Wot I no abut Factories And Global Warming

Source: TCPalm ()

TREASURE COAST — Almost every one knows of Santa Claus. You know, big belly, wavy white beard, red suit, white fur trim black belt and boots, and the jolly laugh.

That guy.

The one with the sleigh and eight reindeer, and the home and factory at the North Pole, yeah, him. But did any one ever sit down and talk to him? Here’s what Santa had to say at Memorial Park in Stuart on Thursday.

Q. Hello, Santa Claus, are you ready for Christmas Day?

A. Yes. You know this is our big day. Mrs. Claus, the elves and the reindeer are all working very hard for Christmas Eve and Christmas, you know.

Q. Is your sleigh packed and ready?

A. Well, it is in stages you know. First the reindeer practice their jumping, then they work with the elves loading the sleigh with sacks of toys.

Q. We are living in modern times. Have you converted your “Naughty and Nice” list into a Blackberry and things like that?

A. Oh, yes! Of course, we use modern technology. We have to keep up with the times. That’s how we know what the good boys and girls are doing. Yes, we have gone to the Blackberries and the PDAs, the PCs and all that.

Q. I notice that while you are hi tech now, you still drive your traditional sleigh and reindeer. Is that because they are environmentally friendly?

A. That’s just one reason, but there are many, many more. It is as if Santa could not be Santa without his reindeer and sleigh.

Q. What do the reindeer do for the rest of the year, while you and the elves are making toys?

A. Ho! Ho! Well, they take a small vacation like Santa does. Then the reindeer will be practicing, just like in football and basketball, where the athletes keep training. Well, the reindeer for a regimen, too, so that they are always ready to go. Maybe they take a little time off to enjoy their families.

Q. Have gone high tech with your factories as well?

A. That’s a truism. High tech plays an important …

Source: Yahoo! News ()

Joseph Romm
Mon Dec 24, 12:59 PM ET

We all know about the War on Hanukkah. And last year I discussed the War on White Christmas. But it is increasingly clear that the assault on the Christmas tradition by those who oppose action on global warming goes far beyond the inevitable reduction in late December snowfall we will face when the country is 10°F warmer (or more) by century's end.

The question of the season is — what will happen to Santa Claus when the Arctic is ice-free?

On our current path, this could happen as early as 2013 according to researchers at the Naval Postgraduate School and no doubt will happen before 2030.

Where will we tell kids that Santa lives? Some sort of North Pole Atlantis? But he can't live under the water, since much of the Arctic will still ice over by December, though a few feet of ice can't support a huge house and a factory and an elf-dormitory. Kids are smarter than that. If only adults were smarter….

Probably the best choice is to ship him off to the South Pole (with Superman's Fortress of Solitude). Indeed the fact that Santa lives in the North Pole is no doubt a residue of our general Northern-hemisphere-centric worldview. How ironic would it be to outsource Santa to the Southern hemisphere. Not the Antarctic Peninsula or West Antarctic ice sheet, of course, since those may not last the century — we don't want to keep moving him! — but much of the East Antarctic ice sheet will probably hopefully be around for centuries, and, in any case, Antarctica is a real continent, so even when the ice is gone, Santa can still have his whole operation above water.

Of course, if we ruin the Christmas tradition with our short-sighted inability to develop sane greenhouse gas policies, Santa may just decide all of us are too "naughty" to deserve his largess.

I also wonder what generations will think about all those old Christmas movies with Santa based at the North Pole. …

Source: The Age ()

FROM the depths of Earth’s oil fields to the rarefied atmosphere
of space, evidence of China’s modernisation seemed to be everywhere
in 2007 - a rise set to be enshrined with next year’s Olympics.
China will soon overtake Germany as having the world’s third
biggest economy after a fifth straight year of double-digit growth,
and its expanding wealth had huge impacts at home and abroad over
the past year.
In Shanghai, the value of China’s stock market climbed
spectacularly as investors continued to plough in their new riches,
while around the country the building of skyscrapers and new
factories pushed ahead at a frantic pace.
But while the rest of the world enjoyed the countless cheap
products exported from China and the increasing economic
opportunities offered inside the country, its growing influence in
world trade also caused problems.
The United States and Europe hauled China before the World Trade
Organisation over a range of what they alleged were unfair trade
practices, with one of the complaints from the US side being about
rampant copyright abuse.
China’s tight control over its currency remained one of the
biggest points of tension with its major trading partners, who
believe the yuan is being kept artificially weak and thereby giving
Chinese exporters an unfair advantage.
The “Made in China” reputation also took a battering throughout
the year as a wide range of exports to the United States, Europe
and elsewhere failed to meet safety and quality standards.
But China’s export juggernaut withstood all these problems, and
the nation’s trade surplus is on track for a record annual total of
well over $US200 billion ($A231.12 billion).
China’s rise in other spheres generated many other concerns
around the world.
But the increasingly confident Asian power - led by President Hu
Jintao who was installed in October as ruling Communist Party chief
for another five - shrugged off the criticism and ploughed
ahead.
One of the most contentious issues was China’s …

Source: Boston Globe ()

Trees by design
What happens when genetic engineering comes to the forest?

