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Defra wants public to help shape water strategy
'); document.write('published on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 18:15 GMT
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BusinessGreen.com Staff, BusinessGreen, Thursday 9 September 2010 at 00:15:00
Online survey requests public feedback on how to improve the climate resilience of the UK\'s water infrastructure
In a move apparently taken straight from David Cameron\'s vision for more open government, Defra has today launched an online survey calling on the public to help shape its up-coming...

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UK hits landfill target, but dumps plan to tighten waste rules
'); document.write('published on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 18:15 GMT
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James Murray, BusinessGreen, Thursday 9 September 2010 at 00:15:00
Coalition quietly ditches proposed ban on sending recyclable waste to landfill
The government announced yesterday that the UK has met its EU target for 2010 requiring the diversion of biodegradable municipal waste away from landfill and is on track to meet...

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Mayday Network pulls in 3,000th member
'); document.write('published on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 18:15 GMT
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Jessica Shankleman, BusinessGreen, Thursday 9 September 2010 at 00:15:00
Annual report from Prince of Wales\' Mayday Network reveals burgeoning business support for climate change action
The Prince of Wales\' Mayday Network has this week welcomed its 3,000th member, further bolstering the group\'s position as the largest network of businesses working to improve their environmental sustainablility....

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Sony and WWF present \'Open Planet Ideas\'
'); document.write('published on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 18:00 GMT
'); document.write('How we can solve big environmental problems using existing technology? Get involved at www.openplanetideas.com

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China, Victim or Agressor in Rare Earth Trade Suppression?
'); document.write('published on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 12:45 GMT
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$\"mining\"$

The Economist (one of my favorite, unbiased resources, though the name is counterintuitive) recently hinted that China’s refusal to continue mining rare earth metals at previous levels is less due to a newly-found environmentalism than it is to a desire to control global supply chain logistics, and thus production, in some very profitable venues.

This supposition is supported by the fact that, in August of 2009, China\'s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced the suspension of some rare mineral exports, and a restriction on others that will eventually cripple the electronics industry if no new supplies are ...

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10/10/10
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Sierra Club India Environment Post

Following the failure of the United States Senate to pass climate change legislation, and the ensuing finger pointing, weeping and gnashing of teeth, many in the international environmental community have been left to ponder the enormity of the implications in shock.

With an already beleaguered set of UNFCCC negotiations, an embattled IPCC, a fading climate agenda at the annual G-20 meetings (which just a year ago pledged to phase out fossil fuel subsidies) and the continual onslaught of rising temperatures and climate related disasters things look bleak to say the least. Indeed, if there were ...

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Helping Businesses Plan for Changes Wrought by Climate Change
'); document.write('published on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 12:45 GMT
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$\"cc\"$

After a summer of record heat on one U.S. coast and record cold on the other, epic floods, an oil disaster, tropical storms, and earthquakes, many businesses are wondering how best to plan for all the major disruptions that climate change will undoubtedly bring.

In an article published by Reuters in August and written by the organization, BSR (Business for Social Responsibility)?a global network of companies focused on sustainability?several solutions to planning for unpredictability are explored. The article’s author states that humanitarian crises, economic disruptions, and weather-related disasters during the last century have cost more than ...

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India Cancels Hydroelectric Project on Ganges Tributary
'); document.write('published on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 12:45 GMT
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The 600 MW project is the third on the river scrapped because of environmental and religious pressure.

$\"ganges\"$

India’s central government canceled a dam project on a Ganges River tributary last week, after the leading partner in the ruling coalition intervened because of environmental and religious concerns, the Times of India reports.

A group of ministers led by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee green-lighted the 600 Megawatts Loharinag Pala hydroelectric project since the government had already spent Rs 650 crore (US$139 million) on the dam and committed Rs 2,000 crore (US$429 million) in supply contracts, according to the ...

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Clean Coal-A Marketing Miracle (+ Video)
'); document.write('published on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 12:45 GMT
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A great little video landed in my inbox this morning, you can check it out below...

Dirty, dirty coal has been so invasive over the last century, and it looks like it is here for the long haul.

The recent birth of the term \'clean coal\' has undoubtedly extended its shelf life, as people will feel reassured that progress has been made to mitigate the negative effects of burning this fuel.

But \'Clean Coal\' is just a marketing term, not an actual product! What does the term actually refer to and what does it deliver?

As noted on Wikipedia:

It ...

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Labor Day 2060: Endless Summer
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Who ever would’ve guessed that there would be a Labor Day card for global warming. But that is what SomeEcards are for:

$\"Labor$

But “The Onion” of e-card companies makes a serious point: In the not-too-distant future, people are going to be amazed that anybody ever thought Labor Day signified the unofficial end of summer (see Our hellish future: Definitive NOAA-led report on U.S. climate impacts warns of scorching 9 to 11°F warming over most of inland U.S. by 2090 ? and that isn’t the worst case, it’s business as usual!”).

In a terrific March presentation ...

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This One Really Stings
'); document.write('published on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 12:45 GMT
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Courtesy of the Sierra Club:

$\"barnegut$

We called it, simply, The Test. I grew up on a house on Barnegat Bay in Chadwick Beach, New Jersey. With four little children scampering around, my parents had a hard and fast rule for us and our friends: No one was allowed to play in the front yard, on the docks or anywhere outside without wearing a life preserver. Whether we were playing baseball, digging up worms, or going crabbing, those big orange puffy preservers had to be on, and buckled, at all times.

We hated it. The only way to freedom was to ...

