Make The World Better

Carbon Market Insights Americas 2008 Conference November 12 - 13 in Washington, DC

2008-10-30T00:18:00.001-07:00

WASHINGTON, Oct 29, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- As a member of the media, we would like to invite you to attend the Carbon Market Insights Americas 2008 conference in Washington, DC on November 12 - 13 hosted by Point Carbon and the Pew Center on Global Climate Change. Taking place in the heart of political decision making in the week following the presidential elections, the two-day event will involve key decision makers in the forthcoming US Administration and Congress and provide participants with a fresh analysis on climate policy and carbon markets in North America. Speakers, panels and workshops will delve into how federal policy changes will affect RGGI and other regional cap-and-trade schemes in North America, the wider global carbon markets and emissions trading around the world.

UK Climate Change Bill set to become law

2008-10-30T00:13:00.001-07:00

The UK Climate Change Bill passed another hurdle last night as MPs voted by a massive majority of 460 to back the amended bill. The legislation now passes to the House of Lords for approval, and is expected to become law before the end of the year.

The bill includes the UK government’s commitment to reduce carbon emissions by 80% by 2050 and will see the inclusion of shipping and aviation emissions in the targets once a suitable method for measuring international emissions has been determined.

Climate change wrecking Walden’s flowers

2008-10-29T23:49:00.000-07:00

Some 27 percent of the flowers around Walden Pond in Concord, Mass. have vanished since the mid 19th century, and another 36 percent are on the brink of disappearing.

We know this because we have meticulous records of Walden’s plant species and birds, taken by none other than Henry David Thoreau. On nearly every spring morning from 1851 to 1858, the transcendentalist writer explored the woods around the pond, noting the first seasonal blooms of 465 species of flowers.

Since then, other naturalists have revisited the area to maintain and expand on Thoreau’s record. Their collective efforts have formed a detailed, long-term study on how the timing of biological events for a given area has changed over the past century and a half.

The changes are striking. Writing in the journal of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science about their own five-year survey of Walden, Boston University scientists have observed that species are now flowering an average of seven days earlier than in Thoreau’s time. Some are flowering three weeks earlier. But many aren’t adjusting at all.

When species that depend on each other are unable to shift simultaneously, the whole system gets thrown out of whack. Insects arrive earlier, but starve because the plants they depend on for food have not bloomed yet. Migratory birds arrive to find that the insects that they depend on have starved. And those plants whose flowering time is unaffected by temperature – in Walden they are asters, buttercups, dogwoods, lilies, orchids, roses, saxifrages, and violets, to name a few – do not get pollinated by the insects and birds.

“Climate change is throwing off the synchronicity of nature,” one of the authors told the Boston Globe. Since Thoreau’s day, Walden’s average annual temperature has increased by 4.3 degrees, partly because of the growth of heat-absorbing roads, parking lots, and buildings in the area, but also because of global warming.

The authors found that flowers that can adapt to the temperature by blooming early are flourishing, while those that adhere to a more rigid schedule are dying out.

“For the first time, it shows that climate change is not impacting these plants in a uniform or random way,” evolutionary biologist Charles Davis, one of the study’s authors, told Discovery Magazine. “It is major branches in the tree of life that are being lost. It happens to be the most charismatic plants – groups that we all know and love: the dogwoods, the orchids, members of the lily family, members of the rose family.”

Few areas have been studied more closely over such a long time than Walden, particularly in North America. Wired’s Alexis Madrigal notes that, in Europe, weather services monitor things like first blooms and other seasonal changes of living things, but that American weather services do not. But some biologists are hoping to improve Americans’ phenological knowledge. Project BudBurst has enlisted thousands of backyard Thoreaus to record when plants in their gardens bloom and add it to an ever growing database. Madrigal writes:

Their data could not only benefit scientists of the present and future, but could aid in providing Americans with direct evidence of climate change, helping to create the political will necessary to address the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions.

I’m skeptical that adding flowering times to the already existing mountains of evidence will convince the roughly half of the US population that does not accept the scientific basis of global warming to change their beliefs. As Thoreau himself wrote in “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”:

You can hardly convince a man of an error in a lifetime, but must content yourself with the reflection that the progress of science is slow. If he is not convinced, his grandchildren may be.

But let’s hope that, for once, the gentle Concord poet was wrong. Waiting for two generations hence to solve the climate crisis will doom more than just Walden’s flowers.

Prince Charles, Aso agree to cooperate in fighting climate change

2008-10-29T23:44:00.000-07:00

TOKYO (AFP) — Britain's Prince Charles and Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso agreed here Wednesday that their countries should cooperate in fighting climate change, Japanese officials said.

Charles stressed the importance of forest conservation in stopping global warming during a 40-minute meeting with the prime minister at a hotel here, the officials said.

"We wish to join Britain in exercising leadership in the field of climate change," Aso was quoted as telling the heir to the British throne, who has long championed environmental causes.

The meeting was also attended by Charles' wife Camilla and Aso's wife Chikako.

The prince is in Japan to celebrate the 150th anniversary of a treaty of amity and commerce between the two countries.

Earlier in the day, the royal couple were greeted by hundreds of people waving Japanese and British flags when they visited the ancient capital city of Nara in the west.

