Yale Environment 360

Philippines Targets Major Investment in Geothermal Resources

2009-11-06T11:46:41-05:00

The Philippine government plans to approve 19 new contracts to develop the nation’s massive geothermal energy resources in the next five months. A top energy official said financial incentives for the development of renewable energy projects could attract more than $2.5 billion in private dollars from domestic and international companies. “Incentives for renewable projects are giving geothermal development a much needed boost,” Alejandro Oanes, the Phllippine Energy Department's division chief for geothermal energy, said. The Philippines is already the world’s second-largest producer of geothermal energy. In fact, for more than three decades the nation has tapped into its remarkable geothermal resources, which are the result of volcanic pressures caused by the movement of the Philippine tectonic plate beneath the Eurasian plate. With about 2,000 megawatts of installed capacity, geothermal energy accounted for 17 percent of the nation’s total power output in 2008. The 19 new projects could add another 620 megawatts of power.

Atlantic Fish Stocks Are Moving North as Ocean Warms, NOAA Finds

2009-11-05T12:46:54-05:00

About half of 36 fish stocks in the northwest Atlantic Ocean have shifted north over the last four decades as ocean temperatures have warmed, according to a new U.S. study. Comparing data for dozens of fish stock from 1968 to 2007 — and using ocean temperature records from the same period — researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) found that many species in the waters from Cape Hatteras, N.C., to the Canadian border have shifted northward or migrated farther offshore. Some species have nearly disappeared from U.S. waters altogether. “They all seem to be adapting to changing temperatures and finding places where their chances of survival as a population are greater,” said Janet Nye, a NOAA researcher and lead author of the study, which was published in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series. Researchers selected fish stocks that were consistently caught in greater numbers in NOAA's annual fish surveys and were considered important commercially or ecologically, including Atlantic cod and haddock, and yellowtail and winter flounder.

The Nitrogen Fix: Breaking a Costly Addiction

2009-11-05T08:49:24-05:00

Over the last century, the intensive use of chemical fertilizers has saturated the Earth’s soils, waters, and atmosphere with nitrogen. Now scientists are warning that we must move quickly to revolutionize agricultural systems and greatly reduce the amount of nitrogen we put into the planet's ecosystems. BY FRED PEARCE

Seismic Fissure in Ethiopia Evidence of Ocean in Making, Study Says

2009-11-04T12:29:39-05:00

A 35-mile seismic crack that formed over a few days in 2005 in the Ethiopian desert is evidence of a new ocean in the making, scientists report in a new study. The abrupt formation of the rift, which is 20 feet wide in places, is similar to the shifting that occurs on the ocean’s floor, according to the study in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. Using seismic data from the September, 2005 eruption of Dabbahu, a volcano located in Ethiopia’s remote Afar Region, scientists were able to reconstruct how, over just a few days, the fissure stretched 35 miles. The evidence, they say, suggests that volcanic boundaries near the edges of tectonic plates can experience massive, sudden splits and do not necessarily separate slowly during a series of

Anthony Philpotts

The Dabbahu Fissure

smaller events. “We know that seafloor ridges are created by a similar intrusion of magma into a rift,” said study co-author Cindy Ebinger, of the University of Rochester, “but we never knew that a huge length of the ridge could break open at once like this.” The African and Arabian plates, which meet in this remote area of Ethiopia, have been separating by less than an inch per year for 30 million years. Scientists believe the Red Sea will eventually pour into the new sea — perhaps in about a million years.

Interview: IPCC’s Pachauri Still Sees Hope for Copenhagen Talks

2009-11-04T09:42:41-05:00

Despite growing pessimism that a global climate treaty will be signed in Copenhagen next month, Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, believes a flurry of last-minute negotiations may lead to an agreement, although the U.S. may not initially be a part of it. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, Pachauri expresses disappointment that the U.S. has not yet committed itself to firm greenhouse gas reduction targets. During the Bush administration there was a “complete absence of responsibility” in tackling global warming, Pachauri

Rajendra Pachauri

says, and while the Obama administration is moving swiftly to make up lost ground, climate legislation remains bogged down in Congress. As a result, Pachauri contends, the world community may move ahead with a treaty without the U.S., creating a “small window of opportunity for the U.S. to take a little more time and come back and make its own commitments.”
Read the interview with Pachauri here

Amid Mounting Pessimism, A Voice of Hope for Copenhagen

2009-11-04T09:42:03-05:00

With skepticism growing about the chances of reaching a climate agreement next month in Copenhagen, Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, says he is “cautiously optimistic” that a treaty can still be signed. But in an interview with Yale Environment 360, Pachauri says the global community may have to move ahead without any commitment from the United States.

