• Swings In North Atlantic Oscillation Variability Linked To Climate Warming

  Using a 218-year-long temperature record from a Bermuda brain coral, researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have created the first marine-based reconstruction showing the long-term behavior of one of the most important drivers of climate fluctuations in the North Atlantic.

  tags: brain coral, nao, north atlantic oscillation

• King tides — a glimpse of future sea level rise

  King tides are natural events that happen twice a year. The tides predicted for many parts of the east coast between 8am and 10.30am on Monday morning are around 40 to 50 cm higher than the average ‘spring tide’ (the highest tide in the monthly moon cycle).

  Dr McInnes says observing the king tide can assist communities to plan and prepare for the effects of climate change.

  “This king tide is not caused by climate change, but it can help us picture what our coastlines might look like in the future.”

  tags: new south wales, king tides, climate change

• Canada’s forests, once a help on greenhouse gases, now contribute to climate change

  In an alarming yet little-noticed series of recent studies, scientists have concluded that Canada’s precious forests, stressed from damage caused by global warming, insect infestations and persistent fires, have crossed an ominous line and are now pumping out more climate-changing carbon dioxide than they are sequestering.

  Worse yet, the experts predict that Canada’s forests will remain net carbon sources, as opposed to carbon storage “sinks,” until at least 2022, and possibly much longer.

  tags: canada, sequestering, forests, global warming

• Garmin reveals program to chart cheapest route

  Garmin International Inc. this week unveiled a free update for its Nuvi line of personal navigation devices designed to save drivers gas.

  Garmin’s ecoRoute software uses a car’s gas mileage and the current price of gasoline to compute the route that uses the least fuel. The software is a free update to some Nuvi models.

  tags: garmin, ecoroute, nuvi, fuel efficiency

• Mandelson targets more than one million low carbon jobs by 2015 – Carbon Offsets Daily

  The UK’s low carbon industries could deliver “more than a million jobs… by the middle of the next decade”, according to business secretary Peter Mandelson who today trailed a package of new measures designed to support the emerging sector.

  tags: uk, mandelson, low carbon

• Apple risks green makeover with CSR snub – 09 Jan 2009 – BusinessGreen

  Apple’s launch of new green products at this week’s Macworld show has been overshadowed by the company’s attempts to quash shareholder requests for more corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting.

  The company issued a proxy filing on Wednesday in which it urged shareholders to vote against a shareholder resolution proposed by As You Sow, an environmental group co-sponsored by the New York City Office of the Comptroller and the Green Century Equity Fund.

  tags: csr, apple

• New Balloon Successfully Flight-Tested Over Antarctica

  NASA and the National Science Foundation have successfully launched and demonstrated a newly designed super pressure balloon prototype that may enable a new era of high-altitude scientific research. The super-pressure balloon ultimately will carry large scientific experiments to the brink of space for 100 days or more.

  tags: nasa, nsf, balloon

• Peru, one of poorest countries with 30% population living <$2, 10% <$1 a day, to plant 40 million trees by Feb '20 | WcP Blog

  To mitigate climate change, Peru, one of the poorest countries with 30% population living under $2, 10% under $1 a day, planting 512,820 trees daily to capture more than 570,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually. Who’s next?

  tags: carbon dioxide, tree, tree planting, peru

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• Sea absorbing less CO2, scientists discover | Environment | The Guardian

  Scientists have issued a new warning about climate change after discovering a sudden and dramatic collapse in the amount of carbon emissions absorbed by the Sea of Japan.

  The shift has alarmed experts, who blame global warming.

