Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Monday, September 21, 2009
Climate Progress
Climate Progress
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- Energy and Global Warming News for September 21st: Obama to shift focus as climate talks approach
- Japan's carbon cuts may include offsets
- Newsweek gets duped by Big Oil — for real — in worst Big Media story of the year
| Energy and Global Warming News for September 21st: Obama to shift focus as climate talks approach Posted: 21 Sep 2009 10:21 AM PDT
Obama to Shift Focus to Climate Change After months of almost single-minded focus on healthcare, President Obama is about to shift the White House spotlight to global warming — first with a speech to the United Nations in New York on Tuesday, then later in the week at the G-20 economic conference in Pittsburgh. The renewed emphasis on climate change and reducing carbon dioxide emissions comes at a crucial time: Negotiators are entering the home stretch in a drive to unveil a comprehensive international agreement to curb rising temperatures at a December conference in Copenhagen. With key divisions remaining among the major industrialized nations, as well as with developing industrial powers and poorer nations, there is concern that negotiations leading up to Copenhagen could be bogging down. Obama administration officials, while admitting the seriousness of the challenges, hold out hope for a deal. Here are nine hurdles facing Obama and his counterparts…. And here's some good news that the administration is also working the issue behind the scenes: White House Quietly Lobbies Senate on Climate Bill
Climate-change legislation has stalled on Capitol Hill, but the White House's unofficial "Green Cabinet" is quietly trying to revive the effort by lobbying dozens of senators. President Obama has dispatched Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson to Capitol Hill. White House aides said that they and other executive branch staffers, such as climate-change czar Carol Browner, have met with "dozens" of senators. They are working to assure key senators – ranging from Senate Energy Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman, New Mexico Democrat, to John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat – that a climate-change bill is viewed as a "priority" by the administration, Capitol Hill sources said. A White House aide said the "Green Cabinet" is asking senators to support a comprehensive plan – though some vulnerable lawmakers would prefer that the bill be split into more politically tenable pieces – and is asking them to share ideas for what to include in the legislation. As those meetings take place behind closed doors, some senators are striking deals on individual bits such as coal and nuclear issues, sources on Capitol Hill and in environmental groups say. Cap and Trade Proves Popular in Some Conservative Democratic Districts It appears that cap-and-trade legislation is turning out to be popular in the states of some conservative Democrats, according to a new poll that Democratic firm Garin Hart Yang conducted on behalf of the Environmental Defense Fund. In Blue Dog Dem Heath Shuler's North Carolina district, cap and trade is supported by 55% of voters, versus 29% opposed. In Blue Dog Dem Baron Hill's Indiana district, cap and trade is supported by 45%, versus 30% opposed. In Dem Rep. Tom Perriello's conservative Virginia district, cap and trade is supported by 42%, versus 25% opposed. All three voted for the House climate bill, which makes the results not quite as surprising. More interesting would be the results in the districts of the 44 Dems who voted against it. Climate Change to Take Center Stage at U.N. U.S. President Barack Obama promised strong action on climate change from his first day in office, but he is heading into a series of meetings with other world leaders this month under growing pressure to deliver on his rhetoric. More than 100 world leaders, including Mr. Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao, are scheduled to meet Tuesday at the 64th United Nations General Assembly to talk about fighting climate change, in a prelude to the Pittsburgh Group of 20 meetings starting Thursday. While the talk will be about the environment, the substance will be about money. Poor nations say that if rich nations want them to stop burning coal or cutting down forests, they should be willing to pay. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has made global warming a focus, and he is worried that the meeting won't move the ball forward toward a new global climate-change treaty in Copenhagen this December to succeed the Kyoto Protocol. "We want world leaders to show they understand the gravity of climate risks, as well as the benefits of acting now," Mr. Ban said. "We want them to publicly commit to sealing a deal in Copenhagen." While he said Tuesday's closed-door meeting was "not a negotiation forum," Mr. Ban said he expected the leaders to "to give their negotiating teams marching orders to accelerate progress toward an…ambitious global climate agreement." Everest Memento for Obama to Show Climate Change Impact Nepal's sherpa community is sending a piece of rock from Mount Everest to U.S. President Barack Obama to underscore the impact of global warming on the Himalayas. Environmental group WWF said Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal had promised to carry the "memento" and give it to Obama when world leaders meet in New York