Global Warming Today articles from May 2006

Global Warming Today archives from May 2006

Ford and TerraPass Launch CO2 Offset Campaign for Drivers.
May 3, 2006... Ford Motor Company recently announced plans to offer owners of Ford vehicles a chance to buy into renewable energy development through the purchase of carbon offsets. The car manufacturer has teamed with TerraPass to launch a "Greener Miles"...

New OSU Report Says Global Warming Threatens Coral Reefs.
May 3, 2006... Incidents of coral reef destruction, or "bleaching events," have snowballed in recent years as ocean temperatures have risen, according to Ohio State University (OSU), with the minute creatures that build the underwater structures capable of...

FOE Finds Majority of Britons Would Support Climate Law.
May 3, 2006... An online survey of 1,233 British adults indicates that 75 percent of the U.K. population would back a law to help fight climate change. Friends of the Earth (FOE) U.K. commissioned the survey of people aged 16 to 64 to determine how many...

IPCC Draft Report Connects Human Activity to Global Warming.
May 4, 2006... A draft report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reportedly notes that human-induced global warming is responsible for heat waves, Arctic ice reduction and other atypical weather events. The report is the draft fourth...

New Zealand Scientists Join in Denying Warming Claims.
May 4, 2006... Several climate scientists in New Zealand have formed a group, dubbed the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition, that is designed to engage in public debate regarding what its members consider to be false claims about anthropogenic global...

NOAA GHG Index Reveals Higher Overall Emissions in 2005.
May 4, 2006... This year's Annual Greenhouse Gas Index, released by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on May 1, reveals increases in carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrous oxide, with methane emissions remaining at the same level and two...

Ten States File Lawsuit Over Federal Fuel Economy Standards.
May 5, 2006... Ten U.S. states and two cities have filed a joint lawsuit against the federal government alleging that new fuel economy standards for SUVs and light trucks fail to address global warming and other harmful environmental effects. The suit also...

New NOAA Report Reconciles Atmospheric Temperature Trends.
May 5, 2006... A new National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) report reconciles a conflict in climate science data that skeptics had used to attack the premise of global climate change. "Temperature Trends in the Lower Atmosphere: Steps for...

Canadian Government Cuts Climate Research Funding.
May 5, 2006... Canada's new Conservative administration omitted all mention of the Kyoto Protocol in its new draft budget, signaling a major reorientation of that country's previous climate change research and policy initiatives. Canadian finance...

Weekly Update.
May 5, 2006... ENGINEERING INSTITUTE OF CANADA'S (EIC) CLIMATE CHANGE TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE: ENGINEERING OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES IN THE 21ST CENTURY, May 9-12, 2006, Ottawa Congress Centre, Ottawa, Ontario CARBON EXPO: GLOBAL CARBON MARKET FAIR &...

U.S. Mayors Sign Climate Protection Agreement.
May 8, 2006... Sidestepping the federal government's rejection of the Kyoto Protocol, hundreds of U.S. mayors have signed an agreement to meet the treaty's targets for curbing greenhouse gas emissions. The U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, which the...

NOAA Climate Model Connects Greenhouse Gases, Hurricanes.
May 8, 2006... New climate simulations indicate that human-generated greenhouse gas emissions may be helping to warm the tropical region of the Atlantic where hurricanes arise, according to the Geophysics Fluid Dynamics Laboratory of the National Oceanic and...

Chinese Climate Scientists Warn of Glacier Shrinkage.
May 8, 2006... The Qinhai-Tibet plateau, known in China as the "roof of the world," has suffered major environmental damage due to global warming, according to Chinese scientists who have analyzed 40 years of research on data from China's 681 weather...

MicroPlanet, AES Create New Joint Venture.
May 9, 2006... Seattle, WA-based MicroPlanet Technology Corporation recently formed a joint venture with AES Corporation, a global power company based in Arlington, VA, to apply MicroPlanet's distributed energy technologies and products to reduce greenhouse...

UCAR Says Climate Change Slowing Tropical Pacific Flow.
May 9, 2006... The wind circulation system that drives Pacific trade winds and ocean currents from east to west has weakened 3.5 percent since the middle of the 19th century, and may slow another 10 percent by 2100, according to a study published on May 4 by...

ORNL Study Says Plant Respiration Can Adjust to Warming.
May 9, 2006... Plants are capable of acclimating to warmer global temperatures, indicates a new study by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) scientists. The analysis suggests that increased plant respiration will not put as much carbon in the atmosphere as...

