Wildfires burn dozens of homes in Oklahoma as temperatures reach 113F

Associated Press: Wildfires whipped by gusty, southerly winds have swept through rural woodlands north and south of Oklahoma City, burning dozens of homes as firefighters struggled to contain some of the fires amid 113F heat. Hundreds of people were told to leave their homes in at least four counties on Friday, while smoke and flames prompted authorities to close parts of Interstate 44, the main roadway between Oklahoma City and Tulsa, and two state highways. "A man refused to leave. From what I know, he wanted...

URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/04/wildfires-oklahoma-temperatures-113f
Enclosure: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/audio/video/2012/8/4/1344085541902/Oklahoma-wildfires-008.jpg

NLP Solar Sales Training Live Webinar August 8th & 9th

![][1]

[1]: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/assets/logos/9745.gif

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/partner/rich-hessler-solar/news/article/2012/08/nlp-solar-sales-training4?cmpid=rss

Brazil backslides on protecting the Amazon

Reuters: Ivo Lubrinna has been wildcatting for gold in the jungle here for more than 30 years. It's a notoriously messy business, as crews strip away topsoil in the forest and along riverbanks and use mercury and other pollutants to draw precious metal from mud. For the past two years, Lubrinna has held a second job: environment secretary for this riverside city of 100,000 people, gateway to the oldest national park and half a dozen nature reserves in Brazil's vast Amazon wilderness. As such, it's his...

URL: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/03/us-brazil-environment-backslide-idUSBRE8720GP20120803
Enclosure: http://s1.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20120803&t=2&i=637975203&w=&fh=&fw=&ll=700&pl=300&r=CBRE872120Q00

Opinion: Is It Hot Enough for Ya?

New York Times: CLIMATE change is hardly a seasonal issue, but summer is the only time of year when Americans and the news media regularly fix their attention on the everyday heat emergency that's already altering life on our planet. Indeed, this summer's record-shattering weather across the United States has created a heightened level of interest in and concern about the consequences of climate change. For the moment, we have an opportunity to make fundamental changes to the way our country deals with the environment,...

URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/05/opinion/sunday/is-it-hot-enough-for-ya.html
Enclosure: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/08/05/sunday-review/05HEAT/05HEAT-articleLarge.jpg

This Drought's No Dry Run: Lessons Of The Dust Bowl

National Public Radio: This summer's drought continues to wilt and bake crops from Ohio to the Great Plains and beyond. Under a baking, late-afternoon sun just outside of the tiny east-central Illinois town of Thawville, John Hildenbrand walks down his dusty, gravel driveway toward one of his corn fields. "You can see on the outer edge, these are a lot better-looking ears on the outside rows. Of course, it's not near as hot as it is inside the field," he says. Walking deeper into the 7-foot-high corn stalks, the...

URL: http://www.npr.org/2012/08/04/158119458/soaked-in-drought-lessons-from-the-dust-bowl?ft=1&f=1025
Enclosure: http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=158119458&m=158127337

Tocardo and Glow Tech to Produce Free Flow Water Turbines in Nepal.

The joint venture assembly and production facility will produce water turbines for the Nepalese market and for export in the region. Glow Tech Solutions acquired licenses to install water turbines with a total capacity of 2.4 MW and is expected to acquire licenses for an additional capacity of 7.4 MW. It completed pre-feasibility studies for 100 MW.

URL: http://www.green-energy-news.com/nwslnks/clips812/aug12006.html

National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Expands Natcore's License To Develop "Black Silicon" Solar Cells.

"Because copper is less expensive than the precious metals, this new patent could enable Natcore to further reduce the cost of solar cells," says Natcore President and CEO Chuck Provini. "This could be another step toward our goal of halving the cost and increasing the output of solar cells."

URL: http://www.green-energy-news.com/nwslnks/clips812/aug12005.html

6 Ways California Is Planning to Adapt to Climate Change

Mother Jones: North Carolina is dealing with sea level rise by banning science. California is doing something else: actually making plans. The Golden State has made itself a leader on climate change in recent years, with initiatives to slash greenhouse gas emissions and amp up renewable energy, and has now just released a hefty report on global warming's impacts on the state and how it plans to adapt to a hot new West. The report, put out by the California Energy Commission and Natural Resources Agency on...

URL: http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2012/08/california-climate-change-adaptation-plan

No help for Okla. as wildfires burn out of control

NBC News: Wildfires are burning out of control in Oklahoma, destroying homes and shutting down highways in a state that has suffered 18 straight days of 100-plus degree temperatures and persistent drought. Emergency officials counted 12 different wildfires around the state, with at least 65 homes destroyed in parched areas north and south of Oklahoma City and south of Tulsa. A state-wide burn ban was issued by Governor Mary Fallin Friday, according to a statement by Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management....

URL: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/04/13115739-oklahomas-plea-for-help-falls-on-deaf-ears-as-wildfires-burn-out-of-control?lite
Enclosure: http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/120804-oklafire.photoblog600.jpg

We need to fix Congress to fix climate change

Foster's Daily Democrat: America and the world have had quite an awful time the past few years with wild weather - drought, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, wind, heat. Many people in our country have died in these natural disasters, and New Hampshire has had its share of trouble. While we use the word "natural," most people now believe that these disasters are a result of global warming, also called climate change. However, there are still too many climate change deniers in Congress, and this is preventing the United States...

URL: http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120804/GJOPINION_0102/708049959/-1/FOSOPINION

U.S. carbon emissions lowest since 1992

Mongabay: A shift away from coal and reduced gasoline demand coupled with a mild winter led to an 8 percent drop in U.S. carbon dioxide emissions during the first quarter of 2012, reports the Energy Information Administration. Emissions between January and March 2012 were the lowest since 1992. Emissions from coal were down 18% to 387 million metric tons, the lowest for any quarter since April-June 1986. Low natural gas prices have led more utilities burn less coal for electricity generation. Coal is used...

URL: http://news.mongabay.com/2012/0801-us-co2-2012.html
Enclosure: http://photos.mongabay.com/12/0801co2-us.jpg

Solar Power Helped Keep the Lights On in India

Scientific American: Every day, at least 400 million Indians lack access to electricity. Another nearly 700 million Indians joined their fellows in energy poverty over the course of the last few days, or roughly 10 percent of the world's population. Oddly enough, some of the formerly energy poor rural villagers throughout the subcontinent found themselves better off than their middle-class compatriots during the recent blackouts, thanks to village homes outfitted with photovoltaic panels. In fact, solar power helped...

URL: http://news.yahoo.com/solar-power-helped-keep-lights-india-205700898.html

Can Renewables Save India’s Failing Grid?

Climate Desk: As India picks apart the reasons for the crippling blackout, analysts see an opportunity to talk renewables. On Tuesday, Rishabh Agarwal, a 25-year-old freelance photographer, rushed to meet clients in New Delhi, at the heart of one of the busiest and most crowded metropolitan areas on Earth. His timing couldn`t have been worse: the biggest blackout in history, two consecutive days of grid collapse that left almost half of India`s population without power. Agarwal's first problem: no transport....

URL: http://climatedesk.org/2012/08/can-renewables-save-indias-failing-grid/
Enclosure: http://climatedesk.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/india_670px.jpg

Severe weather renews climate-change talks in Washington, Annapolis

Baltimore Sun: Policies to change building codes in flood plains and on shorelines, construct offshore wind turbines and manage suburban sprawl could gain political traction, officials hope, as recent extreme weather renews a conversation on climate change in Maryland and nationally. State efforts to adapt to what officials are calling a "new normal" climate took center stage in a U.S. Senate hearing on climate change Wednesday, the first in 21/2 years. The state plans to begin integrating expectations of higher...

URL: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/weather/weather-blog/bs-md-climate-change-20120801,0,2916996.story

USDA Expands Drought Disaster Zones Across U.S

Climate Central: In response to the widespread and intense drought that is expected to cost billions in agricultural losses and other impacts, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has designated 50.3 percent of all U.S. counties as agricultural disaster areas, making federal assistance available to farmers in those areas. On Wednesday, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack added 218 more counties in 12 states to the list of primary natural disaster areas "due to damage and losses caused by drought and excessive heat,"...

