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Nuclear Energy Subsidies in Lieberman-Warner Bill Draw Criticism. Press Release, Beyond Nuclear, May 15, 2008. “The leaders of six national environmental and public interest groups warned today that the impending Lieberman-Warner climate change bill could contain at least $544 billion in taxpayer subsidies for nuclear energy. This would represent the biggest federal handout in history for the nuclear industry, already the most heavily subsidized energy sector over the past 50 years. The Lieberman-Warner bill is expected to be on the Senate floor in early June. According to an analysis conducted by Friends of the Earth, the bill contains close to half a trillion dollars that can be accessed by the nuclear energy industry.”

Germany Debates Subsidies for Solar Industry. By Mark Landler, NYTimes, May 16, 2008. Thanks to its aggressive push into renewable energies, cloud-wreathed Germany has become an unlikely leader in the race to harness the sun’s energy. It has by far the largest market for photovoltaic systems, which convert sunlight into electricity, with roughly half of the world’s total installations. And it is the third-largest producer of solar cells and modules, after China and Japan. Now, though, with so many solar panels on so many rooftops, critics say Germany has too much of a good thing — even in a time of record oil prices. Conservative lawmakers, in particular, want to pare back generous government incentives that support solar development. They say solar generation is growing so fast that it threatens to overburden consumers with high electricity bills. Solar-energy entrepreneurs warn that reducing incentives will deprive Germany of its pole position in an industry of the future. As proof, they point to the United States and Japan, which were once solar stars but have faded as their government subsidies became less enticing.”

Small-Town Portuguese Mayor Becoming Renown for Promoting Solar Energy. IPS, May 13, 2008. “He is mayor of one of Portugal’s smallest and poorest municipalities. But his perseverance in using solar energy to drive development in his region has brought José Maria Prazeres Pós-de-Mina attention from the rest of the country and from other members of the European Union. Mayor since 1998 of a pioneer municipality that will soon house the world’s largest solar energy station, Pós-de-Mina sees no contradiction between his academic background in business management and his position as a leader of Portugal’s Communist Party, which has deep roots in the southern region of Alentejo, the least developed part of the country. Six years ago, ‘the mayor of the future,’ as he is frequently referred to, even in other European countries, founded the Amper Central Solar SA company to put into practice his initiative, taking up the challenge launched by European Union authorities to meet the bloc’s immense energy needs in a more sustainable, efficient and ecological fashion. In 2006, he sold Amper to the Spanish company Acciona  SA, a world leader in renewable energy sources. The municipality of Moura, which encompasses the town of that name and eight villages, has a population of just 16,500.”

Canada’s Dion Runs a Risk on Carbon Tax, Party Members Warn. By Bruce Campion-Smith, Toronto Star, May 15, 2008. “[Canada’s Liberal Party candidate for prime minister] Stéphane Dion [strongly defended] the idea of a carbon tax on Wednesday in the face of warnings from within his party that the proposal could be political suicide… [Liberal Party] Caucus members ‘massively and aggressively’ warned Dion that the sales job thus far has been abysmal, according to one MP, leaving the Tories to paint the plan as a tax grab that will hit motorists and homeowners… But Dion accused the Conservatives of twisting the truth, and he voiced confidence that Canadians would be receptive.”

Federal Court in Canada Hands Exxon Another Setback on Alberta Oil Sands Project. By Hyun Young Lee, Dow Jones News, May 15, 2008. “[Calgary-based] Imperial Oil [majority-owned by Exxon-Mobil] suffered a further setback to its proposed Kearl oil sands mine Wednesday after a Canadian federal court refused to reinstate a key water permit for the $8 billion development. Canadian Federal Judge Douglas Campbell ruled that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans was right to cancel the permit in March following a prior legal challenge against the project’s environmental approval granted last year. Without the permit, the proposed 300,000-barrel-a-day development in northern Alberta could be delayed by a year or more… The legal clash highlights the growing confrontation between environmental worries and the rush to develop Alberta’s massive oil sands resource amid a blazing rise in crude oil prices.”

Brazil’s Environment Minister Resigns Amidst Controversy Over the Amazon. By Peter Muello, AP, May 13, 2008. “Environment Minister Marina Silva resigned Tuesday, ending an often stormy six-year term that put her in conflict with developers in the Amazon rain forest. Silva did not say why she was stepping down… But Sergio Leitao, director of public policy for Greenpeace in Brazil, said the minister is leaving because the pressure on her for taking the measures she took against deforestation has become unbearable. ‘Brazil is losing the only voice in the government that spoke out for the environment,’ Leitao said. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva picked Carlos Minc, the environment secretary for Rio de Janeiro state, to be the new national environmental minister, according to the government’s official Agencia Brasil news service. The president’s office has yet to comment on Marina Silva’s resignation.”

Brazil Launches ‘Sustainable’ Amazon Plan. Mongabay.com, May 15, 2008. “The Brazilian government will use cheap loans, payments, and other benefits to encourage Amazon farmers to reduce their impact on the Amazon rainforest, under a plan unveiled last week. Brazil says the Sustainable Amazon Plan will create jobs, generate economic growth and reduce social inequalities for the more than 23 million people living in the Amazon by promoting sustainable development schemes and improving infrastructure to integrate the region into the broader economy. Critics say the plan’s emphasis on port and road expansion will facilitate more deforestation — Environment Minister Marina Silva resigned shortly after the plan was announced.”

Prince Charles Urges Climate Action to Prevent ‘Drought and Starvation on a Grand Scale’. Graham Tibbetts, Telegraph (UK), May 16, 2008. “Prince Charles said rainforests provided the ‘air conditioning system for the entire planet,’ releasing water vapour and absorbing carbon, but were being lost to poor farmers desperate to make a living. Safeguarding them would cost the international community around $30 billion (£15 billion) a year and require a ‘gigantic partnership’ of governments, businesses and consumers, he told BBC [on Thursday]. ‘What we have got to do is try to ensure that these forests are more valuable alive than dead. At the moment, there is more value in them being dead,’ he said… Although companies are seeking ways of using technology to capture carbon emissions, the prince said concentrating on the rainforests would be more effective. ‘If we can halt deforestation, what these rainforests do in absorbing carbon is infinitely more effective and cheaper to achieve than trying to indulge in all these very expensive technologies,’ he said.”

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Comprehensive Study Bolsters Link Between Warming and Changes in Nature. By Emma Marris, Nature News, May 15, 2008. “A comprehensive analysis of trends in tens of thousands of biological and physical systems has provided more evidence to bolster the near-universal view that man-made climate change is altering the behaviour of plants, animals, rivers and more. The study by an international research team featuring many members of the IPCC, is a statistical analysis of observations of natural systems over time. The data, which stretch back to 1970, capture the behaviour of 829 physical phenomena, such as the timing of river runoff, and around 28,800 biological species… In around 90% of cases where an overall trend was observed, it was consistent with the predicted effects of climate warming, the researchers report in this week’s Nature… [Cagan] Sekercioglu [of Stanford University who studies bird ranges] is impressed by the scope of the study, but says that there was already a wealth of evidence… ‘We shouldn’t even need to publish such papers at this point,’ he says. ‘This paper is an argument that climate change is causing the observed changes. This should be a given. Thirty years later we are still trying to convince people of this.’ [Cynthia] Rosenzweig [of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and the study’s lead author,] sees those 30 years differently. It was about 30 years ago that… Goddard… began work on climate-change models. ‘Less than 30 years after the fist model was developed, we are working on… [the successor to the Kyoto Treaty, which will expire in 2012]. I think that the global-warming issue is the [biggest] challenge facing our planet, but at the same time it is leading us to sustainability because of the rapidly growing action. It is finally shaking us up and getting us to realize what is going on with the planet.’”

Polar Bear Listed as Endangered, Though Listing is ‘Riddled with Loopholes’. By Adam Satariano, Bloomberg News, May 15, 2008. “The U.S. [Interior Secretary Dick Kempthorne] declared the polar bear a threatened species, giving protected status for the first time to an animal because of global warming [though the agency also included] provisions to ensure continued oil and gas development [in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea]… [Kempthorne said that] the decision includes guidelines to make sure the Endangered Species Act isn’t used… to regulate greenhouse gases… The decision drew criticism from both sides of the climate change debate… The administration plans to apply another animal standard, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, to the polar bear, which may mean no changes for companies seeking energy-exploration permits, said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director H. Dale Hall. Environmental groups denounced the decision and vowed to challenge the accompanying stipulations in court… ‘The administration’s decision is riddled with loopholes, caveats and backhanded language that could actually undermine protections for the polar bear and other species,’ said Carl Pope… of the Sierra Club… ‘While the listing itself is welcome news, I am deeply concerned that the administration’s plan will deny the polar bear some of the key protections of the Endangered Species Act,’’ said [Senate Environment and Public Works Committee chair] Senator Barbara Boxer.”

U.S. Listing Will Put Pressure on Canada to Do More. By Martin Mittelstaedt, Toronto Globe and Mail, May 15, 2008. “[The U.S. classification of the polar bear as endangered]… will have ramifications in Canada by blocking the import into the U.S. of bear skins and other body parts from animals killed by U.S. trophy hunters. It will also put pressure on Ottawa to offer similar protection. Canada currently gives polar bears its lowest level of protection — a designation of being of ‘special concern,’ which requires no practical actions to safeguard populations. Environment Minister John Baird told reporters yesterday that he’ll consider tougher action, if a scientific review to be finished by August recommends it… Although the U.S. government now views the species as threatened, the future of the polar bear is likely to be determined in Canada, where about two-thirds of the estimated global population of between 20,000 and 25,000 [polar bears] live.”

