MicroHawk's NewsScan

Forest health versus global warming: Fuel reduction likely to increase carbon emissions

There may be valid reasons to thin forests -- such as restoration of forest structure or health, wildlife enhancement or public safety -- but increased carbon sequestration is not one of them, scientists say.

via www.sciencedaily.com

NIGERIA: Fearing the Floods - Sleeping with One Eye Open - IPS ipsnews.net

LAGOS, Nigeria, Dec 15, 2011 (IPS) - The women of Makoko, a low-lying slum close to the Lagos Lagoon along Nigeria’s Atlantic coast, always sleep with one eye open. Many live in fear that when they go to sleep at night they will wake to flooded homes and business.

via ipsnews.net

CLIMATE CHANGE-BRAZIL: Contradictory Goals in Agriculture - IPS ipsnews.net

RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec 13, 2011 (IPS) - Brazil aims to meet its climate change targets in agriculture by stimulating techniques that have been proven to reduce greenhouse gas emissions – but which may increase the use of toxic agrochemicals, activists say.

via ipsnews.net

SOUTH AFRICA: Climate Change Affecting Fisherwomen’s Livelihoods - IPS ipsnews.net

OCEAN VIEW, South Africa, Dec 13 , 2011 (IPS) - Having observed changes in the sea and the life cycles of the rock lobsters that their livelihoods depend on, a group of fisherwomen from the Western Cape, South Africa are calling on government to adjust fishing seasons to adapt to what they claim are climate change-related alterations.

via ipsnews.net

Arctic Sea Ice Shrinking at 'Unprecedented' Levels | Common Dreams

The recent loss of sea ice in the Arctic is greater than any natural variation in the past 1½ millennia, a Canadian study shows.

According to the leading science journal Nature, Arctic sea ice is disappearing on a pace and magnitude unlike anything the Earth has experienced in the past 1,450 years. (Photograph by: HO, Reuters) "The recent sea ice decline … appears to be unprecedented," said Christian Zdanowicz, a glaciologist at Natural Resources Canada, who co-led the study and is a co-author of the paper published Wednesday online in Nature.

"We kind of have to conclude that there's a strong chance that there's a human influence embedded in that signal."

via www.commondreams.org

Southern States Targeted for Genetically Engineered Tree Plantations « Climate Connections

The USDA recently approved a request by ArborGen to plant over a quarter of a million genetically engineered eucalyptus trees across the southern United States in many of the same ecosystems damaged by Katrina and the Gulf oil spill. GE eucalyptus plantations will threaten recovery of the natural ecosystems:

Like kudzu, eucalyptus trees are wildly invasive, and spread into native ecosystems, displacing wildlife. Additionally, the oil in these eucalyptus trees is extremely flammable. California spends millions each year to eradicate invasive eucalyptus because of the threat of wildfires.  In 2009 over 200 people were killed in Australia in a firestorm fuelled by eucalyptus.  It was the worst fire in the country’s history.

Read the whole story and watch a short video at Climate Connections.

Mining the Truth on Coal Supplies

This story is part of a special series that explores energy issues. For more, visit The Great Energy Challenge.

No matter how bad coal might be for the planet, the conventional wisdom is that there is so much of it underground that the world’s leading fuel for electricity will continue to dominate the energy scene unless global action is taken on climate change.

But what if conventional wisdom is wrong?

via news.nationalgeographic.com

Lots of interesting stuff on The Great Energy Challenge page. See it here.

US to double renewable energy capacity by 2012 | BrighterEnergy.org

The White House said yesterday that the US is on track to double its renewable energy generating capacity – as well as its renewable energy manufacturing capacity – by 2012.

Releasing a new report summing up progress under the Recovery Act, Vice President Joe Biden predicted that the cost of solar power would be cut in half by 2015, putting it “on par” with the cost of retail electricity from the grid.

via www.brighterenergy.org

ENVIRONMENT-RUSSIA: Threat To Polar Bears Worries Russian Experts - IPS ipsnews.net

The polar region -- which includes the Arctic Ocean and parts of Alaska, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Russia, Norway and Sweden -- has experienced unpredictable climatic changes over the last few years. As a result, polar bears and their natural habitat are seriously threatened.

"The climate changes seem to be caused partly by natural factors about which we can do nothing, such as anomalous solar activity," said Vyacheslav V. Pankov, director for the Guild of Russian Ecologists. The guild was created to unite Russian ecologists and experts on the environment.

"But the environmental effects of human activities -- pollution, destruction of natural migration routes, a reduction of food sources -- create additional problems for the conservation of biodiversity," he added.

via ipsnews.net

TVA shutters old coal units | Chattanooga Times Free Press

Four days after TVA decided to revive work on its unfinished Bellefonte Nuclear Plant, the federal utility announced Tuesday it will begin next year to idle its oldest coal units at the nearby Widows Creek Fossil Plant.

“It’s bad news, but last week was great news,” said James Rickey Steele, the mayor of Stevenson, Ala., who lives in the shadow of the Widows Creek plant and only 15 miles from Bellefonte.

TVA announced Tuesday it will shutter nine of its 59 coal-fired units by 2015, including six at Widows Creek, two at the John Sevier plant near Rogersville, Tenn., and one at the Shawnee plant near Paducah, Ky.

via www.timesfreepress.com