Climate change may come faster than predictions made by most computer models

ClimateWire: Climate change is likely to be worse than many computer models have projected, according to a new analysis. The work, published yesterday in Science, finds evidence that Earth's climate is more sensitive to the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than some earlier studies had suggested. If the new results are correct, that means warming will come on faster, and be more intense, than many current predictions. Moreover, the impacts of that warming, including sea level rise, drought, floods...

URL: http://www.eenews.net/public/climatewire/2012/11/09/2

Maya Collapse, Climate Change Linked In New Study That Points To Rainfall, Droughts

LiveScience: Much has been made of the so-called 2012 Mayan apocalypse. But for the real Maya people, the end of the world came slowly and timed with historic droughts. A new, ultra-detailed climate record from a cave in Belize reveals Classic Maya civilization collapsed over centuries as rain dried up, disrupting agriculture and causing instability that led to wars and the crumbling of large cities. A final major drought after the political collapse of the Maya may be what kept the civilization from bouncing...

URL: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/10/maya-collapse-climate-change_n_2109680.html
Enclosure: http://i.huffpost.com/gen/857137/thumbs/r-MAYA-CLIMATE-CHANGE-large570.jpg?6

US Elections too close for comfort on adapting to Climate Change

Examiner: Increasingly more strident and more saturated with money-induced hysteria, the thriller that is the US election process is over for 2012. One side won, the other side lost. There were other sides, like the Green Party, but they really didn't get a chance to engage in our political process. Also, there were critical issues, like Climate Change and corporate personhood, but they were silenced out. Millions heave a sigh of relief that the Climate Change denier party was not installed into the executive...

URL: http://www.examiner.com/article/us-elections-too-close-for-comfort-on-adapting-to-climate-change

Despite cool October, 2012 tracks to be hottest US year

Climate Central: After 16 straight months with above-average temperatures, October temperatures in the lower 48 states averaged slightly below average, according to data released Thursday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Even with a cooler October, 2012 is still on track to be the warmest year on record in the U.S., propelled by a widespread March heat wave, the warmest spring on record, and the third-hottest summer on record. The month of July, for example, set the record for the...

URL: http://www.climatecentral.org/news/cool-october-in-u.s.-wont-stop-hottest-year-record-from-being-broken-15222
Enclosure: http://www.climatecentral.org/images/sized/images/uploads/news/11-9-12-Andrew-YTD-TempDeptfromAvg-400x259.jpg

Sandy: what a coastal US can learn from other threatened cities

Time: It was called the Watersnoodramp, which in Dutch means "flood disaster"--and it certainly was. The North Sea flood of 1953 was the result of a high spring tide that met a strong storm, resulting in a storm surge that inundated the countries around the sea. Lives were lost in England, Scotland and Belgium, but the worst of the surge was felt in the Netherlands. The dikes and other sea defense built around the coast of the Netherlands were unable to defend against the surge, and nearly 2,000 people...

URL: http://science.time.com/2012/11/05/sandy-what-a-coastal-u-s-can-learn-from-other-threatened-cities/
Enclosure: http://timeecocentric.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/143177705.jpg?w=360&h=240&crop=1

Maine rejects 14-turbine Passadumkeag wind farm

Boston Globe: Maine's environmental commissioner has accepted a recommendation to reject an application to build a 14-turbine wind farm on Passadumkeag Mountain in Penobscot County. The Department of Environmental Protection's recommendation went to DEP Commissioner Patricia Aho. The DEP staff said the proposed windmills would mar the region's scenery. The developer, Quantum Utility Generation, an alternative energy company based in Houston, may appeal the department's decision within 30 days to either the Board...

URL: http://www.boston.com/news/local/maine/2012/11/10/maine-rejects-turbine-passadumkeag-wind-farm/wFEwntATZoUNSe4Piak3zK/story.html

Unity College takes stand against fossil fuels, aims at 'sustainability science.'

BDN Maine: Climate change is the world's biggest environmental challenge, Unity College President Stephen Mulkey believes. So it only makes sense that the small environmental college in western Waldo County would make solving that problem the school's mission. Mulkey has persuaded the college's board of trustees to unanimously vote to divest the school's endowment funds "from every industry that is polluting this planet," according to an announcement from the college. The college's endowment -- the funds...

URL: http://bangordailynews.com/2012/11/09/news/midcoast/unity-college-takes-stand-against-fossil-fuels-aims-at-sustainability-science/

Barney Frank: GOP paid price for 'abysmal stupidity' on climate change

The Hill: Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said climate change hurt Republicans at the ballot box Tuesday because Superstorm Sandy brought increased attention to the topic. Frank noted New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's endorsement of President Obama, which he said he made partially because of Obama's position on climate change. The mayor said Sandy brought the election's stakes into "sharp relief" for him. "Climate change -- it brought on the endorsement of Mike Bloomberg, because one of the things...

URL: http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/267045-rep-frank-gop-paid-price-for-abysmal-stupidity-on-climate-

UN: Sandy shows need for action on climate change

Associated Press: Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Friday that one of the main lessons from Superstorm Sandy is the need for global action to deal with future climate shocks. Ban told the U.N. General Assembly that it is difficult to attribute any single storm, like Sandy, to climate change. "But we all know this: extreme weather due to climate change is the new normal," he said. "This may be an uncomfortable truth but it is one we ignore at our peril." With a new round of global climate talks set to begin...

URL: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i-j2gZNJDxpGETZewsCADevJWlbQ

5 climate hawks who won on Tuesday

Mother Jones: Climate-minded voters were pleased to see President Obama reelected on Tuesday, and to hear him call out "the destructive power of a warming planet" in his victory speech. But they also scored some notable wins in state houses and Congress this year. Here are five "climate hawks" that will take office in 2013. 1. Jay Inslee, Washington state's new governor (most likely). Inslee, a Democrat, who has represented Washington in the House of Representatives since 1993, has long been a champion of renewable...

URL: http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2012/11/5-climate-hawks-won-tuesday
Enclosure: http://mjcdn.motherjones.com/preset_16/hawk.jpg

United Kingdom: Wet, wet, wet – this is what summers will be like from now on

Belfast Telegraph: Get used to the summer wellies -- Northern Ireland's weather is getting wetter. That's the warning from the Met Office which says we are facing more torrential weather in the years ahead as climate change tightens its grip. Professor Stephen Belcher, who heads up the Met Office Hadley Centre, yesterday briefed the Stormont environment committee on how our weather is set to change in the future. He said Northern Ireland will experience an increasing average temperature, more rainfall and...

URL: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/weather/wet-wet-wetthis-is-what-summers-will-be-like-from-now-on-16235923.html
Enclosure: http://cdn.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/multimedia/dynamic/00695/147455214_695036g2.jpg

The reality of climate change can no longer be ignored

GlobalPost: Last week, Hurricane Sandy put climate change back in the political discussion. Sandy gave the American people a painful taste of what is likely to be in store for us as the planet's weather continues to change rapidly. The storm inflicted significant damage on regional infrastructure, crippled transit, and left millions without power. Only the extraordinary accuracy of our weather prediction and foresight in preparations by state and local governments prevented a catastrophic loss of life as well....

URL: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/commentary/climate-change-global-warming-hurricane-military-generals
Enclosure: http://www.globalpost.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/gp3_small_article/arctic_ice_sun.jpg

Hurricane exposed flaws in protection of tunnels

New York Times: Nearly two weeks after Hurricane Sandy struck, the vital arteries that bring cars, trucks and subways into New York City's transportation network have recovered, with one major exception: the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel remains closed. The devastation there has underscored how major tunnels across the region are poorly protected from extreme weather and how they will need significant modifications to prevent such catastrophic failures in the future. The tunnel's general manager, Marc Mende, recounting...

URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/10/nyregion/hurricane-sandy-showed-vulnerability-of-citys-tunnels.html
Enclosure: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/11/10/nyregion/TUNNEL/TUNNEL-articleLarge.jpg

The environment and President Obama’s second term

Living on Earth: Americans have voted to give President Obama a second term. Now he has four more years to make progress on environmental issues, such as climate change. Host Steve Curwood discusses the possible environmental priorities with ConservAmerica's Vice President for Government and Political Affairs, Dave Jenkins, and the Natural Resources Defense Council's Director of the Climate and Clean Air Program, Dan Lashof. Transcript CURWOOD: From the Jennifer and Ted Stanley Studios in Boston, this is Living...

URL: http://www.loe.org/shows/segments.html?programID=12-P13-00045&segmentID=1
Enclosure: http://www.loe.org/content/2012-11-09/obama-second-term-agenda.mp3

Pollen levels on the rise, thanks to climate change, scientists say

International Business Times: An unseasonably warm winter made 2012 one of the worst years for people with allergies, but scientists say it's just the start of an upward trend. Thanks to climate change, pollen counts are only going to climb higher, more than doubling by the year 2040. Nearly 8 percent of people over the age of 18 in the U.S. have hay fever, or allergic rhinitis, which is primarily triggered by plant pollen. People with pollen allergies have immune systems that overreact to the presence of plant pollens and...

URL: http://www.ibtimes.com/pollen-levels-rise-thanks-climate-change-scientists-say-868168

Glacial ghosts set sea-level trap for East Coast

Greenwire: The United States has a debt, etched in stone, to pay back to the sea. Across the world, the oceans are rising. Because of human-caused warming, global sea level has increased at 3 millimeters a year for the past two decades. Sucking in 90 percent of the excess heat trapped by greenhouse gases, the ocean is the world's thermometer, running hot. It's the largest sign, and impact, of climate change. But as the surge sloshed into New York Harbor last week by Superstorm Sandy made clear, sea-level...

URL: http://www.eenews.net/public/Greenwire/2012/11/09/1

Canada: Toronto ill-equipped for impending storms, experts warn

Toronto Star: Buses, roads and sewers may not be trending topics on Twitter, but the people who run Canadian cities and businesses say infrastructure is a sleeper subject worthy of more civic engagement. The pipes and pavement of the 1950s, '60s and '70s are rapidly wearing out. Investing in infrastructure renewal is a way of shoring up an uncertain economy with good jobs and gains in productivity. It's also a way of protecting Toronto from the damage of climate change, city and business experts told a news...

URL: http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/transportation/article/1285182--toronto-ill-equipped-for-impending-storms-experts-warn
Enclosure: http://i.thestar.com/images/15/97/c36d87fa4a42b50964d7098885b4.jpg

Forecast: Hotter climate models likely right

Mother Jones: More than two dozen major climate models are being used to forecast global warming from rising greenhouse gas emissions--notably how much warming will occur when atmospheric carbon dioxide doubles from preindustrial times. At current rates that unhappy milestone will be reached well before 2100. So which models are more accurate? "Because we have more reliable observations for humidity than for clouds, we can use the humidity patterns that change seasonally to evaluate climate models," says co-author...

URL: http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2012/11/forecast-hotter-climate-models-likely-right
Enclosure: http://www.motherjones.com/files/images/challenger_thunderstorms_over_brazil.preview.jpg

With 'fiscal cliff' looming, carbon tax getting closer look

Washington Post: President Obama returns from the campaign trail to face an epic year-end battle over taxes and spending. A relatively moderate-sized carbon tax could raise $1.25 trillion over the next decade, a huge chunk of the money needed to bring the federal budget deficit under control. And the idea is getting a closer look now that the election is over and the "fiscal cliff' is looming. Because it would tax fossil fuel use, the carbon tax pleases economists who want to encourage investment and discourage...

URL: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/with-fiscal-cliff-looming-carbon-tax-getting-closer-look/2012/11/09/23ab935a-2aad-11e2-96b6-8e6a7524553f_story.html
Enclosure: http://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_404h/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2011/09/02/Health-Environment-Science/Images/CChange002.jpg

Propelled by climate, drawn to ice

National Public Radio: Superstorm Sandy has put the topic of climate change front and center once again. Just after Sandy staggered his city, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg wrote "Our climate is changing. And while the increase in extreme weather we have experienced in New York City and around the world may or may not be the result of it, the risk that it might be - given this week's devastation - should compel all elected leaders to take immediate action." Photographer James Balog has spent the last several years...

URL: http://www.npr.org/2012/11/10/164722760/propelled-by-climate-change-activist-is-drawn-to-ice
Enclosure: http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=164722760&m=164848561

An inconvenient portfolio

Canadian Press: Humanity's impact on the planet is hard to ignore these days. Some may brush aside Sandy's horrific trail of destruction or record-breaking heat this past summer as natural blips in the weather cycle But now even the flagship magazine for the most respected business news source in the world for the investment crowd -- Bloomberg Businessweek -- reflects a major shift in perception. The magazine's post-Sandy issue recently featured the headline 'It's Global Warming, Stupid' on its cover. If it sounds...

URL: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/finance/an-inconvenient-portfolio-178326381.html

Bipartisanship needed: Keeping climate science and climate politics apart

Oregonian: With the end of this contentious political year finally in sight, we thought it might be a good time to engage in a little constructive bipartisanship. No, we're not going to urge people to support a deserving charity or remind them of all the things we have to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. Instead, we'd like to focus on a topic that we both feel has become unnecessarily partisan and divisive: climate change. President Barack Obama is greeted by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie upon his arrival...

URL: http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2012/11/bipartisanship_needed_keeping.html
Enclosure: http://media.oregonlive.com/opinion_impact/photo/11845390-large.jpg

New Report Highlights Link Between Climate Change, National Security

Voice of America: The U.S. National Research Council released a report Friday on the link between global climate change and national security. The scientific study details how global warming is putting new social and political stresses on societies around the world and how the United States and other counties can anticipate and respond to these climate-driven security risks. The report by the congressionally-chartered research group begins with an assertion that global warming is real, and that the mainstream scientific...

URL: http://www.voanews.com/content/climate-change-security/1543127.html

Defend New York: Experts on protecting against storms

NBC: The killer storm that hit the East Coast last month and left the nation's largest city with a crippled transit system, widespread power outages and severe flooding has resurfaced the debate about how best to protect a city like New York against rising storm surges. At a news conference the day after superstorm Sandy made landfall, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the city must plan and prepare for the reality of extreme weather patterns in the future. "There has been a series of extreme weather...

URL: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/10/15052860-ideas-on-protecting-new-york-from-future-storms-float-to-surface?lite
Enclosure: http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/121109-moma-rising-currents-04.photoblog600.jpg

United States: LA declares 'Meatless Mondays' in vegetarian campaign

NBC: Los Angeles is hoping to persuade people to become vegetarian -- at least one day per week. Under a resolution unanimously approved by the city council this week, all future Mondays in the City of Angels have been declared "Meatless Mondays." It's part of an international campaign to cut down on meat consumption for health and environmental reasons. Both the spiritual home of the hamburger and a haven for the health-obsessed, Los Angeles became the largest city in the nation to support the...

URL: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/10/15068169-meatless-mondays-la-urges-residents-to-turn-vegetarian-one-day-a-week?lite

What Obama should do now: Tackle climate change

Washington Post: Step up, Mr. President: No more worries about reelection. Now you can tackle those issues that you said had to wait for your second term. Outlook has given you a head start on how to address immigration, climate change, banking reform and racial inequality. It will be painfully easy to tell if President Obama is going to take a serious stab at doing something about climate change in his second term: The purest, starkest test he faces will be the proposed Keystone XL pipeline from the tar sands...

URL: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/what-obama-should-do-now-tackle-climate-change/2012/11/09/4a615a68-29de-11e2-96b6-8e6a7524553f_story.html

Trouble Down Under! A Charming Look Into the Very Un-Charming Australian Coal Industry

EcoWatch: Despite recent promises by the Australian Government to keep Queensland`s water supply clean, new legislation allows coal companies to get an exemption from pollution limits and dump polluted water into Queensland's rivers. These laws spell disaster for local drinking water supplies, river ecosystems and, ultimately, the Great Barrier Reef. Watch Greenpeace Australia artfully rake their local government over the coals in this charming video.