URL: http://www.climatecentral.org/news/more-than-half-of-all-us-counties-are-drought-disaster-areas-14734?utm-source=feedburner&utm-medium=feed&utm-campaign=Feed%3A+climatecentral%2FdjOO+Climate+Central+-+Full+Feed

Poll: Climate change weighs heavy on Californians' minds

Sacramento Bee: Two-thirds of likely California voters say global warming is a threat to the state's economic future and quality of life, and a wide majority -- 62 percent -- continues to favor the state's greenhouse gas reduction law, Assembly Bill 32, according to a new Public Policy Institute of California poll. The electorate's attitude about the environment colors its view of President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney, according to the poll. Nearly three-quarters of likely voters say the presidential...

URL: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2012/08/poll-climate-change-weighs-heavy-on-californians-minds.html

Half of all US counties deemed 'natural disaster areas'

NBC News: Just over half of the counties in the U.S. are now labeled "natural disaster areas" after the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Wednesday added 218 counties in 12 states to the list. With drought drying up food crops and animal feedstock, the USDA also said it was allowing haying and grazing on 3.8 million protected acres, many of them wetlands, and that insurance companies agreed to a 30-day grace period for farmers on insurance premiums. "The assistance announced today will help U.S. livestock...

URL: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/01/13070928-half-of-us-counties-deemed-natural-disaster-areas?lite

Climate change is here — and worse than we thought

Washington Post: When I testified before the Senate in the hot summer of 1988 , I warned of the kind of future that climate change would bring to us and our planet. I painted a grim picture of the consequences of steadily increasing temperatures, driven by mankind's use of fossil fuels. But I have a confession to make: I was too optimistic. My projections about increasing global temperature have been proved true. But I failed to fully explore how quickly that average rise would drive an increase in extreme...

URL: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/climate-change-is-here--and-worse-than-we-thought/2012/08/03/6ae604c2-dd90-11e1-8e43-4a3c4375504a_story.html

Opinions on Global Warming Shift with the Weather

LiveScience: A heat wave is not proof of global warming, but it does seem to help convince people that global warming is real, survey data indicates. On the flip side, surveys show cool temperatures can make Americans less convinced there is "solid evidence" the planet is heating up. The new study based on five national surveys of American adults sponsored by the Pew Research Center in June, July and August 2006, January 2007 and April 2008. Respondents were asked: "From what you've read and heard, is there...

URL: http://news.yahoo.com/opinions-global-warming-shift-weather-181243492.html

Oklahoma Is OK if You Like Sizzling Temperatures

Climate Central: Oklahoma has one more day of record heat to endure before temperatures are forecast to cool to more comfortable levels. Well, that is if you consider the upper-90s to low-100s to be "comfortable,' anyway. Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and all points in between have seen record-breaking or near-record-breaking heat during the past week or more. The high temperature in Oklahoma City on Wednesday and Thursday reached 112°F, the hottest it's been there since Aug. 10, 1936, and just 1°F shy of the city's all-time...

URL: http://www.climatecentral.org/blogs/one-more-day-of-sizzling-heat-in-oklahoma-14744?utm-source=feedburner&utm-medium=feed&utm-campaign=Feed%253A+climatecentral%252FdjOO+Climate+Central+-+Full+Feed
Enclosure: http://www.climatecentral.org/images/sized/images/uploads/audio/8-3-12_andrew_okhighs_8_2_12-500x273.png

Mexican Communities Fight Mini-Dams

Inter Press Service: Small-scale hydroelectric dams with a capacity of under 30 MW are seen by the authorities in Mexico as an important alternative for generating energy. But local communities reject them on the argument that they would cause social, economic and environmental damages. On the front line of the struggle are communities in the southern states of Puebla, Tabasco, Veracruz, Oaxaca and Chiapas, where there is great potential to harness hydro energy with small dams. "They claim the so-called mini-hydroelectric...

URL: http://www.ipsnews.net/2012/08/mexican-communities-fight-mini-dams/
Enclosure: http://ipsnews-net.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/Library/2012/08/small-dam.jpg

Australian renewables to be cheaper than coal by mid-2030s

BusinessGreen: Australia, one of the world's most coal-dependent economies, will rapidly transition towards cleaner and more cost-effective sources of energy over the next two decades, according to a major new report. Released earlier this week, the Australian Energy Technology Assessment (AETA) report from the government's Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics analyses 40 different energy technologies and concludes solar and wind energy will provide the lowest levelised costs for electricity generation by...

URL: http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2196440/australian-renewables-to-be-cheaper-than-coal-by-mid2030s?WT.rss_f=Home&WT.rss_a=Australian+renewables+to+be+cheaper+than+coal+by+mid-2030s

Pig iron producers sign zero deforestation pledge after Greenpeace campaign

Mongabay: Pig iron producers in the Brazilian state of Maranhão today pledged to stop using charcoal produced from Amazon rainforest logging, reports Greenpeace, which had waged a zero deforestation campaign targeting foreign automakers [PDF] that buy steel from the industry. Greenpeace says the agreement commits pig iron producers to "eliminate Amazon deforestation from their supply chain and implement a monitoring system of charcoal used in their production processes." "This agreement by the industry...

URL: http://news.mongabay.com/2012/0802-greenpeace-pig-rion.html
Enclosure: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/Global/international/publications/forests/2012/Amazon/423%20-%20Pig%20Iron.pdf

First U.N. climate fund board meeting set for August 23

Reuters: The first board meeting of the United Nations' Green Climate Fund will be held on August 23 to 25, an official at the fund's interim secretariat confirmed on Thursday, five months later than it was originally planned. The fund is designed to help channel up to $100 billion a year in climate finance by 2020 to help developing countries adapt to climate change. However, the fund is an empty shell after last year's U.N. climate talks failed to make solid progress on sources of finance and the...

URL: http://news.yahoo.com/first-u-n-climate-fund-board-meeting-set-105834559--sector.html?_esi=1

The Politics of Climate Change

CounterPunch: Politics cloud the issue of climate change. We have a global economy driven by fossil fuels. Whoever controls the energy controls the power. Some have it and want to keep it. Others lack it but want to grab it. The first political argument often cited is a flat out denial that our climate is warming. However, the scientific evidence is very clear. There are over a thousand years worth of data in tree rings, sediment cores, ice cores, corals, and historical records. The retreat of glaciers and...

URL: http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/08/03/the-politics-of-climate-change/

UN 'help desk' to aid roll out of carbon offset projects

BusinessGreen: The UN's climate change secretariat, the UNFCCC, has this week launched a help desk service designed to help developing countries accelerate the rollout of emission reduction programmes under its Clean Development Mechanisms (CDM) offsetting scheme. The service is to be made available to so-called designated national authorities (DNAs) in under-represented regions and countries. African nations, the groups of least developed countries and small island developing states, and countries that had...

URL: http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2196367/un-help-desk-to-aid-roll-out-of-carbon-offset-projects?WT.rss_f=Home&WT.rss_a=UN+%27help+desk%27+to+aid+roll+out+of+carbon+offset+projects+

Oklahoma Closing In on Record for Hottest Day

Climate Central: The high temperature in Oklahoma City topped out at 112°F for the second straight day, extending the streak of consecutive 100°F days to 16. The temperature broke the daily record and was the second-hottest on record for that location, missing the all-time record by just one degree. Forecasts for Friday call for scorching heat once again, with temperatures possibly exceeding 110°F. One year after having the hottest summer in U.S. history, Oklahoma is dealing with oven-like temperatures once again....

URL: http://www.climatecentral.org/blogs/oklahoma-goes-for-broke-hottest-day-on-record-today-14738?utm-source=feedburner&utm-medium=feed&utm-campaign=Feed%253A+climatecentral%252FdjOO+Climate+Central+-+Full+Feed
Enclosure: http://www.climatecentral.org/images/sized/images/uploads/blogs/8-2-12_andrew_oklahightempsaug12012-500x273.png

Enbridge says pipeline system safe despite U.S. concerns

Reuters: Enbridge Inc, whose pipelines ship the bulk of Canada's oil exports to the United States, defended the record of its system on Friday after a U.S. regulator said it had concerns about the safety of the operation following a series of spills. The U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) has refused to allow Enbridge to reopen its 318,000 barrel per day Line 14 after a rupture spilled 1,200 barrels of oil into a Wisconsin field a week ago. After a series of spills,...