They offered incense before the Great Buddha, a giant bronze statue, at the eighth century Todai-ji temple, and signed their names on traditional ceramic plates at a local craft centre.

The prince last visited Japan in 1990 with his late wife Princess Diana for the enthronement of Emperor Akihito. Camilla, the duchess of Cornwall, is on her first official trip to Japan.

They are scheduled to visit Nagano, the host city of the 1998 Winter Olympics, on Thursday.
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Global warming link to jellyfish blooms

2008-10-08T01:34:00.001-07:00

KUANTAN: The presence of a large number of jellyfish along the coastal areas here could be an indication of global warming.

Universiti Malaya scientist Dr Mohammed Rizman Idid said environmental changes caused by global warming had compounded the problem and made it more difficult to handle jellyfish blooms.

Many jellyfish species were capable of congregating in huge swarms, which consisted of hundreds or even thousands of individuals, said Rizman.

"It is a complex process and is dependent on various factors, including the concentration of nutrients, water temperature and oxygen content."

In a more serious scenario, he said, jellyfish would mass breed during blooms and could cause serious ecological problems.

It was impossible to determine the exact time when jellyfish outbreaks, or blooms, occurred but they often seemed to occur during the dry season when the sea water was warmer, said Rizman.

Dozens of people have been stung by jellyfish at popular beaches here over the past few days.

A local fisherman Jamaludin Abdul, 38, said he had spotted large swarms of jellyfish in the waters around here over the past two months.

He said some of the jellyfish had moved closer to the beaches.

Rizman said another concern was the possible spread of invasive foreign species which could be more dangerous than local jellyfish species.

"In Europe, they have found many invasive species and similar cases could also happen here."

Globalisation, he said, had made it easier for foreign species to breed in Malaysian waters.

He said ballast water in the hulls of seagoing ships was the best medium for such species to be transported unintentionally to foreign regions.

"Just imagine what will happen if a deadlier jellyfish from Australia invades our waters.

"It will definitely affect our tourism and fishery industries."

Rizman said information on the matter was scarce and he would begin a comprehensive study on jellyfish distribution soon.

"We need to know the number of species that are around and their distribution to enable us to manage the population and anticipate the next round of blooms."

Since many jellyfish species look similar to each other, Rizman said he would be using techniques of molecular genetics to tell them apart.

Despite their venomous reputation, jellyfish are an important source of income for fishermen and the main source of food for turtles.

Every year, 14 per cent of the jellyfish consumed in Japan is exported from Malaysia.

"We need to have a holistic approach to tackle this problem.

"It will take years of research before we can understand the real cause for the jellyfish blooms."

Rizman said the problem of jellyfish blooms would be discussed at the South China Sea International Conference, organised by the Universiti Malaya Institute of Ocean and Earth Science, next month.

"It's a serious problem that affects the whole region. Therefore, we must cooperate to tackle it."

Rizman also shared a simple first-aid technique to deal with jellyfish stings, which was to pour vinegar on the affected area.

However, victims should still seek treatment at the nearest clinic as it was crucial that they were given antivenin injections.

Rizman was awarded a government grant to carry out research on jellyfish.

The two-year project began this year.

Solving Global Warming Gets Debaters Going

2008-10-08T01:31:00.001-07:00

Just when I thought we would not get much on renewable energy in tonight’s presidential debate from Belmont University in Nashville, a question from the crowd has started the conversation in earnest. A lady asked if the candidates would take the same quick call-to-action approach to solve the looming global warming crisis as we saw in the recent financial crisis.

Republican Sen. John McCain says he supports the development of cleaner-burning vehicles, such as hydrogen-powered cars as part of the solution to solve the climate crisis.

Democrat Sen. Barack Obama says this country has the potential to create five million green jobs in the near future, if we development the alternative energy sources available. He compares what renewable energy could do for the economy with what the computer did for it. Obama reiterates his commitment to solar, wind, geothermal and nuclear power as well.

Obama has taken a direct shot at McCain’s renewable energy record by pointing out that McCain has voted against alternative fuels 23 times. McCain countered that some of those included votes against big tax breaks for Big Oil.

Both men have touched on the issue of a resurgent Russia, fueled by petro dollars… which comes back to the issue of how they are going to make that a non-issue by freeing us from foreign oil.

That’s it for the night. We’ll get together again in about a week when the third and final presidential debate comes on.

Salmon industry prepares for climate change

2008-10-06T03:01:00.000-07:00

Tasmania's salmon industry says it is already preparing for climate change.

It's responded to a report by the CSIRO detailing the devastating effects it believes climate change will bring to Australia's commercial fishing and aquaculture industries.

Scientists predict the Tasmanian salmon, rock lobster and abalone industries will be among the hardest hit by the warming of waters in southern Australia.

In Queensland and the Northern Territory barramundi, prawn and mudcrab fisheries will be affected by changing rainfall patterns.

The Federal Climate Change Minister Penny Wong says Australia's fisheries industries need to get ready.

"We have to avoid as much climate change as we are able, by avoiding emissions," she said.

"The second thing we have to do is to adapt to the climate change we can't avoid and this report is a contribution to these industries to enable some of the thinking about that adaptation to occur."

