Planetary Ruin

BEIJING (Reuters) – China plans to shift a proposed chemical plant to another part of the eastern province of Fujian following mass demonstrations, officials said on Friday, defending the project against a new wave of protests.

The plant to make paraxylene, or PX, a petrochemical used in polyester and fabrics, was originally intended for the Fujian seaside city of Xiamen, but was put on hold after protests last June brought thousands into the streets.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A bill was introduced in the House of Representatives on Thursday that would overturn the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to prevent California from limiting the amount of greenhouse gas emissions spewed by cars.

The EPA last December turned down California’s request for a waiver from federal law that would have permitted the state to cut vehicle carbon dioxide emissions, which when implemented would have likely have raised the required fuel efficiency of cars and also fought global warming.

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NEW YORK (Reuters) – A greenhouse emissions business group hopes to shape U.S. climate change legislation to include broad use of international carbon offsets, like wind and solar power farms in developing countries, that are not currently in the leading climate bill.

In a letter sent on Wednesday to Rep. John Dingell, a Michigan Democrat, the International Emissions Trading Association, a carbon business group, said clean project offsets encourage developing countries to participate in international carbon markets, leading to “greater climate protection at lower cost.”

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Commenting on a recent “Countering Greenwash” post, one insightful reader pointed out how ”green” product certifications, such as the EPA-backed, Green Electronic Council’s EPEAT (Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool) and the United Nations led StEP (Solving the E-Waste Program) – can be an excellent means of getting past the greenwash. I can only agree, depending of course, on the quality of the criteria and the rigor of any green product’s assessment.

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OSLO (Reuters) – Tackling climate change, pollution and other environmental hazards is affordable and urgent action is needed to avoid irreversible damage, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said on Wednesday.

“Climate change is mankind’s most important long-term challenge,” OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria told Reuters after issuing a 520-page Environmental Outlook in Oslo.

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GENEVA (Reuters) – Car makers are becoming more optimistic that European authorities will grant them more time to meet proposed limits on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from their vehicles — a major point of contention between them.

As part of an effort to cut emissions linked to global warming, the European Commission has drafted tough legislation to reduce CO2 emissions from cars, with steep fines on manufacturers that fail to comply.

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TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan plans to focus on its efforts to improve 21 technologies to help the world halve greenhouse gases by 2050, a trade ministry official said on Wednesday.

The technologies that need to be improved to combat global warming include coal-fired power generation, power generation using natural gas, solar power, vehicles powered by fuel cells or biofuels, and hydrogen-based steelmaking, the official said.

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PORONG, Indonesia (Reuters) – Gas seeping from the ground in a village hit by a mud volcano in Indonesia’s East Java province is triggering safety concerns and calls for an evacuation, residents said on Wednesday.

The gas is in an area where thousands of homes and factories have been submerged by hot mud since a mud volcano first started to erupt in May 2006, forcing about 15,000 people to abandon their homes.

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Their study, published online February 28 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, provides a guide for conservationists of the areas of our planet where conservation investments would have the most impact in the future to limit extinctions and damage to ecosystems due to rapid human-driven climate and land-use change.

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BEIT HUJAIRA, Yemen (Reuters) – Black-clad women trudge across a stony plateau in the Yemeni highlands to haul water in yellow plastic cans from wells that will soon dry up.

“We come here three or four times a day,” says Adiba Sena, as another woman draws water six metres (20 feet) to the surface and pours it into jerry cans lashed to her grey donkey. “We use it to clean, cook, wash — we have no pipes that reach us.”

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