Thursday, February 21, 2008

ENN: Greenland's ice loss, windfarm investments, cheap renewal energy and much more...

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Thursday, February 21, 2008
News of Note

Greenland's enormous ice sheet is home to enough ice to raise sea level by about 23 feet if the entire ice sheet were to melt into surrounding waters. Though the loss of the whole ice sheet is unlikely, loss from Greenland's ice mass has already contributed in part to 20th century sea level rise of about two millimeters per year, and future melt has the potential to impact people and economies across the globe. So NASA scientists used state-of-the-art NASA satellite technologies to explore the behavior of the ice sheet, revealing a relationship between changes at the surface and below.

Top Stories

The new findings from the study led by Ralph Lorenz, Cassini radar team member from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md., are reported in the Jan. 29 issue of the Geophysical Research Letters.

"Titan is just covered in carbon-bearing material -- it's a giant factory of organic chemicals," said Lorenz. "This vast carbon inventory is an important window into the geology and climate history of Titan."

Despite of this potential conflict, Kai Chan of the University of British Columbia believes there is a way to ensure Canadian First Nations fishers can benefit from the otters' presence.

"Efforts to restore wildlife populations should not be played out in a win-lose framework that pits conservation against the economic interests of the local people," observes Chan, who spoke at the American Association for the Advancement of Science Annual Conference in Boston (February 14 to 18).

Moms have always been the most "eco" people on the planet. Now, they're forming networks to help support each other's efforts to "go green" in ways that are actually bring more women into the environmental movement.

ENN Spotlight

LONDON (Reuters) - British Gas parent company Centrica said on Thursday it was evaluating a potential multi-billion pound increase in investment in renewable energy, largely targeted at offshore turbines.

The move would help Britain achieve ambitious goals of producing 33 gigawatts of electricity from offshore wind by 2020, enough to power every UK home, at an overall cost of around 70 billion pounds ($136 billion).

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TUNIS (Reuters) - The African Development Bank (AfDB) will provide $814 million over the next two years to help safeguard Central African forests threatened by war, poverty and poor governance, the bank said on Thursday.

Bank President Donald Kaberuka told reporters the money would go to 13 projects aimed at improving the management of natural resources in 2008-2010 in the Congo Basin, home to 37 percent of the world's remaining tropical forests.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The world faces a doubling of energy demand by 2050 but renewable sources are still too expensive and will take decades to make a big impact, Royal Dutch Shell CEO Jeroen van der Veer said on Thursday.

In a speech on "Shell scenarios for the 21st century," van der Veer said one of the three hard truths facing the world was a big rise in demand as the global population rose from around six billion to nine billion by mid-century.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called on Thursday for the creation of an independent European carbon bank to improve the functioning of the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme and help fight climate change.

He also called for agreement on a World Bank multilateral fund to finance investments to help poor countries transition to a low-carbon economy.

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Member Press Releases
By: GUARD Colorado
It is a topic that is both controversial and illuminates the passion on both fronts. Both sides armed with information to convince you that they are in the right. It's in newspapers, town meetings; resolutions are circulating and being passed, and people standing up and getting involved in their communities. A true battle has begun in Northern Colorado. All of this in the name of the proposed uranium mining. By: the Center for Biological Diversity
The Center for Biological Diversity and Western Watersheds Project reached a settlement this week with the U.S. Sheep Experiment Station in eastern Idaho to resolve a lawsuit filed last summer. The settlement requires the U.S. Sheep Station to analyze the environmental effects of the sheep grazing under the National Environmental Policy Act and to consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regarding the impacts of the sheep grazing on threatened and endangered species. The Sheep Station is part of the Agricultural Research Service within the U.S. Department of Agriculture. By: Wildlife Trust
In a paper published by the leading scientific journal Nature, scientists at the Consortium for Conservation Medicine (CCM) Wildlife Trust New York, the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), Columbia University (New York) and the University of Georgia have announced a major breakthrough in the understanding of what causes diseases like HIV/AIDS and SARS to emerge, and how to further predict and prevent future devastating pandemics by plotting a global map of "Emerging Disease Hotspots." By: the International Fund for Animal Welfare
Senator John Kerry today introduced legislation that would help protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales from injury and death due to ship strikes. The Ship Strike Reduction Act of 2008 would require the Bush Administration to finalize a rule establishing speed limits for specified vessels in migratory paths of North Atlantic right whales. The federal rule enforcing the speed limits, known as “the Ship Strike Rule,” was first proposed in February, 2007, but the rule has been buried in the regulatory process for over a year. By: the Center for Biological Diversity
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Tuesday that it is proposing a Hawaiian plant, Phyllostegia hispida, from the island of Molokai as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act. The plant is the first of 280 species that are candidates for protection as endangered species, including 105 from Hawaii, to be proposed for protection in more than three years. The agency has not protected a single new species in 650 days, which includes the entire tenure of Dirk Kempthorne as Secretary of the Interior and is by far the longest period without a new species being protected since the landmark federal law was passed. By: the Center for Biological Diversity
Citing a threat to bats from a new disease that is widespread, severe, and imminent, conservation organizations Monday petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for immediate action to prevent further harm to endangered bats. By: the Center for Biological Diversity
Conservation groups from Panama, Costa Rica, and the United States are preparing to meet with a delegation from the World Heritage Centre and World Conservation Union (IUCN) in Panama to discuss threats to La Amistad International Park. La Amistad is a World Heritage site shared by Panama and Costa Rica that protects the largest, most diverse virgin rainforest remaining in Central America. It is one of the last refuges for such endangered species as the jaguar, ocelot, Central American tapir, resplendent quetzal, and harpy eagle. According to IUCN, the floral diversity of La Amistad is "perhaps unequaled in any other reserve of equivalent size in the world." By: Energy & Environmental Research Center
BBI International and the Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) anticipate nearly 700 attendees at the first International Biomass '08 Conference & Trade Show April 15-17, 2008, at the Minneapolis Convention Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

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