Sen. Chuck Hagel.A possible GOP presidential contender in 2008, Nebraskan Sen. Chuck Hagel has lately sprung to the public stage as one of the leading Republican voices on climate change. In mid-February, he introduced three bills designed to be economic jumper cables that would boost the development of clean-energy technologies -- one focusing on international technology exchange and the other two cumulatively authorizing $4 billion in corporate loans and tax credits over five years to spur the domestic development of clean technologies. Hagel has been sounding off on the challenges of climate change at venues like the Brookings Institution, and …

Brenda Way. What work do you do? I founded ODC (originally the Oberlin Dance Collective) 35 years ago as a multidimensional arts organization -- that is to say, not just for dance jocks. We moved to the Bay Area from Ohio and now own 33,000 square feet of dancing/teaching/performing space in San Francisco. My primary time is spent as artistic director of the 10-member resident contemporary dance company. I choreograph, and the company tours our repertory around the world. In addition to the dancing part, I started and help run our community arts center, which includes a theater, a training …

Hydropower a major greenhouse-gas producer, researchers say Although hydroelectric power is often heralded as a green alternative to fossil fuels like coal, scientists now say that in terms of greenhouse-gas production, hydro projects may be just as damning. Ahem. New research reveals that the initial flooding involved in creating hydroelectric dams releases large amounts of carbon from plants that are killed in the process. Then, leftover plant matter and other plants killed when water levels rise decompose and release methane into the atmosphere. These greenhouse-gas emissions add up -- in the case of one Brazilian dam project studied, emissions released …

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," …