Obama's healthcare victory clears path for climate change bill

The chances of US climate change legislation passing this year received a major boost after President Obama secured victory in his historic battle to pass healthcare reforms late last night.

The successful House vote on the legislation following over a year of intense and fraught negotiations will clear a path for the administration to turn to its next large piece of administrative business: climate change.

Some senior Democrat Senators have suggested that following such a long battle to pass healthcare legislation the Senate will have "no appetite" to deal with a climate change bill that is likely to prove equally contentious.

However, both the administration and Democrat leaders in the Senate and House of Representatives remain adamant that they want to pursue a vote this year and with the party still behind in the polls ahead of November's mid-term elections the race is now on to move the legislation forward as quickly as possible.

The key healthcare vote comes just days after the compromise version of the climate change bill being prepared by the bi-partisan trio of Senators Democrat John Kerry, Republican Lindsey Graham, and independent Joe Lieberman, received a further boost when both environmental and industrial groups signaled their support for the proposed legislation.

In a surprise move, Bruce Josten, the top lobbyist at the US Chamber of Commerce, told reporters last week that the work being done by the three senators was "largely in synch" with the business group's views.

Josten stopped short of fully endorsing the bill, but following a meeting with the Senator's last Wednesday he struck a markedly different tone to the outright opposition to previous versions of the bill that the Chamber adopted last year.

"The fairest comment would be, directionally speaking, the way they are trying to conform and shape this bill I would suggest is largely in sync with what most people in American industry think is the direction you are going to have to go if you are going to have a successful program," he told reporters.

"[The Senators] are being very constructive, they are trying to figure out how to make this work for the American economy, the different sectors of the economy that are going to be affected one way or another, and I think just as, if not more importantly, for the American consumer."

Significantly, a coalition of 20 environmental groups released a statement on Friday signaling that they were "encouraged" by the progress being made towards a final version of the bill. The statement warned that "legislative details are important, and are not settled yet," but suggested that the group - which included influential organisations such as the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Union of Concerned Scientists – is largely happy with the direction of the bill.

The moves follow a week in which Kerry, Graham and Lieberman have met with industrial and environmental groups to talk through draft versions of the compromise bill ahead of its expected later this month.

As a result fresh details of the structure of the bill have emerged, including confirmation that the proposed carbon cap-and-trade scheme for energy firms will emulate the early phase of the EU emissions trading scheme by awarding free emission allowances to participating firms.

On the campaign trail, Obama had said that he would like to see 100 per cent of emission allowances auctioned. However, after already agreeing to scale back the scheme to only cover utility firms, the bi-partisan group of Senators look set to further limit the potential impact on energy bills by initially allocating pollution permits for free.

The compromise version of the scheme is also reportedly expected to allow energy companies to purchase carbon offset credits from the developing world to help them comply with their emission caps.

Critics of free allocation argue that it limits the financial incentive for firms to curb carbon emissions and can result in sizable windfall profits. However, the approach would reduce inflationary pressure on energy bills and still ensure firms pay a penalty if they exceed their imposed emission caps.

The Senators have also signaled that the scheme will incorporate a price floor and a price ceiling, thought to stand at $10 and $30 a tonne respectively and designed to provide investors with certainty over future prices. And they said the scheme would become more demanding over time, with the bill proposing that industrial plants will be brought into the cap-and-trade regime from 2016.

Additional details of the draft bill emerged last week, including controversial proposals for a tax on oil designed top drive up fuel prices and incentivise motorists to switch to more efficient vehicles; a $10bn fund to drive investment in low carbon technologies, including clean coal; up to $54bn in loan guarantees for new nuclear power plants; and proposals for a carbon tariff on imports from countries without carbon regulations in place.

There were also reports that a proposed renewable energy standard designed to ensure a set amount of energy is generated from renewable sources could be expanded to cover all low carbon energy sources, including nuclear.

