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Climate, Air Quality, and Weather Stories June 14, 2002 Maine asks bus drivers to Turn it off! Seeking to promote cleaner air and also save on fuel bills, Maine'sDepartment of Environmental Protection is asking school bus drivers to cut backon the time they let their engines idle. A DEP news releaseoutlines their new public information program called, appropriately enough,"Turn it off!" Connecticut to promote cleaner boat engines Connecticut is launching a program to encourage the sale oflow-polluting outboard motors and personal watercraft engines. Called "Get OnBoard", the initiative is modeled after a program successfully piloted in New Hampshire. You can read more about it in this EPA news release. Maine inventor, 82, wins cash for air-cleaning idea Portland Press Herald columnist Bill Nemitz tells a storyabout a Maine inventor who has figured out a way to retrofit car engines to runcleaner and greatly increase their gas mileage with a devise he calls a"passive turbo". Lest anyone think it's a hoax, 82-year-old Cal Kalishman sayshe's been handed $20,000 for his idea plus a guarantee of royalties, if theconcept sells. You can read about it on the Herald OnlineWeb site. Granite state promotesalternative fuels A short story in the TelegraphOnline provides an overview of the Granite State Clean Cities Coalition, apartnership between local governments and businesses who pledge to use orsupport the use of alternative-fuel vehicles. EPA outlines new airpollution rules The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed changingrules that govern coal-fired power plants and other sources of industrial airpollution. The Bush administration and environmentalists are at odds overwhether the new rules will do more harm or good for the environment. Severalnews organizations covered the story. Here are links to stories by MSNBC, the WashingtonPost and the BostonGlobe. U.S. climate change efforts summarized For anyone curious about efforts originating in the United States to address climate change, the Pew Center onGlobal Climate Change has a report for you. Entitled "Climate ChangeActivities in the United States," the report focuses on efforts at thestate and federal level and also within the business community to tackle theproblem. You can download a pdf file of the report by clicking here. Study evaluates carbonsequestration technology As concern grows about the potential effects of climatechange, scientists are looking more closely at engineering solutions to help addressthe problem. EnvironmentalScience & Technology Magazine features a study about sequesteringcarbon dioxide in underground saline aquifers. EU ratifies Kyoto Protocol While the world was focused late last month on other news, includingmilitary tensions in the Middle East and Asia, 15 members of the European Unionjointly ratified the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. The pact, which wasrejected by the United States, has yet to be ratified by Japan, Canada and Russia.The WashingtonPost has the story. Much on NASA's Earth Observatory News Website NASA's Earth Observatory News Web site is always a goodsource for the latest work on detecting changes in climate by satellite. Thesite is now filled with even more news, including reports from several wireservices. This week EarthObservatory News features stories on melting glaciers, global airpollutants and the increasingly early bloom of plants in spring. |
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