“A report commissioned by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Al Gore and Norway’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Jonas Gahr Støre” http://www.regjeringen.no/upload/UD/Vedlegg/klima/melting_ice_report.pdf [From foreward] Snow and ice are melting far above normal seasonal changes, and the changes are occurring at an accelerating pace. We see this happening in all snow- and ice-covered regions: Antarctica, the Arctic, Greenland, … Continue reading »
Posted on December 14, 2009 …
Transitions to Alternative Transportation Technologies— Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles
National Research Council http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12826 [From preface] The Committee on Assessment of Resource Needs for Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Technologies completed its report Transitions to Alternative Transportation Technologies–A Focus on Hydrogen in 2008. Subsequently, the U.S. Department of Energy requested the National Research Council (NRC) to expand that analysis to plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). The … Continue reading »
Advanced Biofuels and Developing Countries : Intellectual Property Scenarios and Policy Implications
Belfer Center, Kennedy School, Harvard Univ. / by Calestous Juma and Bob Bell, Jr. — Chap. V in The Biofuels Market: Current Situation and Alternative Scenarios. New York: United Nations, 2009 http://tinyurl.com/y8h63wf [Website] Chapter III analysed the commercial viability of second generation biofuels. Chapter V focuses on related intellectual property rights (IPRs) aspects. Three hypothetical … Continue reading »
Warming Increases the Risk of Civil War in Africa
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (December 8, 2009) v106 n49 pp20670–20674 / by Marshall B. Burkea, Edward Miguel, Shanker Satyanath, John A. Dykema, and David B. Lobell http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2009/11/20/0907998106.full.pdf [Abstract] Armed conflict within nations has had disastrous humanitarian consequences throughout much of the world. Here we undertake the first comprehensive examination of the potential … Continue reading »
Highlights of the Child-Specific Exposure Factors Handbook (Final Report)
US EPA, National Center for Environmental Assessment http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/cfm/recordisplay.cfm?deid=200445 [Press release] The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today released a user-friendly document to help risk assessors understand how children are exposed to pollution. The document, titled “Highlights of the Child-Specific Exposure Factors Handbook,” serves as a quick-reference guide to the more comprehensive “Child-Specific Exposure Factors Handbook,” published … Continue reading »
America’s Biggest Polluters: Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Power Plants in 2007
Environment America http://tinyurl.com/ydtq5mz [Executive Summary] The nation’s power plants emitted 2.56 billion tons of global warming pollution in 2007, which is equivalent to the pollution from nearly 450 million of today’s cars – nearly three times the number of cars registered in the United States in 2007, according to a new analysis of government data … Continue reading »
The IEA Contribution: A Blueprint to Deliver on Ambitious Climate Change Goals
International Energy Agency — Presentation at COP-15, Copenhagen, Denmark Press Conference, 14 December 2009 by Nobuo Tanaka http://www.iea.org/speech/2009/tanaka/cop15.pdf [WSJ Environmental Capital] Fearing perhaps that his prescription for the world’s energy woes has gone unheeded with all the clamor over the Copenhagen climate summit, the head of the International Energy Agency today made another plea for … Continue reading »
State Fact Sheets
USDA Economic Research Service http://www.ers.usda.gov/StateFacts/#2009-12-11 Very useful data source containing most requested data for each state and for the total United States. These include current data on population, per-capita income, earnings per job, poverty rates, employment, unemployment, farm characteristics, farm financial characteristics, top agricultural commodities, top export commodities, and the top counties in agricultural sales. … Continue reading »
UN Countries Climate Pledges Site
UNEP http://www.unep.org/climatepledges/ [Website] The site presents the current country pledges and the remaining gap for reaching global climate change mitigation goals. The site and graphics will be continuously updated with new pledges, mitigation commitments and information from country parties.
A Structural Nonparametric Reappraisal of the CO2 Emissions-income Relationship
UN University, Maastricht Economic and Social Research and Training Centre for Science and Technology http://www.merit.unu.edu/publications/wp.php [Abstract] Relying on a structural nonparametric estimation, we show that CO2 emissions clearly increase with income at low income levels. For higher income levels, we observe a decreasing relationship, though not significant. We also find that CO2 emissions monotonically increases … Continue reading »
