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Brazil
- 
Farms
- 
Illegal
- 
Business
- 
History
- 
Land
- Plants
- 
Global
- 
Weather
- 
Science
- "Amazon
deforestation seen surging." ... "[Brazil's National
Institute for Space Research scientist Carlos] Nobre, whose government
agency monitors the Amazon and gathers data, said that 2,300 square miles
of [Brazil's] forest had been lost in the past four months." ... "That
compares with an estimated 3,700 square miles in the 12 months ended July
31, which Brazil officials hailed as the lowest deforestation rate since
the 1970s." ... "Brazil's government has said that policies such as more
controls on illegal logging and better certification of land ownership
were reducing the deforestation that has destroyed about a fifth of the
forest -- an area bigger than France -- since the 1970s." ... "But environmental
groups have warned that rising global commodity prices are likely to fuel
more clearing of land for farms, as occurred in 2004 when Brazil recorded
the highest deforestation rate of more than 10,400 square miles (27,000
square km )." ... "Destruction of forests produces about 20 percent of
man-made carbon dioxide emissions, making conservation of the Amazon crucial
to limiting rises in global temperatures." (1, 2)
-By Stuart Grudgings with contributions by Cynthia
Osterman -Reuters
John
Edwards
- Environmental
- Law
- 
South
Carolina - 
Coal-Plant
- Corporation
- 
US
- Global
- Climate
- 
North
Carolina - 2008
Election - "Edwards
Calls for Ban on Coal Plants." ... "[2008 Election]
Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards on Monday said a proposed
coal-fired power plant shouldn't be built in northeastern South Carolina,
continuing his call for a ban on those facilities." ... ""My view is that
needs to stop," Edwards said of the $1 billion, 600-megawatt plant set
to be built along the Pee Dee River in this early voting state. Santee
Cooper officials are awaiting a final permit from state environmental regulators."
... "Edwards, a former North Carolina senator, told about 150 people at
a campus of Coastal Carolina University that coal-fired plants are "taking
a bad situation and making it worse."" ... "He also said he was opposed
to new nuclear power plants and that the U.S. has no credibility in global
warming discussions. "We are the worst polluter on the planet," Edwards
said." ... ""We have to have a president willing to stand up to the oil
and gas industry," Edwards said." -By Page Ivey
-AP via -Forbes
Global
- Climate
- 
Wind
- Earth's
- 
Ice
- Science
- "Escalating
Ice Loss Found in Antarctica: Sheets Melting in an
Area Once Thought to Be Unaffected by Global Warming." ... "Climatic changes
appear to be destabilizing vast ice sheets of western Antarctica that had
previously seemed relatively protected from global warming, researchers
reported yesterday, raising the prospect of faster sea-level rise than
current estimates." ... "While the overall loss is a tiny fraction of the
miles-deep ice that covers much of Antarctica, scientists said the new
finding is important because the continent holds about 90 percent of Earth's
ice, and until now, large-scale ice loss there had been limited to the
peninsula that juts out toward the tip of South America. In addition, researchers
found that the rate of ice loss in the affected areas has accelerated over
the past 10 years -- as it has on most glaciers and ice sheets around the
world." ... ""Without doubt, Antarctica as a whole is now losing ice yearly,
and each year it's losing more," said Eric Rignot, lead author of a paper
published online in the journal Nature Geoscience." ... "The Antarctic
ice sheet is shrinking despite land temperatures for the continent remaining
essentially unchanged, except for the fast-warming peninsula." ... "The
cause, Rignot said, may be changes in the flow of the warmer water of the
Antarctic Circumpolar Current that circles much of the continent. Because
of changed wind patterns and less-well-understood dynamics of the submerged
current, its water is coming closer to land in some sectors and melting
the edges of glaciers deep underwater." (1, 2)
-By Marc Kaufman -WashingtonPost
John
Edwards
- 
New
Hampshire - 2008
Election - 
Healthcare
- 
Jobs
- Poverty
- US
- Global
- Climate
- Environment
- "Edwards:
Two down, 48 to go." ... "[2008 Election Democratic
Presidential Candidate and former North Carolina Senator] Former Sen. John
Edwards painted himself as the candidate of the voiceless Tuesday night
after tracking a distant third in the New Hampshire Democratic primary."