URL: http://ecowatch.org/2012/trouble-down-under/
Enclosure: http://youtu.be/609Lj97-8n0

Turning Wood Chips into Gasoline

New York Times: KiOR, a renewable fuel start-up based in Pasadena, Tex., said Thursday that it had produced a crude oil made from wood chips at a plant in Mississippi and expected to refine it into gasoline and diesel and sell it commercially later this month. That would be a first for the cellulosic biofuel sector. In a conference call with investment analysts, company executives would not say just how much they had made at the conversion plant, in Columbus, Miss., or how well it was running. But they said the...

URL: http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/08/turning-wood-chips-into-gasoline/
Enclosure: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/11/08/blogs/kiOR/kiOR-blog480.jpg

Will Storm's Wall Street Impact Influence U.S. Climate Policy?

New York Times: I encourage you to read Tina Rosenberg`s Fixes post, "A Change in the Weather on Wall Street." The piece nicely summarizes why this storm, unlike other recent weather disasters with a climate-change component, has prompted so many politicians, including President Obama, to end their self-imposed silence on global warming. One reason, she writes, is that it disrupted the lives of Wall Street titans along with the common folk in the region. That cut through the reality of the rich-poor "climate...

URL: http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/08/will-storms-wall-street-impact-influence-u-s-carbon-policy/?partner=rss&emc=rss

Obama's climate change quandary

Reuters: After a campaign in which climate change did not come up, and after the East Coast weathered a storm that, if it was not brought on by climate change, felt an awful lot like the storms that will be, the president of the United States finally nodded in its direction. It was not much. It was not even a whole sentence. But it felt like the first rain after a long drought. From Barack Obama's victory speech: "We want our children to live in an America that isn`t burdened by debt, that isn`t weakened...

URL: http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2012/11/08/obamas-climate-change-quandary/
Enclosure: http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/files/2012/11/RTR39Q53-1024x853.jpg

Renewable Energy Vital to Our Nation's Security, Economy


Renewable energy makes the United States stronger and more secure. It can help wean us from our over-dependence on oil, strengthen our economy, provide needed flexibility to our military, and improve our overall national security.

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/11/renewable-energy-vital-to-our-nations-security-economy?cmpid=rss

A New Tweak for Global Warming Predictions

New York Times: While scientists express confidence that the earth will continue to warm in response to an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, fine-tuning those projections has been a challenge. The majority of estimates fall between a rise of 2 to 4.5 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees to 8.1 degrees Fahrenheit), which leaves quite a wide range of uncertainty. While the numbers may seem relatively trivial to the layman, they represent a vast range of potential impacts on society in terms of sea-level rise,...

URL: http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/08/a-new-tweak-for-global-warming-predictions/?partner=rss&emc=rss
Enclosure: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/11/08/blogs/clouds/clouds-blog480.jpg

Kior Opens Wood-to-Fuel Plant as Biofuel Companies Seek Scale


Kior Inc., a producer of transportation fuels from wood waste and non-food crops, began production at its first commercial plant as other U.S. biofuel companies including Gevo Inc. and Amyris Inc. struggle to transfer their technologies from the lab to the factory.

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/11/kior-opens-wood-to-fuel-plant-as-biofuel-companies-seek-scale?cmpid=rss

How to Improve Coastal Cities Climate Resilience: A Q&A with Cynthia Rosenzweig

Scientific American: Climate scientist Cynthia Rosenzweig has been studying the impacts of global warming on New York City since the 1990s, and was part of a group that analyzed the unique risks faced by the Big Apple way back in 2001. The group's report predicted what a once-a-century superstorm like Hurricane Sandy proved: the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel between major boroughs flooded, La Guardia Airport runways were underwater, and so on. More recently Rosenzweig helped chair the New York City Panel on Climate Change,...

URL: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=improve-new-york-climate-resilience
Enclosure: http://www.scientificamerican.com/media/inline/improve-new-york-climate-resilience_1.jpg

Climate Refugees in America

EcoWatch: This is a chilling video of a voicemail from a Hurricane Sandy victim in the Long Island neighborhood of Rockaway Peninsula. With scientists telling us that climate change is raising sea levels—storm surges and the intensity of hurricanes—there is only one way to describe these folks: they are among the first North American climate refugees.

URL: http://ecowatch.org/2012/climate-refugees-in-america/
Enclosure: http://youtu.be/olForyqALZ4

Australia Ready to Join Europe in Reducing Emissions with Extended Kyoto Pledge


Australia plans to join Europe in a renewed and binding pledge to reduce emissions under the Kyoto treaty, Climate Change Minister Greg Combet said today before leaving later this month for negotiations in Doha, Qatar.

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/11/australia-ready-to-join-europe-in-reducing-emissions-with-extended-kyoto-pledge?cmpid=rss

No More Excuses, Mr. President, End Mountaintop Removal Now

EcoWatch: This week, the American people gave Barack Obama four more years to demonstrate his leadership of our nation. We congratulate the President on his victory, but also must hold him accountable to his promise to lead based on science and fact. With that in mind, we`re reminding President Obama that there are no excuses to legitimize the destruction of the Appalachian Mountains--and there never have been. After Obama was elected in 2008, he said: "Science holds the key to our survival as a planet...

URL: http://ecowatch.org/2012/end-mountaintop-removal-now/
Enclosure: http://ilovemountains.org/

Foreign loggers and corrupt officials flouting logging moratorium in the DRC

Mongabay: In 2002 the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) announced a moratorium on commercial logging in a bid to save rapidly falling forests, however a new report by Global Witness alleges that industrial loggers are finding away around the logging freeze. Through unscrupulous officials, foreign companies are abusing artisanal permits-meant for local community logging-to clear-cut wide swathes of tropical forest in the country. These logging companies are often targeting an endangered tree-wenge (Millettia...

URL: http://news.mongabay.com/2012/1108-hance-drc-logging-corruption.html
Enclosure: http://s3.amazonaws.com/mongabay-images/12/drc.logging.globalwitness.568.jpg

Sea level rise overflowing estimates

Science News: Sea levels may swell much higher than previously predicted, thanks to feedback mechanisms that are speeding up ice melt in Greenland and Antarctica. Climate simulations need to take such feedbacks into account, William Hay, a geologist at the University of Colorado Boulder, told the Geological Society of America meeting in Charlotte, N.C., on November 4. So far the models haven't incorporated such information because "it just makes them much more complicated," he says. Many scientists share...

URL: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/346332/description/Sea_level_rise_overflowing_estimates

Federal Report Quantifies PV Solar 'Soft Costs'


Non-hardware costs make up 41 percent to 50 percent of the expenses of selling and installing a solar electric system, according to a report by National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) that is set for release within two weeks.

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/11/federal-report-quantifies-pv-solar-soft-costs?cmpid=rss

Tasmanian Testbed for Large Integrated Renewable Energy Projects Ramps Up


A small island lying in the Bass Strait between Australia's states of Victoria and Tasmania is set to become the testbed for one of the most sophisticated integrated renewable energy technologies in the world.

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/11/tasmanian-testbed-for-large-integrated-renewable-energy-projects-ramps-up?cmpid=rss

Drought Still Afflicting Nearly 60 Percent of the U.S

Climate Central: The total land area in drought over the continental U.S. has receded slightly, according to the latest report from the U.S. Drought Monitor, but more than half of the country is still plagued, to some degree, by the dry spell of historic proportions that began last spring. As of November 6, a little more than a week after Hurricane Sandy dropped torrential rains on the Mid-Atlantic, 59.48 percent of the Lower 48 states were in at least moderate drought, a miniscule drop from the 60.16 percent...

