Did CO2 Cause Mass Extinction 252 Million Years Ago?

Science News: New clues in a mass murder that took place 252 million years ago points to a suspect: Ocean acidification may have driven the largest extinction of animals the world has ever seen. Carbon dioxide belched out by volcanic eruptions during the Permian period could have caused the oceans' chemistry to change. That's worrisome because CO2 levels are rising today -- thanks to the burning of fossil fuels -- and pushing down seawater pH, researchers report online June 8 in Geology. "The worst biodiversity...

URL: http://www.enn.com/climate/article/44538?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ClimateChangeNews-Enn+%28Climate+Change+News+-+ENN%29

Carbon storage 'may cause small earthquakes'

Guardian: Capturing carbon dioxide and storing it underground could give rise to small earthquakes, according to a new report from the US National Research Council. But the authors said there was too little research to be firm on the findings, and called for more work to be done. The report examined sites where hydraulic fracturing – the practice of blasting dense rocks apart with water, sand and chemicals in order to release tiny bubbles of natural gas trapped within them – had been used. The authors...

URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jun/15/underground-carbon-storage-small-earthquakes
Enclosure: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Environment/Pix/columnists/2012/4/17/1334672731980/Fracking-for-shale-gas-in-007.jpg

A rising tide of acid off California

Science: Humanity's use of fossil fuels sends 35 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year. That has already begun to change the fundamental chemistry of the world's oceans, steadily making them more acidic. Now, a new high resolution computer model reveals that over the next 4 decades, rising ocean acidity will likely have profound impacts on waters off the West Coast of the United States, home to one of the world's most diverse marine ecosystems and most important commercial fisheries....

URL: http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/06/a-rising-tide-of-acid-off-califo.html?ref=hp

EPA proposes tougher rules on soot pollution

MSNBC: In another case of environmental rules becoming election fodder, the Obama administration on Friday proposed tighter restrictions on soot, a pollutant caused mainly by smokestacks and diesel engines. It had been called "the sleeping giant of clean-air issues" by Frank O'Donnell, head of the activist group Clean Air Watch. And while little was made of it until now, Republicans and industry were quick to pounce on it as more red tape in a weak economy. The proposed Environmental Protection Agency...

URL: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/15/12202314-obama-administration-proposes-tougher-rules-on-soot-pollution?lite
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Uncertainty hampers Rio+20 talks

BBC: UN talks on sustainable development are encountering disputes, delays and diplomatic wrangling, days before world leaders arrive to sign a new agreement. The talks, in Rio de Janeiro, are aimed at putting the world economy on a more sustainable path, helping people out of poverty while protecting nature. Yet developing countries have walked out over money, and the presence of Palestinians has brought complications. Campaigners say there is little hope of momentous changes being agreed here....

URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18455947#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
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Ecocide: A legal green high?

BBC: At the heart of its official negotiations, the Rio+20 summit is all about looking for political agreements that will improve the lot of society, particularly the poorest, and of nature. Politics isn't necessarily the best course, nor politicians the best people to plot such a course, to judge by the glacial, boulder-strewn pace of talks here in Rio. The science is clear on so many of the issues, and ministers acknowledge it - but they see many other factors too, which is why the political response...

URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18455351#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
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Rio+20 summit: activists aren't mourning Barack Obama's absence

Inter Press Service: When a reluctant George H W Bush, Sr, then US president, changed his mind and decided at the eleventh hour to address the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio, he sounded defensive in his strong response to charges that the United States was one of the major powers responsible for the some of the world's worst environmental ills – from greenhouse gases to conspicuous consumption. "I didn't come here to apologise," Bush told world leaders in a defiant seven-minute speech, even as the IPS daily conference newspaper...

URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jun/15/rio-20-summit-barack-obama-absence
Enclosure: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2012/6/12/1339521683447/Barack-Obama-008.jpg

Asian carbon tax debate set to warm up

China Daily: The carbon tax has become one of the most politically divisive and bitterly fought tax reforms of this century and governments around the world, and in particular Asia, are debating the issue. In an attempt to cut carbon emissions and reduce the effects of global warming, many countries are implementing green growth policies and introducing reforms to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. On July 1, Australia will introduce a carbon tax. India already has a nationwide carbon tax of 50 rupees (90...

URL: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/2012-06/15/content_15503969.htm

China's offshore wind program is beached by interagency disputes

ClimateWire: In 2011, when China unveiled its 2015 target for offshore wind development, it was an ambitious goal by any measure. Europe, the global leader in this sector, spent two decades building nearly 4 gigawatts of wind farms in the sea. China wanted to surpass that within five years. But two years after China's first round of bidding for offshore wind farms took place, none of these projects has moved beyond the planning stage. The nation's second round of bids, which was expected to start in the first...

URL: http://www.eenews.net/public/climatewire/2012/06/15/1

E.P.A. Casts New Soot Standard as Easily Met

New York Times: As anticipated, the Environmental Protection Agency announced on Friday that it was proposing to update and tighten national air quality standards for fine-particle soot. Somewhat surprisingly, however, the agency said that by the time these new standards were fully in force in 2020, all but six counties in the United States would be in compliance with them as a result of steps taken to abide by other tightened rules. The E.P.A. also predicted that the costs of compliance would be relatively...

URL: http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/15/e-p-a-casts-new-soot-standard-as-easily-met/
Enclosure: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/06/15/science/riverside/riverside-articleInline.jpg

Science can do more for sustainable development

SciDev.Net: The message from Rio+20 is for practical action to deliver existing targets. Scientists must identify and overcome barriers to change. Sha Zukang, secretary-general of Rio+20, held a press conference in Rio de Janeiro on 13 June, heralding the start of the final phase of negotiations at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development. He stressed that this meeting is fundamentally different to the first Earth Summit, held in Rio in 1992. Twenty years ago, the meeting produced a legally binding...

URL: http://www.scidev.net/en/agriculture-and-environment/editorials/science-can-do-more-for-sustainable-development.html?utm_source=link&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=en_agricultureandenvironment

Fighting Climate Change With Carbon Capture May Cause Quakes

Bloomberg: Burying carbon dioxide in the ground, considered a promising way to combat climate change, may increase the risk of earthquakes, according to a report. The process, in which liquefied carbon dioxide is stored in caverns, "may have the potential for causing significant induced seismicity," the National Research Council said today. Injecting wastewater underground from natural-gas fracking may also trigger earthquakes, while using hydraulic fracturing to get trapped gas doesn't pose a "high risk,"...

URL: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-15/fighting-climate-change-with-carbon-capture-seen-causing-quakes.html

Climate change will reduce renewable energy capacity, warn scientists

SciDev.Net: Climate change is set to reduce Latin America's capacity to produce renewable energy, according to Roberto Schaeffer, a Brazilian energy planning expert. He told the Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation for Sustainable Development underway in Brazil this week (11--15 June) that many forms of renewable energy are vulnerable to variations in climate, due to their dependence on water -- as is the case with hydropower and biofuels -- as well as on wind and sun. Schaeffer-- a researcher at...

URL: http://www.scidev.net/en/climate-change-and-energy/news/climate-change-will-reduce-renewable-energy-capacity-warn-scientists.html?utm_source=link&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=en_climatechangeandenergy
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U.S. proposal would tighten soot standards

Reuters: The Obama administration proposed stricter standards to control harmful soot from heavy industry on Friday, a move expected to save lives but which drew criticism from Republicans and industry worried the costs of compliance will hurt the economy. Under a court order, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed tightening exposure to the particulate pollution that threatens the elderly, people with heart disease, and children. The move was welcomed by environmental groups, an important part...

URL: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/15/us-usa-epa-soot-idUSBRE85E05I20120615?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29

Climate envoy calls UN summit a priority despite Obama no-show

The Hill: The State Department's top climate change diplomat says next week's United Nations green development conference in Brazil is a high priority for U.S. officials even though President Obama isn't showing up. Heads of state from over 100 nations are slated to attend the June 20-22 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, not Obama, is heading the U.S. team, disappointing some environmentalists. But Todd Stern, the State Department's...