  The world’s oceans soak up about 11bn tonnes of human carbon dioxide pollution each year, about a quarter of all produced, and even a slight weakening of this natural process would leave significantly more CO2 in the atmosphere. That would require countries to adopt much stricter emissions targets to prevent dangerous rises in temperature.

  tags: global warming, co2, co2 emissions, sea of japan

• Toyota to Launch 10 New Hybrids by Early 2010s, Battery-Electric Vehicle Confirmed for 2012 : TreeHugger

  Seems shrinking gas prices haven’t deterred Toyota’s need for hybrid developin’ speed. Starting with the third generation Prius and the new Lexus hybrid, the HS250h, which are being unveiled at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, the car company has announced that it will launch as many as 10 new hybrids by the early 2010’s.

  tags: toyota, hybrid, phev, bev

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• Official Google Blog: Powering a Google search

  in the time it takes to do a Google search, your own personal computer will use more energy than Google uses to answer your query.

  Recently, though, others have used much higher estimates, claiming that a typical search uses “half the energy as boiling a kettle of water” and produces 7 grams of CO2. We thought it would be helpful to explain why this number is *many* times too high. Google is fast — a typical search returns results in less than 0.2 seconds. Queries vary in degree of difficulty, but for the average query, the servers it touches each work on it for just a few thousandths of a second. Together with other work performed before your search even starts (such as building the search index) this amounts to 0.0003 kWh of energy per search, or 1 kJ. For comparison, the average adult needs about 8000 kJ a day of energy from food, so a Google search uses just about the same amount of energy that your body burns in ten seconds.

  tags: google, google search, kettle

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• Sea Level Rise Of One Meter Within 100 Years

  New research indicates that the ocean could rise in the next 100 years to a meter higher than the current sea level – which is three times higher than predictions from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC.

  tags: climate change, ipcc, sea level

• Landmark national study reveals significance of green practices in attractions industry

  The results of a national survey released by PGAV Destination Consulting, in collaboration with the world-renowned Missouri Botanical Garden, reveal an important understanding about consumer attitudes and perceptions regarding environmentally sustainable operations in attractions. The study, conducted by Jerry Henry & Associates and called “Survival of the Greenest,” shows that “green consumerism” is not a passing fad.

  According to the study, the influence of Gen X and Y is significant and enduring. Nearly 75% of 18-34 year olds say they are more likely to visit an attraction that is pursuing environmentally friendly practices.

  tags: gen x, gen y, green consumerism, green products, environmental sustainability

• Floods to become commonplace by 2080

  Flooding like that which devastated the North of England last year is set to become a common event across the UK in the next 75 years

  tags: global warming, climate change, flood, flooding

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• ReGeneration – I’ll Take a Tankful of Green Crude

  Some people think of it as going from the fish tank to the gas tank, while others simply call it the power of pond scum. What they are talking about is research to turn algae—the green slimy stuff you find in stagnant water—into a clean replacement for petroleum.

  tags: algae, biofuel, green crude

• The Raised Floor: The Battle for Data Center Efficiency – Who Owns it?

  We are finally starting to see all IT vendors realize that they need to be part of the solution. Server vendors were the first to recognize this, since the increase in chip power consumption and heat dissipation was the first obvious problem. However, all elements in the data center need to contribute to improved power and cooling metrics.

  tags: data center, datacenter, energy efficiency, power, cooling

• Wireless Electricity Is Here (Seriously) | Fast Company

  No more electrical cables?

  After more than 100 years of dashed hopes, several companies are coming to market with technologies that can safely transmit power through the air — a breakthrough that portends the literal and figurative untethering of our electronic age.

  Wonder what the efficiencies of these systems are!

  tags: witricity, wireless electricity

• Met Office warns elderly may need summer aid to keep homes cool | UK news | The Guardian

  UK government has been warned it may need to start thinking about introducing emergency hot weather payments to help poorer households keep cool

  tags: climate change, hot weather payments, uk government, global warming

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• Green Car Congress: Kawasaki to Produce Gigacell Bipolar NiMH Batteries for Transportation Applications

  Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. (KHI) will begin manufacturing versions of the Gigacell bipolar NiMH industrial battery—originally targeted for grid applications such as output smoothing for wind and solar—for transportation applications, beginning with systems for rail applications, according to a report in the Nikkei.

