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Farms May Be Exempted From Emission Rules |
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By Elizabeth Williamson
The Washington Post
Tuesday 26 February 2008
Under
pressure from agriculture industry lobbyists and lawmakers from
agricultural states, the Environmental Protection Agency wants to drop
requirements that factory farms report their emissions of toxic gases,
despite findings by the agency's scientists that the gases pose a
health threat.
The
EPA acknowledges that the emissions can pose a threat to people living
and working nearby, but it says local emergency responders don't use
the reports, making them unnecessary. But local air-quality agencies,
environmental groups and lawmakers who oppose the rule change say the
reports are one of the few tools rural communities have for holding
large livestock operations accountable for the pollution they produce.
Opponents
of the rule change say agriculture lobbyists orchestrated a campaign to
convince the EPA that the reports are not useful and misrepresented the
effort as reflecting the views of local officials. They say the plan to
drop the reporting requirement is emblematic of a broader effort by the
Bush-era EPA to roll back federal pollution rules.
"One
of the running themes we have seen is they have taken numerous
industry-friendly actions that are shot down in the courts, but they
buy time for industry" in appeals and reviews that could extend years
into the next administration, said Frank O'Donnell, president of Clean
Air Watch, a nonprofit environmental group based in Washington.
The
EPA requirement that farms report large emissions of ammonia and
hydrogen sulfide from animal manure has been on the books since the
1980s. The EPA does not set limits for the releases; it merely requires
that farms disclose emissions over certain levels. Local public health
officials say that if people in an area started getting sick with
symptoms pointing to emissions, knowing who was reporting big releases
of the gases would be most helpful.
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GM Exec Stands by Calling Global Warming a "Crock" |
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By Kevin Krolicki
Reuters
Monday 25 February 2008
Detroit
- General Motors Corp Vice Chairman Bob Lutz has defended remarks he
made dismissing global warming as a "total crock of shit," saying his
views had no bearing on GM's commitment to build environmentally
friendly vehicles.
Lutz,
GM's outspoken product development chief, has been under fire from
Internet bloggers since last month when he was quoted as making the
remark to reporters in Texas.
In
a posting on his GM blog on Thursday, Lutz said those "spewing virtual
vitriol" at him for minimizing the threat of climate change were
"missing the big picture."
"What
they should be doing in earnest is forming opinions, not about me but
about GM and what this company is doing that is ... hugely beneficial
to the causes they so enthusiastically claim to support," he said in a
posting titled, "Talk About a Crock."
GM,
the largest US automaker by sales and market share, has been trying to
change its image after taking years of heat for relying too much on
sales of large sport-utility vehicles like the Hummer and not moving
faster on fuel-saving hybrid technology.
"My
thoughts on what has or hasn't been the cause of climate change have
nothing to do with the decisions I make to advance the cause of General
Motors," he wrote.
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Investors Tackling Global Warming While Governments Spar |
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The Associated Press
Thursday 21 February 2008
Monte
Carlo, Monaco - Private companies will soon be investing more than
governments in cutting the production of greenhouse gases, the U.N.'s
top climate change official said Thursday.
Yvo
de Boer said business efforts were good but also not enough - and that
only a binding international agreement on cutting carbon emissions will
make private sector efforts financially viable.
"Business
is really beginning to take climate change into account," de Boer,
executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention for Climate
Change, told The Associated Press. "There's a momentum building in the
finance community."
He
was speaking on the sidelines of a U.N. Environment Program forum in
Monaco, the biggest meeting of environment ministers since
international talks in Bali, Indonesia, in December produced agreement
to adopt a plan by 2009 on collective worldwide efforts to reduce
global warming.
French
nuclear manufacturing giant Areva announced Thursday that it went
"carbon neutral" in 2007, joining the list of companies that say they
have or plan to do so. An increasing number of multinational
corporations are reporting their carbon footprint in their annual
reports - and seeking to reduce it to please shareholders.
Going
"carbon neutral" generally means taking steps to compensate for the
greenhouse gases that companies or individuals emit in doing business
or in their daily lives. Such measures can involve funding projects
that aim to reduce emissions elsewhere in the world of the gases blamed
for climate warming, for example by giving money to plant trees, build
hydroelectric dams, or provide cooking stoves that use less fuel.
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By Jonathan Fowlie and Fiona Anderson
The Vancouver Sun
Tuesday 19 February 2008
Province is first jurisdiction in North America to have consumer-based carbon tax.
Victoria
- Driving and other fuel-dependent activities are about to get more
expensive as British Columbia becomes the first jurisdiction in North
America to introduce a consumer-based carbon tax.
The
carbon tax will apply to virtually all fossil fuels, including
gasoline, diesel, natural gas, coal, propane, and home heating fuel.
B.C.'s carbon tax, the provincial government claims, will be the most
comprehensive in the world.
However,
Finance Minister Carole Taylor vowed Tuesday that all money collected
through the new tax will be returned through a package of tax cuts and
credits.
"We
have to find a way that we can work towards improving our environment,
but at the same time do it in a way that keeps our economy strong,"
said Taylor, as she presented a budget that, aside from the carbon tax,
commits $1 billion over four years to fight climate change.
The
$37.7 billion provincial budget also promises an additional $2.9
billion over three years for health care spending. That brings the
total health budget to $13.8 billion for the coming year.
Taylor
said the new carbon tax will begin July 1, starting at a rate that will
have drivers paying about an extra 2.4 cents per litre of gasoline at
the pumps.
If
you drive a Prius hybrid, the government estimates the new tax will
cost you about $20 extra per year. If you have a Dodge Ram pickup
truck, that number will be closer to $68 it says.