next week as "a symbol of the melting Himalayas in the wake of climate change." The rock was collected from the 8,850 meter (29,035 feet) Mount Everest by Apa Sherpa, who climbed the mountain for a record 19th time in May. Sherpas, mainly living in Nepal's Solukhumbhu district, home to the world's tallest peak, are known for their climbing skills. A WWF-Nepal statement said more than 200,000 youth had also signed a petition to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon demanding action on global warming ahead of crucial climate talks in Copenhagen. Experts say mountainous Nepal, home to eight of the world's 14 tallest peaks, including Mount Everest, is vulnerable to climate change despite being responsible for only 0.025 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, among the world's lowest. Average global temperatures are rising faster in the Himalayas compared to most other parts of the world, according to the Kathmandu-based International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD). Supporters Rally for Climate Change Action Reports, pictures, and articles are streaming in from around the world as the more than 2,400 Global Wake Up Call events happen. They are taking place in more than one hundred and twenty countries and we are watching pictures of everyday citizens making the call in Beijing, in monasteries in Nepal, and from rural towns in Australia. The diversity of the participants and the response they are getting from their calls is truly awe inspiring.
State Forest Restoration Plan Fights Global Warming From planting seedlings to acquiring entire groves, forest restoration projects in state parks and on federal lands could soon spring from California's aggressive initiatives to reduce emissions linked to global warming. Under the state's landmark program, companies looking to offset their climate-change effects for the first time will be allowed to receive credits for financing plantings and restoration in state and federal forests. The California Air Resources Board on Thursday is expected to endorse those new rules of voluntary participation for all parties: landowners, public agencies and industry. "There's nowhere else in the world where this type of protocol has been established," said Dave Bischel, president of the California Forestry Association, a timber group. The campaign to arrest climate change is increasingly enlisting forests, because trees soak up carbon dioxide, a predominant greenhouse gas emitted by factories and cars. The wood continues to store the carbon for decades after being milled into homes or desks Kirk Beset From Left and Right Over Climate Vote Senate candidate Mark Kirk's changing positions on a "cap and trade" environmental bill are inspiring angry boos from some fellow Republicans and accusations of flip-flopping from Democrats. Democrats on Friday challenged Kirk, who's serving his fifth term in the U.S. House, to explain why he now opposes a measure that he said three months ago was good for national security. "It appears that he wants to win an election and he's willing to do that even if it means we have to keep fighting over foreign oil," said Jill Morgenthaler, Illinois' former director of homeland security and an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for Congress in 2008. Kirk was one of just eight House Republicans to vote for the bill in June. Kirk told the crowd that he supported the cap-and-trade bill because it was the right thing for his congressional district in Chicago's northern suburbs, but that he would oppose it as a senator representing the entire state. Japan Eyes Mandatory Cap-and-Trade Japan's new government wants to introduce a compulsory cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gas emissions as early as the year to March 2012, the Nikkei business daily said on Sunday. The scheme would be a key part of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's goal to cut such emissions by 25 percent from 1990 levels by 2020, the paper reported on its website without citing sources. A government panel on the environment is likely to discuss the plan at a meeting later on Sunday, the paper said. Under the scheme, the government would issue emissions quotas to companies. Firms emitting less than their quotas would be able to sell the surplus, the Nikkei said. Hatoyama's Democratic Party has said the 25 percent emissions target — tougher than the last administration's — is needed for Japan to play a bigger negotiating role at U.N.-backed climate talks in Copenhagen in December, so that emerging nations such as China and India join a new climate pact that goes beyond 2012. U.K. Official Confident U.S. Will Act on Climate Change Even though climate change legislation has stalled in Congress, a senior British official who is working with U.S. policymakers expressed confidence that the bill's prospects are bright. In an interview with The Hill, United Kingdom Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Ed Miliband said U.S. lawmakers and the White House are committed to moving the bill this year. Miliband, who met with Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) this week, said, "The [climate] bill is being worked on as I understand it, and it will emerge soon." While acknowledging that President Barack Obama's number one priority in 2009 is healthcare reform, Miliband said, "My sense from talking with the administration is there is a significant amount of commitment to the December deadline."
