Top Stories
The six Americas of climate change.—reliability
medium.
"Researchers at George Mason University and Yale broke down U.S.
public opinion into six different categories, based on people’s belief
in, and concern about, global warming." "The 'alarmed' and 'concerned'
make up about 51 percent of the population, while the 'doubtful' and
'dismissive' represent 18 percent." See
Grist. PDF of report here.
[Interesting
audience segmentation report from May 2009. Even of the Alarmed and
Concerned groups, only 8% thought "Humans can reduce global warming,
and we are going to do so successfully."]
'Organic' Cotton From India Contained GMOs
in 2009.—reliability high.
According to Financial Times Deutschland, "authorities in India found
that some cotton being certified as organic actually contained
genetically modified cotton around April 2009, which should have
prevented the material from being called organic. EcoCert and Control
Union, the third party organizations that certified the cotton, were
fined, but the action was not reported at the time." The volumes were
significant, and some may have ended up in "organic" clothing sold by
"retailers like H&M, C&A and Tchibo . . . since they make
purchases certified by the two organizations." From
GreenBiz. [Again,
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Subsequent stories have the affected
companies saying a) their products weren't affected, and b) they will
tighten up their supply chain monitoring to be sure it never happens
again.]
Companies,
Industries, Markets and Supply Chains
Target says eliminating farmed salmon.—reliability
high.
"Target Corp said on Tuesday that it is no longer selling fresh,
frozen or smoke farm-raised salmon in its stores nationwide. The No. 2
U.S. discount retailer said that all salmon sold under its own brands
will now be wild-caught Alaskan salmon. Sushi that includes farm-raised
salmon will be changed over to wild-caught salmon by the end of the
year, it said." From
Reuters.
WWF nets Marks & Spencer commitment to
sustainable fishing.—reliability high.
"By backing the new charter, the company has entered a joint
commitment with WWF to work towards sustainable fisheries management
and sustainable farmed fish production. Over the next few years WWF
will help M&S evaluate the sustainability of its wild and farmed
fish products and give the retailer guidance on identifying and
developing more sustainable sources. The two organisations plan to
tackle issues such as overfishing, bycatch and discards, and will work
with fisheries to find solutions to improve their fishing practices." From
The Guardian.
Governments, business seen too slow to save
climate: poll.—reliability high.
"The survey of about 24,000 people in 23 countries, conducted in the
lead up to, during and following the Copenhagen Climate Conference in
December last year, found 65 percent of respondents were not happy with
the progress and actions to date to conserve the environment. Only 35
percent said their government and business leaders were doing the right
thing -- and only three countries would get passing grades on their
environmental credentials from their citizens. These were China which
received 86 percent support from its people, India with 60 percent
support, and Turkey with 54 percent." What percent of respondents
agreed that "that their government and business leaders are taking the
right steps and pace to prevent global climate change"? United States
38%, UK 33%, France 19%. Other results. See
Reuters story.
Guardian takes another major step to meeting
the 10:10 challenge.—reliability high.
The Guardian Media Group, publishers of The Guardian and The Observer,
are switching paper suppliers to cut emissions. In addition to cutting
greenhouse gas emissions 10% at their offices and printing plants, part
of their commitment under Britain's 10:10 program, they have switched
from a UK paper supplier that emitted 976 kilos per tonne of paper to a
Norwegian one that uses hydropower and emits 9.45 kilos of CO2 per
tonne. "The switch of suppliers was necessitated by a 30% drop in
demand for newsprint in GMG in 2009, which meant it made sense to
reduce the number of core suppliers from six to five; three UK recycled
mills and one each from Norway and Canada. While the paper will be
travelling further, research has shown that the carbon impacts of
transporting paper is much smaller than the emissions from its
production." From,
of course, The Guardian. [Emissions will
also decline because total paper use is declining significantly "caused
by continuing declines in demand for printed products as well as
reduced pagination and the grammage of paper used", but perhaps the
company is less happy about that.]
Pollution-Fighting Businesses Set Their Own
Course in Treaty Vacuum.—reliability high.
"The [Copenhagen] meeting was widely seen as a flop. So, in the
absence of international leadership, what do [business leaders] do now?
. . . For companies that have already committed major resources to
low-carbon technologies, part of the answer may be to focus more
intently on the opportunities offered by the most promising local and
national markets. 'Copenhagen was only one step in a marathon in the
search for global rules of the game,' said Ferdinando Beccalli-Falco,
chief executive of the GE International unit of General Electric."
"'Despite the chaos at the conference in Copenhagen, the long-term
trend is for clean energy,' said Michael Liebreich, the chief executive
of Bloomberg New Energy Finance, a research company. 'What has changed
is that it’s clearer than ever before that businesses have got to be
strategic in choosing countries and regions with robust long-term
regulatory environments, to make investments pay off,' he said." Other
comments from industry participants. See
The New York Times.
[Crossposted from HaraBara.com courtesy of HaraBara, Inc. Copyright © 2010 HaraBara, Inc.]