India 2012, an e-waste bin

What a dump, and it is growing by the hour. Almost 40 per cent of the municipal and plastic waste generated in India is not collected, and half of the organic waste goes untreated. And then there is the growing problem of electronic waste.

By 2012, India will generate the most e-waste in the world, second only to China. Most cities do not have adequate infrastructure to manage the growing household and plastic rubbish, even though there are technologies available for treatment and reuse.
"There are only 110 facilities in the country for treating hardly 50 per cent of the organic waste generated," says the environment ministry's report on Road Map on Management of Waste in India A committee of the ministry has sought a law for waste-management with punitive action against defaulters.
The report call for higher penalty for those failing to properly dispose of municipal garbage. "Unless the city administrations get serious about waste management, the problem could become a major health risk," an official, who didn't wish to be identified, said. But, it's the economic growth that poses the biggest challenge - managing e-waste, which can be a discarded refrigerator or end-of-life cellphone or a laptop.
By 2012, India will generate over 800,000 million tonne (mt) of e-waste every year. At present, Mumbai tops the e-waste chart followed by Delhi. Western countries are adding to this mound. The estimate is not known as the ministry believes much of the e-waste is brought in illegally. NGOs such as Toxic Link have raised health concern over US and Europe dumping e-waste in India.
Even though disposing e-waste is defined under Hazardous Waste Management Rules in 2008, most cities don't have a system to collect and dispose of discarded gadgets. "Producers should be bound to take back their products after the life of the product is over and to get it recycled/disposed in. without health risks," says the report released on Thursday.
Poor management of the industry-generated hazardous waste is another worry. Annually 6.2 mt of the waste is generated and 2.1 mt goes untreated. The report talks of 36,000 hazardous waste industries, which include those manufacturing chemicals and plastic. Indiscriminate disposal has left many places environmentally degraded, says the report.

China and India: Neighbors Need to Collaborate for Sake of Global Environment

With large and growing economies and populations, China and India will strongly influence the quality of the global environment for years to come. While their political relationship is strained, it's critical the two countries work together to slow global warming, deforestation, water shortages and other environmental issues, says a Michigan State University scientist  and colleauges."China and India are the two largest countries in terms of population," said Jianguo "Jack" Liu, MSU University Distinguished Professor of fisheries and wildlife who holds the Rachel Carson Chair in Sustainability. Liu is internationally known for his work on environmental sustainability and coupled human and natural systems. "Even while the rest of the world is in a recession, the economies of China and India are growing and the countries' consumption of raw materials is increasing. Cooperation between the two is vital to mitigating negative environmental impacts." In "China, India and the Environment," published in the March 19 issue of the journal Science, Liu and co-authors advocate using scientific collaboration as a bridge to help break down political barriers between the two nations -- ultimately benefiting the larger global society. All the authors have strong research programs in one or both of the countries.
"We all have a huge interest in a sustainable world and the way we're managing it now, it simply isn't sustainable," said Peter Raven, co-author and president of the Missouri Botanical Garden. Raven also is a foreign member of both the Chinese and Indian academies of science. "The problems get worse every year; biodiversity loss and climate change have clear global significance. Our thesis is the two countries share so much adjacent territory that the environmental benefits should be obvious and, informed by scientific analysis, should provide a bridge between them."
According to Liu, water availability could be an increasingly challenging issue facing the two countries and one that will require careful cooperation. Many rivers flow through both China and India -- if one country builds too many dams on its side to generate hydroelectric power, it will likely cause water shortages downstream in the other country.
"Water is a huge issue," said Liu. "It's being discussed extensively. We need to make people aware of the benefits of cooperation. It's more than just China and India that will be affected if these two countries don't work together. The environmental impacts will be felt around the world, including in the United States."
"One thing we have learned from the recession is that without sustainability there cannot be unlimited growth," added Kamaljit Bawa, University of Massachusetts-Boston distinguished professor of biology and president of the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment in Bangalor, India. "The two countries are not facing recession and it is time for them to exercise environmental stewardship. Future economic growth is contingent upon this stewardship."
In addition to Liu, Raven and Bawa, other paper authors are Lian Pin Koh, of the Institute of Terrestrial Ecosystems in Zurich, Switzerland; Tien Ming Lee, of the University of California-San Diego and Yale University; P.S. Ramakrishnan, of Jawaharlal Nehru University, in Delhi, India; and Douglas Yu and Ya-ping Zhang, of the Kunming Institute of Zoology, in Yunnan, China.
Liu's research is supported by the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station, the National Science Foundation and NASA. He serves as principal investigator of the International Network of Research on Coupled Human and Natural Systems, funded by the NSF and coordinated by the MSU Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability, which Liu also directs.
Michigan State University has been advancing knowledge and transforming lives through innovative teaching, research and outreach for more than 150 years. MSU is known internationally as a major public university with global reach and extraordinary impact. Its 17 degree-granting colleges attract scholars worldwide who are interested in combining education with practical problem solving..