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Groups Vow to Fight Carbon Emissions Cap-and-Trade Plan |
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By Margot Roosevelt
The Los Angeles Times
Wednesday 20 February 2008
Low-income community groups in five California cities launched a statewide
campaign Tuesday to "fight at every turn" any global-warming regulation
that allows industries to trade carbon emissions, saying it would amount to
"gambling on public health."
The 21-point "Environmental Justice Movement Declaration" challenges
the stance of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a national advocate of a cap-and-trade
program that would allow heavy polluters, often located in poor neighborhoods,
to partly buy their way out of lowering their emissions.
"Under a trading scheme, 11 power plants to be built around Los Angeles
could offset emissions by extracting methane from coal seams in Utah or planting
trees in Manitoba," said Jane Williams of the California Communities Against
Toxics, which fights pollution in low-income areas.
The defiant tone of news conferences in Los Angeles, Fresno, Oakland, Sacramento
and San Diego indicated that political turbulence might be ahead as the state
Air Resources Board hammers out a strategy to drastically reduce greenhouse
gas emissions, as required under a 2006 law.
Until now, the debates over how to implement the law have been conducted in
polite workshops with industry and environmental groups offering technical testimony
to state air board officials. The agency must design a plan, due at the end
of this year, to ratchet down emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, an effort that
is likely to affect virtually every industry in the state.
"Cap and trade is a charade to continue business as usual," said
Angela Johnson Meszaros, director of the California Environmental Rights Alliance.
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Gore Warns on "Subprime Carbon" Industry |
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The Associated Press
Thursday 14 February 2008
United Nations - Al Gore advised Wall Street leaders and institutional investors
Thursday to ditch businesses too reliant on carbon-intensive energy - or prepare
for huge losses down the road.
"You need to really scrub your investment portfolios, because I guarantee
you - as my longtime good redneck friends in Tennessee say, I guarandamntee
you - that if you really take a fine-tooth comb and go through your portfolios,
many of you are going to find them chock-full of subprime carbon assets," the
former vice president said.
Carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels is the leading component of "greenhouse
gases," which scientists say are playing a key role in warming the globe.
Gore's remarks before a high-profile business crowd that collectively controls
some $20 trillion in capital were intended to unleash a financial ripple effect
that could force the world to start putting a price on carbon emissions.
Gore, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to warn about climate
change, compared the financial risks facing investors in carbon-using industries
with the meltdown in the market for subprime mortgages given to people with
blemished credit records or low incomes.
"Similarly, the assumption that you can safely invest in assets that come
from business models that assume carbon is free is an assumption that is about
to go splat," he said. "You have lots of assets, many of you do, in your portfolios
right now that truly do deserve that epithet 'subprime."'
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UN Systems to Gear Up to Save Farm Sector From Climate Impact |
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By Ashok B. Sharma
The Financial Express
Monday 11 February 2008
New
Delhi - The United Nations, apprehending that climate change can take a
toll on agriculture, water resources, fisheries, forestry, public
health and may increase the frequency of natural disasters ... has
geared up to formulate appropriate support systems for the countries
facing these challenges.
"The
UN systems would work in coordination with the national governments and
other inter-governmental bodies. We are preparing a work plan in
consultation with all these agencies. It will be deliberated in the UN
Chief Executive Board, which will determine a coordination structure
with key clusters of activity and specific lead agencies," said the
executive secretary of UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCC), Yvo de Boer, who was recently in India. He said global
investments to the tune of $ 15 to 20 trillion was needed over the next
25 years to meet the challenges of climate change.
In
a draft document prepared after the Bali conference on climate change,
the UN has noted that agriculture was both a source and a sink for
greenhouse gases, as well as both a source and a user of energy. Water,
land, bio-diversity and terrestrial ecosystem services would become
stressed. This would impact food security and the ability to feed a
population approaching 9 billion by 2050." Also, climate change impact
on marine, coastal, estuaries and freshwater ecosystems is likely to
affect many of the 200 million people directly or indirectly dependent
on fisheries for their livelihoods, through changes in nature,
distribution and productivity of aquatic resources," the draft document
said.
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True Scale of CO2 Emissions From Shipping Revealed |
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By John Vidal
The Guardian UK
Wednesday 13 February 2008
Leaked UN report says pollution three times
higher than previously thought.
The true scale of climate change emissions from shipping is almost three times
higher than previously believed, according to a leaked UN study seen by the
Guardian.
It calculates that annual emissions from the world's merchant fleet have already
reached 1.12bn tonnes of CO2, or nearly 4.5% of all global emissions of the
main greenhouse gas.
The report suggests that shipping emissions - which are not taken into account
by European targets for cutting global warming - will become one of the largest
single sources of manmade CO2 after cars, housing, agriculture and industry.
By comparison, the aviation industry, which has been under heavy pressure to
clean up, is responsible for about 650m tonnes of CO2 emissions a year, just
over half that from shipping.
Until now, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has estimated
shipping emissions to be a maximum 400m tonnes, but the new draft report by
a group of international scientists is a more sophisticated measure, using data
collected from the oil and shipping industries for the International Maritime
Organisation, the UN agency tasked with monitoring pollution from ships. It
not only shows emissions are much worse than feared, but warns CO2 emissions
are set to rise by a further 30% by 2020.
Contacted about the contents of the report, Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of
the IPCC, said: "This is a clear failure of the system. The shipping industry
has so far escaped publicity. It has been left out of the climate change discussion.
I hope [shipping emissions] will be included in the next UN agreement. It would
be a cop-out if it was not. It tells me that we have been ineffective at tackling
climate change so far."
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350 is the red line for human beings, the most important number on the planet.
The most recent science tells us that unless we can reduce the amount
of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to 350 parts per million, we will
cause huge and irreversible damage to the earth.
Get involved with the 350 action campaign.
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