Soft drink tax war to bubble up in cities across the U.S. There’s something even more polarizing than whether to call soft drinks pop, soda, or coke: the debate over taxing them. Depending on the results of next year’s elections, your city government might turn your soft drink sugar rush into a source of tax income. Politico has the scoop on the plan to bring these tax initiatives to the polling booth: Public health advocates, flush from victories in Mexico and Berkeley, Calif., are plotting to bring voter referendums and legislation to tax soda in as many as a dozen U.S. cities in 2016. It’s all part of an international strategy backed by billionaires in New York and Texas, including former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, to reduce consumption of sodas, juices, and other sugary drinks in the fight against spiraling rates of obesity, diabetes, and other diet-related diseases. In the past, proposed soft drink taxes have proven difficult to pass, partially due to Big Soda’s deep-pocketed interference.
The Koala in the Coal Mine GUNNEDAH, Australia—Scrambling up a rock-strewn hill, I crane my neck and scan a row of trees for koalas. Truth be told, I’ve never been all that good at spotting koalas in the wild. The cartoon-cute marsupial may be one of the world’s most recognizable animals, but try finding one silently snoozing 40 feet off the ground in a leafy eucalyptus tree among hundreds scattered across this former farm in the Liverpool Plains, a fertile agriculture district 250 miles northwest of Sydney. They aren’t bouncing back. “These heat waves are happening more and more with climate change,” Mathew Crowther, the wildlife ecologist who leads the research team, says as we take a break for lunch. FULL COVERAGE: Climate Change(d): The Future Is Now The 2009 heat wave followed a decade-long drought and helped trigger the most deadly wildfires in Australia’s recorded history, killing 173 people in the southern state of Victoria as temperatures soared to 113 degrees Fahrenheit. Plant a Tree, and They Will Come
A Carbon Tax for Steak May Be the Best Way to Get People to Eat Less Meat From renewable energy to carbon sequestration to cap and trade, a lot of different ideas for arresting the change under way in the climate are going to be discussed at the upcoming international climate talks in Paris. There is, however, one carbon-producing issue that the international group would appear to deem somewhat marginal—only 21 out of 120 national plans included it in their reduction goals—but that could lead to significant cuts in emissions: meat consumption. The problem is, achieving those reductions would require a huge upending of deep-seated habits and cultural norms the world over. The meat industry accounts for 15 percent of emissions globally—equal to the amount of greenhouse gases generated by the world’s cars. While public awareness campaigns and increased access to and availability of nonmeat foods are all discussed, it’s the more cudgel-like ideas—including a meat tax—that are most interesting.
Gates, Zuckerberg and Other Tech Titans Team Up to Push Clean Energy Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and several other of the world's wealthiest tech and business titans are banding together to fight climate change by investing billions in clean-energy research and technologies. The Breakthrough Energy Coalition was announced ahead of the opening day Monday of the U.N.-organized climate talks outside Paris. The coalition has pledged to invest in innovative ways to produce "clean" energy, especially in the developing world, and thereby cut down on climate-warming greenhouse gases. "The renewable technologies we have today, like wind and solar, have made a lot of progress and could be one path to a zero-carbon energy future," Gates said in a blog post. "Our primary goal with the coalition is as much to accelerate progress on clean energy as it is to make a profit," Gates said. "Solving the clean energy problem is an essential part of building a better world.
Failing phytoplankton, failing oxygen: Global warming disaster could suffocate life on planet Earth Falling oxygen levels caused by global warming could be a greater threat to the survival of life on planet Earth than flooding, according to researchers from the University of Leicester. A study led by Sergei Petrovskii, Professor in Applied Mathematics from the University of Leicester's Department of Mathematics, has shown that an increase in the water temperature of the world's oceans of around six degrees Celsius -- which some scientists predict could occur as soon as 2100 -- could stop oxygen production by phytoplankton by disrupting the process of photosynthesis. Professor Petrovskii explained: "Global warming has been a focus of attention of science and politics for about two decades now. A lot has been said about its expected disastrous consequences; perhaps the most notorious is the global flooding that may result from melting of Antarctic ice if the warming exceeds a few degrees compared to the pre-industrial level.