U.S. Comes Under Pressure in Final Session Before Copenhagen Summit

2009-11-03T11:55:05-05:00

With just a month remaining before the Copenhagen climate summit, delegates from 192 countries are meeting in Barcelona to attempt to lay the groundwork for a climate treaty, with some influential figures saying the U.S. must be prepared to make firm greenhouse gas reduction commitments if Copenhagen is to be a success. Connie Hedegaard, the Danish minister for climate and energy, who is hosting the Copenhagen meeting, said the U.S. had risen to global challenges throughout the 20th century, adding, “I believe they have to deliver on this challenge.” The Obama administration has declined to commit to a firm greenhouse gas reduction target, saying it cannot make a commitment until Congress — which is now considering major climate legislation — passes a bill. That stance does not sit well with many in the European Union, which has committed to reducing emissions 30 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, and 85 to 95 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. Yvo de Boer, the UN’s chief climate negotiator, said an enormous amount of work remained to be done before Copenhagen. “Do any of you believe it will be easier next year or the year after?” he asked the delegates. Read a full e360 report.

Glacial Ice on Kilimanjaro Melting at Increased Rate, Study Says

2009-11-03T11:22:24-05:00

Glacial ice atop Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania continues to melt at an accelerated rate, shrinking 26 percent since 2000, and about 85 percent since 1912, according to a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study’s lead author, Ohio State University glaciologist Lonnie G. Thompson, said melting of this level has not occurred on Kilimanjaro in 11,700 years. The study was based on aerial photographs and examination of long stakes of the ice core collected nine years ago. When those samples were extracted in 2000, Thompson found high volumes of bubbles in the upper regions — evidence that the ice had been melted and refrozen in recent years. There was no such evidence from deeper levels of the ice core. Georg Kaser, of Austria’s Institute for Geography of the University of Innsbruck, said the ice samples were only a few hundred years old, so no such conclusion could be reached. In fact, he said, the recent

Mount Kilimanjaro

melting is more likely the result of lower moisture levels than a warmer climate. But Thompson noted the Kilimanjaro melting seems to mirror trends elsewhere in the world, including rapid ice-field melting in South America, Indonesia and the Himalayas. “It’s when you put those together,” he said, “that the evidence becomes very compelling.”

Prospects Dim for Passage Of Climate Bill in U.S. Senate, Report Says

2009-11-02T12:50:24-05:00

Passage of climate change legislation in the U.S. Senate appears increasingly unlikely in the face of divisions among Democrats and stiff opposition by Republicans, the Washington Post reports. Top Democrats have been unable to enlist key Republican lawmakers to support the bill, which would create a cap-and-trade system and gradually cut the level of carbon emissions allowed. One of the key Republicans targeted to back the bill, Sen. George V. Voinovich, R-Ohio, has instead led the opposition, organizing a boycott of the bill’s markup at a hearing of the Environment and Public Works Committee last week. In recent days, Democrats have offered to include amendments to make the bill more palatable to lawmakers on the fence by accelerating the approval of new nuclear power plants. But even that may not be enough. A spokesman for Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, another lawmaker targeted by Democrats, said a “tepid nuclear title isn’t enough to get her to support a bad climate bill.” Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., said a compromise remained possible since Americans are not divided on party lines when it comes to climate change. “Is there bipartisanship in the country? I think clearly there is,” Udall said.

New European Satellite Will Monitor Fresh Water Globally

2009-11-02T10:18:43-05:00

The European Space Agency (ESA) has launched a 315 million Euro ($465 Million) satellite that will monitor soil moisture, plant growth, and the salt content of sea water, all of which will be useful in tracking environmental changes as the planet warms. The satellite, called SMOS — Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity — has the capacity to measure the water content of soil across the planet every three days to a depth of seven feet, enabling it not only to gauge surface water sources but also to monitor photosynthesis and plant growth. The data also will be valuable to scientists interested in forecasting drought and flood risk. The SMOS satellite also will measure the salt content of ocean waters, crucial information in not only tracking an increase in freshwater in oceans from melting glaciers and ice sheets, but also valuable in understanding global ocean circulation patterns, which are partially driven by water temperature and salinity. The satellite will collect the data using a variety of technologies, including microwave radiation.

Coping With Climate Change: Which Societies Will Do Best?

2009-11-02T08:44:58-05:00

As the world warms, how different societies fare in dealing with rising seas and changing weather patterns will have as much to do with political, social, and economic factors as with a changing climate. BY GAIA VINCE

Canadian Actions Preserve 20 Percent of Its Vast Boreal Forest

2009-10-30T12:13:29-05:00

With the addition of a new forest reserve in Manitoba, Canada has now set aside 250 million acres of its vast boreal forest as parks or preserves, prohibiting logging, mining or oil drilling in these areas. The protected areas, more than twice the size of California, represent roughly one-fifth of Canada’s 1.3 billion acres of boreal forests, which scientists say contain 22 percent of the stored carbon on the Earth’s land surface. Gary Doer, the outgoing premier of Manitoba, announced a $10 million fund that will support efforts by indigenous leaders to designate 10.8 million acres of boreal forest in eastern Manitoba as a Unesco world heritage site. Environmental leaders say that protecting the boreal, or

Wikimedia

Boreal forest

northern, forest is one of the best defenses against a warming climate. “There is so much carbon sequestered in it already that if it escaped it would pose a whole new, very grave threat,” said Steve Kallick, director of the Pew Environment Group’s International Boreal Conservation Campaign. The boreal forest, located primarily in Canada and Russia, consists of swamps, peatlands, and forests that are made up of five primary tree species — spruce, fir, pine, birch, and aspen.