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| Japan's carbon cuts may include offsets Posted: 21 Sep 2009 05:31 AM PDT
This Reuters story is not terribly surprising. The country's new target was going to require a lot of effort (see "Japan's new prime minister promises to slash CO2 25% below 1990 levels by 2020 — with domestic emissions trading, clean energy subsidies"). That's especially true given that Japan is some 10% above 1990 levels as of last year. No doubt that's one reason Japan had already made the climate pledge conditional on China, India. Still, it's not like Americans can criticize the Japanese, given our too weak target (see "EIA stunner: By year's end, we'll be 8.5% below 2005 levels of CO2 — halfway to climate bill's 2020 target"). Here's more:
This is one more reason Copenhagen needs to clean up the Clean Development Mechanism. |
| Newsweek gets duped by Big Oil — for real — in worst Big Media story of the year Posted: 20 Sep 2009 01:23 PM PDT
So blares the Onion Newsweek headline. Forget that Big Oil's product is a principal cause of the gravest environmental threat to the health and well-being of humanity (see "Intro to global warming impacts: Hell and High Water"). Certainly forget all the other environmental impacts of oil. Forget that Big Oil is a principal funder of disinformation aimed at blocking action on global warming — see "Leaked Memo: Big Oil is manufacturing 'Energy Citizen' rallies to oppose clean energy reform and "Even fantasy-filled American Petroleum Institute study finds no significant impact of climate bill on US refining." Newsweek says we should focus on the truly small stuff:
Uhh, not BP: "BP stand for 'back to petroleum' — oil giant shuts clean energy HQ, slashes renewables budget up to $900 million this year, dives into tar sands." And not Shell: "Shell shocker: Once 'green' oil company guts renewables effort." And not everyone else: "Big oil made $600 billion under Bush, but invested bupkis in clean energy, Part 2: Details on BP, Chevron, Conoco Phillips, Shell and ExxonMobil." Here is the basis of Newsweek's nonsensical spin:
[Pause for laughter to die down. Pause longer for subsequent crying jag to end.] Since when was corn ethanol green?
And ExxonMobil is green … for real? Seriously, Newsweek? Yes, forget the country's biggest oil company has funneled millions of dollars to fund the disinformation campaigns of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the American Enterprise Institute, and the Heritage Foundation, all of which continue to advance unfactual anti-scientific attacks as I have detailed recently (see posts on Heritage and CEI and AEI). Chris Mooney wrote an excellent piece on ExxonMobil's two-decade anti-scientific campaign. A 2007 Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) report looked at ExxonMobil's tobacco industry-like tactics in pushing global warming denial (see "Today We Have a Planet That's Smoking!"). The oil giant said it would stop, but that was just another lie (see "Another ExxonMobil deceit: They are still funding climate science deniers despite public pledge"). Newsweek should read this excellent commentary by award-winning journalist, Eric Pooley, "Exxon Works Up New Recipe for Frying the Planet." But what about nouveau-green Valero? A recent story notes:
And don't get me started on Chevron: And the piece ends with this whopper:
Not. In fact "Venture capital funding for renewable energy and cleantech startups (which plunged from last October through March) rebounded in the second quarter" with a staggering "$1.2 billion invested in 67 countries." This is the worst major media story on energy this year. Related Posts:
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Woe to those that slow us down - they kill time n that kills people: Health fight has other bills sidelined Boston Globe
Woe to those that slow us down - they kill time n that kills people:
Health fight has other bills sidelined
Boston Globe
Health fight has other bills sidelined
Boston Globe
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Climate Progress
Climate Progress
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- Congressional Budget Office and Politifact debunk Glenn Beck's 'lies': Clean energy economy costs only a postage stamp a day
- NYT: Senate Dem leaders "are pressing colleagues to vote with the party on procedural matters … and against any filibuster … even if they intend to oppose the measure in the end when simple majority rules."
- Cartoon of the Day
| Posted: 20 Sep 2009 09:29 AM PDT This post, written by Brad Johnson and Daniel J. Weiss, a Senior Fellow and the Director of Climate Strategy at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, was first posted here. See also "EIA analysis of climate bill finds 23 cents a day cost to families, massive retirement of dirty coal plants and 119 GW of new renewables by 2030 — plus a million barrels a day oil savings."