URL: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/04/us-enbridge-safety-idUSBRE87218I20120804?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=20120804&t=2&i=638218295&w=460&fh=&fw=&ll=&pl=&r=CBRE87303BY00

The implications of overpopulation are terrifying. But will we listen to them?

Guardian: Sitting on my own in the bar of the Royal Court theatre on Wednesday with my orange juice and lightly sea-salted packet of crisps, I remembered that I was first here more than 50 years ago, as a teenager down on holiday from Scotland and determined to witness England's cultural revolution. In 1961 that still meant John Osborne, whose new play, Luther, had just opened at the Court with Albert Finney. I queued at the box office and got two tickets to stand at the back of the stalls, where my brother...

URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/03/ian-jack-overpopulation-ten-billion
Enclosure: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Admin/BkFill/Default_image_group/2012/8/3/1344005524068/Aerial-view-of-advancing--008.jpg

Abundance heats up crowd-funding model with free solar project

BusinessGreen: Green investment specialist Abundance Generation has officially launched its latest crowd-funding project, designed to raise between £500,000 and £2m to support the rollout of free solar installations in the south of England. As revealed last month by BusinessGreen, Abundance has teamed up with solar installer Padero South Downs plc to issue debentures that will allow people to invest as little as £5 in the company's solar projects, securing expected returns of between 6 and 7.8 per cent over...

URL: http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2196432/abundance-heats-up-crowdfunding-model-with-free-solar-project?WT.rss_f=Home&WT.rss_a=Abundance+heats+up+crowd-funding+model+with+free+solar+project

Report: Coal mining threatens India's tigers

MSNBC: Coal mining for electricity generation is the biggest threat to India's tigers, a report by environmental activists Greenpeace warned, demanding a moratorium on clearances for new mines just days after massive blackouts highlighted power shortages. A hot-button issue in India, tiger conservation pits the desire to preserve wildlife against the development needs of a country that in March witnessed its slowest economic growth rate in nine years and where hundreds of millions continue to live below...

URL: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/03/13098552-coal-mining-threatens-indias-dwindling-tiger-population-report-warns?lite

Court Weighs an Order on Yucca Mountain

New York Times: A federal appeals court indicated Friday that it would issue an order for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to resume an evaluation of a possible nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, a volcanic ridge in the Nevada desert, unless Congress acted by December to resolve the legal tangle around the project. The commission is required by a 1987 law to determine if the site, 100 miles from Las Vegas, is suitable, but in 2010, President Obama had the government stop work on the project, making good...

URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/04/science/earth/court-weighs-an-order-on-yucca-mountain.html

Climate-Battered South Asia Looks to Rio+20 Formula

Inter Press Service: Far-flung South Asian communities, from the high Himalayan slopes to the Indian Ocean coasts, united in the face of extreme and uncertain weather, continue to hold out hope that the Rio+20 focus on disaster risk reduction (DRR) will positively influence national policies. "There is hope in India, the biggest country in the region, that the final statement at the Rio+20 summit titled "˜The Future We Want' gets translated into national policy before it is too late," Vinod Chandra Menon, former...

URL: http://www.ipsnews.net/2012/08/climate-battered-south-asia-looks-to-rio20-formula/

NASA Study Quantifies Vast Amount of Dust Reaching North America

Yale Environment 360: A new NASA study calculates that nearly 64 million tons of dust, pollution, and other tiny particles enter the atmosphere above North America from other continents each year, nearly as much as the 69 million tons of aerosols produced domestically through natural processes and human activities. The vast majority of the particles entering the atmosphere, scientists say, consist of natural dust and not pollutants. In a first-of-its-kind study, NASA researchers used satellite data and wind speed estimates...

URL: http://e360.yale.edu/digest/nasa_study_quantifies__vast_amount_of_dust_reaching_north_america/3575/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+YaleEnvironment360+%28Yale+Environment+360%29

Drought dries up stretch of Platte River, slows barges on lower Mississippi

NBC News: It's not just on land where drought is taking a toll: a 100-mile stretch of the Platte River has dried up, while barges along the lower Mississippi are having to carry less cargo in order to navigate shallower water. The Mississippi impact is one that goes far beyond the immediate area: About 60 percent of the nation's grain, 22 percent of its oil and gas, and 20 percent of the nation's coal goes down the river. Lighter barges mean longer waits for those products. The Army Corps of Engineers...

URL: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/03/13090325-drought-dries-up-stretch-of-platte-river-slows-barges-on-lower-mississippi?lite
Enclosure: http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/120803_platte-river.photoblog600.jpg

2012 Summer Olympics: The Greenest Games Ever?

![][1] Last Friday kicked off the beginning of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England.  Nine years of planning went towards minimizing the carbon output of this event.  An all-encompassing goal of "sustainability" was set for the 2012 Summer Olympics.     The organizers of the event aspired to make this international event socially and environmentall

[1]: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2012/8/3/body-summer-olympics-the-greenest-games-ever.jpg

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/blog/post/2012/08/summer-olympics-the-greenest-games-ever?cmpid=rss

Princeton Power Systems Powers on Energy Storage System at BMW Technology Office.

The ESS, consisting of a 100kW Demand Response Inverter (DRI-100) and 30kWh lithium ion batteries, will be used to store renewable energy from the on-site solar array, reduce peak electricity demand and demonstrate DC fast charging technology for electric vehicles.

URL: http://www.green-energy-news.com/nwslnks/clips812/aug12004.html

Planet Green Group Announces First Affordable Net Zero Energy Townhome Project in Nation.

These 25 Greenergy Net Zero Energy townhomes to be built in Dunedin are designed and engineered to bring affordability, energy efficiency and use of renewable energy technology to Florida's homeowners.

URL: http://www.green-energy-news.com/nwslnks/clips812/aug12003.html

California Geothermal Plant Expansion Receives Approval

![][1] Southern California Edison's San Onofre nuclear power plant has been down since January 31, but the damaged reactors may restart by the end of the year, the operator has told press. The loss has affected 1.4 million homes as well as voltage support to the transmission system, causing some experts to question the stability of Southern Californian infrastructure. Tentative dates for repower are Nov. 18 for the Unit 2 reactor and Dec. 31 for Unit 3.

[1]: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2012/8/3/body-california-geothermal-plant-expansion-receives-approval.jpg

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/08/california-geothermal-plant-expansion-receives-approval?cmpid=rss

Triple Win for Biofuels on Capitol Hill

![][1] In Washington, the US Senate Committee on Appropriations and the Senate Finance Committee handed the advanced biofuels industry three of its most significant wins on Capitol Hill this year.

[1]: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2012/8/3/body-triple-win-for-biofuels-on-capitol-hill.jpg

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/08/triple-win-for-biofuels-on-capitol-hill?cmpid=rss

Western Wind Energy: A Matter of Trust and Value

![][1] I recently wrote about Western Wind Energy's (TSXV:WND, OTC:WNDEF) plans to increase the 1603 cash grant for their Windstar wind farm. But that was not the only thing discussed in the conference call.

[1]: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2012/8/1/body-western-wind-energy-a-matter-of-trust-and-value.jpg

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/08/western-wind-energy-a-matter-of-trust-and-value?cmpid=rss

A New Passivhaus Standard for North America

Subtitle:

Katrin Klingenberg explains why the superinsulation standard developed for Central Europe is inappropriate for North America

Images:

[![][1]][2]

Katrin Klingenberg, the founder of the Passive HouseA residential building construction standard requiring very low levels of air leakage, very high levels of insulation, and windows with a very low U-factor. Developed in the early 1990s by Bo Adamson and Wolfgang Feist, the standard is now promoted by the Passivhaus Institut in Darmstadt, Germany. To meet the standard, a home must have an infiltration rate no greater than 0.60 AC/H @ 50 pascals, a maximum annual heating energy use of 15 kWh per square meter (4,755 Btu per square foot), a maximum annual cooling energy use of 15 kWh per square meter (1.39 kWh per square foot), and maximum source energy use for all purposes of 120 kWh per square meter (11.1 kWh per square foot). The standard recommends, but does not require, a maximum design heating load of 10 W per square meter and windows with a maximum U-factor of 0.14. The Passivhaus standard was developed for buildings in central and northern Europe; efforts are underway to clarify the best techniques to achieve the standard for buildings in hot climates. Institute U.S. (PHIUS), caused a minor earthquake earlier this year when she suggested that the existing Passivhaus standard didn't make sense in North America.

