News Roundup
‘Worldwide, the impact of irrigation practices may be even larger than is obvious from an airplane window. In a newly published research paper, two scientists in New York have found that widespread irrigation is altering weather patterns and probably masking the effects of global warming in some localities.’
via Climate Change and the Irrigation Juggernaut – NYTimes.com.
‘…The answer is that the build up of greenhouse gases would fall short of the level that many climate scientists say would trigger the most devastating effects of global warming, researchers reported on Thursday in the journal Science.’
via What if today’s CO2-emitting devices were the last? | Reuters.
‘HONG KONG — The United Steelworkers union plans to file a legal case with the Obama administration on Thursday, accusing China of violating World Trade Organization rules by subsidizing exports of clean energy equipment, the union’s president and his advisers said.’
via Steelworkers Accuse China of Violating Trade Rules – NYTimes.com.
‘Fragmentation of the UN-overseen Clean Development Mechanism “is maybe unavoidable, but it’s not a scenario to which we look forward,” chief climate negotiator Christiana Figueres told a conference in New Delhi.’
via New Carbon Markets May Pose `Serious Challenge’ to UN Program, Envoy Says – Bloomberg.
‘Officials from the European Union, Brazil, China, France and the U.S. are trying to lay the groundwork to reinvigorate the next round of international climate negotiations later this year in Cancun, Mexico. Their agenda for the meeting that started today in Geneva includes a new climate fund, coordinating public financing and boosting private funding.’
via Climate Envoys Seek Consensus on $100 Million in Aid for Poorer Nations – Bloomberg.
‘Solar cells are intended to mimic the photosynthesis of plants — converting light into energy in the most efficient manner possible. But what other characteristics of plants could be handy for the renewable energy sector to mimic? How about the self-assembly of chloroplast, the component of plants that do all the vital photosynthesis.’
via MIT Creates Self-Assembling Solar Cells That Repair Themselves : TreeHugger.
‘Reuters – The world’s low-carbon energy market is likely to treble by 2020, HSBC analysts forecast on Monday, saying that rising concerns about resource scarcity would support broad consensus on the threat of climate change.’
‘Reuters – Germany’s coal imports look set to increase until at least the middle of the decade, despite carbon pollution concerns and anti-coal lobbying that has succeeded in stopping many new coal-fired projects.’
via Analysis: German coal imports to rise despite green lobbying | Reuters.
‘BETHESDA, Md. — A competition between nuclear waste dumps has pulled the Nuclear Regulatory Commission into an unusual reconsideration of its rules to allow moderately radioactive materials to be diluted into a milder category that is easier to bury.’
via Nuclear Dumps Argue Over Diluting Waste for Burial – NYTimes.com.
‘(Reuters) – An Argentine company opened Friday the country’s first factory to make biodiesel from algae, hoping to use pond scum as a replacement for soy in making biodiesel as part of a push for renewable energy.’
via Pond scum seen lucrative in Argentine biofuels push | Reuters.