Senator Wong says the report points out some effects which are already evident.

"I hope that industry will look at this and start to consider what sorts of plans, what sorts of expertise they may need to put in place in the coming years," she said.

Tasmania's salmon industry is worth $270million a year and employs around 1,000 people.

Pheroze Jungalwalla from the Tasmanian Salmonid Growers says steps are being taken to safeguard against rising sea temperatures.

"In some parts of warm years it gets too warm for the fish which means they become uncomfortable, which means that they eat less, they can in fact succumb to more diseases, they can become more stressed," Mr Jungalwalla said.

"There are several avenues we are exploring, for instance we've got a very selective breeding program. One of the aims of this program is indeed to breed fish, salmon, which are more resistant to high temperatures."

The report also points out that despite the negative effects of climate change, there are potential gains for smart businesses.

Aussies 'losing interest' in climate

2008-10-06T02:36:00.000-07:00

Australians are getting bored with climate change, and many still doubt whether it is actually happening, says a new survey.

Only 46 per cent of Australians said they would take action on climate change if they were in charge of making decisions for Australia, a dip from 55 per cent last year, according to the Ipsos-Eureka Social Research Institute's third annual climate change survey.

And almost one in 10 Australians (nine per cent) strongly agreed with the statement "I have serious doubts about whether climate change is occurring". A further 23 per cent agreed to some extent.

Ipsos-Eureka director of Sustainable Communities and Environment Unit Jasmine Hoye believes Australians are becoming more concerned with other environmental issues that they can have more direct control over.

"We believe the public is currently overwhelmed by other, more pressing environmental issues - namely water and river health - and sees climate change as something that is largely out of their control," she said.

"However, there is a desire among many Australians to know how they can personally make a difference regarding climate change."

Aside from river and water health, other environmental issues of most concern to Australians included illegal waste dumping, renewable energy, litter, smoky vehicles and packaging.

But there were no real standout actions being taken by Australians to personally reduce their greenhouse emissions, said Ms Hoye.

"Ipsos research has shown that recycling is a fairly generic activity that people tend to say they are doing to help the environment, and it is also something that many Australians were already doing before climate change came along," she said.

"Thus, one could be justified in thinking this is a fairly glib response.

"What really strikes me is that we still have so few Australians taking specific actions like substantially reducing their household energy use, driving and flying less, switching to green power, or even buying carbon offsets, especially given all of the media coverage on this critical issue," she added.

Climate change and energy policies lack cohesion, says Oxfam report

2008-10-06T02:35:00.001-07:00

Ed Miliband will be greeted today on his first full day of work as the new secretary of state for energy and climate change with a 100-page Oxfam report showing how disjointed the government has become in tackling these two most pressing environmental problems.

The Oxfam Forecast report highlights how the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (DBRR) and the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) have been contradictory in their policies.

It likens the different interests of companies, government departments and public attitudes as a "gathering storm", which must be resolved if UK climate policy is to secure a low-carbon future.

"Too often it has been a case of the left hand having no idea what the right hand is up to, and this [new department] must now bring a much-needed cohesiveness to government policies. With global climate and energy security at stake, the government must now demonstrate powerful leadership," said Barbara Stocking, head of Oxfam.

The report also urges companies like E.ON and Shell to reconsider their plans in light of climate change. "Strong decisions in boardrooms and Whitehall must be made over the next few months to ensure that we meet the challenges of climate change and begin to give the people we work with the chance for a better flood and famine free future."

"If E.ON is allowed to build the UK's first coal plant in 34 years, annual CO2 emissions from the Kingsnorth plant will be 7m tonnes — more than the combined output of 30 developing countries. A decision … to build Kingsnorth will open the way for a new coal era and jeopardise future UK emissions targets," it says.

The UK's independent climate change committee is expected to recommend this week that the government sets a binding target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% by 2050 .

Shell plans to treble its investment by 2015 in unconventional oil sources such as those from Canada's oil sands, which are three times more polluting to produce.

"Going ahead with these plans would send a strong message to other countries that new dirty fossil fuels are acceptable, which would derail attempts to combat global warming at an international level — the consequences of which would be felt most by the poorest people on the planet," the report says.

Australians warned climate change could impact food choices

2008-10-05T22:42:00.000-07:00

Australia's peak scientific research body, the CSIRO, has warned Australians climate change could soon influence their menu choices.

The scientific body says Australia's fisheries and aquaculture industries could suffer huge reductions in catch, because of rising sea temperatures and changes in ocean habitats.

They predict the Tasmanian salmon, rock lobster and abalone industries will be among the hardest hit by the warming of waters in southern Australia.

In Queensland and the Northern Territory barramundi, prawn and mudcrab fisheries will be impacted by changing rainfall patterns.

The industries are worth more than $US1.5 billion annually to the country's economy.

Climate Change Minister, Penny Wong, says the industries need to plan for change.

"This report is a contribution to these industries to enable some of the thinking about that adaptation to occur," she said.

The report points out that despite the negative impacts of climate change, there are potential gains for smart businesses.