[1]: http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/blog-river/Katrin Klingenberg 108.jpg (Photo of Katrin Klingenberg)
[2]: http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/musings/new-passivhaus-standard-north-america

URL: http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/musings/new-passivhaus-standard-north-america

How to Make a Parking Garage Energy Efficient

![][1] It's no secret that researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) do cool things — including finding new ways to capture energy from the sun and wind. But there's nothing cooler than working on a parking garage, right?

[1]: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2012/8/3/body-how-to-make-a-parking-garage-energy-efficient.jpg

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/08/how-to-make-a-parking-garage-energy-efficient?cmpid=rss

Next Economy and Faith for Empiricists

![][1] Let's be clear: Justice is not an immutable law of nature. Neither math nor physics nor chemistry recognizes justice as one of the universe's governing principles. The strong, rich, and powerful have, since long before humans emerged, by and large taken what they wanted, when they wanted, and never counted the costs to those they took it from. Despite what Socrates may have said, justice has forever occurred, at best, in fleeting, ephemeral flashes. We yearn for a god capable of seeing and ultimately judging all rights and wrongs -- because we know we can't be counted on to do it ourselves. Small wonder that the legend of Robin Hood – the original 99 percenter -- still resonates after 800 years.

[1]: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2012/8/3/body-next-economy-and-faith-for-empiricists.jpg

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/08/next-economy-and-faith-for-empiricists?cmpid=rss

BP Wind Energy and Sempra U.S. Gas & Power: Pennsylvania’s Mehoopany Wind Farm Under Construction.

The facility, located on a 9,000-acre site some 20 miles northeast of Scranton, will have the capacity to produce 141 MW of electricity, enough to power over 40,000 homes.

URL: http://www.green-energy-news.com/nwslnks/clips812/aug12002.html

ZBB Commissions Energy Storage System for Illinois Institute of Technology.

The ZBB EnerSystem has been integrated into the ITT micro grid prototype to provide critical system backup, load-shifting, peak load reduction, and improved integration of distributed renewables. ZBB's EnerStore battery modules will also be used to offset the addition of new electric vehicle charging stations by storing off-peak power for use during day-time peak charging periods.

URL: http://www.green-energy-news.com/nwslnks/clips812/aug12001.html

Planet’s Carbon Storing Capacity Keeping Pace with Human Emissions

Yale Environment 360: A new study finds that earth's oceans and lands continue to absorb more than half of the human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, suggesting that the planet has not yet reached its carbon-storage capacity even as emissions continue to escalate. Writing in the journal Nature, a team of U.S. scientists calculate that the world's natural systems -- including seas, forests, and soils -- have absorbed about 55 percent of the roughly 350 billion tons of greenhouse gases emitted during the last 50 years....

URL: http://e360.yale.edu/digest/planets_carbon_storing_capacity_keeping_pace_with_human_emissions/3574/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+YaleEnvironment360+%28Yale+Environment+360%29
Enclosure: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v488/n7409/full/nature11299.html

Treaty That Saved the Ozone May Worsen Climate Change

Inter Press Service: The Montreal Protocol, a climate treaty that gathers all U.N. member countries behind the goal of protecting the ozone layer, may not be the "most successful international agreement" anymore, as former U.N. secretary general Kofi Annan used to put it. The treaty has achieved a great deal in the more than two decades it has been in force, with a 97-percent reduction in the consumption of ozone-depleting substances. However, it is now being widely criticised for worsening climate change by replacing...

URL: http://www.ipsnews.net/2012/08/landmark-treaty-saved-the-ozone-worsened-climate-change/
Enclosure: http://ipsnews-net.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/Library/2012/08/ozone-455x472.jpg

Brazil's deforestation rate still on decline in 2012?

Mongabay: Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell by more than a fifth for the 12-month period ending July 31, 2012, according to preliminary data released by Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE). INPE's Real Time Deforestation Detection System (DETER), picked up 2011 square kilometers of forest clearing between August 1, 2011 and July 31, 2012. In the year-earlier period, deforestation amounted to 2,578 sq km. DETER is based on relatively coarse satellite imagery, using 25 hectare...

URL: http://news.mongabay.com/2012/0802-brazil-deter-2012.html
Enclosure: http://photos.mongabay.com/12/0802BRAZILdeter2012.jpg

In New Jersey Solar Decision, Economics Trumped Ideology

Inside Climate News: A law in New Jersey requiring more use of solar power was approved with virtually no opposition—which speaks to the growing importance of solar to the state's economy, according to industry experts. Late last month, Gov. Chris Christie, a popular Republican party figure, signed into law [3]a bill that aims to break the state's boom-bust solar cycle by tweaking its broken incentives program. The move could double its 800 megawatts of solar capacity by 2014. Christie's signing of S-1925 [4] comes...

URL: http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20120802/new-jersey-solar-energy-debate-republicans-gop-solyndra-legislation-srecs-cap-and-trade-rggi?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+solveclimate%2Fblog+%28InsideClimate+News%29

Extreme weather from climate change increases urgency of pollution reductions

The Hill: The warnings about climate change have grown to a deafening roar. This summer we are experiencing deadly heat waves and costly drought. The recent heat led to at least 55 fatalities. The New York Times describes the widespread drought. The drought that has settled over more than half of the continental United States this summer is the most widespread in more than half a century. And it is likely to grow worse. The government has declared one-third of the nation's counties…to be federal disaster...

URL: http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-a-environment/241833-extreme-weather-from-climate-change-increaes-urgency-of-pollution-reductions

US, allies renew opposition to EU airline tax

Agence France-Presse: The United States and 16 other nations Wednesday renewed their "strong opposition" to a controversial EU carbon tax on airlines, vowing to work for a multilateral global solution. The meeting hosted in Washington with 16 other countries was called to explore ideas for a global solution to address greenhouse gases stemming from the aviation industry, among emissions blamed for climate change. A carbon tax, or emissions trading scheme (ETS), was imposed on airlines by the European Union on January...

URL: http://news.yahoo.com/us-allies-renew-opposition-eu-232203671.html

Humpback Whales alter migration pattern, stay in Antarctic waters longer

ScienceDaily: Large numbers of humpback whales are remaining in bays along the Western Antarctic Peninsula to feast on krill late into the austral autumn, long after their annual migrations to distant breeding grounds were believed to begin, according to a new Duke University study. The study, published July 30 in the journal Endangered Species Research, provides the first density estimates for these whales in both open and enclosed habitats along the peninsula in late autumn. It suggests that the little-studied...

URL: http://www.enn.com/climate/article/44737?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ClimateChangeNews-Enn+%28Climate+Change+News+-+ENN%29

Mangroves should be part of solution to climate change

Mongabay: Mangroves are under-appreciated assets in the effort to slow climate change, argues a new Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences paper which makes a argument for including the coastal ecosystems in carbon credit programs. The study, authored by researchers from Resources for the Future and University of California at Davis, estimated the cost of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by preserving mangrove forests, which globally store 6.5 billion tons of carbon in their biomass and soils...

URL: http://news.mongabay.com/2012/0802-pnas-redd-mangroves.html
Enclosure: http://www.mongabay.com/images/honduras/pico_bonito/cuero_salado/Cuero-Salado_Mangroves_02.gif

Big Drought Makes for a Small 'Dead Zone'

New York Times: The dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico, outlined in red, were far smaller than last summer`s when measured at the end of July. In yet another display of the inexorable interdependence of Earth's ecosystems, a bad summer for Midwestern farmland has turned out to be a good one for life in the Gulf of Mexico. Researchers from the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium have found that this summer's hypoxic zone in the Gulf of Mexico – the oxygen-devoid area of water colloquially known as the dead...