Last night, Glenn Beck accused President Obama of "outright lies," engaging in a "coverup" of the cost of his green economic agenda. Beck claimed that "buried" Treasury documents from March show that the cost of a cap-and-trade carbon market to regulate global warming pollution is $1,761 per household per year, despite the president's assurance to the American public in June that "the price to the average American will be about the same as a postage stamp per day":
Watch it: In reality, Beck's figure of $1,761 per household for the Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) is not actually based on secret Treasury documents, but on the confabulation of a right-wing blogger at CBSNews.com. Although the Treasury Department has called this story "flat out wrong," conservatives and the oil industry have heavily promoted this inflated number, much in the same way they wildly overestimated the number of Tea Party activists who attended the Glenn Beck rally in Washington, D.C. last weekend. On June 19th, the Congressional Budget Office analyzed the ACES Act — legislation crafted by Congress, not by "czars" in the White House — and determined "that the net annual economywide cost of the cap-and-trade program in 2020 would be $22 billion—or about $175 per household." Yesterday, the CBO — a Congressional research arm independent of the "spooky" executive branch — released an updated analysis that lowered its previous cost projection to "$160 per household." In other words:
The revised analysis also determined that the least well off Americans would receive a greater net benefit than its previous projections. "CBO estimates that households in the lowest income quintile in 2020 would see an average gain… [of] about $125" per household. By 2050, this net gain would increase to "$355 measured at 2010 income levels." A clean energy economy would enjoy massive growth, according the the CBO:
Investing in efforts to prevent catastrophic climate change, the CBO concluded, would reduce this GDP by as little as one cent per dollar. CBO concluded that the impact of the ACES Act on the overall economy would be "modest." However, the CBO did not analyze elements of the legislation that would increase our energy independence and household savings further:
Glenn Beck is spinning a paranoid fantasy in which Democratic members of Congress are either puppets of — or conspirators with — an out-of-control, "racist" and "spooky" President. In the real world, the Congressional Budget Office has repeatedly found that a clean energy future can be ours for less than a (real) postage stamp a day. Transcript:
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| Posted: 20 Sep 2009 06:09 AM PDT Okay, so that is a New York Times story on the "uphill battle" to pass health care reform:
But the point is we should have the same exact strategy on the clean air, clean water, clean energy jobs bill. After all, two key swing senators have already said they would vote for cloture on that bill:
And, according to the NYT, there is at least a glimmer that this strategy might work for some on health care:
So I'm going to put Bayh down as a "Yes" for cloture on the climate and clean energy bill. Related Posts:
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| Posted: 20 Sep 2009 06:06 AM PDT |
As Politifact wrote Friday, the numbers that conservatives like Beck are using are "
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Climate Progress
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- Are walruses the latest canaries in the climate-destroying coal-mine?
- Supposedly 'green' printing company sponsoring oil front group conference
- Energy and Global Warming News for September 18th: UN Secretary General calls for immediate action
| Are walruses the latest canaries in the climate-destroying coal-mine? Posted: 19 Sep 2009 09:23 AM PDT
Just days after Arctic sea ice receded to the third lowest extent on record, forcing thousands of walruses ashore, researchers flying along the Alaska coast stumbled upon a grisly scene: 100 to 200 walrus carcasses along the shoreline of Icy Cape, southwest of Barrow. By 12 September, Arctic sea ice had receded to the third lowest extent on record [see here]. On 16 September, we reported in As Sea Ice Reaches Annual Minimum, Impacts of Arctic Warming Grow :
Walruses have not just been gathering along the Alaska shoreline. The scene is being repeated elsewhere in the Arctic. WWF Polar Bear coordinator Geoff York returned on 17 September from a trip along the Russian coast and saw a haul out there with an estimated 20,000 walruses near Ryrkaipiy (on the Chukchi Peninsula). As he reported in a blog entry on 4 September:
See additional details on the impacts of receding sea ice on walruses in the U.S. Geological Survey's fact sheet, Pacific Walrus Response to Arctic Sea Ice Losses. According to Walruses Gather as Ice Melts in the Arctic Sea, Associated Press, 17 Sep 2009:
Also on 17 September, journalists reported that 100 to 200 dead walruses had been spotted along the shoreline at Icy Cape by scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (see Carcasses of dead walruses spotted on Alaska coast, Juneau Empire, 18 Sep 2009). The USGS researchers were flying along the Alaska coast. Until scientists on the ground can access the site and assess the situation, no specific cause of death can be determined. A stampede unfortunately is among the possibilities. According to the USGS fact sheet:
