Test Site for What Grows On in Rhode Island!

Mountaineer and filmmaker David Breashears, who has climbed Mt. Everest five times, has recently been documenting the rapid disappearance of glaciers in the Himalayas. In an interview with the Web site, SolveClimate.com, Breashears illustrates the swift retreat of the Rongbuk glacier near Everest by comparing photographs from the 1920s with pictures he took last November. As Breashears demonstrates, the Rongbuk has melted so severely that many sections of it

VIDEO: Global warming
and the Himalayas are now 400 feet lower than eight decades ago and large swaths of it have disappeared. Speaking at an Asia Society conference last week on the melting glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau, Breashears called Everest “the highest part of the highest water tower in the world” and says that the glaciers’ disappearance threatens water supplies in many parts of Asia.

An endangered population of killer whales in Washington state and southern British Columbia is accumulating extremely high levels of PCB’s, DDT, dioxins, pesticides, and other pollutants because it feeds mainly on Chinook salmon tainted from industrial activity, according to a new study. iStockPhotoPeter Ross, a researcher at Canada’s Institute of Ocean Sciences, said Chinook salmon ingest the chemical compounds as they feed in polluted near-shore waters of the Pacific Ocean. As a result, the endangered southern population of killer whales — which feeds around Washington’s Puget Sound and Vancouver Island — has levels of PCB’s 6.6 times higher than levels in a killer whale population in less polluted waters 200 miles to the north, according to the study, published in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. The southern population now consists of only 83 whales, and its members have the highest concentrations of PCB’s ever recorded in an animal in the wild. Such levels have been shown to suppress the immune systems of marine mammals and may be playing a role in the decline of the killer whales, Ross said.

Besides becoming the first black president, Barack Obama may well be the greenest. He says he wants to "green up" the energy economy. Some people who want to help him do that came to the Green Inaugural Ball Monday night which was one of four environmentally-themed events scheduled for inauguration weekend.

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President Barack Obama mentioned environmental issues prominently in his inaugural address, promising to play a leading international role in fighting global warming, to develop renewable energy and wean the U.S. from foreign oil, and to encourage Americans to end profligate consumption of natural resources. While the speech did not set forth specific proposals, it signaled a 180-degree turn from the environmental and energy policies of the Bush administration. “With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to... roll back the specter of a warming planet,” the 44th president said. Indicating that the move to renewable energy will be a centerpiece of his economic program, Obama warned that “each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet,” adding, “We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place... We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories.” The new president repeatedly called on Americans to sacrifice and act responsibly, including more wisely using natural resources. “And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty,” Obama said, “we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world’s resources without regard to effect. “

Hundreds of California Brown Pelicans from Baja to Washington state have been found dead or sick far from their coastal home. One pelican was found in New Mexico, wandering in the snow at an elevation of 7,000 feet.

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A sharp decline in air pollution in Europe has led to a “massive decline” in fog, haze, and mist, which in turn has contributed to significant temperature increases in the past three decades, according to a new report. Using data from 342 continental weather stations, Robert Vautard of France’s Atomic Energy Commission and other researchers determined that the number of “low-visibility” events in Europe — defined as visibility under 8 kilometers (5 miles) — has dropped by 50 percent since the 1970s. Smog and haze cool the surface of the earth by blocking sunlight, and the decline in the pall of pollution has contributed to 10 to 20 percent of the . 5 C (.9 F) warming that Europe has experienced since the 1970s, according to the report in the journal Nature Geoscience. The new research highlights a phenomenon known as “global brightening,” in which skies over Europe, the U.S., and other industrialized regions have cleared as pollution has decreased. Thirty years ago, smog may have masked the extent to which greenhouse gases were warming the planet, and cleaner skies will mean higher temperatures, researchers say.

The clearing of Indonesia’s rainforest for palm oil plantations is having profound effects – threatening endangered species, upending the lives of indigenous people, and releasing massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. BY TOM KNUDSON

President Bush worked to preserve coal's position as the biggest source of electricity and to increase domestic production of oil and natural gas. The result is an environmental legacy of buried streams in the coalfields of Appalachia and polluted waterways in the Rocky Mountain West.

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Renewable energy advocates hope Congress will pass a law this year requiring that a percentage of the nation's electricity come from environmentally friendly sources. Colorado was one of the first states to pass such a requirement; and those who worked on it have some advice for the feds.

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A small Ohio bolt maker has found new life. Demand for its product shrank due to a drop off in construction, but now the company has become a leading supplier of bolts for the wind turbine industry. President-elect Barack Obama will visit the company Friday to plug his alternative energy plan.