Thick, Multi-Year Arctic Ice Has Effectively Disappeared, Scientist Says

2009-10-30T11:17:32-05:00

One of Canada’s top Arctic experts, recently returned from an expedition in the far north, has told the Canadian parliament that the Arctic’s thick, multi-year sea ice has largely vanished, removing the last barrier to ships navigating the polar region. David Barber, Canada’s Research Chair in Arctic System Science at the University of Manitoba, said his expedition aboard an icebreaker was looking for a huge pack of thick ice that has existed for tens of thousands of years in the Beaufort Sea. But that multi-year ice, often dozens of feet thick, has largely been replaced by one-year-old “rotten” ice less than 20 inches thick, which is not an impediment to navigation. “We are almost out of multi-year ice in the northern hemisphere,” Barber told Parliament. “I’ve never seen anything like this in my 30 years of working in the high Arctic... From a practical perspective, we almost have a seasonally ice-free Arctic now.” Barber’s icebreaker did find a 10-mile-wide floe of multi-year ice that was 20 to 26 feet thick, but he said the expedition watched as those floes began breaking apart after being hit large waves. In 2007, the extent of Arctic sea ice, most of it thin, was 40 percent below the long-term average.

Electronic Fisheries Monitoring Proves A Success in Danish Experiment

2009-10-29T11:39:12-05:00

By outfitting six Danish fishing boats with GPS systems, closed circuit television cameras, and sensors that can gauge the weight of catches, scientists in Denmark have discovered that they can accurately track which fish were caught, the size and location of the catch, and what species were thrown back in the sea as by-catch. In a year-long experiment that ended last month, Danish fisheries scientists said the new system gives “100

Click to enlarge

DTU Aqua

percent documentation of fishing activities.” The Danish system would be of little help in halting illegal fishing carried out by unregistered boats on the high seas. But Danish scientists said their electronic monitoring system could be extremely useful in tracking and regulating legal fisheries for such species as cod, sand eel, sprat, blue whiting, and Norway pout in territorial waters. A Danish fisheries manager said that “determination of where an when a fishing event takes place can be made with a high degree of accuracy.”

Solar Power Potential Is Huge in Developing Countries

2009-10-29T11:03:03-05:00

The developing world, where 44 percent of people lack access to electricity, could soon be one of the biggest markets for solar power, according to participants at the Solar Power International conference in California. To date, just 1 percent of solar panel production has been installed in poor nations in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, a situation that Michael Eckhart, president of the American Council on Renewable Energy, called “a scandal for our industry.” Eckhart and other experts said that in addition to finding financing to help low-income residents install solar panels, a major challenge is purchasing and replacing the batteries to store electricity at night and on cloudy days. Another significant hurdle is replacing the energy-wasting incandescent bulbs and old, inefficient appliances and computers often used by village households. One expert who has installed off-the-grid solar arrays in Africa and China said in regions where villagers use compact fluorescent bulbs and efficient appliances the cost of installing an adequate solar array and battery can be 75 percent cheaper.

In Japan’s Managed Landscape, a Struggle to Save the Bears

2009-10-29T08:45:08-05:00

Although it is a heavily urbanized nation, fully two-thirds of Japan remains woodlands. Yet many of the forests are timber plantations inhospitable to wildlife, especially black bears, which are struggling to survive in one of the most densely populated countries on Earth. BY WINIFRED BIRD

Swiss Zinc-Air Batteries Store Three Times the Energy of Lithium Ions

2009-10-28T11:17:09-05:00

A Swiss company has introduced a rechargeable zinc-air battery that has three times the storage of lithium ion batteries and costs only half as much. ReVolt plans to commercialize a small version of the battery for use in hearing aids by next year, and then continue introducing larger versions, including batteries for cellphones and electric bicycles — and, perhaps eventually, electric cars. The technology is based on a battery designed by the Norwegian research institute SINTEF. While the typical battery contains the reactants needed to generate electricity, zinc-air batteries utilize oxygen from the atmosphere, which makes them less volatile and allows for a larger storage capacity. Company officials say the new battery overcomes one of the critical drawbacks of typical zinc-air batteries — they tend to stop working after a few charges. ReVolt has developed techniques to reduce the damage to the electrodes that convert oxygen into the hydroxyl ions that oxidize the zinc. The prototype lasts for more than 100 recharge cycles, according to James McDougal, ReVolt’s CEO. He hopes to increase that to 300 to 500 cycles before the technology is ready to be used in cellphones and electric bicycles.