... ""We have had too much of voices not being heard," he said to an enthusiastic
crowd of supporters. " … That's what this battle is about. It's not about
me. It's about the cause of giving voice to all those whose voices are
not being heard in this democracy."" ... "Edwards pledged to continue his
fight to expand healthcare coverage, to fight global warming, protect the
environment, end poverty and create new jobs." ... ""We know what needs
to be done," he said. "The only question is whether we have the backbone
and the will and the determination to get there.""
-CNN
Animals
- US
- 
Government
- Law
- Global
- Climate
- "Decision
on polar bear protection delayed: Officials cite
time to review comments; activists say time is running out." ... "Federal
officials said Monday that they will need a few more weeks to decide whether
polar bears need protection under the Endangered Species Act because of
global warming." ... "The deadline was Wednesday, but the U.S. [United
States] Fish and Wildlife Service said it now hopes to provide a recommendation
to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne in time for a decision by him within
the next month." ... "The department has never declared a species threatened
or endangered because of climate change, said Dale Hall, director of the
Fish and Wildlife Service." ... "Environmental groups that petitioned to
protect polar bears, arguing that warming threatened their habitat, said
they would go court Wednesday to ensure a timely decision." ... "The Center
for Biological Diversity noted that more than 500,000 comments in favor
of listing the polar bears [as "threatened"] were received, the highest
ever for a listing, but that the [Republican President] Bush administration
has had three years to act." -AP
-MSNBC
John
Edwards
- 
Barack
Obama
- 
Hillary
Clinton
- 
Iowa
- Manufacturing
- Jobs
- 
Family
- Health-Care
- Environment
- Human
Rights - US
- 
China
- Corporations
- 
Iraq
- 
Military
- 
Indiana
- 
Idaho
- 
Illinois
- 
Homes
- Consumers
- 2008
Election - "Behind
the Edwards Surge: Right Message at the Right Time."
... "To a far greater extent than [2008 Election Democratic Presidential
Candidates Barack] Obama or [Hillary] Clinton, [John] Edwards has struck
at the heart of issues that should matter most in the race to replace not
just [Republican President] George W. Bush, but the Bush agenda of corporate
giveaways, job-crushing free trade deals, war profiteering in Iraq, and
subprime mortgage profiteering in Indiana, Idaho, Illinois and, yes, Iowa."
... "Edwards summed up his increasingly aggressive and powerful anti-corporate
themes with a declaration: "What makes America America is at stake: jobs,
the middle class, health care, preserving the environment in the world
for future generations."" ... ""But all those things are at risk. And why
are they at risk? Because of corporate power and corporate greed in Washington,
D.C. And we have to take them on. You can't make a deal with them. You
can't hope that they're going to go away. You have to actually be willing
to fight. And I want every caucus-goer to know I've been fighting these
people and winning my entire life. And if we do this together, rise up
together, we can actually make absolutely certain, starting here in Iowa,
that we make this country better than we left it."" ... "Edwards got to
know workers in Iowa. He stood with them in their struggles." ... "Turning
a broad question about human rights toward the specific issue of trade
policy, the former senator said that human rights, human needs and human
values "should be central to our trade policy."" ... ""But," he added,
"if you look at what's happened with American trade policy, look at what
America got: Big corporations made a lot of money, are continuing to make
a lot of money in China. But what did America get in return? We got millions
of dangerous Chinese toys. We lost millions of jobs." ... ""And right here
in Iowa, the Maytag plant in Newton [Iowa] closed. A guy named Doug Bishop,
who I got to know very well, had worked in that plant, and his family had
worked in that plant literally for generations. And his job is now gone.
The same thing, by the way, happened in the plant that my father worked
in when I was growing up. It is so important that we stop allowing these
corporate powers and corporate profits to run America's policy, whether
it's trade policy, how we engage with China. This is not good for America.