Flawed Farm Bill Poised to Sail Through Congress. Commentary, Houston Chronicle, May 13, 2008. “President Bush promises to veto the five-year, $300 billion farm bill before Congress this week. The House and Senate have given him plenty of reasons to do so… [among which is that it] would cause new damage to the environment. Combined with Congress’ uneconomical mandate that the nation make ethanol from corn, the subsidies encourage needless plowing up of prairie grasses, releasing more unwanted CO2 into the atmosphere. By encouraging more fertilized and watered acreage, the bill would increase the dead zone of nitrogen in the Gulf of Mexico. While costly, the bill contains few dollars for soil and wetlands conservation… [and] would cut but not eliminate tax credits for corn-based ethanol. This would not lower food prices much, if at all, [thereby leaving] in place the vast diversion of acreage from food to biofuels which is a prime factor in the [global] food crisis… [The] bill would also continue the restriction on ethanol imports that would lower the cost of Americans’ food and fuel.”

The ‘Clean Coal’ Marketing Machine Keeps Rolling. By Diane Silver, Salon, May 15, 2008. “Maybe you missed the newspaper ads and billboards warning that turning away from coal could mean blackouts, unemployment and higher electric bills. These… variations on the coal-is-great theme are flooding the nation…The [so-called ‘Clean Coal’ campaign]… has kicked into high gear as prospects for new plants have turned bleak… Coal’s message has been carried by an ever-morphing conglomeration of nonprofit organizations that all work out of the same Alexandria, Va., office and use the same staff. The Center for Energy and Economic Development (working ‘on behalf of coal’s interests’) begot Americans for Balanced Energy Choices (promoting coal, but [now] also ‘proponents of wind, solar and nuclear’…). The two merged on April 17 to become the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, or ‘ACE’… All three… have been funded [to the tune of $45 million] by the biggest names in coal and related industries… In April, Barack Obama acknowledged a voter sporting one of the industry’s hats at a campaign stop in Dunmore, Penn., and then used the industry’s own terminology to talk about his support for investing in carbon storage research. In an appearance in Charleston, W.Va., Hillary Clinton also used the industry’s own words to pledge her support for doing the same…  However, none of [the three presidential candidates] supports a moratorium on building new coal-fired plants. Meanwhile, the Clean Coal marketing machine keeps rolling.”

Rolling in the Black, for Now. By Jane M. Von Bergen, Philadelphia Inquirer, May 15, 2008. “All night and day, trains rumble through the hills and valleys of Greene County [Penn.], where coal is king and the rails carry away the crown jewels, 42 million tons of black bituminous a year, now fetching double its price of just two years ago. No other county in Pennsylvania produces more coal than Greene, population 39,808, about an hour’s drive southwest of Pittsburgh. And few places feel coal’s impact like this county…  [where] sometimes mining companies buy up whole hamlets to avoid dickering with homeowners over damage.”

Climate Bill Will Create $150 Billion in New Assets Its First Year. By Marc Gunther, Fortune, May 15, 2008. “A climate-change bill that has widespread support as it heads to the Senate floor will create an estimated $150 billion of new assets in the first year it takes effect. Between now and 2050, regulating greenhouse gases could easily generate $3 trillion worth in value in the U.S. Should that value go to utility companies, electricity customers who will face rising rates, government investments in new technology or tax cuts? Or should it be returned to all Americans? That question is being debated vigorously by energy companies, politicians and environmental groups. Next week, an influential coalition of big companies and green organizations called the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (U.S. CAP)… will take [the issue] up [as Congress considers the climate change bill]… Essentially… John McCain, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, leading Democrats and moderate Republicans in Congress, dozens of Fortune 500 CEOs, and mainstream environmental groups all agree that a so-called cap-and-trade system to regulate greenhouse gases is needed… That, by itself, is remarkable… [But] ask where that money should go, and the consensus breaks down. Coal-burning utilities say they should be given the permits for free… Others, including candidates Obama and Clinton, say all the permits should be auctioned — why reward the polluters, they ask? Still others want auctions so that proceeds can be used for a variety of causes, ranging from investments in renewable-energy… to middle-class tax cuts to paying down the federal debt… U.S. CAP is deeply divided over the issue.”

McCain Distances Himself from Bush on Climate. By Elisabeth Bumiller, NYTimes, May 14, 2008. “Senator John McCain intensified his criticism of President Bush and the administration’s environmental polices on Tuesday, taking a walk in the cold, rain-drenched foothills of the Cascade Mountains [in Washington state] and asserting that in the effort to stem climate change, ‘America can lead and not obstruct’… McCain… declared that ‘the president and I have disagreed on this issue for many years’… ‘There is a longstanding, significant, deep, strong difference on this issue’… McCain was on his second day of a trip to the Pacific Northwest, a potential swing region in the November election, to promote his plan to slow global warming and appeal to the region’s many independent voters.”

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World Tree Planting Drive Sets Goal of 7 Billion. Alister Doyle, Reuters, May 14, 2008. “A campaign to plant trees worldwide set a goal on Tuesday of seven billion by late 2009, just over one for each person on the planet, to help protect the environment and slow climate change. The U.N. Environment Program (UNEP), an organizer of the tree planting drive begun in late 2006 with an initial goal of a billion by the end of 2007, said governments, companies and individuals had already pushed the total above 2 billion. It set a target on Tuesday of an extra five billion plantings by the time a U.N. climate conference in Denmark starts on Nov. 30 next year that is meant to agree a new long-term treaty to combat climate change beyond the U.N.’s Kyoto Protocol. ‘In 2006 we wondered if a billion tree target was too ambitious; it was not,’ said Achim Steiner, head of UNEP. ‘The goal of two billion trees has also proven to be an underestimate. The goal of planting seven billion trees, equivalent to just over a tree per person alive on the planet, must therefore also be do-able,’ he said in a statement.”

Minnesota Power Buys Power Line for Wind Energy. By Carissa Wyant,Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal, May 14, 2008. “Minnesota Power will shift spending away from coal-based electricity to wind power and buy an $80 million transmission line as part of an effort to use more renewable energy, the company said Tuesday. The company has plans to buy a power line owned by Square Butte Electric Cooperative, for approximately $80 million in early 2009. That line would link Minnesota Power’s current network with the windy North Dakota plains, but it’s currently used to deliver electricity from a coal plant in Center, N.D. The company also detailed that it plans to phase out a long-term contract to buy coal-based electricity from that plant. In addition, Minnesota Power said it will add several hundred megawatts of wind generation near Center.”

Two 50-Magawatt Solar Power Plants Planned in Spain. By Michael Graham Richard, Tree Hugger, May 13, 2008. “It was only a couple months ago that we wrote about Torresol’s plans to build 3 new solar thermal power plants in Spain (price tag: $1.24 Billion). The good news keep rolling in and now it is Acciona Energia’s turn to announce a 500 million euros investment (about $775 million) into 2 new solar thermal plants in Palma del Río, Cordoba, in southern Spain. Each will have a capacity of 50 megawatts and together they should be able to power 75,000 homes, or 244 million kWh a year. They should be operational in 2010. The plants will cover the area of about 260 hectares, or 364 soccer fields, comprising 1,520 solar collectors and a truly mind boggling 364,800 mirrors which will focus the sun’s rays into the collectors.”

Nissan Announces Plans for Electric Car. By Dustan Dwyer, NPR, May 14, 2008. “Nissan Motor Co. announced plans Tuesday to build an electric car by 2010, part of what the automaker says is a strategy to make it the global leader in ‘zero-emission’ vehicles. Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn, who unveiled the plan at a news conference in Tokyo, says the company will mass produce electric cars within the next five years. He laid out a simple case for the vehicles: The number of people buying cars around the world is increasing, while the need to reduce emissions is becoming more urgent… The company will have… [the] electric cars on the road in two years for government fleets in the U.S. and Japan, Ghosn says. The cars will be in mass production by 2012. Nissan has not announced a specific model that will be mass produced.”

Booze-to-Fuel Cars. Posted by Caroline McCarthy, SmartPlanet.com, May 12, 2008.  ‘[E-Fuel founder Thomas] Quinn and his fellow executives recently unveiled the EFuel100 MicroFueler in New York. It looks like a cross between a gas pump and an old-fashioned refrigerator, it’ll cost $9,995, and it’ll be available for customers in the fourth quarter of 2008 (if all goes well). What is it, exactly? It’s a home ethanol refinery. Connect it to a power source and a water source, add sugar ‘feedstock’ and yeast or discarded alcohol (yes, that could mean your cheap leftover booze from the sunny weekend) and in a week it can produce 35 gallons of ethanol that Quinn says any car can run on… E-Fuel’s executives… [say] that its sugar-based ethanol won’t hurt food prices because sugar is a surplus crop, and that sugar ethanol is inherently more efficient than corn. And it’s safe to make at home, because no combustion is involved. (We can’t help but wonder, however, where the sugar’s coming from.)”

McCartney ‘Furious’ Over Lexus Hybrid Hypocrisy. Daily Mail, May 13, 2008. “Sir Paul McCartney was today said to be furious after [a new hybrid Lexus LS600H that was given to him] was flown 7,000 miles from Japan [on a jet]… [The former Beatle’s] efforts to help save the environment were frustrated by the fact that the air journey created 38,050 kilograms of CO2 instead of the 297 kilograms [it would have if it had come]… by boat. According to CO2balance.com, it was the equivalent of driving the car around the world six times.”

A New York Bottled Water Paradox: Banned, and Required. By Jim Dwyer, NYTimes, May 14, 2008.  “After two years of extremely heated debate that included references to ecology, history, geography, and the politics of selling or buying mass-produced cupcakes, the Park Slope Food Co-op in Brooklyn voted at the end of last month to discontinue the sale of bottled water. It comes to about 670 gallons of water per week. Just as the co-op (membership: 13,966) has been selling its last few ounces of designer water, NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia hospital is very quietly going into its third year with signs posted over every sink in one of its newest buildings that say: ‘Do not drink the water. Use bottled water for drinking, brushing teeth, or taking medication.’ This translates to bottles of water by the tens of thousands, every year. So at one end of town they have banished tap water; 18 miles away, they’ve banned bottled water.”

