Green-News: Thursday 1.8.09
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- New York City is getting hip to wind energy. A new five-story apartment building in the Bronx will be partly powered by wind, generating electricity for lights, hallways, elevators and other common areas. Mayor Bloomberg has already supported putting turbines atop skyscrapers; The New York Times reports.
- And New York State has adopted clean air rules stricter than EPA’s. Under the rules new industrial plants in New York, as well as existing plants that wish to ramp up operations, must install state-of-the-art pollution controls. Companies claim this will interfere with business; via the Associated Press.
- Hong Kong has major pollution issues. In fact, 1 in 5 residents are considering leaving the city due to poor air quality, which would leave the local economy in disarray. And just last year air pollution reached it worst levels ever. But, the city has yet to introduce new air quality standards; from the AFP.
- Later this month, Japan’s space agency will launch a satellite to monitor greenhouse gases around the world. The satellite will solve the problem of being unable to track emissions from developing countries. NASA plans to launch a similar probe to measure carbon dioxide; Reuters investigates.
- Australia's military warns global warming and rising sea levels around Pacific nations could cause conflict over resources. Officials say fallout from climate change acts as a threat multiplier. And this tension could spread to bickering over undersea oil and gas deposits in the Arctic; the AFP explains.
- South Australia has put the kibosh on plastic shopping bags. Even 100% degradable plastic bags are out! As of May 4 retailers using any form of plastic bags will be fined $5,000 AUD and if bag suppliers try to peddle shopping bags to retailers, they could face fines of $20,000 AUD; from TreeHugger.
