Climate target is not radical enough - study
The Guardian, April 7, 2008
Jim Hansen, NASA's top climate scientist has called for phasing out all coal-fired plants by 2030, taxing their emissions until then, and banning the building of new plants unless they are designed to trap and segregate the carbon dioxide they emit. Hansen, who previously has advocated for a CO2 target of 450ppm, now fears the scale of the problem has been underestimated and that government should aim for a new target of 350ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere rather than the current EU target of 550ppm. In the paper Hansen co-authored with eight other climate scientists, "Target Atmospheric CO2: Where Should Humanity Aim?," submitted (not yet published, see attached PDF) to Science magazine, his team used evidence from the Earth's history to estimate the sensitivity of the climate, which they say gives a much more accurate picture than using theoretical models.

As Fight for Water Heats Up, Prized Fish Suffer
NY Times, April 1, 2008
As the climate in the Western US warms, competition for water is intensifying. Current state law has a "use it or lose it" rule: If one rancher does not take his entitlement, the next user downstream can. This is leading to lower river flows and warmer waters in the summer months threatening trout populations, like the grayling, across the region.

Ford to Cut New-Car Greenhouse Emissions 30% by 2020 (Update4)
Bloomberg, April 9, 2008
"Ford Motor Co., the world's third- largest automaker, said it will reduce new-vehicle greenhouse gas emissions 30 percent by 2020 in the U.S. and Europe. The announcement followed an agreement between the automaker and shareholder groups including the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, which said it represents almost 300 religious institutional investors managing more than $100 billion."

Report addresses sea level rise related to global climate change
Rhode Island Sea Grant, April 1, 2008
The Rhode Island Sea Grant in collaboration with NOAA's Coastal Programs Division has released a report, Summary of Coastal Program Initiatives that address Sea Level Rise as a Result of Global Climate Change. The report examines the concerns of coastal communities facing erosion and inundation of coastal resources as sea level rises due to global warming.

Ethanol plant planned for Port of Albany
AM NewYork, April 1, 2008
An ethanol plant costing up to $350 million is planned for a section of the Port of Albany. The Albany Port District Commission selected the ethanol project for 18 acres on the west bank of the Hudson River. The project's developer, Albany Renewable Energy LLC, says the corn-based ethanol plant could produce as much as 110 million gallons of the fuel per year. The plant will require permits from the state DEC before construction can begin. Company officials say that could take 6 to 12 months, with the plant operational by the end of next year. Construction of the facility is expected to create up to 400 jobs, with 50 to 60 full-time plant employees.

Greenhouse Gas Reporting Standards Available to Help Measure and Verify Emissions
NYS DEC Press Release, April 2, 2008
DEC Commissioner Pete Grannis announced that NYS will be partnering with The Climate Registry, a national, nonprofit organization that has established a common standard system for measuring and reporting GHG emissions from government and private entitites in Canada, the US and Mexico. The system includes third party verification of emissions measurements and public disclosure of emissions via the web. Seventy-three leading corporations, non-profit organizations, cities, and counties are already reporting their GHG emissions to The Climate Registry. DEC is currently in the process of joining the Registry as a reporting member, and will voluntarily report the agency's emissions data. Organizations that join The Climate Registry as reporters before May 1, 2008, will be considered "Founding Reporters" and will receive continued recognition for their outstanding environmental leadership in measuring and publicly reporting their GHG emissions on a voluntary basis.

Deluge
Chronogram, April 5, 2008
This summary of the impacts of climate change in the Hudson Valley highlights several of the Climate Change Network members and the projects their working on including Betsy Blair of the Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve, Doug Burns of the USGS, David VanLuven of the Nature Conservancy, Ned Sullivan of Scenic Hudson, Paul Huth from the Mohonk Preserve, and lil' ol' me.

Poor left out of environmental loop: Those with low incomes will be most affected by climate change, but often are least informed
Albany Times Union, April 7, 2008
Several interviews with low income citizens in Albany make it clear that the majority of the low income community, the most likely to see negative impacts across the globe, have more pressing issues to grapple with than those of a changing climate.

