environment

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World Bank Will Pay Countries to Spare Trees

$250M pilot program will reward "avoided deforestation"

(Newser) - The World Bank is planning a $250-million fund to pay countries to refrain from cutting down tropical forests. The plan, which won approval at the G-8 summit last week, depends on companies to contribute to the fund, but that's not likely to happen unless rules governing carbon emissions credits are...

G8 Agrees to 'Seriously Consider' 50% Reduction

G8 summit in Germany promises to address emissions cuts.

(Newser) - G8 leaders agreed to a climate-control deal today they hailed as a breakthrough, though it was unclear what it actually accomplished. They didn't adopt German Chancellor Angela Merkel's target of cutting emissions in half by 2050—already adopted by the EU, Canada and Japan—but they agreed to  "seriously...

Largest Oil Spill in US Seeps Under Brooklyn

Exxon owns up to a century of leaks and dumping over 55 acres

(Newser) - Underneath the ground of Greenpoint, Brooklyn, is a dark blob of gasoline, solvents, and associated poisons that composes the biggest oil spill in US history.  It's accumulated from a century's worth of smaller leaks and waste dumping, reports New York magazine, and ExxonMobil has quietly accepted the blame, but...

Brazil Rejects Bush Climate Proposal

US plan not a viable alternative to Kyoto accord, says Lula

(Newser) - Brazil's president bluntly dismissed the climate-change plan offered by George Bush last week as "voluntarism" in a situation where "multinationalism" is needed. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose fast-developing country is critical to any international deal on emissions cuts, said the proposal for a new international framework was...

So Cal May Ban Wood-Burning Fireplaces

Proposed regs will eliminate new fireplaces; limit current ones in winter

(Newser) - Southern Californians will be roasting their chestnuts in the oven if an air pollution plan is passed that would ban fireplaces in all new homes and prohibit wood-fueled blazes for as many as 20 days every winter. The regulations, proposed by South Coast Air Quality Management, seeks to clean up...

Bush Wants Global Plan on Emissions
Bush Wants Global Plan
on Emissions
May 31, 2007 3:26 PM CDT

Bush Wants Global Plan on Emissions

US still won't accepted Kyoto, but prez pushes for new agreement on caps

(Newser) - President Bush offered a groundbreaking—if decidedly vague—call this morning for a global plan to combat climate change, continuing to reposition himself on the issue. Bush asked 15 nations, including the G8, China, and India, to create "long-term global goals” on emissions that will replace the Kyoto Protocol...

UK Moves to Measure Products' Eco-Impact

Labels will allow consumers to compare

(Newser) - Calories, fat, sodium ... carbon footprint? The new measurement may soon appear on British product packaging. Under a plan proposed yesterday, the government will develop standards to measure a product's environmental impact from manufacture through shipment and disposal, allowing companies to list the information as they do nutrition facts. Consumers can...

Common Chemicals Boost Disease Risk
Common Chemicals Boost Disease Risk
May 25, 2007 10:46 AM CDT

Common Chemicals Boost Disease Risk

Scientists tie brief early exposure to laundry list of ailments

(Newser) - Beginning in the womb, exposure to common substances increases the likelihood of numerous health problems—including cancer, ADD, Parkinson's and obesity—years and even generations later, international environmental scientists say. Two hundred prominent experts yesterday took the unusual step of calling for intervention by governments, even those that have downplayed...

Scrapped TVs Spell Disaster for Environment

Analog sets will contaminate dumps after digital conversion

(Newser) - In 2009 a federal law will convert all TV stations to digital, sending most of the US's 268 million analog TVs into the trash. As consumers snatch up plasmas and HDTVs, the old sets—made of lead, cadmium, and mercury will be thrown into garbage dumps, where they may contaminate...

Philanthropist Bets $40M on Eco-Tourism

Greg Carr would put nature back in Mozambique nature preserve

(Newser) - Philanthropist Greg Carr wants to turn an African ecosystem around—and he’s willing to pay to do it. The tech-bubble whiz kid will spend $40 million over the next 30 years to restore Mozambique's Gorongosa National Park, destroyed during the country's 16-year civil war. Stephanie Hanes follows Carr as...