URL: http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/02/big-drought-makes-for-a-small-dead-zone/?partner=rss&emc=rss
Enclosure: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/08/01/science/dead/dead-blog480.jpg

Southern Ocean Carbon Sink

Environmental News Network: A team of British and Australian scientists has discovered an important carbon sink from water drawn down from the surface of the Southern Ocean to the deep waters beneath. The Southern Ocean is an important carbon sink in the world -- around 40% of the annual global CO2 emissions absorbed by the world's oceans enter through this region. Reporting this week in the journal Nature Geoscience, scientists from British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and Australia's national research agency, the Commonwealth Scientific...

URL: http://www.enn.com/climate/article/44742?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ClimateChangeNews-Enn+%28Climate+Change+News+-+ENN%29

Drought Intensifies and May Last Through October

Climate Central: Drought conditions intensified in parts of the Midwest and Great Plains during the week ending on July 31, and a new forecast calls for the drought to persist straight on through until October. Beneficial rainfall did trim the edges of the drought area slightly during the past week, and may alleviate the drought in some spots during the next several months, according to the new edition of the U.S. Drought Monitor and Seasonal Drought Outlook, both of which were released Thursday morning. As of...

URL: http://www.climatecentral.org/news/drought-intensifies-in-hardest-hit-areas-14736?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/8-2-12_andrew_droughtmonitor-475x355.gif

Europe's Carbon Market Trips on a New Proposal

Wall Street Journal: A recent proposal by the European Union to buttress its program to curb greenhouse gases has raised new questions about the long-term path to clean air. The proposal, which aims to slow the pace at which permits to emit CO2 are sold on the Emissions Trading System between 2013 and 2020, risks having only limited effect if it isn't followed by permanent measures, analysts say. The ETS, as the EU carbon market is known, was designed to encourage companies to invest in technologies that reduce...

URL: http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB10000872396390444320704577562431794630816,00.html?mod=vocus
Enclosure: http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/EM-AS210_EuroFo_D_20120801133903.jpg

U.S. Midwest and central Plains bake as drought intensifies

Reuters: The worst U.S. drought in 56 years intensified over the past week as above-normal temperatures and scant rainfall parched corn and soybean crops across the Midwest and central Plains, a report from climate experts said on Thursday. The drought became more severe in the southern United States as well, just a year removed from a record-breaking dry spell that ruined crops and wilted grazing pastures across Texas and Oklahoma enough to force an unprecedented northward migration of cattle. Nearly...

URL: http://news.yahoo.com/u-midwest-central-plains-bake-drought-intensifies-152517213.html

U.S. Senate Finance Committee Passes PTC Extension Plan

![][1] The U.S. Senate Finance Committee voted to extend dozens of tax breaks, including those for wind energy, corporate research and financial services companies' overseas operations.

[1]: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2012/8/2/body-u-s-senate-finance-committee-passes-tax-break-extension-plan.jpg

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/08/u-s-senate-finance-committee-passes-tax-break-extension-plan?cmpid=rss

Drought-Stricken Farmers Pay the Price for Failed Climate Bill

Huffington Post: In the face of crippling drought across the Corn Belt, Congress is considering funding a disaster aid package with cuts to climate friendly conservation programs. Even as extreme drought wreaks havoc on crops and communities across the Midwest, government officials are now confident that they can link recent bouts of extreme weather to man-made climate change. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration underscored that point in early July when it released research conducted by 378 scientists...

URL: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/donald-carr/droughtstricken-farmers-p_b_1729235.html

Stop paying politicians for climate denial

Guardian: "The best lack all conviction, while the worst/Are full of passionate intensity." These words, from WB Yeats's poem The Second Coming, came to mind as I read the testimony from Wednesday's Senate hearings on climate change. They're not a precise description of what took place, as the two most eminent climate scientists who testified before the environment and public works committee, Christopher Field and James McCarthy, were not lacking in conviction. But they were, as scientists should be, careful...

URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2012/aug/02/climate-change-political-funding-us
Enclosure: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Environment/Pix/columnists/2012/8/2/1343912605715/James-Inhofe-and-senate-c-008.jpg

Earth absorbing more carbon, even as CO2 emissions rise

ScienceDaily: Despite sharp increases in carbon dioxide emissions by humans in recent decades that are warming the planet, Earth's vegetation and oceans continue to soak up about half of them, according to a surprising new study led by the University of Colorado Boulder. The study, led by CU-Boulder postdoctoral researcher Ashley Ballantyne, looked at global CO2 emissions reports from the past 50 years and compared them with rising levels of CO2 in Earth's atmosphere during that time, primarily because of fossil...

URL: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/08/120801132432.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29

Enbridge insists pipe safety regimen is working

Reuters: Enbridge Inc insisted on Thursday its quick response to a U.S. oil pipeline leak last week showed that safety improvements implemented after a devastating 2010 spill in Michigan were working, despite sharp criticism from regulators. Enbridge, which reported a 7 percent increase in adjusted second-quarter profit, said it was still uncertain when it could reopen the line. The Canadian pipeline company is under growing pressure from the public, its oil-shipping customers and now investors to show...

URL: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/02/us-enbridge-results-idUSBRE8710P720120802?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29

Drought worsens in midwest and threatens next year's corn crop

Guardian: The worst drought in 50 years has intensified across the US midwest, not only condemning this year's corn crop but threatening the prospects for next year's too, new figures showed on Thursday. The political fallout intensified as well, with growing pressure for the Obama administration to end its support for corn ethanol. Critics say diverting food to fuel for corn ethanol production risks a global food crisis, tightening supplies and driving up prices. Nearly a third of Congress members signed...

URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/aug/02/drought-worsens-midwest-corn-crop
Enclosure: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/audio/video/2012/8/2/1343926404191/Corn-damaged-field-in-Iow-008.jpg

Foes of EU airlines carbon plan say back U.N. scheme

Reuters: Seventeen countries opposed to an EU law that makes all airlines pay for carbon they emit on flights to and from Europe reaffirmed they want to keep working on an alternative plan at the U.N. global aviation body, a senior U.S. official said. The European Commission has repeatedly said the only grounds for waiving its scheme, which has stirred threats of an international trade war, would be if the U.N.'s International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) could come up with an equally effective world-wide...

URL: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/02/us-aviation-eu-ets-idUSBRE8701V720120802?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=20120802&t=2&i=637480044&w=460&fh=&fw=&ll=&pl=&r=CBRE8710Y4S00

Chevron says Ecuador arbitration to stretch into 2014

Reuters: An international tribunal that will weigh in on Chevron Corp's two-decade dispute over pollution in Ecuador has set a timeline that runs into 2014, according to a Chevron regulatory filing on Thursday. The panel, formed via The Hague's Permanent Court of Arbitration under the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law, is hearing a dispute over whether Ecuador violated a treaty with the United States requiring it to guarantee Chevron a fair trial. An Ecuador court ruled against Chevron...

URL: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/02/us-chevron-ecuador-idUSBRE8711C120120802?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29

Hong Kong suffers worst air pollution in two years

Reuters: The worst pollution in two years smothered Hong Kong for a second day on Thursday, prompting warnings to the elderly and sick to stay indoors and obscuring one of the world's most famous views. Pollution readings were "very high" in business and shopping districts such as Central, Western, Causeway Bay and Mongkok, air monitoring stations showed. The levels have surpassed only once in March 2010 when a sandstorm in northern China covered Hong Kong in dust. "Bad air is trapped here. But even...

URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/aug/02/hong-kong-air-pollution
Enclosure: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Environment/Pix/columnists/2012/8/2/1343917232957/toxic-smog-and-air-pollut-008.jpg

Greenland loses ice in fits and starts

New Scientist: The surge of ice loss from Greenland between 2005 and 2010, which drove up sea levels around the world, was not unprecedented. A similar spurt happened in the late 1980s, and possibly decades earlier as well. While such surges will be tricky to predict, better models of the ice sheet mean that we can make more confident long-term predictions of its behaviour - predictions that suggest Greenland's effects on global sea levels may not be as bad as feared. In 2005, the Greenland ice sheet suddenly...

