NewsTrust - Global Warming - Most Recent Stories: News (Independent)

Scientists: Biofuel Laws May Harm Environment

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

wbur.org - By Richard Harris - Oct. 23 (News Report) - One key part of the climate bill has to do with fuels made from green plants. These can reduce the use of fossil fuels, and they also are a big draw for farm-state votes. But scientists writing in the current issue of Science magazine point out a huge error in existing biofuel laws that could actually make climate change worse. They say these rules inadvertently encourage deforestation, which in turn contributes to global warming.

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Lindsey Graham: Not a Nuclear Wussypants

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Kate Sheppard - Oct. 16 (News Report) - When Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) called for legislation last week to cap carbon emissions, he revived hopes that a cap-and-trade measure could pass the Senate this year. (He also got branded a "wussypants" by tea party protesters for his trouble.) But

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Red Snow Warning

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Tomdispatch.com - By Chip Ward, - Sep. 14 (Special Report) - Pink snow is turning red in Colorado. Here on the Great American Desert -- specifically Utah's slickrock portion of it where I live -- hot 'n' dry means dust. When frequent high winds sweep across our increasingly arid landscape, redrock powder is lifted up and carried hundreds of miles eastward until it settles on the broad shoulders of Colorado's majestic mountains, giving the snowpack there a pink hue.

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There Are More Slaves Today Than at Any Time in Human History

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Terrence McNally - Aug. 25 (Special Report) - One hundred forty-three years after passage of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and 60 years after Article 4 of the U.N.'s Universal Declaration of Human Rights banned slavery and the slave trade worldwide, there are more slaves than at any time in human history -- 27 million. Today’s slavery focuses on big profits and cheap lives. It is not about owning people like before, but about using them as completely disposable tools for making money.

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Fiji Water: Spin the Bottle

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Anna Lenzer - Aug. 23 (Special Report) - THE INTERNET CAFé in the Fijian capital, Suva, was usually open all night long. Dimly lit, with rows of sleek, modern terminals, the place was packed at all hours with teenage boys playing boisterous rounds of video games. But one day soon after I

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Warning green fears could make farming more industrialised

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

nzherald.co.nz - By Geoff Cumming - Aug. 09 (News Report) - Images of carefree cows roaming free, chewing grass or silage year round (well, almost), used to be the green selling point of New Zealand's dairy industry. Not for us those "factory farms" of the Northern Hemisphere where the poor cows are consigned to sheds and fed grain for long periods.

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Climate change ranked as a threat to U.S. security

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Pioneer Press - By John M. Broder - Aug. 09 (News Report) - The changing global climate will pose profound strategic challenges to the United States in coming decades, raising the prospect of military intervention to deal with the effects of violent storms, drought, mass migration and pandemics, military and intelligence analysts say.

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Knowing How to Pick a Fight

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Seed - By Steve Olson - Aug. 04 (Special Report) - For decades, right-wing commentators have heaped abuse on Paul Ehrlich. He has been derided as a “stupendously bad prophet” by the Wall Street Journal, “always wrong” by Investor’s Business Daily, a “doom-monger” by the Hoover Institution. When I repeat some of these characterizations to Ehrlich over lunch at a Palo Alto cafe, he laughs. “I don’t give a shit what people like Ann Coulter think of me,” he says. The opinions that he cares about are those of his fellow scientists, and they are, fortunately, far less caustic. “They might say, ‘Ehrlich is more pessimistic than I would be,’ or ‘Ehrlich has not valued the green revolution as much as I would have,’” he says. “But I don’t think I’ve seen a single scientific review of something I’ve written that says, ‘This is wrong.’”

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Of Two Minds About Cap and Trade

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

American Spectator - By Paul Chesser - Aug. 03 (News Report) - Is hyper-bipolar a word? If so, it would aptly describe the global warming policy views of Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, who this year also has additional roles as chairman of both ...

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Forged letters to congressman anger local groups

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Charlottesville Daily Progress - By Brian McNeill - Jul. 31 (News Report) - As U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello was considering how to vote on an important piece of climate change legislation in June, the freshman congressman’s office received at least six letters from two Charlottesville-based minority organizations voicing opposition to the measure.The letters, as it turns out, were forgeries.

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Forged letters to congressman anger local groups

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

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POWER POLITICS: Is the proposed clean energy agency a dirty deal for taxpayers and the environment?

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

southernstudies.org - By Sue Sturgis - Jul. 27 (News Analysis) - U.S. lawmakers are considering legislation that would create a new independent federal agency to promote government investment in clean energy. But watchdogs are raising questions about whether the way the proposed agency is structured is unfair to taxpayers and bad for the environment. Among their concerns are its bias toward nuclear power -- a critical issue for the South, which is at the center of the nuclear industry's planned revival.

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Multiplying like bunnies? Not this jackrabbit - Environment -

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Associated Press - By Susan Montoya Bryan - Jul. 22 (News Report) - ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico - Rabbits are certainly known for their propensity for multiplying, but one species of jackrabbit is having trouble keeping up. There are an estimated 150 white-sided jackrabbits left in the United States, and federal wildlife officials announced Wednesday they will study the elusive rabbit to determine if it needs to be protected under the Endangered Species Act.

