Climate news

  • Countdown to Copenhagen!
    As you probably know, the United Nations Climate Change Conference will be held in Copenhagen this December. This conference will attempt to create a new global climate change treaty as a follow up to the Kyoto Protocol which will be expiring in 2012. If you, like us, are excited about the outcome of this conference, check out this 'countdown to Copenhagen clock' that you can insert on your website.
    http://unfccc.int/home/items/4688.php
  • Aviation group seeks carbon dioxide deal

    LONDON (MarketWatch) -- A group of four airlines is seeking inclusion in the next U.N. deal to restrict emissions of carbon dioxide.

    The group consists of British Airways (UK:BAY: news , chart , profile ) , Cathay Pacific, Air France/KLM (FR:AF: news , chart , profile ) , Virgin Atlantic, and airport operator BAA as well as The Climate Group, a non-governmental organization.

    The aviation industry accounts for roughly 2% of the carbon dioxide emissions generated by humans, according to U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

    http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Aviation-tries-come-CO2-cold/story.aspx?guid={83CAC55F-1807-401B-A3B1-3C59E0BCE2E0}
  • Aviation – The need for green sky thinking

    Source: International Air Travel Association (IATA), UN International Panel on Climate Change

    Ethical Corporation, 9 March 2009 - Airlines are responding to the need to cut their carbon footprint. But so far the industry has lacked the big breakthrough idea to achieve the emissions reductions required.

    On 30 January, a small piece of aviation history took place. A 747 took off from Tokyo's international airport and, an hour later, landed safely on the same strip of tarmac.

    http://www.wbcsd.org/plugins/DocSearch/details.asp?type=DocDet&ObjectId=MzM2MTc
  • VANOC releases carbon offset target for 2010 Winter Games

    By Jeff Lee, Vancouver Sun-March 30, 2009

    VANCOUVER - The Vancouver Organizing Committee has set a target to neutralize 300,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions generated from the 2010 Winter Games.

    In an announcement at the 8th World Conference on sport and the environment, Vanoc said it "is in advanced sponsorship negotiations" with carbon offset companies to "create a unique 2010 carbon offset portfolio that will showcase climate change solutions. "

    http://www.vancouversun.com/Technology/VANOC+releases+carbon+offset+target+2010+Winter+Games/1444622/story.html
  • VANOC releases carbon offset target for 2010 Winter Games; negotiations ongoing with potential partners in carbon offset field

    VANCOUVER, March 30 /CNW/ - On the occasion of the World Conference on Sport and the Environment starting today in Vancouver, British Columbia, the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) announced a target to neutralize up to 300,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions from the Games. To meet this target, VANOC is in advanced sponsorship negotiations with carbon offset management companies to create a unique 2010 carbon offset portfolio that will showcase climate change solutions.

    http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/March2009/30/c5440.html
  • 'Environmentalists' are abandoning science' - Fights against new hydro and wind plants set back the fight against climate change

    By Andrew Weaver, Special to the Vancouver Sun - March 24, 2009

    There are many depressing things about being a climate scientist these days. The emerging data is going from bad to worse and the political leadership is still acting as if we have all the time in the world to deal with global warming. But what I find in some ways even more depressing is the fact even some environmental groups have chosen to abandon science and campaign against clean energy and climate policies.

    http://www.vancouversun.com/Technology/Environmentalists+abandoning+science/1421670/story.html
  • EPA Proposes First National Reporting on Greenhouse Gas Emissions

    Washington, D.C. – March 10, 2009

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today proposed the first comprehensive national system for reporting emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases produced by major sources in the United States.

    http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/6424ac1caa800aab85257359003f5337/4bd0e6c514ec1075852575750053e7c0!OpenDocument
  • Chase terrorists the green way: 24 TV series going carbon neutral

    Jordan Lite, Scientific American - March 3, 2009

    Actor Kiefer Sutherland is fighting imaginary terrorists the green way. Producers of 24, the FOX drama that chronicles Sutherland's Agent Jack Bauer as he races to capture crooks over a nail-biting 24-hour period, are buying carbon offsets to compensate for the global warming emissions they're releasing with every car crash and explosion.

    http://www.sciam.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=chase-terrorists-the-green-way-24-t-2009-03-02
  • Antarctic glaciers slipping swiftly seaward: study

    ELIANE ENGELER The Associated Press February 25, 2009

    Geneva — Antarctic glaciers are melting faster across a much wider area than previously thought, scientists said Wednesday — a development that could lead to an unprecedented rise in sea levels.

    A report by thousands of scientists for the 2007-2008 International Polar Year concluded that the western part of the continent is warming up, not just the Antarctic Peninsula.

  • The tropics on fire: scientist's grim vision of global warming

    Ian Sample, The Guardian, 16 February 2009

    Tropical forests may dry out and become vulnerable to devastating wildfires as global warming accelerates over the coming decades, a senior scientist has warned.

    Soaring greenhouse gas emissions, driven by a surge in coal use in countries such as China and India, are threatening temperature rises that will turn damp and humid forests into parched tinderboxes, said Dr Chris Field, co-chair of the UN's Nobel prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/feb/16/chris-field-wildfires-tropical-forests