Rising Tide Australia

Age: Paper has taken the greenhouse challenge to heart with a new product – carbon-neutral paper. Called ENVI, the paper is produced at the Wesley Vale mill in Tasmania. Its "carbon-neutral" status is recognised under the Department of Climate Change Greenhouse Friendly program. This means users of the paper can display the Greenhouse Friendly logo. Australian Paper executive general manager Jim Henneberry said carbon-neutral status had been obtained in two main ways: by making huge ...

Australian: THE majority of executives want tax incentives to invest in climate change and will push the Henry tax review to offer generous concessions to big business. Almost 60 per cent of executives surveyed by accounting firm Ernst & Young said the Treasury review should offer corporations a tax break to prepare businesses for the emissions trading scheme slated to start in 2010. The corporate sector was yesterday considering the likelihood that the Government would cut the 30 per ...

30 years ago, the famous naturalist Louis Leaky agreed to send an extraordinary young woman named Birute Galdikas deep into the wilds of Borneo to do the one thing she desired to do more than anything. Galdikas wanted to study and understand the life of the 'elusive red ape' - the Orangutan.

Today Dr. Birute Galdikas is considered one of the foremost experts on Orangutans. To this day she remains in Borneo, huddled in the dense peat swap forests - surrounded by foreign owned palm oil plantations, poachers, illegal loggers and gold miners - a single voice fending off the rapidly developing world and defending the last of these great apes.

I had the distinct pleasure of sitting down with Dr. Galdikas during my recent expedition to the jungles of Borneo and discussing at-length with her the future of this majestic animal, its place on the critically endangered species list, and the effects the events in Borneo are having on climate change. 

According to Dr. Gladikas, the extinction of the Orangutan and the dire predictions of global climate change share a very similar root.

In short, the very events that are driving the Orangutan to extinction are the same that threaten our planet's climate.

In the name of business, specifically, palm oil and mining, thousand of miles of peat swamp forest are burned in Borneo and many other regions throughout the world every year. Sadly, these forests also contain vast amounts of carbon, which when burned is released into the atmosphere, making Borneo, a small an non-industrial island, one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gas in the world.  

Tragically, thousands of orangutans are also exterminated in the process.

So why do oragutans care about global warming? Because the actions we can take to save our planet are the same ones that will save the great red-ape from what E.O. Wilson calls the "death of birth."

What can you do? 

With the help of sponsors, Dr. Galdikas and her organization, the Orangutan Foundation International, are attempting to outbid the palm oil companies for the forests, approximately $150 per acre. Dr. Gladikas hopes to purchase 12,000 acres over the next few years - effectively preserving a habitat for the primates as well as preventing millions of tons of carbon from escaping into the atmosphere.

Editor's note: we insisted on publishing this photo! Ah, true love...

On November 8, 2008 American Explorer Todd Carmichael will attempt to become the first American in history to reach the South Pole, solo and unaided. Sign up for Todd's Expedition E-lerts and keep track of Todd's Expedition with live updates throughout the journey.

 

todd carmichael expedition earth birute gladikas orangutans borneo global warming climate change palm oil global

Why did Barack Obama soften his stance on offshore drilling last week?  I asked this question of a campaign insider, who is also a long time environmentalist.  The answer back was basically: “Don’t blame Obama, we (environmentalists) didn’t do our work well in the community, which is why the American people think that offshore drilling is the answer to our energy crisis”.

This answer made sense to me initially, and its certainly no shocker to think of the environmental community as somewhat ineffective, but actually, it turns out not to be true.  A great overview of the issue just posted by the Yale Forum backs up a poll from last week conducted by The Wilderness Society.

It turns out that its really all about how you ask the question.  If the choice is between investing in clean energy (wind, solar, tire gauges) and offshore drilling, then clean energy wins coming and going (76% to 19% in the TWS poll).

So the real question, again, is why has the mainstream media so uncritically reported the polls in which drilling is presented as the only option to lower gas prices - despite the fact that there is no way drilling will have any significant impact on the price of gas.

And I suppose, its still worth asking why the Obama campaign has given proponents of drilling a leg up, by conceding even a little.