URL: http://www.climatecentral.org/news/drought-still-afflicting-nearly-60-percent-of-the-contiguous-u.s-15221?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+climatecentral%2FdjOO+Climate+Central+-+Full+Feed
Enclosure: http://www.climatecentral.org/images/uploads/news/11-8-12-Mike-DroughtMOnitor11812.jpg

Rare November Snowstorm Strikes In Wake Of Sandy

Climate Central: It's rare enough to have a hurricane make landfall in New Jersey, but it's downright unheard of to have a New Jersey hurricane followed one week later by a significant early season snowstorm. Yet that's exactly what unfolded on Wednesday, as a powerful nor'easter helped provide just enough cold air to dump more than a foot of snow in the Tri-State area of Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York. Contrary to initial weather forecasts, accumulating snow occurred all the way to the badly damaged New...

URL: http://www.climatecentral.org/news/snowstorm-strikes-northeast-just-one-week-after-hurricane-sandy-15217?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/11_8_12_andrew_brooklyndamage-350x470.jpg

Climate Change May Have Doomed Ancient Maya, Study Finds

Bloomberg: The mystery of the ancient Maya downfall might be solved by a rock formation that suggests climate change could have led to the civilization's demise. Researchers from Pennsylvania State University traced a climate trail recorded in a 2,000-year-old stalagmite found in a cave in Belize, concluding that prolonged periods of drought corresponded with the disintegration of the Maya political system. The findings are published today in the journal Science. The Maya, who originated around 2600 B.C....

URL: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-11-08/climate-change-may-have-doomed-ancient-maya-study-finds
Enclosure: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/data?pid=avimage&iid=iwJOkTs1GcQM

Poorest nations urge Obama to help the most vulnerable to climate change

Boston Globe: Climate change finally made its way into President Obama's acceptance speech, although the United States' role in aiding a warming planet is still largely uncharted. Now, as the world's nations prepare to meet in Qatar for annual United Nations climate change treaty negotiations later this month, the world's 48 least developed countries have issued a strongly worded letter to Obama urging him to take a leadership role in helping poor countries prepare for climate change. Poor countries have long...

URL: http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/green/greenblog/2012/11/poorest_countries_call_on_obam.html

New Report Says Fewer Clouds and Higher Temps by 2100

Climate Central: Climate models are vastly more sophisticated than they were 30 years ago, but they can't say exactly how much the temperature will go up by 2100. Depending on the assumptions modelers make, the likely increase -- assuming emissions of greenhouse gases keep rising -- range from about 3°F to 8°F. But a study released Thursday in Science argues that the warming will probably wind up on the higher end of that spectrum. The reason, said lead author John Fasullo of the National Center for Atmospheric...

URL: http://www.climatecentral.org/news/new-report-says-fewer-clouds-and-higher-temps-by-2100-15219?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/11-8-12-Mike-red-sun-clouds-500x331.jpg

Climate change had political, human impact on ancient Maya

PhysOrg: An international team of archaeologists and earth science researchers has compiled a precisely dated, high-resolution climate record of 2,000 years that shows how Maya political systems developed and disintegrated in response to climate change. The researchers reconstructed rainfall records from stalagmite samples collected from Yok Balum Cave, located nearly three miles from ancient city of Uxbenka, in the tropical Maya Lowlands in southern Belize. They compared their findings to the rich political...

URL: http://phys.org/news/2012-11-linkages-climate-political-human-impacts.html

Solar Goes Mobile, Changes Lives in Remote Regions


As we've seen over the past year, solar energy use worldwide continues to grow rapidly. While this is certainly a positive trend, we face a challenge in today's energy landscape. In some cases, geographic and economic situations make solar power installation extremely difficult. These situations demonstrate a great need for a new way of utilizing solar power.

URL: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/11/solar-goes-mobile-changes-lives-in-remote-regions?cmpid=rss

Australia pledges to renew Kyoto Protocol in Doha

BusinessGreen: Australia is set to renew its commitment to the Kyoto Protocol and sign up to binding emission reductions through to 2020, in a move that has been hailed as a major breakthrough for the long-running international climate change negotiations. However, New Zealand today confirmed it will not join its neighbour in signing up for a second phase of the Kyoto agreement, instead opting for a non-binding emissions reduction pledge. United Nations climate change negotiators and world leaders will meet...

URL: http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2223607/australia-pledges-to-renew-kyoto-protocol-in-doha?WT.rss_f=Home&WT.rss_a=Australia+pledges+to+renew+Kyoto+Protocol+in+Doha

Federal Scientists Say Extreme Climate Predictions Most Accurate

Washington Post: Climate scientists agree the Earth will be hotter by the end of the century, but their simulations don't agree on how much. Now a study suggests the gloomier predictions may be closer to the mark. "Warming is likely to be on the high side of the projections,' said John Fasullo of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., a co-author of the report, which was based on satellite measurements of the atmosphere. That means the world could be in for a devastating increase of...

URL: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/warmer-still-extreme-climate-predictions-appear-most-accurate-study-says/2012/11/08/ebd075c6-29c7-11e2-96b6-8e6a7524553f_story.html
Enclosure: http://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_606w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2012/10/25/Interactivity/Images/CROP_hurricane_sandy_358_1025.jpg

Climate Change Influenced Mayan Political Systems

RedOrbit: There has been a controversy in the scientific community about the role of climate change in the development and subsequent demise of the Maya civilization, which thrived from AD 300 to 1000. The debate has raged because of a lack of well-dated climate and archaeological evidence. An international team of archaeologists and earth scientists from Pennsylvania State, ETH Zurich and the University of Durham, among others, has compiled a precisely dated, high-resolution climate record dating back...

URL: http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112728583/maya-climate-change-politics-war-index-110912/
Enclosure: http://www.redorbit.com/media/uploads/2012/11/science-110912-001-617x416.jpg

India seeks Doha climate talks to discuss issues concerning developing nations

Economic Times: India has demanded that environment ministers gathering in Doha for climate talks in end-November discuss not just green house gas emission reductions but also finance, technology and other issues that are closer to developing countries' interests. In its latest submission to the UN, the government has demanded that ministerial round tables being organized must be comprehensive in nature and should not focus on a particular issue at the cost of another's exclusion. The special ministerial round...

URL: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/environment/global-warming/india-seeks-doha-climate-talks-to-discuss-issues-concerning-developing-nations/articleshow/17149183.cms

Australia to sign up to new Kyoto climate commitment, NZ out

Reuters: Australia will sign up to the second round of Kyoto climate commitments, Climate Change Minister Greg Combet said on Friday, but the push for global emissions cuts remained divided with New Zealand joining major countries to opt out of the Kyoto scheme. With new U.N. climate negotiations due to start in Qatar this month, Australia joins Europe and a handful of other nations engaged in the second phase of emissions reductions. The first Kyoto period is due to end on Dec. 31, with the new commitment...

URL: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/09/kyoto-climate-australia-newzealand-idUSL3E8M90S620121109

Climate change? Most Nepalis are unaware of it!

Republica: Thousands of people gather every year at UN climate negotiation forums and discuss how to tackle climate change -- one of the most pressing issues of the 21st century, according to scientists and leaders. It's not a new story, as people have been debating on the issue for the last two decades globally but failed to reach a consensus on how to move forward to tackle the problem by reducing the emission of carbon dioxide gas--a major culprit for global warming. The science of climate change says...

URL: http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=44692

Carbon tax could boost economy and combat fuel poverty, analysis shows

Press Association: Money raised from carbon taxes on energy bills should be used to lift millions of households out of fuel poverty and boost the economy, it has been suggested. The Treasury will receive billions of pounds a year from 2013 as energy companies are made to pay for carbon emissions, and the cost on energy bills will be viewed as a stealth tax unless it is spent helping consumers, ministers were told. Analysis for Consumer Focus estimates £63bn will be raised in revenues between 2013 and 2027 by...

URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/nov/09/carbon-tax-boost-economy-fuel-poverty
Enclosure: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/MONEY/Pix/pictures/2012/10/17/1350489226342/energy-bill-and-coins-008.jpg

Australia Ready to Join Europe in Extended Kyoto Pledge

Bloomberg: Australia plans to join Europe in a renewed and binding pledge to reduce emissions under the Kyoto treaty, Climate Change Minister Greg Combet said today before leaving later this month for negotiations in Doha, Qatar. Australia is also prepared to raise its 2020 target for cutting emissions from 5 percent to as much as 15 percent or 25 should other countries take similar steps, Combet said today at the Carbon Expo in Melbourne. More important than extending Kyoto is reaching a new climate agreement...

URL: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-08/australia-ready-to-join-europe-in-extended-kyoto-climate-pledge.html

Australia to sign up for Kyoto 2 Protocol

Agence France-Presse: Key greenhouse gas emitter Australia on Friday said it will sign up for a second round of the Kyoto Protocol environmental protection treaty, but New Zealand opted out. Climate Minister Greg Combet made the announcement in a speech to a carbon expo, saying: "Australia is ready to join a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol." So far, only the European Union and several smaller economies have signalled a willingness to agree to a second round of pledges. Australia is among the world's...

URL: http://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/-/world/15339298/australia-to-sign-up-for-kyoto-2-protocol/

Obama's Climate Game Changer

Daily Beast: In President Obama's victory speech early Wednesday, he said one of his dreams is that the nation's children would live in an America "that isn't threatened by the destructive power of a warming planet." An issue that has been quieted in the last few months, and absent from the presidential debates, climate change is again creeping into Obama's rhetoric. But this time around, experts and environmental groups are wary of how to achieve a clean-energy future, and say the biggest chance of passing...

URL: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/11/09/is-washington-ready-to-act-on-climate-change.html

Passivhaus Practitioners Share Their Success Stories

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The Fall Symposium sponsored by Passive House New England included presentations from designers, builders, and homeowners

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A group of about 130 designers, builders, and Passivhaus fans gathered at U Mass Boston on October 27, 2012 to attend a one-day conference organized by 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. New England.

It's impossible for this report to be comprehensive, unfortunately, and I won't be able to do justice to all of the conference events. My report will focus on three speakers: Adam Cohen, Chris Corson, and Roger Normand. Among the presentations not reported on here:

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URL: http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/musings/passivhaus-practitioners-share-their-success-stories

Climate change 'likely to be more severe than some models predict'

Guardian: Climate change is likely to be more severe than some models have implied, according to a new study which ratchets up the possible temperature rises and subsequent climatic impacts. The analysis by the US National Centre for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) found that climate model projections showing a greater rise in global temperature were likely to be more accurate than those showing a smaller rise. This means not only a higher level of warming, but also that the resulting problems – including floods,...

URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/nov/08/climate-change-severe-models
Enclosure: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2012/11/8/1352396404736/A-satelllite-image-of-sup-008.jpg

Gale-force wind of change shoves climate on to Obama's agenda

New Zealand Herald: It's hard to know how much impact New York mayor Michael Bloomberg's comments about climate change after Hurricane Sandy had on the US election. It's easy to overestimate that sort of thing, but President Barack Obama's victory in several states was so razor-thin that Bloomberg's last-minute intervention may have been decisive. What's clear is Obama didn't want to talk about it during the campaign. Bloomberg, responding to the devastation he saw in New York City, laid it on the line. "Our climate...

URL: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10846063

The Last Drop? Climate Change May Raise Coffee Prices, Lower Quality

National Geographic: In a world that drinks 1.6 billion cups each day, the prospect probably gives a lot of us the jitters. But a new study led by London's Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, warns that, thanks to climate change, the most consumed coffee species, Arabica, could be extinct in the wild by 2080. Calm down; things aren't quite as black as you might think. The study is about wild coffee plants, while the stuff in our cups is brewed from their domesticated descendants. Still, wild losses leave cultivated crops...

URL: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/11/121108-climate-change-coffee-coffea-arabica-botanical-garden-science/
Enclosure: http://images.nationalgeographic.com/wpf/media-live/photos/000/610/overrides/arabica-coffee-plants-could-go-extinct_61031_600x450.jpg

After Sandy, Forget Climate-Change Bickering And Focus On Smart Rebuilding, Cuomo Says

NY Daily News: Gov. Cuomo said an initial price tag for last week's Superstorm Sandy is $50 billion for the region. New York's hit could be $33 billion for damages and economic loss, Cuomo said. "That is a staggering number especially in the financial situation that we've been in," he said. New York, he noted, was forced to close a $10 billion deficit after he took office and is facing another $1 billion deficit next year. Sandy could send next year's deficit higher. Cuomo has said he believes the feds...

URL: http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2012/11/superstorm-sandy-could-carry-33b-hit-to-new-york-gov-cuomo-says

Future warming likely to be on high side of climate projections, analysis finds

ScienceDaily: Climate model projections showing a greater rise in global temperature are likely to prove more accurate than those showing a lesser rise, according to a new analysis by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). The findings, published in this week's issue of Science, could provide a breakthrough in the longstanding quest to narrow the range of global warming expected in coming decades and beyond. NCAR scientists John Fasullo and Kevin Trenberth, who co-authored the study,...

URL: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121108142746.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29

Long-shot carbon tax suddenly part of fiscal cliff debate

Reuters: A potential tax on big polluters, a taboo subject in the United States in recent years, has come back into the spotlight as some sense potential for a revenue windfall at a time lawmakers look for ways to the so-called "fiscal cliff" of tax rises and spending cuts due in early 2013. The aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, which devastated parts of the U.S. East Coast last week, has raised fresh questions about the links between climate change and extreme weather events, which also makes the idea of...

URL: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/08/us-carbon-tax-fiscal-cliff-idUSBRE8A71IU20121108?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29

Former Md. gov.: Superstorm, derecho prompt resurgence of global climate change discussion

Associated Press: Superstorm Sandy and this summer's derecho that knocked out power to many Marylanders are prompting a resurgence in discussions about global climate change, former Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening said Thursday. The former Democratic governor and president of the Smart Growth Leadership Institute spoke at a workshop on sustainability and growth at the Patuxent National Wildlife Visitor's Center. Glendening described the storms as "very, very atypical,' adding they have brought the discussion...

URL: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/former-maryland-gov-parris-glendening-to-speak-on-sustainability-growth/2012/11/08/d792e76a-297c-11e2-aaa5-ac786110c486_story.html

Climate Change Back on Political Radar after Sandy, Election

National Geographic: In his re-election victory speech, President Barack Obama finally touched on a seldom-mentioned issue of the campaign--climate change: "We want our children to live in an America … that isn't threatened by the destructive power of a warming planet." Whether or not Hurricane Sandy can be attributed to climate change, the storm's devastating flooding brought the issue to the forefront of the country's consciousness. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg made the issue the centerpiece of his endorsement...

URL: http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2012/11/08/climate-change-back-on-political-radar-after-sandy-election/

Side-illuminated ultra-efficient solar cell designs developed

ScienceDaily: Researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) have developed a radically new design for a concentrator solar cell that, when irradiated from the side, generates solar conversion efficiencies that rival, and may eventually surpass, the most ultra-efficient photovoltaics. The new cell architecture developed at the David Ben-Gurion National Solar Research Center at BGU can exceed an ultra-efficient 40 percent conversion efficiency with intensities equal to 10,000 suns. "Typically a concentrator...

URL: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121108074016.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29

Maya civilization's collapse linked to climate change: study

Reuters: For a clue to the possible impact of climate change on modern society, a study suggests a look back at the end of classic Maya civilization, which disintegrated into famine, war and collapse as a long-term wet weather pattern shifted to drought. An international team of researchers compiled a detailed climate record that tracks 2,000 years of wet and dry weather in present-day Belize, where Maya cities developed from the year 300 to 1000. Using data locked in stalagmites - mineral deposits left...