It's not good for American jobs. And it's not good for working people in
this country."" ... "That's an issue Edwards has taken far, far more seriously
than his opponents in what is now a three-way race in Iowa. And that seriousness
has benefitted the former senator." -By John Nichols
-TheNation
Dick
Cheney
- 
Car
- Manufacturers
- Fumes
- Corporate
- Government
- Environmental
- Science
- 
Politics
- 
California
- Climate
- "Cheney
accused of blocking Californian bid to cut car fumes."
... "The US [United States Republican] vice-president, Dick Cheney, was
behind a controversial decision to block California's attempt to impose
tough emission limits on car manufacturers, according to insiders at the
government Environmental Protection Agency." ... "Staff at the agency,
which announced last week that California's proposed limits were redundant,
said the agency's chief went against their expert advice after car executives
met Cheney, and a Chrysler executive delivered a letter to the EPA [Environmental
Protection Agency] saying why the state should not be allowed to regulate
greenhouse gases." ... "EPA staff members told the Los Angeles Times that
the agency's head, the [Republican President] Bush appointee Stephen Johnson,
ignored their conclusions and shut himself off from consultation in the
month before the announcement. He then informed them of his decision and
instructed them to provide the legal rationale for it, they said." -By
Dan Glaister -Guardian.co.uk
Stephen
Johnson - 
Mary
E Peters
- Dick
Cheney
- Government
- Political
- Gas
- Auto
- Makers
- Fuel
- Economy
- Laws
- Environmental
- Health
- Safety
- American
- 
People
- Transportation
- California
- History
- Global
- Climate
- Clean
Air Act - "EPA
blocks California bid to limit greenhouse gases from cars."
... "The [Republican President] Bush administration blocked efforts by
California and 16 other states Wednesday to limit greenhouse gas emissions
from cars and trucks, setting up a political and legal fight over whether
states can take a lead role in combatting global warming." ... "[Republican
President Bush's] Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen
Johnson rejected California's request for a waiver from the federal government
to impose its tough tailpipe emissions standards. The other states were
poised to adopt similar rules if California's request was granted." ...
"The states represent nearly half the U.S. [United States] population,
and their laws would effectively require automakers to cut greenhouse gas
emissions nationwide, despite [Republican] President Bush's rejection of
mandatory national standards." ... "Johnson said Congress' passage of an
energy bill this week that raises fuel economy standards for all cars and
trucks to 35 miles per gallon by 2020 made the state laws unnecessary."
... "California officials said they believed Johnson had long ago decided
to oppose the state's waiver, and said he was using the newly passed energy
bill as an excuse. Nothing in the new law prevents states from taking stronger
action, they said." ... ""I find this disgraceful," said [California Democratic
Senator] Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.[Democratic-California], who helped
write the fuel-economy law. "The passage of the energy bill does not give
the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] a green light to shirk its responsibility
to protect the health and safety of the American people from air pollution.""
... "It was the first time the EPA has flat-out denied a waiver request
by California under the Clean Air Act. The law gives California special
authority to set stronger standards because the state has a long history
of smog and other air-quality problems." ... "California officials complained
that EPA's decision-making process for the waiver was tainted months ago
when documents revealed that Transportation Secretary Mary Peters led a
lobbying campaign to urge lawmakers to call the EPA and oppose the waiver
request." ... "Automakers have been meeting regularly at the White House
to discuss the new fuel-economy standards. The Detroit News reported that
[Republican] Vice President Dick Cheney met with the CEOs [Chief Executive
Officers] of Chrysler and Ford this fall to try to influence the policy."
-By Zachary Coile -SFGate.com
Noteworthy
- Industrial
- Government
- 
Accounting
- Environmental
- Health
- Safety
- Politics
- Air
- Water
- Ground-
"EPA
was pressured to weaken toxic report rules." ...
"The [Republican President Bush] White House pressured the Environmental
Protection Agency [EPA] to weaken requirements that companies annually
disclose releases of toxic chemicals, congressional auditors say." ...
