July 01, 2008

This economic panic is pushing the planet right back down the agenda

This economic panic is pushing the planet right back down the agenda.George Monbiot argues that oil-dependent countries are focused on growth at all costs, and the pale green political consensus looks unlikely to hold.

June 20, 2008

Encountering Peace: The road map can work

Remember the road map?

June 19, 2008

New study to force ministers to review climate change plan | Environment | The Guardian

New study to force ministers to review climate change plan. Britain and Europe will be forced to fundamentally rethink a central part of their environment strategy after a government report found that the rush to develop biofuels has played a "significant" role in the dramatic rise in global food prices, which has left 100 million more people without enough to eat.

June 16, 2008

The Era of Green Noise

The Era of Green Noise.Two years after “An Inconvenient Truth” helped unleash a new tide of environmental activism, green noise pulses through the collective consciousness from all directions...

An environmentally conscientious consumer is left to wonder: are low-energy compact fluorescent bulbs better than standard incandescents, even if they contain traces of mercury? Which salad is more earth-friendly, the one made with organic mixed greens trucked from thousands of miles away, or the one with lettuce raised on nearby industrial farms? Should they support nuclear power as a clean alternative to coal?

If even well-intentioned activists are feeling overwhelmed, the average S.U.V. driver must be tuning out. And some environmentalists fear that the public might begin to ignore their message before any meaningful change can be accomplished. For them, it’s a time to reassess strategies and streamline their campaigns before it’s too late.

June 12, 2008

Oil shortage a myth, says industry insider

Oil shortage a myth, says industry insider. There is more than twice as much oil in the ground as major producers say, according to a former industry adviser who claims there is widespread misunderstanding of the way proven reserves are calculated.

June 11, 2008

Nanosolar Price Barrier Breakthrough Makes Solar Electricity Cheaper Than Coal

Nanosolar Price Barrier Breakthrough Makes Solar Electricity Cheaper Than Coal. A new combination of nano and solar technology has made it possible for solar electric generation to be cheaper than burning coal. Nanosolar, Inc. has developed a way to produce a type of ink that absorbs solar radiation and converts into electric current.

June 10, 2008

Environment: what can we do?

Environment: what can we do?. Megan McArdle asks whether individual efforts to limit our carbon footprint are worthwhile.

June 09, 2008

G8 plus three agree to promote energy efficiency for stable market, climate

G8 plus three agree to promote energy efficiency for stable market, climate. Energy ministers from the G8 and the three Asian countries, which were invited to take part in broader discussion over energy-related issues, jointly issued a declaration on concluding their meeting in northeastern Japan's energy capital of Aomori, announcing the establishment of the International Partnership for Energy Efficiency Cooperation, a new framework aimed at facilitating energy-saving measures and transfer of related technologies.

June 06, 2008

Food Summit, Overcoming Disputes, Calls for Boosting Farm Aid

Food Summit, Overcoming Disputes, Calls for Boosting Farm Aid. World leaders overcame disputes over biofuels and last-minute objections by Argentina, pledging to boost spending on agriculture in developing countries and ease trade restrictions to counter hunger and soaring food prices.

Delegates from 181 nations at a UN-sponsored Food Security Summit in Rome closed a three-day meeting late yesterday with promises to push the United Nations' 12-year-old pledge to halve the number of malnourished people, now 860 million, by 2015 and help farmers from developing countries produce for international markets.

UN officials called the meeting a success for focusing attention on food prices ahead of a meeting of leaders of the Group of Eight nations in Japan next month. Other participants were more skeptical, saying the discussions resulted in an essentially meaningless statement.

World Environment Day calls for end to CO2 addiction

World Environment Day calls for end to CO2 addiction. June 5 (Reuters) - The United Nations urged the world on Thursday to kick the habit of producing carbon dioxide, saying everyone must act to fight climate change. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said global warming was becoming the era's defining issue and would hurt rich and poor. "Our world is in the grip of a dangerous carbon habit," Ban said in a statement on World Environment Day, which was marked by events around the globe and hosted by the New Zealand city of Wellington.

May 30, 2008

Israelis and Palestinians Launch Web Start-Up

An Internet group are trading ideas through a video hookup in the first joint technology venture of its kind between Israelis and Palestinians.

Whales, lizards inspire hi-tech bio-mimicry

Whales, lizards inspire hi-tech bio-mimicry.
Whale hearts hold clues to making pacemakers and lizard skins are showing how to cut friction in electrical appliances as companies mimic nature to develop high-tech goods, a U.N.-backed report said on Wednesday.