Not As Green As They Claim to Be. Beth Daily, Boston Globe, May 14, 2008. “Consumers in the United States are expected to double their spending on green products and services in the next year to an estimated $500 billion, according to an annual consumer survey by Landor Associates… Marketers, some environmentalists and marketing specialists say, are merely tapping into people’s desire to feel like they’re saving the earth — but not sacrificing their lifestyle… There is virtually ‘zero enforcement,’ said Scot Case of TerraChoice Environmental Marketing, a consulting company based in Philadelphia and Ottawa. Last year, his company conducted a study that found that 99 percent of 1,018 green advertising claims of everyday consumer products could be misleading.”

Sorghum Advanced in India as Alternative Biofuel. By Stephen Leahy, IPS, May 13, 2008. “Biofuels are widely blamed for driving food prices higher, sparking food riots in many countries. At least 25 percent of the U.S. maize crop is diverted to biofuel, and extensive areas in Indonesia, Malaysia, China and Brazil are also devoted to growing fuel rather than food. With sweet sorghum, however, only the stalks are used for biofuel production, while the grain is saved for food or livestock feed. It is not in high demand in the global food market, and thus has little impact on food prices and food security… ‘We consider sweet sorghum an ideal… crop because it produces food as well as fuel,’ said William Dar, director general of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)… ICRISAT worked with nearly 800 farmers in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh and Rusni Distilleries to build the world’s first commercial bioethanol plant running on sorghum, which began operations in June 2007. Locally produced sweet sorghum is also used as feedstock… But does sweet sorghum avoid all of the documented problems of other biofuels such as clearing forests for cropland, depleting and polluting soil and other resources?… Fortunately, badly-needed international standards for sustainable biofuel production and processing are expected to be released this June. Non-governmental organizations, companies, governments and inter-governmental groups from all over the world are close to agreement, says Charlotte Opal of the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels at the Energy Centre of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland.”

NOAA Chief Urges Creating National Climate Service. By Randolph E. Schmid, AP, May 13, 2008. “With concerns about global warming rising along with the planet’s temperature, the head of the federal agency in change of weather research and forecasting is proposing creation of a new National Climate Service. Conrad C. Lautenbacher said Tuesday a climate service within his agency could combine data from the research and analysis work done by several agencies, as well as coordinate climate information for the government… Lautenbacher said the White House has signed off on ‘the idea’ of a climate service, and he said he plans to seek funds to help organize it in the 2010 budget.”

As Ice Retreats, U.S. Military Eyes More Northern Border Patrols. By Lolita C. Baldor, AP, May 12, 2008. “As the Arctic ice cap shrinks, the Pentagon is eyeing the expanding navigable waters as possible entry points for security threats that must be monitored more closely… Air Force Gen. Gene Renuart [chief of the U.S. Northern Command], said in an interview with AP on Friday, ‘Last year, during the summer months, where the ice had retreated we began to see some tourist ships, cruises, in the region… That traffic increase has coincided with greater international interest in potential energy resources in the Arctic, prompting more exploration. All of this has implications that there could be security concerns.’”

Sami People (Laplanders) Issue Plea for Help. By Emily Dugan, London Independent, May 10, 2008. “Olav Mathias-Eira is a reindeer-herder. So was his father. And his father’s father. He is a member of the Sami community, one of the largest indigenous groups remaining in Europe, and his family have been herding reindeer in the same stretch of the Norwegian Arctic since the 1400s. But, because of climate change, their lifestyle, unchanged for centuries, is now at risk. So Mr Mathias-Eira, 50, has travelled to Britain to issue an urgent plea in the hope that his people and livelihood can be saved… The Sami community, one of the largest indigenous groups remaining in Europe… The Sami live across northern Europe, in Norway, Finland, Sweden and Russia. There are believed to be only 100,000 left… Sami have lived in the same northern region of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia for more than 2,500 years. Their traditional livelihoods include fishing, trapping for fur and reinder herding. The Sami were previously known around the world as ‘Lapps,’ or Laplanders.”

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Atmospheric CO2 Hits 387 Parts Per Million. Metro (UK), May 13, 2008. “[Scientists at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii announced that] the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has reached its highest level in human history… pouring into the sky even faster than it did during the second half of the previous century. There are now 387 parts per million of CO2 in the air, the highest figure for 650,000 years… [and] just a few years from what many scientists regard as the tipping point of 400ppm. It raises renewed concerns over the Earth’s dimin­ishing ability to soak up pollution and means targets for cutting emissions need to be revised drastically… Last year, the rise was 2.14ppm, while from 1970 to 2000 the concentration rose by an average of about 1.5ppm each year… Prof Andrew Watson, from the University of East Anglia, said up to 30% of the rise could be [attributed] to the weakening of the Earth’s natural carbon sinks — the oceans and rainforests.”

Tornadoes Are ‘On a Record Pace’. By Nicholas Riccardi, LATimes, May 13, 2008. “The tornadoes that ripped through the Midwest and South over the weekend killed about two dozen people… making 2008 the deadliest year so far for twisters in a decade. According to the National Weather Service, 96 people have lost their lives in a year that has seen an unusual number of storms. In 1998, 115 had perished by May 11. ‘It’s certainly one of the biggest years we’ve had,’ said Harold Brooks… [of] the National Severe Storms Laboratory… What is unusual about this year is the large number of storms in January and February — clustered in places that are normally too far north for winter twisters, such as Illinois and Wisconsin, said Greg Forbes, a severe-weather expert at the Weather Channel… ‘What we’re seeing over the last 10 years is more wintertime events and [storms] creeping north,’ [he] said. ‘Whether that’s global warming or not, you can only speculate.’”

Don’t Be Fooled by Windmills in the McCain Photo-Op Yesterday. Posted by Joseph Romm, Grist, May 12, 2008. “Conservatives like John McCain… are the main reason [he] has to go to a Danish wind turbine manufacturer to give a climate speech. With the major government investments in wind in the 1970s, the U.S. was poised to be a dominant player in [the industry]… But conservatives repeatedly gutted the wind budget, then opposed efforts by progressives to increase it, and repeatedly blocked efforts to extend the wind power tax credit… The U.S. is now a bit player in an industry we launched (we had 90% of global installed capacity in the mid-1980s) — thanks to conservatives, including McCain. In December, McCain himself failed to show up for a key vote that would have extended the wind power production tax credit, which has been a key driver of wind power in this country… McCain’s vote could have broken the conservative filibuster blocking the effort to support renewables… but his spokesperson said that ‘he would not have supported breaking the filibuster.’ This was but one recent example of a series of missed votes or anti-renewable votes McCain has cast in recent years.”

Go with Wind, DOE Says. By David R. Baker, SFChron, May 13, 2008. “Windmills spinning over the Great Plains and along the coasts could supply 20% of U.S. electricity by the year 2030 and put a significant dent in greenhouse gas emissions, federal officials said Monday. Although wind farms now generate just 1% of the nation’s electricity, a new report from the U.S. DOE found that wind power could play a far larger role in the future. It could supply roughly the same percentage of the nation’s power as nuclear plants provide today. ‘There are those who say it is marginal and always will be, and yet the statistics say otherwise,’ said Andy Karsner, [of] DOE… ‘First of all, it’s doable, and second of all, it’s desirable,’ said Dan Arvizu… [of] the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.” [For brief review of DOE’s report, see Rich Sweeney’s post at CommonTragedies.com.]

McCain Threads the Language Needle on Climate. By Stephen Power and Laura Meckler, WSJ, May 13, 2008, subscription. “In a last-minute move highlighting the delicacy of climate-change politics, John McCain on Monday decided not to utter a line in a prepared speech suggesting he would as president penalize industrializing countries that refuse to commit to reducing their greenhouse-gas emissions. Instead, Sen. McCain told an audience in Portland, Ore., that he would pursue ‘effective diplomacy, effective transfer of technology or other means’ to compel reductions by countries that refuse to cap their emissions. An advanced copy of his remarks distributed earlier in the day used tougher language, calling for ‘a cost equalization mechanism’ to apply to countries that don’t enact caps — a punishment that some say amounts to a tariff… A spokeswoman… said he decided against using the original language… to ensure that his remarks were ‘not interpreted as being at odds with his commitment to open trade,’ and to make clear that he would use ‘diplomacy and technology solutions to make sure the economic playing field remained fair.’”

‘No Such Animal as Clean Coal’. Reuters, May 13, 2008. “In a bid to draw voters ahead of Democratic primaries in West Virginia today and Kentucky on May 20, both [Senators Obama and Clinton] are playing up the ascendant role of commercially untested and so far economically nonviable ways of converting America’s plentiful coal supplies into [clean] electricity… ‘We need some big investments right now in figuring out how to capture and store carbon dioxide from coal,’ Clinton [said]… Not to be outdone, Obama’s campaign has distributed flyers in Kentucky stating that ‘Barack Obama believes in clean Kentucky coal’… Candidates’ support for clean coal indicates a tension between their need to bring along delegate-rich coal states… and their global warming platforms. ‘There is no such animal as clean coal,’ said Brent Blackwelder… [of] Friends of the Earth… ‘We need to be looking at getting rid of coal plants’… But ‘Big Coal’ states are not to be ignored… As the Democratic presidential process comes down to the wire, coal plays prominently in three of the six remaining primaries including Montana on June 3.” On Coal, Obama, Treat Them Like Adults. Posted by David Roberts, Grist, May 11, 2008. “West Virginia and Kentucky… [are] the second and third highest coal-producing states… Facing this… what should Obama do? Clinton showed with the gas tax farce that there is no pander to ‘hard-working Americans, white Americans’ too crass or desperate… Should Obama try to keep up? Should he… [promise] that he’ll take care of Big Coal, and Big Coal will take care of them? He’s already doing so in Kentucky. Maybe there’s another way, though. His response to Clinton’s gas tax proposal was to reject it as a Washington gimmick… Why not try the same thing in W.Va. and Ky… by telling the truth… [that,] as president, he would stop the expansion of dirty coal.”