"In a study scheduled to be released next week, the Government Accountability
Office says the changes mean that industry will have to file 22,000 fewer
reports each year, reducing an important public monitoring tool on industrial
emissions." ... "The EPA rushed to complete the changes because of "pressure"
from the White House Office of Management and Budget to reduce the regulatory
burdens on industry, says the report obtained by The Associated Press.
The White House overstated the cost-savings to industry of making the changes,
it added." ... "For more than two decades, industries and businesses have
had to disclose to the EPA the amount of toxic chemicals they produce,
store and discharge into the air, water and ground." ... "Last December,
the EPA reduced the amount of information that needed to be disclosed in
the Toxic Release Inventory Report, or TRI, process." -By
H. Josef Hebert -AP
via -Chron
Rudy
Giuliani
- Federal
- Energy
- Legislation
- Politics
- Wind
- Technology
- Environment
- 2008
Election - 
Massachusetts
- 
Georgia
- 
Ohio
- "Giuliani
Firm, Utilities Team Up to Fight Renewable-Energy Plan."
... "A lobbying blitz by some of the U.S.'s biggest utility companies is
likely to strangle the most potent provision in energy legislation that's
making its way through Congress." ... "[Atlanta, Georgia-based] Southern
Co., [Ohio based] American Electric Power Co. and other producers hired
top Washington lobbyists, including [2008 Election Republican Presidential
Candidate] Rudy Giuliani's firm, to help defeat a measure that would force
them to boost electricity generated by wind, solar and other forms of renewable
energy to 15 percent of the U.S. total by 2020. That's up from less than
2 percent today, and is a move the industry says would cost at least $67
billion." ... "The Senate failed on Dec. 7 to get the 60 votes needed to
move the legislation, a day after the House of Representatives approved
it. To get the bill to [Republican] President George W. Bush's desk this
year and steer clear of a White House veto threat, the Senate will probably
have to pass a weakened measure." ... "``The lobbying effort led by Southern
Co. is the principal obstacle to America unleashing a renewable-electricity
revolution,'' says Representative Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat[ic
Representative] who has led the fight for a federal standard on the new
energy sources." ... "The legislation pits the utilities and oil companies
against wind and solar-electricity producers, as well as venture-capital
firms such as Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, where former [Democratic]
Vice President Al Gore is a partner. Those firms have made billions of
dollars in clean-energy-technology investments, which would pay off if
the bill becomes law." -By Daniel Whitten and Tina
Seeley -Bloomberg
Business
- Government
- Politics
- 2008
Election - Family
- Health
- Safety
- Environment
- Air
- Water
- Soil
- Labor
- Animal
- Farmers
- Energy
- Transportation
- Automakers
- Consumer
- History
- "Business
Lobby Presses Agenda Before ’08 Vote." ... "Business
lobbyists, nervously anticipating Democratic gains in next year’s elections,
are racing to secure final approval for a wide range of health, safety,
labor and economic rules, in the belief that they can get better deals
from the [Republican President] Bush administration than from its successor."
... "Hoping to lock in policies backed by a pro-business administration,
poultry farmers are seeking an exemption for the smelly fumes produced
by tons of chicken manure. Businesses are lobbying the Bush administration
to roll back rules that let employees take time off for family needs and
medical problems. And electric power companies are pushing the government
to relax pollution-control requirements." ... "The Federal Register typically
grows fat with regulations churned out in the final weeks of any administration.
But the push for such rules has become unusually intense because of the
possibility that Democrats in 2009 may consolidate control of the White
House, the Senate and the House of Representatives for the first time in
14 years." ... "At the Transportation Department, trucking companies are
trying to get final approval for a rule increasing the maximum number of
hours commercial truck drivers can work. And automakers are trying to persuade
officials to set new standards for the strength of car roofs — standards
far less stringent than what consumer advocates say is needed to protect
riders in a rollover." ... "At the Interior Department, coal companies
are lobbying for a regulation that would allow them to dump rock and dirt
from mountaintop mining operations into nearby streams and valleys." ...