Massive sandstorm turns Beijing's streets yellow

Tons of sand from deserts in China's interior blew into Beijing Saturday, shrouding China's capital in a yellow-orange haze that authorities warned made the air quality "hazardous."
There were few people out on streets where pedestrians could taste the dust. Many of those who had ventured from their homes were wearing facemasks, and some left footprints in the yellow film that had settled on the city's streets.
Beijing's weather forecasting bureau gave the air quality a rare "5," or hazardous, rating and added that it was "not suitable for morning exercises." Parks and open spaces are usually packed from early in the day with enthusiasts doing martial arts, ballroom dancing and other activities.
The sandstorms underline the environmental degradation investors identify as one of the long-term constraints on growth in China, and concern about its impact has made a less resource-intensive model of growth a priority for Beijing.
The government has spent millions of dollars on projects to rein in the spread of deserts, planting trees and trying to protect what plant cover remains in marginal areas.
But the battle is being fought against a backdrop of rising average temperatures and increasing pressure on water resources after three decades of booming growth.
The sandstorm hit Beijing around midnight, carrying huge amounts of dust and heading south east, the official Xinhua news agency said. In northern Changping district, the wind reached speeds of up to 100 km per hour (60 mph).
The swirling clouds of dust and sand had blanketed the interior provinces of Qinghai and Gansu, and western Xinjiang region, before sweeping over the capital, Xinhua said.

