Utah: Dew ‘naive’ on nuclear waste, Climate Change, Demo says

 

Bob Bernick Jr. | Deseret News

The Utah Legislature, or perhaps a voter referendum, should decide whether EnergySolutions can dump foreign low-level radioactive waste in Utah.

So believes GOP 2nd Congressional District candidate Bill Dew, who added it should be a state’s rights issue.

During a KUED Ch. 7 debate with Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, Dew modified a previous stand on the low-level waste issue — he said in an earlier debate that he supported EnergySolutions’ plan.

Matheson said the U.S. Constitution clearly states that foreign commerce belongs in the purview of the Congress. “No other country takes such radioactive waste, and we shouldn’t either.”

Dew’s answer “is naive,” said Matheson, who leads his GOP challenger in recent public opinion polls. Utah is taking internal low-level waste from 36 states now, and ultimately will take it from all 50, Matheson said.

There is a limited amount of space for low-level nuclear waste at EnergySolutions’ Clive site in Tooele County. And the United States shouldn’t allow any of that storage capacity to be used for such waste from foreign countries, Matheson added.

Matheson vowed to fight to outlaw foreign importation of low-level nuclear waste.

Read on here.

Australia: Climate change fight as important as ever: Rudd

 

ABC News

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says the threat of climate change remains as significant as it was before the global financial crisis.

Yesterday the Government released Treasury modelling showing that an emissions trading scheme would have an impact on economic growth of around 0.1 per cent, as well as possibly increasing household energy costs by around $7 per week.

The Opposition has criticised the modelling as flawed because it does not take into account the impact of the recent economic turmoil.

But speaking at a Business Council of Australia dinner in Sydney last night, Mr Rudd said the Government’s response to climate change would take into account the needs of both businesses and households.

“Only that kind of response will provide a firm foundation for investment and job creation in the future,” he said.

“The challenge of climate change is no less real today than it was before the financial crisis. Addressing climate change is part of laying the foundations for long term economic growth.”

Scientists Confirm Global Warming at North and South Poles

 

Jessica Berman | Voice of America

While studies are reasonably clear on the role of carbon emissions by humans in causing global warming in the Arctic, less is know about the causes of warming in Antarctica because of its remoteness.

Some experts believe it is due to greenhouse gases while others believe changes in the Antarctic landscape are due to natural fluctuations in climate.

In a study in this week’s issue of Nature Geoscience, an international team of scientists reports on the results of a new model they say proves the human footprint in global warming in the Antarctic.

The model incorporates 100 years worth of temperature data from the Arctic and about 50 years of recorded temperatures from stations in Antarctica.

The temperatures in the Antarctic were gathered along the coastal areas, according to scientists, because it is too difficult to get to the continent’s interior.  

When the temperature data from both continents were plugged into the model, scientists say it clearly showed the human effects of global warming in the South Pole.

Andrew Monaghan is with the US National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. He wrote the News and Views article in Nature.

“That’s why this study is so important because it formally demonstrates the human contribution to [global warming] for the first time,” he said.

In a teleconference with reporters, Monaghan said substantial warming has been detected along up to half of Antarctica’s frozen coastlines that will lead to an even greater rise in sea levels.

“While nothing catastrophic is envisioned in the next century, there could be a substantial acceleration in the [ice] melt,” he said.

Monaghan expects the effects of global warming will at the Poles even after humans stop putting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

IFC says global warming still on agenda

 

Agence France-Presse

BEIJING — The World Bank’s private-sector investment arm said Friday that climate change remained on the agenda despite the turmoil currently afflicting global financial markets.

“We need to think about both the short term … but also about the long term, future generations,” Lars Thunell, executive vice president of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), told a briefing in Beijing.

He said that climate change “will continue to be on the top of everybody’s agenda, and should be.”

Thunell was in Beijing for a ceremony to mark local lender Industrial Bank’s adoption of the Equator Principles, a set of guidelines requiring banks to take into account the social and environmental impact of projects they finance.

“There is a financial tsunami going across the world right now, and we are of course trying to see how we can support the financial institutions in China and abroad,” said Thunell.

“In these times of financial distress very often the poor people get hurt the most.”

One of the ways the IFC would seek to help the poor was to promote micro-financing, he said, which helps grassroots entrepreneurs start up small businesses, such as repair shops, with a limited amount of capital.

Canada: Climate Change Report Due Out Today

 

AAP

The long-awaited Treasury data, one of the biggest economic modelling exercises ever done in Australia, focuses on what it will cost to tackle climate change.

Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said it shows there is nothing to fear in emissions trading.

It will not force businesses offshore, she said.

“What the modelling shows is that Australian industries will remain competitive and there are significant opportunities in us taking action on climate change,” she told ABC Radio.

“We can take action on climate change but also retain a strong economy.”

Treasurer Wayne Swan said the Treasury data showed emissions trading would not hurt economic growth.

“What the modelling will show is that we can deal with climate change … without having a dramatic impact on economic growth,” he told the Macquarie Radio Network.