A Houston Refinery
Texas has been described as "The CO2 State" |
Good News:
- New research finds that applying organic fertilizers such as compost to agricultural land could increase the amount of carbon stored in these soils and contribute significantly to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Who knew?
- New York City introduces new efficiency standards for its "black taxi" fleets. Under the plan, the entire fleet of roughly 10,000 corporate service limousines, would effectively be required to switch to hybrid vehicles to meet fuel-efficiency standards of 25 mpg in 2009 and 30 mpg in 2010. A considerable improvement over the current 12-15mpg average.
- Flooded Alaskan village filed a federal court suit, arguing that five oil companies, fourteen electric utilities and the country's largest coal company were responsible for the changing Arctic climate that forced it to relocate. They are also being charged with conspiracy, for misleading the public on global warming.
- French automaker Renault is partnering with waste management company Sita in developing end-of-life vehicle recycling.
Bad News:
- UN officials alert to the fact that the world's major commercial fish stocks could collapse within decades as global warming compounds damage from pollution and overfishing, potentially affecting 2.6 billion people who get most of their protein from fish.
- US national parks are found to be heavily tainted by pollution. A new study has found traces of everything from pesticides and mercury to man-made industrial chemicals in some of the most remote and untouched places in the country.
- A study in Indiana found that daylight saving actually increased the state's energy bill by $8.6 million. The reduced cost of lighting in afternoons during daylight-saving time is more than offset by the higher air-conditioning costs on hot afternoons and increased heating costs on cool mornings.
- A new WWF study finds that turning just one Sumatran province's forests and peat swamps into pulpwood and palm oil plantations is generating more annual greenhouse gas emissions than the Netherlands and rapidly driving the province's elephants into extinction.
- Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic completed the first biofuel powered commercial flight, which is to say, one of the plane's fuel tanks contained 20% of coconut and babassu palm oil. Yes, it worked, but so what?
- The coal industry is fighting back, investing big bucks into election ads promoting coal as a "a clean alternative to foreign oil", and attempting to gain support among members of Congress and the top presidential candidates.
- A senior White House official claims the US is ready to accept "binding international obligations" to reduce greenhouse gases, which could be announced as soon as July. However the rhetoric seems to invoke forcing similar targets on India and China, which according to the WWF simply "isn't going to happen".
- Texas is featured in a Newsweek report as "The CO2 State" - the state's emissions are not only the highest in the US, they are on par with many industrial countries. And to add insult to injury, it doesn't even care.
- The online Encyclopedia of Life opens its first 30,000 pages. The project aims to catalog every one of our planet's 1.8 million species and is designed to greatly enhance our understanding of the world's diminishing biodiversity. Encyclopedia of Life.