Bold new plan for confronting climate change

The Johns Hopkins University will cut emissions of climate-changing carbon dioxide gas by more than half from projected levels by 2025, the university announced on Friday.
The university will invest more than $73 million in conservation and efficiency measures that will cut emissions caused by facilities operations by an initial 81,000 metric tons a year. That’s 57 percent of the overall goal of cutting 141,000 metric tons from the 276,000 a year in emissions it would otherwise be generating 15 years from now.
The remainder of the goal will be achieved by adopting new technologies that emerge between now and 2025 and by motivating members of the university community to reduce energy consumption and environmental impact, Johns Hopkins said.
The emissions goal is part of a broad multifaceted Implementation Plan for Advancing Sustainability and Climate Stewardship, also announced today. The plan encompasses research, education and community outreach in addition to greenhouse gas reduction.
“Global climate change is one of humanity’s greatest challenges,” said Ronald J. Daniels, president of the university. “The earth’s rising temperatures will, over decades to come, affect where and how we live, the ecosystems we inhabit, our quality of life and even our health.
“Facing this challenge head-on is our shared responsibility as humans, and especially as residents of the developed world,” Daniels said. “But universities have a special role in our society and a special responsibility. We are institutions that discover, that educate and that, often, set an example. When it comes to global climate change, Johns Hopkins will be a leader in all three.”
Besides the dramatic cuts in carbon dioxide gas emission, the plan calls for creation of an Environment, Sustainability and Health Institute, bringing together faculty members from across the university. They will collaborate on research and on teaching climate change science and sustainability to students, including those who choose the university’s new undergraduate major and minor in global environmental change and sustainability and the new master’s degree in energy policy and climate. Institute faculty members also will focus on applying science to environmental policy, to public health initiatives and to practical measures that individuals, organizations and businesses can take to fight global warming.
“Just as Johns Hopkins medical researchers move their discoveries off the lab bench to the patient’s bedside to save lives,” Daniels said, “this institute will take a bench-to-real-world approach: We will use discoveries to get things done.”
The plan also includes establishment of a Sustainability House in a to-be-renovated building on North Charles Street at the university’s Homewood campus. It will serve as headquarters for the university’s Office of Sustainability and student environmental groups and as a showcase and laboratory for energy conservation techniques and technologies. The design team, with students and faculty members participating, will be directed to include cutting-edge sustainability features and to meet aggressive goals, such as zero net carbon emissions, storm water capture and reuse, and organic maintenance of the grounds.
Another key element of the plan is to put Johns Hopkins knowledge to work contributing to Baltimore’s and Maryland’s sustainability and climate change efforts. One such effort, announced late last month, is a $190,000 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency–funded collaboration with Baltimore City; Johns Hopkins students will be trained to conduct audits at nonprofit organizations in the city and help them determine how to cut energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.
The implementation plan is the result of months of detailed follow-up work on the March 2009 report of the university’s President’s Task Force on Climate Change. That report was the culmination of a year’s work by Johns Hopkins faculty, administrators, students and trustees, as well as representatives of the Baltimore business, government and environmental communities.
“In response to a serious issue, we have taken a typically serious and thorough Johns Hopkins approach,” Daniels said. “We have devoted the time and effort required to do this right: comprehensive data gathering, careful analysis and systematic planning.”
The implementation plan puts Johns Hopkins on a path toward a future defined by a vision of carbon net neutrality but takes a practical approach focused on what is achievable now and in a reasonably predictable 15-year period, said James T. McGill, the university’s senior vice president for finance and administration.
“This plan is responsible and sustainable not only environmentally but also financially,” McGill added. “We’ll be getting an attractive return on these investments in dollars as well as in tons of reduced carbon dioxide. In fact, by the time we’ve completed this initial $73 million investment, we expect to be saving more than $10 million a year for years to come.”
The path to that return on investment includes a building-by-building, campus-by-campus list of HVAC, electrical and lab equipment improvements; lighting fixture and control upgrades; measures to make buildings more airtight; window replacements; installations of solar power panels and solar hot water equipment; water conservation measures; and other steps.
The plan targets laboratory research buildings in particular; often referred to as “heavy breathers,” these buildings consume significant amounts of air that must be heated or cooled to satisfy temperature and humidity requirements.
Additional significant savings in carbon dioxide emission—32,000 metric tons a year—and in energy costs will come from cogeneration plants being built on both the university’s East Baltimore and Homewood campuses. The plants will burn relatively clean natural gas to produce both electricity and steam heat more cheaply and efficiently.
Another aspect of the plan is an aggressive, sustained campaign to encourage students, faculty and staff to reduce energy consumption at work and at home. The university also will launch a parallel effort to find and implement new conservation opportunities in its energy-intensive information technology infrastructure, including desktop and mainframe computers, printers and monitors, and server farms. The IT professionals who will lead this effort will also look for other creative ways to improve the university’s technology capability while reducing energy consumption.