URL: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn22131-greenland-loses-ice-in-fits-and-starts.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=climate-change

Bottom Line: Ocean Floor Sediments May Be Window on World's Warmer Future

Scientific American: Digging into our planet's past could help us prepare for a hot future. One dramatic spike in historical temperatures, the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), occurred around 55.9 million years ago. That time was marked by changes in ocean productivity, the water cycle, ocean acidification and land animal migrations. Now a new study by researchers in the U.K. confirms the ocean held less dissolved oxygen. Similarly, low oxygen zones caused by modern climate change threaten marine life and humans...

URL: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=bottom-line-ocean-floor
Enclosure: http://www.scientificamerican.com/media/inline/bottom-line-ocean-floor_1.jpg

Greenland ice said more robust than feared

NBC News: Greenland's ice seems less vulnerable than feared to a runaway melt that would drive up world sea levels, according to a study showing that a surge of ice loss had petered out. Only on NBCNews.com Courtesy of Bill DeVos Eagle Scouts return badges to protest ban on gays Redux Constitutional militia rises in Idaho AP Very superstitious: Olympians woo Lady Luck with rituals Getty Images UK cops to probe spies' alleged role in Gitmo 'torture' NBC News The lives of Syrian rebels AP Olympics bring pride,...

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48469705/ns/world_news-world_environment/

Greenland's ice 'melts in spurts'

BBC: Ice loss from Greenland's vast sheet may happen mainly in short bursts, research by Danish scientists suggests. They used aerial photos dating back to the 1980s to plot shrinking of glaciers around the island's northwest coast. In the journal Science, they show that most of the ice loss happened in two periods - 1985-1993 and 2005-10 - with relative stability in between. They say it will be hard to project sea level changes from Greenland ice melt until these patterns are deciphered. A...

URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19095069#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
Enclosure: http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/61982000/jpg/_61982235_c0061399-rainbow_over_receding_melt_water-spl.jpg

Extreme weather and climate change: Caution required but not reckless statements

Washington Post: In the wake of punishing heat waves, historic droughts, extensive flooding and extraordinary melt activity on Greenland, many are asking if we are seeing long-predicted results of climate change, caused primarily by man-made heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions. Recent studies on extreme events found in an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report and the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society suggest that such events may not be attributable to weather variability alone....

URL: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/post/extreme-weather-and-climate-change-caution-required-but-not-reckless-statements/2012/08/02/gJQAQjcjRX_blog.html

Women 'are the foot soldiers of climate change adaptation' - expert

AlertNet: In 2006, when the Asian Development Bank (ADB) decided to launch a multi-million dollar rural water project in eastern and north central regions of Sri Lanka, there was one overriding requirement -- women would be placed in key positions. As a result, experts say, the $263 million program, aimed at providing drinking water to over 900,000 people by 2011, has been a particular success. In the village of Talpothta, in the rural north-central Polonnaruwa District, the village women's association...

URL: http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/women-are-the-foot-soldiers-of-climate-change-adaptation-expert
Enclosure: http://www.trust.org/contentAsset/resize-image/01140650-0546-4e60-9dfd-f2f9cabbfd0b/photowide/?w=460&h=318&vn=201208021328

Expanded Cork — The Greenest Insulation Material?

Subtitle:

All-natural expanded cork boardstock insulation is now available in North America

Images:

[![][1]][2]

[![][3]][2]

[![][4]][2]

[![][5]][2]

I'm always on the hunt for the latest, most interesting, and most environmentally friendly building materials, and I have particular interest in insulation products — partly because many conventional insulation products have significant environmental downsides.

[1]: http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/blog-river/ICB_boards_MedRes.jpg (Expanded cork insulation)
[2]: http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/energy-solutions/expanded-cork-greenest-insulation-material
[3]: http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/blog-river/CorkHarvesting_0783_MedRes.jpg (Harvesting cork)
[4]: http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/blog-river/Autoclave_0479_MedRes.jpg (Expanded cork insulation manufacture)
[5]: http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/blog-river/FireTesting_0956_MedRes.jpg (Fire testing of cork insulation)

URL: http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/energy-solutions/expanded-cork-greenest-insulation-material

Video Reveals Truth about Smart Grid

![][1] We don't think about energy until something goes wrong, and this week things went wrong on an historic level. As a result, the public and pundits are again focusing on the fragility of big electric grids. Ten percent of the world's population — more than 600 million people — lost their power in India on July 31, marking the largest blackout in hist

[1]: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2012/8/2/body-video-reveals-truth-about-smart-grid.jpg

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/blog/post/2012/08/video-reveals-truth-about-smart-grid?cmpid=rss

First Solar Profit Surges 81% on Shift to Sales of Power Plants

![][1] First Solar Inc., the world's biggest maker of thin-film panels, said profit jumped 81 percent after it recognized revenue for selling power plants, validating a strategic shift to building solar farms using its modules.

[1]: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2012/8/2/body-first-solar-profit-surges-81-on-shift-to-sales-of-power-plants.jpg

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/08/first-solar-profit-surges-81-on-shift-to-sales-of-power-plants?cmpid=rss

Aerographite: The World's Lightest Material Could Advance EVs

![][1] Weighing in at only 0.2 milligrams per cubic centimeter, a new material called Aerographite is now the world's lightest. Electrically conductive and highly compressible, the material could one day be used in batteries to help advance green transportation.

[1]: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2012/8/2/body-aerographite-the-worlds-lightest-material-could-advance-evs.jpg

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/08/aerographite-the-worlds-lightest-material-could-advance-evs?cmpid=rss

Sunlight Goes To Waste: India's Grid Failure

![][1] The spotlight on India's recent electric grid failure on July 30 and 31 has been determined the world's largest blackout. This event will no doubt spur some movement toward efficiency and discipline. India requires new and innovative thinking and effectiveness through structural change. This is also the time to focus on renewable energy, particularly solar photovoltaics.

[1]: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2012/8/2/body-sunlight-goes-to-waste-indias-grid-failure-part-1.jpg

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/08/sunlight-goes-to-waste-indias-grid-failure-part-1?cmpid=rss

Poll shows Australia carbon tax fear easing

Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The latest Nielsen poll has found that the number of people dissatisfied with the carbon tax has fallen significantly since the legislation was introduced on July 1. The Government has been working to sell the tax to voters while the Opposition has continued its claims the policy will increase cost of living pressures. The latest Nielsen survey of 1,400 people is the first to be taken since the introduction of the tax. It found 38 per cent of voters felt they were worse off under the tax, a drop...

URL: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-07-30/nielsen-poll-on-carbon-tax/4162894
Enclosure: http://www.abc.net.au/news/image/2241588-3x2-700x467.jpg

Global warming is due to humans: US ex-skeptic

Agence France-Presse: A prominent US skeptic of the human causes of climate change, Richard Muller, has reversed course and said on Monday that he now believes greenhouse gases are responsible for global warming. "I was not expecting this, but as a scientist, I feel it is my duty to let the evidence change my mind," Muller, a professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley, said in a statement. Muller is part of a group of more than a dozen scientists on the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature team...

URL: http://news.yahoo.com/global-warming-due-humans-us-ex-skeptic-170224211.html

Sanders: Inhofe's position on climate change is 'dead and dangerously wrong'

The Hill: The Vermont Independent rebutted what he called "myths" espoused by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee's ranking member. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said his colleague, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), is "dead and dangerously wrong" on his position that climate change is a hoax. Speaking on the Senate floor Monday, Sanders rebutted what he called "myths" espoused by Inhofe, the ranking member on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Sanders quoted Inhofe as having...

URL: http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/241073-sandersinhofes-position-on-climate-change-is-dead-and-dangerously-wrong

'National scandal:' foreign companies stripped Papua New Guinea of community-owned forests

Mongabay: Eleven percent of Papua New Guinea's land area has been handed over to foreign corporations and companies lacking community representation, according to a new report by Greenpeace. The land has been granted under controversial government agreements known as Special Agricultural and Business Leases (SABLs), which scientists have long warned has undercut traditional landholding rights in the country and decimated many of Papua New Guinea's biodiverse rainforests. To date, 72 SABLs have been granted-mostly...