Environmental News Rare on Front Page of NY Times or WS Journal. Posted by Jeremy Hance, Mongabay.com, May 9, 2008. “The Project for Excellence in Journalism has released a study examining the front pages of The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal from December 13, [2007] through March 13, 2008. The report found that both [papers] essentially buried environmental stories, as environmental news for both papers made up only 1% of the total front page. The New York Times focused primarily on domestic elections and politics with more than one in four front page stories on these issues: 26.5% to be exact. The Wall Street Journal  focused mostly on foreign news at 25.4%. Both… had more front-page stories on sports/entertainment/lifestyles than on the environment… the lack of… [which] perhaps contributes to why Americans view environmental issues… as less important than that of Australians and Chinese [who, respectively,] in a recent poll… named the environment their [first and]… fourth highest concern. An ABC News/Wall Street Journal [poll] taken in March placed the environment as number 7 out of 8 issues for Americans. However the poll was unique, since most polls in America don’t include the environment as an option.”

Cities Meet in Albuquerque to Talk Climate Change. By Heather Clark, AP, May 13, 2008. “Scores of city officials and environmental policy leaders from across the country will gather in Albuquerque this week to discuss the latest technologies and policies for dealing with climate change at the local level. ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability is holding its summit to discuss topics including green-collar jobs, the nuts and bolts of how cities get started reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the challenge of creating a green office. It chose Albuquerque because of the strides the city has made on climate issues relatively quickly, said Annie Strickler… for the group… Cities have struggled with producing initial greenhouse gas emissions inventories.”  

Farmers Unable to Cash in on Soaring Food Prices. By Jerry Hirsch, LATimes, May 13, 2008. “All over the world, prices for basic foods — barley for beer, milk for cheese, corn for tortillas, and the rice that serves as a staple for more than half the world’s population — are soaring. But farmers aren’t rushing to cash in on the boom by planting more of the crops. The amount of corn planted in the U.S. is expected to dip this year. Rice acreage in California, which sells as much as half its crop overseas, is predicted to increase by only a small amount. Instead, farmers are planting cheaper-to-grow wheat and soy. They say the reason is simple. The cost of planting some crops is rising as fast as their prices, and sometimes faster, leaving little incentive to increase production of some foods that remain in high demand around the world.”

Chinese People Reject Beijing’s Position on Emissions. By Steven Kull and Doug Miller, Pasadena Star-News, May 13, 2008. “A new University of California study says that China has overtaken the U.S. as the largest emitter of [carbon dioxide]… China’s defense is that it is still growing its economy and that on a per-capita basis it still produces less than a fifth of what the U.S. [does]… A 2007 BBC World Service Poll… found that the Chinese public rejects its government’s position that it has no responsibility to limit its emissions… Majorities of both Chinese (70%) and Americans (59%) agree that… ‘it is necessary to take major steps [to mitigate climate change] starting very soon.’ They are also ready to take tough steps… But how to address the fact that there is still this imbalance between the developed and developing countries? Here again the publics in China and America agree on a way out.”

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Note to Readers: We’re back from Mali and Senegal and the conference for West African journalists. In the coming months we look forward to bringing more news about climate (and related issues of economic and social equity) from Africa.  After today, we return to our regular schedule. 

Click the highlighted headlines for links to these stories.

Election: U.S. and Canada

McCain Delivers Global Warming Speech Today in Oregon. By Glen Johnson, AP, May 12, 2008. “In remarks prepared for delivery [today] at a Portland, Oregon, wind turbine manufacturer, [John McCain] says expanded nuclear power must be considered to reduce carbon-fuel emissions. He also [advocates a carbon dioxide emissions reduction target of 60% below 1990 levels by 2050]… The Arizona senator promised to challenge China and India [on their use of]… heavily polluting fuels such as coal, gas and oil… [and] took a swipe at President Bush… ‘I will not shirk the mantle of leadership that the United States bears. I will not permit eight long years to pass without serious action on serious challenges. I will not accept the same dead-end of failed diplomacy that claimed Kyoto. The United States will lead and will lead with a different approach — an approach that speaks to the interests and obligations of every nation.’ The language highlighted the political stakes for McCain… [who visited Oregon] just days after… Sens. Barack Obama… and Hillary Rodham Clinton… campaigned in the state. Oregon is among the expected general election battlegrounds.”

McCain’s Balancing Act on the Environment. By Juliet Eilperin, WashPost, May 12, 2008. “McCain has made the environment one of the key elements of his presidential bid. He speaks passionately about… climate change… But an examination of McCain’s voting record shows an inconsistent approach… He champions some ‘green’ causes while casting sometimes contradictory votes on others. The senator from Arizona has been resolute in his quest to impose a federal limit on greenhouse gas emissions, even when it means challenging his own party. But he has also cast votes against tightening fuel-efficiency standards and resisted requiring public utilities to offer a specific amount of electricity from renewable sources. He has worked to protect public lands in his home state… But he has also pushed to set aside Endangered Species Act protections when they conflict with other priorities, such as the construction of a University of Arizona observatory on Mount Graham… ‘Look, he always balances what are the environmental implications of these enterprises and what are the economic benefits that could come from them,’ [McCain’s senior policy adviser Doug] Holtz-Eakin said. ‘That is, in general, an approach which may be harder to read than a flat ideological X or Y, but it’s how he reads these things.’”

Democratic Presidential Candidates and Nuclear ‘Nuance’. By Jeff Mason, Reuters, May 7, 2008. “Interviews with top policy advisers to the three White House hopefuls reveal a varied approach [to nuclear power]… McCain… is by far the most enthusiastic… ‘Sen. McCain would eliminate the political obstacles that hinder nuclear power, allow it to compete more effectively, and likely increase its share of the U.S. energy portfolio,’ [McCain adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin] said… Obama… shares McCain’s belief that nuclear energy is part of the solution to climate change. But he opposes new federal subsidies and would work to address concerns about safety and waste storage, senior adviser Jason Grumet said… Clinton… prefers using renewable fuels to fight climate change because of nuclear energy’s risks. ‘Hillary has real concerns about nuclear power because of the issues around safety, waste disposal and proliferation,’ policy director Neera Tandem said. ‘She opposes new subsidies for nuclear power, but would continue research focused on lowering costs and improving safety’… Jim Riccio [of Greenpeace]… described the Democrats’ positions as nuanced. Clinton’s energy platform was ‘better than the others’ because of its focus on non-nuclear sources, though she appeared to change her stances in different states… Both Democrats had received money from nuclear energy companies: Exelon… to Obama and Entergy to Clinton.”

Obama and ‘Clean’ Kentucky Coal. Posted by Kate Sheppard, Grist, May 6, 2008. “‘Barack Obama believes in clean Kentucky coal.’ So reads a direct mailer being distributed in Kentucky ahead of the state’s May 20 primary… Clark Stevens [of] the Obama campaign in Kentucky confirmed that the mailer came from the campaign… Does Obama really believe in ‘clean Kentucky coal?’… There are no plants [with carbon capture and storage technology] in Kentucky… Technically, there is no ‘clean Kentucky coal’… [and] most experts predict that wide-scale carbon sequestration is still a decade away… The Obama campaign has made it clear that they want no new coal plants in the meantime… Given that CCS is a decade away, it follows that Obama’s policies would amount to a suspension of commercial coal plant construction for the duration of his term… excluding publicly-funded demonstration projects like FutureGen. That would allow for little growth in Kentucky coal, unless it started shipping its coal overseas (as of 2006, 80 percent — $2 billion worth – was exported)… Meanwhile, Obama may believe in clean Kentucky coal, but many residents of the state are more familiar with the dirty kind… There’s a difficult conversation to be had with voters in coal states like Kentucky about the fate of coal and the steps political leaders can take to help coal communities through the coming transition. For the moment, at least, Obama seems unwilling to have that conversation.”

Green Group Endorses Obama after He Opposes Gas Tax ‘Holiday’. Grist, May 3, 2008. “Friends of the Earth Action endorsed Barack Obama for president on Saturday, citing his principled stand against a temporary suspension of the gasoline tax. ‘The gas tax holiday debate is a defining moment in the presidential race,’ said [FOEA] President Brent Blackwelder. ‘The two other candidates responded with sham solutions that won’t ease pain at the pump, but Sen. Obama refused to play that typical Washington game. Instead, Obama called for real solutions that would make transportation more affordable and curb global warming’… Meanwhile, Democrats in Congress are preparing to release a plan to counter rising gas prices, but it’s unlikely to include a gas-tax holiday, Grist’s Kate Sheppard reports. A Republican plan unveiled last week also omits a tax holiday [though] it does include a plan to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.”

Canadian Candidate Considers Adding Carbon Tax to Platform. By Mike De Souza, CanWest News Service, May 12, 2008. “Liberal leader Stephane Dion… is publicly musing about introducing a carbon tax as a key plank of his platform to address both environmental and economic issues at the same time. Stealing pages from the B. C. government and the federal Green party, Mr. Dion’s Liberals have indicated that they are considering the new tax… But in order to be successful at the ballot box, Mr. Dion would have to fend off federal Conservatives who are already circling with criticism that the Liberals merely want to gouge Canadian taxpayers for more money, without any concrete benefits.”