Surplus of Carbon Credits Threatens EU Emissions Trading Plan

2009-10-28T10:36:01-05:00

The European Union’s emissions trading scheme — which puts a price on carbon dioxide emissions with the aim of reducing greenhouse gas pollution — is threatened by a vast number of emissions credits earned by major industries and power plants in Russia, Ukraine, and Eastern Europe. Peter Zapfel, deputy director of the environment department at the European Commission, said that because of the Eastern European economic collapse of the 1990s and loopholes in the EU emissions trading scheme that began in 2005, Russian and Eastern European enterprises have racked up 10 billion emissions credits because they released fewer greenhouse gases than originally allocated under the Kyoto Protocol. As these enterprises begin selling these credits on the EU carbon market, the price of emissions allowances could plummet, thereby defeating the goal of slashing CO2 emissions by establishing a high price on carbon pollution. Zapfel called the surplus credits the “gorilla sitting in the background and nobody dares to touch it.” The price of EU carbon allowances has fallen from a peak of 30 Euros ($44) in 2006 to roughly 10 Euros ($15) this year. The EU’s emissions trading scheme, which covers more than 10,000 major carbon emitting power plants and factories, is designed to cut CO2 emissions by 21 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.

U.S. Awards $3.4 Billion to Create a "Smart" Electric Grid

2009-10-27T11:59:19-05:00

The Obama administration is awarding $3.4 billion in grants to modernize the national electric grid. One-hundred companies, utilities, manufacturers, and cities will receive the grants — ranging from $400,000 to $200 million — for projects that help build a “smart” grid that cuts energy costs, reduces blackouts, and has the capacity to deliver more wind and solar energy to American homes and businesses. Calling the nation’s grid system “dilapidated,” Carol Browner, the Obama administration’s top adviser on climate and energy issues, said federal funds would be used to expand the national grid and make it work more efficiently. Among the award recipients are Baltimore Gas and Electric Company, which will get $200 million to implement a “smart” meter network for its 1.1 million customers, enabling them to better manage energy use in their homes. The San Diego Gas and Electric Co. will get $28.1 million to install 1.4 million smart meters. The administration's announcement represents the biggest single-day award of funding from the $787 billion economic stimulus package.

Ocean Acidification’s Effects Documented in New Study of Shellfish

2009-10-27T11:22:55-05:00

Relatively small increases in ocean acidity significantly harm clams, bay scallops, and oysters, particularly in their crucial larval stage, according to a new study. Researchers at the State University of New York, Stony Brook, exposed shellfish to levels of acidity expected in Earth’s oceans later this century and next century, and found that modest increases in acidity led to a 50 percent decline in survival of clam and scallop larvae, reduced the size of the larvae, and caused the larvae to develop more

slowly. Oyster larvae also grew more slowly, but their survival was not affected until ocean acidity reached levels expected next century. The world’s oceans absorb about half of the 30 billion tons of carbon dioxide released annually by burning fossil fuels, and the increased carbon dioxide is rapidly making the oceans more acidic, inhibiting the ability of mollusks such as clams and scallops to make their calcium carbonate shells. The researchers said the detrimental impact of ocean acidity on shellfish larvae growth rates is particularly worrisome, as the larvae are free-swimming and exposed to predation. The group’s work is being published in the journal Limnology and Oceanography.

U.S. Agency Commits $151 Million to Innovative Energy Research Projects

2009-10-26T11:57:14-05:00

The U.S. Department of Energy will pump $151 million into 37 innovative energy-related research projects through a new federal agency modeled after the Defense Department program that helped commercialize microchips and the Internet. The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or Arpa-e, created in 2007 to support innovative and often-experimental projects, selected the first round of grant recipients from 3,600 proposals. While many of the ideas may never lead to practical breakthroughs, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said some could have a “transformative impact.” Among the first grant recipients are University of Minnesota researchers attempting to develop an organism that uses sunlight to convert carbon dioxide to sugars and diesel fuel; a Massachusetts Institute of Technology team developing an all-liquid metal battery that could better manage the output from intermittent energy sources such as wind and solar; and a United Technologies effort to capture carbon emissions from power plant stacks using enzymes. The agency — which will target research projects by small business, universities, and corporations — will be led by Arun Majumdar, a scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California.

Key Wolves in Yellowstone Killed Near Park by Hunters in Montana

2009-10-26T11:49:21-05:00

Hunters have killed some of Yellowstone National Park’s best-known alpha wolves, animals vital to studies conducted in the park since wolves were reintroduced there in 1995. Among those killed was an alpha female, known as wolf 527, who was born into Yellowstone’s Druid Peak pack, featured in a PBS

PBS

documentary entitled “In the Valley of the Wolves.” Before she, her mate — the pack’s alpha male — and her daughter were shot this month, wolf 527 was wearing a radio collar that enabled researchers to track and study her and her pack. Doug Smith, the biologist in charge of Yellowstone’s wolf reintroduction program, said the new pack wolf 527 helped form — the Cottonwood Pack — was a “key pack on the northern range” of the park, adding, “Whether the pack exists anymore or not, to us the pack is gone.” Wolf 527 was killed in a special hunt designed to cull Yellowstone wolves killing livestock and elk on the park’s northern boundary. Montana officials, surprised by the large number of Yellowstone wolves killed, called off the special hunt, even as an expanded wolf hunt begins in Montana this week. More than 1,600 wolves exist now in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, and state officials are allowing 75 to be killed this season in Montana and 220 in Idaho.

