What's New List Serve Post Display

ARB Newsclips for January 4, 2015. 

This is a service of the California Air Resources Board’s Office
of Communications.  You may need to sign in or register with
individual websites to view some of the following news articles.

AIR POLLUTION

China's Capital Sees Small Improvement in Air in 2015-Government
Bureau.  China's capital Beijing saw a small improvement in air
quality last year, the city's environmental protection bureau
said on Monday, although levels of a major form of pollution
remain several times higher than international standards.
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2016/01/04/world/asia/04reuters-china-pollution.html


To fight the world's worst air pollution, New Delhi forces cars
off the roads. Like many middle-class professionals in this
car-crazed capital, Tarun Thawani drives to work every day, both
for comfort and because he usually has piles of documents to
carry.
But on Monday, the accountant left his car…
http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-india-pollution-new-delhi-cars-20160104-story.html
 

Texas joins red state revolt against EPA ozone rule. Texas has
filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration over its new
ozone rule, bringing the tally of states challenging the
regulations to nine. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said
Monday that the state opposes the stricter limit on surface-level
ozone because compliance with the rule would hurt business in the
state.
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/264349-texas-rounds-out-state-lawsuits-against-epa-ozone-rule


Cities choke on air pollution. People exposed to health hazards;
Dhaka, Narayanganj, Gazipur among world's 25 cities with poorest
air. The quality of air in the capital is extremely unhealthy.
The presence of pollutant particles in its air even on a normal
day is more than six times the healthy limit.
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/cities-choke-air-pollution-196717


CLIMATE CHANGE

Power Plants Threatened as Global Warming Affects Water Supplies.
More than two-thirds of the world’s power plants may have trouble
running at full capacity as the warming climate affects water
supplies, according to a new study. Reduced streamflows and
rising water temperatures may reduce monthly generating capacity
at nuclear, fossil-fuel and biofuel-powered plants…
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-04/power-plants-threatened-as-global-warming-affects-water-supplies


U.S. Becomes More Vulnerable to Tropical Diseases Like Zika.
Tropical diseases — some of them never before seen in the United
States — are marching northward as climate change lets mosquitoes
and ticks expand their ranges. But that does not mean that
epidemics will break out, scientists say. Whether a few cases
explode into a full-fledged outbreak depends on a set of factors
far more complex than the weather.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/05/health/us-becomes-more-vulnerable-to-tropical-diseases-like-zika.html


Weather Dominates Insurance Claims in 2015-Munich Re.  Insurers
paid out around $27 billion (18.34 billion pound) for natural
disaster claims last year with weather causing 94 percent of
incidents, underscoring the challenge posed by climate change,
data from reinsurer Munich Re showed on Monday. While the climate
phenomenon known as 'El Niño' reduced the development of
hurricanes…
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2016/01/04/business/04reuters-disaster-insurance.html


Five takeaways from the Paris climate deal. Last month, 195
countries met in Paris and agreed to curb global warming. What
are the most important things to know about the Paris climate
deal? The UN climate talks in Paris have ended with an agreement
between 195 countries to tackle global warming.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2016/0104/Five-takeaways-from-the-Paris-climate-deal
  

Could ice sheets reveal the secrets of sea-level rise? Three
years ago, scientists discovered that ice loss in Greenland and
Antarctica has accelerated since 1992 due to climate change. Now
the same group of scientists has launched an initiative to use
satellite data to continually monitor changes in ice mass at the
poles.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2016/01/04/stories/1060030046 

DROUGHT

California Braces for Series of El Nino Storms. After all the
talk, El Niño storms have finally lined up over the Pacific and
started soaking drought-parched California with rain expected to
last for most of the next two weeks, forecasters said Monday. As
much as 15 inches of rain could fall in the next 16 days in
Northern California…
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CALIFORNIA_STORMS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


OTHER RELATED STORIES
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/01/04/us/ap-us-california-storms.html


Climate Change Warming World’s Lakes, Says Study.  A new study by
NASA and the National Science Foundation reveals that climate
change is rapidly warming lakes around the world, according to
findings in Geophysical Research Letters. The study, published
last month, used temperature data taken via satellites and ground
measurements from 235 lakes around the world and analyzed
temperature changes over 25 years.
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/climate-change-warming-worlds-lakes-19862


