Climate Change

Cheney's Staff Cut Testimony on Climate: EPA Official

Associated Press  |  Jul 8, 08 3:28 PM CDT

(Newser) - Aides to Vice President Dick Cheney censored congressional testimony on climate change by a top government official, a former official at the Environmental Protection Agency charges. Jason Burnett claims Cheney’s office, fearing testimony would lead to greater regulation of greenhouse gases, excised six pages of text regarding the health risks of global warming by the director of the Centers for Disease Control last fall, the AP reports. More »

G8 Agrees to Cut Emissions 50%

BBC  |  Jul 8, 08 7:17 AM CDT

(Newser) - The G8 leaders have resolved to cut greenhouse gases in half by 2050, something they’d only agreed to “seriously consider” before. But the US has resisted setting any interim goals, the BBC reports, leading environmentalists to deride the pact. The group will also try to convince some 200 other UN members to agree to the target, to address US concerns that climate efforts must be broad. More »

Toyota to Add Solar Panels to Prius

Reuters  |  Jul 7, 08 9:46 AM CDT

(Newser) - Toyota plans to go even more “green” with its hybrid Prius, offering solar panels as a high-end option beginning with the 2009 model year, reports Reuters. And, although the panels will do little more than help power the air conditioning system, Toyota’s move shows just how far automakers are willing to go to engineer greener vehicles. More »

Flat-Screen TVs Pose Major Climate Risk

Guardian (UK)  |  Jul 3, 08 12:03 PM CDT

(Newser) - Soaring demand for flat-screen TVs could accelerate global warming faster than coal-fired power stations, the Guardian reports. A leading environmental scientist warns that a gas used in their manufacture and not controlled in the Kyoto treaty—as other greenhouse gases are—is 17,000 times more potent than carbon dioxide and is being made in escalating amounts. More »

Global Warming's a Myth; Here's Why People Believe

Wall Street Journal  |  Jul 1, 08 9:31 AM CDT

(Newser) - Global warming is a bunch of hooey, a “nonfalsifiable hypothesis logically indistinguishable from claims for the existence of God”—and any discussion of it is not a matter of science but one of “sick-souled religion,” writes Bret Stephens in the Wall Street Journal . Evidence has emerged to undercut the theory—expanding sea in in the Antarctic, for example—yet its believers are resolute, Stephens writes. He offers three reasons why. More »

Polar Meltdown Threatened This Summer

Independent (UK)  |  Jun 27, 08 6:24 AM CDT

(Newser) - The North Pole may become free of ice this summer for the first time in human history. Thick Arctic sea ice that normally covers the polar region has been replaced by ice that formed only in the last year and is susceptible to seasonal melting, reports the Independent. It's a disturbing, symbolic landmark in global warming, scientists warn. More »

New Engine Could Rev Green Flight

Wired  |  Jun 26, 08 10:20 AM CDT

(Newser) - In what is being hailed as the most exciting development in commercial aviation technology in years, Pratt & Whitney has developed a revolutionary jet engine that burns up to 15% less fuel and cuts carbon emissions by 1,500 tons per plane per year. The engine, which is also quieter and cheaper to maintain, could revolutionize the industry, reported Wired . More »

Warming Will Kill 66% of Calif. Plants Within Century

San Francisco Chronicle  |  Jun 25, 08 1:49 PM CDT

(Newser) - If California’s climate warms significantly in the next 100 years the consequences could be grave for the majority of the state’s native plants, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. A team of scientists from UC Berkeley and Duke found that up to 66% of the state’s plants wouldn’t have time to migrate to a higher, cooler elevation if carbon emissions continue at their current rate. More »

It's the End of the World as We Know It—and He Feels Fine

Washington Post  |  Jun 23, 08 10:26 AM CDT

(Newser) - The soaring cost of travel is forcing a fundamental change in the identity of America, writes Bill McKibben in the Washington Post : "The frontier of endless mobility that we've known our entire lives is closing." And that's not necessarily a bad thing, because sprawl has "eroded our sense of community with grievous results." More »

Oil-Addicted Bush Must Kick the Habit

New York Times  |  Jun 22, 08 6:32 AM CDT

(Newser) - The American thirst for oil is like a drug addiction, and George Bush wants another hit, writes Thomas Friedman in the New York Times . Bush’s irresponsible energy plan involves getting a little more oil from Saudi Arabia to keep prices low, and then drilling in Alaska—simply prolonging our addiction instead of allowing high fuel prices to push us toward better sources of energy, adds Friedman. More »

US Weather Hell: You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet

Washington Post  |  Jun 20, 08 4:18 AM CDT

(Newser) - The US will suffer a wide range of increasingly extreme weather events in the coming decades as a result of global warming—from drought and excessive heat to wildly destructive hurricanes and record floods triggered by intense rains, reports the Washington Post. The grim prognosis was revealed in the latest report by the US Climate Change Science Program, which called extreme weather "among the most serious challenges in coping with a changing climate." More »

Why Everyone in Berkeley Owns a Prius

Economist  |  Jun 19, 08 8:55 AM CDT

(Newser) - Nowhere in California is the power of green consumerism more apparent than the Prius-packed city of Berkley. The Economist takes a look at a "greenery by zip code" study that, somewhat unsurprisingly, places Palo Alto near the top and Bakersfield near the bottom of locales packed with certified green buildings and hybrids. But why? More »

Where's All the Climate-Change Finger-Pointing?

Treehugger  |  Jun 17, 08 4:48 PM CDT

(Newser) - With the recent rash of severe and terrifying weather events, Treehugger notes a distinct lack of environmentalists pointing to the changes as evidence of global warming. The green site gives five reasons for the absence, starting with the fact that it's no fun to say "I told you so." The list in its entirety: More »

Alaskan Salmon Sick of Climate Change

Los Angeles Times  |  Jun 14, 08 7:24 PM CDT

(Newser) - Alaskan king salmon are getting sick, and experts have named a culprit: global warming. Marine ecologists say that a rise in "white spot disease" is tied to a 3-decade trend of higher temperatures in the Yukon River, the Los Angeles Times reports. With cold-temperature barriers melting, parasites and bacteria are moving north—and threatening Alaska's prized salmon stock. More »

Greens May Be OK With Climate Bill's Failure