Category: RT Newswire

Published on Monday, April 7, 2008 by The Guardian/UK
Climate Target Is Not Radical Enough – Study
by Ed Pilkington in New York

One of the world’s leading climate scientists warns today that the EU and its international partners must urgently rethink targets for cutting carbon dioxide in the atmosphere because of fears they have grossly underestimated the scale of the problem.0407 01 1 2

In a startling reappraisal of the threat, James Hansen, head of the Nasa Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, calls for a sharp reduction in C02 limits.

Hansen says the EU target of 550 parts per million of C02 – the most stringent in the world – should be slashed to 350ppm. He argues the cut is needed if “humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilisation developed”. A final version of the paper Hansen co-authored with eight other climate scientists, is posted today on the Archive website. Instead of using theoretical models to estimate the sensitivity of the climate, his team turned to evidence from the Earth’s history, which they say gives a much more accurate picture.

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Public Release: 7-Apr-2008
Purdue University
‘Revolutionary’ CO2 maps zoom in on greenhouse gas sources

A new, high-resolution, interactive map of US carbon dioxide
emissions from fossil fuels has found that the emissions aren’t all
where we thought. The maps and system, called Vulcan, show CO2
emissions at more than 100 times more detail than was available
before. Until now, data on carbon dioxide emissions were reported
monthly at the level of an entire state. The Vulcan model examines
CO2 emissions at local levels on an hourly basis.
NASA

Contact: Steve Tally
tally@purdue.edu
765-494-9809
Purdue University
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Public Release: 7-Apr-2008
NOAA Headquarters
NOAA aircraft to probe arctic pollution

NOAA scientists are now flying through springtime Arctic pollution to
find out why the region is warming — and summertime sea ice is
melting — faster than predicted. Some 35 NOAA researchers are
gathering with government and university colleagues in Fairbanks,
Alaska, to conduct the study through April 23.

Contact: Anatta
anatta@noaa.gov
303-497-6288
NOAA Headquarters
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Public Release: 7-Apr-2008
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Regional nuclear conflict would create near-global ozone hole, says
CU-Boulder study

A limited nuclear weapons exchange between Pakistan and India using
their current arsenals could create a near-global ozone hole,
triggering human health problems and wreaking environmental havoc for
at least a decade, according to a study led by the University of
Colorado at Boulder.
University of Colorado

Contact: Michael Mills
mills@colorado.edu
303-492-7767
University of Colorado at Boulder

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Tucson Citizen

U.S. plans big study of water resources
Gannett News Service
Published: 04.04.2008

WASHINGTON – For the first time in 30 years, the U.S. Geological Survey will conduct a census of the nation’s water resources to give federal, state and tribal officials information on water usage.
The 10-year, $95 million study would divide the country into 21 major river basins and look at stream flows, ground water levels and recharge, water pollution, population trends and water use.

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Published on Thursday, April 3, 2008 by The San Francisco Chronicle

Oil Politics Alleged in Polar Bear Decision
by Zachary Coile

Washington – California Sen. Barbara Boxer accused the Bush administration Wednesday of delaying a decision on whether to list the polar bear as an endangered species so it could finish its oil lease sales in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea, where one-fifth of the world’s polar bears live.0403 03 1

“The administration went ahead and accepted bids, even though oil and gas activities may disturb polar bears making a den, and even though an oil spill could pose big risks to the polar bear population,” said Boxer, a Democrat who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

The Interior Department has been under fire from environmentalists and lawmakers for missing a deadline under federal law to decide whether to list the polar bear as endangered.

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