LOMPICO - PG&E (Pacific Gas and Electric's) is handing over tens of thousands of dollars to the nonprofit Sempervirens Fund to protect a 425-acre stand of redwoods once slated for logging deep in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
The deal, expected to be completed next month, is part of the utility's efforts to combat greenhouse gas emissions, in this case safeguarding trees for carbon absorption, and is helping to drive a new marketplace where people and business are offered an incentive to offset pollution.
Pulp mills may be getting back on the black liquor gravy train.
Paper and pulp makers, including a number of mills in southwest Alabama, collected $8 billion or more last year in federal cash and tax credits by doing what they've done for decades -- burning the carbon-rich leftovers from the pulp-making process to fuel their mills.
The liquid, known as black liquor, was declared eligible for alternative fuel tax credits if mill operators mixed in a little diesel fuel.
CAMBRIDGE, Md. -- Evidence is mounting that climate change is transforming Alaska's boreal forest, an expert said yesterday.
"A biome shift is now occurring," University of Alaska, Fairbanks, forest ecologist Glenn Juday said. "You don't have to wait for the effects. They're happening."
The state's white spruce stands, which according to one recent study contain half of the genetic diversity of all white spruce in North America, are suffering.
Seven western states and four Canadian provinces have joined forces in a plan to limit greenhouse gas emissions. An entire new source of long-term revenue is available to British Columbia's government, which will enable protecting massive tracks of old growth forests and fresh water supplies.
The Western Climate Initiative includes: Arizona, California, Montana, New Mexico, Washington, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec, and they have agreed to cut the region's carbon emissions by 15 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.
November 3, 2009 was informed that the State Forestry Administration, the State Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Commerce, State Administration of Taxation have jointly issued the five departments of the “Forestry Industry Development Plan (2010-2012)”, as a guide forestry plan of action to address the financial crisis in the program.
In June loggers from across the Northeast were recognized at the Blaine House, the residence for the standing governor, for their outstanding business and sustainable harvesting practices.
“The Northeast Master Loggers Certification Board certified eleven new Master Logger companies,” said Beth Postlewaite, executive director of the Trust to Conserve Northeast Forestlands (TCNF), as she gave out the awards. “Of the eleven companies certified, six were from Maine. This is a model for the nation.”
For individuals and business, air travel is a fact of life. The world is our playground and we are not going to stop exploring new places and opportunities. Still, we have become increasingly concerned about carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from jet transportation and what we can do to reduce our carbon footprint. In 2005, the World Resources Institute (WRI) reported that transportation made up 13.5 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) worldwide. Of that, air transportation (commercial and general aviation) composed 1.6%. (Click for a world greenhouse gas chart.
Forest certification standards from 12 nations have called on the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) to end its discrimination against wood and accept all credible sustainable forest certification standards.
The certification programs pointed out that wood is one of the best environmental choices for construction as long as it is from a responsible source, and that fiber certified to the 26 national forest certification programs recognized by the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) meets this demand.