"Some of the biggest battles now involve rules affecting the quality of
air, water and soil." (1, 2)
-By Robert Pear -NYTimes
Julie
MacDonald
- Animals
- Environmental
- Science
- Politics
- Agricultural
- Business
- California
- 
WVa
- "7
federal wildlife decisions to be revised: A [Republican
President Bush] political appointee had overruled recommendations by staff
scientists on endangered species. She quit under a cloud." ... "Federal
wildlife regulators will revise seven controversial decisions on endangered
species and critical habitat made by an Interior Department political appointee
who quit in the spring amid charges of improper meddling in scientific
decisions." ... "California's arroyo toad and red-legged frog could regain
protection that federal biologists determined was crucial to their survival,
according to a letter the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service sent Friday to
House Natural Resources Committee Chairman [West Virginia Democratic Representative]
Nick J. Rahall II (D-W.Va.). Rahall released the letter publicly Tuesday."
... "Former Deputy Assistant Interior Secretary Julie MacDonald, a civil
engineer from California with no formal training in natural sciences, routinely
questioned and sometimes overruled recommendations by biologists and other
field staffers, according to documents, interviews and a review by the
department's inspector general. The review outlined instances in which
MacDonald advocated altering scientific conclusions in ways that led to
reduced protection for imperiled species and that favored developers and
agricultural businesses. And she was rebuked for providing internal documents
to lobbyists." ... "Under her direction, proposed habitat protection for
the endangered arroyo toad, a tiny amphibian that once inhabited many Southern
California creek regions, was slashed by 93%. Similarly, the protected
area proposed for the threatened California red-legged frog was reduced
from 4.1 million acres to 450,000 acres." -By Janet
Wilson -LAtimes
California
- Environmental
- Technology
- Industry
- "California
county turns to sewer water to increase drinking supplies."
... "It used to be so final: Flush the toilet and waste be gone." ... "But
this week, for millions of people here in Orange County [California], pulling
the lever will be the start of a long, intense process to purify the sewage
into drinking water - after a hard scrubbing with filters, screens, chemicals
and ultraviolet light and the passage of time underground." ... "On Friday,
the Orange County Water District will turn on what industry experts say
is the world's largest plant devoted to purifying sewer water to increase
drinking water supplies. They and others hope it serves as a model for
authorities worldwide facing persistent drought, predicted water shortages
and projected growth." ... "The process, called by proponents "indirect
potable water reuse" and "toilet to tap" by the wary, is getting a close
look in several cities." ... ""These types of projects you will see springing
up all over the place where there are severe water shortages," said Michael
Markus, the general manager of the Orange County district, whose plant,
which will process 70 million gallons, or nearly 3 billion liters, a day,
has already been visited by water managers from across the globe." ...
"The finished product, which district managers say exceeds drinking water
standards, will not flow directly into kitchen and bathroom taps; state
regulations forbid that." ... "Instead it will be injected underground,
with half of it helping to form a barrier against seawater intruding on
groundwater sources and the other half gradually filtering into aquifers
that supply 2.3 million people, about three-quarters of the county." (1,
2)
-By Randal C. Archibold
-IHT.com
Al
Gore - US
- Global
- Climate
- Planet
- Environment
- Energy
- Technology
- Politics
- Lawmakers
- "Al
Gore's next act: Planet-saving VC: The recovering
politician is teaming with a legendary venture capitalist and bigtime moneyman
to make over the $6 trillion global energy business. A Fortune exclusive."
... "[Former Democratic Vice President Al] Gore appears utterly comfortable
with this drill, but in fact he's engaging in some on-the-job training.
The recovering politician, environmental activist, and Nobel laureate is
adding another title to his résumé: venture capitalist. After
"a conversation that's gone on for a year and a half," according to Gore,
he has decided to join his old pal John Doerr as an active, hands-on partner
at Kleiner Perkins, Silicon Valley's preeminent venture firm." ... "According
to Doerr, by 2009 more than a third of Kleiner's latest fund, which was
raised in 2006 and totals $600 million, will be invested in technologies
that aim to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide. Already Kleiner has invested
more than $270 million from various funds in 26 companies that make everything
from microbes that scrub old oil wells to electric cars to noncorn ethanol.