URL: http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/233041-climate-envoy-calls-un-summit-a-priority-despite-obama-no-show

German lawmakers can't agree on cuts to solar subsidies

Bloomberg: Germany's federal government and its 16 states can't find common ground on proposed cuts to solar- power subsidies in the world's biggest market. Chancellor Angela Merkel's government and the states failed to reach a compromise during an arbitration panel meeting, the Bundesrat, the parliament's upper house, said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. The panel will resume talks on the subsidies on June 27. State leaders, who are represented in the upper house, are opposed to Merkel's planned...

URL: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-14/german-lawmakers-can-t-agree-on-cuts-to-solar-subsidies.html
Enclosure: http://www.bloomberg.com/image/iERj1qaY8qKY.jpg

As Politicians Debate Climate Change, Our Forests Wither

Atlantic: Dan Gibbs keeps dead beetles in the back of his beat-up Chevy Silverado. He has a wooden block with beetles impaled on it, each insect about the size of a grain of rice. He's got vials of embalmed beetles and their larvae. He carries around pieces of wood that show what those tiny beetles do to a mature lodgepole pine: They drill deep into the trunk and infect the tree with a fatal fungus that stains its wood blue. Gibbs isn't a scientist. He's a commissioner for Summit County, a high-altitude...

URL: http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/06/as-politicians-debate-climate-change-our-forests-wither/258549/
Enclosure: http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/mt/assets/national/pine%20beetle-body.jpg

Economic downturn threatens focus at sustainability summit

AlertNet: World leaders, already struggling with tough economic times, will sit down in Rio next week to try to sort out a daunting array of other problems -- from how to deal with climate change and worsening scarcity of key resources like food and water, to how to make the world's economy less environmentally destructive and more effective for the world's poor. The Rio+20 sustainable development conference -- which comes 20 years after the 1992 Rio Earth Summit -- recognizes that the world's environmental,...

URL: http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/economic-downturn-threatens-focus-at-sustainability-summit
Enclosure: http://www.trust.org/contentAsset/resize-image/1f206d6f-f413-482c-9242-c300e6ae0df1/photowide/?w=460&h=318&vn=201206151649

Colorado wildfire could burn all summer, officials fear

LA Times: Making his descent from the mountaintop Thursday morning, bicyclist Kent Bell rolled smack into the filmy haze coating this resort town. Forty miles away, near Friday's finish line of the Ride the Rockies endurance test, one of the largest fires in Colorado history raged out of control. Over the last few days, insulated by clear skies to the west, the 36-year-old rider had heard there was a wildfire somewhere out in the forest, but he wasn't sure where. Then he saw the smoke. "It was a shock. Coming...

URL: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-colorado-fires-20120615,0,4662382.story

Christian Reformed Church Synod: Combat global warming by using less energy

Michigan Live: Without uniform agreement that the globe is warming or that people are causing it, the Christian Reformed Church`s governing body this week asserted that "human-induced climate change is an ethical, social justice, and religious issue." Synod 2012 also stated that the church should "take private and public actions to address climate change." The statements were made in response to a lengthy report from the Grand Rapids-based church`s Creation Stewardship Task Force, and they have stirred divided...

URL: http://www.mlive.com/living/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2012/06/christian_reformed_church_syno_3.html
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North Carolina to sea-level rise: Go away

Discovery: Climate scientists are watching anxiously as some state legislatures seek to restrict how state agencies and planners prepare for potential sea-level rise. According to an editorial in the Miami Herald: Last year the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which had commissioned a scientific study of Galveston Bay, excised references to rising sea levels. "You can debate climate warming, but sea level is going up; it's measured globally, with satellites," the study's lead author, John Anderson...

URL: http://news.discovery.com/earth/north-carolina-to-sea-level-rise-go-away-120615.html
Enclosure: http://blogs.discovery.com/.a/6a00d8341bf67c53ef0167678e69ce970b-800wi

North Carolina tries to outlaw climate models

New Scientist: Political satirist Stephen Colbert's solution to unfavourable climate science is simple: "If your science gives you a result that you don't like, pass a law saying that the result is illegal. Problem solved." Legislators in North Carolina are apparently of the same mindset. When a state-appointed commission announced that North Carolinians could expect 39 inches of sea-level rise by 2100, the Senate responded with a bill that legally prevents the Division of Coastal Management from using the climate...

URL: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21934-north-carolina-tries-to-outlaw-climate-models.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=climate-change
Enclosure: http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/ns/cms/dn21934/dn21934-1_300.jpg

Fracking for oil and gas poses little quake risk: study

Reuters: The fracking drilling technique used to tap shale oil and gas is unlikely to trigger earthquakes, but underground injection of waste water from drilling offers more risks for seismic activity, a new U.S. study said on Friday. The National Research Council study, which also examined the risk of earthquakes associated with tapping geothermal energy and carbon capture and storage, found that the total balance of fluid injected or removed underground was the biggest factor in causing earthquakes related...

URL: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/15/us-usa-earthquakes-fracking-idUSBRE85E14K20120615?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Enclosure: http://s1.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20120615&t=2&i=619252462&w=460&fh=&fw=&ll=&pl=&r=CBRE85E1D4P00

Organic Solar Cells One Step Closer To Success

redOrbit: Organic solar cells have long been a promising alternative to conventional solar cells, but their low efficiency, low stability, and low strength have kept them from widespread commercial use. Senior chemist Lin Chen of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory hopes to change that by focusing on a key component of the cells, the exciton. According to Chen, excitons are considered a sort of "quasiparticle," because they exhibit certain exceptional behaviors. When the...

URL: http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112609308/organic-solar-cells-one-step-closer-to-success/
Enclosure: http://www.redorbit.com/media/uploads/2012/06/science-061512-009-617x416.jpg

CO2 market has failed to promote cleaner energy

Reuters: Europe's emissions trading scheme has failed to create incentives for utilities to use cleaner energy fuels, meaning that governments will have to switch to simpler tools, such as subsidies and regulation, to enforce emissions reduction targets. One of the most effective steps to reduce emissions would be to switch from coal-fired power generation to gas, which produces about half the emissions of coal. The European Union's emissions trading scheme (ETS) puts a price on allowances to emit greenhouse...

URL: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/15/us-energy-power-emissions-idUSBRE85E09R20120615

Earth summit revisited: Is the movement doomed to be an endless talkfest?

Sydney Morning Herald: AS 100 world leaders jetted away from the first Rio de Janeiro ''Earth Summit'' in 1992, the conference chairman, Canadian entrepeneur Maurice Strong, wept as he told journalists the gathering would fail to avert ecological tragedy unless citizens forced their governments to implement the watered-down agreements the meeting had clinched. The citizens of the world didn't. But 20 years later, that first Rio meeting - held in the optimistic glow after the fall of the Iron Curtain - is considered...

URL: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/earth-summit-revisited-is-the-movement-doomed-to-be-an-endless-talkfest-20120615-20f7k.html

Fracking's risk of causing quake small, panel says

San Francisco Chronicle: Workers drill for oil in the Gypsum Hills near Medicine Lodge, Kan., using the fracking technique. The method of disposing wastewater from the process may cause temblors strong enough to be felt. Pumping high-pressure water and sand underground to break up shale rocks and harvest natural gas or oil - the practice known as fracking - poses little risk of triggering significant earthquakes, a government-sponsored scientific committee reported Friday. But the method of disposing the wastewater...

URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/06/15/MNS11P2P5E.DTL&type=science
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Republicans fear uncertain scope of Keystone study

Reuters: The scope of a planned environmental review of the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada could go beyond a small disputed portion in Nebraska and threatens to delay the project further, its Republican backers in Congress said on Friday. The State Department asked on Friday for public comments by the end of July to help determine the scope of an environmental review ordered earlier this year for the controversial pipeline. The review is designed to supplement a "final" environmental impact report...

URL: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/16/us-keystone-idUSBRE85F00720120616

Report: No high risk of quakes from 'fracking'

MSNBC: The controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing to extract natural gas does not pose a high risk for triggering earthquakes large enough to feel, but other types of energy-related drilling can make the ground noticeably shake, a major government science report concludes. Even those man-made tremors large enough to be an issue are very rare, says a special report by the National Research Council. In more than 90 years of monitoring, human activity has been shown to trigger only 154 quakes, most...

