Mar 05 2010

All Fish Tested from U.S. Streams Found Contaminated with Mercury

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In a new study conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), every single fish tested from 291 freshwater streams across the United States was found to be contaminated with mercury. "This study shows just how widespread mercury pollution has become in our air, watersheds and many of our fish in freshwater streams," said Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.
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Mar 05 2010

EU climate funding melting?

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The European Union's development chief may be forced to name and shame France, Germany and Italy for not living up to their aid commitments, contributing to a roughly $17 billion funding gap this year. Andris Piebalgs warned in January he would clearly identify EU countries that failed to meet their aid commitments. "In 2010, the EU aid disbursements are likely to further grow to approximately 54-55 billion euros ($74-75 billion)," a leaked EU document seen by Reuters shows. "Many member states will most probably not reach their... aid targets. A gap of 12-13 billion euros remains."
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Mar 04 2010

Iran and Qatar Align on Environment

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While the world sees Iran up to nuclear arms, Qatar and Iran have signed a memorandum of understanding regarding helping to preserve the environment. Qatar’s Gulf Times reported that a memorandum of understanding was signed on February 22 by Qatar’s Minister for the Environment, Abdullah bin Mubarak bin Aboud al-Midhadhi, and by Iran’s environment head Mohamed Javad Mohamedi Zadeh. In the understanding, the two countries agree to be involved together in a number of environmental areas: Managing green reserves, green spaces, plant growth and animal husbandry, in addition to the environmental management of coastal areas, desertification control and the exchange of experiences and expertise between the two countries.
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Mar 04 2010

EPA to Phase in CO2 emissions permits/BACT for mid-sized sources

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The Obama administration will give small businesses a break on coming carbon dioxide emissions rules but big emitters like coal-fired power plants will face a crack-down, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson said on Wednesday. President Barack Obama has pushed the EPA to begin regulating gases blamed for warming the planet, in part to force polluters to support the climate change bill. The legislation is his preferred method of climate control, but it is stalled in the Senate.
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Mar 03 2010

Alaskan Glacier Ice Loss Overestimated?

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The melting of glaciers is well documented, but when looking at the rate at which they have been retreating, a team of international researchers steps back and says not so fast. Previous studies have largely overestimated mass loss from Alaskan glaciers over the past 40-plus years, according to Erik Schiefer, a Northern Arizona University geographer who coauthored a paper in the February issue of Nature Geoscience that recalculates glacier melt in Alaska.
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Mar 02 2010

British Antarctic Survey census of biodiversity sheds light on changing climate

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The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) presents the results of its ongoing census of marine life in the Antarctic at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The BAS census has been documenting the diversity of marine life in Antarctic waters and the way it is changing in response to climate change.
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Mar 02 2010

Mekong River at record low flow

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Water levels in the northern Mekong River are at record-low levels, posing a threat to water supply, navigation and irrigation along a stretch of water that is home to millions, a regional official said. Northern Thailand, northern Laos and southern China have all been affected, Jeremy Bird, chief executive officer of the Mekong River Commission (MRC) secretariat, told AFP. "The flows are much lower than we've got records on in the last 20 years," said Bird, whose inter-governmental body deals with all Mekong River-related activities including fisheries, agriculture and flood management.
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Mar 02 2010

Solar Plane Almost Ready for Record Flight

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In Switzerland, two pioneers are coming closer and closer to a flight around the world powered only by solar energy. It doesn't make good business sense, physics sense, or much of any kind of sense, to try to fly an airplane on solar power. Not yet. With the state of the technology, and how relatively young the solar sector still is, such an endeavor would be considered quixotic today—let alone in 2003, when Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg, co-founders of Solar Impulse, announced they would design a solar-powered aircraft and fly it around the world. It would be a statement, they said, about our global dependence on fossil fuels and the untapped promise of burgeoning green technologies. The Swiss pilot-entrepreneurs were after "perpetual flight": a plane that could climb to 9,000 feet and fly on the sun's energy by day, then descend below cloud cover to lower altitudes, where it would cruise on stored battery power by night.
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Mar 01 2010

Chile earthquake update – damage assessed

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The Chile earthquake -- at a magnitude of 8.8 -- was much stronger than the one that hit Haiti, but casualties and damages appear to be far less. Why? The earthquake that struck Chile was far stronger than the one that struck Haiti in January. But, initial reports show that damage was much more contained. While the death toll of 214 is only preliminary and is expected to grow, it's still a thousand times lower than that of Haiti's. One emergency official quoted by Reuters said the number of deaths was unlikely to increase dramatically. Because of its long history with earthquakes, which has contributed to an earthquake “consciousness” in Chile, and infrastructure that is built to higher standards, many hope that Chile will be spared the vast destruction that struck Haiti, even as it deals with one of its worst natural disasters in decades.
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Feb 25 2010

China has “No intention” of capping emissions

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China has no intention of capping its greenhouse gas emissions even as authorities are committed to realizing the nation's target to reduce carbon intensity through new policies and measures, the country's top climate change negotiators said yesterday. The negotiators also warned that rich and developing countries have little hope of overcoming key disagreements over how to fight global warming. China "could not and should not" set an upper limit on greenhouse gas emissions at the current phase, said Su Wei, the chief negotiator of China for climate change talks in Copenhagen, at a meeting in Beijing on China's climate change policies in the post-Copenhagen era.
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