environment

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Battered Australia a Preview of Climate Devastation

Country grapples with drought, wildfires, and heat

(Newser) - Pummeled by drought, wildfires, and heat, Australia may be offering the world a preview of what’s to come as the planet warms, experts say. “Australia is the harbinger of change,” says a paleontologist. Many say climate change has already taken a human toll in the 173 killed...

Obama's Energy Policy Needs a Tuneup
Obama's Energy Policy Needs
a Tuneup
OPINION
Apr 8, 2009 9:43 AM CDT

Obama's Energy Policy Needs a Tuneup

To garner support, simplify plan and focus message: Friedman

(Newser) - Proponents of cap-and-trade, the climate policy Democrats are currently championing, argue that it “'hides the ball'—it doesn’t use the word 'tax'—even though it amounts to one," writes Thomas Friedman in the New York Times. There’s just one problem: “Opponents are not playing hide...

Salamanders Get Help Crossing the Road

To mate! With some help from human friends

(Newser) - Salamanders are getting an assist this mating season from volunteers who shepherd them across dangerous highways, the AP reports. Hundreds try to cross between forests and vernal pools this time of year, and human escorts—also known as bucket brigades—have popped up along the East Coast to keep them...

Paper Industry Gets Tax Credits for Burning Diesel

(Newser) - A tax provision in the 2005 transportation bill offering credits for the use of alternative fuels has had an unintended, even disastrous, result in the paper industry: “Paper mills are adding diesel fuel to a process that requires none in order to qualify for the tax credit,"...

Supreme Court Rules for Power Plants, Against Fish

EPA regulators can perform cost-benefit analysis before ordering upgrades: ruling

(Newser) - Federal regulators may perform cost-benefit analysis on new power plant equipment designed to protect fish, and decide whether to require the equipment based on that analysis, the Supreme Court ruled today. The 6-3 decision overturns an appellate court ruling that barred the EPA from performing cost-benefit analysis because it wasn't...

Climate, Financial Crises Two Sides of One Coin

(Newser) - The key issue behind both the global economic and climate crises is exactly the same: “mispricing risk,” Thomas L. Friedman writes in the New York Times. “We have been mispricing risk in both arenas,” he contends, “producing a huge excess of both toxic assets and...

On Environment, White House Quick to Undo Bush Policies

Staff unearths years of shelved proposals

(Newser) - More than a dozen environmental initiatives that stagnated under former President Bush are moving forward under Obama, the Washington Post reports. In most of those cases, the decisions were based on reports drafted over several years that, in the face of opposition, were placed on the back burner to await...

Clean Coal Myth Proves Industry Is Declining

(Newser) - Clean coal is a myth, and the companies selling it “have their heads stuck in the mine,” Thomas Kostigen writes on MarketWatch. Although Americans generate close to 50% of their energy from coal, the technology is so yesterday—and the industry is not poised to move forward. It...

No, Rush, California Isn't Banning Black Cars

(Newser) - Relax, Rush Limbaugh: California is not going to outlaw your favorite car color. The California Air Resources Board said yesterday that it isn’t, and never was, planning to ban black rides to mitigate greenhouse gases, the LA Times reports. A report to the CARB about the advantages of more...

G20 Protest Draws 35K to London Streets

(Newser) - Security patrols for next week's G20 summit, take note: A protest in London today drew an estimated 35,000 people, about three times as many as expected, the Guardian reports. Organizers of the march—a coalition of unions, church groups, and charities—are pushing for movement on “jobs, justice,...

It's Lights Out for Earth Hour
 It's Lights Out for Earth Hour 
Mar 28, 2009 10:44 AM CDT

It's Lights Out for Earth Hour

(Newser) - Earth Hour is under way. The annual event in which cities around the world dim their lights for an hour at 8:30pm local time kicked off in Sydney, Australia, the Age reports. China's Bird's Nest stadium, London's Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower, the Vatican, and the Empire State Building...

Suds-Smugglers Thwart Eco-Friendly Law

Residents say only outlaw high-phosphate detergents get their dishes clean enough

(Newser) - Spokane, Washington's pioneering ban on high-phosphorus dishwasher detergents has led some residents to pioneer detergent-smuggling, reports the AP.  People complaining that the eco-friendly detergents don't get their dishes as clean as the old kind regularly cross over into Idaho to stock up. Retailers near the border say their detergent...

9 Ways to Go Green and Save Green

(Newser) - Being sensitive to the environment doesn't have to cost a fortune. In fact, the green option is often the most cost-effective one. Scientific American spotlights nine ways of cutting your bills as you save the Earth:
  • Shrink your living space. Prefab homes and plans for dwellings as small as 65
...

20 Years On, Valdez Lessons Haven't Been Drilled In

(Newser) - It’s been 20 years to the day since the Exxon Valdez dumped about 11 million gallons of crude oil into Alaska’s Prince William Sound, and the area has still not recovered. Oil, particularly below the surface, persists, and marine animal populations have not recovered. Still, Time reports, the...

Greenies Push Safe Froggy Sex With Hook-Up Pad

Frog Hotel to protect mating amphibians from predators

(Newser) - Frogs have a new reason to leap for joy: a hotel specially designed to allow them to mate in peace and safety, NPR reports. Scottish environmentalists opened the Frog Hotel two weeks ago to protect the amphibians from predators. Frogs “are slowly coming out of hibernation, and the first...

A Third of America's Bird Species in Trouble

Development sending large numbers of native species into decline

(Newser) - Almost a third of America's bird species are in peril from habitat destruction and other threats, according to a federal report released yesterday. The study, which may spur the Obama administration to increase regulation in some areas to protect the animals, found that  67 of America's over 800 bird species...

Architects Plan Brave New Paris
 Architects Plan Brave New Paris 
Mar 13, 2009 7:30 AM CDT

Architects Plan Brave New Paris

Sarkozy proposes futuristic sustainable city

(Newser) - Paris may be getting a facelift, the Telegraph reports. Nicolas Sarkozy invited 10 leading architects to cook up Grand Paris 2030, giving them "the absolute freedom to dream." Sarkozy aims to open up the city to its suburbs, shorten intra-city commutes, and create vast green spaces. The architects...

Climate Change Doom Looms for 85% of Amazon

Death of much of the rainforest is inevitable even under most optimistic scenario

(Newser) - Climate change may be a bigger threat to the Amazon rainforest than all the chainsaws in the world, the Guardian reports. New research predicts a global temperature rise of 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit—widely believed to be the best-case scenario even if carbon emissions are slashed—would kill off up...

Sea Levels Rising Faster Than Expected

(Newser) - Top climate scientists say sea levels are rising faster than expected, the Times of London reports. The world's oceans will rise about 3 feet by the end of the century, double the amount predicted in a 2007 estimate by the UN. The new figure, blamed on melting ice sheets, could...

Hopes High in Climate Fight as Obama Takes Lead
Hopes High in Climate Fight as Obama Takes Lead
analysis
Mar 1, 2009 11:40 AM CST

Hopes High in Climate Fight as Obama Takes Lead

US to take major role in new environmental treaty

(Newser) - The Kyoto Protocol signed more than a decade ago faced roadblocks to achieving its environmental goals—but with President Obama pushing hard on climate change, new international agreements could be much stronger, the New York Times reports. Obama has placed the US “at the forefront of the international climate...

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