WASHINGTON — The global political battle over climate change was also being fought at the US Supreme Court on Wednesday as judges bickered over the role of greenhouse gas emissions in global warming and disagreed on whether the EnvÂÂirÂonÂmental Protection Agency had the power to refuse to regulate such emissions. Hearing a case that could have a big impact on emission politics in the US Congress and beyond, judges listened to a Bush administration official defend the notion that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should stay out of greenhouse gas regulation. They also heard from the state of Massachusetts, which insists that its coastline will be threatened unless the EPA steps in. Environmental activists, frustrated by the failure of Congress or the Bush administration to act on global warming, brought the issue to the Supreme Court with the case Massachusetts v EPA. The court heard oral arguments in the case yesterday but will rule only sometime next year. Massachusetts brought the suit, backed by California, New York and several other states, to try to force the EPA to regulate exhaust emissions from new cars. The EPA says it does not have the authority to regulate such emissions, […]
Britain’s coasts are already being affected by climate change, according to a panel of experts convened by the Government to assess the likely impact of global warming. These changes are altering the number, variety and distributions of every kind of marine organism, from plankton and fish to top predators such as seabirds. Sea temperatures have increased, storms and waves are becoming more damaging and sea levels are beginning to rise faster than at any time in the previous century, the report says. ‘We are observing large changes in our marine environment that are driven in part by climate change and that are predicted to continue into the future,’ according to the panel’s report published today. ‘Mitigating and adapting to these changes will present significant challenges for decision-makers,’ says the Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership, a coalition of experts from institutions ranging from Cambridge University to the Met Office’s Hadley Centre. Sea surface temperatures around Britain’s coastline have been rising by between 0.2C and 0.6C per decade for the past 30 years and there is every sign that they will continue to rise, especially in the South-east. Over the past 50 years, severe winds have become […]
OSLO, Norway – A 2007 U.N. report with stronger evidence that humans are causing global warming is likely to spur more lawsuits around the world such as a case to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday, a legal expert said. Lawsuits from Australia to California are already testing how far courts agree with most scientists’ view that human activities - led by burning fossil fuels in power plants, factories and vehicles - are warming the planet. ‘We’re going to get more and more of these cases,’ Peter Roderick, director of the Climate Justice Program, which is linked to environmental group Friends of the Earth, told Reuters on Tuesday. ‘The stronger the evidence of human influence gets, the more relevant the question will be for courts,’ he said. Some lawyers, he said, viewed climate as the next billion-dollar source of litigation after tobacco or asbestos. Rajendra Pachauri, the head of the panel of climate scientists that advises the United Nations, has said a report due in early 2007 will have ‘far more robust’ evidence that human activities are warming the planet. In one of the most important U.S. environmental cases in decades, the […]
General Motors yesterday became the first automaker to announce plans to build a plug-in hybrid vehicle, improving the chances that cars of the future would go much farther on a gallon of gas. Plug-in gas-electric hybrids would significantly expand gas mileage through the use of advanced batteries that would provide greater range under electric power than current models. The cars would rely much less on conventional engines, reducing gasoline consumption and pollution. General Motors North America President Troy Clarke introduces the 2008 GMC Yukon Hybrid at the Los Angeles Auto Show. GM chairman and chief executive G. Richard Wagoner Jr. made the announcement at the Los Angeles Auto Show but, citing technical obstacles, didn’t say when the new vehicle would go on sale. Wagoner said it will take several years for GM to create a plug-in hybrid that would meet performance standards. He acknowledged that affordable battery technology doesn’t exist yet. Toyota and Ford also are studying the technology. GM’s initiative reflects a belated attempt to win an image as a ‘green’ car company and to catch up with the alternative-fuel efforts of Toyota, the world’s leader in hybrid vehicles with its popular gas-electric Prius. […]
The auto industry said Monday that lawsuits over vehicles’ greenhouse gas emissions could eventually force manufacturers to eliminate big SUVs from the market in California, an assertion denied by environmental attorneys and the state air quality board. ‘If we lost (in court),’ said Dave Barthmuss, General Motors’ spokesman for environmental and energy affairs, ‘certain vehicles could not be offered for sale — vehicles that consume more fuel than others. There would be fewer SUVs and we might not be able to offer them for sale in California. It could spell the end of the big SUV in California.’ At the California Air Resources Board, however, spokesman Jerry Martin said the 2002 law in question cannot force the auto industry to reduce the size of its vehicles or to abandon any models it wants to keep selling. The spat over what may happen to SUVs in California stems from a pair of federal court lawsuits that have been going on for years but are back in the news because one of them is scheduled to be argued Wednesday before the U.S. Supreme Court. In that case, California, along with 11 other states and several environmental organizations, wants […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
