Sea Level Rise Alters Chesapeake Bay’s Salinity
ScienceDaily (Nov. 25, 2008) — While global-warming-induced coastal flooding moves populations inland, the changes in sea level will affect the salinity of estuaries, which influences aquatic life, fishing and recreation.

Forests May Play Overlooked Role In Regulating Climate
ScienceDaily (Nov. 25, 2008) — Scientists led by a team at the University of New Hampshire show that forests may influence the Earth’s climate in important ways that have not previously been recognized.

Southern Ocean changing but still major CO2 sink: study
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – The Southern Ocean has proved more resilient to global warming than previously thought and remains a major store of mankind’s planet-warming carbon dioxide, a study has found. Oceans absorb a large portion of the extra CO2 released by mankind through burning fossil fuels or deforestation, acting as a brake on climate change, and the Southern Ocean is the largest of these “carbon sinks.”

Harvard urges rich nations to cut emissions first
LONDON, Nov 24 (Reuters) – Rich nations should make the first cuts in greenhouse gases while developing countries carry on business-as-usual for the time being, according to a report published on Monday by Harvard University. This is among proposals by the American university’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs to negotiators who meet for U.N. climate talks next week in Poland.

Trees for kids: Indonesia’s way of beating global warming
JAKARTA (Reuters) – An Indonesian city battling the effects of deforestation has come up with a novel way of tackling the problem. Would-be families must plant a tree. “Everyone who wants to get married or apply for a birth certificate must plant a tree,” Syahrum Syah Setia, the head of Balikpapan city’s Environmental Impact Management Agency, said.

SnoMotes go to ends of Earth for climate research
Seeing snowmobiles roar across the frozen Alaska wilderness may not seem unusual, but the ones zooming across a glacier near Juneau last June were far from ordinary. These toy-sized snowmobiles were unmanned climate-research robots called SnoMotes, the first prototypes of machines that someday will gather weather and climate data from remote, hard-to-reach parts of the Arctic and Antarctic too dangerous for scientists to traverse.

Los Angeles Sets 10% Solar Goal for 2020
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa plans to unveil a proposal this afternoon to meet 10 percent of the city’s energy needs with solar power by 2020.

Energy Agency Predicts High Prices in Future
The world can expect energy prices to continue their generally upward spiral in the years ahead if global energy policies remain the same, the International Energy Agency (IEA) reported this week. Rapid economic development in China and India, coupled with relatively consistent energy use in industrialized nations, will likely strain the world’s ability to meet a projected rise in energy demand of some 1.6 percent a year until 2030, the agency predicted Wednesday in its annual World Energy Outlook report

Spanish Solar Power Tower Almost Ready
One of the world’s largest solar farms that uses “power tower” technology — Abengoa’s “PS20″ solar farm just outside of Seville Spain — will start generating clean power in January, and the company is making the final adjustments on the solar farm’s massive mirrors over the next few weeks, according to the Guardian . Solar power tower farms are a next generation solar thermal technology that use large mirrors to concentrate light and heat water at a massive centralized tower. Abengoa’s PS20 solar power tower plant will initially generate 20MW of electricity, and will be a significant proving ground for the solar power tower technology.

Power from the Great Beyond: Spanish Town Puts Solar Panels on Graves
We don’t usually expect graveyards to give us much besides a chance to express grief, but a small town outside Barcelona, Spain has found a new use for them: energy powerhouses. The town of Santa Coloma de Gramenet has placed 462 solar panels on top of mausoleums in the local cemetery. The panels will provide enough power for 60 homes.

Study Increases Fuel Cell Efficiency By 75%
According to Physorg.com , a researcher in France has increased the efficiency of micro-sized direct methanol fuel cells to 75-percent . This further paves the way for fuel cells to replace lithium ion batteries in some mobile electronics.

“Fish” Machine Turns Ocean Vibrations into Energy
Tidal power is already on its way to becoming a viable energy source, but a University of Michigan engineer believes that slow-moving ocean and river currents could also be renewable energy providers.

New Wind Turbine Generator Gets 57% More Power
Wind power is one of the cheapest forms of energy available to us, because it mainly depends on wind’s speed, and it works 24/7, with no dependence on the moment of the day. A new company called ExRo Technology, based in Vancouver, BC, wants to commercially develop a new type of generator to be used in wind turbines all over the world. The interesting fact is that this new generator can increase the electricity output by 50%.