  tags: batteries, Gigacell, nimh

• Solar Power Game-Changer: Near Perfect Absorption of Sunlight, From All Angles :: Singularity Hub

  A huge leap has been made in the creation of high efficiency, cost effective solar power with the announcement of the world’s first material that absorbs the entire spectrum of sunlight (UV, visible, and infrared) from virtually any angle with near 100% efficiency.

  tags: solar power, absorption, solar panels

• Polarized light pollution leads animals astray

  Human-made light sources can alter natural light cycles, causing animals that rely on light cues to make mistakes when moving through their environment

  tags: light pollution

• Polar Sea Ice Cap and Snow – Cryosphere Today

  A webspace devoted to the current state of our arctic and antarctic sea ice including an archive of daily polar sea ice cap concentrations (1979 – present)

  tags: arctic ice, arctic sea ice, antarctic, sea ice, thaw, global warming

  • If you
    teach about weather, climate, or the Earth, this site has wonderful images to
    make the concepts real. See current and archived images of the polar ice in the
    northern hemisphere and follow the data tracking on the changes over many
    years. There are also graphs of the data and time-lapse video clips of the
    changes over six year periods. (See the small text links near the top—easy to
    miss).

    – post by bigfellow

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• UPDATE 1-Metals pollute waters near US coal ash spill:group | Markets | Reuters

  Preliminary water tests from rivers near a huge coal ash spill in Tennessee show elevated levels of pollutants such as mercury and lead, a environmental group said on Friday.

  tags: arsenic, mercury, lead, coal, fly ash, tva

• The Energy Roadmap – US Fuel Cell Council proposes $1.2 billion to support Smart Grid & Electric Vehicles

  The US Fuel Cell Council is now lobbying Congress for more than a billion dollar investment to accelerate America’s manufacturing position around this important piece of the future energy sector.

  tags: fuel cell, energy storage, congress

• Living on Earth: Melting at the Top of the World

  Global warming is having a dramatic impact in the Himalayas, where the glaciers are melting at a rapid pace. One local mountain climber has started a campaign to educate villagers and trekkers alike about the effects of climate change on the mountains. Dawa Steven Sherpa tells host Steve Curwood about his hopes and fears for the Himalayas.

  tags: global warming, himalayas, nepal, mount everest, mekong, ganges, yellow, yangtze

• Next generation Smart LED lighting

  As an alternative to the traditional incandescent light bulb, LED lights provide significant energy savings. They can be 2,000 percent more efficient than conventional light bulbs and 500 percent more efficient than compact fluorescent bulbs. Engineers and scientists predict that widespread use of LEDs over the course of 10 years would save more than $1 trillion in energy costs, eliminate the need for nearly a billion barrels of oil over 10 years, and lead to a substantial reduction in emissions of carbon dioxide, the most common greenhouse gas. “

  tags: led, oled, led lighting, smart leds

• California Mulls Crackdown on kW Hogging Flat Panel TVs – Green Daily

  futuristic new sets are a huge power drain compared to their cathode ray predecessors. That’s why the California Energy Commission is considering a preemptive crackdown on flat screens.

  tags: plasma screen, lcd, cathode ray tube, california

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• NASA and Global Change

  What has NASA done lately to help the Earth?

  Dr Pete Worden of NASA presents on much of the Earth Science work NASA is doing – fascinating presentation to Google.

  At present, NASA has more than a dozen large Earth observing satellites in orbit, returning over a terabyte per day of physical, chemical, and climatological data about our planet. NASA gathers more data about the earth, and funds more research in the Earth Sciences, than the rest of the world combined.

  tags: nasa, google, pete worden

• The Energy Roadmap – Report explores energy technology roadmap for Low Carbon Economy

  The World Watch has released a report (PDF) looking at a roadmap towards a lower carbon economy based on a wide range of new energy systems.

