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Environment News
in "Snippets"
...Snippets - environment news clips with links to main sources ...
US must abandon fossil
fuels within a decade to safe the planet and for security- Al Gore
Al Gore, the former US Vice-President has warned the US to stop the use of
fossil fuels and adopt renewable energy sources (wind, solar etc) fully for
electricity supply by 2018 or face threats to their national security and
the environment. The former Vice-President said this on July 17th, 2008
while delivering a speech on Energy and the Future at the Constitution Hall
in Washington, US.
Further details: Gore's
Speech on Energy and the Future;
New York City speeds
transformation of yellow cabs to green
New York City's yellow taxi fleet now will
go green at the rate of 300 new hybrid cars a month, Mayor Michael
Bloomberg said on Wednesday, citing an agreement with car-makers to supply
the fuel-light cabs.
There are already more than 1,300 hybrid
taxis in the city, and each one saves its drivers about $6,500 a year,
Taxi and Limousine Commission Chairman Matthew Daus said in a joint
statement with the mayor.
Bloomberg aims to accomplish 127 green
initiatives before his second and final four-year term ends in 2010. In
December,
the Taxi and Limousine Commission voted to
require all vehicles that join the taxi fleet to be hybrids by October 1.
The only exception is for cabs specially equipped for the handicapped.
Further Details:
Reuters News;
Environmental News Network, ENN
Related sites:
Nissan Motors' Altima hybrids,
General Motors' Chevrolet Malibu hybrids;
Ford Motors' Escape hybrid
Exelon seeks carbon
output cuts
Exelon Corp, the largest U.S. nuclear
power operator, said on Tuesday it would seek to slash carbon output from
its own operations and those of its customers by 15 million metric tons
per year by 2020.
The plan seeks to reduce or offset
emissions of the carbon dioxide gas blamed for contributing to global
warming by the equivalent of removing 3 million cars from the roads, the
company said.
Nuclear power plant operators have long
supported efforts to trim carbon dioxide emissions because their power
plants emit virtually none of the greenhouse gas, in contrast to
coal-fired power plants which are among the nation's top emitters of
carbon.
Further Details:
Reuters News
France Government
continuously making efforts to promote Nuclear Energy
Since coming into power in May 2007,
President Nicolas Sarkozy has been aggressively promoting nuclear energy,
and attempting to sell French reactors at every turn. His government has
signed agreements on nuclear exports and cooperation with nine
Mediterranean and Middle East countries in the last year.
Sarkozy is desperately trying to sell the
French designed European Pressurised Reactor (EPR), the flagship of the
so-called “nuclear renaissance” despite the fact that the construction
attempts of the EPR, in Finland and France have been disastrous.
The Finnish Olkiluoto 3 reactor is two and
a half years behind schedule, and costs have doubled to just short of €5
billion. The French nuclear safety authority shut down the French
construction site after just 6 months due to chronic safety problems.
Last week, a uranium leak contaminated two rivers in Southern France.
Swimming, fishing and drinking local well-water was banned after roughly
30 cubic meters of liquid containing uranium leaked out of a tank.
Over 80 percent of Frances electricity production is from nuclear power.
Nuclear energy undermines the solutions to climate change by diverting
urgently needed resources away from the true renewable and energy
efficiency solutions. Greenpeace's Energy Revolution blueprint shows that
renewable energy, and greater energy
efficiency can deliver half of the world’s energy needs by 2050,
without nuclear power.
Further Details:
Greenpeace News, Areva
- Nuclear Power Generation Company,
Greenpeace's
Energy Revolution Blueprint
Greenpeace activists
block restart of French nuclear reactor construction
Twenty of Greenpeace activists have
successfully stopped construction of a new nuclear reactor being built in
Flamanville, France, from restarting, for over 60 hours due to safety
issues stemming mainly from Uranium contamination of the environment (Land
and water Resources.
