The year in the environment

This year, Al Gore, the Man Who Was Almost President, received a stunning vindication from the Nobel Committee for his Paul Revere campaign about global warming. "The Earth has a fever, and the fever is rising," Gore said in his Nobel lecture in Oslo, Norway, in December as he accepted the Peace Prize, which he shared with the scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. "The experts have told us it is not a passing affliction that will heal by itself. We asked for a second opinion -- and a third -- and a fourth -- and the consistent conclusion, restated with increasing distress, is that something basic is wrong. We are what is wrong, and we must make it right."

The Bush Administration’s Two Minds on the Environment

Everyone knows by now that the Bush Administration on Wednesday night denied California and its Republican governor permission to proceed with an ambitious plan to substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles and SUV’s.

The administration argued, misleadingly, that California’s plan was unnecessary because the same reductions would be achieved in the new energy bill (they won’t). And it argued, disingenuously, that state mandates are inferior to a national mandate (which of course is the one thing the administration does not want).

Fix environment without U.S., Gore tells climate change summit

NUSA DUA, Indonesia -The Bush administration is the main obstacle to progress in international efforts to fight global warming, but the rest of the world should move on without it, former U.S. vice-president Al Gore said Thursday night during a special appearance at the United Nations climate change summit.

"I am not an official of the United States and I am not bound by the diplomatic niceties," said Gore in an emotional speech to delegates that lasted close to an hour. "So I am going to speak an inconvenient truth: My own country, the United States, is principally responsible for obstructing progress here in Bali. We all know that."

'Everything we do can harm the environment'

While Indonesia's climate change delegation gather at the UN conference in Bali, many organizations in Jakarta are holding environmental campaigns, including tree seedling give-aways and planting activities. But while the world is watching the creation of a roadmap for a new international agreement on environment protection, many people continue to disregard important climate change management messages. Much of the city's population continue to dispose of their garbage into river systems, or exploit the city's groundwater, or build commercial premises on water catchment areas. So The Jakarta Post hit the streets this week to find out how to involve more people in environmental and climate change management practices.

Arab business leaders vow to preserve ecology

ABU DHABI – Arab business leaders have promised to take positive action against environmental damage at a conference held here yesterday.

The Arab Corporate Environmental Responsibility Summit, attended by business leaders from the region, environmentalists and United Nations experts, concluded with a declaration on corporate environmental responsibility and cleaner production.

“Being aware of the magnitude of environmental challenges facing the Arab region and the world, realising that low-carbon will be the economy of the future and recognising that taking the environment fully into account is key to achieving sustainable development,” the business leaders said in the declaration and resolved to take concrete steps in preserving and conserving the environment.