URL: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/09/us-maya-climate-idUSBRE8A71DE20121109?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=20121109&t=2&i=672511834&w=&fh=&fw=&ll=700&pl=300&r=CBRE8A8088W00

Doha climate change meeting to address ‘crucial issues’

Gulf Times: Even as Qatar is getting ready to host Doha 2012 the United Nations' Climate Change Conference (COP18/CMP8) later this month, the French ambassador for Climate Change Negotiations Serge Lepeltier yesterday observed that the country will continue to play a leading role in building a bridge between developed and developing countries, including mooting timely solutions to the projected outcomes of climate change. Ambassador Lepeltier, who is in Doha ahead of the major UN event, told Gulf Times in an...

URL: http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=542509&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16

Northeast digs out from snow, gas rationing expands

Reuters: New York City and much of the U.S. Northeast dug out from a snowstorm that hammered a region struggling to recover from the devastation of Superstorm Sandy, as local governments expanded gasoline rationing in the face of shortages that may last weeks. The unseasonably early winter storm dumped more than a foot of snow on parts of Connecticut on Wednesday and battered the region with 50 mph winds, plunging 300,000 homes and businesses back into darkness. Rides aboard crowded trains were made more...

URL: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/09/us-storm-sandy-hurricane-idUSBRE89N16J20121109?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=20121109&t=2&i=672500665&w=&fh=&fw=&ll=700&pl=300&r=CBRE8A7148J00

Climate Predictions: Worst-Case May Be Most Accurate, Study Finds

National Geographic: In the wake of superstorm Sandy, climate change is on a lot of people's radar. By some accounts, warmer ocean temperatures intensified the hurricane as it plowed up the Gulf Stream, and rising seas may have exacerbated flooding. Now, a new climate-change study in the journal Science says warming is here to stay. And future warming will likely be on the high side of predictions, the researchers conclude. Atmospheric scientists John Fasullo and Kevin Trenberth studied global humidity patterns...

URL: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/11/121108-climate-change-clouds-science-model-relative-humidity/
Enclosure: http://images.nationalgeographic.com/wpf/media-live/photos/000/610/cache/climate-science-cloud-cover-warmer_61033_600x450.jpg

Sen. Majority Leader Reid: ‘Climate Change Is An Extremely Important Issue For Me, And I Hope We Can Address It’

ThinkProgress: We are seeing a unique confluence of events put a carbon tax squarely back into the national debate: the debt crisis and fiscal cliff, Hurricane Sandy, and the results of the 2012 election. Sen. Majority Leader Reid said Wednesday: "Climate change is an extremely important issue for me and I hope we can address it reasonably. It`s something, as we`ve seen with these storms that are overwhelming our country and the world, we need to do something about it." Back in August Reid spoke to Greenwire...

URL: http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/11/08/1162321/sen-majority-leader-reid-climate-change-is-an-extremely-important-issue-for-me-and-i-hope-we-can-address-it/?mobile=nc
Enclosure: http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Reid-300x162.jpg

BP to pay Alaska $255 million for 2006 pipeline spills, shutdown

Reuters: Alaska will collect $255 million related to BP Plc's pipeline leaks and a resulting shutdown in 2006 in the Prudhoe Bay oilfield, the state's Department of Law said on Thursday. BP said in a statement that its share of the award was $66 million. Its major partners in the Prudhoe Bay field include Exxon Mobil Corp and ConocoPhillips. The payment, which is final and not subject to appeal, includes a $245 million award from a panel of three arbitrators and $10 million to settle civil assessments...

URL: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/09/us-bp-alaskaspill-idUSBRE8A800M20121109?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=20121109&t=2&i=672474810&w=460&fh=&fw=&ll=&pl=&r=CBRE8A800OJ00

Chinese Premier calls for energy-saving revolution

BusinessGreen: China's outgoing Premier Hu Jintao has used his keynote speech at the Communist Party Congress to call for a fundamental shift in the way the nation uses resources and a "revolution" in energy efficiency. According to the Financial Times, Hu highlighted the environment as one of China's priorities, alongside the need for political reform, widespread economic growth, and efforts to tackle corruption. He said the world's largest emitter of CO2 and second biggest economy should sharply cut its...

URL: http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2223433/chinese-premier-calls-for-energysaving-revolution?WT.rss_f=Home&WT.rss_a=Chinese+Premier+calls+for+energy-saving+revolution

United Kingdom: Report: Carbon taxes should boost Green Deal

BusinessGreen: A large-scale rollout of energy saving measures paid for by carbon taxes could boost the UK's gross domestic product by 0.2 per cent and create 71,000 jobs by 2015, according to a new report which warns the government's current energy efficiency policies will fail to tackle fuel poverty. Research commissioned by Consumer Focus and backed by a coalition of organisations dubbed the Energy Bill Revolution will today argue that using revenues from carbon trading could cut fuel poverty by up to 87...

URL: http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2223522/report-carbon-taxes-should-boost-green-deal?WT.rss_f=Home&WT.rss_a=Report%3A+Carbon+taxes+should+boost+Green+Deal+

Research reveals why sea levels are rising faster than previously feared

Environmental News Network: Sea levels are rising faster than expected from global warming and new research is said to reveal the reasons why. The last official IPCC report in 2007 projected a global sea level rise between 0.2 and 0.5 meters by the year 2100. But current sea-level rise measurements meet or exceed the high end of that range and suggest a rise of one meter or more by the end of the century. University of Colorado geologist Bill Hay explained: "What's missing from the models used to forecast sea-level rise...

URL: http://www.enn.com/climate/article/45170?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ClimateChangeNews-Enn+%28Climate+Change+News+-+ENN%29

Developing nations 'need climate aid'

AAP: THE federal government must provide more funding for developing nations trying to cope with the impact of climate change, international aid organisations say. World Vision Australia has signed an open letter along with other non-government aid organisations, calling on the federal government to provide more money for climate change adaptation and mitigation in developing countries for 2013-2015. They say climate change is already having a significant impact on the communities they work with...

URL: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/breaking-news/developing-nations-need-climate-aid/story-e6freuz0-1226512649751

Controversial dam gets approval in Laos

Mongabay: Laos has given approval to the hugely-controversial $3.5 billion Xayaburi Dam on the Mekong River, reports the BBC. The massive dam, which would provide 95 percent of its energy production to Thailand, has been criticized for anticipated impacts on the river's fish populations, on which many locals depend. In late 2011, the four Mekong River nations-Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia-announced that the dam would not go ahead until more research was conducted to allay concerns. Friction over...

URL: http://news.mongabay.com/2012/1107-hance-laos-xayaburi-dam.html
Enclosure: http://travel.mongabay.com/thailand/600/thailand_0149.jpg

What Obama’s Re-Election Means for Coal, Climate Change and America’s Energy Future

EcoWatch: President Obama`s victory yesterday was a victory for clean energy, one that gives us a fighting chance to slash coal pollution and turn the corner on climate change, in the wake of a devastating hurricane that brought global warming into sharp, painful focus for millions of Americans. As the Sierra Club`s Michael Brune said on election night, "We did it." Fossil fuel billionaires had spent at record levels to defeat Obama in this election, and Romney had returned the favor, promising to open...

URL: http://ecowatch.org/2012/obamas-re-election-energy-future/
Enclosure: http://ecowatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/mtrrenew.jpg

China complains to World Trade Organization about EU solar subsidies

United Press International: China has filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization against photovoltaic solar subsidies in the European Union. The action on Monday represents the latest wrinkle in the trade row over solar products between the two economies as well as the United States. It follows Beijing's announcement last Thursday that it would begin an anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigation into imports from the European Union of solar-grade polysilicon, a key ingredient in solar cells. In September,...

URL: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Energy-Resources/2012/11/06/China-files-solar-WTO-complaint/UPI-29221352223030/

Ohio Voters Pass Two Community Bills of Rights Banning Fracking-Related Activity

EcoWatch: Yesterday, voters in Broadview Heights, Ohio came out in record numbers to say yes to the adoption of a Community Bill of Rights banning corporations from conducting new gas and oil drilling and related activities in their city. A similar Charter Amendment was also adopted by voters in Mansfield, Ohio by a wide margin of 62 percent yes votes to 37 percent no votes. It adds a Community Bill of Rights to the City Charter and prohibits injection wells without written city approval. The Broadview...