Twelve of Kleiner's 22 partners now spend some or all of their time on
green investments." ... "In turn, Doerr, the master networker whose greatest
hits include initial investments in Netscape, Amazon
(Charts,
Fortune
500), and Google
(Charts,
Fortune
500), will join the exclusive advisory board of Generation Investment
Management. That's the $1 billion investment company Gore started three
years ago in London with David
Blood, the former head of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, to analyze
and invest in publicly traded "sustainable" companies. Over the past five
weeks Gore, Doerr, and Blood agreed to give Fortune an exclusive look at
their new alliance." ... "Already they've begun to pool information. Generation
came across a small company engaged in carbon trading that Kleiner is analyzing,
and Kleiner has shared intelligence about which startups could threaten
the established companies in Generation's portfolio. In the long term,
though, they want to help drive something much larger, "bigger than the
Industrial Revolution and significantly faster," as Gore puts it." ...
"They argue that to halt global warming, nothing less will be required
than a makeover of the $6 trillion global energy business. Coal plants,
gas stations, the internal-combustion engine, petrochemicals, plastic bags,
even bottled water will have to give way to clean, green, sustainable technologies.
"What we are going to have to put in place is a combination of the Manhattan
Project, the Apollo project, and the Marshall Plan, and scale it globally,"
Gore continues. "It'd be promising too much to say we can do it on our
own, but we intend to do our part."" (1, 2,
3)
-By Marc Gunther and Adam Lashinsky
-Fortune via -CNN
California
- Air
- Environment
- 
Enforcement
- Government
- Auto
- Makers
- Global- Planet
- Climate
- "California
sues EPA over emissions: The state seeks to force
the agency to move more quickly on its request to enforce tough regulations."
... "California sued the federal government today, demanding that the [Republican
President Bush led] U.S. Environmental Protection Agency act now to give
the states the power to enforce tough regulations on automakers in the
fight against global warming." ... "The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the
way last summer for the EPA to approve state regulations to limit emissions
of greenhouse gas from automobile tailpipes. But no action has been forthcoming."
... "The EPA has said it will act on the state's request by year's end,
but today's move was a major assault on the federal government's perceived
lack of action on what many national and world leaders consider the No.
1 threat to the planet." -By Marc Lifsher
-LAtimes
Humanity
- Global
- Environmental
- Science
- Disaster
- Politics
- 
UN
- Earth
- Climate
- Animals
- Rivers
- "Environmental
failures 'put humanity at risk': · UN report
bemoans lack of urgency by governments· Five-year study involved
more than 1,400 scientists." ... "The future of humanity has been put at
risk by a failure to address environmental problems including climate change,
species extinction and a growing human population, according to a new UN
report." ... "In a sweeping audit of the world's environmental wellbeing,
the study by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) warns that governments
are still failing to recognise the seriousness of major environmental issues."
... "The study, involving more than 1,400 scientists, found that human
consumption had far outstripped available resources. Each person on Earth
now requires a third more land to supply his or her needs than the planet
can supply, it finds." ... "Meanwhile, biodiversity is seriously threatened
by the impact of human activities: 30% of amphibians, 23% of mammals and
12% of birds are under threat of extinction, while one in 10 of the world's
large rivers runs dry every year before it reaches the sea." ... "The report
- entitled Global Environment Outlook: Environment for Development - reviews
progress made since a similar study in 1987 which laid the groundwork for
studying environmental issues affecting the planet." ... "It addresses
a number of areas where environmental degradation is threatening human
welfare and the planet, including water, over-fishing and biodiversity
- where the UNEP says a sixth, human-induced, extinction is under way."
