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中国与世界，环境危机大家谈 WHERE CHINA AND THE WORLD DISCUSS THE ENVIRONMENT

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January 06, 2010

A global environmental update

Global temperatures are set to rise faster than the speed at which most animals and plants can move to cooler areas, The Independent reported, citing a US study.

Climate-change scepticism is likely to surge in 2010 and could exacerbate hardship for the earth’s poorest people, Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the UN climate-change panel, told The Guardian. Opponents of action to curb carbon emissions were “working overtime”, he said, to stall a global accord.

Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, signed a law requiring the country to cut emissions by 39% by 2020, meeting a commitment made at the Copenhagen summit, Agence France-Presse reported. The law is subject to several further decrees.

Tariffs for water users in Mexico City are being increased following a drought that has left reservoirs at record lows, according to Reuters. Water authorities had turned increasingly to Lake Avándaro, in wealthy Valle de Bravo, for supply, draining the lake by half in early 2009.

Australia experienced its hottest decade on record from 2000 to 2009, Reuters said, citing the country’s bureau of meteorology.

Europe’s first electricity grid dedicated to renewable power is to become a political reality this month, The Guardian reported, as nine countries formally draw up plans to link their North Sea projects.

A Dutch court has opened the door to a potential avalanche of legal cases against Shell over environmental degradation said to be caused by its oil operations in the Niger Delta, The Guardian said. The company also is embroiled in a dispute with the World Bank, according to The Observer, over warranties for solar-power systems sold to poor nations.

Under a deal that allowed Lithuania to enter the European Union in 2004, the country has shut down its Soviet-era nuclear plant. The move will drive up electricity prices, said Agence France-Presse, and leave Lithuania reliant on Russia for power.

The United Nations is rushing aid to victims of a tsunami that hit the Solomon Islands, the second to strike the region in three years, Xinhua reported.

Overfishing and classification errors are believed to have left the Amazon River’s arapaima, the world’s largest scaled freshwater fish, critically endangered, according to a study cited by The Guardian. Meanwhile, The New York Times said, states in the American Midwest are engaged in legal battles over the Asian carp, a voracious, nonnative fish that threatens havoc in the Great Lakes.

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