Study Implicates Climate Change in Migrating Bird Food Loss.
May 10, 2006... Migratory birds such as European pied flycatchers are missing their peak feeding time due to climate change, Dutch scientists at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences suggest in a new study featured in the journal Science....

BITC Identifies Climate Change as Top Business Agenda.
May 10, 2006... London, England-based Business in the Community (BITC), an independent, corporate-led charity seeking to improve industry's impact on society, recently announced the release of its 2005 Environment Index, which reveals that while climate change...

AEE to Present 24th West Coast Energy Management Congress.
May 10, 2006... The Association of Energy Engineers (AEE) is teaming up with Puget Sound Energy (PSE) and a number of supporting sponsors in presenting the 24th West Coast Energy Management Congress (EMC), an energy, power and facilities management conference...

IPCC Chair Says Poor Face Greatest Climate Change Impact.
May 10, 2006... One of the least-acknowledged challenges of climate change is how to mitigate its devastating effects on the lives of the world's poor, a leading scientist told the UN Commission on Sustainable Development last week. According to...

U.S. Senators Push for Nation's First CO2 Emissions Cap.
May 11, 2006... A bipartisan group of U.S. senators last week introduced a new version of the Clean Air Planning Act (CAPA) intended to improve on the Bush administration's proposals to address pollution from coal-fired power plants. Republican Senators Lamar...

Researchers Say Old Drought Line May Move South in Australia.
May 11, 2006... Climate change may shift Goyder's Line in South Australia farther south, according to Australian scientists. The line was originally drawn to designate the boundary of drought-affected lands in the north, indicating where cattle farmers needed...

Extreme Storms in Malaysia Attributed to Climate Change.
May 11, 2006... Agence France-Presse (AFP) recently reported that at least one environmental researcher contends that the recent streak of unusually violent storms in Malaysia is the result of rising temperatures from global warming. The thunderstorms, which...

Next Week's Publishing Schedule.
May 12, 2006... EIN will not publish its newsletters on Monday, May 15, for administrative purposes. We will resume our regular publishing schedule on Tuesday, May 16. (EIN EDITOR: 5/11)

Entergy Signs MOU with Environmental Defense to Cut Emissions.
May 12, 2006... One of the nation's largest electricity suppliers has extended its voluntary greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction commitment for a second five-year period, pledging to stabilize emissions from its fossil fuel powered plants at a level 20 percent...

The Climate Trust, 3C Seal Trans-Atlantic GHG Offset Deal.
May 12, 2006... The Climate Trust and 3C, a climate change consulting organization based in Frankfurt, Germany, recently announced the first sale of greenhouse gas (GHG) offsets from the U.S. to Europe. The consulting firm purchased from The Climate Trust GHG...

New Book Describes Technologies for Limiting Global Warming.
May 12, 2006... Top climate scientists from the U.S. and the U.K. have produced a book suggesting that the worst consequences of climate change can be averted if existing greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction technologies are put in place immediately. "Avoiding...

Weekly Update.
May 12, 2006... 3RD ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON POWER ELECTRONICS FOR DISTRIBUTED AND CO-GENERATION (PEDAC), May 22-24, 2006, Crowne Plaza, Knoxville, TN WINDSOR WORKSHOP 2006: TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES AND FUELS FORUM, June 5-7, 2006, Sheraton...

Radiocarbon Dating Links Climate, Ancient Species Extinctions.
May 16, 2006... Climate change, not human hunting, appears to have brought about the extinction of mammoths and wild horses more than 10,000 years ago, according to new radiocarbon research published last week in Nature. The massive species deaths occurred at...

Study Questions Link Between Climate Change, Severe Hurricanes.
May 16, 2006... Climatologists at the University of Virginia (UVA) have published a study that casts doubt on the assertion that global warming is the cause of the string of recent violent hurricanes that have churned up from the tropical Atlantic. The study,...

World Bank Says Global Carbon Market Mushroomed in 2005.
May 16, 2006... The World Bank's 2006 "State of the Carbon Market" report finds that from January 1, 2005 to March 1, 2006 the global carbon market grew to $10 billion -- 10 times the previous year's value. The European Union's pilot Emissions Trading Scheme...

Report Urges Nations to Protect Poorest From Climate Change.
May 17, 2006... U.K.-based charitable organization Christian Aid has called on the British government to lead more expeditious efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions among the developed nations. The group issued a report this week, "The Climate of Poverty:...

Australia, South Africa to Work Together on Climate Change.
May 17, 2006... Australia and South Africa have agreed to team up against climate change, said Ian Campbell, Australian environment minister. The two governments plan to collaborate on adaptation to climate change, especially in preserving biodiversity and...