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47835612/ns/us_news-environment/
Enclosure: http://msnbcmedia2.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/120504_fracking-water.grid-6x2.jpg

EU agrees on law to enforce energy saving

Reuters: The European Union reached agreement on Thursday on a law to require governments and utilities to improve energy efficiency and lower the bloc's consumption of fuel. For the first time, it sets binding measures across the 27-member states to enforce energy savings, although critics say its original ambition was drastically reduced over the course of negotiations. "This is a big step ahead. For the very first time we have legally binding energy efficiency measures," Energy Commissioner Guenther...

URL: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/14/eu-efficiency-idUSL5E8HE4ON20120614

Will Arctic sea ice reach record low this year?

LiveScience: Recent years have brought unprecedented melting to Arctic sea ice, the white cap that covers the far north. Now, months before the sea ice reaches its annual minimum extent, this summer looks likely to follow suit, bringing unusually ice-free waters. Satellite observations analyzed by the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center show the extent of the sea ice hovering below the baseline, the average between 1979 and 2000, for most of the spring and dipping particularly low in June. "It definitely...

URL: http://www.livescience.com/20992-arctic-sea-ice-extent-low.html

To fix the climate, take meat off the menu

Washington Post: More than 50,000 U.N. officials, scientists, environmental advocates and a few heads of state will gather this coming week in Rio de Janeiro for a conference on sustainable development. They're assembling 20 years after the first Earth Summit was held in the same city, and the goal now, as it was then, is to figure out how to cut dangerous greenhouse gases and help the 1.3 billion people living in extreme poverty. Or, to put it more starkly, how we can live ethically without threatening the ability...

URL: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-are-they-serving-meat-at-a-climate-change-conference/2012/06/15/gJQAUn0afV_story.html
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WWF: only Brazil can save Rio+20 summit

Mongabay: WWF is calling upon Brazil "to play politics as well as they play football" to ensure the Rio+20 summit produces a meaningful outcome. "The Rio negotiations are a mess right now – though there's hope on the horizon as Brazil prepares to take the lead on this process," said Lasse Gustavsson, head of WWF's delegation in Rio+20, in a statement. "In the coming days, there's going to be a lot of pressure on Brazil as hosts to pull this meeting together so governments here don't go home with their tails...

URL: http://news.mongabay.com/2012/0615-rio20-wwf.html
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Protesters dig canal through Belo Monte dam in Brazil

Mongabay: In an symbolic protest of the giant Belo Monte Dam, Friday morning some 300 locals dug a channel in an earthen dam that blocks a portion of the Xingu River and serves as the first step for the controversial hydroelectric project, reports Amazon Watch. "In the early morning hours, three hundred women and children arrived in the hamlet of Belo Monte on the Transamazon Highway, and marched onto a temporary earthen dam recently built to impede the flow of the Xingu River. Using pick axes and shovels,...

URL: http://news.mongabay.com/2012/0615-rio20-belo-monte-protest.html
Enclosure: http://photos.mongabay.com/12/0615belomonte.jpg

Rio+20 Earth Summit: Earth's life support in their hands

Telegraph: Being in Rio is turning out to be, as the great baseball player Yogi Berra put it, "déja vu all over again'. For here I am, just as I was exactly 20 years ago, covering an Earth Summit. The conference is in the same soulless Riocentro as it was two decades ago. The traffic jams on the way to it are all too familiar. Many of those attending are the same, if greyer and more world-weary. Above all, the problems on the table are depressingly similar -- and still unsolved. Yet the rest of the...

URL: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/9334045/Rio20-Earth-Summit-Earths-life-support-in-their-hands.html
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In Rio, 5 big companies to launch initiative to boost demand for REDD+ carbon credits

Mongabay: Five large corporations have launched an effort to boost demand for carbon credits from "high quality" Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) projects in tropical countries. Insurance giant Allianz, French retail conglomerate PPR, energy companies Eneco and Entega, and South African bank Nedbank have pledged to buy millions of dollars in emissions reductions credits generated by REDD+ projects that have been certified under both the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) and the...

URL: http://news.mongabay.com/2012/0615-rio20-code-redd.html
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Japan approves 2 reactor restarts, more seen ahead

Reuters: Japan on Saturday approved the resumption of nuclear power operations at two reactors despite mass public opposition, the first to come back on line after they were all shut down following the Fukushima crisis. Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, his popularity ratings sagging, had backed the restarts for some time. He announced the government's decision at a meeting with key ministers, giving the go-ahead to two reactors operated by Kansai Electric Power Co at Ohi in western Japan. The decision,...

URL: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/16/us-japan-nuclear-idUSBRE85F02720120616?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Enclosure: http://s1.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20120616&t=2&i=619456362&w=460&fh=&fw=&ll=&pl=&r=CBRE85F0B7A00

Scientists suspect climate change to blame for massive Pine Beetle infestation

Examiner: As North America continues to witness the largest Pine-Beetle epidemic in recorded history, scientists struggle to understand how climate change has fueled this voracious species. Although the link between climate change and the record breaking epidemic is not entirely clear, scientists studying the phenomena have come forth to voice their opinions. From Canada's Yukon Territory to New Mexico, pine trees by the hundreds of millions are succumbing to a fungus that the beetles carry. For Jeff Mitton,...

URL: http://www.examiner.com/article/scientists-suspect-climate-change-to-blame-for-massive-pine-beetle-infestation
Enclosure: http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/image_content_width/hash/e6/f1/e6f11611e2f1f7717d27322d1111c414.jpg

Fracking can cause earthquakes, but risk is low: Study

Agence France-Presse: Certain oil and gas operations that involve injecting wastewater underground can cause earthquakes, but the risk from hydraulic fracturing is generally low, said a US scientific report Friday. The report by the National Research Council found that the most significant risk of earthquakes is linked to secondary injection of wastewater below ground to help capture remaining hydrocarbons from a petroleum reservoir. Also, a technique called carbon capture and storage that aims to reduce carbon...

URL: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hsM1axd2TS0QJLLcWVInL9UaYl-A

Japan’s Prime Minister Orders Restart of 2 Nuclear Reactors

New York Times: Brushing aside widespread public opposition, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda ordered the reactivation of two nuclear reactors at a plant in western Japan on Saturday, making it the nation's first plant to go back online since the crisis last year in Fukushima. The decision to restart the Ohi nuclear plant ends the temporary freeze of Japan's nuclear power industry since the triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi plant led to the idling of all 50 of the country's functional reactors. Despite the...

URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/world/asia/japans-prime-minister-orders-restart-of-2-nuclear-reactors.html

Village that defied Heathrow is slowly dying as BAA buys up homes

Guardian: It was the village whose perseverance and determination stopped the relentless growth of Heathrow airport and persuaded the government to rule out the construction of a third runway. But now Sipson's capacity to resist new attempts to approve the runway has been almost destroyed after BAA, the owner of Heathrow, went from being the village's greatest enemy to its biggest property owner. Worn down by more than a decade of protest, at least half the long-term residents of Sipson have sold their...

URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jun/16/sipson-heathrow-baa-homes-protest
Enclosure: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Observer/Pix/pictures/2012/6/15/1339791188389/Sipson-village-008.jpg

Haze returns to Malaysia

Agence France-Presse: Haze caused by forest fires in neighbouring Indonesia blanketed parts of Malaysia including the capital Saturday, causing air pollution to hit unhealthy levels. Haze is an annual problem during the monsoon season from May to September as winds blow the fumes from Sumatra across the Malacca Strait to Malaysia. Skies over Kuala Lumpur Saturday were gloomy and visibility was described as poor by the Meteorological Department. With dry weather forecast for the next week, air quality is expected...

URL: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/213619/haze-returns-to-malaysia

Japan nuclear restart gets PM's approval

Guardian: Japan is to resume the use of nuclear power for the first time since last year's triple meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi power plant after the government on Saturday approved the restart of two idled reactors. The decision to restart reactors three and four at Oi power plant in western Japan could pave the way for the resumption of operations at other atomic facilities, amid concern over power shortages during peak demand this summer. The prime minister, Yoshihiko Noda, announced the restart after...

URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/16/japan-approves-nuclear-power-restart
Enclosure: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2012/6/16/1339829649292/People-protest-in-Tokyo-a-008.jpg

Green Machine: Saint-Gobain's NOVA Innovation Competition Taps North American Startups

![][1] Saint-Gobain, the world's largest building materials company, has partnered with the U.S. Green Building Council – Northern California Chapter (USGBC-NCC) to co-present the company's NOVA Innovation Competition. The competition rewards startup greentech and cleantech businesses around the world offering innovations in sustainable products, advanced

[1]: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2012/6/13/1-body-saint-gobain-us-green-building-council-innovation-competition-june-30-2012.jpg

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/blog/post/2012/06/saint-gobain-us-green-building-council-innovation-competition-june-30-2012?cmpid=rss

Solar Winter Output Assessment: Measuring Snow-related Losses

![][1] Historically, PV modules installed in snowy climates have been part of small, off-grid arrays mounted at very steep tilt angles. This is done both to shed snow quickly and to maximise winter output. Unfortunately, this concedes too much annual energy to be a good design strategy for larger contemporary systems.

[1]: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2012/6/15/body-wrap-up-solar-winter-output-assessment.jpg

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/06/wrap-up-solar-winter-output-assessment?cmpid=rss

Turbine Testing: Setting Standards for Smaller Devices

![][1] A global surge in small and medium-sized wind turbines is setting challenges for testing and will require new standards and certification in the UK and elsewhere.

[1]: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2012/6/15/body-turbine-testing-setting-standards-for-smaller-devices.jpg

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/06/turbine-testing-setting-standards-for-smaller-devices?cmpid=rss

Three Things Goldman Sachs' $40B Greentech Investment Means, and Two It Doesn't

![][1] More than any other investment bank, Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) is famed for its skill at picking good investments. Last week, the bank announced it would invest another $40 billion in green technologies over the next 10 years (or an average of $4 billion a year.) While this is a drop from the $4.8 billion invested in 2011, the last time Goldman Sachs made a commitment to green tech was 2005. The $1 billion pledged then ended up as $4 billion in direct investments of Goldman's own money, and another $24 billion of financing arranged by the bank.

[1]: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2012/6/15/body-three-things-goldman-sachs-40b-greentech-investment-means-and-two-it-doesnt.jpg

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/06/three-things-goldman-sachs-40b-greentech-investment-means-and-two-it-doesnt?cmpid=rss

Remy to Supply Powertains for VIA Motors’ Extended Range Electric Trucks.

The eREV powertrain enables the VTRUX to drive up to 40 miles in a full electric near zero emission mode achieving an equivalent 100 MPG.

URL: http://www.green-energy-news.com/nwslnks/clips612/jun12023.html

Heliatek's Transparent Solar Films Will Enable Tinted Windows to Generate Electricity.

These windows would look like tinted glass as the unique vapor deposition technology for the solar films allows for a homogeneous coating of the solar layer without any distracting patterns or irregularities.

URL: http://www.green-energy-news.com/nwslnks/clips612/jun12024.html

Wildfires rage in Colorado and New Mexico as US bolsters firefighting fleet

Associated Press: The government is bolstering the nation's rundown aerial firefighting fleet by taking steps to add seven large tanker planes. But the aircraft likely won't be available soon, and several other firefighting planes are grounded as destructive wildfires rage in Colorado and New Mexico. President Barack Obama signed a bill Wednesday hastening the addition of those aircraft at a cost of $24m. The same day, two firefighting C-130 military transport planes sat on a tarmac in Cheyenne, shrouded in an...

URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/15/wildfires-colorado-new-mexico-fleet
Enclosure: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/audio/video/2012/6/15/1339763701641/A-helicopter-flies-throug-008.jpg

This Is Your Ocean on Acid, and It’s Not Pretty

Climate Central: On most days, Bill Dewey can be found wearing waist-high waders and inspecting Manila clams -- the West Coast version of the littleneck -- at his Washington clam farm, Chuckanut Shellfish. Under an arrangement that's unique to the state, Dewey owns 32 acres of tidelands. Unlike land-based farms, he can only harvest when the tide recedes, leaving over a mile of mudflats, and shellfish, exposed. He gathers the clams with the help of a former tulip-bulb harvesting machine that's carried out aboard his...

URL: http://www.climatecentral.org/news/this-is-your-ocean-on-acid?utm-source=feedburner&utm-medium=feed&utm-campaign=Feed%3A+climatecentral%2FdjOO+Climate+Central+-+Full+Feed
Enclosure: http://www.climatecentral.org/images/sized/images/uploads/news/6-12-12_Belli_Bleached_Coral-450x277.jpg

Two Years In, SunShot Steadfast In Its Solar Mission

![][1] Ramamoorthy Ramesh is a man in a hurry. As the director of the Department of Energy's SunShot Initiative, he hears the clock ticking as the program inches toward its mission to slash the installed costs of solar 75 percent by the end of the decade.

[1]: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2012/6/14/body-two-years-in-sunshot-steadfast-in-its-solar-mission.jpg

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/06/two-years-in-sunshot-steadfast-in-its-solar-mission?cmpid=rss

Rio+20 must spur action on sustainable development - UNDP head

AlertNet: The most important goal of the U.N. conference on sustainable development in Rio de Janeiro next week is to unite the world behind a common vision that drives progress on all three economic, social and environmental aspects of development, a top U.N. official has said. "Whether there are specifics or not, I think the key thing is to come away with everyone sharing a vision, everyone saying there has to be action," Helen Clark, administrator of the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP), told AlertNet...

URL: http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/rio20-must-spur-action-on-sustainable-development-undp-head
Enclosure: http://www.trust.org/contentAsset/resize-image/b5c81e7c-95e1-4ee0-928b-438f924cec3f/photowide/?w=460&h=318&vn=201206151352

Kaiser Permanente Links Climate Change to Health Care

Bloomberg: Kaiser Permanente (KP), one of the largest health care providers in America, has a clear mission: improve health. In a surprising and welcome twist, KP is publicly recognizing that climate change threatens that mission. This health care leader is showing how an authentic, mission-driven connection to global issues can drive change. The topic of climate change has become so politicized, it's rare to hear company representatives and CEOs admit that they're taking a course of action specifically...

URL: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-14/kaiser-permanente-links-climate-change-to-health-care.html

Study: Climate change leaves American West especially vulnerable to wildfires

Colorado Independent: Rising temperatures are projected to trigger more wildfires in most of North America and Europe, according to a new study, but climate change may have the opposite effect around the equator. The American West, where massive conflagrations are currently chewing up parts of Colorado and New Mexico, will be especially vulnerable to wildfires over the next three decades, according to scientists from the University of California-Berkeley and Texas Tech University. Their study, published today in the...

URL: http://coloradoindependent.com/121993/study-climate-change-leaves-american-west-especially-vulnerable-to-wildfires
Enclosure: http://images.coloradoindependent.com/Colorado-fire.jpg

The green movement at 50: Can the world be saved?

Independent: Many of the issues the Environment Movement has faced over the last 50 years have been difficult, but none has been as formidable as the two challenges confronting it over the next half century, confronting the earth: population growth and climate change. These two colossal problems, it is clear now, cannot be "solved"; they can only be coped with, and the coping will have to be by governments. The task of the Green Movement will be to keep the pressure on governments, and companies, and individuals,...

URL: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/the-green-movement-at-50-can-the-world-be-saved-7852039.html
Enclosure: http://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/article7852156.ece/ALTERNATES/w460/26-world-gt.jpg

Study: Climate warming differs by state

United Press International: An analysis of temperature increases in the past 100 years shows climate change is affecting some U.S. states more than others, researchers say. Scientists from Climate Central said the state experiencing the highest temperature increase was Rhode Island, followed by Massachusetts, New Jersey, Arizona and Maine, LiveScience.com reported. Both natural climate variability and human activity creating greenhouse gases play roles in the findings, the researchers said. They calculated averages...

URL: http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2012/06/14/Study-Climate-warming-differs-by-state/UPI-97771339707425/?spt=hs&or=sn
Enclosure: http://cdn.ph.upi.com/sv/i/UPI-97771339707425/2012/1/13397070506348/Study-Climate-warming-differs-by-state.jpg

Accurate Wind Assessments: Pinning Down Performance

![][1] Accurate pre-construction assessments are critical to securing project financing and ensuring investor confidence. However, North America's wind power industry has developed a reputation for producing energy below levels predicted by pre-construction wind resource and energy assessments. What are the reasons for over-prediction, and how can such assessments be improved?

