carbon emissions

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Fifth of Coral Reefs Dead: Study

Pollution leads to warmer, more acidic seas, scientists say

(Newser) - A fifth of the world’s coral reefs have died or been destroyed, says a study released to the UN yesterday. In it, marine scientists warned that the future of marine life and the $30 billion economic value of reefs are increasingly threatened by climate change. The report also zeroed...

Melting Ice May Help Soak Up CO2

Icebergs may deposit nourishing iron into ocean, helping carbon-sucking plankton

(Newser) - Melting ice sheets may end up helping the planet battle global warming, the Guardian reports. Scientists say that broken ice in the Antarctic disperses iron, which fertilizes carbon-absorbing plankton and helps reverse some effects of climate change. “We see the rapid ice loss in Antarctica as one obvious sign...

Farmers Raise a Stink Over Fees for Flatulence

EPA brands livestock odor air pollution

(Newser) - Farmers' noses are out of joint over proposed regulations that would fine them for their  livestock's flatulence, reports AP. Operations with herds over a certain size would be charged per animal to offset the amount of greenhouse gasses contained in their rather voluminous belching and farting, according to the EPA...

Green Fight Will Be Obama's Costliest
 Green Fight Will Be 
 Obama's Costliest 

OPINION

Green Fight Will Be Obama's Costliest

President-elect knows he must do better than Bush, and has political capital to do it

(Newser) - Barack Obama must move quickly to address climate change, and it could be very unpopular politically, Bill McKibben writes in Yale Environment 360. In fact, the measures necessary to save our planet could very well “wreck his political future, because it would involve—directly or indirectly—raising the cost...

Biofuels Not Worth Upward Push on Food Prices: UN

Nations should rethink subsidies: report

(Newser) - While use of biofuels is supposed to combat climate change, the effects of its production on food prices is not worth the emissions they offset, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said today. The FAO called for countries to review production quotas and subsidies that encourage biofuel use in...

It's Hard to Go Green With the Economy in the Red

As Wall Street falters, ambitions to fight global warming are being checked

(Newser) - Bad days on Wall Street are bad news for environmentalists, too. The financial crisis doubles as a boon for critics of proposed greenhouse gas regulations, writes Margaret Kriz for Yale Environment 360. In its aftermath, politicians will be loath to pass laws that hike carbon-based fuel prices and wary of...

Hefty Carbon Tax Raised Norway's Emissions
Hefty Carbon Tax Raised Norway's Emissions
ANALYSIS

Hefty Carbon Tax Raised Norway's Emissions

Greenhouse gases up 15% despite system aimed to curb them

(Newser) - In 1991, Norway enacted a punishing carbon tax, but things haven’t turned out quite as expected, the Wall Street Journal reports. Greenhouse-gas emissions have actually risen 15%, and industries deemed vital to the nation’s economy or image were spared the tax or given sweet deals. Though the oil...

Eat Less, Or the Icecaps Melt
 Eat Less, Or the Icecaps Melt 

Eat Less, Or the Icecaps Melt

Meat a big climate change contributor, study finds

(Newser) - To avoid catastrophic global warming, people need to cut way down on their meat and dairy consumption, a new report on climate change says. Four modest servings of meat and about a quart of milk a week are all we should be consuming, the Guardian reports. And the report urges...

Green Vandals Acquitted on Climate Change Defense

Global crisis justifies coal-plant attack: jury

(Newser) - Six Greenpeace activists who vandalized a coal-fired power station in Britain have won acquittal using the threat of global warming as a defense, reports the Guardian. The activists, who caused more than $50,000 in damage to a smokestack, said they were trying to prevent property damage from the plant’...

German Power Plant Tests Underground CO2 Capture

Coal-burning facility stores CO2, sends it deep underground

(Newser) - Germany is pioneering industrial efficiency with a new coal-fueled power plant that captures and stores its own CO2 emissions, Der Spiegel reports. The Bavarian power station began testing its system of collecting carbon dioxide and pumping it into a depleted underground natural gas reservoir. A few problems remain, though.

