Climate Crisis Videos & News: Environment Videos // Current

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1 day ago

Web site for unwanted goods seeks to raise funds for schools, environment & charities for free

A bake and yard sale veteran, Falmouth, Maine, resident Carolyn Gillis decided to take school fundraising to a higher level. She... more

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Could Chicken Feathers hold the Key to Effective Hydrogen Storage?

It's no secret that a ton of problems need to be overcome before there's any real chance we'll all be driving... more

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®epower America

In the next day or so, the U.S. House of Representatives will vote on the boldest effort in our history to rethink how we produce... more

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A Perfect Storm Could Shed Light On Secretive Energy Markets

When Olav Refvik wanted to boost the price of heating oil to make a lucrative energy deal even more lucrative, the Morgan Stanley trader locked up several storage tanks the bank owned near New York Harbor to squeeze supply. Far from being illegal, the maneuver -- which earned him millions and the moniker "King of New York Harbor" -- is business as usual in the "regulated" commodities market.

The rough-and-tumble Chicago-based commodities market is an unusual beast on Wall Street, where practices that would be frowned upon at the flashier New York stock exchange, are considered quite acceptable.

While less glamorous than its East Coast cousin, the commodities markets are critical to most Americans. That's because its traders are integral in establishing the price we pay for oil at the pump each day. When Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Royal Dutch Shell squirreled away 80 million barrels of crude oil -- nearly enough to supply the entire world for a day -- in supertankers off the Gulf of Mexico last January, they too profited as the price at the pump rose.

But now, as a comprehensive climate bill wends its way through the House of Representatives, some of these aggressive commodities practices have come under scrutiny. New legislation proposed by Rep. Waxman (D-Calif.) and Rep. Markey (D-Mass.) would create a system of carbon allowance permits that the government would sell to companies that want to circumvent new emissions requirements. These permits would end up spurring as much as $2 trillion in new carbon-based "derivatives." In this case, these new derivatives, so-called because they derive their value from something else, would be traded on the commodities markets, and without proper regulation, critics worry their prices could be manipulated much in the way that traders influence the price of oil.

With the combination of the upcoming climate bill that that could create a major new commodity derivatives market, in addition to a new focus from the Obama administration on derivatives, experts are hoping that regulation will be strengthened. Experts and legislators say these two forces have created a perfect storm, and that the opportunity is ripe to take a broader look at the overall commodities market rather than be limited to reforming only derivatives.When Olav Refvik wanted to boost the price of heating oil to make a lucrative energy deal even more lucrative, the Morgan Stanley... more

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29 days ago

What is like to have emission targets for dessert when the daily special is recession?

The Japanese Prime Minister anounced this week the new emission target for 2012. The new target has been called ambitious by the... more

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1 month ago

Thoroughly modern Marx - Part 2

Leo Panitch on Marx and the climate change debate. Paul Jay speaks to Leo Panitch, Professor of Political Science at York... more

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1 month ago

Tar sands feel the heat in Washington DC from environmental groups

How disappointing to know that Steven Chu actually thinks tar sands is a viable energy source. How can this administration give... more

JanforGore
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1 month ago

Ken Salazar's Department Makeover: Addressing Climate, Bush Shorts

At the same time Salazar is working on those internal issues, he is also at the forefront of Obama's agenda for energy and... more

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1 month ago

Why six Britons went to eco war

When six activists, protesting against climate pollution, scaled a tower at a coal-fired power station in 2007 the resulting court case drew support from the world's leading scientists. Their subsequent acquittal proved historic and changed government policy. Here, the 'Kingsnorth Six' tell their story.

Six ordinary people. One extraordinary feat of courage and endurance. Twenty thousand tonnes of carbon dioxide belched into the atmosphere in a single day. Twelve members of a jury, reaching a verdict that could change the future of the planet. From these ingredients, Nick Broomfield has fashioned a film that tells the gripping and (the description is unusually literal) life-changing story of the Kingsnorth Six.

When a demonstration at the Kingsnorth power station in north-east Kent in late 2007 led to the arrest of six climate change activists, what had until then seemed a rather dry local planning issue exploded into a story of national and international concern. The verdict at their trial turned out to have far-reaching implications for activism, the future of coal, even the planet.

Now a 20-minute film, A Time Comes, by the much-admired documentary-maker Nick Broomfield, cuts police and Greenpeace footage of the occupation together with news clips and interviews with the activists. What emerges is how ordinary the Kingsnorth Six are - they could be the bloke next door or the woman across the office - but also how brave and tenacious. The film is released just as the government's review of its coal policy is expected and campaigners hope and expect the review will define a seismic shift in official attitudes to carbon emissions.

