Drought: What happens when Asias water tower dries up?

Coco Liu, E&E Asia correspondentClimateWire: Tuesday, April 16, 2013

LIJIANG, China — After photographing Black Dragon Lake here for eight years, He Jiaxin knows of more places where he can get the lake to mirror the majesty of its surrounding mountains than anyone else. But this year, he has a problem: The lake has disappeared.

Since its springs dried up last year, no water has flowed into Black Dragon Lake for more than 400 days. At the same time, hot weather caused a high evaporation rate, turning a large part of the lake into a play yard for children.Black Dragon Lake had plenty of water in 2008, before the record drought. Photo courtesy of Gad Ariel.

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“Ive never seen such a dry-up before,” He, a 36-year-old local photographer, said while staring at the parched lake bed. “It hasnt rained in Lijiang for a really long time.

“Lijiang is hardly alone. Similar situations are happening across other parts of Yunnan province, which usually has more rain than half of Chinas regions. But it has experienced extremely low rainfall for the past three years.

In the first quarter of this year, Yunnans average rainfall dropped by 70 percent, indicating the start of the droughts fourth consecutive year, according to the water resources department in the region..

via Drought: What happens when Asias water tower dries up? — 04/16/2013 — www.eenews.net.

Coal’s unpaid health bill – Health and Environment Alliance

How is coal pollution making us sick?

A new report launched on 7 March 2013 by the Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) aims to provide an overview of the scientific evidence of how air pollution impacts health and how emissions from coal power plants are implicated in this. It presents the first-ever economic assessment of the health costs associated with air pollution from coal power plants in Europe as well as testimonies from leading health advocates, medical experts and policy makers on why they are concerned about coal.

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The report develops recommendations for policy-makers and the health community on how to address the unpaid health bill and ensure that it is taken into account in future energy decisions.

Download the report here (45 pages):
http://www.env-health.org/IMG/pdf/heal_report_the_unpaid_health_bill_how_coal_power_plants_make_us_sick_final.pdf

Margaret Thatcher: an unlikely green hero? | John Vidal

The former prime minister helped put climate change, acid rain and pollution onto the mainstream political map

Artist Lambert paints Britain's former Prime Minister Thatcher at his studio in Brighton

An artist paints a portrait of Margaret Thatcher. Her 11 years in power coincided with a decade of profound national and global environmental change. Photograph: Luke Macgregor/REUTERS

Margaret Thatcher will be remembered for her short lived “green period” in the late 1980s when she helped put climate change (or global warming as it was then known), acid rain and pollution on to the mainstream political map. Tutored by Sir Crispin Tickell, British ambassador to the UN in New York, she made several dramatic environment speeches..

Jonathon Porritt, head of Friends of the Earth in the late 1980s,

via Margaret Thatcher: an unlikely green hero? | John Vidal | Environment | guardian.co.uk.

Greening Fast Food Packaging: A Roadmap to Best Practices

Over the past decade, ever-growing customer demand for green products along with pressure from local community and environmental stakeholders has made sustainability a new corporate imperative.

Across all sectors of the economy, major companies have taken steps to reduce their environmental impact and enhance their green image. With competing brands working to address these concerns, the fast food industry has been no exception.

In the complicated world of corporate sustainability, progress takes work. In some cases, efforts within the fast food industry have resulted in significantly improved environmental outcomes. While in other cases, changes have amounted to little more than greenwashing. This report takes aim at one key area that must be addressed to improve sustainability in the fast food industry: packaging. Special emphasis is placed upon issues surrounding the predominant material for fast food packaging: paper.

CCC-Rdg and “The Greenhouse Gas Protocol” Corporate Standard

Calculation and reporting within the CCC-Rdg will take place according to the GHG Protocol guidelines.

The GHG Protocol Corporate Standard provides standards and guidance for companies and other organizations preparing a GHG emissions inventory. It covers the accounting and reporting of the six greenhouse gases covered by the Kyoto Protocol — carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulphur hexafluoride (SF6).

Want to know more about the GHG Protocol, see below;

The-Greenhouse-Gas-Protocol

Download the report here (116 pages):
http://www.ghgprotocol.org/files/ghgp/public/ghg-protocol-revised.pdf