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Kids For A Cool Climate
| Climate Change News 2008 |
Burning biofuels may be worse than coal and oil, say experts
Using biofuels made from corn, sugar cane and soy could have a greater environmental impact than burning fossil fuels, according to experts. Although the fuels themselves emit fewer greenhouse gases, they all have higher costs in terms of biodiversity loss and destruction of farmland.
But the new fuels have attracted controversy. "Regardless of how effective sugar cane is for producing ethanol, its benefits quickly diminish if carbon-rich tropical forests are being razed to make the sugar cane fields, thereby causing vast greenhouse-gas emission increases," Jörn Scharlemann and William Laurance, of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, write in Science today.
A useful explanation of the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme.
Campaign aims to recycle Christmas 100m cards
The annual Christmas card recycling scheme, launched by the Woodland Trust and Recycle Now, is aiming to collect 100m cards and raise enough money from them to plant 24,000 trees.
Trees absorbing less CO2 as world warms, study finds
The ability of forests to soak up man-made carbon dioxide is weakening, according to an analysis of two decades of data from more than 30 sites in the frozen north.
The results may partly explain recent studies suggesting that the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is increasing faster than expected. If higher temperatures mean less carbon is soaked up by plants and microbes, global warming will accelerate.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shared the Nobel peace prize with Al Gore, has concluded that humanity has eight years left to prevent the worst effects of global warming.
Giant sail technology could make shipping greener
The Beluga Skysail's maiden voyage will use a 160 sq metre kite which is expected to cut fuel consumption by 10-15%, but in time it will be fitted with much larger kites, possibly saving 30-35% on fuel.