Fast Fact: JHU climate/sustainability plan

Projected JHU CO₂ emissions, 2025, assuming “business as usual”:
276,300 metric tons per year
Target JHU CO₂ emissions, 2025:
134,700 metric tons per year
Targeted reduction in CO₂ emissions, by 2025:
141,600 metric tons per year (51.2 percent)
Reduction in CO₂ emissions by already identified initiatives:
81,000 metric tons (29 percent of total projected “business as usual” emissions in 2025; 57 percent of emissions reduction goal)
Costs and savings:
Initial investment: $73.8 million. Projected savings per year from initial investment: $10.3 million. Total investment and total savings per year by 2025: to be determined.
Examples of CO₂ reduction measures:
Co-generation plants, one at Homewood (spring 2010) and two in East Baltimore (by late 2011). Total cuts of 54,000 metric tons a year (32,000 counts toward the university’s goal; the remainder is attributable to the Johns Hopkins Health System, co-owner of the two East Baltimore plants). Investments of $8.6 million at Homewood and $34.5 million in East Baltimore; total $43.1 million.
Combined annual energy cost savings:
$6.5 million.
Mudd/Levi/Biology East Complex, Homewood campus (air handling and HVAC, lighting control upgrades, weather stripping and optimization of automatic door openers). Cuts 5,315 metric tons a year. Investment: $6.9 million. Annual energy cost savings: $1.19 million.
Ross Research Building, East Baltimore campus (upgrade utility infrastructure and convert HVAC system from constant to variable air volume). Cuts 3,227 metric tons a year. Investment: $4.64 million. Annual energy cost savings: $640,000.

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Read more: http://gazette.jhu.edu/2010/03/15/bold-new-plan-for-confronting-climate-change/#ixzz0iIeuQ4F5

Read more: http://gazette.jhu.edu/2010/03/15/bold-new-plan-for-confronting-climate-change/#ixzz0iIeuU6cb

Weather bureau backs climate change verdict

The leading research bodies say the evidence is irrefutable: climate change is real and the link with human activity is beyond doubt.
Universities have also joined the fray, saying it is time to stand up for Australian science and research.
"We've had some serious tabloid junking of ... science and research in our community," Professor Peter Coaldrake, the chairman of Universities Australia, said.
"If the two bodies together come out and make a statement of this sort, then we in the community have to acknowledge that."
The weather bureau's director, Greg Ayers, says a century's worth of climate records show definitively that weather patterns are shifting and the planet has already been warming.
There are simply more extremely hot days, and fewer cold and wet ones.
"When we look back over the last 50 years or so and look at the succeeding decade as we roll forward, what we see ... is a trend of increasing temperatures from decade to decade," Dr Ayers said.
"We also see shifts in patterns of rainfall with the drying in the east and the south and the west of the continent.
"There is an increase in temperature in the surface oceans around Australia as well that goes hand in hand with the ... surface temperature increases over the continent, and there's also ... a rise in sea level."

Open to public

Dr Ayers says the bureau's data is available for the public to scrutinise.
"For the Australian region, we have around 100 climate reference stations, as we call them, where we pay a great deal of attention to doing the best possible measurements," he said.
"I'm very pleased to be able to say that our climate record in Australia is as good or better than any comparable record anywhere in the world."
But Mr Ayers says the weather bureau is primarily responsible for measuring the climate, whereas it is the CSIRO that handles climate projections.
The CSIRO says on its current path, the planet is heading for a rise in temperature of a further 2 degrees Celsius this century.
The head of the organisation, Dr Megan Clark, says the evidence is clear.
"Hotter days, more extreme heat and less rainfall are the snapshot of Australia's climate now, not the forecast," she said.
"In Australia, we're seeing that all of Australia is warming, in every state, over every season."
Dr Clark says it is clear the climate is being affected by the carbon emissions caused by human activity.
"Our scientists and those around the world are now about 90 per cent sure that these things are happening at the same time and are linked," she said.

Climate-change scientists feel 'muzzled' by Ottawa: Documents

A dramatic reduction in Canadian media coverage of climate change science issues is the result of the Harper government introducing new rules in 2007 to control interviews by Environment Canada scientists with journalists, says a newly released federal document.