[1]: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2012/6/14/body-accurate-wind-assessments-pinning-down-performance.jpg

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/06/accurate-wind-assessments-pinning-down-performance?cmpid=rss

Peak planet: Are we starting to consume less?

New Scientist: HUMANITY is doomed. Or it was in 1798, when English scholar Robert Malthus published his influential An Essay on the Principle of Population. Malthus predicted that unchecked growth in human numbers would condemn our species to a "perpetual struggle for room and food" and an unbreakable cycle of squalor, famine and disease. Nearly two centuries later, biologist Paul Ehrlich was no less pessimistic. We had exceeded the planet's "carrying capacity", he declared in his 1968 bestseller The Population...

URL: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21886-peak-planet-are-we-starting-to-consume-less.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=climate-change

Global Warming Text Was Removed From Virginia Bill on Rising Sea Levels

U.S. News and World Report: Two Southern states have made it clear they want nothing to do with the idea of global warming. A day after the North Carolina state senate passed a bill requiring science on rising sea levels to be ignored, Virginia lawmakers allowed a study on its coastline to begin on the state's dime only after all references to climate change or global warming were removed from its funding proposal. [Sea Level Bill Would Allow North Carolina to Stick Its Head in the Sand] Looking to address flooding...

URL: http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/06/13/global-warming-text-was-removed-from-virginia-bill-on-rising-sea-levels-
Enclosure: http://www.usnews.com/pubdbimages/image/32173/FE_DA_120612VABeach425x283.jpg

Study: Climate change to increase wildfires

The Hill: A major new study finds wildfires in the western U.S. are likely to increase because of climate change. The findings arrive as fires in the West are forcing federal officials to try and boost resources to confront the blazes. New Mexico is fighting the largest fire in its history, while Colorado's wildfire is among its worst. President Obama on Wednesday signed legislation to speed up federal contracting for big aerial tankers to fight the wildfires in an effort to provide help to states in...

URL: http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/232733-study-shows-climate-change-boosting-wildfires-as-obama-beefs-up-response

Climate Change May Spark More Wildfires In Future

National Public Radio: AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: The fires now raging in Colorado and elsewhere may be bad, but scientists studying the relationship between wildfires and climate change have this warning: In the coming years, they're probably going to get worse. Max Moritz is lead author of the study and on the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley's College of Natural Resources. And, Max, what you did here is try to predict where in the future fires are likely to occur and how frequently. How did you do...

URL: http://www.npr.org/2012/06/13/154959089/climate-change-may-spark-more-wildfires-in-future?ft=1&f=1025
Enclosure: http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=154959089&m=154959066

'Lone Ranger' in Europe Faces Diverse Critics on Gases

New York Times: It seems as if the entire world has ganged up on the European Union and its attempt to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from airlines that use its airports. But there are important differences among the two dozen or so nations that have denounced the Union's Emissions Trading System, which was introduced Jan. 1 and requires about 1,200 carriers to buy carbon permits to cover emissions that exceed their quotas. One of the most significant differences is between the major emerging powers, China...

URL: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/lone-ranger-europe-faces-diverse-182020060.html

United Kingdom: Cameron accused of "expansionist agenda" over Heathrow runway

BusinessGreen: David Cameron has been accused of an "expansionist agenda", after coming under pressure from a member of his own party to categorically rule out building a third runway at Heathrow. During Prime Minister's Questions this afternoon, Conservative backbencher Zac Goldsmith asked for a commitment from the government that it would continue to oppose expanding the West London hub in response to mounting speculation ministers are considering a U-turn on plans that were ruled out by the Conservative Party...

URL: http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2184155/cameron-accused-expansionist-agenda-heathrow-runway?WT.rss_f=Home&WT.rss_a=Cameron+accused+of+%22expansionist+agenda%22+over+Heathrow+runway

Climate change Cold comfort

Economist: A FLOATING MOUNTAIN of grey and white ice, castellated and crevassed like an Alpine ridge, the iceberg is vast: the size of two aircraft carriers, maybe more. Scale is hard to judge in the Arctic because of its ubiquitous icy-white backdrops. Yet much the biggest part of the iceberg--perhaps nine times the size of the visible part--is submerged and invisible. As it drags along the bottom of the Jakobshavn Fjord, this mass of ice could cause earth tremors. Were it to flip over, pressed by sea ice...

URL: http://www.economist.com/node/21556805
Enclosure: http://media.economist.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/full-width/images/2012/06/articles/main/20120616_srp006.jpg

Malaysia: Palm oil giant prepares for second-largest IPO of 2012

Mongabay: Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd. is readying a $3.2 billion public offering to fund expansion of its palm oil business, reports The Wall Street Journal. In listing its shares June 28, the Malaysian state-owned palm oil behemoth aims to cash in on a global palm oil boom, which has seen oil palm plantations crop up outside strongholds in Malaysia and Indonesia. Felda, which has 323,587 hectares of plantations making it the third largest palm oil company after Malaysia-based Sime Darby and Singapore-based...

URL: http://news.mongabay.com/2012/0613-felda-ipo.html
Enclosure: http://travel.mongabay.com/malaysia/600/borneo_4666.JPG

Survey Says? Affordable Energy Top of Mind in U.S

Climate Central: With the 2012 presidential election looming, Americans are starting to focus on the issues that are most important to them. For 8 in 10 Americans surveyed in a recent poll conducted by the AP-NORC Center, one of those issues is energy: only the economy, education, and healthcare ranked higher. Affordable energy is so important to Americans that fewer than 20 percent of people listed a summer vacation or a new smartphone as a higher priority than lowering their energy bill. According to the poll,...

URL: http://www.climatecentral.org/blogs/affordable-energy-an-important-issue-in-election-year?utm-source=feedburner&utm-medium=feed&utm-campaign=Feed%253A+climatecentral%252FdjOO+Climate+Central+-+Full+Feed

United States: Exxon reports leak from Baton Rouge line

Reuters: Exxon Mobil Corp reported a leak in a pipeline at its Baton Rouge, Louisiana, chemical plant on Wednesday which released unspecified amounts of benzene, the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality said on Thursday. The company secured the bleeder line at about 5:00 a.m. EDT and the leak was contained within the facility, the department said. All rail traffic has been stopped within the facility until the benzene is removed, according to the department. Air monitoring at the facility has...

URL: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/14/us-pipeline-operations-exxon-idUSBRE85D13V20120614?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29

UK government waters down EU energy efficiency deal

Guardian: The UK government has succeeded in watering down a key EU-wide agreement on energy efficiency, to the dismay of green campaigners. Under the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED), member states will be allowed to set their own targets for energy efficiency, instead of the original plan for a mandatory EU-wide target of 20% improvements in efficiency. The result is likely to be a smaller improvement, of 17%. Energy suppliers will have to improve their energy efficiency by 1.5% a year from 2014 to...

URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jun/14/uk-government-eu-energy-efficiency

US coal use falling fast; utilities switch to gas

Associated Press: America is shoveling coal to the sidelines. The fuel that powered the U.S. from the industrial revolution into the iPhone era is being pushed aside as utilities switch to cleaner and cheaper alternatives. The share of U.S. electricity that comes from coal is forecast to fall below 40 percent for the year -- the lowest level since the government began collecting this data in 1949. Four years ago, it was 50 percent. By the end of this decade, it is likely to be near 30 percent. "The peak has...

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47813565/ns/us_news-environment/

United Kingdom: Switch flicked on world’s largest offshore wind farm

BusinessGreen: The UK's offshore wind energy industry is today celebrating as developers confirmed that the world's largest wind farm, the Walney project off the Cumbria coast, has been fully commissioned with all 102 turbines now feeding electricity to the grid. The wind farm, which combines the Walney 1 and Walney 2 wind farms, boasts 367MW of capacity and is expected to provide about 320,000 homes with renewable power. The project, which was led by a joint venture containing Danish energy giant DONG Energy,...