"I was attracted to making a film about the Kingsnorth Six because they're such everyday people," Broomfield says. "You tend to think of environmental activists as super-fit professionals, but they are modest and understated. I admire the way they were prepared to see it through - to take action for what they believed and take the consequences - and I wanted to make the film immediate, personal, anecdotal.

"I loved the footage of them struggling up a chimney as if in Dante's Inferno. Their story is just a very human one of great courage and great love and belief, which is, I suppose, what all great stories are about."

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More of this story at this link:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/may/31/kingsnorth-activists-climate-change-coalWhen six activists, protesting against climate pollution, scaled a tower at a coal-fired power station in 2007 the resulting court... more

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1 month ago

Shell Guilty of Human Rights Abuses

The video was a highlight of the WiwavShell.org website run by ERI & CCR to educate the public about the trial but it was... more

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1 month ago

US wants to paint the world white to save energy

US Energy Secretary Steven Chu said Tuesday the Obama administration wanted to paint roofs an energy-reflecting white, as he took... more

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1 month ago

UN: Growth of slums boosting natural disaster risk

The rampant growth of urban slums around the world and weather extremes linked to climate change have sharply increased the risks from "megadisasters" such as devastating floods and cyclones, a U.N. report said Sunday.

The study — which examines natural disaster trends and strategies to reduce potential catastrophes — also noted that millions of people in rural areas are at higher risk from disasters such as landslides where forests have been stripped away or crippling droughts blamed on shifting rainfall patterns.

Much of nearly 200-page report restates warnings from previous studies about unchecked urban growth and shortsighted rural planning. But it also seeks to sharpen the apparent link between climate change and the severity and frequency of major natural disasters including severe droughts and epic storms.

"Climate change magnifies the interactions between disaster risk and poverty. On the one hand, it magnifies weather-related and climatic hazards. On the other hand, it will decrease the resilience of many poor households and communities to absorb the impact and recover," said the report, which was released in the Gulf nation of Bahrain.

At least 900 million people now live in shantytowns and other makeshift settlements in cities vulnerable to disasters such as cyclones, flooding or earthquakes, the report said. Those populations are growing at a rate of about 25 million a year, it said.

One model predicted many of the more than 19 million people in greater Manila would be swamped by a tsunami hitting the capital of the Philippines.

India, China and other parts of Asia were at a particularly high risk from so-called "megadisasters" such as last year's Cyclone Nargis, which killed an estimated 140,000 people in Myanmar, and the massive quake in China that claimed nearly 90,000 lives and left 5 million people homeless.

"Asia was hit especially hard," said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who was in Bahrain for the release of the report.

end of excerpt.The rampant growth of urban slums around the world and weather extremes linked to climate change have sharply increased the risks... more

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1 month ago

Environmentalists attack House global warming compromise

If it's this hard for Democrats to agree on tough global warming curbs, polar icecaps beware.

With the greenest lawmakers in charge and the President cheering them on, the prospects of sweeping controls on greenhouse gases seemed rosy. After a month of fighting among themselves, however, House Democrats announced an agreement Thursday that reflects more about the legislative process than the need to stop the planet from heating up. (See pictures of the effects of climate change.)

The announcement indicates that sponsors have enough Democratic votes to push a bill past its first legislative hurdle, the House Energy and Commerce Committee, as early as next week. But the patchwork of concessions necessary to win over champions of industrial and regional interests weakened the initiative, leaving it far short of the global warming gas reductions that scientists insist are necessary to stave off catastrophic climate change.

"It's unacceptable to base this bill on politics, instead of good science," said Greenpeace's Damon Moglen.

The biggest concession to all industrial burners of fossil fuels raised the national cap on greenhouse gas emissions from the original proposal of 5.7 billion metric tons (BMT) by 2020 to 5.9 BMT. The difference may seem nominal until you consider what the elite scientific body, the International Panel on Climate Change, urges for the same timeline — a cap of at least 1.3 BMT lower. Only then will there be 50% chance of avoiding a major warming.

The initial House proposal triggered opposition by many of the biggest polluters, including electric utilities and industries that burn carbon-heavy coal. They would have to obtain permits for each ton of warming gases — chiefly carbon dioxide — limited by the cap. The bill didn't specify how the permits would be allocated or how much those permits might cost. Environmentalists wanted the government to auction them, with the proceeds used to lighten ratepayer utility bills inflated by the higher costs of running power plants and to subsidize energy efficiency measures. (See pictures of this fragile earth.)

But Democrats devised a permit allocation system to line up committee support. To woo lawmakers from districts powered by coal-fired utilities in the Midwest and Southeast, the agreement would give away 35% of the permits to electric utilities until 2025 while they make a transition to cleaner fuels or develop carbon capture technology. Research for such technology would be subsidized by billions of dollars raised from government auctions.

end of excerpt.If it's this hard for Democrats to agree on tough global warming curbs, polar icecaps beware. With the greenest lawmakers... more