Serengreenity

Although many will remember the Copenhagen climate summit as an unmitigated disaster, that's too simple an assessment. The real value of Copenhagen of the summit may lie in what it teaches us about dealing with climate change — and much more.

The United Nations bowed to intensifying pressure yesterday to start sweeping reforms of its processes for reaching agreement on climate change.

Will the petrocracy - and greens - keep Wyoming from realizing its windy potential?

Senator Dianne Feinstein introduced legislation in Congress on Monday to protect a million acres of the Mojave Desert in California by scuttling some 13 big solar plants and wind farms planned for the region.

Montana's top elected officials backed a plan Monday to put vast tracts of coal up for lease, bucking pressure from environmentalists who say digging up and burning the fuel will be an "abomination" that endangers the planet.

The failure of the United Nations climate summit in Copenhagen to produce a strong, binding agreement to cut carbon-dioxide emissions sowed gloom in European carbon markets Monday, with prices for carbon-emissions permits falling more than 8%.

Chief Manno Pekaicheng sits on a log beside a white sandy beach. His tiny Pacific island of Ifalik is in trouble; crops are still ruined from extreme high tides that struck a year ago and there is no relief in sight. He is worried about losing his land and his people.

A portion of Alaska's North Slope coastline is eroding at a rate of up to 45 feet a year, posing a threat to oil operations and wildlife in the area, according to a new report issued by scientists at the University of Colorado.

The first analysis of emissions from commercial airline flights shows that they are responsible for 4-8% of surface global warming since surface air temperature records began in 1850 — equivalent to a temperature increase of 0.03-0.06 °C overall.

An inventory of New Mexico's greenhouse gas production shows residents have reduced their average emissions from gasoline use over a seven-year period, but they're consuming more energy to heat, cool and power their homes.

Amsterdam's city officials are trying to mount an aggressive effort to encourage people to buy new electric cars, but bicyclists are protesting.

The continent that used to take the lead in advocating climate action is now taking the lead in climate complaining. And it's not just upset with the results, but the process itself.

Dar es Salaam is among 15 cities in the world which are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, a report released Copenhagen climate summit indicated. The cities, three in Asia and the rest in Africa, are all in developing countries with low gross national incomes.

Shipping is now responsible for roughly three percent of global emissions of greenhouse gases, or more than one billion metric tons of carbon dioxide every year, along with nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxides and soot. Emissions of nitrogen oxides from one ship burning diesel in a year are greater than those from 22,000 cars.

Just in time for Christmas, scientists report that some types of mistletoe may exacerbate climate change. Thankfully, these new findings don’t relate to the leafy type of mistletoe commonly used to decorate doorways by folks desperate to be kissed during the holiday season.

By the time the U.N. global warming summit closed, the two weeks of intrigue, chaos and divisiveness had shattered for many the idealized notion of a global consensus to tackle climate change.

After days of negotiations, political drama and will-they or won't-they headlines, the Copenhagen climate conference is over. And there is no conclusive agreement on any important issues. So did the situation produce any winners -- or has the whole world become a club for environmental losers?

Gordon Brown today said a new global treaty on climate change had been "held to ransom" by some countries opposed to a deal in Copenhagen, and called for reform of the way such negotiations take place.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has accused a handful of countries of holding the UN climate summit to ransom as bitter recriminations swirled over the outcome of the negotiations. Brown said lessons must be learned.

China will treat talks on a binding global climate change pact in 2010 as a struggle over the "right to develop," a Chinese official said, signaling more tough deal-making will follow the Copenhagen summit.

The Port of Los Angeles is expanding its program to supply ships with power, rather than let their engines run, to reduce emissions.

Public transit ridership falls from last year's record highs.

A bill by Senator Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat, would create two new national monuments in the Mojave Desert to prevent solar and wind development, but would also ease the creation of such facilities in other areas.

Tioga Energy gets a new round of funding to pursue an innovative strategy for rolling out solar power.

Some voices argue for a fresh look at population control as a means to limit climate change, and to help the poorest countries adapt to some of the changes global warming will bring.

An advocacy group scores companies on their environmental track record.

A more lucrative version of Ontario's feed-in-tariff program has attracted thousands of renewable-energy investors.

Energy-saving LED holiday lights appear to be catching on around the country -- including at the White House and Rockefeller Center.

A campaign is under way to limit the automatic distribution of white pages, which some people see as wasteful in the Internet age, but phone-directory publishers are pushing back.

Though still in draft form, an agreement in Copenhagen on agriculture may turn out to be one of the more significant achievements of the climate-change summit.