URL: http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2184320/switch-flicked-world-s-largest-offshore-wind-farm?WT.rss_f=Home&WT.rss_a=Switch+flicked+on+world%E2%80%99s+largest+offshore+wind+farm

Scientists urge Rio action on population and consumption

BusinessGreen: More than 100 scientific academies from around the world have today urged world leaders to use next week's Rio +20 Earth Summit to take tangible steps to address unsustainable population growth and patterns of consumption, warning that "a failure to act will put us on track to alternative futures with severe and potentially catastrophic implications for human well-being". The group, which includes the UK's Royal Society and many of its equivalent institutions around the world, issued a joint statement...

URL: http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2184265/scientists-urge-rio-action-population-consumption?WT.rss_f=Home&WT.rss_a=Scientists+urge+Rio+action+on+population+and+consumption
Enclosure: http://www.interacademies.net/File.aspx?id=19193

Shell shelves Brazil biofuel plan

BBC: A biofuels company set up in Brazil by oil giant Shell has signed a landmark agreement giving up plans to buy sugar cane grown on indigenous lands. The company, Raizen, was obtaining some of the raw material for ethanol from farmers who encroached on the lands of the Guarani people in Mato Grosso do Sul state. The deal comes after months of pressure by the Brazilian authorities. Indigenous leaders have welcomed the agreement. Raizen said in a statement that the deal "shows the company's...

URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-18433008#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
Enclosure: http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/60888000/jpg/_60888009_60888007.jpg

Scientists urge Rio moves on population and consumption

BBC: More than 100 science academies around the world have called on world leaders to take action on population and consumption at the Rio+20 summit. They say past failures on these issues threaten the natural world and prospects for future generations. The science academies include the UK's Royal Society as well as its peers in countries at all stages of development. Preparatory talks for next week's summit have opened but sources report slow progress on unresolved issues. The science academies'...

URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18422619#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
Enclosure: http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/60890000/jpg/_60890226_60886919.jpg

Court decision in Indonesia may grant local authorities more power over forests

Mongabay: A ruling by Indonesia's Constitutional Court could shift some forest management authority from the country's powerful Ministry of Forestry to local governments, say forestry experts. The "MK45" case centered around the central government's control over Indonesia's Forest Zone (Kawasan Hutan), a classification that applies to more than two-thirds Indonesia's landmass or roughly 130.7 million hectares. Five district heads in Central Kalimantan challenged the designation of their administrative districts...

URL: http://news.mongabay.com/2012/0613-kawasan-hutan-indonesia.html
Enclosure: http://photos.mongabay.com/12/0614BORNEO_1431a.jpg

Water Security and Climate Change in Africa

Institute for Security Studies: The problem of climate change is very real and will probably not go away during this century or this millennium. In approaching the problem of climate change the question to be asked is not what is causing climate change (human insouciance, solar activity or some other cause) but what should we be doing to mitigate its effects. How can we best survive its anticipated impact? Certainly, a worldwide reduction in CO2 emissions, particularly by the major industrial countries, including China, would...

URL: http://allafrica.com/stories/201206140542.html

Green fuel from carbon dioxide

ScienceDaily: Scientists agree that carbon dioxide (CO2) has an effect on global warming as a greenhouse gas, but we still pump tons and tons of CO2 into the atmosphere every day. A research team at the Freiburg Materials Research Center (FMF) led by the chemist Prof. Dr. Ingo Krossing has now developed a new system for producing methanol that uses CO2 and hydrogen. Methanol can, for example, be used as an environmentally friendly alternative for gasoline. The goal of the scientists is to harness the power of...

URL: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120613132937.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29
Enclosure: http://www.sciencedaily.com/images/2012/06/120613132937.jpg

France should act on diesel cancer link: minister

Reuters: France should rein in tax policies favoring diesel engines after a World Health Organisation review found a clear link between their exhaust emissions and cancer, the country's environment minister said. The French auto market, which was 72 percent diesel last year, should reduce its dependence on the fuel, Nicole Bricq told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in Paris on Wednesday. "The national vehicle fleet is completely unbalanced," said Bricq, who took office last month following...

URL: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/13/us-france-diesel-idUSBRE85C1BI20120613?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29

Humans play a 'dominant role' in warming seas, study says

ClimateWire: Human activities that produce greenhouse gases, like the burning of fossil fuels, have driven warming in the upper ocean over the past 50 years, a new study finds. Prior research had suggested that natural factors alone could not account for ocean warming during that period. But the latest research, published Sunday in the journal Nature Climate Change, takes a more detailed view. An international team of researchers, led by climate scientist Peter Gleckler of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory,...

URL: http://www.eenews.net/public/climatewire/2012/06/12/2

Alarm rising over food crisis in Sahel region

Mongabay: Warnings over a possible famine in Africa's Sahel region are becoming louder and more intense. Abnormal drought, locally high food prices, and regional conflict have ramped up concerns that 18 million people could suffer from malnutrition and starvation as the lean season sets in. UNICEF says it needs $238 million to save over a million children from severe malnourishment in the region, but has to date only raised $93 million. "Across the Sahel we are dealing with multiple needs to save lives...

URL: http://news.mongabay.com/2012/0613-hance-sahel-food-crisis.html
Enclosure: http://photos.mongabay.com/j/05-02-unicef-sahel.568.jpg

Q&A: Women Must Be at the Forefront of Rio+20, and Beyond

Inter Press Service: Unlocking women`s energies and allowing them to become drivers of change could fuel the motor of sustainable development. The question is whether world leaders meeting at the Rio+20 summit in Brazil will squander or seize this tremendous opportunity to harness women`s full potential. In an interview with U.N. correspondent Isabelle de Grave ahead of Rio+20, Michelle Bachelet, head of U.N. Women, explains the vital link between gender equality and the environmental, social and economic dimensions...

URL: http://www.ipsnews.net/2012/06/qa-women-must-be-at-the-forefront-of-rio20-and-beyond/
Enclosure: http://ipsnews-net.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/Library/2012/06/bachelet_350.jpg

United States: Boulder leaders worry ballot fatigue could sink carbon tax

Daily Camera: Boulder leaders support downtown idea process but urge reality checkBoulder prioritizes food trucks, affordable housing, hospital-area plans for study in coming year City Council members Lisa Morzel and Suzanne Jones urged their colleagues to "make lemonade out of lemons" as others continued to express concerns that a possible county sustainability tax could sink Boulder's renewal of its own carbon tax this fall. Morzel and Jones have been meeting with Boulder County Commissioner Will Toor...

URL: http://www.dailycamera.com/news/boulder/ci_20843976/boulder-leaders-worry-ballot-fatigue-could-sink-carbon

Smarter Grid Linking Solar Panels May Bypass Utilities

![][1] I doubt that electricity is fundamentally a wide-area networking service. At first glance, this statement appears absurd. Like telephony or the Internet, electricity enters our homes through outside wires. Is it not therefore a networking service?

[1]: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2012/6/14/body-smarter-grid-linking-solar-panels-may-bypass-utilities.jpg

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/06/smarter-grid-linking-solar-panels-may-bypass-utilities?cmpid=rss

Challenge to Carbon Trading Fails

New York Times: A New York State Supreme Court justice has dismissed a lawsuit that sought to end New York's participation in the multIstate carbon trading system known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI. Members of Americans for Prosperity, a group founded and largely financed by oil industry interests, filed the suit last year in state Supreme Court in Albany against Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and two state agencies, arguing that the program imposed what amounted to an illegal tax on electric ratepayers....

URL: http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/14/challenge-to-carbon-trading-fails/

Canada: First nations' Northern Gateway stake ‘not free money at all'

Globe and Mail: What Enbridge did not mention is that in accepting company shares, those groups also agreed not to stand in the project's way. The equity agreement, which Enbridge acknowledged but is taking pains to play down, helps explain why 40 per cent of the groups declined what was essentially free money. It also illustrates the tactics the company is using as it fights a strident opposition to its $5.5-billion project. Under the terms of the deal, unearthed through a Greenpeace freedom of information request,...

URL: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/first-nations-northern-gateway-stake-not-free-money-at-all/article4257711/

West Virginia state auditor predicts healthy future for coal

Register-Herald: West Virginia Auditor Glen Gainer III predicted a sound and healthy future for coal Wednesday, and told county clerks in a Beckley gathering that Marcellus shale exploration will further enhance the state`s economy. "West Virginia is on the cusp, I believe, of having a great revitalization," he said. Without mentioning directly the Environmental Protection Agency`s issues with mine operators, Gainer acknowledged there are "issues in the coalfields." "But coal is here and coal is going to...

