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Archive for November 26th, 2012
Could marine cloud machines cool the planet?
Posted by Mongabay: Laura Poppick on November 26th, 2012
Mongabay: In 1990, British cloud physicist John Latham published a paper arguing he could cool global climate by brightening clouds over the ocean. Most colleagues ignored the paper, titled “Control global warming?”--probably because this thing called global warming was not yet a hot topic.
Now, more than two decades later, Latham continues to develop what has become one of the most promising and controversial ideas in climate control. “Marine cloud brightening” might sound benign, but hairs rise when it’s...
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Could rebuilding global fisheries save hundreds of billions of dollars?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 26th, 2012
Mongabay: Global fisheries are gutting the world economy by US$13 billion annually, according to an economic analysis published July 13 in the journal PLoS ONE. National subsidies that encourage overfishing cause the most losses, the analysis claims. However, researchers believe that allowing fish stocks to rebuild and making fishing more efficient could reverse these losses, leading to net gains of US$600 to US$1,400 billion within 50 years.
Such savings won’t come cheaply, the analysis suggests. Rebuilding...
Canada, the surprise ‘pariah’ of the Kyoto protocol
Posted by Guardian: Isabeau Doucet on November 26th, 2012
Guardian: Of all the delegations in the room in Doha, the Canadians adopt the lowest profile. Some question whether they should be there at all: The country's first and only Green party MP, Elizabeth May, said: "Having Canada in the room negotiating to weaken the second Kyoto, when we have already signalled that not only will we not be participating in taking on new targets in the second period but we're legally withdrawn from the protocol, should make us pariahs."
"I can't imagine how anybody would want...
The Toxic Legacy of Depleted Uranium Weapons
Posted by EcoWatch: Paul E McGinniss on November 26th, 2012
EcoWatch: We all should be aware of the dangers posed by the world`s stockpile of nuclear weapons. The eight countries known to possess nuclear weapons have 10,000 plus nuclear warheads. And, especially post-Fukushima, we now understand firsthand the potential danger of nuclear power plants, many which are aging and highly vulnerable to natural disasters. As of August 2012, 30 countries are operating 435 nuclear reactors for electricity generation. Sixty-six new nuclear plants are under construction in 14...
Fracking on College Campuses Increases Nationwide
Posted by EcoWatch: Steve Horn, DeSmogBlog on November 26th, 2012
EcoWatch: The oil and gas industry plans to frack on college campuses in Pennsylvania, just as it currently does in close proximity to K-12 schools nationwide.
But as National Public Radio (NPR) demonstrated in a recent report, that`s just the tip of the iceberg.
"More than a dozen schools in states as varied as Texas, Montana, Ohio and West Virginia are already tapping natural resources on college campuses," the report explains. "The University of Southern Indiana recently started pumping oil."
Like...
Will Washington’s Super Green Governor Take Up the Fight Against Coal Exports?
Posted by Inside Climate News: None Given on November 26th, 2012
Inside Climate News: Washington State will have perhaps the nation's greenest governor when Jay Inslee, an early visionary of America's clean energy economy [3], takes the helm in January. Inslee, a congressman since 1999, was pushing for policies to spur investment in solar panels, wind turbines and electric car batteries long before it was mainstream. Now, he will take office as one of the most controversial battles over the nation's energy and environmental future is raging in his backyard—whether to make the Pacific...
Famine the final wake-up call on global warming
Posted by Canberra Times: None Given on November 26th, 2012
Canberra Times: It may already be too late to head off major famines in the mid-part of this century. That's one of the clear implications of the latest PricewaterhouseCoopers review of the world's carbon economy, Too Late for Two Degrees? Two degrees of global warming may not sound much to most people, but combined with extreme weather events it is the point at which the world's food supply, and grain production in particular, begins to face serious jeopardy. And if grain runs short, the first thing to go is meat....
Why aren’t we talking about meat and climate change?
Posted by The Conversation: None Given on November 26th, 2012
The Conversation: Reducing your carbon footprint by eating less red meat rarely gets attention. This strategy has been recommended by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, epidemiologists writing in The Lancet and a host of other highly-regarded researchers and organisations. But it appears we don’t want to be put off our food by acknowledging the implications of our Western diet. Our own Australian Bureau of Statistics does not seem to deem food consumption analysis as a priority – the most recent ABS apparent...
Ocean clouds obscure warming’s fate, create ‘fundamental problem’ for models
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on November 26th, 2012
Greenwire: Aboard a cargo ship steaming from Los Angeles to Honolulu, his radars spinning 70 feet above a dark sea, Ernie Lewis filled another latex balloon with a whoosh of helium and let it fly.
The balloon rose 15 miles, swelling in thin air, a fat white disc disappearing against the Milky Way. And then, as always, it popped.
An atmospheric scientist at Brookhaven National Lab, Lewis had joined the Spirit early in October for its regular shipment of 900 food-stuffed containers to Hawaii. And he had...
With Ban on Fracking, Colorado Town Lands in Thick of Dispute
Posted by New York Times: Jack Healy on November 26th, 2012
New York Times: This old farming town near the base of the Rocky Mountains has long been considered a conservative next-door neighbor to the ultraliberal college town of Boulder, a place bisected by the railroad and where middle-class families found a living at the vegetable cannery, sugar mill and Butterball turkey plant. But this month, Longmont became the first town in Colorado to outlaw hydraulic fracturing, the oil-drilling practice commonly known as fracking. The ban has propelled Longmont to the fiercely...