Group items tagged

Regularly scheduled United Airlines flights between Los Angeles and San Francisco will be fueled by a blend of 30 percent biofuel and 70 percent traditional fuel, reducing an estimated 60 percent of greenhouse gas emissions compared with regular fuel. United says it is "the first U.S. airline to begin use of commercial-scale volumes of sustainable aviation biofuel for regularly scheduled flights."

businesses that support the Paris climate deal are pressuring President Trump to keep the United States in the accord. They argue that by staying involved in the international talks, the U.S. can discourage policies that could hurt the oil, gas and coal industries. Coal companies, oil giants Exxon Mobil Corp. and ConocoPhillips, renewable energy groups, and major American manufacturers such as General Electric are among those arguing that the United States should stay in the deal. The White House has promised that Trump will decide on the United States' involvement in the Paris deal before next month, a high-stakes decision with major diplomatic and economic implications.

It is a great day for big cats who have long being bought and sold as pets and status symbols - but only for some of them. A newly enacted law in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has finally put a long-awaited ban on the ownership and sale of big cats like tigers, cheetahs, leopards, and more as pets. This is a huge victory for big cats who have long been mistreated and neglected by owners who do not have the capacity to care for an animal whose rightful home is the wild.

United Airlines is preparing to launch its first farm-waste powered airplane and will today announce a $30 million investment in aviation biofuels producer Fulcrum BioEnergy. The move comes as airlines face increasing pressure to reduce their fuel-related emissions. 

The United States and China contributed most to record mountains of electronic waste such as cellphones, hair dryers and fridges in 2014 and less than a sixth ended up recycled worldwide, a U.N. study said on Sunday. Overall, 41.8 million tonnes of "e-waste" - defined as any device with an electric cord or battery - were dumped around the globe in 2014 and only an estimated 6.5 million tonnes were taken for recycling, the United Nations University (UNU) said.

Bees, butterflies and other pollinators are increasingly under threat from human activities and countries must transform their agricultural practices to ensure global crop production can meet demand and avoid substantial economic losses, the United Nations Conference on Biological Diversity heard today. According to the global assessment on pollinators produced by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), 75 per cent of our food crops and nearly 90 per cent of wild flowering plants depend to some extent on animal pollination, which is the transfer of pollen between the male and female parts of flowers to enable fertilization and reproduction. Without pollinators, crops such as coffee, cacao and apples would drastically suffer, and changes in global crop supplies could increase prices to consumers and reduce profits to producers, resulting in a potential annual net loss of economic welfare of $160 billion to $191 billion globally.

What's the best way to protect elephants? One way is refusing to buy ivory-demand for the material stokes poaching, which has demolished elephant populations in Africa. Now, the United States is taking an even stronger stance on ivory in a bid to protect the majestic creatures. As Jada F. Smith reports for The New York Times, the United States will now almost totally ban the sale of African elephant ivory.

United Airlines will replace its Styrofoam beverage cups with recyclable alternatives developed by MicroGREEN.

Anthropogenic Emissions of Methane in the United States" (Miller et al.) finds that methane emissions in the United States from agriculture, fossil fuel production, and other activities are 1.5 times higher than previous EPA estimates.

Aviation biofuels are on the rise again thanks to airlines like Virgin, Southwest and United, as well as buy-in from manufacturers and logistics providers Boeing and FedEx.

Governments have delivered the third major international climate change agreement inside 12 months, thanks to a new global deal to phase out the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). Nearly 200 countries signed off on the deal to amend the existing Montreal Protocol covering ozone layer-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and extend it to apply to the powerful HFC greenhouse gases commonly used in fridges, air conditioning units and aerosol sprays.

Governments have delivered the third major international climate change agreement inside 12 months, thanks to a new global deal to phase out the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). Nearly 200 countries signed off on the deal to amend the existing Montreal Protocol covering ozone layer-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and extend it to apply to the powerful HFC greenhouse gases commonly used in fridges, air conditioning units and aerosol sprays.

British retail giant Primark joined the growing number of brands committing to eliminate all hazardous chemicals from its supply chain as part of Greenpeace's global Detox campaign.

Delta Airlines, United Airlines and American Airlines have all banned big-game trophies from their cargo holds after the public outcry regarding the illegal killing of Cecil, a beloved lion, at the hands of a Minnesota man. Hunting advocates say their pastime is needed to fund conservation in Africa and warn that the backlash could lead to a sharp reduction in lion populations. "Through the sales of hunting licenses, equipment, tags, and so on, sportsmen contribute $2.9 billion every year for conservation," according to Olivia Nalos Opre, co-host of a hunting-themed TV show. BBC (8/4), FoxNews.com (8/4) 

Global atmospheric greenhouse-gas levels surged last year at the fastest rate yet recorded, sparking concerns that climate change could be happening faster than expected, according to a new report from the United Nations' World Meteorological Organization. "We know without any doubt that our climate is changing and our weather is becoming more extreme. ... Time is not on our side, for sure," said WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud

Tourism is one of the largest and fastest-growing economic sectors in the world contributing 9 per cent to global GDP, accounting for one in 11 jobs worldwide and for 6 per cent of global exports, the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) reported today as it launched a programme aiming to catalyze a shift to more sustainable tourism.

It's good we're on our way to accepting bugs as a real option for protein, because our current diet is astonishingly resource-hungry. Livestock production takes more than 30% of the ice-free land of this planet, consumes 8% of our potable water, and is responsible for nearly 15% of the total man-made greenhouse gases put into the atmosphere every year. And demand for meat is projected to grow 60% by 2050. insects offer much more than protein. He thinks they can become bio-processing units working in fully automated, remotely controlled smart factories producing high-quality proteins, fats for the pharmaceutical industry, and biofuels-all using different kinds of waste as raw materials.

Surprisingly, there are a small percentage of TV meteorologists that express skepticism on climate change. On the June 21, 2018 Summer Solstice, over 100 meteorologists will wear an item of clothing like the tie below. This pattern could not be more simple... red for warmer temperatures than normal, blue for cooler than normal from 1850 to 2017.

GRI, the UN Global Compact and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development have launched a new tool to help companies navigate and contribute to a new set of global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations last week. The SDG Compass is a guide that companies can use to align their strategies with the relevant SDGs, and measure and manage their impacts. It is supported by a live and constantly updated inventory of business indicators.

Unregulated carbon pollution from aviation is the fastest-growing source of the greenhouse gas emissions driving global climate change. In fact, if the entire aviation sector were a country, it would be one of the top 10 carbon-polluting nations on the planet. The good news is that we now have a process in place to curb international aviation's skyrocketing emissions. For the first time ever, the United Nations' civil aviation body agreed last week to put a cap on the emissions for an international sector rather than a country. International aviation already accounts for over 2% of global carbon emissions. But this number will soar as demand for air travel continues to rises. In 2010, the aviation industry carried 2.4 billion passengers; in 2050, the number is forecast to rise to 16 billion.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The top official at the Environmental Protection Agency said Friday the ongoing legal fight over regulating carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants won't delay the nation's accelerating shift to cleaner sources of energy. EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy spoke at Climate Action 2016, a conference in Washington on efforts to curb global warming. Seeking to reassure her international audience, McCarthy said the United States will absolutely meet its obligations to cut carbon emissions as agreed to in the landmark climate treaty signed in Paris last December.