The Greenest Place in the U.S. May Not Be Where You Think

2009-10-26T08:34:23-05:00

Green rankings in the U.S. don’t tell the full story about the places where the human footprint is lightest. If you really want the best environmental model, you need to look at the nation’s biggest — and greenest — metropolis: New York City. BY DAVID OWEN

Fewer Americans Believe in Global Warming, New Poll Finds

2009-10-23T11:05:33-05:00

Fewer Americans say they see evidence of a warming world than a year ago, and a declining percentage say they view global warming as a “very serious problem,” according to a new survey published by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. The poll of 1,500 people, conducted from Sept. 30 to Oct. 4, found that only 57 percent think there is solid evidence that temperatures on Earth have increased in recent decades, compared with 71 percent in April, 2008. While 47 percent said last year that they believed temperature change is the result of human activities, only 36 percent said so this year. Yet despite the rising skepticism, 50 percent of the respondents support government limits on carbon emissions; 39 percent oppose such limits. Only 14 percent, however, say they know much about the proposed cap-and-trade mechanism that is favored by President Obama and is key to the climate legislation being debated in the Senate. While the rising skepticism is reflected across political party lines, it is most acute among independent voters. Only 53 percent of independent voters said they see solid evidence of global warming; about 75 percent said they saw that evidence last year.

Protected Polar Bear Habitat Proposed by U.S. Government in Alaska

2009-10-23T10:07:55-05:00

The U.S. Interior Department is proposing that more than 200,000 square miles of land, sea, and ice in Alaska and nearby waters be given special protection to help preserve 3,500 polar bears threatened by the rapid loss of Arctic sea ice. The Interior Department has proposed designating the vast area as “critical habitat,” which means that any government agency or company must show that activities such as oil drilling and shipping will not affect the bears’ habitat or accelerate the extinction of the species. In 2008, the Interior Department declared that polar bears were threatened with extinction. Shell Oil this week was given permission to drill in the proposed protected area, and conservation groups have

criticized the Interior Department for not banning all oil and gas activity in the protected zone. Meanwhile, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has released its annual “Arctic Report Card” saying there is mounting evidence of widespread warming in the Arctic, including a drastic reduction in thick, multi-year sea ice; record-setting heat in Greenland and other parts of the Arctic; an unprecedented amount of freshwater on the surface of the Atlantic from melting ice; and growing evidence that Arctic warming is altering weather patterns in the northern hemisphere.

Bark Beetle Infestation Spreads in Monarch Butterfly Reserve

2009-10-22T11:40:59-05:00

The world’s largest reserve for migrating Monarch butterflies, located in the Mexican highlands, is suffering from an infestation of bark beetles similar to outbreaks that have killed millions of acres of evergreens in the U.S. and Canada. In an effort to stem the spread of the infestation, Mexican officials

stock.xchang

Monarch butterfly

have cut down 9,000 fir trees and buried them or shipped them out of the reserve. So far, the infestation has affected only a small portion of the 33,000-acre core mountaintop wintering grounds, but the outbreaks are occurring in widespread patches, which could indicate a spread of the disease. Mexican officials say the beetles have always existed in the reserve, but that a recent drought has weakened the fir trees and made them more susceptible to the tiny pests, which destroy the bark and kill the firs. Similar bark beetle outbreaks in the U.S. and Canada have primarily been attributed to warmer temperatures, which do not kill off the beetles in winter. The fir trees in the monarch reserve, located 60 miles northwest of Mexico City, provide shelter to the butterflies in cool weather on their southerly migration.

Food Recycling Program A Major Success in San Francisco

2009-10-22T11:29:23-05:00

San Francisco’s new food recycling program — the first in the U.S. that requires all food waste from homes, apartments, businesses, and restaurants to be recycled and composted — has been enthusiastically embraced by city residents, officials say. Although the program was officially launched on Wednesday, city officials say residents have been recycling food for weeks and are already setting aside about half of the city’s 500 tons of daily food waste. The city requires residents and businesses to place food scraps in sealed buckets, and then collects the buckets and trucks them to San Francisco’s Organics Annex, where the food waste is composted. The compost is sold as fertilizer to area farms and vineyards. Seattle was the first U.S. city to require all households to recycle food waste, but San Francisco’s law covers businesses and apartments. Jared Blumenthal, the city’s environmental officer, said residents have strongly backed the food recycling plan because — overwhelmed by bad environmental news — this gives them something concrete to do. “This is not rocket science,” he said. “This is putting some food scraps into a different pile and turning them into compost.”

Genetically Modified Crops Needed to Avert Food Crisis, Panel Says

2009-10-21T11:58:24-05:00

Further development of genetically modified (GM) crops will be needed to feed the estimated 9 billion people who will live on the planet by mid-century, according to a report from the U.K.’s Royal Society. The report said that rising populations, the impacts of climate change, and projected water shortages mean that new, drought-resistant and highly productive food plants must be developed to feed the world. The report said other economic and technological changes — such as improved irrigation and crop management — also will be necessary. The Royal Society scientists concluded that the development of new crops is an urgent priority if global agriculture and land-use problems are to be solved. The scientists’ conclusions drew fire from opponents of GM crops, who contend that the technique is unsustainable and could cause major environmental harm.