URL: http://www.register-herald.com/local/x138773930/State-auditor-predicts-healthy-future-for-coal-industry

Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin frustrated by Keystone XL pipeline delays

Canadian Press: Oklahoma's governor is losing patience with delays in building the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline, which would cross through her state on its way from Alberta to the Texas coast. "To me, it's been enormously frustrating that President (Barack) Obama and our nation has not been able to get through the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline to move from Canada down throughout the United States," Mary Fallin told delegates at the Global Petroleum Show on Wednesday. However, Fallin said she's...

URL: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/all/Oklahoma%20Governor%20Mary%20Fallin%20frustrated%20Keystone/6776013/story.html

Wildfires in Western U.S. to Increase with Climate Change

Climate Central: Large fires in the western U.S. -- such as those currently raging in Colorado and New Mexico -- may be part of a shifting pattern of wildfire risk brought on by climate change, according to a study led by researchers at UC Berkeley. The study, published Tuesday in the journal Ecosphere, analyzed the results of 16 different global climate change models. The models included variables such as annual precipitation and mean temperature of the warmest month and projected an increase in the frequency...

URL: http://www.climatecentral.org/news/wildfire-frequency-in-western-us-to-increase-with-climate-change/
Enclosure: http://www.climatecentral.org/images/sized/images/uploads/news/6-12-12_miller_wildfire1-720x361.jpg

Canada falling well short of its emissions targets: report

Canadian Press: The federal government says it sees no need to change its greenhouse gas strategy despite a new, hard-hitting report -- commissioned by Ottawa -- that shows Canada falling far short of its climate change objectives. The report by the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy added up every provincial and federal measure -- existing and proposed -- to reduce greenhouse gases. It found that Canada is on track to achieve only half of its 2020 target to reduce greenhouse gases by...

URL: http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20120613/emissions-Environment-roundtable-120613/20120613?hub=BritishColumbiaHome

Drilling in New York

New York Times: Gov. Andrew Cuomo's preliminary blueprint for hydraulic fracturing in New York State strikes a sensible balance between the need for economic development and the need to protect the environment and human health. Many important issues must still be addressed — and tough, detailed regulations issued — before Mr. Cuomo can think of greenlighting drilling. But he appears to be on the right track. As reported in The Times on Wednesday, the plan would restrict hydraulic fracturing to economically depressed...

URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/14/opinion/drilling-in-new-york.html

China, Denmark to boost green tech trade

Reuters: Denmark and China will agree to boost commercial ties in energy efficiency, environmental protection and sustainable urban development during a visit this week by Chinese President Hu Jintao, Danish officials said on Thursday. Hu was awaited on Thursday for a three-day state visit to Denmark, the first such visit since the countries established ties 62 years ago. The agreement will be signed on Saturday by Denmark's minister for trade and investment, Pia Olsen Dyhr, and her Chinese counterpart,...

URL: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/14/us-china-denmark-greentech-idUSBRE85D0ZB20120614?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29

Republicans, Democrats at odds on energy issues

Associated Press: Republicans and Democrats seem to be living on different planets when it comes to how to meet U.S. energy needs. Republicans overwhelmingly push for more oil drilling. Democrats back conservation and new energy sources such as wind and solar power. A survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that the polarized positions on energy that have divided Congress and emerged in the presidential campaign also run deep among the public. While majorities in both...

URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2012/06/13/national/w111604D34.DTL

Feds to rescue uranium enrichment project

Washington Post: The Energy Department has reached a deal to rescue a ura­nium-enrichment development whose owner did not have the money to complete the project. The department said Wednesday that it will immediately provide $88 million and in return take ownership of giant centrifuges used in the uranium-enrichment process. Ultimately, taxpayers would contribute as much as 80 percent of a $350 million research and development program to determine whether the technology can work and be commercially viable....

URL: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/energy-dept-to-rescue-cash-strapped-uranium-enrichment-project/2012/06/13/gJQAB3t3ZV_story.html
Enclosure: http://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_606w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2012/06/13/National-Economy/Images/Uranium_Plant_Ohio-0e8ed-7694.jpg

Canada: Doomed panel sends Harper 'reality check' on global warming

Postmedia News: Prime Minister Stephen Harper blamed the former Liberal government Wednesday after receiving a ``reality check'' from a federal advisory panel about the economic dangers of delaying national policies to address global warming. In a new report, the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy said Canada`s provinces were doing the heavy lifting on the country`s efforts to fight global warming and that delays would drive the federal government to pay a ``high cost'' to meet Harper`s targets....

URL: http://www.canada.com/Doomed%20panel%20sends%20Harper%20reality%20check%20global%20warming/6778428/story.html

US Biomass: Where Do All the Wood Pellets Go?

![][1] Europe is usually the last thing on one's mind when riding through miles of surprisingly desolate pine forests, stretching from the Alabama line to Georgia's marshy coast. But, in an unlikely convergence of European eco-policy and Southeastern pines, a Georgia wood pellet plant is now supplying a German-based utility with a steady stream of carbon-neutral energy.

[1]: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2012/6/14/body-where-do-all-the-wood-pellets-go.jpg

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/06/where-do-all-the-wood-pellets-go?cmpid=rss

World Energy Revolution? Not Yet

![][1] No one needs Trotsky around these days to tell us that revolution, even energy revolutions, have to be international, or as we'd say today "global." An Energiewende confined to a single nation-state alone, even an industrial giant like Germany, won't add up to more than a pile of agricultural biomass. Although a worldwide transition to a low carbon

[1]: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2012/6/14/body-world-energy-revolution-not-yet.jpg

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/blog/post/2012/06/world-energy-revolution-not-yet?cmpid=rss

Rio+20: Amazon deforestation

Guardian: Although deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is down 80% since 2004, environmentalists fear recent changes to the forest code will lead to further destruction. About 20% of the rainforest has already been destroyed. Before this month's Rio+20 Earth summit, the Brazilian Amazon, home to 60% of the world's largest forest and 20% of the Earth's oxygen, remains threatened by the rapid development of the country

URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2012/jun/14/rio-20-amazon-deforestation-in-pictures
Enclosure: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2012/6/13/1339597034746/A-man-carries-a-palm-bran-014.jpg

Rio+20 organisers struggle to untangle new world disorder

Guardian: A new world disorder is increasingly evident at the Rio+20 conference as traditional blocs of international alliances break and reform, making an overarching deal "extremely difficult", the chief negotiator of the host nation warned on Wednesday. The frank assessment by Brazilian diplomat André Corrêa do Lago came as the UN's once-in-a-generation sustainability conference opened with participants still widely divided on how to build a "green economy" and strengthen global governance. Negotiators...

URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jun/14/rio-20-conference-new-world
Enclosure: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/About/General/2012/6/14/1339674245846/Durban-climate-talks-come-008.jpg

Indonesia: Aceh Peat Clearing Was ‘Illegal’

Jakarta Globe: A formal government investigation into the clearing of a vast tract of protected peat forest in Aceh has concluded that only one of the two companies involved was at fault, while exonerating a second company of any wrongdoing. Sudariyono, the deputy for legal compliance at the Environment Ministry, said on Monday that palm oil plantation company Surya Panen Subur 2 "was suspected of burning some 1,183 hectares" of land inside the Tripa peat swamp from March 19 to 24 this year. "Our suspicion...

URL: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/nvironment/aceh-peat-clearing-was-illegal/523843
Enclosure: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/media/images/medium2/20120503154222873.jpg

Japan moves closer to restarting 1st nuclear reactors since tsunami

Washington Post: Japan is on the verge of returning to atomic power after a local mayor on Thursday gave his approval to restart a pair of reactors, idled in the wake of last year's nuclear accident. The nuclear restart could come as soon as this weekend, Japanese media reported. It would mark a controversial victory for the central government, which has spent months arguing that Japan needs nuclear power to sustain its fragile economy. An uncertain recovery for Japan: A year after the devastating earthquake...