URL: http://ecowatch.org/2012/bills-of-rights-ban-fracking/
Enclosure: http://ecowatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/photo.jpg

Green Ballot Initiatives Rejected by Voters in California, Michigan

Yale Environment 360: Two closely watched state ballot initiatives endorsed by environmental groups went down to defeat on Tuesday, as voters in California rejected a proposal that would have required the labeling of all genetically modified crops and Michigan voters soundly defeated a measure that would have required stricter renewable standards on electric utilities. In California, Prop. 37 was backed by the organic food industry and consumer groups but faced rising opposition in recent weeks in the form of a $44 million...

URL: http://e360.yale.edu/digest/green_ballot_initiatives_rejected_by_voters_in_california_michigan/3687/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+YaleEnvironment360+%28Yale+Environment+360%29

Climate change warrior McKibben takes activism on the road

Seattle Times: He started as a writer trying to change the world, but became the country's most visible climate warrior. Now Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, the global climate-action movement seeking to reduce use of the oil, gas and coal that fuel global warming, is taking a rambunctious turn. McKibben kicked off a national campaign Wednesday night at Benaroya Hall that seeks to demonize the oil and coal industries, and those who profit from them. "We'll be spreading information about what a rogue...

URL: http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2019631654_mckibben08m.html

Obama finally talks climate change. But what will he do about it?

Washington Post: "We want our kids to grow up in an America... that isn`t threatened by the destructive power of a warming planet." That was the president in his acceptance speech Tuesday night. Now that Obama has won reelection, apparently, he feels free to talk about climate change -- a topic notably absent during the campaign. Now what does he actually plan to do about it? An Obama second term could have fairly significant implications for energy and climate policy. Many of the bigger initiatives from his first...

URL: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/11/07/obama-finally-talks-climate-change-but-what-will-he-do-about-it/
Enclosure: http://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_606w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2011/08/30/Local/Images/COAL205_1314741960.jpg

Climate Change Should Be Front and Center

New York Times: If nothing else, the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy, both fiscal and physical, should put the issue of climate change front and center for President Obama's second term. It's unfortunate that Democrats failed to pass cap-and-trade to limit carbon emissions when they had control of both chambers of Congress, as getting it through the House is going to be a tough challenge now. Despite past resistance to federal cap-and-trade proposals, this solution should stay on the table. It is my hope...

URL: http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/11/07/a-to-do-list-for-president-obamas-next-four-years/for-obamas-second-term-climate-change-should-be-front-and-center

Obama hints at new drive on climate change

Agence France-Presse: US President Barack Obama has hinted he will make another push to fight climate change after cruising to a new term, but his room for maneuver will be limited even with a new focus after megastorm Sandy. Obama, whose hopes for a law restricting carbon emissions blamed for rising temperatures died in the Senate during his first term, alluded to climate change at his victory rally after the issue's near absence during the campaign. "We want our children to live in an America that isn't burdened...

URL: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/obama-hints-drive-climate-change-233542698.html

Fears over carbon tax easing: Survey

Environment Health: Many Australian companies might moan about the carbon price but there's little sign the tax is prompting a noticeable shift in either their efforts to act to cut emissions or disclose to the public their efforts. Compilers of the annual Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) had expected the start of the carbon tax to spur an increased response from the top 200 companies on the ASX. Instead, just under half responded, which was little changed from a year earlier. The response rate to the seventh annual...

URL: http://www.smh.com.au/business/carbon-economy/fears-over-carbon-tax-easing-survey-20121107-28xdd.html

What is the Future of the Keystone XL Pipeline with Obama in the White House for Four More Years?

EcoWatch: Over the course of a two-week sit-in from Aug. 20 to Sept. 1, 2011, more than 1,200 people were arrested in front of the White House protesting the Keystone XL pipeline, a 1,700-mile-long pipeline that would carry oil from the tar sands in Alberta, Canada, to the U.S. Gulf Coast. Immediately after the U.S. election, Canadian Minister Joe Oliver said that he fully expected the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline to be approved by the reelected Obama administration. This is wishful thinking on the part...

URL: http://ecowatch.org/2012/future-keystone-xl-pipeline/

United Kingdom: It’s time to discuss the true cost of our energy choices

BusinessGreen: Recent Npower and British Gas announcements of yet another energy price hike this winter have sparked anger and concern among consumers. The cost to households (a nearly 20 per cent increase for some) has rapidly become a hot topic for the nation. Our political elite are worried. That much was clear when David Cameron spontaneously proclaimed to Parliament that his Government would compel energy companies to charge customers their lowest tariff. Politicians are right to be concerned about the...

URL: http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/opinion/2223331/it-s-time-to-discuss-the-true-cost-of-our-energy-choices?WT.rss_f=Home&WT.rss_a=It%E2%80%99s+time+to+discuss+the+true+cost+of+our+energy+choices

Protecting New York City from the next big storm

New Scientist: As the full extent of the devastation wreaked by superstorm Sandy sinks in, the question for the future is how to protect the New York metropolitan area when a similar disaster strikes again. Embryonic plans exist, both to erect massive flood barriers and for "soft" engineering schemes that would redesign waterfronts to incorporate wetlands, oyster beds and other natural features that could slow storm surges. The hope is that Sandy will provide the will – so far lacking– to turn these plans into...

URL: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn22470-protecting-new-york-city-from-the-next-big-storm.html

Environmental Groups, Cheered By Election Results, Demand Climate Change Action From Democrats

Huffington Post: Environmental leaders on Wednesday celebrated election victories of pro-environment candidates, victories they say show the public wants action on clean energy and climate change. "Big oil and other big polluters spent unprecedented big amounts of money to spread big lies and they lost big time," said Gene Karpinski, president of the League of Conservation Voters (LCV). "Across the country, clean energy champions were the big winners." LCV also spent its fair share of money in the 2012 cycle...

URL: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/07/environmental-groups-election-climate-change_n_2090018.html

Climate change threatens sweet smell of morning coffee

Reuters: LONDON (Reuters) - Rising temperatures due to climate change could mean wild arabica coffee is extinct in 70 years, posing a risk to the genetic sustainability of one of the world's basic commodities, scientists said. Although commercial coffee growers would still be able to cultivate crops in plantations designed with the right conditions, experts say the loss of wild arabica, which has greater genetic diversity, would make it harder for plantations to survive long-term and beat threats like...

URL: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/11/08/us-coffee-arabica-idUKBRE8A70DK20121108

Battered Vestas confirms 3,000 more job cuts

BusinessGreen: Wind turbine manufacturer Vestas has announced it is to cut another 3,000 jobs, after this week confirming that its order book is continuing to contract. The company revealed yesterday that the cost-reduction programme it announced earlier in the year is running ahead of schedule, and as a result it has decided to trim its staff by an additional 1,000 people, reducing its total headcount to around 18,000 by early 2013. It also confirmed that it now plans to reduce its total headcount by an...

URL: http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2223194/battered-vestas-confirms-3-000-more-job-cuts?WT.rss_f=Home&WT.rss_a=Battered+Vestas+confirms+3%2C000+more+job+cuts+

What do politics hold for climate change?

Minneapolis Star Tribune: When President Obama referred to "the destructive power of a warming planet" in his victory speech Tuesday night, the words caught Jonathan Foley by surprise. It wasn't because Foley, director of the University of Minnesota's Institute on the Environment, shares the view that Obama has shrunk from the issue of climate change during his first term. Rather, Foley said that Obama has made remarkable progress on climate change initiatives, but that with the economy under a brighter political spotlight,...