For details on that 2007 incident, see 3,000 walruses die in stampedes tied to climate: Shortage of sea ice on Russian side of Arctic led to crowded conditions (MSNBC, 14 Dec 2007 [JR: photo below from that story])
Resources: ** Pacific Walrus. Informative set of pages from the Center for Biological Diversity. ** Pacific Walrus Response to Arctic Sea Ice Losses. USGS fact sheet. ** Photos of Walruses. From the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Alaska. ** WWF International Climate Blog, Northeast Passage expedition diary: ** Sailor Completes Norway-Alaska Trip. WWF Polar Bear coordinator Geoff York describes to Alaska Public Radio his experience on a WWF-supported Northeast Passage expedition. ** As Sea Ice Reaches Annual Minimum, Impacts of Arctic Warming Grow . WWF US climate blog, |
| Supposedly 'green' printing company sponsoring oil front group conference Posted: 19 Sep 2009 06:13 AM PDT Yet another company caught greenwashing, courtesy of Wonk Room. In October, corporate front group Americans for Prosperity is hosting its annual "Defending the American Dream" conference. The get-together will feature right-wing notables such as Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), CNBC's Larry Kudlow, and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC). The keynote address will be given by Newt Gingrich, who was propelled back into the media spotlight last year with his "Drill Here, Drill Now" pro-oil campaign. One of the "Gold Sponsors" of AFP's global warming denying conference is the "green" print and paper company TrayPML. TrayPML markets itself as a company that makes "active strides to protect the planet." On its website, TrayPML also boasts about its ability to help companies "go green." The company touts its environmental credentials by publicizing the World Wildlife Fund as an esteemed client. AFP, of course, mocks the protection of endangered wildlife, and argues for increased drilling in Alaska's preserved lands.
AFP is supported largely by money derived from the Koch Industries polluter empire. David Koch, the billionaire VP of Koch Industries, sits on the board of the AFP Foundation and helped found its predecessor, Citizens for a Sound Economy. Koch Industries has an abysmal environmental record that includes both major oil spills and several instances where Koch pipelines leaked millions of gallons of toxic crude into ponds, lakes and streams across the country. Supporting Koch's polluter agenda, AFP runs various organizing efforts to discredit global warming science, and mobilizes opposition to clean energy legislation. Not only that, but AFP's Phil Kerpen, as ThinkProgress has noted, is waging an all out war against the concept of green jobs.. By sponsoring AFP's anti-environmental conference, TrayPML wipes out any possible credibility that the firm is a friend of the "green" movement. |
| Energy and Global Warming News for September 18th: UN Secretary General calls for immediate action Posted: 18 Sep 2009 01:04 PM PDT U.N Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon Calls for Immediate Action on Climate Change Two weeks ago, I visited the Arctic. I saw the remains of a glacier that just a few years ago was a majestic mass of ice. It had collapsed. Not slowly melted — collapsed. I traveled nine hours by ship from the world's northernmost settlement to reach the polar ice rim. In just a few years, the same ship may be able to sail unimpeded all the way to the North Pole. The Arctic could be virtually ice-free by 2030. Scientists told me their sobering findings. The Arctic is our canary in the coal mine for climate impacts that will affect us all. I was alarmed by the rapid pace of change there. Worse still, changes in the Arctic are now accelerating global warming. Thawing permafrost is releasing methane, a greenhouse gas 20 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. Melting ice in Greenland threatens to raise sea levels. Meanwhile, global greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise. I am therefore all the more convinced we must act — now. To that end, on Sept. 22 I am convening a special summit on climate change at the United Nations for some 100 world leaders — history's largest-ever such gathering of heads of state and government. Their collective challenge: transform the climate crisis into an opportunity for safer, cleaner, sustainable green growth for all. The key is Copenhagen, where governments will gather to negotiate a new global climate agreement in December. I will have a simple message to convey to leaders: The world needs you to actively push for a fair, effective and ambitious deal in Copenhagen. Fail to act, and we will count the cost for generations to come. Climate change is the preeminent geopolitical issue of our time. It rewrites the global equation for development, peace and prosperity. It threatens markets, economies and development gains. It can deplete food and water supplies, provoke conflict and migration, destabilize fragile societies and even topple governments. What is needed is