Winter weather hard to predict this year: NOAA
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Winter will be warmer than normal for much of the central United States, but government forecasters said on Thursday this season’s weather for the rest of the country will be particularly hard to predict.

Antarctic Warming Shows “Human Fingerprints”
The rapid ice melt and temperature rise in the Arctic region has been widely reported, with a record summer ice melt occurring last year in the Arctic ocean, and a near-record this year (the volume of sea ice, if not the extent, did reach a record low this year, with autumn temperatures in the Arctic 9 degrees Fahrenheit above normal).

How Arctic melting could benefit shippers, oil companies
WASHINGTON — With global warming melting the Arctic’s eons-old ice at an alarming rate, shipping and oil companies are looking ahead at how to exploit the new open waters.

Climate Protests Escalate Worldwide
Lynne Purvis stood apart at a Ritz Carlton cocktail party Thursday night. Surrounded by coal, oil, and natural gas executives at a Bank of America energy conference in Key Biscayne, Florida, Purvis and her six friends had not been invited. Armed with banners and signs, they still made their presence known.

Obama climate pledge “very positive”: U.N. official
ALGIERS (Reuters) – Barack Obama’s pledge to work to reduce emissions sharply by 2020 is a “huge signal” of encouragement to countries negotiating a new climate pact, the head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat said on Wednesday.

China And U.S. Cooperate On Renewable Energy
The Institute of Electrical Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has signed a memorandum of understanding with the American National Renewable Energy Laboratory for collaboration on the technology of photovoltaic electricity generation.

Subscribe Now to Save — Energy, That Is
Eps Corp. , an energy management company founded in 2001 by former Enron energy management employees, is offering companies a tool it claims offers immediate an return on investment: energy and energy cost savings, without the upfront capital costs of most energy-efficiency projects.
Yeah.  Trust Enron.  Just as much as you trust those emails from African barristers telling you they’ll send you millions of dollars if you’ll only tell them your bank account number.

The year 2025: Oil, dollar out; Russia, Islam in
WASHINGTON – Global warming could help Russia’s economy, an Eastern or Central European country could be overrun by organized crime and the U.S. dollar could further decline in importance during the next two decades, says a new report from U.S. intelligence analysts with predictions for the world in 2025.

Converting Sunlight Into Electricity: European Project Breaks Efficiency Record
ScienceDaily (Nov. 21, 2008) — Scientists of the Commission-financed project FULLSPECTRUM have developed photovoltaic (PV) multi-junction (MJ) solar cells which are able to convert 39.7% of the energy of sun light into electricity… Today conventional PV cells made of silicon are converting only a fraction of the solar light spectrum around 17%.

Solar Company Offers to Buy a Piece of GM
You know times have changed when a German solar energy company is offering to throw General Motors a bone and shell out $1.26 billion for one of its subsidiaries.

Prototype Generator Harnesses Vibration Power
Omron Corp. recently debuted a small prototype generator that harnesses power from vibrations to create electricity. The model will be cheap—approximately $10.36— due to its simple structure and packaging… Omron plans on placing the generator in devices installed on highways to detect road problems. Eventually, the generator could be installed inside car tires for tire pressure monitoring since tires vibrate strongly during movement.

Oregon BEST and BPA to Fund Wind Energy Storage Research
A proposal from Oregon State University researchers to the Bonneville Power Administration to explore new ways of controlling, storing and releasing power generated by wind turbines has been funded in part because the Oregon Built Environment & Sustainable Technologies Center (Oregon BEST) was able to supply needed matching funds at a critical time.

Better Place and Bay Area Leaders Announce $1 Billion Electric Car Network for Region
At a recent press conference held in San Francisco City Hall, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, along with the Mayors of San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland, joined together with the Bay Area Council, the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, and Better Place of Palo Alto to announce a sweeping plan to reinvigorate the state and region’s competitive advantage in innovative technology through public-private investments in electric vehicles and other elements of “green” infrastructure.

CSR, Environmental Programs Good for the Bottom Line, Report Finds
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — With the global financial meltdown sending every company “back to the blackboard,” a new report from the Economist Intelligence Unit finds that almost three-quarters of businesses with CSR programs in place are seeing financial benefits as a result of achieving environmental goals.

