U.S., Germany agree on vague climate measures President Bush is on a tour of Europe, seeking ways to repair relationships with traditional allies that don't involve changing any U.S. position on any subject -- and that includes global warming. His stop in Germany yesterday to talk with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder was a positive, if strained, affair, generating a declaration of cooperation on the subject of climate change. The document outlines broad areas of collaboration, including modernizing energy sources, assisting developing nations with clean technology, and that hoary old Bush administration chestnut, more research. The declaration included no specific details or …

Appeals court rejects five-state plan for clean park air A market-based program used by five Western states to control haze in national parks and wilderness areas was rejected by a federal appeals court Friday. Brought to court in a challenge by a coal and utilities industry group, the states' efforts to cut sulfur-dioxide pollution and improve air quality and visibility in the parks was dealt a blow when a three-judge panel concluded that the program used EPA methodology that was thrown out three years ago for being "inconsistent with the Clean Air Act." The states involved in the now-defunct plan …

It's difficult to work up outrage these days, I know. But still. Republicans have long had a hard on for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It's never made any sense -- the amount of oil we could get is a tiny fraction of what we need, and it's 10 years out in the future. It will do nothing to reduce energy prices or dependence on foreign oil. Now it turns out that even the oil companies themselves don't think it's worth it. A Bush adviser says the major oil companies have a dimmer view of the refuge's prospects …

Pombo says: Eat up! House Resources Committee Chair Richard Pombo (R-Calif.) -- longtime bete noire of the environmental community -- cooked up what appears to be some fishy science in a report released last week titled "Mercury in Perspective: Fact and Fiction About the Debate Over Mercury" [PDF]. The report -- written not by scientists but rather by aides to Pombo and another member of his committee, Rep. Jim Gibbons (R-Nev.) -- aims to downplay the overwhelming evidence that mercury from coal-burning power plants poses a significant health risk to Americans. Two of the report's claims are particularly stunning, as …

Environmental change linked to spread of infectious diseases If the catastrophic flooding, drought, and weather-related calamities associated with global warming don't kill you, exotic infectious diseases might step up to do the job, a new report released by the U.N. suggests. It found that changes to the environment -- such as deforestation, urban growth, mining, and pollution of coastal waters -- may be aiding the spread of infectious diseases, including ailments never before seen in humans. The report also suggests that global warming could be a major aggravating factor because rising temperatures and altered habitats could allow more diseases and …

Seattle, other U.S. cities to hammer out their own Kyoto-like reductions The Kyoto Protocol has arrived, and though the Bush administration has opted out, others in the U.S. are not so climate oblivious. Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels announced Wednesday he's leading an effort to get major U.S. cities to agree to Kyoto-like reductions of their greenhouse-gas emissions, to show the feds that "the cost is minimal or there isn't a cost at all," he said. The mayors of 10 other cities including Salt Lake City, Minneapolis, and Portland, Ore., have already expressed interest in the effort, to be formalized in …

New data on warming oceans are strong evidence for climate change Measurements of ocean temperatures presented yesterday constitute (still more) compelling evidence that global warming is upon us, say scientists. The data, introduced at the annual gathering of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, show that temperature readings in the oceans for the past 40 years line up almost exactly with the predictions of climate models. Researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography spun several different scenarios to explain the warming -- natural climate variability, solar radiation, volcanic activity -- but "what absolutely nailed it was greenhouse warming," …

Dear Umbra, My girlfriend asked me the other day why global warming was going to be so bad for her. I just graduated with a degree in environmental science, and I like to think I learned something in my classes, but I still struggled to give her a concise, straightforward answer. I see new research coming out all the time in Daily Grist and other places on the consequences of global warming and predictions for the future. Can you point me to a source where I can find an easy-to-read summary, preferably with citations for further reading, of what we …

Pension fund pressures companies to be more responsible on climate The California Public Employees' Retirement System -- the largest public pension fund in the U.S., an economic powerhouse with some $182.9 billion in assets -- voted Monday to use its significant clout to help fight global warming. Specifically, CalPERS is asking companies in the Financial Times 500 to disclose investment info related to their carbon emissions, requesting that auto manufacturers reveal their emission-reduction plans, and demanding that utilities report the risks associated with their greenhouse-gas releases. Lest the fund be ignored, it appears to be making an example of automakers …

It's an action-packed week on the climate front: The Kyoto Protocol finally goes into effect today throughout the vast majority of the industrialized world (the U.S. conspicuously not included), and Capitol Hill is awash in climate-related assaults and initiatives. As Kyoto and climate bills heat up, greens' response is tepid. Congress is facing a double whammy of President Bush's most environmentally controversial proposals: The back-from-the-dead omnibus energy bill -- a feast for purveyors of planet-warming fossil fuels -- will get a hearing in a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee today. Meanwhile, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will vote …