  “We are on the verge of an energy revolution,” says Flavin. “With strong political leadership, we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to use policy and technology innovation to stave off the greatest human-caused threat our planet has seen.”

  World Watch believes that ‘these new energy sources will make it possible to retire hundreds of coal-fired power plants that now provide 40 percent of the world’s power by 2030, eliminating up to one-third of global carbon dioxide emissions while creating millions of new jobs.’

  tags: world watch, low-carbon energy, carbon

• Countries in tug-of-war over Arctic resources – CNN.com

  One of the planet’s most fragile and pristine ecosystems sits atop a bounty of untapped fossil fuels.

  Melting polar ice is making the Arctic more accessible to shipping and other industry.

  The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that 90 billion barrels of oil, 44 billion barrels of natural gas liquids and 1,670 trillion cubic feet of natural gas are recoverable in the frozen region north of the Arctic Circle.

  tags: polar ice, ice, arctic thaw, arctic ice

• News – Clean Edge – The Clean-Tech Market Authority

  As the wind industry closes out another banner year, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) is looking ahead to further progress in 2009. Although the industry is buffeted by the financial crisis and economic downturn, it is also buoyed by a strong strategic position and the prospect of strong policy support from Congress and the new President. Here are some wind energy projections for the New Year:

  tags: wind energy, awea, trends

• Greentech Media | China Plans World’s Largest Solar Power Plant

  Two Chinese companies have proposed a massive, 1-gigawatt solar photovoltaic power plant in China’s northwest

  tags: photovoltaic, solar energy, china

• voiceofsandiego.org: Science… Trying to Turn San Diego into the Green Houston

  San Diego, already home to dozens of companies involved in solar or wind energy, would be a major player in the nation’s multi-trillion-dollar energy economy if a group of local researchers succeed in turning algae into a commercially viable transportation fuel, something they think they can do within a decade.

  tags: algae, san diego, biofuel

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• Electricity study embraces energy efficiency for state | Business | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle

  Texas could reduce its peak electric usage by more than 23 percent in the next seven years if utilities would invest more in efficiency programs, according to a study released recently by the Public Utility Commission.

  The efficiency efforts, which would funnel through existing programs administered by the electric transmission companies in the parts of Texas open to competition, would save consumers as much as $2 for every $1 invested, according to the study.

  tags: texas, demand response, energy efficiency, public utility commission

• Spain to buy carbon dioxide emission rights from eastern Europe : Environment

  Spain will become the first major buyer of surplus carbon dioxide emission rights from eastern Europe in an attempt to comply with the Kyoto Protocol, the daily El Pais reported Friday. Spain has sealed with Hungary the purchase of a quota of 6 million tons of CO2, and is in talks about similar deals with Poland, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, the daily quoted government sources as saying.

  tags: co2 emissions, co2, emission rights, spain, greenhouse gas emissions, kyoto

• Inventor: Evaporation units could cool Earth | National | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle

  Ron Ace is making public a U.S. patent petition for what he calls the most “practical, nontoxic, affordable, rapidly achievable” and beneficial way to curb global warming and a resulting catastrophic ocean rise.

  Spray gigatons of seawater into the air, mainly in the Northern Hemisphere, and let Mother Nature do the rest, he says.

  The evaporating water, Ace said, would cool the Earth in multiple ways: First, the sprayed droplets would transform to water vapor, a change that absorbs thermal energy near ground level; then the rising vapor would condense into sunlight-reflecting clouds and cooling rain, releasing much of the stored energy into space in the form of infrared radiation.

  tags: evaporative cooling, global warming, evaporation

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• This Machine Might* Save the World | Popular Science

  Two desktop-printer engineers quit their jobs to search for the ultimate source of endless energy: nuclear fusion. Could this highly improbable enterprise actually succeed?

  tags: fusion, nuclear fusion

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