Climate news

  • Coalition Agrees on Emissions Cuts

    By Steven Mufson

    Washington Post Staff Writer

    An influential group of large U.S. corporations and environmental organizations have forged a detailed blueprint for limiting greenhouse gases in the hope of shaping and pushing forward climate change legislation this year.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/14/AR2009011403850.html
  • A disastrous year for the environment

    By Hans Tammemagi, Vancouver Sun

    January 5, 2009

    These are uncertain, even frightening, times with both the economy and the environment spiraling downward. How bad is it? Where are we headed? Are there solutions? To bring in the new year, I asked four leading environmental experts to shed light on these questions.

    http://www.vancouversun.com/Technology/disastrous+year+environment/1105424/story.html
  • Unprecedented heat will trigger global food crisis

    MARTIN MITTELSTAEDT

    Globe and Mail, January 8, 2009

    TORONTO — The world faces a “perpetual food crisis” because global warming will likely lead to massive and simultaneous crop failures in many regions, possibly as early as the period from 2040 to 2060, a new study says.

    The finding, appearing in the journal Science, is based on climate models that suggest the worst heat waves of the past – such as the one in Europe in 2003 that killed at least 30,000 people – are likely to become the new normal summertime temperatures.

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090108.wclimate0108/BNStory/International/home
  • Carbon offset venture is catching fire

    Les Leyne, Times Colonist

    Published: Tuesday, January 06, 2009

    Eleven months after the Pacific Carbon Trust was announced, the outfit is still advertising to do its first offset deal.

    It's been a lengthy birthing process for B.C.'s newest Crown corporation, which has yet to develop a website and boasts just two or three employees. But this year the outfit is expected to make its first move. It is scheduled to offset at least 35,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions produced from government travel.

    http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/comment/story.html?id=37ffce1e-eb3a-4bd0-af33-d6a02f11d355&p=2
  • Canada trails most of world in fight against climate change - The country has been slipping steadily, according to climate exper

    OTTAWA -- Countries around the world appear to be headed in a dangerous direction because they all have inadequate policies to fight climate change, says a report released Wednesday.

  • We're green (kind of)

    SARAH BOESVELD

    Globe and Mail, December 10, 2008

    We may be champions when it comes to hauling our blue boxes to the curb, but Canadians are less aware of the impact their consumer habits have on greenhouse-gas emissions, according to two new studies from Statistics Canada.

    Canadian households shoulder nearly half of the responsibility for greenhouse gasses emitted into the atmosphere by the nation, most of which come from the gas our vehicles guzzle, the electricity we use and the products we buy, the study on household greenhouse-gas emissions suggests.

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081210.wlenviro10/BNStory/GlobeSportsFootball/
  • B.C. 'ark' threatened by climate change, report says. Environment, economic health threatened by changes to ecosystem

    By Scott simpson December 4, 2008

    Climate change made it easier for the mountain pine beetle to thrive in British Columbia, but logging and fire protection made it impossible for Interior forests to withstand the devastating pest, warns a new report.

    Simon Fraser University's Adaptation to Climate Change Team, or ACT, says in a report released on Wednesday that fragmented habitat, and "unprecedented" changes in temperature and precipitation threaten B.C.'s economic health and diminish the ability of ecosystems to sustain themselves.

    http://www.vancouversun.com/threatened+climate+change+report+says/1029688/story.html
  • Secret advice to politicians: oilsands emissions hard to scrub. Briefing document is pessimistic on carbon storage and capture.

    CBC News, Monday, November 24, 2008

    Carbon dioxide emissions from Western Canada's oilsands are set to increase from five per cent to 16 per cent of the national total by 2020 under current plans. Carbon dioxide emissions from Western Canada's oilsands are set to increase from five per cent to 16 per cent of the national total by 2020 under current plans. (Canadian Press)

    CBC News has obtained a government document that says reducing greenhouse gases from Western Canada's oilsands will be much more difficult than some politicians and the industry suggest.

  • The world's last chance - What Obama's election means for the environment

    IAN MCEWAN, The Guardian UK, Wednesday November 19

    After years of living in fear of climate change, we are fast acquiring the weapons to defeat it. But the only one who can unite humanity for this life-or-death struggle is Barack Obama - and he must act now.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/nov/19/global-climate-change-policy-obama
  • Nitrogen Trifluoride - The Greenhouse Gas You Never See Movies About On Your Flat Screen TV
    By News Staff, Scientific Blogging | October 23rd 2008 12:00 AM

    Enjoying your HD TV? Nitrogen trifluoride is one of several gases used during the manufacture of liquid crystal flat-panel displays, thin-film photovoltaic cells and microcircuits. Many industries have used the gas in recent years as an alternative to perfluorocarbons, which are also potent greenhouse gases, because it was believed that no more than 2 percent of the NF3 used in these processes escaped into the atmosphere.

    http://www.scientificblogging.com/news_releases/nitrogen_trifluoride_greenhouse_gas_you_never_see_movies_about_your_flat_screen_tv