The move by Solyndra, founded by Silicon Valley veterans, would be the biggest solar-related offering in years.

President Obama announced a "meaningful agreement" in Copenhagen on Friday evening, but other countries say it may still be a work in progress. Here is the document circulating.

Two companies that focus on carbon dioxide emissions, both traded on a London exchange, have agreed to merge.

Canada and the United States could be heading for a clash over energy exports.

General Electric considers building nuclear reactor components in Michigan.

As if to counterbalance the many species that became extinct in recent years, 2009 threw up some new animal species (literally, in one case), as well as some odd animal stories – here are the best ones

Martin Wainwright returns to the scene of the floods in Cockermouth to find out how the town is coping in the run up to ChristmasMartin Wainwright

Rachel Holmes experiences what it is like to be an animal keeper at Whipsnade zoo: mucking out rhinos, feeding elephants and getting up close and personal with a Siberian tigerLaurence TophamRachel Holmes

Oregon designers receive accreditation from Congress for New Urbanism.

International Energy Code Council considers major overall.

Experts provide legal and financial advice on building green.

Unico announces three Seattle properties earn LEED-EB designation.

Bainbridge Island offers incentives to Living Building Challenge developments.

The build-out of the smart grid holds opportunities for energy savings and a boon to the green building industry, but only if it connects to ‘smart’ buildings.

Green Light cooperative turns development model upside down.

Near downtown Portland, Leftbank Project is looking to build a viable community.

An investment fund focused on energy efficiency launches.

Human health impacts could soon play a bigger role when sizing up building projects.

Dubai has made headlines in recent weeks for its financial woes, and many are saying this once-booming desert metropolis has gone bust. But the emirate does have something to celebrate: The Burj Dubai, the world’s tallest building, is due to officially open on January 4.

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) has changed the way it measures building height.

Now that New York City’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg is remaining in office for a third term, presumably the agenda set out by Amanda Burden, director of the Department of City Planning and chair of the planning commission, will stay its course.

One of the country’s oldest architecture firms has teamed with one of its youngest, betting on expansion while other practices scale back.

Look up from your cellphone and your pixelated field of vision stretches to the skyline.

A tectonic shift took place among winners at this year’s World Architecture Festival (WAF), as projects from developing countries accounted for a significantly larger percent of the honors than they had in the past.

Looking to join such acclaimed museum dining rooms as The Modern at The Museum of Modern Art, and Terzo Piano, atop the Modern Wing of The Art Institute of Chicago, The Wright is the latest destination restaurant with a legacy of art and architecture.

Skidmore, Owings and Merrill has broken ground on the $1.7 billion Digital Media City Landmark Tower in Seoul, South Korea.

Today, the United States Artists Foundation announced the 50 winners of its annual award program.

Each month, the average person in a developed country emits one metric ton of carbon dioxide; a U.S. resident emits that amount every two weeks.

The Dept. of Health and Human Services has awarded $508.5 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds to build or renovate 85 community health clinics around the country.

The Copenhagen-based architectural firm of Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), featured in Record’s Vanguard issue, has expanded its partnership as of December 1.

Construction's unemployment rate continued to to rise in November, climbing to 19.4% from October's 18.7%, while the nation's overall jobless rate declined slightly, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported.

In an effort to accelerate the development of cost-effective, sustainable concrete, Masdar, the developer of the planned carbon and waste-neutral Masdar City in Abu Dhabi, is holding a concrete mix design competition.

In early November, more than 150 representatives of architecture and design organizations came to Chicago to hold the inaugural meeting of the Association of Architecture Organizations (AAO).

Cubellis, a top-earning international architecture and engineering firm headquartered in Boston, has closed.

Architectural photographer Robert C. Lautman, Hon. AIA, died of pancreatic cancer in Washington, D.C., on October 20, 2009.

After years of rumors, speculation, and rhetorical jousting, the George W. Bush Presidential Center is finally public.