Space Agencies and Google To Monitor Deforestation From Satellites

2009-10-21T11:22:04-05:00

Space agencies from Europe, the U.S., and several other nations are joining forces with Google Earth and a conservation organization to annually monitor deforestation rates around the globe using satellite imagery. The Group on Earth Observations (GEO), a global partnership of 80 governments and more than 50 organizations, is launching pilot projects in Australia, Brazil, Cameroon, Guyana, Indonesia, Mexico, and Tanzania to inventory forests and track rates of deforestation. Such annual monitoring — which until recently has been carried out every five years — will be instrumental in helping support programs in which governments, conservation groups, and investors pay to preserve tropical forests, GEO officials said. An international mechanism for preserving forests using carbon credits is expected to be approved at the Copenhagen climate conference in December. “The only way to measure forests efficiently is from space,” said Jose Achache, director of GEO. “Investors will want some sort of guarantee that... forests will remain there and remain in good condition.” Google Earth, which already is involved in using satellite technology to monitor deforestation, will participate in the GEO effort, Achache said.

Interview: Researching the Potential and the Pitfalls of Geoengineering

2009-10-21T08:39:24-05:00

Many scientists have shied away from the subject of geoengineering — the large-scale, deliberate manipulation of the Earth’s climate system — because they feel it is a wrongheaded and dangerous path to pursue. But climate scientist Ken Caldeira has not been so dismissive, in part because his climate modeling has demonstrated that some geoengineering schemes may indeed help reduce the risks of climate change. In fact, few scientists have thought harder about the moral, political, and environmental implications of geoengineering than Caldeira. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, Caldeira discusses the complexities

Ken Caldeira

of geoengineering and also talks about how he has recently become a focal point in the controversy surrounding the publication of Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner’s SuperFreakonomics, the follow-up to their previous best-seller, Freakonomics. A chapter of the book that deals with geoengineering circulated on the Internet prior to the book’s publication and has been widely criticized for its distortions and its cynical, contrarian perspective. Caldeira says the authors misrepresented both his position and mainstream climate science.
Click here to read the interview

Geoengineering the Planet: The Possibilities and the Pitfalls

2009-10-21T08:39:17-05:00

Interfering with the Earth’s climate system to counteract global warming is a controversial concept. But in an interview with Yale Environment 360, climate scientist Ken Caldeira talks about why he believes the world needs to better understand which geoengineering schemes might work and which are fantasy — or worse.

Copenhagen Talks Will Yield Framework But No Treaty, UN Official Says

2009-10-20T11:58:21-05:00

The U.N.'s top climate official predicts that the Copenhagen talks in December may yield a political framework for future greenhouse gas reductions, but will not produce an international treaty to replace the Kyoto protocol. In an interview with the Financial Times, Yvo de Boer, the head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, said there does not appear to be enough time to work out the details of a binding treaty that could be signed in Copenhagen. Rather, he said the conference needs to deliver an “overarching decision” that sets individual targets for industrialized countries, and determines what level of emissions reductions major developing countries are willing to make by 2020. Global leaders should also be ready to set a deadline for a treaty that works out those details. “If you look at the limited amount of time that remains to Copenhagen, we have to focus on what can realistically be done and how that can realistically be framed,” de Boer said. He also urged President Obama to attend the conference in Copenhagen, saying “we need a push at the highest possible political level” to reach a successful accord.

Fossil Fuel Burning in U.S. Estimated to Cause 20,000 Early Deaths

2009-10-20T11:56:38-05:00

A National Academy of Sciences report on the hidden costs of burning fossil fuels estimates that 20,000 people die prematurely each year in the U.S. because of pollution associated with burning coal and oil. The report, commissioned by Congress and entitled “Hidden Costs of Energy,” also said that electric cars that run on energy produced by coal-fired power plants are no cleaner than gasoline-burning cars and may cause even more environmental damage when factoring in the cost of producing the batteries in electric vehicles. The report also estimated that the environmental cost of biofuels made from corn is

slightly higher than burning gasoline alone. The study, which put a $120 billion annual price tag on the health damage caused by fossil fuel burning, did not factor in potential damages from global warming brought about by burning coal, oil, and natural gas. The report bolsters arguments that the costs to society from renewable sources of energy, such as solar and wind power, are considerably lower than combusting fossil fuels. But the report cautioned that until large amounts of electricity are generated from renewable sources, or utilities develop a way to capture and store CO2, electric cars offer little advantage over gasoline-powered vehicles.

