Green move: US House clears climate bill
The US House of Representatives narrowly approved a historic climate bill for the first time that would force US companies to limit greenhouse-gas emissions blamed for global warming. The 219-212 vote marks a major victory for president Barack Obama, who has made global warming and clean energy legislation a top priority for his administration. But the legislation deeply divided US politicians, businesses and even climate groups.
The outcome of the House vote was uncertain to the very last minute: Only eight Republicans voted in favour and 43 Democrats voted against the measure. The bill now moves to the Senate, which could have an even tougher time getting the measure passed. Groups on both sides have also vowed to continue pushing for changes as the legislation makes its way through the US Congress.
The US, which together with China emits about half of the world’s greenhouse gases, has long faced pressure from other governments to more aggressively reduce its carbon footprint.
Link TOI
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
Wadden Sea in Germany and the Netherlands, Italy's Dolomite mountains are new World Heritage sites
The tidal flats and wetlands of the Wadden Sea in Germany and the Netherlands, and Italy's Dolomite mountains have been added to UNESCO's World Heritage List, it was announced Friday.
Photo:Wadden sea in Germany and the Netherlands
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) also revealed that the Tubbataha Reefs National Park, an existing World Heritage Site in the Philippines and which includes a number of endangered species, has been "significantly extended." The announcements were made on the fifth day of a meeting of
UNESCO's World Heritage Committee in Seville, Spain.
Photo:Dolomite mountains Italy
The committee, which is meeting until June 30, is deciding which of 27 sites deserve to be added to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation's heritage list.
The two new additions, which were based on the recommendations of the IUCN, bring the total number of to 201. The IUCN described the Wadden Sea as "the largest unbroken system of inter-tidal sand and mud flats in the world.
"It is one of the most important areas for migratory birds, with up to 6.1 million birds present at any one time, more than 400,000 breeding pairs and an average of 10-12 million birds which pass through every year," it said in a statement.
Pedro Rosabal of the IUCN's Protected Areas Programme added that: "Coastal wetlands are not always the richest sites in terms of the fauna found there, but that is not the case for the Wadden Sea."
German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel welcomed the decision "a great day for the protection of nature in Germany", and said the government now had an "obligation to make protection of the site a priority."
A Dutch environmental organisation, Bund, described it as "a great responsibility" for both countries, which must support "tourism that is sustainable and respectful of nature."
The Dolomites in northern Italy were chosen "due to their outstanding natural beauty and the geological significance of their limestone formations," the IUCN statement said.
"Some of the rock cliff rise more than 1,500 meters and are among the highest vertical limestone walls in the world.
"The fossil record of the Dolomites provides an insight into the recovery of marine life after near extinction more than 200 million years ago," it said.
The IUCN statement said the Tubbataha Reef Marine Park, which was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1993, is now "three times bigger than the original, increasing from 33,000 to 97,000 hectares" in line with IUCN recommendations.
Josephine Langley, the IUCN?s World Heritage Monitoring Officer, added that the park, "composed of two atolls and one reef, is home to a number of threatened and endangered species, such as the iconic Napoleon wrasse."
"It is in a unique position in the middle of the Sulu Sea and is the perfect site to study the response of a natural reef system to the impacts of climate change," she said.
UNESCO announced it had removed Dresden's Elbe Valley from its World Heritage List because the eastern German city had gone ahead with the building of a road bridge "in the heart of the cultural landscape."
It is only the second site ever to have been removed from the list, after Oman's Arabian Oryx Sanctuary was dropped in 2007.
The tidal flats and wetlands of the Wadden Sea in Germany and the Netherlands, and Italy's Dolomite mountains have been added to UNESCO's World Heritage List, it was announced Friday.
Photo:Wadden sea in Germany and the Netherlands
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) also revealed that the Tubbataha Reefs National Park, an existing World Heritage Site in the Philippines and which includes a number of endangered species, has been "significantly extended." The announcements were made on the fifth day of a meeting of
UNESCO's World Heritage Committee in Seville, Spain.Photo:Dolomite mountains Italy
The committee, which is meeting until June 30, is deciding which of 27 sites deserve to be added to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation's heritage list.
The two new additions, which were based on the recommendations of the IUCN, bring the total number of to 201. The IUCN described the Wadden Sea as "the largest unbroken system of inter-tidal sand and mud flats in the world.
"It is one of the most important areas for migratory birds, with up to 6.1 million birds present at any one time, more than 400,000 breeding pairs and an average of 10-12 million birds which pass through every year," it said in a statement.
Pedro Rosabal of the IUCN's Protected Areas Programme added that: "Coastal wetlands are not always the richest sites in terms of the fauna found there, but that is not the case for the Wadden Sea."
German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel welcomed the decision "a great day for the protection of nature in Germany", and said the government now had an "obligation to make protection of the site a priority."
A Dutch environmental organisation, Bund, described it as "a great responsibility" for both countries, which must support "tourism that is sustainable and respectful of nature."
The Dolomites in northern Italy were chosen "due to their outstanding natural beauty and the geological significance of their limestone formations," the IUCN statement said.
"Some of the rock cliff rise more than 1,500 meters and are among the highest vertical limestone walls in the world.
"The fossil record of the Dolomites provides an insight into the recovery of marine life after near extinction more than 200 million years ago," it said.
The IUCN statement said the Tubbataha Reef Marine Park, which was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1993, is now "three times bigger than the original, increasing from 33,000 to 97,000 hectares" in line with IUCN recommendations.
Josephine Langley, the IUCN?s World Heritage Monitoring Officer, added that the park, "composed of two atolls and one reef, is home to a number of threatened and endangered species, such as the iconic Napoleon wrasse."
"It is in a unique position in the middle of the Sulu Sea and is the perfect site to study the response of a natural reef system to the impacts of climate change," she said.
UNESCO announced it had removed Dresden's Elbe Valley from its World Heritage List because the eastern German city had gone ahead with the building of a road bridge "in the heart of the cultural landscape."
It is only the second site ever to have been removed from the list, after Oman's Arabian Oryx Sanctuary was dropped in 2007.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
World faces risk of abrupt climate change: study
The world faces a growing risk of “abrupt and irreversible climatic shifts’ as fallout from global warming hits faster than expected, according to research by scientists released.
Global surface and ocean temperatures, sea levels, extreme climate events, and the retreat of Arctic sea ice had all significantly picked up more pace than experts predicted only a couple of years ago, they said. The stark warning comes less than six months before an international conference aiming to seal a treaty to save the planet from the worst ravages of global warming. A 36-page document summarized more than 1,400 studies presented at a climate conference in March in Copenhagen, where a United Nations meeting will be held in December to hammer out a successor to the Kyoto Protocol that expires in 2012.
The report said greenhouse gas emissions and other climate indicators are at or near the upper boundaries forecast by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), whose 2007 report has been the scientific benchmark for the troubled UN talks. There is also new evidence that the planet itself has begun to contribute to global warming through fallout from human activity. Huge stores of gases such as methane — an even more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide — trapped for millennia in the Arctic permafrost may be starting to leak into the atmosphere, speeding up the warming process.
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