Microsoft buys carbon credits in forest near Rainier to offset pollution Microsoft bought carbon credits certified by a California regulatory program that will preserve 520 acres of forest near Mount Rainier. Washington has no such tool to fight carbon pollution. Lush and lofty, the big trees in a 520-acre forest gracing the vista of Mount Rainier are now doing double duty, in the first-ever carbon-capture program of its kind in the Pacific Northwest. Microsoft bought the carbon credits in this forest under California’s rigorously verified cap-and-trade program. Washington has no such program. The forest, near Ashford in the Nisqually watershed, will generate 37,000 carbon-offset credits, the equivalent of taking 6,000 cars off the road. Microsoft bought 35,000 of the credits from the Nisqually Land Trust for an undisclosed price. Through photosynthesis, trees, using only water and light energy from the sun, split the carbon from carbon dioxide to make sugar for food. Trees don’t just stand there, they make life, and sustain it.
Why real estate needs Tesla-style buildings, used 'Uber-style' While the financial industry is still reeling from recent stock market gyrations, it is tempting to forget about long-term issues, such as extreme weather events, the rising sea levels and demographic change. It’s short-termism versus long-term thinking in its purest form. And it’s human. But even amidst the current turmoil, there seems to be a sea of change in investment beliefs that is becoming ever more prominent, and ever more articulate: The belief that for long-term investors, long-term trends can have real implications for capital values and income returns. While long-term trends affect all industries, they are particularly relevant for the real estate sector, where assets are long-lived and typically cannot be moved to another place. Action on buildings But over the past 10 years, buildings have become a focal point of action on sustainability issues. An electric car for real estate? It is an interesting analogy to compare the real estate industry with the automobile industry.
Amazon, data center turn hot idea into cool technology Saving millions of kilowatt-hours a year, the innovative heat-transfer system between Amazon’s downtown high-rises and the region’s chief telecom hub could be a model for others. When Amazon.com’s eye-catching spheres and towers open over the next year, the heat for their thousands of tech workers and hundreds of green plants won’t be a drag on the power grid. Instead, the heat for Amazon’s high-rise Denny Triangle campus will be recycled, essentially, from the Pacific Northwest’s telecom hub on an adjacent block — an innovative partnership that could spread to other downtown buildings. Heat coming from the 34-story Westin Building Exchange will be used to warm just over 4 million square feet of development on Amazon’s four-block campus, saving 80 million kilowatt-hours over 20 years, or about 4 million kilowatt-hours a year, officials said Thursday. The waste heat recovered by Amazon would heat about 365 homes a year.
Epson unveils world’s first in-office paper recycling system Printer giant Epson has developed an in-office paper recycling machine. Called the PaperLab, you put waste paper in, and then new, bright white printer paper comes out. Epson says this process is more efficient than sending paper to an off-site recycling plant, and it's also much more secure: the PaperLab, which breaks paper down into its constituent fibres before building them back up into new sheets, is one of the most secure paper shredders that money can buy. The specs of the machine are truly impressive. Within three minutes of adding waste paper to the PaperLab, it starts pumping out perfectly white sheets of new paper. Epson says that the PaperLab is the world's first paper production system to use a "dry process." As for how the PaperLab actually works, Epson (unsurprisingly) doesn't provide a whole lot of details. The second process is binding, where the fibres are stitched back together again. This post originated on Ars Technica UK
Why Isn't Big Ag's Huge Contribution to Climate Change on the Agenda at COP21? Tackling carbon emissions from agriculture from farming isn’t even on the table at the UN climate talks in December. It ought to be and it’s big agribusiness that’s at the heart of the problem. In 2006 a report from the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) threw the climate change effects of farming into the spotlight. It claimed that the meat and dairy industries are responsible for more greenhouse gases than the whole transport sector. The majority of ensuing studies have only considered emissions released directly through farming. Despite the severity of the situation and although food security is stated as a core objective of the UN climate negotiations, agriculture is still off the agenda at COP21 in Paris this December. Beyond the Burp Industrial agriculture is at the heart of social and ecological costs of farming and integral to this are monocultures. Addressing Agriculture Dear World Leaders, Take Climate Action Now 10 GMO Labeling Myths Busted