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Dry, polluted, plagued by rats: the crisis in China’s greatest river
Jonathan Watts, The Guardian
The waters of the Yangtze have fallen to their lowest levels since 1866, disrupting drinking supplies, stranding ships and posing a threat to some of the world’s most endangered species.
Asia’s longest river is losing volume as a result of a prolonged dry spell, the state media warned yesterday, predicting hefty economic losses and a possible plague of rats on nearby farmland.
News of the drought – which is likely to worsen pollution in the river – comes amid dire reports about the impact of rapid economic growth on China’s environment.
(17 January 2008)
Europe to capture carbon
Quirin Schiermeier, Nature
New power stations across Europe could be routinely fitted with carbon-dioxide capture and storage (CCS) technology within two years under a proposal by the European Commission.
Next week, the commission will propose a directive on geological storage of CO2 that would require all new fossil-fuel combustion plants to have “suitable space on the installation site for the equipment necessary to capture and compress CO2”. Builders of new plants would need to assess the availability of “suitable storage sites and the technical feasibility of CCS retrofit” before being granted construction licences.
(16 January 2008)
Texas Is Biggest Carbon Polluter
April Castro, Associated Press
Everything’s big in Texas – big pickup trucks, big SUVs and the state’s big carbon footprint, too. Texans’ fondness for large, manly vehicles has helped make the Lone Star State the biggest carbon polluter in the nation.
The headquarters state of America’s oil industry spewed 670 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in 2003, enough that Texas would rank seventh in the world if it were its own country, according to the most recent figures from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The amount is more than that of California and Pennsylvania – the second- and third-ranking states – combined.
A multitude of factors contribute to the carbon output, among them: Texas’ 19 coal-burning power plants; a heavy concentration of refineries and chemical plants; a lack of mass transit; and a penchant among ranchers and urban cowboys alike for brawny, gas-guzzling trucks – sometimes to haul things, but often just to look Texas tough.
Debbie Howden, an Austin real estate agent, said her family of six has two pickup trucks, three SUVs, and no apologies. “I would definitely put size and safety over the emissions thing,” said Howden, 55. She calls their high fuel bills a “necessary evil.”
(16 January 2008)
Climate Talk’s Cancellation Splits a Town
Jim Robbins, New York Times
CHOTEAU, Mont. – School authorities’ cancellation of a talk that a Nobel laureate climate researcher was to have given to high school students has deeply divided this small farming and ranching town at the base of the east side of the Rocky Mountains.0117 03
The scholar, Steven W. Running, a professor of ecology at the University of Montana, was scheduled to speak to about 130 students here last Thursday about his career and the global changes occurring because of the earth’s warming.
Dr. Running was a lead author of a global warming report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the 400-member United Nations body that shared last year’s Nobel Peace Prize with former Vice President Al Gore. But when some residents complained that his presentation here would be one-sided because no opposing view would be offered, the superintendent of Choteau School District No. 1, Kevin St. John, canceled it.
Dr. Running was surprised.
“Disbelief was the primary reaction,” he said in a telephone interview. “I’ve never been canceled before. But it was almost comical. I had a pretty candid discussion with the superintendent and the school board, and they said there were some conservative citizens who didn’t want me to speak.”
(17 January 2008)
Also at Common Dreams.