Calif. drought threatens 58M trees. Millions of California trees
are in jeopardy of dying because of water stress from the state's
historic drought, increasing temperatures and bark beetle
infestations, new research finds. Data and maps, published last
week in the journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences, reveal the extent of the damage caused by the state's
four-year drought…
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2016/01/04/stories/1060030040 

El Niño set to worsen food shortages. Disruptions in global
weather patterns linked to a strong El Niño episode will
aggravate food insecurity in many parts of the world, including
in Africa, Asia and parts of the Caribbean, aid agencies have
warned. "The effects of the strongest El Niño in several decades…
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2016/01/04/stories/1060030043 

VW RECALL

VW Sued by U.S. in Diesel Emissions Scandal. The Justice
Department sued the German automaker Volkswagen in federal court
Monday, saying that the company installed illegal devices in
nearly 600,000 diesel engine systems to impair emissions
controls, that way increasing harmful air pollution.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/05/business/vw-sued-justice-department-emissions-scandal.html


Volkswagen Faces Billions in Penalties as U.S. Sues for
Environment Violations. The U.S. Justice Department on Monday
filed a civil lawsuit against Volkswagen AG for allegedly
violating the Clean Air Act by installing illegal devices to
impair emission control systems in nearly 600,000 vehicles. The
allegations against Volkswagen, along with its Audi and Porsche
units, carry penalties…
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2016/01/04/business/04reuters-volkswagen-usa.html


How Do Modern Diesel Engines Work? VW Explains It On Video?
Volkswagen has a lot of explaining to do. Since it was revealed
in September that the company installed "defeat device" software
on diesel cars that allowed them to cheat on emissions tests, VW
has been slow to discuss what it plans to do with the affected
cars. The carmaker still hasn't confirmed when it will begin a
recall of the 482,000…
http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1101660_how-do-modern-diesel-engines-work-vw-explains-it-on-video


GREEN ENERGY

Google Helps Analyze if Rooftop Solar Panels Are Good Deal. The
company that lets you compare air fares and translate foreign
languages online wants to make it easier to weigh the costs and
benefits of installing solar panels on household rooftops. Google
is rolling out a new online service that quickly tallies up
considerations of going solar…
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/01/03/business/ap-us-google-sunroof-.html


Offshore wind to set sail, studies find. The dawn of a more
robust era in offshore wind may be breaking, according to two
recent reports on floating wind power that show long-inaccessible
deepwater sites with some of the highest winds on Earth now
appear to be within reach. One report, a polling result
commissioned by the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) at
its annual conference in November…
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2016/01/04/stories/1060030048 

OPINIONS

The Dirty Truth About ‘CleanDiesel’ AS scandals go, it was a
juicy one. Volkswagen, one of the world’s highest grossing
automakers, persuaded consumers it had created a new generation
of so-called clean diesel cars — until investigators discovered
that defeat devices, which activated emissions controls only when
the cars were tested…
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/03/opinion/sunday/the-dirty-truth-about-clean-diesel.html?_r=0


We Need a New Green Revolution.  DESPITE the four-year drought
that has parched California and led to mandatory restrictions on
water use, farmers there have kept feeding the country.
California produces more of 66 different food crops than any
other state, $54 billion of food annually. Maintaining this level
of productivity has been quite a challenge in recent years…
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/04/opinion/we-need-a-new-green-revolution.html


SDUSD climate change plan hailed. I was heartened to read the
article in the Aug. 14 edition describing San Diego Unified
School District's new climate change initiative. Hopefully, this
initiative will result in ending the extremely environmentally
unfriendly activity of busing students across San Diego. This
will result in a huge reduction in harmful carbon dioxide
emissions.
http://sdnews.com/view/full_story/27029555/article-SDUSD-climate-change-plan-hailed


Letter: El Nino and climate change. Your interesting Monitor
article “Hello Winter” (Monitor front page, Dec. 30) was the
continuation of a long series of articles about the weird, warm,
snowless December that New Hampshire has experienced. To the two
authors’ credit, the word “climate” appeared when describing “the
climate phenomenon called El Nino.”
http://www.concordmonitor.com/opinion/20329817-95/letter-el-nino-and-climate-change




California is in a drought emergency.
Visit www.SaveOurH2O.org for water conservation tips.