Today’s green news:
Obama’s green stimulus package. Will US President Barack Obama’s stimulus package spark a green revolution?
Obama says the package is “laying the groundwork for a new, green energy economy that can create countless well-paying jobs. It’s an investment that will double the amount of renewable energy produced over the next three years.” He also said that America will “transform the way we use energy.”
Greentechmedia reports on some of the green incentives included in the package, while Treehugger writes that around $20 billion will go towards green energy projects, including $3.6 billion for energy efficiency improvements at the Department of Defense. Total green spending will be around $60 billion.
Green elements in the package reportedly include, among others: grants for installing solar energy systems, tax credits for wind energy developers, tax credits for buying hybrid electric cars, a $4.5 billion program to make federal buildings more energy efficient, massive grants for manufacturing efficient batteries for cars and other devices and, according to Popular Progressive, $11 billion for a smart energy grid and billions for public transit. See here for a break down of green spending.
Changing nature’s balance. Macquarie Island has become sad proof of the potential environmental backlash of exterminating an invasive species. The New York Times reports that decades-old efforts to exterminate non-native cats (which were killing native burrowing birds) have led to a boom in the non-native rabbit population, causing massive problems for native plants and “sending ripple effects throughout the ecosystem.”
Cadbury cows burp less. Cadbury is trying to cut the carbon footprint of its chocolate by encouraging its cows to burp less. The company is working with dairy farmers to change cow diets, hopefully leading to lower emissions, guardian.co.uk reports.
2 Comments
Re ‘Changing Nature’s balance’. The paper in the Journal of Applied Ecology on which this report in the New York Times article is based – and which has been done to death in the worldwide media in the past month – is bad science, since it fails to acknowledge the much greater significance of the failure of myxoma virus to control rabbit numbers (due to lack of avialabilty of the virus, because calici became the virus of choice for rabbit control in hot, dry mainland Australia, but which is inefective in cold, wet Macquarie Isalnd). The fact that both the eradication of cats, and the failure of myxoma, kicked in almost simultaneously in 2000-2003, has not been considered by the authors, who thus inaccurately conclude that only one factor in a multi-factorial scenario, was the ’cause’ of the current rabbit explosion. While this may be regarded as an irrelevant methodological quibble, it is in fact much more significant, as it could de-rail the current integrated eradication program aimed at destroying the remaining feral predators – rabbits, rats and mice – which represents the only hope of eventually restoring Macquarie Island’s magnificent vegetation and protecting its World Heritage wildlife.
Leslie,
In this instance grotesquely incompetent public administration was far deadlier than bad science.
As reported in Crikey on 10 April 2007, the eradication of the cats without simultaneously dealing with the rabbits was the ‘biggest c*ckup in the administration of the environment in Australia since the introduction of cane toads.’
Feeble lying attempts were then made in the compliant daily media to blame the scandal on global warming. It was entirely due to stupidity and ignorance by those entrusted with preserving the island’s environment. The subsequent erosion of Macquarie Island will leave it scarred for centuries.