UN Urges: Eat Less Meat to Fight Warming

Cattle 'emissions' equal effect of 33 million automobiles

(Newser) - Meat-eaters who want to help fight global warming can do so by going vegetarian at least one day a week, a top UN official tells the Guardian. The meat industry accounts for an estimated one-fifth of all greenhouse gas emissions, released during feed production and as methane by flatulent livestock....

Plans to Stop Global Warming Straight From Sci-Fi Novels

Geo-engineering offers promise for slowing climate change ... and fear of consequences

(Newser) - Scientists worry humans might not curb carbon emissions in time to save the planet from irreversible harm, and some have suggested a radical concept called geo-engineering, the Economist reports. Once the stuff of science fiction, geo-engineering would combat global warming by manipulating the environment. While promising, critics warn ecological consequences...

Next Prez Will Have to Save the Planet
Next Prez Will Have to Save
the Planet
OPINION

Next Prez Will Have to Save the Planet

Winner of election will immediately have to combat climate change

(Newser) - Whether it's John McCain or Barack Obama, the next US president will instantly face "the most momentous political challenge of all time"—saving the world from catastrophic climate change, Carlos Pascual and Strobe Talbott write in the Washington Post. We have 7 years to begin reducing greenhouse gas...

Energy Firm to Tell Investors of Risks From Global Warming

Xcel agrees to first pact of its kind with NY AG

(Newser) - A major builder of coal-fired power plants has agreed to fully inform investors of the risks global warming poses to its business in a landmark deal with New York's attorney general. Green groups hope the agreement by Xcel Energy will spur other firms to follow suit, reports the New York ...

China's Power Pollution to Pass US

CO2 emissions will double over next 12 years, think tank predicts

(Newser) - Carbon emissions from China's mostly coal-fired electric power industry will exceed those of the US this year for the first time, the Washington Post reports. China's runaway economic growth means its power industry's carbon emissions will double by 2020, predicts the Center for Global Development, a Washington-based think tank. Power...

The Democratic Party: Is Civil War Brewing?
The Democratic Party: Is Civil War Brewing?
OPINION

The Democratic Party: Is Civil War Brewing?

Maybe there's not enough room for both elites and blue collars

(Newser) - Democrats are undoubtedly ascendant in the US, Joel Kotkin writes in the American, but the demographic shift that made it so may undermine the party in the near future. That’s because the working-class party of FDR is now chock-full of elites—two constituencies with different values. The richer Dems...

McCain Flips on Emissions Standards
McCain Flips
on Emissions Standards

McCain Flips on Emissions Standards

After favoring a national norm, candidate says states should decide

(Newser) - John McCain seemed to flip-flop on auto-emissions standards today, telling a group of General Motors engineers he supported states’ rights to set their own levels, the Detroit News reports. McCain told the newspaper last month he supported a nationwide standard. Automakers support a national standard because they fear the expense...

'Clean Coal' Advocates Blowing Smoke
 'Clean Coal'
 Advocates 
 Blowing 
 Smoke 
analysis

'Clean Coal' Advocates Blowing Smoke

Investing in carbon sequestration "reckless"

(Newser) - “Clean coal” is the buzzword of the moment, with industry groups and presidential candidates swearing by a work-in-progress technique known as carbon capture and storage (CCS), which ultimately buries carbon dioxide emissions deep underground. But Jeff Goodell, writing in Yale Environment 360, doesn’t buy it. “We don’...

China, India Reject G8 Carbon Plan

Developing countries show impotence of conference

(Newser) - Neither China nor India agreed to adopt the G8's targets for cutting carbon emissions by 2050 at their joint meeting today. Asia's two big developing economies, joined by Brazil, Mexico, and South Africa, said carbon reductions would endanger their growth and exacerbate poverty, and that rich nations should clean up...

Vague G8 Goals Deflate Green Hopes
 Vague G8 Goals
 Deflate Green Hopes 
ANALYSIS

Vague G8 Goals Deflate Green Hopes

'Fuzzy-minded' declaration on climate change sinks hopes for immediate action

(Newser) - G8 leaders are hailing an agreement to cut carbon emissions in half by 2050 as "major progress" in combating climate change—but their failure to come up with concrete shorter-term goals is a major letdown, Bryan Walsh writes in Time. The agreement, so vague it doesn't even say which...

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