Al Gore Urges 'Civil Disobedience' Toward Coal Plants

2008-09-24T23:07:00.000-07:00

Al Gore called Wednesday for "civil disobedience" to combat the construction of coal power plants without the ability to store carbon.

The former vice president, whose efforts to raise awareness of global warming have made him the most prominent voice on that issue, made the comment during a session at the fourth annual Clinton Global Initiative in Manhattan.

"If you're a young person looking at the future of this planet and looking at what is being done right now, and not done, I believe we have reached the stage where it is time for civil disobedience to prevent the construction of new coal plants that do not have carbon capture and sequestration," Gore said, according to Reuters.

It wasn't clear what specific action he intended by "civil disobedience," which calls for the intentional violation of laws deemed to be unjust.

Since leaving the White House after losing to George Bush in the 2000 presidential election, Gore has turn his focus to environmental issues, a longtime passion. The 2006 documentary based on his lecture, "An Inconvenient Truth," won an Oscar. In addition, he received a Nobel Peace Prize for his climate change work.

McCain says Australia, US share challenge of China

2008-09-24T00:45:00.000-07:00

SYDNEY (AFP) — US Republican presidential candidate John McCain Tuesday called on Australia to help encourage greater openness in China, a nation he said had not met all the responsibilities of a global power.

In an opinion piece in The Australian newspaper, McCain said that the US involvement in the Asia Pacific region had to begin with its allies.

He said while Japan had been a strong and reliable partner, South Korea was taking on new global responsibilities and the US shared values and common purpose with New Zealand, the alliance with Australia "sets the standard".

"Firm commitments to our allies will set the stage for an American engagement of China that builds on the many areas of common interest we share with Beijing and encourages candour and progress in those areas where China has not fulfilled its responsibilities as a global power," he said.

McCain, who said the US could reinvigorate its alliances with Thailand and the Philippines and build on newly strengthened ties with Singapore and India, said the Beijing Olympics had provided a vivid demonstration of modern China.

"Americans and Australians have been impressed with Beijing's glittering landscape and warmed by the hospitality and graciousness of the Chinese people," he wrote.

"But in Beijing our journalists have also seen up close how human dignity suffers when basic rights such as freedom of speech and religious worship are denied.

"Our shared challenge is to convince the Chinese leadership that their nation's remarkable success rests ultimately on whether they can translate economic development into a more open and tolerant political process at home, and a more responsible foreign policy abroad."

McCain said that climate change, nuclear proliferation and trade were also all pressing issues for the US and the Asia Pacific region.

"If elected president of the US, I will look to Australia to help us navigate these challenges," he said.

On climate change, McCain said that he would work with Australia's centre-left Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to establish a global framework which draws in China and India to counter the man-made problem.

"Australians have looked to the US for leadership on climate change and it is time for us to answer that call," he said.

McCain said that free trade agreements, such as those the US has with Australia and Singapore and has negotiated with South Korea, were also "critical building blocks for an open and inclusive economic order in the Asia-Pacific region."

"They create billions of dollars' worth of new exports and set a higher standard for trade liberalisation that ultimately helps all the nations in the region," he said.

British public 'unwilling' to pay for climate change bill

2008-09-24T00:44:00.000-07:00

Public confusion over the environmental agenda appears to be as high as ever, with a majority in the UK calling for more action to tackle climate change while at the same time saying they are not willing to pay more to help.

Nearly two-thirds of people told a poll by Opinium they thought recent government measures to boost energy conservation needed to go much further, and half said they were doing their bit by installing insulation or turning down the thermostat.

However more than seven out of 10 of the nearly 2,000 people questioned said they were unwilling to pay higher taxes to combat environmental issues, and a similar number believed the green agenda had been "hijacked" to increase taxes.

The timing of the survey last week could also have had an impact on willingness to pay higher prices, coming as daily headlines warned about recession, unemployment, rising prices and a collapse in the housing market.

Mark Hodson, Opinium's head of research, said the public had lost faith in both politicians and the energy companies that they blame for huge price hikes in recent months.

"A massive 78% of people think that energy companies profits are unfair," said Hodson.

"Rising energy bills have affected the majority of people in the past year and the public seem to be as disheartened by the recent energy measures as they are by green taxes.

"It is probably due to this fact that [59%] think the government should have gone much further."

Public confusion was also a result of having a debate which was too "narrowly" focused on pitting the environment against economic wealth and other issues, said Tom Compton, change strategist for environmental group WWF.

"We can't rely exclusively on this convergence of economic growth and the business case for sustainable development on the one hand and environmental demands on the other," said Compton.

"There are areas where these things converge, but similarly there are cases where they diverge; at the moment we are failing abjectly to grapple with those areas where they diverge.

"That requires a more fundamental engagement with and understanding of what our collective aspirations are: what's important to us?"

London-based Opinium Research surveyed 1,975 adults by email from a panel of 30,000 regularly used by the company. The results were weighted to match age, sex, geography and other nationally representative criteria.

Climate change expert questions north-south pipeline

2008-09-24T00:43:00.001-07:00

Leading climate change expert Professor Tim Flannery says there is no justification to build a $750 million pipeline to bring water to Melbourne.

Construction has started on the controversial north-south pipeline after the Federal Environment Minister, Peter Garrett, gave the project the go ahead.

