ECOLOGY

OCEANS TURNING MORE ACIDIC

AP - The world's oceans are becoming more acidic, which poses a threat
to sea life and Earth's fragile food chain, a climate expert said.
Oceans have already absorbed a third of the world's emissions of carbon
dioxide, one of the heat-trapping gases blamed for global warming,
leading to acidification that prevents vital sea life from forming
properly.

"The oceans are rapidly changing," said professor Stefan Rahmstorf on
the sidelines of a U.N. conference on climate change that has drawn
delegates from more than 100 countries to Kenya. "Ocean acidification is
a major threat to marine organisms." Fish stocks and the world's coral
reefs could also be hit while acidification risks "fundamentally
altering" the food chain, he said. . .

David Santillo, a senior scientist at Greenpeace's Research Laboratories
in Exeter, Britain, said it had come as a shock to scientists that the
oceans are turning acidic because of carbon dioxide emissions.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061109/ap_on_sc/climate_conference

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Richard Pombo's Defeat Heralds Hope for Alternative Energy in Congress
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/111006EA.shtml
The possible shift in Congress on energy issues may be summed up in one race:
House Resources Committee chairman Richard W. Pombo (R-Calif.), who received
substantial contributions from oil and gas companies, lost his seat to Jerry
McNerney, who runs a start-up company that hopes to make wind turbines.

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City Residents Vote to Tax Selves for Carbon Use
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/111006EB.shtml
Voters in a Colorado university town nestled in the foothills of the Rocky
Mountains have passed the country's first municipal carbon tax to fight global
warming.

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Amanda Griscom Little | How Green Was My Election?
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/111006EC.shtml
There's no question that the environment played a central role in some
high-profile victories. Gene Karpinski, president of the League of Conservation
Voters, told Muckraker, "This is the first election I can remember in US history
that has put such a specific focus on a top-priority environmental issue, which
this year has been a clean-energy future."

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