| Will Anyone Get Lei'd? White House talks up its Hawaii climate-change meeting The White House has released a statement regarding its very own climate-change meeting for the world's biggest economies, to be held Jan. 30-31 in Hawaii. "The two-day meeting will further the shared objectives of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, increasing energy security and efficiency, and sustaining economic growth, and will help to advance the negotiations under the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change," the White House Council on Environmental Quality announced, fooling no one. Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, the European Union, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, and the United Nations are invited to send delegates. The gathering will be a follow-up to a rendezvous held back in September, at which nothing happened. The same is to be expected in Hawaii -- although someone might get lei'd. [ email | discuss | + digg | + del.icio.us ] source: Agence France-Presse |
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TODAY'S NEWS
| Playing Mined Games Green groups seek to overturn mine exemption from ESA reviews Four green groups and two state agencies have filed a petition with federal wildlife and mining agencies seeking to change the long-standing policy of exempting mountaintop-removal mining from specific Endangered Species Act reviews. In 1996, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided that mountaintop-removal mining wouldn't unduly imperil threatened species if mines followed other environmental guidelines outlined in mining laws. However, the green groups disagree, citing research since the 1996 decision showing declines in aquatic species tied to mining. If the 1996 decision is not repealed, the groups have said they'll sue to overturn it. "We're giving the agency a chance to try to rectify this," said Deborah Murray of the Southern Environmental Law Center. "For more than 10 years, the government has written off our most vulnerable wildlife species based on a flimsy policy without scientific or legal merit." [ email | discuss | + digg | + del.icio.us ] sources: The Charleston Gazette, The Roanoke Times, Tennesseean |
| Wherefore Art Thou, Romeoville? Wal-Mart will open more-efficient stores Wal-Mart -- ah, always Wal-Mart -- has plans to open four stores that "will operate at a level that's 25 percent more efficient than a traditional Wal-Mart supercenter," according to a representative. The chain, which has a goal of someday having all of its 2,400 U.S. stores reach that level of efficiency, is using tricks it learned from experimental stores in Texas and Colorado. The first of the second-generation stores is set to open its doors on Jan. 23 in Romeoville, Ill. [ email | discuss | + digg | + del.icio.us ] sources: Reuters, Associated Press |
| The Norway We Were Norway aims to be carbon neutral by 2030 Norway has announced it aims to be carbon neutral by 2030, 20 years earlier than its previous goal set last spring. Up to two-thirds of the emissions cuts will be made in Norway itself (though officials aren't sure precisely how yet). The other third will be offset by about $550 million a year in carbon credits, earned through combating deforestation in developing countries. Some green groups called the deal too vague, but officials characterized it as long-range planning. "The agreement gives Norway a farsighted climate policy that can stand independently of shifting governments," said Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg. Norway also committed to a target of reducing its emissions by up to 17 million tons by 2020 and said it would more than quadruple its budget for renewables research next year. [ email | discuss | + digg | + del.icio.us ] |
| Do They Have Foosball in the Staff Room? Companies' green record not important to M.B.A.s, says study Young professionals are our hope for the future, a generation that will value sustainability and push big employers to take environmental factors into consideration ... right, guys? Right? Oh, uh, this just in: M.B.A.s rank a company's environmental record at the bottom of factors they use to select employers, says a new study. In a survey of 527 M.B.A. students, only 34 percent viewed a company's green policies as "extremely" or "very" important factors in finding employment. Also relatively unimportant: corporate ethics, social responsibility, and community involvement. Says one unsurprised business professor, "What the company stands for is important, but only once salary and corporate culture have been addressed." [ email | discuss | + digg | + del.icio.us ] source: BusinessWeek |
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GRIST COLUMNS AND FEATURES
 Dominant Traits Monsanto's latest court triumph cloaks massive market power Earlier this month, the Supreme Court sided with Monsanto against a farmer who had dared defy the seed giant's patent on Roundup Ready soybeans. By the court's logic, the case was so open-and-shut that it didn't merit comment. Tom Philpott begs to differ, arguing that Monsanto's patent claims give it frightening power over the U.S. food supply. [ email | discuss | + digg | + del.icio.us ] |
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