Call to ban petrol cars by 2040 – BBC News. Some aggressive proposals across the pond, where British Liberal Democrats are calling for carbon neutrality by 2050 in the UK.

Ethanol sparks food fight between corn growers and buyers – Seattle Post-Intelligencer. “The burgeoning ethanol industry is creating a wave of prosperity for rural towns throughout the Midwest, but the energy bonanza is also pitting farming groups against each other.” Many farming groups don’t like high prices for corn. The American Meat Institute plus dairy, egg and turkey lobbyists have launched a Web site called Balanced Food and Fuel that spells out “the seemingly dire consequences of the growing demand for biofuel.” Corn growers have responded in kind.

Grim outlook for poor countries in climate report — Guardian Unlimited. “Professor Martin Parry, a climate scientist with the Met Office, said destructive changes in temperature, rainfall and agriculture were now forecast to occur several decades earlier than thought.” The effect on Africa and Asia will be especially hard. “By 2020, the report warns, up to 250 million Africans may be left short of water.”

Since the federal government has so far refused to adopt a nationwide renewable electricity standard (RES) the states have stepped in. Some 25 states, plus DC, have adopted an RES, also known as a renewable portfolio standard, which requires utilities to purchase a rising percentage of their power from renewable sources like wind and solar.

A new report by U.S. PIRG details the myriad benefits of state action to promote renewables –Reaping the Rewards: How State Renewable Electricity Standards Are Cutting Pollution, Saving Money, Creating Jobs and Fueling a Clean Energy Boom. Here are some of the conclusions

• In 2006, more than two-thirds of all new renewable electric generating capacity in the United States was built in RES states. In 2007, more than 70 percent of planned renewable generation is expected to be built in RES states.

• Texas stands out as the state with the most aggressive renewable energy development in recent years, adding 2,000 megawatts of new renewable energy capacity. Texas is followed by Washington, New York, and Colorado.

• Renewable energy is addressing a greater share of new energy needs in RES states. In 2007, renewables account for about 38 percent of planned capacity additions in RES states, compared to just 12 percent in non-RES states.

The report also found significant environmental benefits as a result of new renewable energy development. Renewable energy sources built after the adoption of state RES policies will:

Read more

The Montreal Protocol (on Substances that Deplete the Ozone) celebrated its 20th anniversary Sunday, September 16th. Realistically, it probably wasn’t celebrated much but commemoration and reflection are due.

A month ago the Financial Times jumped the gun on the anniversary and ran an op-ed by Mario Molina, a chemist who won a Nobel Prize for driving concern over the ozone.

Molina says that the treaty’s impact on greenhouse gas reductions is central to its success and that it has slowed global warming up to 12 years. He discusses the Montreal Protocol in relation to the climate’s tipping point and in doing so, builds pressure on signatories of the Montreal Protocol (entering a phase to accelerate the phase-out of ozone-depleting chemicals) and participants in the upcoming climate negotiations.

In one week a series of international meetings over global warming begins, eventually leading to formal post-Kyoto negotiations in December. Those talks will ultimately set the global policy framework for the decade during which greenhouse gas emissions should (must) peak. The negotiations are critical and, unfortunately, success hinges on U.S. involvement.

Yet the Montreal Protocol has been a landmark of successful, international, environmental negotiations. Therefore Molina’s full op-ed is below, lest we forget Montreal:

Read more

Karl Rove thinks history will be kinder to President Bush than the public and the pundits are today:

I believe history will provide a more clear-eyed verdict on this president’s leadership than the anger of current critics would suggest. President Bush will be viewed as a far-sighted leader who confronted the key test of the 21st century.

Not!

On the path set by Bush’s do-nothing climate policies, future generations — including historians — will be living in a ruined climate for centuries, with brutal summer-long heat waves, endless droughts, unstoppable sea level rise, mass extinction, and on and on. If we do stop catastrophic global warming, it will only be because succeeding presidents completely reject Bush’s approach. Either way, President Bush will be viewed as a short-sighted leader who ignored the key test of the 21st century.

Rove actually has the chutzpah to claim:

Read more