The former Australian of the Year says there is no evidence to support taking water from the already stressed Murray-Darling system, to pump to Melbourne.

He says more attention should be given to replacing coal-fired power with cleaner energy, which he says would ultimately yield more water.

"For every megawatt of electricity we generate here in Victoria you use two tonnes of water," he said.

"Why are we dealing with the most antiquated, polluting, coal fired power plants just about on the planet here in Victoria and letting them waste our water and pretending that's not an issue?"

Professor Flannery questions whether the Government commitment to long-term plans for fear of alienating voters.

"It's one of the great problems we face, that Government won't take the sort of decisions that we need," he said.

"[They are] happy to give away taxpayers' money, but regulation or laying out a vision that might say that in 20 years from now we'll be moving onto a new form of energy generation, is not what they're interested in."

India should play a major role in climate change: Britain

2008-09-24T00:41:00.000-07:00

Britain has said it wants India to play a major global role on the issue of climate change, similar to its active participation in peace keeping.

"Just as you are already playing a major role in (UN) peace keeping, we want India to play a bigger role in climate change, which is already having its impact," said Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, who was the Chief Guest at a reception jointly hosted by the Labour Friends of India, led by British MP Barry Gardiner and the Indian High Commissioner Shiv Shankar Mukherjee, at Manchester.

Douglas Alexander, Secretary of State, department of International Development; Sir Gulam Noon, NRI industrialist; Virendra Sharma, Labour MP; Jordana Diengdo K Pavel, among others were also present here.

Miliband, widely considered a potential prime ministerial candidate, said that the UK-India relationship was a "partnership of equals."

"India is genuinely emerging as a power and in it the Indian diaspora is a huge source of strength" he said, adding "we are lucky to have such a diaspora."

Referring to India's role in the world, Miliband said "many of us have many expectations. We want India to play a big role in climate change and we have to work with India as a genuine partner of equals."

High Commissioner Mukherjee recalled India's first Prime Minister Pandit Nehru's famous lines about "A tryst With destiny" and said, "Sixty years down the line, we are quite a way ahead with the 'tryst with destiny' but there was a great deal yet to be done in wiping out tears from eyes of the weakest of the weak."

Obama And McCain On Climate Change

2008-09-24T00:37:00.000-07:00

Both presidential candidates are pushing pollution-cutting efforts like these. Just recognizing climate change as an issue is a big change from the past eight years.

Both candidates say they'll join international climate change efforts that the Bush administration has ignored, and will press China and India to cut greenhouse gases.

Back home, both would start with modest greenhouse gas reductions - then increase cutbacks for 40 years into the future.

McCain said while in Santa Barbara: "Until we have achieved at least a reduction of 60 percent below 1990 levels by the year 2050."

Obama goes further.

"I've put forward very substantial proposals to get 80 percent reductions in greenhouse gasses by 2050," said Obama.

Both would reach those goals largely thru a "cap and trade" program that works like this:

The government sets an annual cap or limit on carbon emissions and issues permits up to that limit to companies that release greenhouse gases.

If a company reduces its emissions, it can sell or trade its unused permits to a company that can't meet emission goals.

"Leadership must begin at home. That's why I've proposed a cap and trade system to limit our carbon emissions and to invest in alternative sources of energy," Obama said in May in Miami.

And McCain, in Santa Barbara, said: "I have proposed a new system of cap-and-trade that over time will change the dynamic of our energy economy."

The candidates sound the same, but there are differences.

McCain would give companies most of the emissions permits for free based on their previous emission levels. Then if they cut back, they can make money selling unused permits.

He said in Portland. "In all its power, the profit motive will suddenly begin to shift and point the other way toward cleaner fuels, wiser ways, and a healthier planet."

Obama would sell all emission permits at auction, so companies would have to pay for every ton of carbon they release. Money raised would be used to develop renewable energy and to subsidize consumers' energy bills.

By one estimate a cap and trade program could raise the average family energy bill more than $700 a year.

In the August, 2007 Democratic primary debate, Obama said: "There are some things that we can do to conserve energy, but all those steps are going to require a little bit of hardship and a little bit of pinching."

McCain and Obama Agree on Approaches to Energy, Climate Change

2008-09-23T01:20:00.000-07:00

COLLEGE PARK Sept 23, 2008 - A new WorldPublicOpinion.org poll finds the majority of supporters of John McCain and Barack Obama largely agree on how to deal with both the country's energy needs and the problem of climate change.

Asked whether the government should require utilities to use more alternative energy sources, such as wind and solar, even if this increases costs in the short-run, seventy-five percent of Obama voters and sixty percent of McCain voters say that it should.

Presented two competing arguments, both Obama and McCain supporters reject the argument that making a major shift to alternative energy sources "would cost so much money that it would hurt the economy." Very large majorities in both the Obama (83%) and McCain (73%) camps instead support the argument that "with the rising cost of energy, it would save money in the long run."

Supporters in both camps strongly favor a greater emphasis on increasing energy efficiency: 71 percent of Obama and 55 percent of McCain supporters support requiring businesses to use energy more efficiently, even if it might make some products more expensive.