The Economic Case for Slashing Carbon Emissions

2009-10-20T08:41:12-05:00

Amid a growing call for reducing atmospheric concentrations of CO2 to 350 parts per million, a group of economists maintains that striving to meet that target is a smart investment — and the best insurance policy humanity could buy. BY FRANK ACKERMAN

China Relocates 15,000 People After Lead Poisoning, But Plants Stay Open

2009-10-19T12:40:01-05:00

Chinese officials will move more than 15,000 people away from a lead smelting area in Henan province where more than 1,000 children tested positive for lead poisoning, but will allow the factories to continue operating. Several smelters and lead plants in Jiyuan — including China’s largest — were closed temporarily this summer when protests erupted after children living near similar Chinese smelters tested positive for cadmium and lead. The residents of 10 villages located near lead plants, including one owned by Yuguang Gold and Lead, will now be moved at a cost of 1 billion yuan, or about $150 million, according to Jiyuan's mayor. Once they are moved, the plant owner will rent their properties and plant trees to serve as a barrier to other villages. The local government just wants “to protect the plant, which pays a great deal of tax every year,” said Huang Zhengmin, whose 5-year-old grandson’s blood tests showed extremely high lead levels. “They don't care about the life and death of us ordinary people.” Lin Jingxing, of the Chinese Academy of Geological Science, said major studies of soil, water and wind patterns must be conducted before anyone can be sure just how far away from the plants would be safe. The lead industry has boomed across China after pollution concerns caused a collapse elsewhere in the world.

Buses Using Ultracapacitors
Will Be Put To The Test in Washington

2009-10-19T11:31:50-05:00

A U.S. company and its Chinese partner will test electric buses using ultracapacitors that would be chargeable at stops every few miles. The latest ultracapacitors store only 5 percent of the energy that

Sinautec Automobile Technologies

Recharging station

lithium-ion batteries can hold, making them impractical for passenger vehicles. But proponents say the fact that buses have to stop frequently — and at predictable locations — make them a more logical use of the technology. Virginia-based Sinautec Automobile Technologies and Shanghai Aowei Technology Development Company, a partnership that has run 17 similar runs outside Shanghai for the last three years, will test the technology this week at American University in Washington, D.C. Unlike traditional trolleys that stay connected to electric lines throughout their route, there is a collector on top of the Sinautec vehicle that would connect to a re-charging line at bus stops every two or three miles. Within three minutes, banks of ultracapacitors located beneath the seats of the bus would re-charge. Sinautec officials say that each bus requires one-tenth the energy cost of a typical diesel-fueled bus, which would save about $200,000 during the life of the vehicle.

MIT Team Develops Roof Tile That Changes Color as Temperatures Shift

2009-10-16T11:55:48-05:00

A group of recent Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduates has developed a roof tile that remains white in summer to reflect the sun’s energy then turns black in winter to absorb the sun’s rays and heat buildings. The so-called “thermeleon” (rhymes with chameleon) technology uses a common

MIT News

Color-changing tile

commercial polymer trapped between layers of plastic, including a black layer at the back. When the temperature drops, the white layer disappears, exposing the black layer. The MIT graduates say the tiles reflect about 80 percent of the sun’s heat when they are white, translating into a 20 percent savings in cooling costs. When the tiles turn dark, they absorb about 70 percent of solar energy. The MIT team, which last week won a $5,000 prize in the school’s “Making and Designing Materials Engineering Contest,” is now trying to commercialize a version of the tile that can withstand harsh winter conditions. They also are trying to develop a cheaper version of the technology that integrates the polymer solution into paint that could be brushed onto existing black tiles.

The Spread of New Diseases and the Climate Connection

2009-10-15T08:47:43-05:00

As humans increasingly encroach on forested lands and as temperatures rise, the transmission of disease from animals and insects to people is growing. Now a new field, known as “conservation medicine,” is exploring how ecosystem disturbance and changing interactions between wildlife and humans can lead to the spread of new pathogens. BY SONIA SHAH

Leveling Appalachia: The Legacy of Mountaintop Removal Mining

2009-10-14T08:35:50-05:00

A Blueprint for Restoring the World’s Oceans

2009-10-12T08:50:48-05:00

In her long career as an oceanographer, Sylvia Earle has witnessed the damage that humanity has done to the Earth’s oceans. But in an interview with Yale Environment 360, she says there's still time to pull the seas back from the brink.

Pulling CO2 from the Air: Promising Idea, Big Price Tag

2009-10-08T08:45:58-05:00

Of the various geoengineering schemes being proposed to cool an overheated planet, one approach — extracting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere using “artificial trees” — may have the most potential. But both questions and big hurdles remain before this emerging technology could be widely deployed. BY DAVID BIELLO

The Other Inconvenient Truth: The Crisis in Global Land Use

2009-10-05T08:42:12-05:00

As the international community focuses on climate change as the great challenge of our era, it is ignoring another looming problem — the global crisis in land use. With agricultural practices already causing massive ecological impact, the world must now find new ways to feed its burgeoning population and launch a "Greener" Revolution. BY JONATHAN FOLEY

A Timely Reminder of the Real Limits to Growth

2009-10-01T08:22:18-05:00

It has been more than 30 years since a groundbreaking book predicted that if growth continued unchecked, the Earth’s ecological systems would be overwhelmed within a century. The latest study from an international team of scientists should serve as an eleventh-hour warning that cannot be ignored. BY BILL MCKIBBEN

What Makes Europe Greener than the U.S.?

2009-09-28T08:29:51-05:00

The average American produces three times the amount of CO2 emissions as a person in France. A U.S. journalist now living in Europe explains how she learned to love her clothesline and sweating in summer. BY ELISABETH ROSENTHAL

Provocative New Study Warns of Crossing Planetary Boundaries

2009-09-23T01:00:07-05:00

The Earth has nine biophysical thresholds beyond which it cannot be pushed without disastrous consequences, the authors of a new paper in the journal Nature report. Ominously, these scientists say, we have already moved past three of these tipping points. BY CARL ZIMMER

Korea’s Four Rivers Project: Economic Boost or Boondoggle?