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The National Center for Atmospheric Research, an important hub for work on the causes and consequences of climate change, has shut down a program focused on strengthening poor countries’ ability to forecast and withstand droughts, floods and other climate-related hazards.

The move, which center officials say resulted from the shrinking of federal science budgets, is being denounced by many experts on environmental risk, who say such research is more crucial than ever in a world with rising populations exposed to climate threats.

Michael Glantz Ilan Kelman Eric Barron Roger Pielke Jr. National Center for Atmospheric Reserach droughts floods

Chuka Umunna: Let's put the money from a levy on energy companies towards helping people in fuel poverty and investing in renewables

Vopak site in Essex blockaded as part of week-long environment protest

Bob Watson rightly warns us to prepare for 4C global warming. To avoid that, we must make drastic CO2 cuts now

Less than a fifth of the biofuel used on UK roads meets environmental standards intended to safeguard human rights and guarantee carbon savings, figures released today show.

Mark Lynas: Bob Watson rightly warns us to prepare for 4C global warming. To avoid that, we must make drastic CO2 cuts now

It may be the scourge of China's Olympic organisers, but the industrial smog could be cutting emissions of methane from rice paddies

James Randerson on Defra chief adviser's climate change warning

USA Today: As energy costs rise, more states and cities are adopting policies that encourage or require new construction to be energy-efficient. This week, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, signed into law what he called the nation's strictest "green" building codes. "There's been a huge groundswell in green-building leadership at state and local levels. It's remarkable," says Jason Hartke of the U.S. Green Building Council, a private group that tracks legislation and sets ...

Miami Herald: For decades, Brazil has jealously safeguarded the right to decide the future of its national patrimony, the Amazon rain forest. It has responded to the plea of developing countries to stop the destruction of the rain forest with a defiant cry: ''Hands off our Amazon!'' Now, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has come up with a more practical response to those who want to save one of the most precious environmental resources on the planet: ``Put your money where your mouth ...

Reuters: Private equity firm Blackstone Group LP (BX.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Thursday it is creating a new business group to focus on clean energy investments. The group, led by James Kiggen, a former executive at AllianceBernstein, will guide Blackstone's investment decisions in solar, wind, biofuels and other renewable energy technologies, the company said in a statement. Venture capitalists have invested in the search for clean technologies -- from renewable energy to ...

Science Daily: Climate models have long predicted that global warming will increase the intensity of extreme precipitation events. A new study conducted at the University of Miami and the University of Reading (U.K.) provides the first observational evidence to confirm the link between a warmer climate and more powerful rainstorms. One of the most serious challenges humanity will face in response to global warming is adapting to changes in extreme weather events. Of utmost concern is that heavy ...

New York Times: <body>The National Center for Atmospheric Research, an important hub for work on the causes and consequences of climate change, has shut down a program focused on strengthening poor countries' ability to forecast and withstand droughts, floods and other climate-related hazards. The move, which center officials say resulted from the shrinking of federal science budgets, is being denounced by many experts on environmental risk, who say such research is more crucial than ever in a world ...

Bloomberg: U.S. officials rejected Texas Governor Rick Perry's request to ease requirements on the use of corn- based ethanol in gasoline, saying he didn't prove that the rules are straining grain supplies and causing ``severe economic harm.'' ``After reviewing the facts, it was clear this request did not meet the criteria in the law,'' Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson said today. The renewable fuels standard ``remains an important tool in our ongoing efforts to ...

Agence France-Press: The number of forest fires on Indonesian Borneo has soared over the past two days due to land clearing, raising concerns it could lead to haze over Malaysia and Singapore, an official said Thursday. More than 400 forest fires from traditional farming methods -- blamed for the smoke which shrouds the region annually -- were being monitored on Indonesian Borneo Thursday compared to 217 on Wednesday, officials said. "It's doubled again to 415 hotspots, mostly from West ...

Asian News International: A scientist has suggested that the world should be prepared to face an alarming increase of 4 degree Celsius in global temperatures. A report in UK's leading newspaper said that this was suggested by agriculture and coastal erosion Professor Bob Watson, who is one of the UK government's chief scientific advisers. In policy areas such as flood protection, UK should plan for the effects of a 4C global average rise on pre-industrial levels, said Watson. Globally, a 4C temperature ...