Green Options

New England ‘Energy Raisers’ Make Light Work of Going Solar. By Sarah Schweitzer, BGlobe, May 8, 2008. “Last weekend, some 30 men and women arrived at a neighbor’s home in [Sandwich, New Hampshire], prepared for a day of hard labor. Their pay would be a pot of coffee, slabs of cornbread, and a spread of roast turkey sandwiches. In days past, the end result might have been a barn. But in a twist on the traditional… the neighbors put up a solar-heated water system [instead of a barn] … Neighbors in this and other New England communities are coming together for daylong ‘energy raisers,’ installing solar collectors that can reduce a home’s hot water bill by as much as 80%… The energy raisers so far have been concentrated in New Hampshire, where neighbors in Sandwich, Plymouth,  where a handful of surrounding towns have equipped 23 homes with solar and other alternative energy systems in the past three years; the group has scheduled 12… for this summer. Another group held Massachusetts’ first energy raiser last month in Buckland, and a Cambridge group is hoping to begin…soon.”

Ohio Farmer Pioneers Green Energy Practices. By James Hannah, AP, May 7, 2008. “79-year-old Ralph Dull has become an Ohio pioneer in green farming and renewable energy, jumping into it in hopes of increasing energy efficiency, cutting costs and protecting the environment. There are six wind generators on his 2,800-acre farm in western Ohio. In one building sits a machine that produces hydrogen, made from electricity and water. Dull hopes it will soon replace the gas in his forklifts and supplant the propane that heats his pig barn. Dull’s office is geothermal heated and cooled. He dries his seed corn by burning rejected corn instead of propane, and he grinds corn cobs to sell as horse bedding and mulch… while Dull is still the exception, more farmers are expressing interest in green farming and in using renewable energy sources. Beyond environmental concerns, cost-conscious farmers are seeing economic benefits as fuel and fuel-based fertilizer prices soar.”

Eggs and the City. By Leslie Scrivener, Toronto Star, May 4, 2008. “Heidi and Clucky… are plump, vigorous, egg-laying hens that, despite their beauty and utility, are illegal in Toronto. Nonetheless, their owner has kept them quietly in her backyard coop through the winter and now lets them range freely… ‘It makes total sense to me, rather than getting in the car, driving to the grocery store and buying eggs trucked in from a far away farm, to go to the back yard and get eggs,’ says [the hens’ owner]… who… [describes] herself… as a ‘renegade’ chicken owner… Increasingly, urbanites concerned about about food miles and safety are pushing their local governments to be more flexible about backyard livestock. Websites, including backyardchickens.com and TheCityChicken.com, offer direction and inspiration to city farmers. When Elaine Belanger launched the first issue of her magazine Backyard Poultry in 2006, she had 15,000 copies printed, which proved to be not nearly enough.”

Looking into the Future, Cheerfully. By Harriet Green, Guardian, May 2, 2008. “For three years, my husband has talked about taking to the hills. About buying a small holding… where, with our four-year-old daughter, we can safely survive the coming storm — famine, pestilence and a total breakdown of society. I would wait for his lectures to finish, then return to my own interests. I had no time for the end of civilization… But recently, I’ve wavered… This week, the details got scarier. The UN warned of a global food crisis, like a ‘silent tsunami’, while OPEC predicts that oil, which broke through $100 a barrel for the first time a few weeks ago, may soon top $200. In the course of an idle conversation at work last week, a colleague casually revealed that he keeps a supply of tinned food in his bedroom ‘just in case’… [But ‘Transition town’ movement founder Rob] Hopkins recently published a manual, The Transition Handbook, a startlingly cheerful book that gives some idea as to how transition initiatives work - from the very early stages, in which groups raise awareness through film screenings and talks, to the later development of local food networks and even the launch of local currencies. The movement uses 12 steps, rather like Alcoholics Anonymous, to wean us off our dangerous addiction to oil.”

Japan Will Announce Voluntary Emissions Goals. AFP, May 12, 2008. “Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda is expected to announce [that Japan will strive to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 60-80% by 2050] as early as June… Japanese officials [do not] want to make the goal… legally binding, [relying on hope that] the announcement will encourage technological and business innovations… The government is also expected to announce plans to establish a carbon credit exchange… Japan had joined the U.S. in saying it was too early to set numbers for future emissions cuts… Tokyo, under serious criticism from environmentalists, said earlier this year that it would set its own national target for reductions after 2012, when [Kyoto] expires. [Japan is hosting the Group of Eight summit in July.]”

Green Investments

VW, Sanyo to Collaborate on Lithium-Ion Auto Battery. By Chisa Fujioka, Reuters, May 11, 2008. “German carmaker Volkswagen and Japan’s Sanyo Electric Co will jointly develop a lithium-ion battery to be used in hybrid and electric cars, the Nikkei financial daily reported on Sunday. Volkswagen will aim to start importing and using the battery in its hybrid and electric cars by 2012… The move comes after plans by Nissan Motor Co and NEC Corp to start mass-producing lithium-ion batteries… [which will] be smaller and lighter than nickel-hydrogen batteries [in current use], enabling the car’s weight to be cut by 200-300 kilograms… Sanyo, which has the biggest global share of lithium-ion batteries used in personal computers and mobile phones, plans to invest nearly 100 billion yen ($973 million) to make and develop them over the next three years.”

After Blogger Blast, Dell Changes Its Packaging Ways. Greenbiz.com, May 9, 2008. “Under criticism from bloggers during Earth Week over the use of oversized boxes to ship tiny products, Dell sought the advice of its customers this week to help the company improve its packaging. The Consumerist and other blogs showed photos of a Kingston 2gb USB flash drive that was sent to a customer in huge box. After the company read the posts, it sent a team to meet with the vendor in Dallas to figure out how to improve shipping processes. On its corporate blog, Dell said it had developed several immediate and short term actions… Dell isn’t alone when it comes to publicly acknowledging issues that draw calls for action or criticism. Hewlett-Packard, for instance, published its list of suppliers after investors, NGOs and other stakeholders consistently asked for more transparency in its supply chain.” 

Start-Ups Race to Produce Green Cars. By Edward Taylor, WSJ, May 6, 2008, subscription. “Spurred by the belief that the market for fuel-efficient vehicles is about to take off, a slew of tiny car companies is springing up in Europe and the U.S… racing to produce the next ‘green’ car [and] betting that soaring demand will allow them to survive alongside the giants of Detroit, Stuttgart and Tokyo. Most… were founded in the last 12 months and have financial backing from venture-capital firms. They are headed by former top engineers and designers from the likes of Germany’s Volkswagen and storied U.K. racecar builder McLaren. Responding to soaring gasoline prices and a tightening noose of emissions regulations in Europe and the U.S., the companies are working on a new generation of hybrid and electric vehicles. Many of the green start-ups are hoping to ride the coattails of California-based Tesla Motors. Founded in 2003, Tesla unveiled an electrically powered sports car in 2006. The Tesla roadster went into production last month and has pre-sold the first year’s output. One problem: Competition from the industry giants is real. Daimler, Toyota, G.M., Renault SA and Mitsubishi are all developing new-generation electric vehicles.”

New Investment Needed to Power Critical Climate Modeling. By Roger Harrabin, BBC, May 6, 2008. “Last week, about 150 of the world’s top climate modelers converged on [Reading University’s Walker Institute in the UK] for a four-day meeting to plan a revolution in climate prediction… So far modelers have failed to narrow the total bands of uncertainties since the first report of the [IPCC] in 1990. And [Professor] Julia Slingo from Reading University admitted it would not get much better until they had supercomputers 1,000 times more powerful than at present… ‘We know how to [improve climate models to provide much more information at the local level], but we don’t have the computing power to deliver it,’ [she said]. Slingo said several hundred million pounds of investment were needed… ‘It would allow us to tell the policymakers that they need to build the [Thames] barrier [for example] in the next 30 years, or maybe that they don’t need to.’ Some modelers are now warning that feedback mechanisms in the natural environment, which either accelerate or mitigate warming, may be even more difficult to predict than previously assumed. Research suggests the feedbacks may be very different on different timescales and in response to different drivers of climate change.”

Wind

Gov. Jon Corzine Wants New Jersey to Build Nations First Major Offshore Wind Farm. By Terrence Dopp, Bloomberg News, May 9, 2008. “New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine wants his state to be the first in the U.S. Northeast to build an electricity-generating wind farm off the Atlantic coast. Five companies are vying for $19 million in grants and the right to put as many as 200 windmills within 20 miles (32 kilometers) of the Jersey Shore.”

Oil Powered Norway Gradually Turns Into the Wind. By Nina Larson, AFP, May 11, 2008. “As Norway prepares for a future after oil, the gale-force potential of harvesting wind power off its long coastline has become an increasingly attractive proposition. ‘Wind-mapping shows that… Norway is among the (world’s) most ideal locations for wind power, both on the coast and offshore,’ said Norwegian Deputy Petroleum and Energy Minister Liv Monica Stubholdt. Yet the Scandinavian country, one of the world’s leading oil and gas exporters, today lags far behind others in taking advantage of this natural resource. Norway has 15 wind parks, producing a little less than one percent of its electricity, and environmentalists and industry players complain Oslo has done little [so far] to encourage what is considered one of the greenest energy sources.”

Biofuels

Ethanol Under the Kliegs Last Week. By Jeff Johnson, Chemical & Engineering News, May 12, 2008. “Pointing toa global food crisis, international relief organizations [in Congressional hearings] last week joined the oil industry, U.S. grocers, and beef, pork, and chicken farmers in seeking elimination of government programs to encourage biofuels, particularly corn-kernel-based ethanol. Over the past month, the momentum for a rollback… has grown, sparked by an upsurge in prices of human food and animal feed. It has led the governors of Texas and Connecticut and 24 Republican senators to request that EPA waive or limit the renewable fuel standard [RFS]… Among those calling for restraint was Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), chairman of the House Energy & Commerce Committee [who] noted that ‘the ink had hardly dried on the 2007 Energy Act when the clamoring began to alter [it].’ Instead, he said, Congress should wait until EPA finalizes [RFS] regulations… which are required by December.”

