California is leading the way in ocean conservation as reported by the NRDC. Planktos hopes to further this environmental leadership in California though our ocean ecosystem restoration projects.
Check out the article here:
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SAN FRANCISCO - January 30 - California made the grade in a new Ocean Policy Report Card issued today by the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative. The state rose to the head of the class with an A-, compared to a C- grade for national ocean governance reform. California deserves top billing for its ocean policy leadership, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).
NRDC said California deserves special recognition for creating a network of marine protected areas, akin to national parks and wildlife refuges on land; implementing an interagency council to promote coordination and innovation; and establishing an ocean trust fund to help finance the transition to a healthy ocean. California’s move toward a holistic approach is an important shift away from managing on a species-by-species basis, which often misses broader systemic threats, the group said.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Monday, January 22, 2007
Business smells whiff of money in climate change
By Gerard Wynn
REUTERS
11:49 a.m. January 22, 2007
LONDON, – A spate of corporations flaunting their environmental credentials, and especially their concern about climate change, says as much or more about a shifting commercial landscape as the planet's future.
The so-called U.S. Climate Action Partnership called Monday for a federal plan to curb greenhouse gas emissions, a day before President George W. Bush is expected to avoid proposing just that in his State of the Union speech.
“These recommendations should catalyze legislative action,” said Jeff Immelt, chairman and chief executive officer of General Electric Co. , a member of the group, which also includes BP America.
read more
REUTERS
11:49 a.m. January 22, 2007
LONDON, – A spate of corporations flaunting their environmental credentials, and especially their concern about climate change, says as much or more about a shifting commercial landscape as the planet's future.
The so-called U.S. Climate Action Partnership called Monday for a federal plan to curb greenhouse gas emissions, a day before President George W. Bush is expected to avoid proposing just that in his State of the Union speech.
“These recommendations should catalyze legislative action,” said Jeff Immelt, chairman and chief executive officer of General Electric Co. , a member of the group, which also includes BP America.
read more
Oceans in Danger News ranks number 3 is most censored stories of 2006
3. Oceans of the World in Extreme Danger
Oceanic problems once found on a local scale are now pandemic. Data from oceanography, marine biology, meteorology, fishery science, and glaciology reveal that the seas are changing in ominous ways. A vortex of cause and effect wrought by global environmental dilemmas is changing the ocean from a watery horizon with assorted regional troubles to a global system in alarming distress.
According to oceanographers the oceans are one, with currents linking the seas and regulating climate. Sea temperature and chemistry changes, along with contamination and reckless fishing practices, intertwine to imperil the world's largest communal life source.In 2005, researchers from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory found clear evidence the ocean is quickly warming. They discovered that the top half-mile of the ocean has warmed dramatically in the past forty years as a result of human-induced greenhouse gases.
One manifestation of this warming is the melting of the Arctic. A shrinking ratio of ice to water has set off a feedback loop, accelerating the increase in water surfaces that promote further warming and melting. With polar waters growing fresher and tropical seas saltier, the cycle of evaporation and precipitation has quickened, further invigorating the greenhouse effect. The ocean's currents are reacting to this freshening, causing a critical conveyor that carries warm upper waters into Europe's northern latitudes to slow by one third since 1957, bolstering fears of a shut down and cataclysmic climate change. This accelerating cycle of cause and effect will be difficult, if not impossible, to reverse. Atmospheric litter is also altering sea chemistry, as thousands of toxic compounds poison marine creatures and devastate propagation.
The ocean has absorbed an estimated 118 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide since the onset of the Industrial Revolution, with 20 to 25 tons being added to the atmosphere daily. Increasing acidity from rising levels of CO2 is changing the ocean's PH balance. Studies indicate that the shells and skeletons possessed by everything from reef-building corals to mollusks and plankton begin to dissolve within forty-eight hours of exposure to the acidity expected in the ocean by 2050. Coral reefs will almost certainly disappear and, even more worrisome, so will plankton.
