Government Accountability Office http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d09186.pdf The Energy Department may be wasting research and development funding on oil and gas projects that industry may have undertaken on its own, the Government Accountability Office said in a report today. The report says DOE project reviews assess only the industry’s R&D needs and not whether the projects in question … Continue reading »
Posted on January 9, 2009 …
Excess Uranium Inventory Management Plan
US DOE http://www.nuclear.gov/pdfFiles/inventory_plan_unclassified.pdf [From press release] The Plan highlights DOE’s ongoing efforts to enhance national security and promote a healthy domestic nuclear infrastructure through the efficient and cost-effective management of its excess uranium inventories. The Department has a significant inventory of uranium that is excess to national defense needs and is expensive both to manage … Continue reading »
Mad Cow Disease and U.S. Beef Trade
Congressional Research Service http://opencrs.com/document/RS21709 [Summary] The 110th Congress has been monitoring U.S. efforts to regain foreign markets that banned U.S. beef when a Canadian-born cow in Washington state tested positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in December 2003. The four major U.S. beef export markets, Canada, Mexico, Japan, and Korea, are again open to U.S. … Continue reading »
Environmental Effects of Agricultural Land-Use Change: The Role of Economics and Policy
USDA Economic Research Service / by Ruben N. Lubowski, Shawn Bucholtz, Roger Claassen, Michael J. Roberts, Joseph C. Cooper, Anna Gueorguieva, and Robert Johansson http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/err25/err25.pdf [Abstract] If cropland that shifts in and out of production is less productive and more environmentally sensitive than other cropland, policy-induced changes in land use could have production effects that … Continue reading »
Southern Ocean Acidification: a Tipping Point at 450-ppm Atmospheric CO2
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Dec. 2 2008 (v105 no48 18860-18864) / by Ben I. McNeil and Richard J. Matear http://www.pnas.org/content/105/48/18860.abstract?sid=9c3a40b8-19c5-47ac-9f3b-758d5e027d13 Subscription required Related article, “Ocean Methane Hydrates as a Slow Tipping Point in the Global Carbon Cycle” is open access. [From the CSM Bright Green Blog] Parts of the world’s oceans appear … Continue reading »
Greenhouse Gas Emissions : Perspectives on the Top 20 Emitters and Developed Versus Developing Nations
Congressional Research Service http://opencrs.com/document/RL32721 [From summary] Using the World Resources Institute (WRI) database on greenhouse gas emissions and related data, this report examines two issues. The first issue is the separate treatment of developed and developing nations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol. This distinction has been … Continue reading »
Integrated Science Assessment for Particulate Matter (First External Review Draft)
US EPA, National Center for Environmental Assessment http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/cfm/recordisplay.cfm?deid=201805 [Background] EPA is announcing that the First External Review Draft of the Integrated Science Assessment (ISA) for Particulate Matter has been made available for independent peer review and public review. This draft ISA document represents a concise synthesis and evaluation of the most policy-relevant science and will … Continue reading »
Can Advanced Metering Help Reduce Electricity Costs for Residential Consumers?
American Association of Retired Persons / by Neal Waters http://www.aarp.org/research/utilities/electric/i18_metering.html [Press release] Advocates are promoting advanced metering as a way to help utilities meet growing demand for electricity and help consumers manage increasing costs. Yet it is not clear that all consumers would be able to reduce their electric bills using advanced metering systems, and … Continue reading »
Disaster Risk Management in an Age of Climate Change : a Summary of the April 3, 2008 Workshop of the Disasters Roundtable
National Academy Press / William A. Anderson, Editor http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/nap/new/~3/506591127/catalog.php Registration required [From foreward] In its report Climate Change 2007 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) noted that global change is likely to result in increased drought, intense tropical cyclone activity, heat waves, and floods in certain regions of the world, including parts of the … Continue reading »
Historical Warnings of Future Food Insecurity with Unprecedented Seasonal Heat
Science (January 9, 2009) v323. n5911, p. 240 – 244 / byDavid. S. Battisti and Rosamond L. Naylor http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/323/5911/240 Subscription required In summer 2003, Western Europe grappled with a record heat wave that killed an estimated 50,000 people and slashed grain harvests by up to a third. That scorching summer is a harbinger of the … Continue reading »