McCain and Fellow Republicans Call for Rollback of Ethanol Subsidies. AP, May 6, 2008. “Senate Republicans on Monday asked environmental regulators to use their power to halt the country’s ethanol output expansion plans amid rising food prices. Twenty-four Republican senators, including… John McCain… sent a letter to the EPA suggesting it waive, or restructure, rules that require a five-fold increase in ethanol production over the next 15 years… ‘This subsidized (ethanol) program — paid for by taxpayer dollars — has contributed to pain at the cash register, at the dining room table, and a devastating food crisis throughout the world,’ said McCain, in a statement. Despite tough rhetoric from lawmakers, analysts say Congress is unlikely to roll back such a popular program during an election year.”

Big Oil

Big Oil’s Big-Time Friends. Editorial, NYT, May 5, 2008. “Listen to almost any politician… and you’ll hear that the fight against global warming cannot be won without cleaner technologies… Yet these same politicians are on the verge of allowing modest but vital [renewable energy] tax credits to expire… These credits are necessary… When [they] disappear, investments shrivel. The production tax credit for wind energy has been allowed to expire three times. In each case, new investment dropped by more than 70 percent. The credits for wind and solar expire at the end of this year, so action now is important… Mr. Bush and Senate Republicans bear a heavy [part of the blame]. The House approved, as part of last year’s energy bill, a multiyear extension… while insisting — under its pay-as-you-go rules — that they be offset by rescinding an equivalent amount in tax credits for the oil companies. The oil companies… screamed, Mr. Bush lofted veto threats, and the Senate, by a one-vote margin, refused to go along. Senator John McCain… missed that crucial vote.”

Rockefeller’s Descendants Tell Exxon to Step up Search for Alternative Fuels. By Stephen Foley, London Independent, May 1, 2008. “Descendants of John D Rockefeller, America’s first and biggest oil industry magnate, say that ExxonMobil, a company spawned from his 19th-century monopoly Standard Oil, faces becoming obsolete if it does not step up the search for alternative fuels. Fifteen family members… went public [Wednesday before last] in an attempt to get Exxon to face up to the realities of climate change, and they promised to join a shareholder rebellion to shake up the board to alter company’s strategy… The Rockefellers… are backing resolutions at the Exxon’s shareholder meeting next month which call on the company to fund research into how climate change will affect developing nations. They believe a push into alternative fuels by Exxon and other major oil companies could improve the situation, and demand a new policy on funding alternative fuels. They also want the company to set public goals for reducing carbon emissions from their output — targets which, if tough enough, would force the company to offer less-polluting products than oil and gas. They are also demanding that [the company’s current chairman, Rex Tillerson] split the roles of chairman and chief executive, a resolution which last year won 40% of the vote.”

Coal

Sierra Club Threatens to Sue Coal Plants. By Bernard Woodall, Reuters, May 7, 2008. “The Sierra Club sent letters on Tuesday threatening to file suit to stop construction of eight coal-fired power plants in six states… ‘This is the first major ramification on the ground from the… D.C. circuit kicking out the Bush administration’s rules in February,’ said Bruce Nilles… of the Sierra Club… In February, a federal appeals court in Washington ruled that the EPA violated the Clean Air Act in not setting mandatory cuts for mercury emissions… The suits would seek to require the plants to [be newly permitted to] meet the tougher emission standards… Owners of three plants under construction have already been notified of the intent to sue by the Sierra Club — Entergy… Peabody… and Louisiana Generating, a unit of NRG Energy… Another eight letters were sent on Tuesday… Among the plants involved are Duke Energy’s… Cliffside plant in North Carolina and Energy Future Holdings, formerly TXU Corp, for its proposed Oak Grove plant in Texas. The Sierra Club said it is considering whether to send intent to sue letters to owners of a dozen more plants.”

Bill Gates Still Supports Big Stone II Coal Project. Posted by Ted Nace, Grist, May 4, 2008. “Unlike his bridge buddy Warren Buffett, who recently cancelled six planned coal projects, Bill is still pushing coal. Cascade Investment Management, his personal investment company, is the largest stakeholder (9%) in Otter Tail Corporation, the lead sponsor of the controversial Big Stone II coal project… This is not the first time Gates investments have come under the ethical spotlight. In [January] 2007, an L.A. Times article critiqued Gates Foundation investments… Following the… expose, the Gates Foundation promised [to] ‘formalize the process by which Bill and Melinda Gates analyze and review these issues.’ There are some indications that such reviews may indeed be starting to happen, at least within the Gates family’s own personal portfolio… Cascade Investment Management recently unloaded its stake in Pacific Ethanol. So far, however, Gates has shown no sign of yielding to critics on Big Stone II.”

Carbon Sequestration

Groups Cite New Greenpeace Report in Opposing Carbon Capture and Sequestration. By Larisa Brass, Knoxville News Sentinel, May 6, 2008. “Calling carbon storage technology too expensive and a hollow answer to the environmental issues surrounding coal as an energy source, two local environmental groups [Save Our Cumberland Mountains and Students Promoting Environmental Action at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville] on Monday protested federal legislation they say encourages development of coal-based power production. [The two groups]… cited a [Greenpeace] study, False Hope, released Monday… criticizing measures included in [the Senate’s Lieberman-Warner climate change bill] that would provide incentives for development of clean-coal technologies such as carbon sequestration… According to the… report, carbon storage technology would require 10% to 40% of the power produced by a station to operate, will not be viable until at least 2030, cannot be guaranteed as a safe and permanent storage solution and is expensive, potentially leading to a 21% to 91% increase in the price of power for consumers.”

Environmentalists Divided on Sequestration. By Alister Doyle, Reuters, May 5, 2008. “Greenpeace and more than 100 other environmental groups denounced projects for burying industrial greenhouse gases on Monday, exposing splits in the green movement about whether such schemes can slow global warming… ‘Carbon capture and storage is a scam. It is the ultimate coal industry pipe dream,’ said Emily Rochon [of] Greenpeace International and author of [its newly released report entitled False Hope]… In a statement linked to the report, Greenpeace and allies including Friends of the Earth International said… carbon capture and storage (CCS) ‘risks locking the world into an energy future that fails to save the climate’. But some other environmental groups accept carbon capture as a way to slow rising temperatures and avert more powerful storms, heat-waves, droughts, disrupted monsoon rains and raised world ocean levels. ‘Carbon capture and storage is not an ideal solution, but it buys us time,’ said Stephan Singer, head of the WWF’s European Climate and Energy Program in Brussels. ‘We believe it is part of the solution — an emergency exit.’ The U.N. Climate Panel has said CCS could be one of the main ways for slowing climate change by 2100 — contributing a bigger share of greenhouse gas cuts than energy efficiency, a shift to renewable energy or a push for nuclear power… ‘We believe that CCS will be an important tool to reduce emissions from existing coal and gas-fired power plants,’ said Lars Haltbrekken [of] Friends of the Earth Norway. ‘We don’t support new coal-fired power plants, even with CCS.’”

Exxon Mobil Plans Wyoming Plant to Develop Carbon Capture and Storage. Jackson Hole Star Tribune, May 6, 2008. “Exxon Mobil plans to spend more than $100 million to build a plant in Wyoming to continue developing and testing technology that could make capturing and storing carbon dioxide more affordable and open up vast new sources of natural gas. The… company said Monday it will build the plant near LaBarge, [Wyoming] beginning this summer. Startup is scheduled for late 2009, and testing is expected to take place over a couple of years… The CO2 capture technology comes to Wyoming at a time when the oil industry here is scraping for every bit of CO2 available. CO2 can be injected into old oil fields to sweep remaining oil to production wells. CO2 flooding accounted for 5.7 million barrels of oil in Wyoming in 2007, according to the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.”

Tar Sands and Oil Shale

Groups Urge Senate to Uphold Ban on Tar Sands. By Martin Mittelstaedt, Toronto Globe and Mail, May 8, 2008. “A who’s who of major U.S. and Canadian environmental organizations is urging the U.S. Senate to keep in place a rule banning the U.S. government from buying fuel from Alberta’s tar sands on the grounds that it is too environmentally tainted. Yesterday, the groups released a letter sent to all members of the U.S. Congress, urging them to reject efforts to revoke the fuel measure through amendments to other legislation, arguing that taxpayer dollars shouldn’t be spent ‘to develop alternative fuel sources that make global warming worse’… The letter was written by the Natural Resources Defense Council… and endorsed by 26 other organizations, including Greenpeace Canada, Friends of the Earth and the Sierra Club.”

Colorado Republicans Push for Oil Shale Development. AP, May 4, 2008. “Colorado Sen. Wayne Allard has joined other Republican members of Congress [to push] for more domestic energy production by removing barriers to oil shale leasing in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah. A bill introduced Thursday by [Republican] Sen. Pete Domenici, N.M., would repeal a one-year moratorium on approval of final regulations for commercial oil shale leases on federal land. It would also allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Colorado’s other senator, Democrat Ken Salazar, pushed the one-year ban that prevents the U.S. Bureau of Land Management from using federal funds to draft final regulations for commercial leases. [Republican] Allard voted… against the $555 billion spending bill that included the ban last year… Salazar is among the Colorado officials who’ve urged the federal government to move cautiously on oil shale because of the potential impacts. Water providers along Colorado’s Front Range have warned that commercial-scale development could drain up to 15% of western Colorado’s water supply.”

Climate Change Impacts

Tragedy in Myanmar. By Aung Hla Tun, Reuters, May 12, 2008. “Desperate survivors of Cyclone Nargis headed out of Myanmar’s Irrawaddy delta in search of food, water and medicine, but aid workers said on Sunday that thousands will die if emergency supplies don’t get through soon.”

