Environment news feed

A pampering session at the beauty salon always works wonders for morale - not just for humans, but also for sharks and manta ray fish. Australian scientists have discovered that these large marine creatures regularly congregate at certain spots on the Great Barrier Reef to be groomed by smaller fish.

Green members of the European parliament stood en masse and held up placards Tuesday in protest against the EU Commission approval of the cultivation of genetically modified potatoes.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Environmental Protection Administrator Lisa Jackson fought back on Monday against Senate attempts to challenge EPA's authority to regulate emissions while lawmakers work on a climate bill, saying delaying agency action would be bad for the economy.

Europeans import nearly twice as much carbon dioxide per head as US citizens " but the US is still the world's largest emitter

The serial misinformers and misrepresenters demand equal time for their misinformation and misrepresentations. What should climate science defenders and the media do? Here's how the strategy works: Step 1: Some misinformer or anti-science group puts out misinformation on the science or misrepresents the views of some scientist or expert. Step 2: They get debunked, by that person and/or others. Step 3: They demand equal time for their misinformation or misrepresentation, either through formal debates or balanced media coverage. Step 4: If they get the equal time, their strategy has worked, and they can go on to fabricate more misinformation and misrepresent the views of other scientists.

Contrary to what one might read in newspapers, the science of climate change is strong. Our own work and the immense body of independent research conducted around the world leaves no doubt regarding the following key points: * The global climate is changing . * Human activities produce heat-trapping gases . * Heat-trapping gases are very likely responsible for most of the warming observed over the past half century . * The higher the levels of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere, the higher the risk of potentially dangerous consequences for humans and our environment. That's from a Houston Chronicle op-ed by these leading Texas climate scientists ...

Valero and Tesoro have reportedly pledged as much as $2 million to help gather signatures for a ballot initiative to suspend the greenhouse-gas-cutting law until the jobless rate improves. For those still operating under the delusion misimpression that the main opposition to climate action is not funded by the polluters: The companies, Valero Energy Corp. and Tesoro Corp., own refineries in California that would be forced under the law to slash emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases. Campaign workers began collecting signatures Tuesday for the initiative, which would delay regulations to implement the nation's most comprehensive climate legislation until California's unemployment level drops to 5.5% for at least a year.

-Arctic arch failure leads to sea-ice exodus-World's temperature record to be re-analysed-In India, a Clear Victor on The Climate Action Front-Is Arctic methane on the move?-Methane Releases from Arctic Shelf May Be Much Larger and Faster Than Anticipated-Climate scientists must be ruthlessly honest about data read more

There is no simple way to battle public hostility to climate research. As the psychologists show, facts barely sway us anywayThere is one question that no one who denies manmade climate change wants to answer: what would it take to persuade you? In most cases the answer seems to be nothing. No level of evidence can shake the growing belief that climate science is a giant conspiracy codded up by boffins and governments to tax and control us. The new study by the Met Office, which paints an even grimmer picture than the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, will do nothing to change this view.The attack on climate scientists is now widening to an all-out war on science.

The head of the International Monetary Fund says countries should adopt a quota system to raise money needed to adapt to climate changeThe head of the International Monetary Fund has proposed a plan for the world's governments to pool together to raise money needed to adapt to climate change, a rare step for an organisation that normally does not develop environmental policies.The IMF managing director, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, said the fund is concerned by the huge amount of money needed and the effect this will have on the global economy. He added that the proposal may help efforts to reach a binding agreement on climate change this year.Strauss-Kahn proposed that countries adopt a quota system similar to the one the fund uses to raise its own money, which could bring in money faster than proposals to increase carbon taxes or other fundraising methods.

In fighting for science, we subscribe to a comforting illusion: that people can be swayed by the facts.

In his recent book, "Strategic Bargaining and Cooperation in Greenhouse Gas Mitigations," Binghamton University's Zili Yang suggests ways governments might realistically work together to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. He also makes a case for curbing the use of fossil fuels - whether they contribute to climate change or not.

A new study by scientists at the Carnegie Institution finds that over a third of carbon dioxide emissions associated with consumption of goods and services in many developed countries are actually emitted outside their borders. Some countries, such as Switzerland, "outsource" over half of their carbon dioxide emissions, primarily to developing countries. The study finds that, per person, about 2.5 tons of carbon dioxide are consumed in the U.S. but produced somewhere else. For Europeans, the figure can exceed four tons per person. Most of these emissions are outsourced to developing countries, especially China.

A recent discovery in understanding how to chemically break down the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into a useful form opens the doors for scientists to wonder what organism is out there - or could be created - to accomplish the task.

Wind power generation in Texas is growing so quickly that it is testing the limits of the state's electrical grid. The state set a record on March 5 when wind turbines generated 6,272 megawatts of energy, or about 19 percent of the electricity on the state's main power grid. That peak far exceeded the 6.2 percent average for wind power in Texas, whose 9,410 megawatts of total wind capacity make it the nation's wind power leader. But wind power's growth poses a critical challenge for the state's booming wind industry, which includes a 180-megawatt wind farm completed last fall near Corpus Christi in South Texas.

A California-based startup company claims it has developed an improved version of the internal combustion engine that boosts gas mileage by more than 50 percent and enabled a prototype vehicle to get 64 miles per gallon on the highway in recent test drives. Transonic Combustion, backed by Vinod Khosla and other venture capitalists, says it has invented a new fuel injection system that heats and pressurizes gasoline before injecting it into the combustion chamber, placing the fuel in a supercritical state that allows for clean and fast combustion. Once the fuel is injected into the piston, the heat and pressure enable the fuel to combust Transonic CombustionTransonic Combustion's new fuel-injection technology without a spark.

Two billion people worldwide do their cooking on open fires, producing sooty pollution that shortens millions of lives and exacerbates global warming. If widely adopted, a new generation of inexpensive, durable cook stoves could go a long way toward alleviating this problem.<!--EndFragment--> BY JON R. LUOMA

Lake Maracaibo left in darkness as drought caused by El Niño disrupts weather patterns that cause constant lightning storms In pictures: Venezuela's vanishing lightning Darkness rarely lasted long in the skies over Lake Maracaibo. An hour after dusk the show would begin: a lightning bolt, then another, and another, until the whole horizon flashed white. Electrical storms, product of a unique ...

The Rush to Biomass Environmentalists plead: Slow down! By Anne Stanton Al Gore wrote recently that we can t wish away climate change.

Experts say these guidelines, if heeded by consumers, could decrease Sweden's emissions by 20 to 50 percent.