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Harper proposes joint climate pact that would protect Alberta oil sands

The Globe and Mail reported last week: Less than 24 hours after the election of Barack Obama, Canadian cabinet ministers begin calling for a pact that would keep emissions down while protecting Alberta’s oil sands projects This is Canada’s version of “Two tens for a five?” Seriously, Canada, just a couple of days into his […]

President-elect sends YouTube message to governors

President-elect Barack Obama released a video message to attendees of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s summit on climate change, which is convening today in Los Angeles. Obama’s video is below. More Grist reporting and analysis to come:

Emissions of Kyoto signatory countries on the rise, U.N. says

Collectively, the 40 industrialized nations that agreed to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions under the Kyoto Protocol have met their goal of cutting emissions to an average of about 5 percent below 1990 levels, the United Nations reported this week. But some of the biggest reductions were due to economic declines in central and eastern European countries […]

Two studies point to ecosystem damage from factory-style farming

How does chemical-intensive, concentrated agriculture affect surrounding ecosystems — and ones that lie downstream from large operations? Seems like a key question, given that upwards of 95 percent of our food comes from such agricultural methods. Yet there has been surprisingly little study of it. For example, when the meat industry started to rapidly consolidate […]

Obama names long-time Waxman aide as his assistant for legislative affairs

Over the weekend, the Obama transition team announced a few new key members of the White House staff, including Phil Schiliro, who will serve as assistant to the president for legislative affairs. This will be someone to watch, as Schiliro was a long-time aide to Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), who has called for aggressive climate […]

Obama won’t send delegation to Poland climate conference

President-elect Barack Obama will not attend the United Nations climate conference in Poland next month nor send a delegation on his behalf, the U.N. climate chief announced Monday. Many climate activists had high hopes that President Bush’s successor would attend the conference as a way to jumpstart the sluggish talks. Explaining his decision, Obama said, […]

NYC announces new, voluntary plan to encourage hybrid taxis

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg outlined a new, voluntary plan to encourage taxi-fleet owners to use hybrid vehicles after the city’s initial plan to dramatically increase taxi fuel-efficiency was struck down by a federal judge last month.

International talks to save Atlantic tuna begin in Morocco

Representatives from some 46 nations are meeting this week in Morocco to try to hash out an agreement on stemming overfishing of imperiled bluefin tuna while still keeping the bluefin fishing industry alive. Experts say the sustainable catch limit in the Mediterranean Sea should be about 15,000 tons a year, but last year fleets caught […]

Robert Hirsch suggests ‘keeping relatively quiet’ in near-term about peak oil

The WSJ blog reprints an incredibly dumb “You can’t handle the truth!” memo from uber-peaker Robert Hirsch. Yes, the author of the seminal 2005 study [PDF] funded by the Bush Energy Department on “Peaking of World Oil Production” has written a memo “To The Peak Oil Community,” recommending that group “minimize its effort to awaken […]

Concerns raised about wildfire-fighting chemicals

As wildfires rage in southern California, concerns are burgeoning about the chemical mix that firefolk drop as a fire retardant. It’s “fairly well known that it’s toxic to aquatic organisms, to fish,” says one fire management officer; nonetheless, notes another firefighter, “It’s the people whose houses are not on fire that are concerned about it.”