Another Bad Year for Fires Predicted. By Laura Zuckerman, Reuters, May 12, 2008. “U.S. fire managers are forecasting a grim year for blazes in drought-plagued Western states, just weeks after a premature start to the Southwest’s wildfire season. This comes even as the U.S. Forest Service, the lead agency for fighting fires on vast swaths of public and private lands, is reassessing a years-old model that sought to contain all blazes at all times. Environmental and financial strains paired with demographic changes have made that strategy ineffective in an era of record-size fires sweeping across the West, experts say. ‘We can’t do things like we did in the 1970s and 1980s,’ said George Weldon… [of] a regional Forest Service office in Montana. ‘The fire environment in a lot of situations is exceeding our capabilities to control large fires that burn the entire summer.’ Climate models show a warming West where snowmelt from the mountains occurs earlier and dry conditions persist longer, setting the stage for blazes that reset measures for scale and intensity.”

Scorching Heat and Water Shortages Loom in Turkey. Istanbul Today’s Zaman, May 12, 2008. “Experts warn many regions in Turkey will be hit by a drought at least as severe as last year’s… Turkey experienced abnormally hot and dry days last summer, with water levels dropping to alarmingly low levels and several cities experiencing frequent water cuts… Murat Türkeş, a professor at Onsekiz Mart University… [said,] ‘There has been significant decrease in the amount of rain that falls in winter months. On the other hand, there has been a considerable increase in rainfall received throughout spring. But spring rains do not improve levels of water reservoirs because they are generally in the form of showers. Showers do not feed water sources. Rather, they lead to erosion and floods,’ he said… According to the Human Development Report (HDR) published by the U.N. Development Program (UNDP) last December, Turkey is among the five regions at great[est] risk… of global warming [impacts].”

Amphibians Face Grave Peril With 165 Species Already Gone. By Juliet Eilperin, WashPost, May 12, 2008. “The 300 Kihansi spray toads residing in a small room at the Bronx Zoo chirp cheerily as they bask in a light sprinkling of water 14 times a day. Until a few years ago, the tiny, mustard-colored toads existed only in a river gorge in Tanzania. Now the survivors are confined to the Bronx and Toledo zoos, having gone extinct in the wild. With thousands of amphibian species facing unprecedented threats to their survival, scientists have launched a global effort to collect them in zoos in an attempt to save them from disappearing altogether. The program, called Amphibian Ark, aims to keep 500 species in captivity and breed enough to eventually reintroduce them into the wild… Scientists have been tracking the rapid disappearance of amphibians for two decades, but new evidence suggests [they] face increasingly grave peril. A third to a half of all amphibians are now threatened with extinction; 165 species have already vanished. In Latin America and the Caribbean alone, three of every four amphibian species are critically endangered.”

Public Perceptions

Americans Grow Up. Posted by Charles Komanoff, Grist, May 4, 2008. “A CBS-NYT poll released on May 4th just might signal the moment when Americans began to grasp the intertwined realities of climate, energy and national security. The poll [PDF, 19 pp] found that 49 percent of Americans think suspending the gasoline tax this summer is a bad idea, while 45 percent approve of the plan (see Question 49). If memory serves, this is the first time in at least a generation that the American public expressed a willingness to be taxed more rather than less for energy.”

Alaskan Taxpayers Fund ‘Skeptic’ Polar Bear Conference. By Tom Kizzia, Anchorage Daily News, May 4, 2008. “A $2 million program funded with little debate by the [Alaskan] Legislature last month calls for using state money to fund an ‘academic based’ conference that highlights contrarian scientific research on global warming [in hopes of undermining] public perception of a widespread consensus among polar bear researchers that warming global temperatures and melting Arctic ice threaten [their] survival. Republican legislative leaders say a federal decision to declare the polar bears ‘threatened’ by climate change [under the Endangered Species Act] would have troubling effects on Arctic oil development and the state’s economic future. Last week a federal judge ordered the Bush administration to release [by May 15] its already-tardy decision [on polar bears] under the… Act… By law, such a decision must be based strictly on science, not on possible economic consequences.”

Reflections/Commentary

The Elusive Negawatt. Economist, May 12, 2008. “In wonkish circles, energy efficiency used to be known as ‘the fifth fuel’… No wonder that wonks now tend to prefer ‘negawatts’ to megawatts as the best method of slaking the world’s growing thirst for energy… The McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), the research arm of the consultancy, thinks that energy efficiency could get the world halfway towards the goal… of keeping the concentration of greenhouse gases… below 550 ppm. MGI is particularly enthusiastic because it believes that unlike most other schemes to reduce emissions, a global energy-efficiency drive would be profitable. The measures it has in mind, all of which rely on existing technology, would earn an average return of 17% and a minimum of 10%… In other words, big investments in energy efficiency would more than pay for themselves, and fairly fast. Although a lot of money would have to be spent — $170 billion a year until 2020 — by MGI’s reckoning that is only 1.6% of today’s global annual investment in fixed capital. Moreover, with ample profits to be made, financing should be easy to attract. Yet if there are so many lucrative opportunities… why are investors not already taking advantage of them?” [Amory Lovins coined the word ‘negawatt’ in The Negawatt Revolution, a speech given to the Montreal Green Energy Conference in 1989.]

Driving Our Hybrid SUVs Down the Highway to Collapse. Commentary Alex Steffan, Worldchanging.com, April 21, 2008. “With every passing day, we are discovering that things are worse than we thought. Our climate is ripping apart at the seams at a rate that’s surprising even the so-called alarmists. Natural systems are collapsing. The ocean seems headed towards a series of catastrophic tipping points. Economic inequity is producing a planet of billionaires and a billion desperate people. Our political systems are suffering a massive crisis of legitimacy, while insane fundamentalists, violent criminals and two-bit dictators (wearing both uniforms and Armani suits) are stealing or destroying everything they can get their hands on… In the face of this reality, recycling a bottle is an act so insignificant as to be merely totemic. Paper or plastic? Who the hell cares? In the developed world, few of us, essentially none of us, currently live a ‘one-planet life.’ The vast majority of us, even of those of us who have committed ourselves to change, consume more resources and energy than our sustainable share: indeed, it is very, very difficult to live an individually sustainable life, because the very systems in which we are enmeshed — which enfold and make possible our lifestyles — are themselves insanely unsustainable. We’re driving our hybrid SUVs down the highway to the Collapse.”

Put A Tyrant in Your Tank. By Joshua Kurlantzick, Mother Jones, May/June, 2008. “Anyone inclined to celebrate Big Oil’s recent misfortunes had better hold off… For however badly the Western firms may have behaved, the new global oil barons could one day leave environmental and social activists nostalgic for the bad old days of ExxonMobil… State-run oil companies make Shell and ExxonMobil look like Greenpeace. The multinational firms may cozy up to nasty regimes, but they are at least obligated to respond to public criticism. Shell releases detailed annual reports about its sustainability efforts, and most of its peers have signed on to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, a voluntary compact designed to reduce corruption in countries with oil and gas investments. Embracing some environmental issues helps the firms win favor from shareholders and the public, which is why BP, for one, has put a huge PR push behind its modest initiatives to combat global warming… The national concerns, by contrast, behave with near impunity.”

The World at 350: A Last Chance for Civilization. By Bill McKibben, TomDispatch.com, May 11, 2008. “All of a sudden it isn’t morning in America, it’s dusk on planet Earth. There’s a number — a new number — that makes this point most powerfully. It may now be the most important number on Earth: 350. As in parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. A few weeks ago, our foremost climatologist, NASA’s Jim Hansen, submitted a paper to Science magazine with several co-authors. The abstract attached to it argued — and I have never read stronger language in a scientific paper — ‘if humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm.’ Hansen cites six irreversible tipping points — massive sea level rise and huge changes in rainfall patterns, among them — that we’ll pass if we don’t get back down to 350 soon; and the first of them, judging by last summer’s insane melt of Arctic ice, may already be behind us. So it’s a tough diagnosis. It’s like the doctor telling you that your cholesterol is way too high and, if you don’t bring it down right away, you’re going to have a stroke… In this case, though, it’s worse than that because we’re not taking the pill and we are stomping on the gas — hard… Here’s the Indian scientist and economist Rajendra Pachauri, who accepted the Nobel Prize on behalf of the IPCC last year (and, by the way, got his job when the Bush administration, at the behest of Exxon Mobil, forced out his predecessor): ‘If there’s no action before 2012, that’s too late. What we do in the next two to three years will determine our future. This is the defining moment… A few of us have just launched a new campaign, 350.org. Its only goal is to spread this number around the world in the next 18 months, via art and music and ruckuses of all kinds, in the hope that it will push those post-Kyoto negotiations in the direction of reality.”

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Note to Readers: The Newsfeed is being published intermittently this week due to staff presence at a conference for environmental journalists in Mali.

Click the highlighted headlines for links to these stories.

Sierra Club Threatens to Sue Coal Plants. By Bernard Woodall, Reuters, May 7, 2008. “The Sierra Club sent letters on Tuesday threatening to file suit to stop construction of eight coal-fired power plants in six states… ‘This is the first major ramification on the ground from the… D.C. circuit kicking out the Bush administration’s rules in February,’ said Bruce Nilles… of the Sierra Club… In February, a federal appeals court in Washington ruled that the EPA violated the Clean Air Act in not setting mandatory cuts for mercury emissions… The suits would seek to require the plants to [be newly permitted to] meet the tougher emission standards… Owners of three plants under construction have already been notified of the intent to sue by the Sierra Club — Entergy… Peabody… and Louisiana Generating, a unit of NRG Energy… Another eight letters were sent on Tuesday… Among the plants involved are Duke Energy’s… Cliffside plant in North Carolina and Energy Future Holdings, formerly TXU Corp, for its proposed Oak Grove plant in Texas. The Sierra Club said it is considering whether to send intent to sue letters to owners of a dozen more plants.”

