Convergence of World Leaders Marks Turning Point in Fight against Climate Change

California Program Executive Director Mike Sweeney will represent The Nature Conservancy in a historic summit organized by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger that will — for the first time — bring together governors from across the U.S. and leaders from Brazil, Indonesia, China and other developing countries to establish a process to lower the world’s carbon emissions and fight climate change.

Wildlife groups see end of Bush abuse

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. conservation groups on Thursday hailed the imminent end of “environmental abuse and neglect” by the Bush administration and promised to work with President-elect Barack Obama to reverse this course.

“The Bush administration has done a lot of damage to our nation’s environmental protections over the last eight years,” said Mike Daulton, the National Audubon Society’s legislative director.

Nations move on how to put ‘natural assets’ at the top of agenda

CLOSE to 100 nations have concluded a review of how science can better guide policy by examining the merits of a new scientific body able to put the loss of biodiversity, ecosystems and their multi-trillion dollar services at the top of the political agenda.

Coal to remain world’s top power source: IEA

LONDON (Reuters) - Coal, which produces more climate-warming carbon dioxide than oil or gas, will remain the world’s main source of power until 2030 and nuclear will lose market share, the International Energy Agency said on Wednesday.

Expectations of slower economic growth have led the IEA to downgrade its 2030 world electricity demand forecast to 23,141 terawatt hours (TWh), but the share of coal generated power would rise to 44 percent by 2015 from 41 percent in 2006.

Give the rainforests our word and bond

Faced with a global credit crunch, the governments of the world are coming together to act with urgency. But faced with a far more serious climate crunch, we have yet to show our mettle.

California gets dire warning on global warming

Global warming will have a broad and devastating impact on California’s economy over the next century, according to a report released Thursday.

Roads and bridges, the water supply, agriculture, public health and even winter skiing all will be affected by global climate change, said the report by University of California-Berkeley agricultural and resource economics professors David Roland-Holst and Fredrich Kahrl.

Palmdale to Build Power Plant

The City of Palmdale officially submitted the application for certification (AFC) for a 570-megawatt hybrid power plant to the California Energy Commission (CEC) on August 4. If approved the plant will use both solar power and natural gas to generate electricity for the city of Palmdale and beyond. The plant should be able to provide enough electricity for a population of 600,000 people. That is 1 and a half times the current Antelope Valley population. The power plant would be built near Air Force Plant 42 along the south side of Avenue M. Plant 42’s manufacturing facilities would most likely be large corporate customers for its product.

The city of Palmdale has contracted Inland Energy to design and build the plant. Inland Energy is also working to build a similar plant in Victorville, Ca. which would be a sister plant to this one. The main goal of the project is to allow the city of Palmdale to provide competitively priced electricity to its citizens and businesses while allowing future growth without straining the current electrical grid.

For more information see: http://www.palmdale1.com/

Lancaster Ethanol Refinery Proposed

A proposed ethanol refinery for Lancaster is undergoing a review process. The proposed refinery will be built next to the Lancaster landfill and create about 3.1 million gallons of ethanol per year. It will be one of the first of its kind in the nation using yard and construction waste as its source material instead of corn.

BlueFire Ethanol Fuels Inc., a cellulosic ethanol production technology, has engaged Roeslein Associates Inc. and PAC (Process Automation Concepts Ltd.) to begin prefabricating modules for BlueFire’s first ethanol bio-refinery in Lancaster, Calif.

The Lancaster biorefinery will use post-sorted cellulosic wastes diverted from landfills in Southern California to produce what BlueFire calls a “highly economical” alternative biofuel.

BlueFire is in the process of obtaining the final permits to commence construction on the secured site, which is expected to produce 3.1 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol annually.

For more information, visit www.BlueFireEthanol.com.

Measuring extinction, species by species

OSLO (Reuters) - The Yangtze River dolphin, the Christmas Island shrew and the Venezuelan skunk frog are all victims in an alarming flood of extinctions, but how do scientists decide when such “possibly extinct” creatures no longer exist?

Fishing threatens North Atlantic sharks

A quarter of sharks and rays are threatened with being fished out of existence in the Northeast Atlantic, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said on Monday.

That is far above the threat level globally, reflecting the activity of fishing nations such as Spain, Portugal, France and Britain, the Swiss-based conservation group said.

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