Global Environmental Change Report articles from September 2002

Global Environmental Change Report archives from September 2002

Hydrogen is coming, but when? (Focus Report).(hydrogen as fuel)
September 27, 2002... The end of the fossil-fuel era is imminent. It is not a question of if but of when the world's economies will no longer depend on oil and other carbon-based fuels to function. Does the end of oil's reign also portend the end of giant oil...

Selling the next big thing. (Focus Report).(hydrogen as fuel)
September 27, 2002... The key, says Shell, is to give consumers what they want. "From a consumer perspective, these vehicles will have an advantage over battery-powered vehicles," Huberts says. The advantage being that, unlike batteries, they will not have to be...

Climate as billboard. (Focus Report).(hydrogen as alternative fuel)
September 27, 2002... How then, to advertise this wondrous new technology to the world? One way, according to Shell's Jeroen van der Veer, president of Royal Dutch Petroleum Company, is to play the global warming card. "In business terms, impact on climate change...

Summit up: do something. (Policy & Economics).(World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg, South Africa)
September 27, 2002... The reviews of the recent World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa, were mixed at best. Delegates received high marks for pledging to halve the number of people without basic sanitation by 2015 (now at 2.4...

Thanks, but no thanks. (Policy & Economics).(Clean Development Mechanism, United Nations Conference on Climate Change, 1997)
September 27, 2002... A centerpiece of the Kyoto Protocol is the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which gives industrialized nations the option to invest in greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation projects in developing countries in exchange for carbon credits -- in...

Acting locally in Australia. (Policy & Economics).
September 27, 2002... Among the industrialized nations perceived to be avoiding the difficulties required of addressing climate change, Australia is vying to hone a reputation for local action. At the recent World Summit for Sustainable Development in...

More innovations from golden state. (Policy & Economics).
September 27, 2002... Once again, California is leading the US in green energy. Earlier this summer, the state passed landmark legislation that mandates "the maximum feasible reduction" in light car and truck greenhouse gas emissions (see GECR, 12 July 2002, p.3)....

Glomming on to carbon. (Science Update).(carbon storage through glomalin)
September 27, 2002... Improving the way soil stores carbon might come down to a sticky protein known as glomalin. Discovered in 1996, by US Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientist Sara E Wright, glomalin permeates organic matter,...

Antarctic warming, or not. (Science Update).
September 27, 2002... Thousands of marine species in the world's coldest environment are at risk from a warming climate, according to scientists from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). Speaking at the annual British Association for the Advancement of Science...

It's all about the water. (Science Update).(climate and the global water cycle)
September 27, 2002... The two principal parameters that govern climate are temperature and precipitation, but it is water that delivers the massive amounts of energy around the planet. Six new articles published in the journal Nature take a detailed look at the...

Documenting climate change. (Science Update).
September 27, 2002... Much of what is known about climate change is reliant on computer models, and is generally discussed in terms of potential or future changes. Earlier this year, a photographer in Nehalem, Oregon, began posting pictures on his Web site that...

Australia's split personality. (Industry Watch).
September 27, 2002... Implementation of the Kyoto Protocol will wreak havoc on Australian industries, damage the gross national product, and cost the country jobs. Or, the climate treaty will be a great boon for Australia's economy, as it encourages international...

Sun, hydrogen comes to gas stations. (Industry Watch).
September 27, 2002... Since British Petroleum merged with Amoco in 1998, the company has embarked on a campaign it hopes will set them apart from other oil giants. For one, the company is now the world's leading manufacturer of photo-voltaic (PV) cells. Even...

No firm answer. (Industry Watch).(emissions trading in Germany)(Brief Article)
September 27, 2002... German companies do not agree on whether a mandatory [CO.sub.2] emissions trading scheme is a good idea, and many are lacking basic information on the proposed system. This according .to the Wuppertal Institute on Climate, Environment and...