Phytoplankton absorb greenhouse gases, manufacture oxygen, and are the primary producers of the marine food web. Mercury pollution enters the food web via coal and chemical industry waste, oxidizes in the atmosphere, and settles to the sea bottom. There it is consumed, delivering mercury to each subsequent link in the food chain, until predators such as tuna or whales carry levels of mercury as much as one million times that of the waters around them. The Gulf of Mexico has the highest mercury levels ever recorded, with an average of ten tons of mercury coming down the Mississippi River every year, and another ton added by offshore drilling.
Oceanic problems once found on a local scale are now pandemic. Data from oceanography, marine biology, meteorology, fishery science, and glaciology reveal that the seas are changing in ominous ways. A vortex of cause and effect wrought by global environmental dilemmas is changing the ocean from a watery horizon with assorted regional troubles to a global system in alarming distress.
According to oceanographers the oceans are one, with currents linking the seas and regulating climate. Sea temperature and chemistry changes, along with contamination and reckless fishing practices, intertwine to imperil the world's largest communal life source.In 2005, researchers from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory found clear evidence the ocean is quickly warming. They discovered that the top half-mile of the ocean has warmed dramatically in the past forty years as a result of human-induced greenhouse gases.
One manifestation of this warming is the melting of the Arctic. A shrinking ratio of ice to water has set off a feedback loop, accelerating the increase in water surfaces that promote further warming and melting. With polar waters growing fresher and tropical seas saltier, the cycle of evaporation and precipitation has quickened, further invigorating the greenhouse effect. The ocean's currents are reacting to this freshening, causing a critical conveyor that carries warm upper waters into Europe's northern latitudes to slow by one third since 1957, bolstering fears of a shut down and cataclysmic climate change. This accelerating cycle of cause and effect will be difficult, if not impossible, to reverse. Atmospheric litter is also altering sea chemistry, as thousands of toxic compounds poison marine creatures and devastate propagation.
The ocean has absorbed an estimated 118 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide since the onset of the Industrial Revolution, with 20 to 25 tons being added to the atmosphere daily. Increasing acidity from rising levels of CO2 is changing the ocean's PH balance. Studies indicate that the shells and skeletons possessed by everything from reef-building corals to mollusks and plankton begin to dissolve within forty-eight hours of exposure to the acidity expected in the ocean by 2050. Coral reefs will almost certainly disappear and, even more worrisome, so will plankton.
Phytoplankton absorb greenhouse gases, manufacture oxygen, and are the primary producers of the marine food web. Mercury pollution enters the food web via coal and chemical industry waste, oxidizes in the atmosphere, and settles to the sea bottom. There it is consumed, delivering mercury to each subsequent link in the food chain, until predators such as tuna or whales carry levels of mercury as much as one million times that of the waters around them. The Gulf of Mexico has the highest mercury levels ever recorded, with an average of ten tons of mercury coming down the Mississippi River every year, and another ton added by offshore drilling.
Lower your carbs!
The Guardian has released an amusing little article full of very useful information.
As part of Britains plan to reduce their carbon emissions, articles and tips like these have been popping up all over the UK.
This article defines a 'carb' as 100g of CO2. There is a list of all the foods you eat and the 'carbs' required to produce them, transport them to you, and cook them.
Check out the article here and see if you can lower your carbs.
Its information like this which will help us to combat climate change from every possible angle!
As part of Britains plan to reduce their carbon emissions, articles and tips like these have been popping up all over the UK.
This article defines a 'carb' as 100g of CO2. There is a list of all the foods you eat and the 'carbs' required to produce them, transport them to you, and cook them.
Check out the article here and see if you can lower your carbs.
Its information like this which will help us to combat climate change from every possible angle!
Bringing carbon buyers and sellers to market
Governor Schwarzenegger's State of the State speech emphasized his commitment to reducing greenhouse gases. His recent executive order to begin implementation of a market-based compliance program encouraging businesses to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is clearly a step in the right direction toward cleaning our air of harmful carbon particulates. The next step is to make it financially attractive enough for businesses to comply with the program.
Ask any inventor: Thinking up a workable idea is one thing. Marketing it in a meaningful way is another. It's the difference between, say, having the blueprints for the internal combustion engine and an assembly line ready to roll out a fleet of Model Ts.