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Climate Bill Would Prohibit Clean Air Act Regulation

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

ombwatch.org - Jul. 11 (News) - The historic Waxman-Markey climate change bill passed by the House last Friday includes a provision that would strip the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. The bill has received a lot of attention, but this issue (found in Title III, Subtitle C) has flown under the radar. In an apparent attempt to avoid conflict with the cap-and-trade program lawmakers hope to put in place, the bill would not allow EPA to set and enforce greenhouse gas emissions limits in the way it does for other pollutants like smog and soot.

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G8 Risks Derailing Global Progress on Poverty | OneWorld.net (U.S.)

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

OneWorld - Jul. 09 (News Analysis) - Unless immediate action is taken, climate change could reverse 50 years of progress in the fight against global poverty, warns a humanitarian group calling on G8 leaders to prioritize climate change at their first in a series of meetings today.

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Northwest's biofuel boom goes bust ?

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

OregonLive.com - By Scott Learn, The Oregonian - Jun. 07 (News Report) - The biofuel downturn has been a national phenomenon, Van't Hof noted. Oregon's plants are likely to be restructured under Chapter 11 proceedings or sold, not shuttered. And the federal plans for more biofuel use in coming years leave Oregon in a good position to capitalize as the industry grows, he said.

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Apeldoorn Sets High Energy Self-Sufficiency Goals

Wed, 27 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Grégoire Allix - May. 27 (News Report) - Out of the question to give up, in spite of the problems: "In 2020, all energy consumed in Apeldoorn will have to be renewable, without fossil fuels, without nuclear power, and produced in our own city." With graphs for support, Michael Boddeke, the official in charge of sustainable development for this city that looks like a blossoming village at the center of the Netherlands, is optimistic: solar, wind, and biogas from organic waste and wastewater should suffice to warm and light this town of 156,000 residents. On one condition: "Reduction of buildings' - both old and new - energy consumption by half."

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Barack Obama's Key Climate Bill Hit by $45 Million PR Campaign

Tue, 12 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Suzanne Goldenberg - May. 12 (News Report) - America's oil, gas and coal industry has increased its lobbying budget by 50%, with key players spending $44.5m in the first three months of this year in an intense effort to cut off support for Barack Obama's plan to build a clean energy economy. The spoiler campaign runs to hundreds of millions of dollars and involves industry front groups, lobbying firms, television, print and radio advertising, and donations to pivotal members of Congress.

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Coal Supply May Be Vastly Overestimated

Mon, 11 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

dsc.discovery.com - By Michael Reilly - May. 11 (News Report) - Common knowledge about coal is that major producing nations like China, the United States and Australia, have enough to last hundreds of years, far beyond the reach of oil, which may already be in its twilight years. But worldwide coal production could plateau as early as 2025, according to one new estimate, and a growing group of scientists are concerned that fossil fuel supplies may begin dwindling by mid-century.

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Jetting Their Way to a Better Understanding of Global Warming: Scientific American

Mon, 04 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

scientificamerican.com - By Douglas Fischer - May. 04 (Investigative Report) - Scientists have taken the first crack at solving a fundamental climate mystery, criss-crossing the globe in a souped-up corporate jet to determine where and when greenhouse gases enter and leave the atmosphere. An understanding of how these climate-warming gases move about the globe is a critical prerequisite for any policy aimed at curbing global warming, scientists said Thursday, and information gained over the next three years will play a crucial role in sharpening future predictions and improving their accuracy.

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Charcoal plan for carbon storage under fire

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

scidev.net - By Imelda V. Abano - Apr. 08 (News Report) - Biochar, at its most ambitious, involves recruiting vast amounts of biomass — for example, from dedicated plantations — and converting the carbon captured in the plant matter into charcoal. The charcoal is then ploughed into soils where it is hoped it will remain forever, improving soil fertility in the process.

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Washington Post reporters call out George Will for lying in Washington Post

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Grist - By David Roberts - Apr. 07 (News Analysis) - What jumped out at me is this bit, toward the bottom of the piece: The new evidence—including satellite data showing that the average multiyear wintertime sea ice cover in the Arctic in 2005 and 2006 was nine feet thick, a significant decline from the 1980s—contradicts data cited in widely circulated reports by Washington Post columnist George F. Will that sea ice in the Arctic has not significantly declined since 1979. [my emphasis] I can’t think of another instance when a news story at a newspaper explicitly called out an op-ed writer in the same paper for lying, by name. It’s pretty extraordinary.

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Ice Bridge Ruptures In Antarctic (VIDEO)

Sun, 05 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - Apr. 05 (News Report) - An ice bridge linking a shelf of ice the size of Jamaica to two islands in Antarctica has snapped. Scientists say the collapse could mean the Wilkins Ice Shelf is of the brink of breaking away, and provides further evidence or rapid change in the region.

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Cato’s skeptic ads draw a flurry of responses

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Grist - By Jonathan Hiskes - Apr. 02 (News Analysis) - Reactions were swift and pointed. One of the clearest critiques comes from Politifact, a watchdog project of the St. Petersburg Times: RealClimate takes a thorough look at the research papers cited in the ad’s footnotes. It finds none of the papers actually support the statements attributed to them: Joe Romm continues along the same lines. The New York Times’ Andy Revkin corresponds with a Cato spokesperson about collecting signees for the ad, concluding:

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family planning surge could make population difference

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

peopleandplanet.net - By Jeremy Hamand - Mar. 30 (Special Report) - Food, energy and water shortages will get worse in the near future, unless a major boost is given to family planning programmes and rich countries cut back on their energy and food consumption, delegates to a conference in London on 26 March were told.

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