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US companies making carbon cuts
San Francisco Chronicle
11/19/2009
A survey of 90 big US companies found that most were addressing climate change, either by cutting energy use, measuring greenhouse gas emissions, adopting policies to cut emissions, or pushing for federal legislation to do the same.
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Forests fight climate change on two fronts
Oregon Public Broadcasting
11/19/2009
And at a hearing on Capitol Hill, forest officials and lawmakers discussed ways that federal forestland could help combat climate change on at least two fronts.
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Views: Sliding backward on climate change
Oregonian
11/19/2009
Portland may be at the edge of the continent, but in so many ways it's right at the center of Al Gore's green thinking.
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Toward Copenhagen
The Nation
11/19/2009
As we approach the Copenhagen UN Climate Change Conference, December 7 to 18--the world's last chance to secure an emissions reductions agreement that will replace the Kyoto Protocol before it expires--activists racing against a ticking environmental bomb are channeling their energies at the UN talks and beyond. Join them.
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Nations unveil plans to rein in emission
New York Times
11/19/2009
With less than three weeks remaining before negotiators gather in Copenhagen to hammer out a global response to climate change, a rapid-fire succession of countries are unveiling national plans that serve as opening bids for reining in heat-trapping emissions.
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Oregon entrepreneurs see profits in carbon market
Oregon Public Broadcasting
11/18/2009
Many hope the Copenhagen summit will set up a global carbon trading market, along the lines of what's now being established in California. In Oregon, some entrepreneurs see a public good -- and private gain -- in these markets.
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Seas absorbing less carbon
New York Times
11/18/2009
The Earth's oceans, which have absorbed carbon dioxide from fuel emissions since the dawn of the industrial era, have recently grown less efficient at sopping it up, new research suggests.
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A bridge over rising waters
Oregonian
11/19/2009
December is the big season for Willamette River cruises on the Portland Spirit, but that's also the big season for heavy rains. The ship's owners worry that the deluge will be so sudden and so great -- courtesy of global warming -- that the river will rise too high for the Spirit to pass under bridges.
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Defending science: the disease of denialism
Seattle Times
11/18/2009
Fear is as infectious as any virus, and gives many Americans a warped view of the dangers posed by vaccines, genetically engineered crops and other beneficial technologies, New Yorker writer Michael Specter said in Seattle Tuesday.
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Victoria eco-rally calls for action on climate
Victoria Times Colonist
11/19/2009
A thousand people who packed the Victoria Conference Centre Tuesday night called on the Canadian government to take a leadership role on climate change prior to a UN climate-change conference in Copenhagen next month.
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Views: What climate-change deniers really believe
Seattle Times
11/18/2009
So, you don't believe in global warming? You're wrong, says columnist Thomas L. Friedman, but he'll let you enjoy it until your beach house gets washed away.
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Gore insists on switch to clean energy, new politics
Oregonian
11/18/2009
The person most responsible for raising public consciousness on climate change, Nobel laureate and former Vice President Al Gore, is touring the country to tell us how to avert the calamities he has long projected.
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US Chamber of Commerce split over climate issue
New York Times
11/19/2009
Climate change poses a different sort of challenge for the US Chamber of Commerce. Many of its big-business members are deeply split on the issue, with some standing to profit from an economy moving away from reliance on fossil fuels, while others could see cost increases.
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NW trees have profitable potential in climate issue
Eugene Register Guard
11/19/2009
In a state famous for its logging, imagine this: Oregonians getting paid not to cut down trees. The intriguing idea surfaced in a discussion about climate change Wednesday in a US Senate hearing on managing federal forests.
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Views: Closing in on a carbon target
Washington Post
11/19/2009
While in China, President Obama came tantalizingly close to saying what the rest of the world has been waiting years to hear: that next month the United States, the largest per capita emitter of greenhouse gases, will finally come to the table with a specific carbon reduction target.
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Physicians detail health hazards from coal
Oregonian
11/18/2009
A new report from the advocacy group Physicians for Social Responsibility concludes that pollutants from coal-fired power plants contribute to four of the five leading causes of mortality in the US: heart disease, cancer, stroke, and chronic lower respiratory diseases. Coal plants still provide about 40 percent of the electricity used in OR and nearly 20 percent in WA.
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Senate to put off climate bill until spring
Wall Street Journal
11/17/2009
Senate Democratic leaders said Tuesday they would put off debate on a big climate-change bill until spring, in a sign of weakening political will to tackle a long-term environmental issue at a time of high unemployment and economic uncertainty.
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Paying more for flights eases guilt, not emissions
New York Times
11/17/2009
One of the first travel companies to offer airline customers the option of buying so-called carbon offsets to counter theit planet-warming emissions has canceled the program. While it might help travelers feel virtuous, the offsets were not helping to reduce global emissions and might even encourage people to travel more.
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A Q&A with Al Gore
Seattle Times
11/17/2009
On a book tour in Seattle, former Vice President Al Gore weighs in on the Copenhagen climate summit, Obama's efforts so far, the prospects for US legislation, pseudo-science and garden-variety denial.
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OR governor orders review of energy tax credits
Oregonian
11/17/2009
Gov. Ted Kulongoski ordered a hurry-up review Tuesday of Oregon's incentives for renewable energy companies in the face of ongoing criticism of the tax breaks, asking whether the increasingly expensive Business Energy Tax Credit is necessary for continued expansion of renewable and wind energy.
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Official: Canada climate change laws years away
CBC BC
11/17/2009
The federal environment minister says it may be a few years before Canada tables regulations to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Jim Prentice said the world has to first negotiate a new climate change treaty and Canada and the United States must finish their continental agreement on the same issue.
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Views: We need another carbon tariff
Toronto Globe and Mail
11/18/2009
A carbon tariff is an indispensable component of any economically viable carbon policy that Western economies must ultimately adopt. A carbon tariff is an indispensable component of any economically viable carbon policy that Western economies must ultimately adopt.
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Where can I juice up my ride?
Washington Post
11/18/2009
As their manufacturers see it, the electric cars entering U.S. showrooms as early as next year will be engineering marvels: stylish, battery-operated, zero-emission wonders. Yet for all their technological prowess, there's one practical question that unsettles the green dreamers and entrepreneurs alike: Where, oh, where, can you plug them in?
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Views: Losing the public on climate change
Yale environment 360
11/16/2009
Even as the climate science becomes more definitive, polls show that public concern in the United States about global warming has been declining. What will it take to rally Americans behind the need to take strong action on cutting carbon emissions?
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Two senators seek new US approach on climate change
Recharge
11/17/2009
Two senators have introduced a bipartisan bill that proposes to double US nuclear power in 20 years, provide $100bn in loan guarantees for carbon-free electricity projects and ramp up alternative energy and carbon capture research and development.
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