The carbon market is in a similar situation. We know that sustainable forestry can help lower atmospheric carbon levels, a stated goal for those concerned with global climate change. Well-managed forests flush with rapidly growing trees remove or "sequester" carbon quite efficiently. But we don't know yet whether markets can be established in this country to provide any economic incentive to do so.
Read More
Ask any inventor: Thinking up a workable idea is one thing. Marketing it in a meaningful way is another. It's the difference between, say, having the blueprints for the internal combustion engine and an assembly line ready to roll out a fleet of Model Ts.
The carbon market is in a similar situation. We know that sustainable forestry can help lower atmospheric carbon levels, a stated goal for those concerned with global climate change. Well-managed forests flush with rapidly growing trees remove or "sequester" carbon quite efficiently. But we don't know yet whether markets can be established in this country to provide any economic incentive to do so.
Read More
From Competition to Cooperation: Companies Collaborate on Social and Environmental Issues
Momentum is gaining on collaborations. The United States Climate Action Partnership -- a group of ten major companies including Alcoa, Duke Energy, DuPont, and General Electric -- announced a push for carbon regulation in the US. The move was timed right before President Bush's State of the Union address. The partnership, which grew out of discussions last year between GE and the World Resources Institute and Environmental Defense -- seeks to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 10 to 30 percent over the next 15 years through a carbon cap-and-trade system.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
California is leading the way
While the Planktos family lives (for the most part) in California, we have a special connection with British Columbia. About a third of the folks around here hail from Victoria, so imagine my excitement when I saw the following Tyee article about Cambells rumored energy plan, which it is hoped, will largely be based on the California Global Warming Solutions Act
This is yet another reminder that the world is watching California. We need to ensure that the implementation of the California Global Warming Solutions Act sets the standard for future state and provincial (as well as federal we hope soon!) legislation.
Secret Energy Plan: Will Campbell Top Schwarzenegger?
'The Governator' raises the bar, BC pushed to match California global warming targets.
By Tom BarrettPublished: January 9, 2007
TheTyee.ca
Environmentalists are hoping that Premier Gordon Campbell can measure up to a certain former action hero when it comes to fighting climate change.
Climate change campaigners say they've been hearing rumours out of Victoria that the Campbell government intends to announce action on greenhouse gas emissions soon.
Their hopes were raised by a year-end interview with Jeff Rud of the Times-Colonist in which Campbell said B.C. needs to be a leader on climate change. A forthcoming update of the government's energy plan will "deal directly" with the issue, Campbell said.
"I think there's probably a lot of people who are hoping it's going to [contain] some greenhouse gas targets," says Lisa Matthaus, campaigns director for the Sierra Club of B.C. "As good as, if not better than, California has."
Environmental groups see the California standards, signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last fall, as the standard for other jurisdictions to meet. The California Global Warming Solutions Act aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25 per cent by 2020 through market-based mechanisms.
This is yet another reminder that the world is watching California. We need to ensure that the implementation of the California Global Warming Solutions Act sets the standard for future state and provincial (as well as federal we hope soon!) legislation.
Secret Energy Plan: Will Campbell Top Schwarzenegger?
'The Governator' raises the bar, BC pushed to match California global warming targets.
By Tom BarrettPublished: January 9, 2007
TheTyee.ca
Environmentalists are hoping that Premier Gordon Campbell can measure up to a certain former action hero when it comes to fighting climate change.
Climate change campaigners say they've been hearing rumours out of Victoria that the Campbell government intends to announce action on greenhouse gas emissions soon.
Their hopes were raised by a year-end interview with Jeff Rud of the Times-Colonist in which Campbell said B.C. needs to be a leader on climate change. A forthcoming update of the government's energy plan will "deal directly" with the issue, Campbell said.
"I think there's probably a lot of people who are hoping it's going to [contain] some greenhouse gas targets," says Lisa Matthaus, campaigns director for the Sierra Club of B.C. "As good as, if not better than, California has."
Environmental groups see the California standards, signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last fall, as the standard for other jurisdictions to meet. The California Global Warming Solutions Act aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25 per cent by 2020 through market-based mechanisms.
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