NewsTrust - Environment - Most Recent Stories: News (Mainstream)

Whatever happened to carbon capture?

Sat, 12 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

BBC News - By Richard Black - May. 12 (News Report) - The process was patented back in the 1930s, and it is reckoned to be one of the most important technologies we have for tackling greenhouse gas emissions. So you might well ask: "Whatever happened to carbon capture and storage (CCS)?" The International Energy Agency (IEA) forecasts global energy demand increasing by at least one-third by 2035. The majority of that increase will come from burning fossil fuels; and without capturing and storing some of the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions that result, this implies a significant addition to global warming.

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Thousands Rejoice As Japan Shuts Off Nuclear Power

Sat, 05 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

NPR - May. 05 (News) - Japanese marched to celebrate the switching off of the last of their nation's 50 nuclear reactors Saturday, waving banners shaped as giant fish that have become a potent anti-nuclear symbol. Japan will be without electricity from nuclear power for the first time in four decades.

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Earth faces a century of disasters, report warns

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By John Vidal - Apr. 26 (News Report) - Economic and environmental catastrophes unavoidable unless rich countries cut consumption and global population stabilises World population needs to be stabilised quickly and high consumption in rich countries rapidly reduced to avoid "a downward spiral of economic and environmental ills", warns a major report from the Royal Society . Contraception must be offered to all women who want it and consumption cut to reduce inequality, says the study published on Thursday, which was chaired by Nobel prize-winning biologist Sir John Sulston . The assessment of humanity's prospects in the next 100 years, which has taken 21 months to complete, argues strongly that to achieve long and healthy lives for all 9 billion people expected to be living in 2050, the twin issues of population and consumption must pushed to the top of political and economic agendas. Both issues have been largely ignored by politicians and played down by environment and development groups for 20 years, the report says. "The ...

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Carbon capture 'needs certainty'

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

BBC News - Apr. 19 (News Report) - Capturing and burying the greenhouse gas CO2 from power stations is viable - but long-term government support will be needed, a report says.

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Winds of change brewing

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Sydney Morning Herald - By Jo Chandler - Mar. 31 (News Report) - Beddington argues, pragmatically, that while much is uncertain about the longer-term, the challenges of the next 20 years are clear: population growth (another billion people by 2025); urbanisation; and climate change as a consequence of the greenhouse

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Hanford contractors admit big safety problems remain

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Times - Mar. 23 (News Report) - Hanford nuclear-reservation contractors acknowledge they still haven't resolved major safety problems and technical issues with a half-built, $12.2 billion plant to dispose of millions of gallons of radioactive waste.

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Increasing pressure to harvest small fish worries scientists

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Times - By Craig Welch - Mar. 16 (Special Report) - Ocean scientists worry that pressure to harvest small schooling fish such as herring, smelt and sardines could have serious consequences for other sea life.

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Shell oil rig set for landmark Alaska journey

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Los Angeles Times - By Kim Murphy - Mar. 04 (News Report) - Amid the tangle of towering steel, heavy cranes and overcast skies of Seattle's busy commercial shipyards, Shell Oil's massive Kulluk drilling rig is preparing to push off for the Arctic Ocean.

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Ocean researchers dive deeper into Puget Sound's acidification

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Seattle Times - By Craig Welch - Feb. 28 (Special Report) - Scientists long have predicted climate change eventually would make waters more corrosive as oceans take up carbon dioxide. The oceans typically measure a slightly alkaline 8.1 on the pH scale that separates an acid from a base. But in 2007 and 2008, researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration discovered surface-chemistry changes off the West Coast already were happening. In 2010, they found the pH of some Puget Sound waters already was an astonishingly low 7.7. For most of the past few years, those studying how the changes may harm marine life have made astounding discoveries.

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Mutated Trout Raise New Concerns Near Mine Sites

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 05:19:03 -0800

New York Times - By By LESLIE KAUFMAN - Feb. 23 (News Report) - Selenium, a metal byproduct of mining that is known to be toxic to wildlife, is under review by federal agencies who are re-evaluating safe levels in area creeks.

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News Analysis: Climate Scientists Hampered in Study of 2011 Extremes

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By By JUSTIN GILLIS - Dec. 24 (Special Report) - Facing political hostility and lacking adequate financing, scientists are struggling to report on the causes of a concentrated span of extreme weather in the United States.

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EPA issues strong limits on mercury emissions from smokestacks

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Los Angeles Times - By Neela Banerjee - Dec. 21 (News Report) - The Obama administration on Wednesday announced a tough new rule to limit emissions of mercury, arsenic and other toxic substances from sources such as power plants, a landmark measure that could prevent up to 11,000 premature deaths annually, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

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Brazil’s forest policy could undermine its climate goals

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By Juan Forero, Juliet Eilperin - Dec. 18 (Special Report) - .. various loopholes, environmentalists warn, would permit farmers in some states to reduce the amount of land covered by trees.