The debate over transgenic trees has been simmering among devotees of the once-mighty American chestnut.
(The Forest Historical Society)

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By
Susan Freinkel

December 23, 2007

IF EVER THERE was a tree that has inspired devotion, it’s the American chestnut, once one of the most common trees in East Coast forests. Thoreau considered it among the “noblest” trees he encountered in his walks through the Lincoln woods, while settlers in the southern Appalachians found the nuts and timber such valuable allies in their struggle to survive that the tree became a regional icon. When an imported plague, the chestnut blight, all but eradicated the tree in the early 20th century, people mourned from Georgia to Maine.Since that time, ardent fans have struggled to pull the chestnut back from the brink. Most of their efforts have relied on old-fashioned breeding techniques - investing the tree with blight-resistance genes from other species of chestnut through the laborious and lengthy process of hand-fertilizing flowers, planting the resulting seeds, cultivating trees, and culling inferior specimens. And then doing it all over again. But a pair of forestry scientists at the State University of New York in Syracuse are now exploring a different idea: that genes from other plants, and even from animals, might provide the chestnut with completely new weapons to thrive again in the Eastern forests.The technology they are using is the genetic engineering that has transformed medicine and agriculture - and triggered intense controversies - over the last three decades. But now it is being applied to trees, raising new possibilities for industry and conservation, as well as new kinds of environmental safety concerns.Advocates of forest biotechnology say that a few snips and tucks of the molecular scissors and tweezers, it may be possible to …

Source: Seattle Post Intelligencer ()

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Source: Philadelphia Inquirer ()

KHUN SAMUT CHIN, Thailand - At Bangkok’s watery gates, Buddhist monks cling to a shrinking spit of land around their temple as they wage war against the relentlessly rising sea.
During the monsoons at high tide, waves hurdle the breakwater of concrete pillars and the inner rock wall around the temple on a promontory in the Gulf of Thailand. Jutting above the water line just ahead are remnants of a village that has already slipped beneath the sea.
Experts say these waters, aided by sinking land, threaten to submerge Thailand’s sprawling capital of more than 10 million people within this century. Bangkok is one of 13 of the world’s largest 20 cities at risk of being swamped as sea levels rise in coming decades, according to warnings at the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change held here.
"This is what the future will look like in many places around the world," said Lisa Schipper, an American researcher on global warming, while visiting the temple. "Here is a living study in environmental change."
The loss of Bangkok would destroy the country’s economic engine and a major hub for regional tourism.
"If the heart of Thailand is under water, everything will stop," says Smith Dharmasaroja, chairman of the government’s Committee of National Disaster Warning Administration. "We don’t have time to move our capital in the next 15-20 years. We have to protect our heart now, and it’s almost too late."
The arithmetic gives Bangkok little cause for optimism. The expanding megalopolis rests about 31/2 to 5 feet above the nearby gulf, although some areas already lie below sea level. The gulf’s waters have been rising by about a tenth of an inch a year, about the same as the world average, said Anond Snidvongs, a leading scientist in the field.
But the city, built on clay rather than has also been sinking at a far faster pace of up to 4 inches annually as …

Source: Charlotte Observer ()

Duke Energy Corp. is in negotiations with BMW Manufacturing Co. to build a solar energy plant at the car company’s Spartanburg facility — an unusual partnership to develop renewable energy and possibly share costs.

It might be a sign of the future.

Duke wants the solar power outpost to be the first in a network of hundreds controlled by a central computer. It’s a goal for Duke, which has been researching buying or partnering with several solar energy startups, Jim Rogers, Duke Energy’s chief executive, said Wednesday.

Such a network might be decades off — if possible at all.

“I would like to be the first company to figure out how to do it,” Rogers said after speaking at the Charlotte Chamber’s annual luncheon on the region’s economic outlook. “We want to co-invest with customers. It’s an evolution of our model.”

Rogers and others point out that solar power, like wind, is fast becoming affordable as technology improves.

Rogers was one of four panelists at the luncheon and had just returned from three days of meetings in San Francisco with venture capital firms and “six or seven” solar power startups, he said.

