Global Warming Issues

Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) announced today that Toyota Motor Thailand Co., Ltd. (TMT) carried out Thailand’s largest-ever[1] tree-planting event at TMT’s Ban Pho Plant in Chachoengsao Province, Thailand.
More than 10,000 volunteers?including local residents, officials of Chachoengsao Province, Toyota suppliers and dealers, and plant employees and their family members?gathered to give root to approximately 100,000 trees at and around the vehicle production facility.The event?representing TMC’s ongoing effort to plant trees at and around vehicle production facilities as part of its global sustainable plant activities[2]?was designed to create a multi-layered natural environment using trees native to the area and to create a production site that could serve as a lush and diverse habitat for various living creatures.
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In recent years, however, an unprecedented and unexplained decline in bee populations across the U.S. and Europe has placed the health of ecosystems and the sustainability of crops in peril.

In an oral session at the Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of America, an interdisciplinary group of scientists will explore the problem of bee habitat loss at a broad scale to determine what can be done to preserve bees in their native habitats. The session, titled “The Landscape-Scale Ecology of Pollinators and Pollination,” will include scientists in the fields of computer science, mathematics and ecology from institutions in the U.S., Europe and Asia.

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When plants drop their leaves, stems and twigs, this organic matter slowly becomes part of the soil as a result of decomposition, which is facilitated by bacteria and other microbes. This process adds plant nutrients to the soil and releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Duke University scientists found the proportion of nitrogen to carbon in this organic matter determines how much nitrogen becomes available to plants in the soil and how much carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere. Their study also yielded a universal mathematical formula that can predict the decomposition process anywhere in the world.

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But changes in climate can wreak havoc in more subtle ways, such as the loss of habitat for plant and animal species. In a series of talks at the Ecological Society of America (ESA) 93rd Annual Meeting, climate change scientists will discuss how temperature-induced habitat loss can spell disaster for many living things.

Climate models project that rising temperatures over time can lead to an increase in dry, desert-like conditions, which will affect not only the survivorship of particular species, but also the natural resources they have adapted to use in their natural environment. Species are thus forced to move elsewhere to find places to live and food to eat.

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Untouched natural forests store three times more carbon dioxide than previously estimated and 60 percent more than plantation forests, said a new Australian study of “green carbon” and its role in climate change.

Green carbon occurs in natural forests, brown carbon is found in industrialized forests or plantations, grey carbon in fossil fuels and blue carbon in oceans.

Australian National University (ANU) scientists said that the role of untouched forests, and their biomass of green carbon, had been underestimated in the fight against global warming.

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The International Olympic Committee’s chief medical official expressed confidence on Tuesday that air pollution will not pose a “major” risk to athletes and visitors at the Beijing Games.

Arne Ljungqvist, chairman of the IOC medical commission, said the committee is evaluating the city’s air quality based on standards set by the World Health Organization.

“Those standards are fairly tough to meet, but in many respects the Beijing area does so,” Ljungqvist said on the opening day of the IOC’s three-day session.

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Four days before the opening ceremony, IOC president Jacques Rogge said the Beijing Olympics will be a historic milestone, affirming China’s transformation on the world stage.

In a speech at the opening ceremony of the Olympic body, Rogge steered clear of any of the contentious issues surrounding the games such as human rights, air pollution and media freedoms. With dignitaries including Chinese President Hu Jintao, Rogge referred only to “some challenges” facing China.

“We are now just days away from what I believe will be a historic Olympic Games,” Rogge said, speaking to the 120th General Assembly of the International Olympic Committee. “China’s role as our Olympic host has opened a window to the world’s most populous nation.”

Chances that the 2008 ice extent will fall below last year’s record minimum is about 8 percent, researchers forecast after having run a number of different models predicting the fate of the Arctic sea ice this summer. But there is still reason for concern; the scientists are almost certain the ice extent will fall below the minimum of 2005, which was the second lowest year on record. With a probability of 80% the minimum ice extent in 2008 will be in the range between 4.16 and 4.70 million km².

“After the strong decrease of the Arctic ice during the last summer, climate scientists all around the world are constantly asked: how will the ice develop in the next years?” described Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Gerdes from the Alfred Wegener Institute his motivation. “To answer this question, we did not want to guess, but to rely on sound calculations.”

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These days, people watch the skies above Beijing closely. Some days, especially after it rains, the skies are relatively clear.

More often than not, though, a thick murky haze fills the air and makes it nearly impossible to see nearby buildings.

What is causing Beijing’s gray skies? Is it natural phenomena, or is it pollution?

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A coal-fired power plant planned for Jewett, Texas, won’t increase the facility’s total air pollution under an agreement announced Monday between NRG Energy Inc. and two key environmental groups.

The Texas Clean Air Cities Coalition and the Environmental Defense Fund agreed not to oppose the Houston-based utility’s plan to add a third coal power plant to its existing two at its Limestone Station facility. In exchange, NRG will make a series of changes to the plant that will lower its pollution.

Emissions of nitrous oxide, sulfur dioxide, mercury and carbon dioxide won’t increase with the addition of the third unit at Limestone and will eventually drop below the 2006 levels of the two plants operating at Jewett, said a joint news release.

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