-By Martin Hodgson
-Guardian.co.uk
US
- Government
- Global
- Climate
- Politics
- Human
- Health
- Environmental
- Science
- 
Food
- Water
- Air
- "Scientists
Denounce Global Warming Report 'Edits': Public Health
Experts Say Edits Represent Censoring of Science." ... "Environmental and
public health experts overwhelmingly denounced editing by the White House
of a federal health agency head's testimony to Congress Tuesday. Significant
deletions were made from the testimony, concerning global warming and the
potential impact on human health." ... "The original, unedited testimony
presented to Congress by Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and obtained by ABC News was 14
pages long, but the White House Office of Management and Budget edited
the final version down to a mere six pages." ... "Scientists and public
health organizations called the move "frustrating," "terrible" and "appalling."
The edits essentially deleted all sections that referred to climate change
as a public health concern -- including the risks of increased food-borne
and waterborne diseases, worsening extreme weather events, worsening air
pollution and the effect of heat stress on humans." ... ""Dr. Gerberding
is the lead of the premiere public health agency in the U.S.," said Kim
Knowlton, a science fellow on global warming and health at the National
Resources Defense Council in New York. "It's shocking that she was not
allowed to say in a public discussion some of these vital details." ...
""One has to wonder why was this is so threatening to the White House.""
(1, 2,
3)
-By Raja Jagadeesan, M.D. and Carla Williams
-ABCNEWS.com
Special
Report
- Global
- Environment
- "In
the Greenhouse: Confronting a Changing Climate."
... "" -WashingtonPost
Noteworthy
- Kids- Environmental
- Safety
- Human
- Industrial
- Science
- Politics
- Consumer
- Manufacturer
- Law
- History
- "Tests
reveal high chemical levels in kids' bodies." ...
"Michelle Hammond and Jeremiah Holland were intrigued when a friend at
the Oakland Tribune asked them and their two young children to take part
in a cutting-edge study to measure the industrial chemicals in their bodies."
... ""In the beginning, I wasn't worried at all; I was fascinated," Hammond,
37, recalled." ... "But that fascination soon changed to fear, as tests
revealed that their children -- Rowan, then 18 months, and Mikaela, then
5 -- had chemical exposure levels up to seven times those of their parents."
... ""[Rowan's] been on this planet for 18 months, and he's loaded with
a chemical I've never heard of," Holland, 37, said. "He had two to three
times the level of flame retardants in his body that's been known to cause
thyroid dysfunction in lab rats."" ... "The technology to test for these
flame retardants -- known as polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) --
and other industrial chemicals is less than 10 years old." ... "Environmentalists
call it "body burden" testing, an allusion to the chemical "burden," or
legacy of toxins, running through our bloodstream. Scientists refer to
this testing as "biomonitoring."" ... "Most Americans haven't heard of
body burden testing, but it's a hot topic among environmentalists and public
health experts who warn that the industrial chemicals we come into contact
with every day are accumulating in our bodies and endangering our health
in ways we have yet to understand." ... ""We are the humans in a dangerous
and unnatural experiment in the United States, and I think it's unconscionable,"
said Dr. Leo Trasande, assistant director of the Center for Children's
Health and the Environment at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York
City." ... "Trasande says that industrial toxins could be leading to more
childhood disease and disorders." ... ""We are in an epidemic of environmentally
mediated disease among American children today," he said. "Rates of asthma,
childhood cancers,
birth defects and developmental disorders have exponentially increased,
and it can't be explained by changes in the human genome. So what has changed?
All the chemicals we're being exposed to."" ... "The Environmental Protection
Agency does not require chemical manufacturers to conduct human toxicity
studies before approving their chemicals for use in the market." -By
Jordana Miller -CNN
Special
Report
- Global
- Environment
- "Planet
in Peril: Environmental Coverage."