Only small minorities in both camps favor greater emphasis on "building coal or oil-fired power plants," although more McCain supporters favor this approach (34%) than those for Obama (19%).

Both Obama and McCain supporters favor the United States departing from its current position on the Kyoto Treaty. Told that, "the U.S. and other countries from around the world will be meeting next year to develop a new treaty to address climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions such as those caused by using oil and coal," 94 percent of Obama supporters and 63 percent of McCain supporters said that the United States should "be willing to commit to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions as part of such a treaty."

These findings are part of a larger international poll conducted by WorldPublicOpinion.org, an international research project managed by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland. The poll of 1,174 Americans was fielded from August 9 - 20, 2008 by Knowledge Networks. The margin of error ranges from +/2.9 to 3.4 percent, depending on the sample size. Because this was an international poll questions about offshore drilling were not included.

Climate Change: "The Trillion Dollar Wake Up Call"

2008-09-22T23:04:00.000-07:00

New report spotlights how tackling climate change can create or destroy company value

NEW YORK, Sep 23, 2008 - Tackling climate change can have a significant impact on company value in six sectors1 worth a total of $7 trillion, according to a new report by the Carbon Trust launched today: Climate Change: a business revolution?

This Carbon Trust report, based on analysis by McKinsey & Co, found that the deep emissions reductions necessary to tackle climate change and put us on a path to a low carbon economy, will create significant business opportunities and risks. Companies' futures will be highly dependent on how well prepared they are for the move, which will create large upsides and downsides for business.

Well positioned and proactive, forward thinking businesses could increase company value by up to 80%. Conversely, poorly positioned and laggard companies run the greatest risk of destroying value. The groundbreaking research found that as much as 65% of company value was at risk in some sectors. In the automobile industry, for example, both significant potential opportunities and risks were identified, which could transform the sector.

These opportunities and risks are driven by shifts in consumer behaviour, technology innovation and regulation -- the latter being the main initiator of change. The effects vary significantly by sector.

Tom Delay, chief executive of the Carbon Trust said:

"Climate change will cause a revolution in business and our findings should act as a trillion dollar wake up call to the investment and business communities. Companies and investors that prepare now and develop new strategies will reap the commercial rewards of the move to a low carbon economy. The financial risks of inaction are just too vast to ignore. We can see a trillion dollars of company value change, with leading, well-positioned companies gaining and badly positioned or slow companies losing out."

The study outlines clear recommendations for investors, business and policy makers on how to collaborate to make the shift to a low carbon economy as efficient as possible.

-- Strategic investors should discriminate between sectors and companies on the basis of their opportunities and risks.

-- Businesses should incorporate climate change in their core strategy and investment decisions.

-- Policy makers should work with business and investors now to create a policy framework which rewards early action and an efficient transition to a low carbon economy.

Mr. Delay added:

"We have a short window of opportunity to act but at present business and investor actions are way out of step with the need to tackle climate change. They must be urgently re-aligned by developing new business and investment strategies and by working with governments to develop policy frameworks that reward early and effective action to rapidly reduce carbon emissions."

Editors' Note:

For interviews with Carbon Trust spokespeople or for a copy of the report, please call the Carbon Trust Press Office on 020 7544 3100.

1 The analysis looked at the Aluminium, Auto, Beer, Building Materials, Consumer Electronics and Oil and Gas sectors. These six sectors have an estimated market value of $7 trillion.

The percentage value creation opportunity or risk is defined as the relative increase or reduction in value of a company which may result on the move to a low carbon economy, based on the net present value of its anticipated future cash flows. Any resulting shift in company value will depend on its level of preparation and sector exposure.

The Carbon Trust

-- The Carbon Trust is an independent company set up by government in response to the threat of climate change, to accelerate the move to a low carbon economy by working with organisations to reduce carbon emissions and develop commercial low carbon technologies. The Carbon Trust works with UK business and the public sector through its work in five complementary areas: insights, solutions, innovations, enterprises and investments. Together these help to explain, deliver, develop, create and finance low carbon enterprise.

-- The Carbon Trust is funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), the Scottish Government, the Welsh Assembly Government and Invest Northern Ireland.

Climate Change Effects Mental Health

2008-09-22T05:07:00.000-07:00

A largely unrecognised effect of climate change - its impact on mental health - will be considered at two Queensland conferences this week.

The topic is high on the agenda of the 2008 Queensland Landcare Conference being held at Monto, in the state's southeast.

A Centre for Rural and Remote Mental Health conference in Cairns will also address the possible impacts.

The current prolonged drought over much of Australia - widely recognised as being caused by climate change - has alerted rural communities to the link between mental illness and suicide ahead of their city counterparts.

Keynote speaker at the Landcare conference, mental health advocate Fay Jackson, said a problem that was already very serious in the bush would only get worse with climate change.

"We have drought and we have flood, which we always have had in Australia, but they appear to be coming more frequently," Ms Jackson said.

"The 10 hottest years on record have been in the last 14 years.

"I think it will absolutely have a direct affect on farmers and their families."

Climate change was already causing stress to city consumers as farmers are forced to pass on rising costs, Ms Jackson said.

"If people are finding it harder to feed their families then it's going to have an effect on mental health," she said.