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Warming Arctic Permafrost Fuels Climate Change Worries

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Justin Gillis - Dec. 16 (Research) - .. the gases from permafrost could eventually equal 35 percent of today's annual human emissions.

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U.N. Climate Talks End With Deal for New Emissions Treaty

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By John M. Broder - Dec. 11 (News Report) - More than 190 nations agreed to work toward a treaty that would require all countries to reduce emissions that contribute to global warming.

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Are America’s subways and roads overpriced?

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By Brad Plumer - Dec. 07 (News Report) - Why do transportation projects cost so much in the United States?

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Planet Likely to Become Increasingly Hostile to Agriculture

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Scientific American - By Douglas Fischer - Dec. 07 (News Report) - YTo get a glimpse of the future, look to East Africa today. The Horn of Africa is in the midst of its worst drought in 60 years: Crop failures have left up to 10 million at risk of famine; social order has broken down in Somalia, with thousands of refugees streaming into Kenya; British Aid alone is feeding 2.4 million people across the region. That's a taste of what's to come, say scientists mapping the impact of a warming planet on agriculture and civilization.

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Record Jump in Carbon Emissions in 2010, Study Finds - New York Times

Sun, 04 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Justin Gillis - Dec. 04 (News Report) - Telegraph.co.uk Record Jump in Carbon Emissions in 2010, Study Finds New York Times Global emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel burning jumped by the largest amount on record last year, upending the notion that the brief decline during the recession might persist through the recovery. ...Global industry CO2 output rising even in weak economy

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Canada kept detection of salmon virus secret

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Seattle Times - By Craig Welch - Nov. 30 (News Report) - A decade before this fall's salmon-virus scare, a Canadian government researcher said she found a similar virus in more than 100 wild fish from Alaska to Vancouver Island. But Canadian officials never told the public or scientists in the United States about those tests.

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Is the end of the world really nigh?

Sun, 20 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Alok Jha - Nov. 20 (Special Report) - All too real are the human-caused threats born of climate change, excess pollution, depletion of natural resources and the madness of nuclear weapons. We tinker with our genes and atoms at our own peril. Nanotechnology, synthetic biology and genetic modification offer much potential in giving us better food to eat, safer drugs and a cleaner world, but they could also go wrong if misapplied or if we charge on without due care.

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Behind Shift on Smog and Re-election Calculus

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By John M. Broder - Nov. 16 (News Report) - Re-election strategy is tied to a shift on smog

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Energy Costs to Rise 'Viciously' Without Atomic Power, IEA Says

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 15:55:55 -0800

Bloomberg - By Lananh Nguyen - Nov. 09 (Special Report) - Energy will become "viciously more expensive" and polluting if governments don't promote renewable and nuclear power in the next two decades instead of burning coal, the International Energy Agency said. Global demand for energy is set to increase 40 percent by 2035, the Paris-based agency said today in its annual World Energy Outlook report. Consumption will rise 1.3 percent a year to 16.96 billion metric tons of oil equivalent in 2035, spurred by China and other emerging economies, the IEA said. The worst atomic accident in 25 years at the Fukushima plant in Japan on March 11 led Germany, Europe's biggest economy, to close eight of its 17 reactors permanently. Nuclear plants generate power continuously while emitting virtually no greenhouse gases. Without nuclear, keeping world temperature gains at 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) will cost an extra $1.5 trillion through 2035, the IEA said. "If we do not have an international legally binding agreement soon, and if it doesn't give a boost to a major investment wave of clean energy technologies by 2017, the door to 2 degrees will be closed forever," Fatih Birol, the IEA's chief economist in Paris, said in an interview yesterday. A shift away from nuclear power "would definitely be bad news for energy security, for climate change and also for the economics of the electricity price."

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Anxiety up as more salmon virus found in B.C.

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Seattle Times - By Craig Welch - Nov. 07 (News Report) - Three weeks after a potentially deadly virus was found for the first time in two juvenile wild sockeye on the Pacific Coast, it has been found again — this time in other wild salmon from British Columbia's Fraser River. And while that's caused anxiety among researchers and salmon growers, it's too soon to say whether it signals a fish crisis.

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Xenon detected at Fukushima plant

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0700

BBC News - By Roland Buerk - Nov. 02 (News Report) - A radioactive gas has been detected at Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, the facility's operator says. Tepco said xenon had been found in reactor two, which was previously thought to be near a stable shutdown. There has been no increase in temperature or pressure, but the discovery may indicate a problem with the reactor. Boric acid - used to suppress nuclear reactions - has been injected as a precaution. Ever since the meltdowns in March triggered by the huge earthquake and tsunami, engineers have been working to bring the Fukushima reactors under control.

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Obama allies’ interests collide over Keystone pipeline

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Juliet Eilperin, Steven Mufson - Oct. 17 (News Report) - Several key union allies and the Canadian Government are pitted against environmental and youth activists ..

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