-CNN
Noteworthy
- Global
- Climate- Disaster
- Environment
- Water
- "Rising
seas threaten 21 mega-cities." ... "Cities around
the world are facing the danger of rising seas and other disasters related
to climate change." ... "More than one-tenth of the world's population,
or 643 million people, live in low-lying areas at risk from climate change,
say U.S. and European experts." -AP
via -Yahoo
Water
- Emergency
- Weather
- Environment
- History
- Farm
- Animals
- Food
- Georgia
- 
Alabama
- North
Carolina - 
Tennessee
- 
Kentucky
- "Southeast
drought hits crisis point." ... "Outdoor watering
bans already cover the northern third of Georgia and dozens of cities,
counties and towns in surrounding states. Farmers are selling cattle because
pastures have dried up. Alabama's Elmore County had to bring in floating
pumps and barges to extend its water intake pipe farther out into shrinking
Lake Martin. Georgia might have to do the same at Lake Lanier, Atlanta's
main water source." ... "Although rain is due today across parts of the
region, it will barely dampen the 16-month drought. Through September,
it is the region's driest year in 113 years of record-keeping. In five
of the six worst-hit states, rain totals this year are close to a foot
below normal." ... "It is the driest year on record for North Carolina
and Tennessee, second-driest in Alabama and third-driest in Kentucky. A
tree-ring study this summer of Tennessee's rainfall history shows this
is the third-driest year for the state in at least 350 years, behind only
1839 and 1708." -By Patrick O'Driscoll and Larry Copeland
with contributions by Jordan Schrader, Marty Roney, Leon Alligood, Ron
Barnett, Jessie Halladay, Matt Reed, and Jennie Coughlin
-USATODAY
World
- Climate
- Science
- 
Education
- Earth
- Environmental
- Emergency
- UN- 
India
- US
- Politics
- 2008
Election - "Gore
and UN panel win Nobel prize: Climate change campaigner
Al Gore and the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have been
jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize." ... "The committee cited "their
efforts to build up and disseminate knowledge about man-made climate change"."
... "Mr Gore, 59, won an Oscar for his climate change film An Inconvenient
Truth while the IPCC is the top authority on global warming." ... "IPCC
chairman Rajendra Pachauri said he was "overwhelmed" by the award." ...
"He told a cheering crowd of colleagues and journalists outside his office
in Delhi [India's capital] that he hoped the award would bring a "greater
awareness and a sense of urgency" to the fight against global warming."
... "The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised the recipients' efforts to "lay
the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract [climate]
change"." ... "The committee said it wanted to bring the "increased danger
of violent conflicts and wars, within and between states" posed by climate
change into sharper focus." ... "It highlighted a series of scientific
reports issued over the last two decades by the IPCC, which comprises more
than 2,000 leading climate change scientists and experts." ... "Mr Gore
was praised as "probably the single individual who has done most to create
greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted",
through his lectures, films and books." ... "Speaking in Washington, Mr
Gore praised the IPCC, "whose members have worked tirelessly and selflessly
for many years"." ... ""We face a true planetary emergency," Mr Gore warned.
"It is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity."" ... "Correspondents
say Mr Gore's selection has prompted supporters to renew calls for him
to stand in next year's US presidential [2008 election] race. Until now,
Mr Gore has said he will not run." -BBC/News
Montana
- Climate
- Ice
- History
- "Warming
climate shrinking Glacier Park's glaciers." ... "This
summer, for the first time in Glacier National Park's 100-year history,
Gem Glacier was entirely snow-free, a glistening sheet of bare ice sweating
dark and blue under a relentless sun." ... "Many miles away, a bubbling
mountain stream turned to a trickle, fading finally, underground. It was
one of many streambeds that dried up this year, and one of many more to
come." ... ""There's still water down there under the cobble," Dan Fagre
said of that stream, "but it's not so good if you're a fish."" ... "Fagre,
a research ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, has been monitoring
Glacier's glaciers for years, studying the many implications of retreating
ice and snow. This summer's disappearing streams, he said, are but the
latest signs of a rapidly changing climate driving an equally rapidly changing
park system." ... ""We're starting to see this picture pretty clearly,"
Fagre said. "Glaciers have always been the summertime reservoirs, and now
the natural reservoir system is diminishing. That's a concern, because
you have this critically dry time of year, but you have no safety net to
keep feeding water downstream."" -By Michael Jamison
-Missoulian.com via -USATODAY
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