URL: http://www.startribune.com/politics/177790041.html

The Sun Rescues Rural Cameroonians from “Incessant Darkness”

Inter Press Service: In the small farming village of Sabongari, in Cameroon's North West Region, the need for kerosene to light bush lamps and petrol to run electric generators has been replaced by the need for something much cheaper and cleaner: sunshine. In an open corner in the village of about 2,000 people, large sunlight-capturing solar panels stand tilted towards the sun. They form the mini-solar power plant that supplies the electricity grid here in this village that is some 700 kilometres from the country's...

URL: http://www.ipsnews.net/2012/11/the-sun-rescues-rural-cameroonians-from-incessant-darkness/
Enclosure: http://ipsnews-net.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/Library/2012/11/Renwable-Energy-Innovators-REI-installing-a-salar-Home-System-629x436.jpg

Obama & Climate Change

Ecologist: Congratulations Dear Barack Obama! Your victory this time around is even more significant than the last. In 2008, many voters were voting against the Bush administration; this time people have voted for you. The tipping point arrived at the precise moment the East Coast of America was hit by Hurricane Sandy. At that moment, many Americans realised that Romney is a climate change denier whereas you and your party will take steps to address the issues of climate change more sincerely. As we know,...

URL: http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/1669939/obama_climate_change.html

After Hurricane Sandy, Debating Costly Sea Barriers in New York Area

New York Times: As the storm chugged toward the Eastern Seaboard at 3 p.m. on Oct. 27, an engineering crew in Stamford, Conn., was at the ready. It was time. With the click of a computer mouse, machinery on the seafloor groaned into action and a gate was slowly pulled from the deep, locking into place high above the surge from Long Island Sound. Two days later, when storm waters from Hurricane Sandy ripped through the East Coast, much of Stamford, a city of 124,000, sat securely behind a 17-foot-high barrier that...

URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/08/nyregion/after-hurricane-sandy-debating-costly-sea-barriers-in-new-york-area.html

'World's largest' fuel cell plant bags £5m EU grant

BusinessGreen: Plans to build the world's largest alkaline fuel cell system at a chemical plant in Essex have taken a major step forward after the EU awarded a EUR6m grant to project developer, AFC Energy. The company confirmed yesterday that it has received the grant, which will enable it to install a 1MWe fuel cell system to power ICL's chemocal plant in Grays, Essex. ICL's plant produces chlorine and caustic soda that can be used in detergents and water treatment. It also produces hydrogen as a by-product...

URL: http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2223015/worlds-largest-fuel-cell-plant-bags-gbp5m-eu-grant?WT.rss_f=Home&WT.rss_a=%27World%27s+largest%27+fuel+cell+plant+bags+%C2%A35m+EU+grant

Bolder Obama on Middle East, Climate in Second Term?

Inter Press Service: With President Barack Obama winning re-election, foreign policy analysts here are pondering whether his victory will translate into major changes from the rather cautious approach he followed overseas in his first term. For now, speculation is focused primarily on the Middle East, the region that has dominated the international agenda since 9/11, much to the frustration of those in the Obama administration who are hoping to accelerate Washington's "pivot" to the Asia/Pacific, especially in light...

URL: http://www.ipsnews.net/2012/11/bolder-obama-on-middle-east-climate-in-second-term/
Enclosure: http://ipsnews-net.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/Library/2012/11/obama_screen_640-629x419.jpg

Obama wins second term: Stormy days ahead for climate talks?

Times of India: Barack Obama's re-election could mean difficult days ahead for India on climate change since America is set to play a more pro-active role in pushing for a new global deal by 2015. Fears abound about dilution of the existing principles of the UN climate convention that firewall developing countries from more onerous obligations. During Obama1, he came to the 2009 — basking in the halo the Nobel — climate talks in Copenhagen negating Kyoto Protocol and voicing stronger opposition to differentiation...

URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/global-warming/Obama-wins-second-term-Stormy-days-ahead-for-climate-talks/articleshow/17137566.cms

Doha meeting ‘extremely significant’: UK minister

Gulf-Times: Greg Barker, the UK Minister of State for the Department of Energy and Climate Change Minister, has said that Qatar will have the perfect opportunity as host of COP18/CMP8 to demonstrate how Gulf nations will play a lead role in climate negotiations. Greg Barker said in a press statement on the sidelines of his current visit to Qatar: "Having just made my first visit to Doha, I am looking forward to returning in December to participate in the ministerial discussions at COP18. "It is clear that...

URL: http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=542370&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16

EU steps up solar power trade battle with China

Reuters: The European Union launched an investigation on Thursday into alleged state subsidies for Chinese solar panel manufacturers, intensifying a trade war between the two centered on the multi-billion dollar solar power market. The EU's executive body is already studying Chinese "dumping" of solar panels, or deliberately selling products for less abroad than at home or at less than cost. It is the largest import sector it has ever targeted for such investigation. The latest subsidy case followed...

URL: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/08/us-eu-china-solar-idUSBRE8A70AF20121108?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29

Slovaks in talks with Spain, Austria over Kyoto units

Reuters: Slovakia is close to a deal with Spain to sell 22 million tonnes of its surplus United Nations'-backed emissions credits which are allocated under the U.N.'s climate change pact the Kyoto Protocol, the environment ministry said on Wednesday. The euro zone country currently has 27 million tonnes of excess Kyoto credits, known as Assigned Amount Units (AAUs), Environment Minister Peter Ziga said after a government meeting. "We are also in talks with Austria," he said. Ziga said prices per...

URL: http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFE9E8HK01Q20121107

Australia's Biggest Carbon Developer to Start Trading EU Permits

Bloomberg: Climate Bridge, Australia's largest developer of emission credits under the Clean Development Mechanism, will start a trading business focused on permits from Europe and other international markets. The Melbourne-based company is one of the first 11 to get the Australian Financial Services License that will be required starting next year to offer clients trading or advice on emission permits. Climate Bridge's new business will help Australian customers execute spot trades as well as futures and...

URL: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-11-08/australia-s-biggest-carbon-developer-to-start-trading-eu-permits

United Nations hails western Kenya water project

Daily Nation: An innovative project expected to deliver safe drinking water annually to 4.5 million people in western Kenya has been listed amongst projects to be backed by the UN's Momentum for change initiative. The LifeStraw Carbon for Water in Kenya project was named alongside eight others by the UN climate change secretariat as part of 'lighthouse activities' in developing countries either helping to curb greenhouse gas emissions or assist people adapt to climate change. The nine activities will be...

URL: http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Western+Kenya+water+project+selected+for+Doha+conference/-/1056/1614652/-/ikdkc6/-/index.html
Enclosure: http://www.nation.co.ke/image/view/-/1614692/medRes/422424/-/maxw/600/-/dbcq0u/-/water.jpg

Obama breaks silence on climate change. Does this presage action in his second term?

Telegraph: It was one of the most unexpected lines in Barack Obama's barnstorming acceptance speech, and it got one of the biggest outbreaks of applause. After saying virtually nothing about climate change in many months, he declared: "We want our children to live in an America that isn't threatened by the destructive power of a warming planet". It may not have been much, but it broke a long silence – and one that contrasted with the last presidential campaign. Four years ago, both he and John McCain – who...

URL: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/geoffreylean/100188417/obama-breaks-silence-on-climate-change-does-this-presage-action-in-his-second-term/
Enclosure: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/files/2012/11/obama-speech1.jpg

Cost of deforestation in Kenya far exceeds gains from forestry and logging, UN joint study finds

UN: A landmark study of Kenya`s high-elevation forests shows that the economic cost of deforestation in the East African country exceeds national gains from forestry and logging by more than four-to-one, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said today. "Deforestation deprived Kenya`s economy of 5.8 billion shillings ($68 million) in 2010 and 6.6 billion shillings in 2009, far outstripping the roughly 1.3 billion shillings injected from forestry and logging each year," according to a UNEP...

URL: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=43417&Cr=deforestation&Cr1=#.UJsr90j99er
Enclosure: http://www.un.org/News/dh/photos/large/2012/November/11-05-2012logging.jpg