Looking (way) ahead for energy. (Focus Report).(Brief Article)
September 13, 2002... As governments wrapped up the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg this month, one of the five key topics under discussion was energy. In the end, the delegates agreed to a somewhat tame renewable energy plan (see story on...

An elemental answer. (Focus Report).(Brief Article)
September 13, 2002... Eventually, Rifkin gets around to promoting his fuel of choice, hydrogen. After offering a primer on the history and science of hydrogen as a fuel source, the report notes that the technology has already insinuated itself into the market....

Paying the price. (Focus Report).(long-term energy policy)(Brief Article)
September 13, 2002... The BAU scenario will be subject to market forces in the next thousand years, forces that are expected to drive the economic system to a "new, less threatening" energy regime. Presumably the costs would be much less than a KPS course. BAU,...

Kyoto on their minds. (Policy & Economics).(United Nations Conference on Climate Change, 1997)(Brief Article)
September 13, 2002... Although parties to the Kyoto Protocol failed to have the climate change treaty in force by this month's World Summit on Sustainable Development, there were plenty of reassuring signs that the instrument would soon become international law....

Real deal or lip service? (Policy & Economics).(Brief Article)
September 13, 2002... Hopes were high in Johannesburg at the World Summit on Sustainable Development that delegates would adopt a firm renewable energy target. Many European and developing countries were looking to set a global target to increase the world's use...

EU takes step backward. (Policy & Economics).(Brief Article)
September 13, 2002... The EU, which has developed somewhat of a reputation for championing the Kyoto Protocol, got a bit of embarrassing news in recent weeks when it was reported that [CO.sub.2] emissions among most member states are increasing. According to new...

No nation is an island. (Policy & Economics).(Brief Article)
September 13, 2002... Climate change was the center of discussion at the recent annual Pacific Island Forum, where representatives of island states met in the Fijian capital of Suva. For island nations, global warming is a particularly immediate and serious...

Under the sea. (Science Update).(release of carbon dioxide gases into the deep sea)(Brief Article)
September 13, 2002... How effective is deep-sea injection of [CO.sub.2] as a means of sequestration? Depends how deep, say researchers from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). Their findings appear in the 20 August 2002 issue of Geophysical Research...

On second thought. (Science Update).(Norway's withdrawal from plan for deep-sea injection of carbon dioxide)(Brief Article)
September 13, 2002... When environmental groups and others stopped a long-planned [CO.sub.2] ocean sequestration experiment in Hawaii this summer (see GECR, 26 July 2002), Norway quickly agreed to host the controversial tests. But Norway, succumbing to the same...

Africa under threat. (Science Update).(due to global warming and greenhouse gases)(Brief Article)
September 13, 2002... Add climate change to the list of problems facing Africa. According to a report issued by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), global warming will have widespread implications for biodiversity, water supply, and food security in Africa. The...

Paddies yield rice, methane. (Science Update).(Brief Article)
September 13, 2002... Rice paddies are responsible for about 10% of the world's human-produced methane, and are therefore a significant contributor to climate change. But scientists from Wageningen University in the Netherlands, the Fraunhofer Institute in...

Wind coming to Cape. (Industry Watch).(wind farm at Cape Cod, MA)(Brief Article)
September 13, 2002... Wind power developers in the US northeast cleared another hurdle recently in their goal to begin construction of the nation's first offshore wind farm off of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The energy company Cape Wind Associates, which hopes to...

Strange bedfellows. (Industry Watch).(Greenpeace International; the World Business Council for Sustainable Development)(Brief Article)
September 13, 2002... There was a particularly intriguing moment at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa, this month when longtime enemies shared center stage. Environmental advocate Greenpeace International and the World...

Coal shoulder for tax. (Industry Watch).(Brief Article)
September 13, 2002... Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said last week it was considering introducing a coal levy to help the country meet its Kyoto Protocol commitments to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The news sent ripples through the...

The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). (In Brief).(Brief Article)
September 13, 2002... The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has developed new high-quality land-cover maps it says provide the most refined global picture ever produced of the distribution of Earth's ecosystems and land-use patterns. Based on...