Duke would help finance the BMW project and use any excess power to feed the power grid, Rogers said. He wants to repeat the partnership throughout the region with other companies and to find potential hosts for other solar sites, such as building owners. A practical question looming is how much to charge, Rogers said.

Duke and other utilities are facing government requirements to use less coal-fired power and more renewable energy, which is pushing them to find cost-effective ways to set up solar and other renewable energy systems. Duke relies on coal for more than 70 percent of its power generation in the Carolinas and its three Midwest states.

BMW is a logical partner, said, because it’s already focused on using renewable energy sources.

The factory uses methane piped from nearby …

Source: InTheNews.co.uk ()

Businesses ‘must target CO2′

Wednesday, 19 Dec 2007 13:08

Businesses must help to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, government says

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Government and business must work together to tackle carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, an environment minister said today.

Phil Woolas said steps must be taken to help the environment that do not jeopardise prosperity.

His comments follow the publication of a consultation on measures to simplify the regulations businesses face in reducing CO2 emissions.

Mr Woolas said the consultation would make sure the UK gets "the biggest cuts in CO2 for the money spent" and has come in response to requests from businesses who want to cut emissions but find existing regulations complex and confusing.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) will look at a new package of measures to cut duplication and unduly complex bureaucracy and how to cut costs for businesses while making it easier for them to cut emissions.

Reducing CO2 emissions is key to limiting climate change and was one of the main issues debated at the UN talks on global warming in Bali.

"Last week in Bali, we set a clear agenda for negotiating a new global agreement to fight climate change," Mr Woolas said.

"We must make the cost-effective emissions cuts, and we must prove to the world that fighting climate change is compatible …

Source: CNNMoney.com ()

Carbon Sciences, Inc. (OTCBB: CABN), the
developer of a breakthrough technology to transform earth-destroying carbon
dioxide (CO2) into earth-friendly carbon products, makes the case for its
CO2 transformation technology over CO2 storage schemes.

“The success of the conference signifies that the world is ready to take on
active efforts, such as technology investments, to solve the problem of
global warming,” commented Derek McLeish, Carbon Sciences CEO. “Current
ideas for dealing with CO2 emissions from primary sources, like power
plants and industrial factories, based on capturing CO2 gases and burying
them underground and the ocean floor, are shortsighted. We believe that is
a dangerous solution and will leave a ticking time bomb for future
generations to address.”

The UN Climate Change Conference in Bali concluded on December 15, 2007
with an agreement between nearly 190 countries to take “active” measures
against global warming. The agreement, reached after several days of
talks, calls on developing nations to take “actions” to mitigate climate
change in a “measurable, reportable, and verifiable” manner. Developing
countries, such as China and India, as well as developed countries like the
United States, will face a new level of accountability and pressure to
reduce emissions under the next global climate-change pact.

For the first time in the history of climate change talks, the United
States has come to the table collaborative in negotiating a viable
solution. Paula Dobriansky, deputy U.S. secretary of state and a leader of
the American delegation, called the accord “a new chapter in climate
diplomacy” and said the U.S. is “very committed to developing a long-term
global greenhouse gas reduction emission goal.”

Mr. McLeish continues, “The carbon-based economy will not go away any time
soon and neither will global industrialization. amount of incandescent
light bulbs we replace and no amount of lobbying by alternative energy
groups …

Source: InTheNews.co.uk ()

Mixed response to Bali deal

Monday, 17 Dec 2007 11:16

World leaders will meet in 2009 for the next stage of the climate agreement

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Environmental campaigners and politicians have given a mixed response to the climate agreement reached last week at the UN talks in Bali.

UN climate change chief Yvo de Boer described the political response to future steps to tackle global warming as a "real breakthrough".

And environment secretary Hilary Benn said the agreement is an "historic breakthrough and a huge step forward", calling it the most significant agreement to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions since the Kyoto protocol was signed in 1997.

But Friends of the Earth (FoE) warned that the Bali deal is "very disappointing" as it fails to give countries "a clear destination" to help the environment.

"Many of the developing countries brought good proposals to Bali – they know we need a climate deal – but the industrialised nations have let them down," said FoE director Tony Juniper.

"We urgently need to find a way forward for an international agreement. This is a journey we have to make together."

Keith Allot, head of climate change at WWF-UK, said there is "still a lot of work needed" to ensure an effective deal for the environment once the Kyoto protocol expires in 2012.

"Everyone who has ratified the Kyoto deal are clearly showing that they recognise what is required of them, that they are listening to the science that they understand what they need to do in the years after Kyoto," Mr Allot added.

A …