"Biomimicry is a field whose time has come," said Achim Steiner, head of the U.N. Environment Program (UNEP) in a statement issued to coincide with a May 19-30 U.N. conference on protecting the diversity of animals and plants in Bonn, Germany.

Nature loss 'to hurt global poor'

 Nature loss 'to hurt global poor'.

Damage to forests, rivers, marine life and other aspects of nature could halve living standards for the world's poor, a major report has concluded.

Current rates of natural decline might reduce global GDP by about 7% by 2050.

The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) review is modelled on the Stern Review of climate change.

It will be released at the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) meeting in Bonn, where 60 leaders have pledged to halt deforestation by 2020.

Former defense officials call for indirect talks with Hamas

Former senior defense and security officials have called on the government to conduct indirect negotiations with Hamas on a long-term cease-fire.

May 29, 2008

High Level Conference on Climate Change, Energy and Food

The recent thirty-fourth session of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Conference, held during November 2007,  called for a series of expert meetings and stakeholder consultations on climate change and bioenergy, to be followed by a High-Level Conference on World Food Security and the Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy.

The preparatory meetings were held January-April 2008 and the High-Level Conference will take place 3-5 June 2008.

Top UN officials warn of dangers of biodiversity loss

Top UN officials warn of dangers of biodiversity loss. At a three-day conference in Germany, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and General Assembly President Srgjan Kerim  warned of the consequences resulting from the loss of biodiversity, including the impacts on the economy, development and efforts to mitigate climate change.

May 28, 2008

Experts list warming, impacts ties

Publishing in the journal Nature this week, a NASA-led team of scientists has come up with what it said is the first study to show a direct link between humans, climate change and impacts..

May 16, 2008

Stem Rust Never Sleeps

The distinguished agronomist, Norman Borlaug, warns that, "WITH food prices soaring throughout Asia, Africa and Latin America, and shortages threatening hunger and political chaos, the time could not be worse for an epidemic of stem rust in the world’s wheat crops. Yet millions of wheat farmers, small and large, face this spreading and deadly crop infection.

I give up, says Brazilian minister who fought to save the rainforest

Brazil has been accused of turning its back on its duty to protect the Amazon after the resignation of its award-winning Environment Minister fuelled fresh fears over the fate of the forest. The departure of Marina Silva, who admitted she was losing the battle to get green voices heard amidst the rush for economic development, has been greeted with dismay by conservationists.

Blair Unveils Proposals to Improve Life on the West Bank

Announcing plans for economic, social and security measures, Tony Blair says that it would be “a mistake to think” that political negotiations could work without changing the reality on the ground.

May 13, 2008

Bill McKibben, The Defining Moment for Climate Change

Bill Mckibben argues that the reduction of atmospheric carbon dioxide is of crucial importance to maintaining civilisation.

May 08, 2008

Encountering peace: Next year in Palestine

Gershon Baskin of the Jerusalem Post writes about Independence Day in Israel.

May 07, 2008

As it turns 60, the fear is Israel has decided it can get by without peace

Jonathan Freedland reflects on the possibilities for peace between Israelis and Palestinians  on Israel's 60th anniversary.

May 06, 2008

Rivers and conflict | Streams of blood, or streams of peace

WHEN Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, was asked to ponder the future of the world before an audience of powerful businessmen and politicians, at a meeting in Switzerland earlier this year, he could have chosen any topic he liked. What he focused on was both a hoary old favourite, and a newly popular preoccupation, of debates on world affairs: the rising risk of wars over fresh water, as populations increase and the world gets drier.

Big Oil’s Friends in the Senate

Listen to almost any American politician, President Bush included, and you’ll hear that the fight against global warming cannot be won without cleaner technologies that will ease dependence on fossil fuels. Yet these same politicians are on the verge of allowing modest but vital tax credits in the USA to expire that are crucial to the future of renewable energy sources like wind and solar power.

May 02, 2008

Blair confident of Mideast accord

Tony Blair who is now an international envoy on the Middle East, said that he believed agreement on a Middle East peace deal was possible "faster than people think".

Middle East talks in London call on Israel to cease settlement activity

The Middle East peace Quartet held talks in London on Friday and called on Israel to cease all settlement activity to prevent the collapse of the peace process.

May 01, 2008

Middle East Peace Dialogue Network. Press Release

Report on the progress of a current Regional Peace Plan.

Whether top players like it or not, no progress can be made on the track towards Israeli-Palestinian peace without engaging Hamas

This was a week for Egypt and the region in general -- and maybe beyond -- to assess whether Hamas may or may not be engaged by a diplomatic drive.

Palestinian Factions Agree to Truce With Israel: MENA - New York Times

Palestinian Factions Agree to Truce With Israel: MENA - New York Times