1. WWF Tips to Help Save Energy
by Sun Xiaohua (China Daily),
January 25, 2007.
World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) launched its two-year energy saving campaign, “20 Ways to 20 Percent” in China last weekend after the country flunked the first test to meet its ambitious energy-saving goal in the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-11).
The goal was to reduce energy consumption per unit of gross domestic products (GDP) by 20 percent in five years, or 4 percent a year.
WWF’s 20 tips aimed at helping China achieve its goal, and include use of energy-saving air conditioners, refrigerators, electric bulbs and tubes and washing machines, unplugging household appliances when they are not in use, making paperless business a reality and using more public transport.
Read the complete article: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-01/25/content_791885.htm
2. Running the Rule over Stern’s Numbers
by Simon Cox and Richard Vadon (BBC Radio 4, The Investigation),
January 25, 2007.
When the Stern Review into the Economics of Climate Change came out last year, it was showered with praise.
UK Prime Minister Tony Blair called it, “the most important report on the future ever published by this government”.
But expert critics of the review now claim that it overestimates the risk of severe global warming, and underestimates the cost of acting to stop it.
Read the complete article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6295021.stm
3. Bush’s ‘clean fuel’ move may cause more harm, say environmentalists
by Andrew Buncombe (The Independent),
January 25, 2007.
Environmentalists are unimpressed with George Bush’s pledge to develop alternative sources of energy – accusing him of failing to confront the real issues driving climate change.
In his address on Tuesday, Mr Bush called for a large boost in the production of alternative fuels, along with an increase in efficiency standards for petrol-engine vehicles. “These technologies will help us be better stewards of the environment, and they will help us to confront the serious challenge of global climate change,” he said.
Read the complete article here: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2183876.ece
4. US Government proposes geoengineering and plantetary protection as “insurance policy”
by David Adams(The Guardian),
January 27, 2007.
The US government wants the world’s scientists to develop technology to block sunlight as a last-ditch way to halt global warming, the Guardian has learned. It says research into techniques such as giant mirrors in space or reflective dust pumped into the atmosphere would be “important insurance” against rising emissions, and has lobbied for such a strategy to be recommended by a major UN report on climate change, the first part of which will be published on Friday.
Read the complete article here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,1999967,00.html
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD has worked in industry and government. She is currently researching a novel technique for long-range weather forecasting funded by the B. Macfie Family Foundation.