Monthly Archives: May 2007

Environmental Groups Put EPA on Notice

In 2005, California petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for permission to establish its own, stricter tailpipe emissions standards. Nearly two years have passed, and EPA still has not ruled on the request – despite a recent Supreme Court ruling that EPA has the authority to regulate tailpipe emissions.

Today, Environmental Defense and NRDC sent a letter to EPA warning that they will join California to in a lawsuit to compel "EPA’s unreasonably delayed and unlawfully withheld final action on California’s waiver request" if the agency does not make a decision within 180 days.

Posted in Cars and Pollution, Clean Air Act, EPA litgation, Greenhouse Gas Emissions / Read 1 Response

Energy-Efficient Buildings

In large cities such as New York, buildings account for most of the greenhouse gas emissions. The William J. Clinton Foundation has developed a plan to reduce energy usage in buildings, and organized an international coalition of banks and 16 of the world’s largest cities to implement it. Billions of dollars have been pledged to address the problem. For details, read the story in the International Herald Tribune.

Posted in News / Read 2 Responses

Do Volcanoes Cause Global Warming?

Today’s Guest Blogger, Lisa Moore, is a scientist in the Climate and Air Program.

The fiery centers of volcanoes burn carbon-containing rocks from deep within the earth, and thus emit the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2). There are a fair number of volcanoes in this world, all emitting CO2, so couldn’t this be the cause of global warming?

In a word, no. Here’s how scientists know that climate change is not from volcanic activity.

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Posted in News / Read 4 Responses

Some Interesting Links

In browsing around the internet this week I found some sites with good information about global warming:

Reporting on Climate Change: Understanding the Science – A 100-page book, free to download or $30 in print form, that does an excellent job summarizing the science behind climate change.

Celsias (Blog) – Great background essays on climate science, also some very funny posts.

Woods Hole Research Center – Excellent resource with background articles, links for further reading, and more.

MarketWatch Special Report: An Investor Guide to Global Warming – A five-part series that ran each day this week covering everything from green investments to the role of insurers.

Do you have favorite sites for information on climate change? Post the links!

Posted in What Others are Saying / Read 4 Responses

Agricultural Offsets

We have a book coming out next month. I don’t expect it to be a bestseller – it’s pretty technical – but the topic is important. The book, titled Harnessing Farms and Forests in the Low Carbon Economy, is a road map for producing carbon offsets based on land management practices. Let me explain.

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Posted in News / Read 6 Responses

The Next Big (Light Bulb) Idea

Erica Rowell, today’s guest blogger, is a Web Editor and Producer at Environmental Defense, and our resident expert on light bulbs.

Ever stop to wonder why, since the mid-1990’s, traffic lights don’t seem to burn out? They can’t be using old-fashioned incandescent bulbs – those burn out all the time. Maybe they switched to longer-lasting compact fluorescent lights (CFLs)? Nope. Today’s stop lights use light-emitting diodes (LEDs).

LEDs last 35,000 to 50,000 hours – five times longer than the average CFL, and 50 times longer than an incandescent bulb. In fact, because the technology is so different, they don’t really ever burn out. They just get dimmer over time – a long time. Today’s LEDs produce more light per watt than conventional bulbs but they’re not quite as efficient as CFLs… yet. On the plus side, unlike CFLs they contain no mercury whatsoever.

You can find LEDs in all kinds of places – flashlights, television remotes, car headlights, flat screen displays, exit signs and even holiday lights, just to name a few. So, thinking of buying some LED light bulbs?

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