Environmental News Network

Interior Secretary hears East Coast input on Future of Offshore Energy
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and his key staff held a Public Hearing in Atlantic City today to get input on the future of offshore energy. The hearing was attended by several hundred interested parties representing environmental groups, oil & gas producers, wind energy firms, and local & state government. >> Read the Full Article
2009: Will a crisis turn into an opportunity?
In a recent television interview, former Microsoft boss Bill Gates identified two priorities for the US administration of President-elect Barack Obama, as it prepares to face the biggest global economic crisis in recent history. The first was to maintain funding to tackle developing countries' needs. Although Obama has promised to double US spending on foreign aid, there are understandable fears that acute domestic financial pressures will push development assistance down the political agenda. >> Read the Full Article
New England's sugar country confronts a bitter future as the climate warms
All farming depends on the weather, but few foods are more dependent on a specific climate than maple syrup. After all, for the sugar maple's sap to run at all requires cooperative weather â€” freezing nights followed by warmer days. But thanks to the build-up of invisible greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, those temperature swings don't happen as reliably. At risk is an American tradition that stretches back even before Europeans discovered the "New World." >> Read the Full Article
Interior Secretary to discuss NJ's offshore energy
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is coming to Atlantic City TODAY to discuss the future of offshore energy. He says he wants to know what you think, too. It will be the Obama Administration official's first stop on a tour of public meetings to be followed by sessions in New Orleans, Anchorage and San Francisco. Salazar will present information from a U.S. Geological Survey-Minerals Management Service Report and will solicit public comment. ENN will be reporting on this event later today. >> Read the Full Article
We Drive Nissan's Electric Car, and It's Sweet
The prototype of Nissan's forthcoming electric car may look like a breadbox, but the technology beneath that boxy body could propel the Japanese automaker to the front of the EV pack when the car hits the road next year. >> Read the Full Article
Plants buy Earth more time as CO2 makes them grow
Trees and plants are growing bigger and faster in response to the billions of tons of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere by humans, scientists have found. The increased growth has been discovered in a variety of flora, ranging from tropical rainforests to British sugar beet crops. >> Read the Full Article
Ice bridge holding Antarctic ice shelf cracks up
An ice bridge which had apparently held a vast Antarctic ice shelf in place during recorded history shattered on Saturday and could herald a wider collapse linked to global warming, a leading scientist said. >> Read the Full Article
Medieval warming 1000 yrs ago was a result of natural climate mechanism
In a new research, scientists have unraveled the natural climate mechanism that caused unusually warm weather in medieval times in Europe 1000 years back. >> Read the Full Article
Climate clock is ticking
In the summer of 2007, a large portion of Arctic Sea ice - about 40 per cent - simply vanished. That wasn't supposed to happen. At least not yet. As recent as 2004, scientists had predicted it would take another 50 to 100 years for that much ice to melt. Yet here it was happening today. >> Read the Full Article
A Sustainable Business View on Economy, Climate
As leaders of the world's 20 largest economies gathered in London this week, international financial institutions announced that the world economy would likely deteriorate more in 2009 than was previously feared. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development predicted that economic activity would shrink 2.7 percent; the World Bank projected a slightly more optimistic contraction of 1.7 percent. >> Read the Full Article