Ontario Joins U.S. Lawsuit on Coal Plant Air Pollution.
May 17, 2006... At the request of New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer, officials of the Ontario provincial government have filed an amicus curiae brief in a lawsuit to force air polluters in the U.S. to install pollution-control equipment. Ontario...

More Litigants Join EPA Vehicular Emissions Lawsuit.
May 18, 2006... A national campaign to force the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to begin regulating vehicular carbon dioxide emissions believed to contribute to climate change is attracting new advocates. This week the city of Seattle along with 14...

NCPA Says New Study Refutes Climate Threat to Polar Bears.
May 18, 2006... In a recent article in the Washington Times, Sterling Burnett, a senior fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA), accused "environmental alarmists" of ignoring contradictory climate research in claiming that Arctic polar bears...

EU Emissions Trading Scheme Delivers 2005 CO2 Emissions Data.
May 18, 2006... This week the European Commission published carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions data for 2005, as well as the level of compliance of more than 9,400 installations participating in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), a system that monitors...

House Committee Resolution Calls for Action on Global Warming.
May 19, 2006... The Appropriations Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives last week approved a resolution acknowledging global warming as a problem and declaring that the country must act to cut pollution that is causing it. The resolution language...

Insurer's Climate Change Policy Earns Praise From Ceres.
May 19, 2006... AIG, a leading international insurer, has become the first insurance company in the U.S. to establish a policy for managing risks and pursuing business opportunities associated with climate change. The move won the praise of Ceres, a national...

SSHRC to Study Link Between Loss of Ancient Culture, Climate.
May 19, 2006... Social scientists are trying to determine whether the disappearance of an ancient hunter-gatherer culture near Lake Baikal in the boreal forest region of Siberia between 7,000 and 6,000 BC is linked to climate change. The Social Sciences...

Weekly Update.
May 19, 2006... 3RD ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON POWER ELECTRONICS FOR DISTRIBUTED AND CO-GENERATION (PEDAC), May 22-24, 2006, Crowne Plaza, Knoxville, TN WINDSOR WORKSHOP 2006: TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES AND FUELS FORUM, June 5-7, 2006, Sheraton...

New Study Says Warming May Have Destroyed Coral Reefs.
May 22, 2006... Global warming may have permanently damaged coral reefs, according to a study by scientists from the U.K., Australia and the Seychelles that is featured in the May 15 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In 1994 the...

New Research Aims to Mitigate Climate Effects on Africa.
May 22, 2006... Canadian and British agencies have teamed to fund a new research program addressing how African nations and communities can adapt to the expected effects of climate change. The U.K.'s Department of International Development (DFID) and...

CEI Launches New Ad Campaign to Counter Warnings on Warming.
May 22, 2006... The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI)," a nonprofit public policy organization dedicated to advancing the principles of free enterprise and limited government," recently announced the launch of a new advertising campaign to counter what it...

Investors Urge Exxon Mobil to Develop Climate Change Plan.
May 23, 2006... Seventeen institutional investors controlling $658 billion in assets have sent a joint letter to Exxon Mobil requesting a meeting with its advisory board regarding what the investors say is the oil company's failure to prepare for the market...

UCL Says Rising Air Temperatures Shrinking Equatorial Icecaps.
May 23, 2006... Glaciers in the Rwenzori Mountains in East Africa will vanish within 20 years according to a study led by University College London (UCL) scientists. The research, which was recently published online in the journal Geophysical Research Letters,...

Swedish EPA Announces 2006 Climate Impact Grants.
May 23, 2006... The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is planning to grant 317 million kronor (about $43.7 million) to 25 climate investment projects that are expected to cut Swedish greenhouse gas emission by 203,000 metric tons per year. ...

Study Finds Carbon Feedback Loop May Worsen Climate Effects.
May 24, 2006... A new study conducted by scientists in the Netherlands, Germany and the U.K. warns that climate change research may have significantly underestimated the potential magnitude of global warming effects, suggesting warming from fossil fuel...

Clinton Urges U.S. to Work With Others on Climate Change.
May 24, 2006... Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, speaking at the graduation ceremony of the University of Texas Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, said it was time for the U.S. to move forward on climate change. "Climate change is more remote...

Science Centers Collaborate to Educate Public on Clean Energy.
May 24, 2006... Educators from 10 Connecticut science centers assembled last week at the Peabody Museum in New Haven to plan programs and tools for raising public awareness of clean energy as a solution to climate change. The "Clean Energy Climate...