Queensland Regional Natural Resource Management Group Collective chairman Mike Berwick said society would undergo big changes within a generation.

Rural communities should prepare by building resilience into landscapes and farming practices - but also into the health of those who manage them, Mr Berwick said.

"There are some pretty severe mental health issues in rural Australia and of course climate change is one of those stressors that's going to add to it," he said.

"Society's had its head in the sand for far too long.

"I think the urban communities have got their head in the sand more than rural communities because farmers understand climate variability."

Mr Berwick said stress was likely to become more widespread as the effects of climate change hit urban communities.

"We've got to learn to understand and adapt and get ready for it," he said.

Several sessions of the Creating Futures Conference, being held in Cairns by the Centre for Rural and Remote Mental Health until Thursday, will deal with the issue of mental health in the face of drought and climate change.

Firms warned about climate change : Report

2008-09-22T05:00:00.000-07:00

The report said firms, together are worth £3.8 trillion ($7 trillion) globally, could boost market value by taking steps to tackle emissions.

The research covered six sectors of the economy including car manufacturing, brewing and consumer electronics.

Automotive firms stood to gain the most by adopting greener strategies.

But the car sector also risked the greatest loss by failing to take onboard changes needed to meet ambitious emission targets in the coming years.

The Carbon Trust said auto firms could reap great benefits from technological advances in the field of hybrid and electric cars.

'Ambitious targets'

Bruce Duguid, head of investor engagement at the Carbon Trust, said changes to the Kyoto protocol due next year will force many companies to take the climate change more seriously.

"There will be some ambitious targets and changes that will have to take place across industry."

"Climate change could start the next industrial revolution...its both an opportunity and a threat," he added.

The survey looked at six industries; aluminium manufacturing, automotive, oil and gas production and exploration, oil and gas refining, consumer electronics, building materials and brewing.

Tom Delay, chief executive of the Carbon Trust, investors and indusry should wake up to this "trillion dollar wake up call."

"The financial risks of inaction are just too vast to ignore," he added

Investors weigh risks of not fighting climate change

2008-09-22T04:58:00.001-07:00

Investors are using information on companies' carbon dioxide emissions to manage their portfolios, according to an annual survey of the world's leading businesses.

The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), backed by hundreds of institutional investors, asks the world's biggest companies to report their greenhouse gas emissions. This year, almost two-thirds of the 385 institutional investors behind the project, whose findings are published today, said they used the survey to identify companies not adequately addressing climate change.

The Axa Group, for instance, said: "In terms of investment policy, companies which are ill-prepared for more stringent environmental regulation may face unexpected new expenses and decreasing ability to sustain their returns and share price."

The investors are basing their decisions on the belief that emissions will be more closely regulated around the world in future, giving companies that already manage their emissions a competitive advantage. They are also weighing other factors, such as the risk that companies may face future litigation, and the possible illeffects of climate change, such as floods and storms.

Paul Dickinson, chief executive of the CDP, said: "[The survey is] effectively an audit of climate-change risk. Over 1,500 companies have gone through that process this year, with 77 per cent of the Global 500 responding. Whilst it's hard to evaluate definitively, the CDP is likely to have had a pivotal role in developing consciousness of those risks."

This year's report found that companies were starting to manage environmental risk at board level. Of the 383 groups that responded to the Global 500 survey, nearly two-thirds said they had an executive with overall responsibility for climate-change management, compared with half of respondents in 2007, and most had put in place some risk management measures to prepare for climate change.

Companies in all sectors said that uncertainty about future regulation was a stumbling block. Arcelor Mittal told the survey: "There is significant risk in the lack of predictability in climate-change regulation."

Another survey, by McKinsey and the UK government-funded Carbon Trust, found that companies were failing to respond adequately to the need to reduce emissions.

Tom Delay, chief executive of the Carbon Trust, said: "Our findings show that we are not on the path to a low-carbon economy. This is something that will impact on all investors - it will have a damaging effect on shareholder value. Shareholders should be demanding that the companies they invest in address these issues."

Upside down rainbow spotted in UK

2008-09-19T00:15:00.005-07:00

"One of the most spectacular light shows observed on earth," author Donald Ahrens describes the rainbow in his text Meteorology Today. If observed carefully, you would find that the sun is always behind you when you face the rainbow and the center of the circular arc of the rainbow is in the opposite direction to the sun. But there have been sightings that have proved otherwise also.

An astronomer in Cambridge, UK, has captured on camera an "upside down rainbow", which is considered to be an anomaly of nature.

According to a report in the Telegraph, astronomer Dr Jacqueline Mitton captured the freak rainbow near her home in Cambridge. Normal rainbows are made when light penetrates raindrops and re-emerges out the other side in the same direction. But, the inverted types, known as circumzenithal arcs, are caused when sunlight bounces off ice crystals high in the atmosphere, sending the light rays back up.

"The conditions have to be just right: you need the right sort of ice crystals and the sky has to be clear," said Mitton. "We're not sure how big an area it was visible over, but it was certainly very impressive," she added. A spokesman for the Met Office confirmed the inverted rainbows are occasionally spotted in British skies. "It is convex to the sun and is formed by refraction in suitably-oriented ice crystals and may show vivid rainbow coloring, as in this case," he said

Well, we all know about the strange ways of nature and the even stranger creations, the 'upside down rainbow' is just another sense of humor by god, perhaps when the sky 'cries' with happiness!

