Ben Webster, environment editor at the London Times Online, reports:
World Bank spends billions on coal-fired power stations
The World Bank is spending billions of pounds subsidising new coal-fired power stations in developing countries despite claiming that burning fossil fuels exposes the poor to catastrophic climate change. The bank, which has a goal of reducing poverty and is funded by Britain and other developed countries, calls on all nations in a report today to "act differently on climate change".
It says that the world must reduce its dependence on fossil fuels, but it is funding several giant coal-burning plants that will each emit millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide a year for the next 40 to 50 years.
The bank’s World Development Report says: "Developing countries are disproportionately affected by climate change — a crisis that is not of their making and for which they are the least prepared. Increasing access to energy and other services using high-carbon technologies will produce more greenhouse gases, hence more climate change." ...
The report says that unless the world acts now to cut carbon dioxide emissions it faces a 5C (9F) rise in global temperatures by the end of the century. "Such a drastic temperature shift would cause the possible dieback of the Amazon rainforest, complete loss of glaciers in the Andes and Himalayas, and rapid ocean acidification leading to death of coral reefs," it says. ...
The 260-page report advises against "locking the world into high-carbon infrastructure" but makes no mention of the bank’s plans to subsidise coal power plants in India, South Africa, Botswana and other developing countries.
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The rescue begins below and continues in the jump. Inclusion of a particular diary does not necessarily indicate my agreement with it.
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In a new look at mountain top removal in the coal industry, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse wrote MTR Eco Segmentation Harms Climate Change Reform: "After the native hardwood forests are killed, the mining companies use explosives to now kill the mountaintops of chains formed millions of years ago by blowing apart as much as 500-1,000 feet of the mountaintop. Each day, coal companies use ‘over 4 million pounds of explosives’ to bomb away the mountaintops or ‘more explosive power than the Hiroshima atomic bomb.’ Layer after layer of rocks are bombed until the mountaintop is gone, leaving a pile of toxic waste of soil and explosives mixed together like a super-charged food blender or processor."
mogmaar pointed to a little guerrilla theater action in Carbon Bigfoot Harper visits Obama: "Big news today: Prime Minister Harper visited the White House to get a photo-op with Obama. But he didn’t expect that photo-op would be organized for him, by the DC Action Factory. The scary, climate destroying monster met with Obama today to discsuss how they could stop the Afganistan war, how to revive the global economy, and what to do about this pesky energy problem. Unfortunately, he wasn’t smart enough to propose a fair, ambitious and binding global treaty that would create a green global economy with lots of good, clean jobs. No, instead, the oaf that he is, thought he could impress Obama with a milkshake. An oil sands milkshake, to be exact."
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ScottyUrb posted the Overnight News Digest.
FishOutofWater ran hot and cold over the fact that we just saw the Warmest Summer Ever Recorded for Global Oceans: "Global ocean surface temperatures broke all time highs for August and the northern hemisphere summer. ... This August was the second warmest on record for land and water just behind the super El Niño year of 1998. The cooling effects of the deep solar minimum, the quietest sun in 100 years, were not able to counteract the effects of anthropogenic greenhouse gases and a weak to moderate El Niño."
BoogieMama gave us some detail on Wild Lands and Water: Oldish news but still good: "March 30, 2009, President Barack Obama signed Public Law 111-11, the Public Lands Omnibus Act of 2009. It is a seriously big piece of legislation! It's taken me five months to track down, map out, and determine the recreational status of all the new public lands designated in the western states alone. But five months is a good amount of time to really digest and ponder the implications. The more I research each site & pore over the maps, I am realizing it's a massive victory for all the dedicated individuals who have dedicated a major part of their lives (decades) to protecting the lands they love, and all they hold, from water to wildlife."