Cabs Go Green in New York
Cabs Go Green in New York
May 22, 2007 3:42 PM CDT

Cabs Go Green in New York

Bloomberg plans for all taxis to be hybrids by 2012

(Newser) - Every New York City taxi cab will be an eco-friendly hybrid in five years, Mike Bloomberg declared today. And by next year all new taxis will have to meet mileage and emissions standards. Cabs will turn green as part of the mayor's wider sustainability plan for the city, which is...

Climate Change Accelerates
Climate Change Accelerates
May 18, 2007 9:59 AM CDT

Climate Change Accelerates

Global warming impedes oceans' carbon absorption, leading to ... global warming

(Newser) - Oceans that absorb a quarter of all the carbon belched into the atmosphere every day are losing their capacity to do so, accelerating global warming by as much as 30%. New research, which focuses on the compromised ability of Antarctica's Southern Ocean to soak up carbon emissions, suggests that climate...

West Nile Turns Down Volume on Songbirds

Scientists hear trouble in quieter North American backyards

(Newser) - The West Nile virus is responsible for a major decline in North American bird populations, and the sudden quiet speaks volumes to environmental scientists. Beyond a lack of birdsong, a new National Zoo study reports, the decimation signals far-reaching ecological problems that have emerged since the mosquito-borne virus appeared on...

Evangelicals Split on Climate Change
Evangelicals Split on
Climate Change
May 15, 2007 10:14 AM CDT

Evangelicals Split on Climate Change

Christian universities find their own ground on global warming

(Newser) - American evangelical Christians diverge on the issue of climate change, with one side calling it a hoax and the other exhorting believers—in the Lord as well as the scientific evidence—to work against global warming. The BBC reports on two Christian universities in Virginia that come down on opposite...

Bush Asks Agencies to Cut Emissions
Bush Asks Agencies to Cut Emissions
May 14, 2007 4:07 PM CDT

Bush Asks Agencies to Cut Emissions

Orders plans for regulating greenhouse gases by term's end

(Newser) - President Bush stepped up to the plate on global warming today, ordering the the EPA, transportation and other agencies to begin to regulate vehicle emissions by the time he leaves office. Chided by the Supreme Court last month for failing to protect the environment, Bush asked agencies to prepare plans,...

Burning Forests Heat Globe
Burning Forests Heat Globe
May 14, 2007 8:56 AM CDT

Burning Forests Heat Globe

Rainforests absorbe CO2, but burning them pumps out 25% of all greenhouse gasses

(Newser) - Destruction of rainforests is a bigger source of global warming than all the planes, cars and factories in the world, concludes a study reported today in the Independent. It's not just the loss of forests, which absorb CO2, that's the problem. It's the rampant burning of those forests that actually...

Eco-Awareness Is In The (Reusable) Bag

From cheap to designer, totes help eliminate the plastic glut

(Newser) - Whether it's a designer tote bag with a three-figure price tag or a $5 carryall from the convenience store, Americans are slowly catching on to the European trend of answering the eternal question "paper or plastic" with "neither." Tote bags eliminate environmental stress, proclaim a consumer's eco-friendliness,...

Law Firm's Green Record Gives Rudy Black Eye

Lobbyist for polluters boosts partner Giuliani

(Newser) - Rudy Giuliani's affiliation with a big-name Houston law firm has been key to his fund-raising success, especially in Texas, but may be dangerous politically, the Times reports. Bracewell & Giuliani, which the former New York mayor joined in 2005, is one of the most prominent lobbyists for the heavy-polluting oil,...

Global Warming Battle Goes Out to Sea

Investors back plankton in bid to send CO2 to a watery grave

(Newser) - Plankton may hold the key to solving global warming—or so say Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who are investing heavily in the idea. Scientists will dump several tons of plankton-producing iron into the ocean to see if the microscopic organisms will, as they expect, suck CO2 from the atmosphere and carry...

The Battle Of the Bulbs
The Battle
Of the Bulbs
Apr 30, 2007 2:00 PM CDT

The Battle Of the Bulbs

Men and women are light-years apart on the merits of compact fluorescents

(Newser) - She's from Venus, he's from Mars when it comes to. . . compact fluorescent light bulbs. Right-thinking men everywhere are boldly buying and screwing the environmentally friendly bulbs into sockets all over the house, the Washington Post reports, while women are, in turn, unscrewing them and going back to incandescent.

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