greenhouse gas emissions

Calif. voters split on greenhouse gas law

Los Angeles -- Most Californians say global warming is a serious issue but are split on an upcoming ballot measure about the state's pioneering climate law, a poll indicates.

California's sweeping global warming law requires greenhouse gas emissions by power plants, factories and vehicles be slashed to 1990 levels by the end of the decade, but Proposition 23 on the November ballot would suspend the 2006 law until the state's unemployment rate drops to 5.5 percent for an entire year, USA Today reported.

The state's unemployment is currently more than 12 percent, and California rarely has a yearlong level below 5.5 percent, the Los Angeles Times reported.

New way to track greenhouse gases created

Champaign, Ill. -- U.S. scientists say they have created a more accurate method of calculating the change in greenhouse gas emissions that result from land use alterations.

University of Illinois researchers said their new technology takes into account many factors not included in previous methods and addresses the urgent need to accurately assess whether particular land-use projects will increase or decrease greenhouse gas emissions.

New rules by Obama administration to make vehicles fuel efficient but costlier

The Obama administration on Thursday released new tougher standards for gas-mileage and emission limits of new cars and trucks.

As world heads for Copenhagen, Obama reschedules visit

New York, December 5 -- President Barack Obama is heating up efforts towards a workable and comprehensive Copenhagen agreement. But he's running a bit late for the summit.

Emissions cuts no shock to Corp. America

Washington -- Corporate America has been thinking about how to comply with a U.S. commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for years, executives and analysts say.

So business leaders weren't surprised when the White House said Wednesday U.S. President Barack Obama would tell a U.N.-sponsored climate-change summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, next month the United States intended to cut carbon dioxide emissions by about 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 and by 83 percent by 2050, The New York Times reported.

"Industry needs certainty, and without a very strong role played by the administration, they are not likely to get it," Eileen Claussen, president of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, told the newspaper.

New idea offered to fight climate change

Atlanta -- A U.S. scientist suggests the impact of deforestation and urbanization on the Earth's climate must be addressed along with greenhouse gas emissions.

Georgia Tech Professor Brian Stone says delegates to the upcoming climate change meeting to be held in Copenhagen, Denmark, need to give serious consideration to broadening the range of management strategies beyond only greenhouse gas reductions.

Older forests store more carbon

Corvallis, Ore. -- Letting Pacific Northwest forests age longer would increase carbon storage and help mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, researchers in Oregon said.

If, for example, the region's forests were allowed to increase in age by 50 years, their potential to store atmospheric carbon would increase by 15 percent, researchers at Oregon State University, Corvallis, said.

That would significantly offset the nation's carbon budget since the Pacific Northwest accounts for 14 percent of the live biomass in the United States, said Beverly Law, a professor of forest science at the university.

Threats of rising temperatures taken too lightly

Chicago, February 15: The planet is heating up a lot faster than previously thought, leading climate scientists warned on Saturday.

Declined Californian bird count due to climate change

Los Angeles, February 11: A recent study suggests that more than one-third of bird species in California may disappear from their habitats by the end of the 21st century.