Groups Urge Senate to Uphold Ban on Tar Sands. By Martin Mittelstaedt, Toronto Globe and Mail, May 8, 2008. “A who’s who of major U.S. and Canadian environmental organizations is urging the U.S. Senate to keep in place a rule banning the U.S. government from buying fuel from Alberta’s tar sands on the grounds that it is too environmentally tainted. Yesterday, the groups released a letter sent to all members of the U.S. Congress, urging them to reject efforts to revoke the fuel measure through amendments to other legislation, arguing that taxpayer dollars shouldn’t be spent ‘to develop alternative fuel sources that make global warming worse’… The letter was written by the Natural Resources Defense Council… and endorsed by 26 other organizations, including Greenpeace Canada, Friends of the Earth and the Sierra Club.”

Senate Democrats Look at Political Influence in EPA Decisionmaking. By Renee Schoof, McClatchy Newspapers, May 8, 2008. “George Gray, the EPA’s… [top] science adviser, told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee [Wednesday] that the EPA’s 7,000 scientists conduct research free of political influence and speak openly about their work, [insisting] the EPA’s work is transparent even though it holds closed meetings with the White House Office of Management and Budget and other government agencies when it considers the risks from toxic chemicals…The EPA administrator, Stephen Johnson, declined to testify [at the hearing]. ‘The last few times Mr. Johnson has appeared before us, he has been less than forthcoming, as evasive and unresponsive as (former Attorney General) Alberto Gonzales,’ [Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, (D-RI)] said. He added that the forced resignation of EPA regional administrator Mary Gade, who had been investigating dioxin contamination in Michigan by Dow Chemical, ‘smacks of the U.S. Attorney scandal at the Justice Department last summer.’ Like the nine U.S. attorneys the White House fired, Gade was well-regarded and had received strong performance evaluations, he said, adding, ‘her forced resignation reeks of political interference.’ Gray declined to discuss Gade’s ouster.”

Democratic Presidential Candidates and Nuclear ‘Nuance’. By Jeff Mason, Reuters, May 7, 2008. “Interviews with top policy advisers to the three White House hopefuls reveal a varied approach [to nuclear power]… McCain… is by far the most enthusiastic… ‘Sen. McCain would eliminate the political obstacles that hinder nuclear power, allow it to compete more effectively, and likely increase its share of the U.S. energy portfolio,’ [McCain adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin] said… Obama… shares McCain’s belief that nuclear energy is part of the solution to climate change. But he opposes new federal subsidies and would work to address concerns about safety and waste storage, senior adviser Jason Grumet said… Clinton… prefers using renewable fuels to fight climate change because of nuclear energy’s risks. ‘Hillary has real concerns about nuclear power because of the issues around safety, waste disposal and proliferation,’ policy director Neera Tandem said. ‘She opposes new subsidies for nuclear power, but would continue research focused on lowering costs and improving safety’… Jim Riccio [of Greenpeace]… described the Democrats’ positions as nuanced. Clinton’s energy platform was ‘better than the others’ because of its focus on non-nuclear sources, though she appeared to change her stances in different states… Both Democrats had received money from nuclear energy companies: Exelon… to Obama and Entergy to Clinton.”

New Hampshire Senate Considers Emissions Bill. By Denis Paiste, Manchester Union Leader, May 7, 2008. “The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative bill up for a [New Hampshire] Senate vote [today]… will force electricity producers to buy allowances… to cover their CO2 emissions. The money raised will be directed to energy efficiency projects… The RGGI legislation, which has the backing of Gov. John Lynch, could cost New Hampshire electric ratepayers an additional $17.2 million to $103.4 million in its first year… New Hampshire is one of 10 mid-Atlantic and Northeast states… that have committed to participate in the first cap-and-trade program to control CO2 emissions in the U.S. Under the plan, electric power generators would have to buy one allowance for each… ton of CO2 they emit. Early estimates range from $2 to $12 for each allowance, with a $1.86 minimum bid… To ease the potential pain in New Hampshire, the original RGGI bill proposed a $12 per allowance threshold… The Senate Energy, Environment, and Economic Development Committee cut the threshold to $6 per allowance.”

Start-Ups Race to Produce Green Cars. By Edward Taylor, WSJ, May 6, 2008, subscription. “Spurred by the belief that the market for fuel-efficient vehicles is about to take off, a slew of tiny car companies is springing up in Europe and the U.S…. racing to produce the next ‘green’ car [and] betting that soaring demand will allow them to survive alongside the giants of Detroit, Stuttgart and Tokyo. Most… were founded in the last 12 months and have financial backing from venture-capital firms. They are headed by former top engineers and designers from the likes of Germany’s Volkswagen and storied U.K. racecar builder McLaren. Responding to soaring gasoline prices and a tightening noose of emissions regulations in Europe and the U.S., the companies are working on a new generation of hybrid and electric vehicles. Many of the green start-ups are hoping to ride the coattails of California-based Tesla Motors. Founded in 2003, Tesla unveiled an electrically powered sports car in 2006. The Tesla roadster went into production last month and has pre-sold the first year’s output. One problem: Competition from the industry giants is real. Daimler, Toyota, G.M., Renault SA and Mitsubishi are all developing new-generation electric vehicles.”

Driving Our Hybrid SUVs Down the Highway to Collapse. By Alex Steffan, Worldchanging.com, April 21, 2008. “With every passing day, we are discovering that things are worse than we thought. Our climate is ripping apart at the seams at a rate that’s surprising even the so-called alarmists. Natural systems are collapsing. The ocean seems headed towards a series of catastrophic tipping points. Economic inequity is producing a planet of billionaires and a billion desperate people. Our political systems are suffering a massive crisis of legitimacy, while insane fundamentalists, violent criminals and two-bit dictators (wearing both uniforms and Armani suits) are stealing or destroying everything they can get their hands on…In the face of this reality, recycling a bottle is an act so insignificant as to be merely totemic. Paper or plastic? Who the hell cares? In the developed world, few of us, essentially none of us, currently live a ‘one-planet life.’ The vast majority of us, even of those of us who have committed ourselves to change, consume more resources and energy than our sustainable share: indeed, it is very, very difficult to live an individually sustainable life, because the very systems in which we are enmeshed — which enfold and make possible our lifestyles — are themselves insanely unsustainable. We’re driving our hybrid SUVs down the highway to the Collapse.”

Looking into the Future, Cheerfully. By Harriet Green, Guardian, May 2, 2008. “For three years, my husband has talked about taking to the hills. About buying a small holding… where, with our four-year-old daughter, we can safely survive the coming storm - famine, pestilence and a total breakdown of society. I would wait for his lectures to finish, then return to my own interests. I had no time for the end of civilization… But recently, I’ve wavered… This week, the details got scarier. The UN warned of a global food crisis, like a ‘silent tsunami’, while OPEC predicts that oil, which broke through $100 a barrel for the first time a few weeks ago, may soon top $200. In the course of an idle conversation at work last week, a colleague casually revealed that he keeps a supply of tinned food in his bedroom ‘just in case’…. [But ‘Transition town’ movement founder Rob] Hopkins recently published a manual, The Transition Handbook, a startlingly cheerful book that gives some idea as to how transition initiatives work - from the very early stages, in which groups raise awareness through film screenings and talks, to the later development of local food networks and even the launch of local currencies. The movement uses 12 steps, rather like Alcoholics Anonymous, to wean us off our dangerous addiction to oil.”

For the Green Bookworm on Your Mother’s Day List. Posted by Raz Godelnik, Ecolibris, May 5, 2008. “We went over all the books reviewed and covered so far on our blog and chose ten… We hope you find the right green book for your mom!”

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Note to Readers: The Newsfeed will be intermittent this week due to staff presence at a conference for environmental journalists in Mali.

Click the highlighted headlines for links to these stories.

Aid Workers Fear Cyclone Deaths Will Top 50,000. By Kenneth Denby, London Times, May 6, 2008. “Foreign aid workers in [Myanmar, formerly known as] Burma have concluded that as many as 50,000 people died in Saturday’s cyclone, and two to three million are homeless, in a disaster on a scale comparable with the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. The official death count after Cyclone Nargis stood at just under half that by 1300 GMT today, at around 22,500 people dead plus a further 41,000 missing. But due to the incompleteness of the information from the stricken delta of the Irrawaddy river, UN and charity workers in the city of Rangoon privately believe that the number will eventually be double that… Foreign aid agencies have reported scenes of devastation, with corpses still littering the rice fields and desperate survivors without food or clean drinking water. They are either without shelter or crammed into whatever buildings remain standing… Factfile: storm deaths: 1,500 dead in the southern U.S. in Hurricane Katrina in August 2005; 4,400 dead in Bangladesh in Cyclone Sidr last November, the most recent violent storm to hit Southeast Asia; 9,000 dead in Central America in Hurricane Mitch in November 1998. Winds of up to 180mph, but most deaths caused by flooding and mudslides so extensive that the maps of Honduras and Nicaragua had to be redrawn; 10,000 dead in east Indian state of Orissa in cyclone in October 1999. The winds were accompanied by a 26ft storm surge. Many died of starvation and disease as rescuers failed to reach them in time with aid; 50,000 feared dead in Cyclone Nargis in Burma in May 2008; 138,000 dead in Chittagong region of Bangladesh in cyclone in April 1991. The 20-ft storm surge brought massive flooding that left 10 million homeless; 225,000 dead in 11 countries in the Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004. 31,229 were confirmed dead in Sri Lanka and 131,028 in Indonesia, mostly in Aceh province on the island of Sumatra. The official death toll in Burma was 61, although witnesses put it closer to 600.”

ASEAN Members Urged to Send Help to Myanmar, Adapt to Era of New Climate-Related Perils. A