"Scientists have noticed a major reduction in the number of requests, particularly from high profile media, who often have same-day deadlines," said the Environment Canada document. "Media coverage of climate change science, our most high-profile issue, has been reduced by over 80 per cent."

The analysis reviewed the impact of a new federal communications policy at Environment Canada, which required senior federal scientists to seek permission from the government prior to giving interviews.

In many cases, the policy also required them to get approval from supervisors of written responses to the questions submitted by journalists before any interview, said the document, obtained in an investigation into the government's views and policies on global-warming science that was conducted by Climate Action Network Canada, a coalition of environmental groups.

The document suggests the new communications policy has practically eliminated senior federal scientists from media coverage of climate-change science issues, leaving them frustrated that the government was trying to "muzzle" them.

"Many (federal climate change) scientists are recognized experts in their field, have received media training, and have successfully carried out media interviews for many years," said the document, leaked by an Environment Canada employee who asked not to be named.

"Our scientists are very frustrated with the new process. They feel the intent of the policy is to prevent them from speaking to media."

The Environment Canada analysis noted that four prominent scientists, who regularly spoke for the government on climate change science issues, appeared in only 12 newspaper clippings in the first nine months of 2008, compared with 99 clippings over the same period in 2007.

"There is a widespread perception among Canadian media that our scientists have been 'muzzled' by the media relations policy," said the Environment Canada document. "Media coverage of this perception, which originated with a Canwest story in February 2008, is continuing, with at least 47 articles in Canadian newspapers to date."

The document also noted that government scientists voiced their displeasure to communications officials about the policy during meetings in June 2008. A few months later, a couple of requests for interviews with scientists in the midst of the 2008 federal election campaign were never answered, including one request that was "denied" after it was forwarded to the office of former environment minister John Baird.

Andrew Cuddy, 21, who led the investigation by Climate Action Network, said that it reveals "troubling evidence" about the government's approach to climate-science research, funding, appointments on science panels and communications.

"We've catalogued a host of evidence from different areas," said Cuddy. "They kind of all point to the government trying to undermine climate science research. (It) goes against their public statements saying that they're committed to research and that they believe the fundamentals of climate science."

The coalition said that one of the biggest concerns is whether the government is adequately funding climate-science research at Environment Canada and other departments after refusing to offer new subsidies for an independent research organization, the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Science, considered to be the lead agency for global warming research in Canada's universities.

"It's definitely a scandal," said Graham Saul, executive director of Climate Action Network Canada. He added that the government was "muzzling scientists; they're putting climate deniers in key oversight positions over research, and they're reducing funding in key areas. . . . It's almost as though they're making a conscious attempt to bury the truth."

Environment Minister Jim Prentice told reporters last week that the government wasn't trying to shut down the foundation but wanted it to report on how it spent previous grants of $110 million dating back to the year 2000.

"It's appropriate I think at this point that we take stock of what we've achieved for those dollars," Prentice said. "We'll work together with the foundation to make sure that that happens. They've got the resources to do it and we'll assess it from there."

The foundation says it has funded nearly 200 research projects that have led to breakthroughs in climatology, meteorology and oceanography, transforming operations in the federal government and private companies. But it has described Prentice's approach as a "nightmare scenario" since it no longer has money for new research.

In a statement e-mailed to Canwest News Service, Environment Canada said the new communications policy has allowed its scientists and experts to interact directly with the media on numerous occasions.

"The new policy merely assures that communications with the media are co-ordinated, to achieve the goals set out above — namely, quick, accurate and consistent responses across Canada," said the statement.

It added that it responded to 254 climate change-related requests in 2008 and 428 climate change requests in 2009.

The department also said it has taken many steps to inform Canadians about the work done by government scientists, including partnerships with other departments, new content added to websites such as www.science.gc.ca and the publication of Envirozine, an Environment Canada newsletter, as well as publishing about 700 peer-reviewed articles per year.


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