New Guide Explains Why and How Businesses Should Partner with NGOs
OAKLAND, Calif. — The Guide to Successful Corporate-NGO Partnerships shows the business, environmental and social benefits of partnerships between companies and non-governmental organizations.

Aluminum Association Sets Industry-Wide Recycling Goal
OAKLAND, Calif. — The Aluminum Association hopes to be recycling 75 percent of aluminum beverage containers by 2015, though for now recyclers are having a tough time finding buyers.

Xerox Gearing Up to Produce Energy-Efficient Toner
WEBSTER, N.Y. — Starting in 2009 the Xerox Corporation will begin producing a toner that can cut printer power use by 15-30 percent.

Nike, Sun, Starbucks, Timberland and Levi Strauss Team For Strong Climate Laws
OAKLAND, Calif. — The companies joined Ceres to create Business for Innovative Climate and Energy Policy, a coalition that will flex its muscles for aggressive new environmental policies in eight areas, such as robust renewable energy requirements, an auction-only cap-and-trade and the elimination of federal subsidies for fossil fuels.

Brita Finds New Life for Used Water Filters
OAKLAND, Calif. — Household product maker Recycline will begin collecting used Brita water filters next year, turning them into toothbrushes, bowls and other items.

The Daily Sprout
Wal-Mart Bets on Wind: The mega retailer has signed a deal with Duke Energy to meet 15 percent of its electricity needs at hundreds of Texas stores with wind power, paying rates on par with current electricity prices.

Booming data-center business creates troubles for India
Country’s energy shortfall could dampen projections that data center industry could double in the enxt two years.

New Report Measures the Actual Impacts of Green Buildings for the First Time
BOSTON, Mass. — The Green Building Impact Report 2008, written by GreenerBuildings.com executive editor Rob Watson, looks at how the LEED standard has improved the environmental impact of buildings in the last six years — and how much progress remains to be made.

New Method For Tracing Metal Pollution Back To Its Sources
ScienceDaily (Nov. 21, 2008) — A new way of pinpointing where zinc pollution in the atmosphere comes from could improve pollution monitoring and regulation, says new research.

The eco machine that can magic water out of thin air
[A] firm of eco-inventors from Canada who claim to have found the solution to the world’s worsening water shortages by drawing the liquid of life from an unlimited and untapped source – the air. The company, Element Four, has developed a machine that it hopes will become the first mainstream household appliance to have been invented since the microwave. Their creation, the WaterMill, uses the electricity of about three light bulbs to condense moisture from the air and purify it into clean drinking water.

Tiny sea oats help Hollywood, Fla., shoreline resist erosion
Beach erosion is the top concern for seaside residents, but as the shoreline dwindles, citizens cry for help and politicians fight for money, it’s the winsome sea oat that is saving the day.

China’s crops at risk from massive erosion
BEIJING (Reuters) – Over a third of China’s land is being scoured by serious erosion that is putting its crops and water supply a risk, a three-year nationwide survey has found. Soil is being washed and blown away not only in remote rural areas, but near mines, factories and even in cities, the official Xinhua agency cited the country’s bio-environment security research team saying.

Research Finds Way To Double Rice Crops In Drought-stricken Areas
ScienceDaily (Nov. 21, 2008) — University of Alberta research has yielded a way to double the output of rice crops in some of the world’s poorest, most distressed areas.

Urban growers go high-tech to feed city dwellers
POMONA, Calif. – Terry Fujimoto sees the future of agriculture in the exposed roots of the leafy greens he and his students grow in thin streams of water at a campus greenhouse. The program run by the California State Polytechnic University agriculture professor is part of a growing effort to use hydroponics — a method of cultivating plants in water instead of soil — to bring farming into cities, where consumers are concentrated.

Dems look to stop endangered species rule changes
WASHINGTON – With the Bush administration on the verge of relaxing regulations protecting endangered species, Democratic leaders are looking at ways to overturn any last-minute rule changes.

Scientists find new penguin, extinct for 500 years
WELLINGTON, New Zealand – Researchers studying a rare and endangered species of penguin have uncovered a previously unknown species that disappeared about 500 years ago.

Thousands join bluefin tuna boycott
Marrakech, Morocco: Close to 16,000 citizens from 149 countries have signed up to join numerous restaurants, retailers and chefs in boycotting Mediterranean bluefin tuna — until stocks have recovered and the fishery is properly controlled and managed.