Climate Change News Digest

River currents could be harnessed at four bridges across the capital. The river Seine, the historical "sacred river" running through Paris, inspired Monet, Matisse and even the British painter Turner, who sat on its banks to capture the scenery. Now the landscape is to undergo a subtle change, with a plan to install eight turbines underneath the city''s celebrated bridges to raise energy from river currents. Paris city hall is to launch an appeal this week for power companies to come up with suitable projects to install the turbines, or hydroliennes."After a study by our urban ecology service and the French waterways, four potential sites have already been identified," Denis Baupin, the deputy mayor, told Le Parisien newspaper.

Voser says rising demand forces search for new sites Storm threatens clean- up operation of BP''s Gulf spill. Royal Dutch Shell''s boss, Peter Voser, insisted that today it was not possible to satisfy the world''s growing energy demands without drilling for oil in deep- water reserves, despite the ongoing environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. At a conference in South Africa, Voser defended the oil industry''s push into deeper oil reserves and said Shell would continue to play its part, even as a tropical storm threatened to disrupt BP''s efforts to clean up oil off the coast of Louisiana."Given the rise in the population and the rise in the developing world of energy needs, we will have to develop those resources in deep waters, so my expectation is that we will go forward with it, but it will need some changes," Voser told the Fortune Global ...

Ruy Teixeira, a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, shows us how the oil spill has been shifting public opinion on offshore drilling, little by little, in this repost. The gulf oil spill disaster is starting to take a serious toll on public support for offshore drilling. Consider these data from a new Pew Research Center poll. Back in February of this year, 63 percent of the public supported more offshore drilling as a policy response to address our energy needs, compared to 31 percent who were opposed. Today a majority of the public-52 percent- opposes offshore drilling, and support has fallen to 44 percent.

Must- see video here for ice junkies, background here: 'Arctic Ocean is full of rotten ice.' 'Anomalies for each day are calculated relative to the average over the 1979 -2009 period for that day to remove the annual cycle.' [And yes, "anomaly" is a poor word choice for a long- term trend driven by human emissions.] Back in mid- May, I argued the Arctic is poised to see record low sea ice volume this year. Since then, volume has plummeted some 3000 km3 (relative to its recent historical average) to '19,000 km3, the lowest May volume over the 1979"2010 period, 42% below the 1979 maximum and 32% below the 1979"2009 May average,' according to the Polar Science Center, which has the best Arctic ice volume model around.

Image Credit : Gilbert & George, 'Nettle Dance', White Cube I' m in the Climate Union. Are You ? Soon we could all be, if the expansionist plans of a group of social campaigners come to fruition. Taking in the unions, faith communities and the usual rag- tag bunch of issues activists, the Climate Union aims to establish itself as a political force for Low Carbon. First of all, however, it has to tackle the uneasy and prickly problem of the exact name of the movement, and the principles under which it will operate. The flag has been flown ...

JAKARTA (Reuters) - The United States will spend $136 million over three years on environment and climate change programs in Indonesia, according to a statement issued by the White House on Monday.

Boris Yelnikoff is a self- described "Nobel- level thinker" who feels beseiged by "microbes," one of his many terms for people who don' t see "the big picture." And, what''s the big picture? He tells us in the first five minutes of Woody Allen''s latest movie, "Whatever Works," when he says, "On the whole, I' m sorry to say, we' re a failed species."Yelnikoff, played by Larry David, is an aging former Columbia University physics professor who has divorced his wife, moved to a dingy (but affordable) New York apartment, and taken up teaching chess to children to support himself.

This month, fires have charred tens of thousands of acres in New Mexico, Colorado and Arizona. After more than a decade of drought, these large seasonal fires are increasingly a part of life in the Southwest, and fire can be revitalizing in many conifer forests.

US politicians bend to foreign- backed pressure to soften climate bill.

BEIRUT: More than 200 young people gathered Saturday at Ramlet al- Baida beach to raise awareness about the threat that climate change poses to the globe, as they promote practical steps for Lebanese to change their environmental lifestyle. The activists, who largely consisted of members from Mercy Corps and the League of Independent Activists

The Canary in the Coal Mine: Stopping Climate Change By Tina Gerhardt Climate Hope: On the Front Lines of the Fight against Coal By Ted...

Dreams of braking global warming by storing carbon emissions from power plants could be undermined by the risk of leakage, according to a study published on Sunday.

New Delhi, June 28 : Warmer nights may spoil the aroma of basmati and cause the rice to become sticky when cooked, scientists have warned after a study of how climate change may affect the quality of rice.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper rejected advice from his officials to eliminate tax incentives for the oil patch on a weekend that saw the world''s most powerful leaders disdain fresh attempts to combat climate change in favour of fighting deepening deficits.

Source: IPS Australias newly appointed prime minister, Julia Gillard, has hardly warmed her seat, yet she has already been urged to take action on climate change.

The global climate is more than likely to slip into an unpredictable state with unknown consequences for human societies if carbon dioxide emissions continue on their present course, a survey of leading climate scientists has found.

by Frank Ackerman. Was the Obama administration 'arbitrary and capricious' in imposing a six- month moratorium on deepwater oil drilling? U. S. District Judge Martin Feldman thought so. His June 22 order reversed the moratorium, citing the 'immeasurable harm' to 'the local economy, the Gulf region, and the critical present- day aspect of the availability of domestic energy in this country.' By immeasurable harm to the Gulf region, he meant the loss of oil industry jobs, not the loss of oil- free water and beaches. How could anyone be opposed to a time- out to figure out what went wrong in the Gulf of Mexico?

by David Turnbull. It was a tale of two cities Saturday in Toronto for this climate activist. One of hope and the other of boredom. Saturday morning, I joined Greenpeace, Oxfam, the Canadian Labor Congress, and about 5,000 activists at a peaceful rally calling on G8 and G20 leaders to take stronger leadership on a variety of progressive issues. Signs amidst the crowd were pushing issues ranging from climate and poverty alleviation to Tibetan freedom and bank reform. It was an impressive mix of progressive activists all coming together to speak with one voice for global change. Despite the rain and nearly oppressive police presence, the spirit at the rally was ebullient and hopeful, and I walked away feeling excited as one often does from these rallies.

The unsustainable U. S. economy and coast- to- coast consumer society that uses more oil than any other nation will keep up its energy gluttony until supplies give out. Because oil is the most critical part of our energy mix, and it supplies critical materials and chemicals besides fuels, a sudden, crippling oil shortage can paralyze most of the work, commerce and law enforcement going on in this country.

Climate bill gets GOP cold shoulder. Politico. But he has since shifted to the right, going so far as to question the science linking humans to global warming. Like Mc. Cain, Brown, Gregg and Murkowski, ...Democrats Poised for Comprehensive Climate and Energy Approach. Firedoglake (blog) all 23