ENVIRONMENTAL BASE NETWORK

Construction has begun in Southern California on two solar thermal plants for Pacific Gas and Electric, and Southern California Edison, that will be providing 2.3 gigawats of solar thermal power. By itself, the Southern California Edison deal is the world’s largest solar energy deal.

The plants being built are bigger, but will be more cost effective to build than most other new plan...

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“Climate” is distinguished from “weather”, in that weather is the day-to-day state of the atmosphere and environment, whereas climate is the statistical average of weather patterns over a limited region and a long period (usually, minimum 30 years). A number factors have some influence on variations in the climate in the various regions or zones of the Earth – but it must be noted that none of the...

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From: Live Science – August 03, 2008

A new species of snake has been found in a Barbados forest. This is now the world's smallest snake. Blair Hedges, a US-based evolutionary biologist, found the snake, which is just under four inches (10 cm) in length as an adult, in a fragment of forest on the eastern side of Barbados. Hedges analyzed genetic material from the snake, which along w...

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23.10.2008

Some recent articles featured on the Energy Environment News Portal, on current and emerging issues related to energy and the environment.

> Nanotechnology - not that green?

> Oil Prices fall on demand concerns

> Clean Technology Investors Reluctant to Commit Funds

> Veolia steps into biofuels using r...

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Researchers have discovered a previously unknown group of 15-20 rare monkeys in remote forests of Vietnam, close to the Chinese border.

The Tonkin Snub-nosed Langur or Dollman's Snub-nosed Langur (Rhinopithecus avunculus), a species of langur endemic to northwestern Vietnam is classified as "critically endangered" and in fact was believed to be extinct up to the 1990's, w...

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Following on this earlier thread on the exponential rise in the price of oil up to July 2008, here is an interesting summary and analysis by Prof. Chris Rhodes of the trends in the price of oil over the past 10 years.

--> Energy Balance: A Recent History of Oil Prices

In January 1999 the price of a barrel of oil reached a low point of $16 when Iraq inc...

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ASAP News - May 02, 2008

As airlines continue to try and find ways to remain viable and profitable in a world where their most important expenditure, fuel, is hitting record prices almost on a weekly basis, they’re having to get creative. The latest in a wave of reports on how airlines are managing to cope with the $120 oil barrel, some carriers are slowing down flights in a bid...

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The general discussions of pollution tend to be focussed on the effects of the release of waste materials or energy on specific environmental media -- such as air, water, soil and sediments. Further to this it is usually focussed on chemical agents or noise. However, there seems to be much less focus on the issues of pollution from artificial lighting. As such, this thread compiles some recent pos...

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From report by: Erouscilla P. Joseph, Seismic Research Unit, University of the West Indies, Trinidad & Tobago (March 2008)

> Link to report: http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/sids/2008_ro...ergy_joseph.pdf

The Lesser Antilles Island arc extends 850 km along the eastern edge of the Caribbean Plate. The islands have been largely built by volcanism above a su...

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From: ENDS Europe Daily - November 21, 2008

The UK parliament has adopted a draft law on climate change that sets the world's first legally binding targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The law cleared its final legislative hurdle on Tuesday and is expected to receive "royal assent" - formal approval from the British monarch - next week.

Under the ...

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A previously unknown dolphin has been discovered by Australian scientists in their nations southern waters. Until now it was believed that there were just two species of bottlenose dolphins -- the common bottlenose, generally found in offshore waters, and the more-coastal Indo-Pacific species. However, genetic samples recently collected from coastal dolphins revealed unexpected results -- DNA test...

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From: The Oil Drum - May 30, 2008

With oil reaching $135 / barrel, this article seeks to analyse and explain why oil prices are rising exponentially:

The Oil Drum: Europe | Why oil costs over $120 per barrel



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Link to article:> Mud volcanoes erupt in Santa Flora | Trinidad and Tobago's Newsday : newsday.co.tt :

By Cecily Asson, October 26, 2008

An unexpected early morning volcanic eruption in an oilfield area in Santa Flora sent about 100 villagers including several children scampering out of their homes to safety. Many of them have since fled their homes and are no...

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On the general topic of consumer choices relating to "Sustainable Lifestyle" – the findings of a recent survey are very interesting.

According to the survey: http://www.corporateresponsibility.net/2008/07/07/consumers-will-pay-for-green-products-but-are-more-sceptical/

QUOTE:
According to a green survey from Rackspace Hosting (PDF), 44 percent of resp...

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Research Suggests Upper Troposphere Warming (Above Tropics)

From: physicsworld.com – May 28, 2008

Research performed in the US has provided insight on one of the lasting controversies surrounding climate models: whether or not the upper troposphere is warming. Climate models have long predicted that the upper troposphere — a region of the Earth’s atmosphere that lies...

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