ITER plan looks to recharge hopes for fusion power
Fusion power, the modern-day perpetual motion machine, one promising more power out than it takes in, perpetually remains just outside the grasp of humankind.

Fuel From Food? The Feast Is Over
Rising food prices have slowed the momentum of biofuels, prompting scientists to search for alternatives that won’t tap the world’s food crops.

Putting a green cap on garbage dumps
Landfill sites produce the greenhouse gases, methane and carbon dioxide, as putrescible waste decays. Growing plants and trees on top of a landfill, a process known as ‘Phytocapping’, could reduce the production and release of these gases, according to Australian scientists writing in a forthcoming issue of International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management.

Your Home`s Excess Heat Could Get Recovered by New Cheap Machine
This article doesn’t talk about huge producers of energy, or doesn’t mention the use of any prime matter to create energy, but instead it focuses on recycled one. Ener-G-Rotors, a company based in Schenectady, NY, is developing a heat recycler that can work with lower quantities of heat, under 150°C, unlike those of the competitors, aimed only to the higher-class, industrial energy producing stations.

New Lithium-Ion Battery Recharges To 90% Capacity In 5 Minutes
Toshiba has developed a new lithium-ion battery called SCiB (or Super Charge Ion Battery) which can charge to 90% capacity in 5 minutes. The life cycle of the new battery is more than 10 years even if it is rapidly charged and discharged many times. The battery is also mucher safer than other types of lithium ion batteries, which are potential fire hazards. 

Electric Car Networks Heading For the West Coast
Electric cars and the infrastructure needed to power them got a big push on several fronts last week with the announcements of new networks in two states.

Cruise Car Solar Electric Hybrid Vehicles Go Hollywood
Universal Studios in Hollywood, California has decided to throw their gas-powered carts under the bus and go solar. In fact, Universal Studios has decided to buy 300 Cruise Car solar electric vehicles for all sorts of people to drive around their 415 acre lot. The Cruise Car Solar Electric Hybrid Cars are currently the only vehicles of their types in mass production with over 50 varieties available. The solar panels are on the rooftop, which help to recharge the vehicles during those long Southern California days.

Latest Greenpeace Electronics Scorecard Highlights E-Waste, Climate Battles
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In its quarterly ranking of electronics manufacturers’ commitments to the environment, Greenpeace found Nokia at the top of the heap yet again, while the NGO highlighted takeback policies and carbon-reduction commitments as the key to truly green electronics.

UL Enters the Battle Against Greenwashing
BOSTON, Mass. — Underwriters Laboratories, the 114-year-old organization known for consumer product safety testing, is adding a new dimension to its business and will soon offer assessment and certification of environmental product claims among its array of services.

Foam Food Container Ban Proposed in California
OAKLAND, Calif. — The California Ocean Protection Council recommends the state ban foam food containers, charge for single-use bags and implement extended producer responsibility to reduce ocean litter.

Finally, urine recycler passes astronauts’ test
HOUSTON (AP) – After several days without luck, astronauts finally ran a successful test on equipment that turns urine into drinking water – a necessity for supporting the international space station’s crew, which will soon double. “Not to spoil anything, but I think up here the appropriate words are ‘Yippee!’” space station commander Mike Fincke told Mission Control early Tuesday morning, shortly before bedtime. “There will be dancing later,” Mission Control replied.

Red tides stemmed by ‘Alien’-like parasites
For the first time ever, marine biologists have tracked the control of red tides to a virulent parasite with a gruesome lifestyle not entirely unlike those in the movie “Aliens.”

Bald Eagles in Catskills Show Increasing Mercury
An environmental organization has found high levels of 0f mercury in the blood and feathers of bald eagle chicks in the Catskill Park region of New York.

Australian officials say rescued whales now safe at sea
SYDNEY (AFP) – Wildlife officials Monday said rescue efforts had saved 11 whales from a mass stranding on an Australian beach, with the animals now swimming freely in deep water and unlikely to return to land.

Plants Grow Bigger And More Vigorously Through Changes In Their Internal Clocks
ScienceDaily (Nov. 24, 2008) — Hybrid plants, like corn, grow bigger and better than their parents because many of their genes for photosynthesis and starch metabolism are more active during the day, report researchers… Their research has relevance in many areas of agriculture, and could result in new methods to increase biomass for biofuels and seed production for animal feedstock and human consumption.