URL: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/japan-moves-closer-to-restarting-1st-nuclear-reactors-since-tsunami/2012/06/14/gJQAd04nbV_story.html
Enclosure: http://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_606w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2012/06/14/Foreign/Images/Japan_Nuclear-02d7b-18350.jpg

Rio+20 stage set for debate on what next for development goals

Guardian: What could be simpler? In 2015 the eight UN millennium development goals (MDGs), which were agreed by all countries in 2000, will formally expire. In their place, it has been proposed, should come new sustainable development goals (SDGs), to cover poverty, but also energy, water, oceans, resource efficiency, land and ecosystems – details to be worked out at the Rio+20 Earth summit starting next week. When the idea of SDGs was put forward last year by Colombia, it seemed like a brilliant initiative...

URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2012/jun/14/rio20-debate-development-goals
Enclosure: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Environment/Pix/columnists/2012/6/12/1339499697621/MDG--Rio20--flags-of-part-007.jpg

Food systems must use cleaner energy, cut waste - FAO

AlertNet: The world's food production systems must switch from a heavy reliance on fossil fuels to greater use of renewable energy, and cut waste to improve energy efficiency and feed more people, the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Thursday. In a study on "energy-smart" food production, released ahead of next week's Rio+20 conference on sustainable development, the FAO warned that failure to change could leave people hungry. "Higher costs of oil and natural gas, insecurity...

URL: http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/food-systems-must-use-cleaner-energy-cut-waste-fao
Enclosure: http://www.trust.org/contentAsset/resize-image/e5017a28-3d27-4692-8e65-2fda287412d0/photowide/?w=460&h=318&vn=201206141219

Test Driving the New Brattleboro Food Co-op Building

Subtitle:

Blower-door testing of the nearly complete Brattleboro Food Co-op building shows it to be remarkably tight.

Images:

[![][1]][2]

[![][3]][2]

[![][4]][2]

[![][5]][2]

The new [Brattleboro Food Co-op][6] building with affordable housing on the top two floors is nearly completed, and we'll be shopping there in just a week or two. So, how did the building turn out? Were the goals achieved? Are the mechanical systems going to work as intended? How effectively was the building envelopeExterior components of a house that provide protection from colder (and warmer) outdoor temperatures and precipitation; includes the house foundation, framed exterior walls, roof or ceiling, and insulation, and air sealing materials. constructed?

[1]: http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/blog-river/Andy Shapiro and Terry Brennan - blower door - 2.jpg (Andy Shapiro and Terry Brennan with a blower door)
[2]: http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/energy-solutions/test-driving-new-brattleboro-food-co-op-building
[3]: http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/blog-river/BlowerDoor_9777_6-13-12-MedRes.jpg (Setting up a second blower door)
[4]: http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/blog-river/BlowerDoor_9775_6-13-12-MedRes.jpg (Blower door mounted in housing entrance)
[5]: http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/blog-river/Slate_Installation_crop_6-12-12_9807_MedRes.jpg (Final slate being installed on the Co-op building)
[6]: http://www.brattleborofoodcoop.com/

URL: http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/energy-solutions/test-driving-new-brattleboro-food-co-op-building

Turkey Hill Dairy Marks One Year Wind Energy Benchmark.

The wind power project is owned and operated through a partnership between PPL Renewable Energy and Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority (LCSWMA)

URL: http://www.green-energy-news.com/nwslnks/clips612/jun12020.html

Meeco Group to Install Solar and Energy Storage Solution in Angola.

In a country with some of the best yearly solar radiation values, the installation will combine 30 kW of photovoltaic solar power with a state-of-the-art energy storage solution in order to ensure 24/7 energy availability.

URL: http://www.green-energy-news.com/nwslnks/clips612/jun12018.html

Lattice Power -- First Company to Offer Volume Production of High-Powered Silicon Substrate-Based LEDs.

Lattice Power is the first and only company in volume production of GaN-on-Silicon LED chip, with products that are comparable to high-end chips that rely on conventional sapphire substrates. At operation current of 350mA, the 45-mil product is capable of producing 130 lumen cool white with an efficiency of 120 lumens for each watt consumed.

URL: http://www.green-energy-news.com/nwslnks/clips612/jun12019.html

Two Geothermal Bills Move Forward on Big Island

![][1] This week, a pair of geothermal bills proposed by council Chairman Dominic Yagong received the first of two required approvals from the Hawai'i County Council. One bill would affect how the Big Island spends geothermal royalties. The second bill would mandate evacuation plans for current and future facilities. The two bills passed by votes of 5-4 and 8-1, respectively.

[1]: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2012/6/13/body-hawaii-two-geothermal-bills-move-forward-on-big-island.jpg

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/06/hawaii-two-geothermal-bills-move-forward-on-big-island?cmpid=rss

LS9 Opens Its Innovative Advanced Biofuels Demonstration Plant in Florida

![][1] One of biofuels' hottest companies transitions from research phase to operating phase with opening of demo plant in Okeechobee – what's next, and where?

[1]: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2012/6/13/body-ls9-opens-its-innovative-advanced-biofuels-demonstration-plant-in-florida.jpg

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/06/ls9-opens-its-innovative-advanced-biofuels-demonstration-plant-in-florida?cmpid=rss

Prevent a Major Solar Workforce Deficit: Think Like a New Product Manager

![][1] The solar industry is expanding rapidly, but support for workforce development has not kept pace with market growth. According to the Solar Energy Industry Association, in the next few years the U.S. solar industry will grow from an $8 billion to $15 billion per year business, which will require robust workforce development to meet market demand fo

[1]: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2012/6/13/body-prevent-a-major-solar-workforce-deficit-think-like-a-new-product-manager.jpg

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/blog/post/2012/06/prevent-a-major-solar-workforce-deficit-think-like-a-new-product-manager?cmpid=rss

Europe makes big bets on nuclear waste burial

Reuters: On a small Finnish island and deep in remote rural France, far from the debates and doubts that followed Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster, the ground work is underway for a commitment to atomic power for the long term - the very long term. The problem is disposal of nuclear waste, at present mostly done at surface level. Finland, France and Sweden plan to build the world's first permanent storage sites hundreds of meters underground. Finland has already started to build Onkalo, which is designed...

URL: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/13/us-nuclear-waste-idUSBRE85C0YM20120613?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Enclosure: http://s1.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20120613&t=2&i=618354336&w=460&fh=&fw=&ll=&pl=&r=CBRE85C18ID00

China's emissions estimates don't add up

Nature: When Dabo Guan was studying the sources of carbon dioxide that were driving China to become the world's top emitter of global-warming gases, he came across a puzzling mismatch: adding up the emissions estimates from China's 30 provinces and municipalities gave a figure much higher than those reported for the nation as a whole1. This week in Nature Climate Change, Guan, an expert in sustainability science at the University of Leeds, UK, and his colleagues compare provincial aggregates with national...

URL: http://www.nature.com/news/china-s-emissions-estimates-don-t-add-up-1.10815
Enclosure: http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/7.4858.1339513600!/image/DOI-1.10815133046117.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_300/DOI-1.10815133046117.jpg

Oil sands firms test alternative way to tap bitumen

Globe and Mail: When a group of Harris Corp. employees in Florida began working to develop new technologies for the oil sands industry, they got off to a shaky start. In their first brainstorming session, they pronounced bitumen, the tar-like substance in the oil sands that is transformed into crude, "by-TOO-men." Harris went on to form a consortium with Nexen Inc., Suncor Energy Inc., and privately held Laricina Energy Ltd. The group said Tuesday it has field-tested a new extraction method that holds the potential...

URL: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/oil-sands-firms-test-alternative-way-to-tap-bitumen/article4253984/

Southern, Duke push US coal gasification; others quit

Reuters: Only two U.S. electric utilities are building expensive coal-gasification power plants, while dozens of similar facilities have been scrapped and some remaining projects may eliminate coal in favor of abundant, cheap natural gas. Duke Energy's 618-megawatt Edwardsport coal project in Indiana and Southern Co's 582-MW Kemper County project in Mississippi are the only "integrated gasification combined cycle", or IGCC plants, under construction out of more than three dozen proposed in the United States...

URL: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/12/utilities-coal-gasification-idUSL1E8H78P420120612