Friday, January 25, 2008

Farmers selling water, single-hulled tanker ban, EU to meet emission limits and much more...

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Friday, January 25, 2008
News of Note

RIVERSIDE, CA - The shortages this season among the most intense of the last decade are already shooting water prices skyward in many areas, and Los Angeles-area cities are begging for water and coaxing farmers to let their fields go to dust.

"It just makes dollars and sense right now," said Bruce Rolen, a third-generation farmer in Northern California's lush Sacramento Valley. "There's more economic advantage to fallowing than raising a crop."

Top Stories

Climate change will have a huge impact on human health and bold environmental policy decisions are needed now to protect the world’s population, according to the author of an article published in the BMJ today.

The threat to human health is of a more fundamental kind than is the threat to the world’s economic system, says Professor McMichael, a Professor of public health from the Australian National University. “Climate change is beginning to damage our natural life-support system,” he says.

The epitome of cool in snow season is of course, snowboarding. And the biggest requirement for this most righteous winter pastime is of course, snow. Well, "uh, yeh brah, no duh" you may think to yourself, but in this day and age even snow in winter isn't a sure thing anymore. Winter resorts, from the Rockies to the Alps, have been grappling with ever shorter snow seasons for years now-some of the resorts have even re-branded themselves as "sun and fun" destinations to try and recoup some of their climate change-related financial loss. Bummer, dude.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - South Korea's SK Energy, which operates the world's second-biggest refinery, said on Friday it will not use single-hulled oil tankers from 2010, a year ahead of the government's new deadline.

ENN Spotlight

ENN Weekly: Jan 21st -25th:A growing number of farmers are betting they can make more money selling their water supplies, Snowboarders gear up in green, Gunning for a national presence, New York City's first green- and organic-certified restaurant has opened its doors, Tuna with unsafe levels of mercury is on dinner menus at some of New York’s most well known and expensive eateries, Shares of solar energy companies have lost nearly half their value this year and much more.

More Top Stories

The European car and airlines industries should be able to adapt to new plans to slash greenhouse gas emissions, EU Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot said on Friday.

The introduction of electric cars, in particular, should help to cut emissions from journeys within cities, Barrot told Reuters at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum.

Japan is set to embark on a five-year plan this year to harness a new form of energy using unused wood biomass to produce auto fuels and other industrial products currently made from imported petrol.

Japan, where two-thirds of the country is covered by forests, can supply a part of alternative fuels made from wood-origin ethanol as well as raw materials for plastic and carbon fibers.

California utility PG&E Corp said on Thursday it is looking for partners to develop and operate a biomethane facility as it looks to increase its use of renewable energy sources.

Biomethane is pipeline-quality gas derived from organic material such as agricultural crops, manure or wood wastes. PG&E already has contracts to buy some natural gas captured from cow manure.

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By: the Center for Biological Diversity
Judge Marilyn Hall Patel Thursday issued a final ruling in Okinawa Dugong v. Gates, N.D.Cal., C-03-4350, finding the Department of Defense in violation of the National Historic Preservation Act and requiring it to consider impacts of a new airbase on the endangered Okinawa dugong to avoid or mitigate harm. By: the National Audubon Society
The National Audubon Society today named author Richard Louv as the 50th recipient of the prestigious Audubon Medal for sounding the alarm about the health and societal costs of children's isolation from the natural world-and for sparking a growing movement to remedy the problem. By: the Indianapolis Zoo
The winner of the first Indianapolis Prize credits the award with helping him reach some important milestones in his work to save endangered cranes in 2007. Dr. George Archibald, co-founder of the International Crane Foundation (ICF) in Baraboo, Wisconsin, and winner of the inaugural Indianapolis Prize in 2006 for animal conservation, celebrated several extraordinary achievements in 2007, including a record number of whooping cranes that began their first-ever migration last fall. Twenty-seven chicks were released, adding to North America's newly established migrating flock of 59 whooping cranes. In addition, ICF began diverse field programs around the world, made possible in part by the $100,000 Indianapolis Prize award. By: Center for International Climate and Environmental Research
Road traffic is by large the transport sector that contributes the most to global warming. Aviation has the second largest warming effect, while shipping has a net cooling effect on the earth's climate, according to a study published recently. By: the Center for Biological Diversity
The Center for Biological Diversity filed a scientific petition Wednesday with the California Fish and Game Commission to protect the Pacific fisher as a threatened or endangered species under the California Endangered Species Act. Protection could alter forest management on millions of acres of private forest land across the state. By: the Center for Biological Diversity
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced January 17 that it will not prepare a recovery plan for the endangered jaguar and will not attempt to recover the species in the United States or throughout its range in North and South America. The decision was signed by Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dale Hall on January 7, 2008. By: International Fund for Animal Welfare
Environmental and animal welfare organizations applauded yesterday's decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to delay the Bush Administration's attempt to nullify protections for marine mammals from potentially lethal underwater sound blasts until a federal district court can review the decision. By: the International Fund for Animal Welfare
Today the International Fund for Animal Welfare released On Thin Ice: The Precarious State of Arctic Marine Mammals in the United States Due to Global Warming, a comprehensive report commissioned to gauge the effects of unprecedented climate change on polar bears and other ice-dependent marine mammals within the United States.

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