URL: http://news.mongabay.com/2012/0730-hance-png-sabls-greenpeace.html
Enclosure: http://www.greenpeace.org/australia/en/news/forests/Up-for-grabs/

World's largest funder of environmental projects lands a new CEO

Mongabay: The Global Environment Facility or "GEF" unites 182 government members, in partnership with multiple international institutions, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector, with the goal of addressing global environmental issues. Established in 1991, the GEF has grown to become the world's largest funder of projects to improve the global environment. The GEF has directly allocated $10.5 billion in project finance and supplemented more than $51 billion in co-financing, for more than...

URL: http://news.mongabay.com/2012/0730-szotek-ishii-gef-interview.html
Enclosure: http://photos.mongabay.com/12/0730ishii.jpg

Ocean study reveals carbon not sinking

Australian Broadcasting Corporation: British and Australian researchers have found that one of the world's largest carbon sinks stores carbon differently than first thought. The Southern Ocean contains about 40 per cent of all carbon dioxide emissions absorbed by the world's oceans. Researchers from the CSIRO and British Antarctic Survey examined the way the Southern Ocean sucks carbon absorbed from the surface layer into the deeper ocean. Research co-author Richard Matear from the CSIRO says the study shows the method through...

URL: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-07-30/carbon-storage-trends-revealed/4163274
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India's Blackouts And The Dark Future Of Emerging Markets: More Disruptions, More Coal

Forbes: The good news is that power has been restored in Northern India after a grid failure left over half its population (600 million people) without electricity. The bad news follows, and does so on three levels. The most obvious is that vast tranches of the developing world currently lack access to energy supplies. The second is that more explosive outages will hit in a wide range of emerging markets where import dependency for fuel is high, but subsidised prices for domestic end users are even higher....

URL: http://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewhulbert/2012/08/01/indian-blackout-three-inconvenient-truths/

Historic Blackouts Reveal Troubling Holes in India’s Power Network

Yale Environment 360: The historic blackouts that left more than 670 million people in India without electricity this week revealed profound problems with a power network struggling to keep pace with one of the world's fastest growing economies, experts say. While it's unclear what specifically triggered this week's massive grid failures, which knocked out power in 20 Indian states, government officials accused several northern states of drawing more power from the grid than their allocated amounts. Another factor may...

URL: http://e360.yale.edu/digest/historic_blackouts_reveal_troubling_holes_in_indias_power_network/3572/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+YaleEnvironment360+%28Yale+Environment+360%29

Gas drilling research suffers from lack of funding

Associated Press: Is gas drilling ruining the air, polluting water and making people sick? The evidence is sketchy and inconclusive, but a lack of serious funding is delaying efforts to resolve those pressing questions and creating a vacuum that could lead to a crush of lawsuits, some experts say. A House committee in June turned down an Obama administration request to fund $4.25 million in research on how drilling may affect water quality. In the spring, Pennsylvania stripped $2 million of funding that included...

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48447251/ns/health/

Drought Helps Dry Up Tornadoes as July Sees Record Low

Climate Central: Thanks, in part, to the record-setting drought that is gripping much of the U.S., the country had a record low number of tornadoes for the month of July, and the lowest number of tornadoes for any May-through-July period since high quality recordkeeping began in 1954, according to the U.S. Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla. With just 24 tornado reports in July, the U.S. saw fewer tornadoes this month than Canada did, which is unusual. With about 231 tornadoes during the May-to-July period,...

URL: http://www.climatecentral.org/news/u.s.-loses-to-canada-in-july-tornado-competition?utm-source=feedburner&utm-medium=feed&utm-campaign=Feed%3A+climatecentral%2FdjOO+Climate+Central+-+Full+Feed
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Cities Across U.S. Bore Brunt of Record-Setting July Heat

Climate Central: Preliminary climate data for July shows that many cities across the U.S. experienced record-setting months, with temperatures propelled upwards by a massive area of High Pressure, more popularly known as a Heat Dome, that kept cooling rains at bay. For example, in St. Louis, Mo., where the year-to-date has been the warmest such period on record, the city has already exceeded its all-time record for the greatest number of days with high temperatures of 105°F or above, beating the 10 such days that...

URL: http://www.climatecentral.org/blogs/for-many-july-2012-was-one-of-the-warmest-months-on-record?utm-source=feedburner&utm-medium=feed&utm-campaign=Feed%253A+climatecentral%252FdjOO+Climate+Central+-+Full+Feed
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Scientists Warn Congress About Disastrous Effects of Climate Change

Guardian: Drought, wildfires, hurricanes and heatwaves are becoming normal in America because of climate change, Congress was told on Wednesday in the first hearing on climate science in more than two years. In a predictably contentious hearing, the Senate`s environment and public works committee heard from a lead scientist for the United Nations` climate body, the IPCC, on the growing evidence linking extreme weather and climate change. "It is critical to understand that the link between climate change...

URL: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/08/congress-climate-change/

Nature soaks up more greenhouse gases, brakes warming

Reuters: Oceans and land have more than doubled the amount of greenhouse gases they absorb since 1960 in new evidence that nature is helping to brake global warming, a study showed on Wednesday. "Even though we have done very little to decrease our emissions, the Earth continues to lend us a helping hand," lead author Ashley Ballantyne of the University of Colorado told Reuters. Carbon soaked up from the atmosphere by the seas and by plants and soil on land rose to an estimated 5 billion metric tons...

URL: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/01/us-climate-carbon-idUSBRE87014Z20120801?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29

Juiced by Climate Change: Extreme Weather On Steroids

ThinkProgress: The brutal summer of 2012 is what climate change looks like. It's only the beginning of August, and yet nearly every corner of the United States has suffered through extreme weather such as oppressive heat waves, damaging storms, and devastating droughts and wildfires. 2011 saw the most billion-dollar disasters on record in the United States, and 2012 may be similarly as costly. Insurance claims from wildfires in Colorado have already reached nearly $500 million, and experts fear costs from the current...

URL: http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/08/01/622111/juiced-by-climate-change-extreme-weather-on-steroids/?mobile=nc
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Claims of Flawed Weather Data Don't Change Global Warming: Scientists

LiveScience: The stations spread across the continental United States to collect temperature data have become the flashpoint in the latest climate-change skirmish. A new analysis, released online by former TV meteorologist, climate-change skeptic and blogger, Anthony Watts, suggests many of these stations are collecting inaccurate records. Add statistical fiddling by climatologists, and the result is an artificial doubling of the rate of warming for the lower 48 U.S. states over the past 30 year years, he...

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48445460

Human Right to Water and Sanitation Remains a Political Mirage

Inter Press Service: When the 193-member General Assembly, the U.N.`s highest policy-making body, declared water and sanitation a basic human right back in July 2010, the adoption of that divisive resolution was hailed by many as a "historic" achievement. But as the international community commemorated the second anniversary of that resolution last week, there was hardly any political rejoicing either inside or outside the United Nations. "This human right is yet to be fully implemented," complained a coalition...

URL: http://www.ipsnews.net/2012/08/human-right-to-water-and-sanitation-remains-a-political-mirage/
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Earth's oceans and other ecosystems still absorbing about half the greenhouse gases emitted by people

ScienceDaily: Earth's oceans, forests and other ecosystems continue to soak up about half the carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere by human activities, even as those emissions have increased, according to a study by University of Colorado and NOAA scientists published August 1 in the journal Nature. The scientists analyzed 50 years of global carbon dioxide (CO2) measurements and found that the processes by which the planet's oceans and ecosystems absorb the greenhouse gas are not yet at capacity. "Globally,...

URL: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/08/120801132430.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29
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Tropical climate in the Antarctic: Palm trees once thrived on today’s icy coasts 52 million years ago

ScienceDaily: Given the predicted rise in global temperatures in the coming decades, climate scientists are particularly interested in warm periods that occurred in the geological past. Knowledge of past episodes of global warmth can be used to better understand the relationship between climate change, variations in atmospheric carbon dioxide and the reaction of Earth's biosphere. An international team led by scientists from the Goethe University and the Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre in Frankfurt, Germany,...