A California senator introduced legislation that would protect more than a million acres in the Mojave Desert, including land eyed by developers for solar and wind energy projects. U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a longtime supporter of desert protection, has proposed protecting 1.7 million acres of desert, including a 941,000-acre Mojave Trails National Monumen […]

The bitter battle over health care legislation, fears that global warming legislation could harm the weak U.S. economy, and the failure of the Copenhagen climate summit to set binding CO2 emissions reductions targets will make U.S. Senate passage of a carbon cap-and-trade bill difficult in 2010, according to senators from both parties. Politico reports that […]

Stewart Brand is perhaps best known as the founder of the Whole Earth Catalog, the eclectic compendium of environmentally friendly living that became a bible of the counterculture and the back-to-the-land movement in the late 1960s and early ‘70s. But times have changed, and so has Brand. In his new book, Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto, B […]

When the founder of the Whole Earth Catalog embraces nuclear power, genetically engineered crops, and geoengineering schemes to cool the planet, you know things have changed in the environmental movement. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, Stewart Brand explains how the passage of four decades — and the advent of global warming — have shifted his thi […]

Federal officials are promoting the use of a chalky residue from coal-burning power plants as a fertilizer on U.S. farms, even as regulators simultaneously consider new rules for the waste, which contains small amounts of toxic metals. During the Bush administration, U.S. officials began promoting the agricultural use of a synthetic form of gypsum, a calcium […]

Reverberations from the disappointing Copenhagen climate summit continued to be felt worldwide, with political leaders blaming each other for the meeting’s outcome, U.S. senators saying that the lack of progress will make it harder for Congress to pass a climate bill, European Union carbon prices falling, and some businesses lamenting the continuing lack of […]

Much was left undone in Copenhagen, and the many loopholes in the climate accord could lead to rising emissions. But the conference averted disaster by keeping the UN climate negotiations alive, and some expressed hope that the growth of renewable energy technology may ultimately save the day. BY FRED PEARCE

The Copenhagen summit turned out to be little more than a charade, as the major nations refused to make firm commitments or even engage in an honest discussion of the consequences of failing to act. BY BILL MCKIBBEN

The Malaysian government will allow logging to take place in a contested area of rainforest on the island of Borneo, rejecting an attempt by local tribesemen to declare part of the forest as a protected “peace park.” Hoping to establish a model of conservation and land management, and draw attention to excessive logging on traditional lands, Penan tribesemen […]

In a last-minute flurry of diplomatic activity, U.S. President Obama managed to piece together a limited agreement on climate change that falls short of even the modest expectations for the 12-day summit meeting in the Danish capital. Rather than emerging with a legally binding treaty to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions — the original goal of the confe […]

Living near wind farms does not pose adverse health effects, according to a new study. The research, conducted by a seven-member panel of scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and other institutions, was funded by the American and Canadian wind industry associations. The 85-page report says there is no medical basis for concerns that the […]

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton injected new life into the Copenhagen summit Thursday as she told delegates that the U.S. would contribute to a fund designed to raise $100 billion by 2020 to help developing nations adapt to climate change. But Clinton said the U.S. offer was contingent on forging a global climate treaty that requires developing nat […]

Speaking to a gathering of mayors in Copenhagen, London Mayor Boris Johnson announced plans to add 25,000 charging stations for electric cars across the city by 2015, turning London into a center of plug-in vehicle technology. By creating the right conditions, Johnson said the city can encourage a “golden era” of electric cars, and he predicted that every re […]

With only two full days remaining at the Copenhagen climate summit, negotiators said they were close to reaching agreement on a pair of key issues — the size of a fund to help developing nations deal with global warming, and the creation of a program under which industrialized nations would pay developing nations not to log tropical forests. Leaders of the A […]

Increased levels of black soot from air pollution sources across Asia have accelerated the rate of glacial melting on the Tibetan Plateau, exacerbating the effects of global warming in what is home to the planet’s largest non-polar ice masses, researchers say. Temperatures in the region have increased 0.3 Celsius (.5 F) in the last 30 years — twice the globa […]

As the Copenhagen climate summit entered its final four days with wide differences still separating major blocs of countries, the UN’s chief climate negotiator, Yvo de Boer, called on participants to begin making more concessions and step up the pace of the talks. Saying the conference has entered “a very distinct and important moment in the process,” de Boe […]

Governments from the developed world will never come up with enough money to help poorer nations adapt to global warming and implement renewable energy technologies. The solution may lie in using a modest allocation of government funds to spur private sector investment in green energy projects in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. BY ORVILLE SCHELL

The U.S. energy industry rarely uses numerous technologies designed to reduce the environmental risks — particularly contamination of water supplies — associated with drilling for natural gas in Wyoming, Texas, New York, Pennsylvania, and two dozen other states. ProPublica, a non-profit investigative journalism Web site, said energy companies have figured ou […]

A large bloc of developing nations called a halt to a half-day walkout at the climate summit on Monday, ending a protest over moves by the world’s industrialized nations to abandon the Kyoto climate protocol. The talks were suspended because of the action by the G-77 group of developing nations, which accused the world’s wealthy countries of wanting to do aw […]