The Green Village News Tagged ‘climate change’
Thursday, June 18th, 2009
The UK Climate Projections for 2009 (UKCP09), which has been informed by scientific data from the UK Met Office, has been released today, and provides an alarming insight into the potential effects of global warming on the UK climate. The projections include an array of scenarios including changes in temperature that we would expect to encounter, variation in rainfall, humidity and cloud cover across the year.
The report highlights the information based on high, low and medium amounts of emissions, and provides projections of expected climate change in the 2020s, 2050s and 2080s. The projections have been based on information put together from 400 variations of the Met Centre’s Hadley Office climate change computer model, and as well as providing a number of pre-prepared maps and graphs, enables users to create their own custom made maps and projections within a 25sq km.
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Tags: climate change, friends of the earth, global warming, uk climate projections, UKCP09
Posted in Companies and Organisations, Environmental Impact, Environmental Politics, Green Planet | No Comments
Wednesday, June 17th, 2009
On 23rd April Ed Miliband outlined plans for clean coal technology to help reduce the UK’s carbon emissions and begin to take action against climate change. Today the details of the new coal consultation have been announced, asking for feedback on three documents published today on the Department for Environment and Climate Change website.
The proposals focus on three main areas and provide more detailed information about the plans in the pipeline to help reduce carbon emissions. The first part of the proposal will mean that all newly built coal fired power stations will only be approved if they include CCS (carbon capture and storage) technology that captures at least 25% of the power stations’ carbon emissions and pumps it back into the ground where oil and gas were originally stored beneath the North Sea.
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Tags: carbon capture and, carbon emissions, ccs, clean coal, climate change, coal, coal fired power stations, coal power station, decc, ed miliband
Posted in Energy and Resources, Environmental Politics, Green Planet | 1 Comment
Wednesday, June 10th, 2009
A new campaign launched by environmental campaign group Greenpeace is calling on consumers to take steps to help increase awareness about the detrimental effects that the footwear industry can have on the world’s rainforests.
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The ‘Every Step Counts’ campaign, which picks up on the issue of leather produced at the cost of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil highlighted in Greenpeace’s ‘Slaughtering the Amazon’ report published last week, calls on consumers to help put pressure on footwear manufacturers to end their contribution to the rainforest deforestation caused by the creation of ranches that supply leather to these companies. Greenpeace points the finger at companies known to source leather from suppliers such as those in Brazil that are destroying the most valuable carbon sink on the planet, such as high street shoe outlet Clarks, Timberland and sports shoe and trainer manufacturers Nike, Reebok and Adidas.
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Tags: campaign, climate change, deforestation, every step counts, footwear, greenpeace, rainforest, shoes, slaughtering the amazon, trainers
Posted in Companies and Organisations, Conservation and Wildlife, Energy and Resources, Environmental Impact, Ethical shopping, Green Living, Green Planet | No Comments
Tuesday, May 12th, 2009
The Women’s Institute announced the launch of their new campaign, Women and Climate Change, yesterday. The campaign focuses on promoting the role women can play and the impact they can have on helping reduce the impact of climate change.
The WI argues that women have considerable buying power across a range of consumer areas, from choosing a green energy supplier for their home, to making ethical choices at the checkout when doing the weekly shop. The decisions women make can go a long way to making or breaking the carbon cutting challenges that governments and organisations are setting and pushing for in order to reduce the environmental impact of global warming and rising temperatures.
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Tags: campaign, climate change, WI, women and climate change, women's institute
Posted in Companies and Organisations, Environmental Impact, Green Family, Green Living, Green Planet | No Comments
Wednesday, May 6th, 2009
The reported loss of the Chacaltaya Glacier in Bolivia earlier this year could have bigger implications for Bolivia than first thought.
The glacier, which is thousands of years old, used to be a flagship location for skiers, boasting the highest ski lift in the world. Now however, as yet another example of the saddening effects of climate change and increasing temperatures on earth, it’s not only the loss of tourists that will affect the local people, but over the coming years, water shortages are likely to become an issue.
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Tags: andes, bolivia, chacaltaya glacier, climate change, glaciers melting, water shortages
Posted in Energy and Resources, Environmental Impact, Green Planet | No Comments
Monday, May 4th, 2009
A study of literature reporting on the oxidation of methane in various soil types has shown that the process is successfully removing more carbon emissions than first thought. Microbial oxidation is the process that takes place as a result of microscopic bacteria living in the top soil covering used to cap landfill sites, and helps reduce the amount of methane and other harmful gases being released into the atmosphere.
Current regulations from EPA in the US recommend a 10% oxidation rate, largely due to the difficulty in measuring the rate of oxidation and the lack of a standard methodology for testing and therefore enforcing the rate of oxidation. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, however, recommends between 0% and 10% oxidation rate. The findings of the results show however that on average, 35% of methane is oxidised by the bacteria.
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Tags: climate change, greenhouse gases, landfill, methane oxidation
Posted in Environmental Impact, Environmental Politics, Green Planet | No Comments
Thursday, April 30th, 2009
Climate change has been blamed for causing what could end up being the hottest April Germany has seen since records began. DWD, the German Weather Service has reported temperatures that have been on average 4.5 degrees higher than normal for this time of year. Wolfgang Kusch, president of the DWD said yesterday,
“The climate change train is not just rolling, it’s getting faster and faster. If the next two days pan out as expected, we will have a new record month.”
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Tags: climate change, flood, germany, record temperatures, weather
Posted in Environmental Impact, Green Planet | No Comments
Sunday, April 26th, 2009
A report by two climate scientists from Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego warns that the effects of climate change could lead to shortfalls in targeted water supply for homes serviced by the Colorado River; an area that has never before suffered a shortage.
The area, made up of vast areas of farmland and millions of domestic properties is estimated to be affected by shortages up to 90% of the time by 2050. Even without the expected effects of climate change, however, shortages would still be expected due to the targets being based on water levels of the Colorado River during the 20th century, which analysis of tree rings has shown to be one of the wettest centuries of the last 1200 years.
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Tags: climate change, colorado river, scientific report, scripps institution of oceanography, water, water shortages
Posted in Energy and Resources, Environmental Impact, Green Planet, Science and Technology | No Comments
Thursday, April 23rd, 2009
As their contribution to Earth Day, yesterday saw the launch of Greenpeace’s new video which aims to inspire watchers to become climate activists. Earth Day began in 1970, and was the brain child of Senator Gaylord Nelson, who decided to begin a campaign to kickstart public awareness and action about the environmental issues affecting the planet.
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/zVu9eawb1QY" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
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Tags: climate change, copenhagen, earth day, greenpeace, inspiring action video
Posted in Companies and Organisations, Environmental Impact, Green Family, Green Living, Green Planet | No Comments
Sunday, April 19th, 2009
With the unveiling of 11 proposed sites for new Nuclear Power Stations announced by the UK government last week, a period of public consultation has now begun to get feedback from the British public about their thoughts and feelings regarding the locations put forward.
The sites, which include one in Anglesey, Essex, Suffolk, Somerset and 3 proposed locations in Cumbria, have been put forward by EDF Energy, EON, German producer RWE and the Nuclear Decommissioning Agency (NDA).
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Tags: climate change, government, nuclear, nuclear power station, sellafield
Posted in Energy and Resources, Environmental Impact, Environmental Politics, Green Planet, Science and Technology | 1 Comment