2009-09-21T08:46:42-05:00

The natural landscape of South Korea has been largely re-engineered, with nearly every river damned or forced into concrete channels. Now the government is reviving plans for a mammoth water project that would dredge and develop hundreds more miles of waterways and put added stress on the country's remaining wildlife. BY JAMES CARD

Why I Still Oppose
Genetically Modified Crops

2009-09-17T08:38:30-05:00

Introduced more than a decade ago, genetically modified crops are now planted on millions of acres throughout the world. But the fundamental questions about them remain — both about their safety and their long-term impact on global food security and the environment. BY VERLYN KLINKENBORG

Green Intelligence: Toward True Ecological Transparency

2009-09-15T08:37:45-05:00

Wal-Mart’s push to develop a sustainability index for the products it carries could prove to be a pivotal moment in the effort to make consumers aware of the environmental impacts of what they buy. BY DANIEL GOLEMAN

New York City Girds Itself for Heat and Rising Seas

2009-09-10T11:07:47-05:00

By the end of the century, New York’s climate could resemble that of present-day Raleigh, North Carolina and its harbor could easily rise by two feet or more. Faced with this prospect, the city is among the first urban centers to begin changing the way it builds its infrastructure — and the way it thinks about its future. BY BRUCE STUTZ

Pumping Up the Grid: Key Step to Green Energy

2009-09-08T08:31:29-05:00

The U.S can build all the wind turbines and solar arrays it wants, but until it does something about improving its outmoded electricity grid, renewable energy will never reach its potential. What we need is a new electricity transmission system, with the costs shared by all. BY MICHAEL NOBLE

Reconnecting with Nature Through Green Architecture

2009-09-03T08:34:50-05:00

Stephen Kellert, a social ecologist, is a passionate advocate for the need to incorporate aspects of the natural world into our built environment. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, he explains what we can learn from cathedrals, why flowers in a hospital can heal, and how green design can boost a business’s bottom line. BY RICHARD CONNIFF

Solar Power from Space: Moving Beyond Science Fiction

2009-08-31T08:39:06-05:00

For more than 40 years, scientists have dreamed of collecting the sun’s energy in space and beaming it back to Earth. Now, a host of technological advances, coupled with interest from the U.S. military, may be bringing that vision close to reality. BY MICHAEL D. LEMONICK

The Growing Specter of Africa Without Wildlife

2009-08-27T08:32:21-05:00

Recent studies show that wildlife in some African nations is declining even in national parks, as poaching increases and human settlements hem in habitat. With the continent expected to add more than a billion people by 2050, do these trends portend an Africa devoid of wild animals? BY RICHARD CONNIFF

A ‘Dow Jones’ for Climate: The Case for a Warming Index

2009-08-24T08:36:53-05:00

If a cap-and-trade bill passes Congress this year, it may include weak emissions targets and will likely need to be strengthened in the years to come. One way to guide future policy: create a Global Climate Change Index that could be used to track global warming’s impacts. BY DANIEL R. ABBASI

Finding Common Ground on Protecting Montana Wilderness

2009-08-20T08:37:41-05:00

In the Yaak Valley of Montana, environmentalists have been talking to loggers, snowmobilers and other longtime opponents of wilderness protection about the future of public lands. Their accord is part of a cooperative effort that could lead to the first wilderness-area designation in the state in a quarter century. BY RICK BASS

The Great Paradox of China: Green Energy and Black Skies

2009-08-17T08:28:47-05:00

China is on its way to becoming the world’s largest producer of renewable energy, yet it remains one of the most polluted countries on earth. A year after the Beijing Olympics, economic and political forces are combining to make China simultaneously a leader in alternative energy – and in dirty water and air. BY CHRISTINA LARSON

Obama’s Science Adviser Urges Leadership on Climate

2009-08-13T08:27:56-05:00

John Holdren, the president’s top science adviser, is playing a key role in shaping the Obama administration’s strategy to combat global warming. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, Holdren discusses the prospects for achieving key breakthroughs on climate change, both in Congress and at upcoming talks in Copenhagen. BY ELIZABETH KOLBERT

Controlling the Ranching Boom that Threatens the Amazon

2009-08-10T08:23:48-05:00

Clearing land for cattle is responsible for 80 percent of rainforest loss in the Brazilian Amazon. But with Amazon ranching now a multi-billion dollar business, corporate buyers of beef and leather, including Wal-Mart, are starting to demand that the destruction of the forest be halted. BY RHETT BUTLER

First Comes Global Warming, Then an Evolutionary Explosion

2009-08-03T08:08:36-05:00

In a matter of years or decades, researchers believe, animals and plants already are adapting to life in a warmer world. Some species will be unable to change quickly enough and will go extinct, but others will evolve, as natural selection enables them to carry on in an altered environment. BY CARL ZIMMER