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The Environmental Politics of Sacrifice
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Addressing climate change will require citizens of wealthy consumer societies to sacrifice. But that’s never going to happen.

$\"cover\"$ We’ve all heard statements like that, indeed we’ve probably muttered them to ourselves. Michael Maniates and John Meyer place the words at the beginning of their book The Environmental Politics of Sacrifice. They and their ten fellow-contributors examine exhaustively what they describe as “the political stickiness of sacrifice-talk” to see if there are more hopeful options than the stark contradiction of that opening statement.

In fact, as several of the writers point out, there is a normalcy to sacrifice ...

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A Message From Pandora
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$\"iatipu\"$

If you’ve watched the video, \"Defending the Rivers of the Amazon\" (also available here, and on the dedicated Pandora website), you will understand that the fight to stop the Belo Monte Dam on the Xingu River in Brazil – one of the most beautiful and unspoiled tributaries of the Amazon River – is not just about a damned dam, but about a patch of land and its people that, once lost, can never be recovered.

The dam will flood 516 square kilometers (almost 200 square miles) of land in Para state, displacing 25,000 indigenous (native) people from 18 distinct ethnic ...

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The Mariner Energy Inc. Platform Fire
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This is what we know currently about the Mariner Energy Platform Fire, which occurred September 2, 2010 at approximately 9am CST:

Located 100 miles south of Vermillion Bay, LA the Mariner Energy Inc. platform is in relatively shallow water only 320 feet vs. the mile deep water of the BP’s notorious Deepwater Horizon Rig (which is only 200 miles east of the M.E. Platform).

13 crewmembers miraculously escaped the platform by jumping into the ocean wearing “gumby suits.” All are currently safe on terra firma. One person was reported injured.

Mariner Energy, Inc., who owns the platform, has ...

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Ohio Tea Party Survey
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$\"tp\"$

Ohio Tea Party survey to candidates: “The regulation of Carbon Dioxide in our atmosphere should be left to God and not government and I oppose all measures of Cap and Trade as well as the teaching of global warming theory in our schools.”

At first, I wasn’t going to blog on this because I thought it must be a hoax. Who could possibly ask such a question of candidates? Then again, the Tea Party have outsourced their thinking on climate to The Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, which is as ridiculous as it gets.

Yesterday, the UK Guardian’s Leo ...

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The Adventures of Nat Turner, Blair Grocery and the Lower Nine Garden
'); document.write('published on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 12:45 GMT
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\"No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see possibilities - always see them for they\'re always there.\"?-- Norman Vincent Peale

$\"biolib\"$

Hurricane Katrina slammed into New Orleans five years ago flooding 80% of the city, destroying homes, stores, schools, churches, and lives. When the levees broke the Lower Nine, one of the poorest areas of the city, found itself under 15 feet of water. The predominately African American community was almost wiped off the map. Even today only one fifth of the original residents have returned and the infrastructure is almost non-existent.

Maybe ...

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What is LIfe after Peak Oil?
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$\"peak$

While Western governments from the U.S. to the UK debate the validity of “peak oil”, and obfuscate the probability under a cloak of secrecy, the working world wrings its hands, wondering what will happen when the day arrives and the energy needed to fuel industry – the lifeblood of national economies – is no longer available.

Peak oil, as first proposed by geophysicist Dr. M. King Hubbert, describes the moment when global oil extraction reaches a maximum and begins to gradually decline, setting up a scenario where each barrel of oil is increasingly valuable, and where difficult-to-extract reserves (like tar sands ...

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Right and Wrong
'); document.write('published on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 12:45 GMT
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Why climate science divides people along political lines.

It was Australia’s second climate change election. Climate change deposed the former leaders of both main parties: Kevin Rudd (Labor) because his position was too weak, Malcolm Turnbull (Liberals) because his position was too strong. When Julia Gillard, the new Labor leader, also flunked the issue, many of her supporters defected to the Greens.

$\"j.g\"$ Labor’s collapse began when the senate rejected Rudd’s emissions trading scheme. Faced with a choice between dissolving parliament and calling an election or dropping the scheme, he chickened out and lost the confidence of the ...

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Research Shows Global Warming Shrinks Range Where Blue Oysters Can Thrive
'); document.write('published on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 12:45 GMT
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Last June I reported on changing levels of acidity in the Chesapeake Bay and its affects on the shells of young oysters, making them thinner than usual thus making them more available to predators such as crabs.

$\"lewes\"$ Now a study been published in the Journal of Biogeography indicating that climate change is raising water and air temperatures along the U.S. east coast and shrinking the region where blue mussels, or mytilus edulis, are able to survive. Blue oysters, known for their sweet flavor, used to be found as far south as Cape Hatteras, North Carolina 60 years ago, but ...

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Actors and Activism in the Wake of the Gulf Oil Spill (+ Video)
'); document.write('published on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 12:44 GMT
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The NRDC caught up with Actor Ryan Reynolds in New Orleans last week and produced the video below. It covers Ryan\'s thoughts on the current situation in New Orleans in the wake of the gulf oil spill.

He also contributed as a guest blogger on the NRDC site onearth, stating:

You don\'t have to make a personal trip to the Gulf of Mexico to realize the BP disaster has blown the cover off a subject some would prefer to keep quiet: the ongoing damage inflicted by our addiction to oil.

When you see images of blackened beaches, grounded ...

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Ohio Tea Party survey to candidates: “The regulation of Carbon Dioxide in our atmosphere should be left to God and not government and I oppose all measures of Cap and Trade as well as the teaching of global warming theory in our schools.”