its scientists on global warming, such as NASA expert James Hansen, which led to the firing of an official at the space agency.
| | | By Timothy Gardner © 2008
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Man-Made Warming Altering Nature's Clock
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May 14, 2008 - Scientific American
| | In a new analysis which published in Nature, researchers assessed 829 geologic phenomena—including melting glaciers—along with nearly 30,000 changes in plants and animals (from bird migration patterns to plummeting penguin populations), and found that about 90 percent of them are in sync with scientists' predictions about how global warming will alter the planet.
| | | By Adam Hadhazy © 1996-2008 Scientific American Inc.
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Problems Plague Canada’s Emissions Trading Plans
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May 9, 2008 - Climate Action
| | Just as Canada is set to launch a domestic carbon emissions trading scheme in a bid to curb its rising greenhouse gas emissions, a number of issues have surfaced. Some Canadian provinces have introduced provincial carbon taxes or have opted to join a prospective U.S.-based trading scheme, which threatens to throw Canada's federal emissions trading plans into disarray.
| | | © 2008 Reuters © 2008 Sustainable Development International
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Vast Antarctic Ice Shelf on Verge of Collapse
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March 25, 2008 - LiveScience.com
| | A huge iceberg measuring 25 miles by 1.5 miles is on the verge of breaking away from the Wilkins Ice Shelf. The Antarctic Peninsula has warmed faster than anywhere else in the Southern Hemisphere; temperature records show that the region has warmed by nearly 3 degrees Celsius during the past 50 years — several times the global average and only matched in Alaska.
| | | By Andrea Thompson © 2008 Imaginova Corp.
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Curbing Soot Could Blunt Global Warming: Study
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March 23, 2008 - Google News
| | Paris -- Sharply reducing the amount of black carbon, commonly known as soot, in the atmosphere could help slow global warming. According to a new study, black carbon is the second largest contributor to global warming after carbon dioxide. Black carbon is released into the air when oil, coal, and biofuels such as wood and dung are burned.
| | | © 2008 Agence France Presse © 2008 Google
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'Green' Buildings Could Slash CO2 Emissions: Report
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March 13, 2008 - Google News
| | Vancouver, Canada -- The report, "Green Building in North America: Opportunities and Challenges," finds that basic changes in building design and construction could slash greenhouse gas emissions by 35 percent in North America. Currently, less than four percent of new buildings meet stringent new environmental, health and energy-saving goals under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standard.
| | | By Deborah Jones © 2008 Agence France Presse © 2008 Google
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24 World Cities in 'Earth Hour' Black-Out
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February 19, 2008 - Google News
| | Sydney -- Twenty-four cities around the world will participate in the "Earth Hour" on March 29. The initiative asks city residents to turn off their lights and appliances for one hour to raise awareness about global warming. The first "Earth Hour" took place in Sydney, Australia last year and an estimated 2.2 million people participated.
| | | © 2008 Agence France Presse © 2008 Google
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