URL: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/08/120801132339.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29
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Use of mercury in gold mining stirs controversy in Brazil

SciDev.Net: Scientists in Brazil have expressed concern that new regulations in the country's Amazonas state continue to permit the use of mercury in gold mining, and have put forward what they say are more environmentally-friendly alternatives. Mercury is used mainly in small-scale 'artisanal' mining, using amalgamation processes that extract gold from other minerals by binding it to the mercury, and then burning off the mercury. This activity is increasing in developing countries across Latin America...

URL: http://www.scidev.net/en/agriculture-and-environment/news/use-of-mercury-in-gold-mining-stirs-controversy-in-brazil.html?utm_source=link&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=en_agricultureandenvironment

Facebook reveals its carbon footprint

Guardian: Facebook has, for the first time, revealed the carbon footprint of its operations and its more than 900m users' likes, photo albums and status updates. The data, published on Wednesday, shows that despite the social networking's rising star, its carbon emissions are still a fraction of internet rival Google. Facebook's annual emissions were 285,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalent in 2011, compared with Google's 1.5m tons in 2010. The vast majority of the emissions (72%) come from the company's...

URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/aug/01/facebook-google-carbon-footprint
Enclosure: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Media/Columnists/Columnists/2012/5/11/1336747171469/A-man-holds-a-Facebook-pa-008.jpg

Climate change the cause of summer's extreme weather, Congress told

Guardian: Drought, wildfires, hurricanes and heatwaves are becoming normal in America because of climate change, Congress was told on Wednesday in the first hearing on climate science in more than two years. In a predictably contentious hearing, the Senate's environment and public works committee heard from a lead scientist for the UN's climate body, the IPCC, on the growing evidence linking extreme weather and climate change. "It is critical to understand that the link between climate change and the...

URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/aug/01/climate-change-extreme-weather-congress

Palm trees 'grew on Antarctica'

BBC: Scientists drilling deep into the edge of modern Antarctica have pulled up proof that palm trees once grew there. Analyses of pollen and spores and the remains of tiny creatures have given a climatic picture of the early Eocene period, about 53 million years ago. The study in Nature suggests Antarctic winter temperatures exceeded 10C, while summers may have reached 25C. Better knowledge of past "greenhouse" conditions will enhance guesses about the effects of increasing CO2 today. The...

URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19077439#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
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Cut emissions further or face risks of high air pollution, study shows

European Geosciences Union: Most of the world's population will be subject to degraded air quality in 2050 if man-made emissions continue as usual. In this 'business-as-usual' scenario, the average world citizen 40 years from now will experience similar air pollution to that of today's average East Asian citizen. These conclusions are those of a study published today in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, an Open Access journal of the European Geosciences Union (EGU). Air pollution is a major health risk that may worsen with...

URL: http://www.egu.eu/news/36/cut-emissions-further-or-face-risks-of-high-air-pollution-study-shows/
Enclosure: http://static2.egu.eu/media/filer_thumbnails/2012/08/01/china_air_pollution01438.jpg__730x350_q85_jcrop-0x148x2400x1299.jpg

Building with Bioplastics: Atmospheric Carbon Storage in Construction Materials – Part 5

Bioplastics, and end products made with them, can be used as carbon sinks that can also be a profitable industry. But which plants, which plant feedstocks, would be used to bioplastics and where will those plants come from?

URL:

Hawaii Drives Past Solar Power Cost Barrier, Surprised by Additional Roadblocks

![][1] Solar has crossed a major threshold in Hawaii.  The state's homes and businesses can cut their electric bills with unsubsidized solar power, but are also discovering that cheap solar is not a panacea.  As the tide of solar costs has receded, a number of unexpected barriers have emerged. An island state reliant on imported oil for 83% of its electri

[1]: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2012/8/1/body-hawaii-drives-past-solar-power-cost-barrier-surprised-by-additional-roadblocks.jpg

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/blog/post/2012/08/hawaii-drives-past-solar-power-cost-barrier-surprised-by-additional-roadblocks?cmpid=rss

Massachusetts Solar PV Market Returns to Normal with Electrical Licensing Decision

![][1] In 2009, the Massachusetts Board of State Examiners of Electricians (BSEE) took an unprecendented step and required that all solar PV installation work performed in Massachusetts could only be performed by licensed electricians.  Recently this ruling was overturned, which allows the solar PV industry to return to how it was operating before 2009. T

[1]: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2012/7/30/body-massachusetts-solar-pv-market-returns-to-normal-with-electrical-licensing-decision.jpg

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/blog/post/2012/08/massachusetts-solar-pv-market-returns-to-normal-with-electrical-licensing-decision?cmpid=rss

Time To Honor the Great Renewable Energy Projects

![][1] There is nothing more important than celebrating the victories of an emerging industry. The wind, solar, biomass, geothermal and hydropower industries have been putting projects online this year with gusto. Even though project development may slow down for some of those industries in 2013, now is a good time to honor some of the outstanding accompl

[1]: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2012/7/30/body-time-to-honor-the-great-renewable-energy-projects.jpg

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/blog/post/2012/08/time-to-honor-the-great-renewable-energy-projects?cmpid=rss

Extreme weather events reflect climate change

Korea Herald: For years, climate scientists have been warning the world that the heavy use of fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas) threatens the world with human-induced climate change. The rising atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, a byproduct of burning fossil fuels, would warm the planet and change rainfall and storm patterns and raise sea levels. Now those changes are hitting in every direction, even as powerful corporate lobbies and media propagandists like Rupert Murdoch try to deny the truth....

URL: http://view.koreaherald.com/kh/view.php?ud=20120801001147&cpv=0

Bioenergy? Not So Fast

![][1] There's no one, set-in-stone blueprint for Germany's energy transition. A lot of it will be made up along the way and plans will change as we learn more. One of the Energiewende's pillars, for example, namely bioenergy, has just been subjected to a blistering critique by Germany's foremost scientists. None other than the prestigious German National

[1]: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2012/8/1/body-bioenergy-not-so-fast.jpg

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/blog/post/2012/08/bioenergy-not-so-fast?cmpid=rss

China: Desertification threatens world's highest railway

Global Times: China's Qinghai-Tibet Railway, the world's highest rail system, is being threatened by desertification on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau as a result of global warming, experts concluded after conducting a probe. About 443 kilometers of the 1,956-km railway are in areas affected by desertification, including 103 km that lie in seriously desertified areas, Wang Jinchang, a senior engineer with the Qinghai-Tibet Railway Company, told Xinhua Monday. Wang cited research showing that the threat of soil...

URL: http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/724153.shtml

Community Development Finance Institutes: Providing Clean Energy Capital

![][1] Oftentimes, larger institutions do not finance small renewable energy and energy efficiency projects due to their lack of scale and higher risk profile. But, this is exactly the niche community development financial institutions (CDFIs) are filling by making it possible for small developers, businesses, and underserved homeowners to finance clean energy projects.

[1]: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2012/8/1/body-community-development-finance-institutes-providing-clean-energy-capital.jpg

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/08/community-development-finance-institutes-providing-clean-energy-capital?cmpid=rss

Geothermal in South America: Major Prospects for Development

![][1] If any part of the world should be concerned about the effects of climate change, it is South America. Despite contributing some of the lowest emissions globally, many of the countries in the region are located in global-warming hotspots.

[1]: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2012/8/1/body-geothermal-in-south-america-major-prospects-for-development.jpg

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/08/geothermal-in-south-america-major-prospects-for-development?cmpid=rss

Like Ozone Layer, Holes in Study on Thunderstorms

Climate Central: Scientists know plenty about how Earth's climate works, and greenhouse-gas pollution is messing with sea level, weather patterns, and more. There's also plenty they don't know yet -- how global warming might affect tornadoes, for example, or how quickly the massive ice caps on Greenland and Antarctica could slide into the oceans. But there are also plenty of unknown unknowns, as ex-defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld famously put it -- climate disasters nobody has even thought of yet. Last week,...

URL: http://www.climatecentral.org/blogs/like-ozone-layer-holes-in-study-on-thunderstorms?utm-source=feedburner&utm-medium=feed&utm-campaign=Feed%253A+climatecentral%252FdjOO+Climate+Central+-+Full+Feed
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