Further details:
Greenpeace News
UN Environment Programme (UNEP)
received 20 percent of the 2007 "UN21 Awards"
The Environment Programme of the United Nations
has won 3 out of the 15 United Nations' "UN21 Awards" for outstanding initiatives across the United Nations system for the year 2007. The
announcement was made on Friday July 11, 2008 by the UN Secretary General,
Mr. Ban Ki-Moon.
The UNEP programmes that won the award are:
The Billion Tree Campaign
(BTC);
The
Indian Solar Loan Programme; and
Environmental Management of the Iraqi Marshlands.
For
further details:
environbusiness news;
UNEP Press release;
UN.org
Capsized Ferry in the Philippines
A joint
European Union-United Nations expert team is being deployed today to the
Philippines at the request of national authorities to assess the situation
of a capsized ferry containing large quantities of highly toxic chemicals.
The 'Princess of the
Stars' ferry boat capsized on Saturday 21 June about three kilometers from
the shore of Sibuyan Island in the central Philippines, as Typhoon
Fengshen was moving through the area.
The ferry, bound for Cebu
Island, central Visayas, was carrying 849 passengers. Only 56 survived,
while the rest remain unaccounted for, believed to have been trapped
inside the ferry. Efforts to recover the bodies were suspended following
the discovery of a cargo of large quantities of highly toxic pesticides,
in addition to an estimated 100,000 litres of fuel.
Of particular concern are
the chemicals endosulfan, carbofuran, and methamidophos. Unknown
quantities of other highly toxic pesticides-namely antracol, tamaron,
nicolsamide and carbamate-have been reported to be among the cargo.
For
further details:
United Nations Environment Programme;
CNN News;
FoxNews;
Washington Post
50 by
2050: G-8 Countries to cut Greenhouse gases emission by half by 2050
The Group of Eight (G8) leading industrial nations consisting of the United
States,
Japan,
Russia,
Germany, France,
Britain,
Canada
and Italy, on Tuesday, July 8, 2008, in Japan, signed a climate change
declaration to cut to half, the world emissions of
greenhouse gases by 2050. They also called on all rapidly growing
economies of the World (e.g. China and India) to join in the effort to stem
the potentially dangerous rise in world temperatures.
Even though the G8 nations felt they have
made a significant progress in their common approach to fighting global
warming, the developing nations, scientists and environmentalists have
condemned this agreement describing it as vague and falling short of
defining the baseline for emission reduction. Is it 50% of the current
emission generation or 5o% of the 1990 level? everyone is asking.
For more details go to major news
sources:
Environbusiness.com News,
The Washington Post,
BBC News,
The New York Times
and the
The G8 Environment and Climate Change Statement
Barack
Obama launches a new website on Energy policy
Sen.
Barack Obama, the
United States
Democratic Party’s
presumptive nominee, launched
a new Web site
Wednesday , June 25, 2008. The
website,
www.NewEnergyForAmerica.com,
focuses on his energy
proposals, with attempts to
highlight the differences between Barack's energy plan and the energy plan
of his Republican Party's Nominee, John McCain.
Obama’s
plan includes a cap-and-trade program intended to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions 80 percent by the year 2050 and doubling fuel economy standards
over the next 18 years. McCain has proposed suspending the federal gasoline
tax over the summer, lifting the federal ban on offshore drilling and
allowing states to decide whether to allow oil and gas exploration off their
shores, and pushing for building more nuclear energy plants.
In a
speech on energy policy in Las Vegas, Nevada Wednesday,
June 25, 208,
McCain unveiled a bundle of
energy initiatives his campaign calls the “Lexington Project.” The project
includes initiatives like giving a $5,000 tax credit to each consumer who
buys a zero carbon emissions car and creating a permanent tax credit equal
to 10 percent of a company’s wages spent on research and development.
For more details:
www.NewEnergyForAmerica.com
Read a more elaborate versions of these stories
at Environmental News or any of the links provided under each news topic.
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