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Los Angeles will end use of coal-fired power
July 2, 2009
Reuters: Los Angeles will eliminate the use of electricity made from coal by 2020, replacing it with power from cleaner renewable energy sources, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said. Consumers of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the largest city-owned utility in the United States with 1.45 million electricity customers, will see higher power bills in the fight against climate change, he added in his inaugural speech for his second four-year term as mayor on ...
Loss of world's seagrass beds seen accelerating
July 2, 2009
Reuters: The world's seagrass meadows, a critical habitat for marine life and profit-maker for the fishing industry, are in decline due to coastal development and the losses are accelerating, according to a new study. Billed as the first comprehensive global assessment of seagrass losses, the study found 58 percent of seagrass meadows are declining and the rate of annual loss has accelerated from about 1 percent per year before 1940 to 7 percent per year since 1990. Published this week ...
EU: China, India must make emissions cuts
July 2, 2009
Associated Press: The chances of concluding a new global climate change pact remain dim unless China, India and Brazil make significant cuts in carbon dioxide emissions as well a senior Swedish climate change official said Thursday. Lars-Erik Liljelund, special climate change adviser to the Swedish government, said cuts from richer countries in the 27-nation bloc or planned cuts in the United States will not be enough to meet aims to cut at least 25 percent of emission from 1990 levels. "The ...
United Kingdom: Global warming causes sheep to shrink
July 2, 2009
Mongabay: Climate change is shrinking Scotland's wild Soay sheep despite the evolutionary advantages of having a large body, report researchers writing in the journal Science. Arpat Ozgul and colleagues tracked changes in body weight and behavior among female members of a population of Soay sheep on Hirta island since 1985 and found that on average, the sheep have been decreasing in size for the last 25 years. To determine the driver of smaller sheep, the researchers then plugged their data ...
United Kingdom: Baaad news? Global warming now shrinking sheep
July 2, 2009
Associated Press: Like the wool sweater that emerges from the dryer a size too small, global warming seems to be shrinking sheep. On average, wild Soay sheep on Scotland's island Hirta are 5 percent smaller today than they were in 1985, according to a team of researchers led by Tim Coulson of Imperial College London. "The decrease in body size was due to a reduction in growth rates caused, in part, by the changing climate," Coulson said in an interview via e-mail. Evolution favors the ...
United Kingdom: Climate change shrinks wild sheep: scientists
July 2, 2009
Agence France-Presse: Climate change has caused a flock of wild sheep on a remote northern Scottish island to become smaller, according to an unusual investigation published on Thursday. The study explains a mystery that has bedevilled scientists for the past two years. The wild Soay sheep live on Hirta, in the St. Kilda archipelago in the storm-battered Outer Hebrides, and have been closely studied for nearly a quarter of a century. The law of evolutionary theory says the brown, thick-coated ...
German study sees job boom from Sahara solar project
July 2, 2009
Reuters: A project linking solar power from the Sahara to energy users in Europe and North Africa could create 240,000 German jobs and generate 2 trillion euros ($2,822 billion) worth of power by 2050, a study published on Thursday found. The report by Germany's Wuppertal Institute for Climate for Greenpeace and the Club of Rome also said more than 580,000 jobs in concentrated solar power (CSP) could be created worldwide by the middle of the century with the right political ...
United Kingdom: Dog owners warned of toxic algae in ponds due to heatwave
July 2, 2009
Telegraph: In the West Midlands dead fish were found floating in a park due to oxygen depletion from the algae and the fountains in Trafalgar Square had to be closed because of the green slime. It has also caused trouble for gardeners and fishermen. Vets have now raised concerns that dogs diving into lakes and ponds are at risk of being poisoned by ingesting a toxic blue green algae called Cyanobacteria. Mark Johnston, of the British Small Animals Veterinary Association, warned pet owners ...
Climate change is shrinking sheep
July 2, 2009
BBC: Climate change is causing a breed of wild sheep in Scotland to shrink, according to research. Scientists say milder winters help smaller sheep to survive, resulting in this "paradoxical decrease in size". Classic evolutionary theory would predict that wild sheep gradually get bigger, as the stronger, larger animals survive into adulthood and reproduce. Reporting in Science journal, the team says this shows the "subtle interplay" between evolution and the ...
Spain backtracks on nuclear power phase-out
July 2, 2009
Agence France-Presse: Spain's government said Thursday it would allow the country's oldest nuclear reactor to operate beyond its intended 40-year lifespan, reversing a policy of gradually phasing out nuclear power. Industry Minister Miguel Sebastian said the Garona plant in northern Spain, which had been designed to function only until 2011 and whose operating permit expires on Sunday, would now be allowed to operate until July 2013. "This was not an easy decision but it is a thought-out decision," ...