A Siegel was happy to see the new car-efficiency standards but wondered Why Understate the Value of New CAFE Standard Targets?: "The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Transportation (DOT) today released proposed rules for implementating the increase in CAFE standards, beyond the Congressional mandate, as announced this past May. In short, this deal between the Obama Administration and the auto industry accelerates the improvement in light vehicle fuel efficiency across the fleet average (the CAFE) to 35 mpg from 2020, the Congressional mandate, to 2015. This action merits applause, even if far from as aggressive as it could (or should) be. ... US liquid fuel (almost entirely oil) demand, reducing oil import requirements, improving US auto industry competitiveness in the world market, and helping to reduce US pollution loads (whether fossil fuel aerosols, carbon dioxide, or otherwise). All in all, even if less than what is possible, a win-win-win move. Even so, looking at this move forward, it is hard to understand why the Administration seems so determined to understate the full benefits."
RLMiller took another look at the climate bill in ACES: Boxer uses the N word. She might have to? Here's whyThe N-word is ‘nuclear,’ as in ‘nuclear power.’ Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), chair of the Senate Environmental & Public Works committee and hero to environmentalists, told reporters that ‘there will be a nuclear title in the bill.’ ‘The bill,’ of course, is the American Clean Energy & Security Act, aka cap & trade, climate change legislation, and (in the House) Waxman-Markey. Smart move, or not? I report, you comment."
jamesboyce wondered Why Is CBS Lying About Climate Change?: "Declan McCullagh who works at CBS Interactive, has some, let's just call it, credibility problems of epic proportions today. It started with a post he wrote about a secret internal Obama administration memo on the cost of the Global Warming legislation..."
LaughingPlanet didn’t have much to laugh about as far as the planet is concerned in the diary, The REAL looming health crisis: "Lots of us have been doing plenty of work to help support the compromise that is the public option. We need to also be able to have our eyes a bit further down the road. In under a week, President Obama will be addressing the world about its warming climate and rapidly melting polar ice. During the campaign, one of then-candidate Obama's best moments was when he spoke about McCain's knee-jerk campaign ‘suspension’ in response to the economic crisis."
makeourfoodsafe wrote an eponymous diary on The myth about food safety legislation and small farms: "Ever since Congress began considering new legislation to provide the FDA more authority, responsibility and resources to protect Americans from unsafe food, smaller farmers have been concerned that provisions of the legislation, intended to address problems raised by large produce growers and processors, would be piled on them and become an unnecessary burden. Chrys Ostrander from Chrysalis Farm@Tolstoy argued that ‘fruits and vegetables are definitely NOT "at the heart of a weakness in the inspection system.'" He suggested that reforms proposed by the Make Our Food Safe Coalition could lead to the destruction of small farms and small-scale food processors. While Chrys cites only ‘my impression’ that fresh produce is not responsible for large numbers of food-borne illnesses, research shows both imported and domestic fresh produce have been responsible for large numbers of food-borne illnesses and outbreaks."
Turkana took note of a report in The Guardian that claims the Obama Admin. Said To Be Undermining Copenhagen Climate Deal: "European officials acknowledge the obvious: that the Obama Administration is engaged on climate change in ways the Bush Administration wasn't. But that's like saying any being with a pulse is alive in a way that a rock isn't. And simply scrapping the previous agreement, while trying to push one of its own invention, wouldn't seem to be the best way to build consensus. The Guardian's source says the U.S. proposal would be effectively fatal to Kyoto, and starting over would mean nothing new would be in place by 2015 or 2016. Which would be just a slight problem."
In an eco-meta mood, epjmcginley pondered Future Fear or Future Flourish?: "The era of the Blue Whale and the Black Rhinoceros is on the wane. Eyes will look back from the future to the end of the twentieth century, and see an age of pristine environs rich with diverse life; seas of fish and forests of trees. An age in which the nuclear waste was still sequestered at the Hanford nuclear site, not yet having crept down the Columbia River to Portland Oregon. When ice covered the poles, and great cities flourished at the edge of mighty seas, before the whole world dreamed the American Dream. An age before the next great and terrible ecological disaster reminded us again that the planet suffered for our convenience. But where will they be looking back from? Will there be trains? Will there be rooftop gardens? Will people smile at one another and laugh with their children? Will the water they drink be clean, and the food they eat wholesome? Will they care for one another in communities, with parks and schools and hospitals? Will there be peace for those who live in that land, and will they care for one another?"