Seed Media group has offered to host my blog commonground . So I will resume posting under the same name but at a posh a new address. For those of you frequented the blog over the past year thanks for the kind words and encouragement. ( Seed Media)
In the strongest language it has ever used, a United Nations panel says global warming is "very likely" caused by human activities and has become a runaway train that cannot be stopped. ( LA Times)
Letters sent by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), an
ExxonMobil-funded thinktank with close links to the Bush
administration, offered the payments for articles that emphasise the
shortcomings of a report from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC).( Guardain Unlimited)
AEI Source Watch
As the USA comes off its warmest year on
record, cities are changing ordinances to encourage construction of
environmentally sustainable homes and offices, buying hybrid vehicles
for their fleets and giving fast approval to green projects. Many
require that all public buildings comply with environmental design
standards established by the U.S. Green Building Council, a coalition
of building industry groups. ( USA Today)
US Mayors Conference
The Democratic-controlled Congress is focusing on climate change this week as an international panel of scientists gathers in Paris to release a report that is expected to reinforce concerns over so-called greenhouse gas emissions, which scientists say are warming the earth. (Seattle P-I)
In an executive order published last week in the Federal Register, Mr. Bush said that each agency must have a regulatory policy office run by a political appointee, to supervise the development of rules and documents providing guidance to regulated industries. This strengthens the hand of the White House in shaping rules that have, in the past, often been generated by civil servants and scientific experts. ( NY Times)
In Silicon Valley hiring is on the rebound lead by green technology. Alternative energy products, like solar panels and hybrid cars, to the use of nanotechnology to solve environmental problems — went from $34 million in the first quarter of 2006 to $290 million in the third quarter, according to an annual report released Sunday by Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network, a research organization in San Jose, Calif. ( NY Times)
Two new scientific publications, both available only online, may signal what's ahead for scientic journals. PLoS ONE (plosone.org),
a journal begun by the Public Library of Science (PLoS) last month,
aims to put as many new scientific articles as possible on the Internet
to be read by anyone, free of charge. The Journal of Visualized
Experiments, or JoVE (myjove.com),
is a kind of YouTube for researchers. It operates on the theory that a
short video showing how an experiment is done is better than thousands
of words that attempt to describe it. ( CS Monitor)
eScience
Detroit automakers have asked the Bush administration for hundreds of millions of dollars to help develop hybrid cars. They say they need government support to complete research and development into lithium-ion battery technology, a crucial component in bringing the cars to the market. ( Washington Post)
While preserving and restoring forests is unquestionably good for the natural environment, new scientific studies are concluding that preservation and restoration of forests outside the tropics will do little or nothing to help slow climate change. And some projects intended to slow the heating of the planet may be accelerating it instead. ( NY Times)