political will at the highest levels — presidents and prime ministers — that translates into rapid progress in the negotiating room. It requires more trust among nations, more imagination, ambition and cooperation. I expect leaders to roll up their sleeves and speak with — not past — each other. I expect them to intensify efforts to resolve the key political issues that have so far slowed global negotiations to a glacial pace. Ironically, that expression — until recently — connoted slowness. But the glaciers I saw a few weeks ago in the Arctic are melting faster than human progress to preserve them. EU Worried US Senate Dragging Its Feet on Climate Change The EU ambassador to the United States said on Thursday that any delay by the U.S. Senate that pushes action on climate into next year could subject the country to the charge that domestic politics will always trump its international commitments. Such a move would postpone the formation of an overall U.S. climate plan until after a U.N. climate meeting in Copenhagen in December, when 190 countries hope to craft a new treaty to fight greenhouse gas emissions. "If this were to happen it would open the United States to the charge that it does not take its international commitments seriously, and that these commitments will always take second place to domestic politics," John Bruton, the EU's ambassador to the United States, said in a press release. He said asking an international conference "to sit around looking out the window for months, while one chamber of the legislature of one country deals with its other business, is simply not a realistic political position." Iowans Show Support for Clean Energy and Climate Bill At a public hearing before the Iowa Utilities Board this morning, a broad coalition of Iowa citizens will call for the Iowa Utilities Board to stand up to utility pressure on climate change. Through previously submitted written comments and personal testimony at a workshop on Friday, these citizens will make the scientific, economic and personal case for why Congress should pass the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES). Several of the groups submitted analyses that showed how Iowa will benefit from clean energy legislation through job growth and income in manufacturing, renewable energy and energy efficiency. Others showed that the moderate costs of the bill are miniscule compared to the threat of global climate change. "These analyses get past the scare tactics that have been prevalent in the debate over climate change legislation," said David Osterberg, executive director of the nonpartisan Iowa Policy Project. "Under one respected analysis, the additional cost to the average Iowa household is estimated at $4 a month, about the cost of a Big Mac and fries. That is a small cost to assure energy security for the future." Wally Taylor, attorney for the Sierra Club, Iowa Chapter added, "In fact, when the energy efficiency and renewable energy measures in the federal climate bill are included, the analysis projects a monthly savings of over $5 on electric bills by 2020." "There is so much more at stake here than minor changes in electric rates," said Rob Kelter, Senior Attorney for the Environmental Law & Policy Center "Clean energy can be a major driver of economic growth in Iowa, but we have to stand up to the utilities to make it happen." "Iowa is well-positioned to move to a clean-energy economy under this legislation. Our state is a leader in energy efficiency and wind-energy production and has vast untapped potential for clean energy development," Nathaniel Baer, energy program director for the Iowa Environmental Council said. National Parks Soon to be Empty of Glaciers If you want to see glaciers in Glacier National Park, you had better hurry. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that within 20 years, the park will be empty of glaciers. As temperatures rise and politicians debate how to respond to climate change, the national parks already seem to be feeling the effects. At hearings in April, Jonathan Jarvis, the Obama administration's nominee as director of the National Park Service, called the national parks "the proverbial canary in the coal mine." He noted that the parks are both largely undisturbed and closely monitored, so the effects of the hanging ecosystem can be more easily documented. Recent changes at the parks are hardly encouraging. Rocky Mountain National Park is battling an unprecedented infestation of bark beetles that threatens large swaths of trees; Joshua Tree National Park is counting fewer and fewer of its namesake trees; and in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park, ranger Adrianne Freeman notes that staffers have seen fewer days of snow as well as plant and animal migration to higher altitudes, where temperatures remain cool. EU Urges G20 to Give Billions to Poor Nations in Climate Fight EU leaders on Thursday put pressure on the United States and other rich nations to provide at least five billion euros of "fast-start" money next year to help poor nations tackle climate change. The call came as European heads of state and government held a summit in Brussels aimed at forging a joint position ahead of the G20 summit of major and developing economies