Protect Water Resources from Climate Change
Hudson Valley Press Online, April 10, 2008
Representatives John Hall (D-NY) and Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) have introduced legislation that will help protect America's water from climate change. The legislation would direct the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and National Academies of Science (NAS) to study the impact of climate change on America's water resources. The legislation would direct the study of impacts on America's water resources, wetlands, and shorelines, regional variation in precipitation patterns, water quality and protection efforts under the Clean Water Act, and steps that should be taken under the Clean Water Act to account for the impacts of climate change in efforts to maintain water quality standards.

Downstate energy needs outlined by governor
Empire State News, April 11, 2008
Governor David Paterson outlined the initial steps his administration will take to meet the growing demand for energy on Long Island and the New York City metropolitan region including the creation of a State Energy Planning Board charged with preparing a State Energy Plan and new initatives from the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) and the New York Power Authority (NYPA).

A timeline of climate change science
CNN, April 2, 2008
Scientists began to understand and describe the phenomena that today contribute to global warming over 100 years ago. Climatology is now one of the most important fields of scientific study in the world today. This article contains a succint timeline of some of the key dates in climate change history - a handy reference.

Dust plays huge role in climate change
Christian Science Monitor, April 3, 2008
Recent studies indicate that dust is playing a much larger role in our climate than previously thought. New research is showing that some dust, like black carbon particles in the atmosphere, is having a greater warming effect than the 2007 IPCC report stated - more powerful than any of the greenhouse gases except carbon dioxide. The good news is that black carbon particles such as diesel soot or wood-stove smoke only stay airborne for weeks and the technology exists to reduce it. Other research on Antarctic ice cores is showing a strong correlation between dust flows from S. America to Antarctica and the onset of Ice Ages. Both indicate that dust may play a much larger role in future climate models.

Warming trends rise in large ocean areas: study
Reuters, April 9, 2008
Warming trends in a third of the world's large ocean regions are greater than previously reported averages, increasing the risk to marine life and fisheries, a new U.N. Environmental Program report said. In 18 of the 64 ocean regions studied accelerated warming trends are 2-4 times greater than the average trends reported in 2007 by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The most rapid warming was recorded in the Baltic Sea at 1.35 degrees Celsius in the past 25 years.

Cleaner Air Means a Warmer Europe
Der Speigel, April 14, 2008
"Europe is heating up much faster than climate researchers expected, and now they think they know why: air made dramatically cleaner by anti-pollution programs. With less particle pollution clouding the air, more sunlight is coming through and the continent is getting warmer."

How Conservatives Have Duped Us in the Global Warming Fight
Alternet, April 1, 2008
This article by Joe Brewer of The Rockridge Institute shares an alternative to cap and trade called the "cap and dividend" which, like the Lieberman-Warner bill, places a cap on the amount of carbon dioxide and charges polluters. However, the difference is that it calls for polluters to distribute the money evenly to everyone to promote the understanding that (1) the air is inherently valuable, and (2) it belongs to all of us.

How Well Do Coupled Models Simulate Today’s Climate? BY THOMAS REICHLER AND JUNSU KIM
American Meteorological Society, March 2008
In this study, scientists compared the output of the approximately 50 different models from China, Russia, Australia, Canada, France, Korea, Britain, Germany and the United States, including those used in IPCC reports, against climate observations. The study shows that the coupled models have been steadily improving over time and that the best models are converging toward a level of accuracy that is similar to observation-based analyses of the atmosphere.

Global and regional climate changes due to black carbon V. Ramanathan & G. Carmichael
Nature Geoscience 1, 221 - 227 (April 2008)
Abstract Black carbon in soot is the dominant absorber of visible solar radiation in the atmosphere. Anthropogenic sources of black carbon, although distributed globally, are most concentrated in the tropics where solar irradiance is highest. Black carbon is often transported over long distances, mixing with other aerosols along the way. The aerosol mix can form transcontinental plumes of atmospheric brown clouds, with vertical extents of 3 to 5 km. Because of the combination of high absorption, a regional distribution roughly aligned with solar irradiance, and the capacity to form widespread atmospheric brown clouds in a mixture with other aerosols, emissions of black carbon are the second strongest contribution to current global warming, after carbon dioxide emissions. In the Himalayan region, solar heating from black carbon at high elevations may be just as important as carbon dioxide in the melting of snowpacks and glaciers. The interception of solar radiation by atmospheric brown clouds leads to dimming at the Earth's surface with important implications for the hydrological cycle, and the deposition of black carbon darkens snow and ice surfaces, which can contribute to melting, in particular of Arctic sea ice.