Global warming will lead to biodiversity loss

2008-09-19T00:15:00.004-07:00

WASHINGTON: An analysis, carried out by a scientist of Indian origin, along with his colleagues, has shown that irreversible global warming will lead to biodiversity loss and substantial glacial melt.

The scientist in question is Professor V. Ramanathan from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC (University of California) San Diego.

The analysis has estimated that the earth will warm about 2.4 degree C above pre-industrial levels, even under extremely conservative greenhouse-gas emission scenarios and under the assumption that efforts to clean up particulate pollution continue to be successful.

That amount of warming falls within what the world's leading climate change authority recently set as the threshold range of temperature increase that would lead to widespread loss of biodiversity, de-glaciation and other adverse consequences in nature.

The researchers argue that coping with these circumstances will require "transformational research for guiding the path of future energy consumption."

"This paper demonstrates the major challenges society will have to face in dealing with a problem that now seems unavoidable," said the paper's lead author, Scripps Atmospheric and Climate Sciences Professor V. Ramanathan.

"We hope that governments will not be forced to consider trade-offs between air pollution abatement and mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions," he added.

In their analysis, Ramanathan and co-author Yan Feng, a Scripps postdoctoral research fellow, assumed a highly optimistic scenario that greenhouse gas concentrations would remain constant at 2005 levels for the next century.

For the concentrations to remain at 2005 levels, the emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide must decrease drastically within the next decade.

Economic expansion, however, is expected to see emissions increase.

The researchers then analyzed expected future warming by assuming that the cooling effect of man-made aerosol pollution will be eliminated during the 21st Century.

Because soot and similar particles remain airborne only for a matter of weeks, it is expected that clean-up efforts produce relatively immediate results.

Therefore, the authors based their projections of temperature increase assuming the absence of these pollutants in the atmosphere.

By contrast, greenhouse gases can remain in the atmosphere for decades or, in the case of carbon dioxide, more than a century.

Ramanathan and Feng estimated that the increase in greenhouse gases from pre-industrial era levels has already committed Earth to a warming range of 1.4 degree C to 4.3 degree C.

About 90 percent of that warming will most likely be experienced in the 21st Century.

"Given that a potentially large warming is already in our rear-view mirror, scientists and engineers must mount a massive effort and develop solutions for adapting to climate change and for mitigating it," said Ramanathan.

"Drastic reduction of short-lived warming agents is one way to buy the planet time for developing cost-effective ways for reducing CO2 concentrations," he added.

NASA: Arctic sea ice at second-lowest level on record

2008-09-19T00:15:00.003-07:00

NASA has issued a preliminary report confirming environmentalists' fears of disappearing sea ice at the Arctic.

Sea ice is the thick permanent ice formed by frozen ocean water that remains even as seasonal ice melts away in the summer. In the past, it has covered about 60 percent of the Arctic.

The sea ice at the Arctic has now been found to have melted away by as much as half, according to a preliminary report issued Tuesday by NASA and the NASA-supported National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado.

"According to NASA-processed satellite microwave data, this perennial ice used to cover 50 to 60 percent of the Arctic, but this winter it covered less than 30 percent," NASA said in a statement.

It is the second-smallest amount of coverage since NASA began monitoring the situation in 1979. The Artic's sea ice coverage this September is about 33 percent below average, compared with the record low of 39 percent below average recorded in 2007.

At this time, neither NASA nor the National Snow and Ice Data Center have made suggestions as to the possible cause for the change. A thorough analysis of the data is scheduled to be released the first week of October, according to NASA.

MIDDLE EAST and CARBON CREDITS

2008-09-19T00:15:00.002-07:00

An overwhelming majority of primary CDM credits now being traded or used for compliance are coming from only two countries – China and India. Though these two giants still present attractive opportunities for carbon investment, the geographical concentration of such a large amount of carbon is a key concern for those who need to buy this booming new commodity. China’s unofficial price floor, and uncertainties with projects in India, are only some of the major issues that project developers and their clients face in trying to source for credits to fulfill regulatory obligations and CSR targets in their countries of operation.

A unique combination of qualities makes the Middle East and North Africa a potentially lucrative new region for hosting CDM projects.

First, though the countries in the region are not the world’s heaviest emitters, due to inexpensive energy they house sizeable energy-intensive and carbon-intensive industries such as aluminum production, not to mention oil and gas.

Second, the region has some of the world’s wealthiest institutional and individual investors who can help with financing suitable projects for mitigating climate change. Attesting to this fact are massive projects completed or now underway for record-breaking 7-star accommodation in Dubai, buildings that generate their own energy in Bahrain, and even a carbon-neutral city in Abu Dhabi.

Third, interest is now rising steadily among the region’s governments, investors and local industry leaders in the benefits of projects and investment for sustainability.

Now is the time to catch that interest and build your business case with local stakeholders, get the inside track speaking with regulators about current trends and outlook, and learn effective strategies for dealing with the complex local landscape from project participants themselves.