in Pittsburgh next week. "The G20 should recognise the need to fast-start international public support for addressing urgent climate financing needs in developing countries," the EU leaders agreed in a statement. The European Commission estimates that five to seven billion euros annually will be needed in the 2010-2012 period until a more long-term "financial architecture" is put in place, hopefully, at a UN climate conference in Copenhagen later this year. The commission says that the annual figure needed to help developing nations combat and deal with climate change will hit 100 billion euros (147 billion dollars) per year by 2020. "It's time for a wake-up call to world leaders on climate," said Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, who presided over the Brussels summit. The United States and the rest of the world are not doing enough to tackle climate change at a time when "the world has a fever," he said. "We really need to step up, stop the acting and start delivering action." Senate Moderates Ask for Help Navigating Clean Energy Bill (subs. req'd) Five key Senate Democrats have asked for White House help as they try to write a piece of the global warming bill that keeps energy-intensive domestic industries from moving to developing countries that do not have their own strict environmental laws. Sens. Evan Bayh of Indiana, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Sherrod Brown of Ohio sent a letter last Friday to President Obama's top climate adviser requesting more information on a key section of the House-passed climate bill that deals with the most trade-sensitive industries. In their letter, the senators requested an analysis of the House-passed provision in H.R. 2454 that gives U.S. EPA the authority to determine which trade-exposed industries are eligible for the pot of free allowances starting in 2014 that could potentially be worth tens of billions of dollars. The senators asked the White House adviser to pull together economic modeling and international trade data from U.S. EPA, the Energy, Commerce and Treasury departments, the U.S. International Trade Commission and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. They also requested a briefing for industry groups "so they can gain a fuller understanding of all the likely provisions of a cap-and-trade bill that may help their industries." Climate Scientists Call for Sharper Emissions Cuts (subs. req'd) Top climate scientists, including a former chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said yesterday that world leaders must agree to ambitious short-term cuts in greenhouse gas emissions to avoid "dangerous" climate change. Holding rising global temperatures to an average of just 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels will require developed countries to cut their emissions of heat-trapping gases at least 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, the researchers said in an open letter organized by the World Wildlife Fund. That's well above the 10 to 16 percent cuts that developed countries have committed to in advance of U.N. climate negotiations later this year in Copenhagen. But much steeper cuts are required, the scientists said. "More than 120 countries, including members of the G8, the EU, and key emerging economies such as China, South Africa and Mexico, agree that the rise in global temperature must stay well below 2° Celsius," they wrote. "Beyond this point, climate impacts will be more severe, with the risk of crossing 'tipping points' with dangerous and irreversible effects." Forty climate scientists signed the letter, including Sir John Houghton, a former IPCC chairman and a former chairman of the U.K. Meteorological Office. BP is expanding its wind power electricity generation capacity in the United States but is shedding an Indian unit, which has been sold to Green Infra Limited of India. BP said Green Infra Limited purchased its subsidiary, BP Energy India Private Limited, for a total cash-free, debt-free enterprise value of about $95 million. Green Infra Limited is an independent power producer owned by funds managed by India's leading infrastructure-focused private equity company, IDFC Private Equity. BPEIPL owns and operates three wind farms in India with a total generating capacity of about 100 megawatts. The transaction was completed Wednesday. BP's decision to sell BPEIPL stemmed from a strategic review in 2008 that shifted focus on developing key wind power markets, especially the United States, as part of its future business strategy. "We estimate that if 10 percent of the world's power came from wind, it would cut CO2 emissions by one billion tons per year," BP said. The challenge, however, is to expand wind operations to form a material business that can own and operate gigawatts of installed power. David Nicholas, a BP spokesman, told United Press International the company currently operates six wind power units in the United States and has begun construction of two more this year.
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Polar bears are the Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie of climate-change-endangered Arctic species. They get all the press (see 
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