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A study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports that hunting, fishing and plant gathering can speed up rates of species evolution, which may have negative effects on plant and animal populations. Study author Chris Darimont explains why.

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An increase in rainfall has accelerated the rate of melting of glaciers along the Antarctic Peninsula, which in turn is adding to rising sea levels worldwide, a leading British glaciologist says. David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey says that rain is becoming more frequent during the summer in the northern half of the Antarctic Peninsula, which has warmed faster than any other place on earth, with average annual temperatures rising 5.4 F since 1951. The Sheldon Glacier — located below the Antarctic Circle at 67°30’ and rarely subjected to rain and warm temperatures several decades ago — has retreated 1.2 miles in the last 20 years. Vaughan said 87 percent of the 400 glaciers along the peninsula are now in retreat and that more frequent rains hasten the melting and fracturing of the glaciers. The biggest concern of glaciologists, Vaughan said, is that with a warming trend sweeping down the Antarctic Peninsula, larger, more southerly glaciers — such as the Pine Island Glacier — are already showing signs of melting, which will add to global sea level rises that could surpass three feet this century.

Transportation expert Daniel Sperling estimates that the world's car population — which currently stands at 1 billion vehicles — is likely to double in the next 20 years. Sperling is the co-author (with Deborah Gordon) of Two Billion Cars: Driving Toward Sustainability.

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Lisa P. Jackson, the former New Jersey commissioner of environmental protection tapped by President-elect Obama to lead the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, vowed that science will prevail over politics in agency decisions. During an opening statement at her confirmation hearing, Jackson, 46, said science should be "the backbone" of what the EPA does. During the Bush administration, the EPA was widely criticized for ignoring scietific advice as it made decisions on issues ranging from global warming to water and air pollution. "If I am confirmed," Jackson said, "I will administer Lisa Jackson with science as my guide." Jackson also vowed to evaluate hundreds of coal ash disposal sites at power plants across the country following spills in Alabama and Tennessee. She said she would weigh steps to better regulate how the ash is stored, a process that was recommended by the EPA in 2000 but never completed during the Bush administration. If confirmed, Jackson would become the first African-American to lead the EPA.

In a bold departure from past U.S. policies, President Barack Obama sees clean energy and “green jobs” as critical components of an economic stimulus strategy. BY KEITH SCHNEIDER

A Senate confirmation was held Wednesday for Lisa Jackson, President-elect Barack Obama's choice to become head of the Environmental Protection Agency. Jackson faced questions about coal ash, greenhouse gas emissions and how she plans to undo some of her predecessor's policies.

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Air pollution in Kabul is so serious that Afghan President Hamid Karzai has declared a state of emergency. Experts say Kabul is rapidly becoming one of the world's worst cities for air pollution, and doctors report a rise in smog-related disease and deaths.

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Some 150 feet below the surface of the Pacific, off Santa Catalina Island, Calif., a volunteer crew is working to remove a massive fishing net from a sunken trawler. Kurt Lieber, of the Ocean Defenders Alliance, the group that is removing the net, talks about the effort.

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Germany’s science ministry has abruptly called off a planned experiment to seed the Southern Ocean with iron to gauge if the resulting algal blooms would extract large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The Polarstern, an icebreaker operated by the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, was steaming toward the study site with a 48-person scientific team when notification came that the science ministry had canceled the experiment and called for an independent commission to assess the study's safety. The Polarstern team had planned to dump 20 tons of iron sulfate across a 116-square-mile area and then monitor the impact of the resulting algal bloom on CO2 sequestration and marine life. Some environmentalists have strongly objected to the experiment, saying such so-called geo-engineering schemes could have unknown effects. The groups contended that the Polarstern experiment violated a moratorium on ocean fertilization brokered by Germany last year; their objections led to the suspension of the experiment, which was expected to begin within the week.

At his confirmation hearing, Steven Chu, President-elect Obama’s nominee to head the Department of Energy, backed away slightly from earlier statements in which he called for high gasoline taxes and said “coal is my worst nightmare." Yet Chu, appearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, signaled a radical shift from the Bush era as he called for limited use of coal, eventual taxes on carbon, and a rapid shift to renewable energy. Chu, the Nobel Prize-winning director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, said higher gas taxes were “off the table” during the current economic crisis but stated that an eventual tax on carbon would encourage conservation and a move to alternative energy. He said the growing use of coal is “a pretty bad dream,” called for accelerated research into carbon capture and storage, and warned that “if we continue on our current path, we run the risk of dramatic, disruptive changes to our climate in the lifetimes of our children and grandchildren.” Chu backed limited use of nuclear power and limited offshore drilling as part of a comprehensive energy package.