Posts Tagged ‘change’

HealthTrust Receives its Fourth “Champion for Change” Award From Practice Greenhealth

Posted by admin on May 1st, 2013

BRENTWOOD, Tenn.–()–HealthTrust was selected for the fourth time as a recipient of a
“Champion for Change” award from Practice Greenhealth, a national
membership organization for health-care facilities committed to
environmentally responsible operations. The award is one of the
organization’s Environmental Excellence Awards given each year to honor
outstanding environmental achievements in the health-care sector.

“The Champion for Change Award honors organizations that demonstrate
leadership in reducing their environmental footprint”

J. Michael Jones, FACHE, director of Clinical Education and
Sustainability, accepted the 2013 award on behalf of HealthTrust at the
annual CleanMed Conference & Exposition, the premier environmental
conference for leaders in health-care sustainability, held recently in
Boston.

“The Champion for Change Award honors organizations that demonstrate
leadership in reducing their environmental footprint,” said Laura
Wenger, RN, executive director of Practice Greenhealth. “HealthTrust has
extended their commitment beyond their internal practices to their
clients and community to make even more of an impact.”

As evidenced in a recent study from the Health Care Research
Collaborative—Can Sustainable Hospitals Help Bend the Health Care
Cost Curve?—introducing environmental sustainability measures in
hospitals not only results in significant savings, but also will not
increase operating costs. The implications are clear—given the return on
investment, all hospitals should adopt and expand their sustainability
programs.

“HealthTrust recognizes the importance of providing its members with
options for environmentally preferable purchasing (EPP) of products and
services,” said Jones. “We continue to expand our effort to include
products and services that are better for both the environment and
public health as our member facilities increasingly ask for sustainable
purchasing options.”

The Champion for Change Award is reserved for organizational partners
supplying health-care products and services that are considerate of the
earth and its resources. The winners of this award have achieved success
in greening their own organization and have also assisted others who are
committed to improving their environmental performance. A member of
Practice Greenhealth since 2008, HealthTrust has won the award four
times.

About HealthTrust

HealthTrust (www.healthtrustpg.com)
is committed to strengthening provider performance and clinical
excellence through an aligned membership model and the delivery of total
cost management solutions, including supply chain solutions and a
contract and service portfolio unparalleled in quality, scope and value.
HealthTrust serves 1,400 acute care facilities, 800 ambulatory surgery
centers and members in more than 10,600 other locations including
physician practices, long-term care and alternate care sites.
Headquartered in Brentwood, Tenn., HealthTrust is closely integrated
with the provider-proven capabilities of Parallon Business Solutions (www.parallon.net)
which include workforce management solutions, revenue cycle and business
process expertise and technology solutions.

About Practice Greenhealth

Practice Greenhealth is the nation’s leading membership and networking
organization for institutions in health care that have made a commitment
to sustainable, environmentally friendly practices. To learn more about
Practice Greenhealth visit www.practicegreenhealth.org.

Business Wire Environment News

Read More »

Climate Change Necessitates Flood Barriers in European Cities

Posted by admin on May 1st, 2013

As climate change threatens with higher sea levels, heavy rainfall, floods, and destructive storms, European cities may have to assemble flood barriers, warned the continent’s environmental watchdog.

These would be similar to London’s Thames Barrier that protects the city from sea surges, which was finished in the 1980s after the disastrous floods of 1953.

Climate change effects will be so extensive across Europe that water suppliers will invest in desalination technology, farmers will have to grow new crops and vineyards might have to plant different grape varieties.

Infrastructure including communication, energy and transport networks, along with buildings, will also have to be adapted.

The report, Adaptation in Europe, was carried out by the European Environment Agency. It found half of the EEA’s 32 member countries to still lack adaption plans to global warming effects, but others have started to take action.

EEA’s executive director, Jacqueline McGlade, said adapting was about thinking in new ways, and acknowledging complexity, uncertainty, hazards and risks.

But she said it was a team, rather than independent, effort.

It will require Europeans to co-operate, to learn from each other and to invest in the long-term transformations needed to sustain our wellbeing in the face of climate change,” she said.

Europe is already experiencing climate change effects, according to the EEA, and more is to come. Even if existing bids to reduce international greenhouse gas emissions prove successful, further impacts are likely from a changing climate, such as more frequent “extreme weather events”, including periods of significant rainfall, heat waves and fiercer storms.

With Europe’s average temperatures increasing, south of the continent has less rainfall, the focal point of Europe’s agriculture, while in the north floods are rising due to more rainfall.

While preventative measures may incur costs initially, over the long-term this should result in savings.

The report’s authors refer to the Danube basin as an example, which is costing €183 million to restore to its natural state. But these renovated areas should safeguard against flooding, which cost €396 million in damage in 2005.

Image Credit Andy Roberts – Courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Enviro News – News

Read More »

Green-Powered Northwest Colleges and Businesses are Reducing Pollution and Fighting Climate Change (OR, WA)

Posted by admin on April 17th, 2013

 

Release Date: 04/17/2013
Contact Information: Skadowski, EPA Region 10, 206-553-6689, [email protected]

(April 17, 2013 – Seattle) –– Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced the Green Power Partnership Top 50 Green-Powered organizations using electricity from clean, renewable sources such as solar and wind energy. Several businesses and colleges in the Pacific Northwest are among the best in the nation in increasing renewable energy use.

Microsoft Corporation moved into 2nd place in the Top 50 nationwide by increasing its green power use to nearly 2 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) annually. Starbucks Company owned stores moved up to 8th place by increasing their green power use to nearly 1 billion kWh annually.

Nine northwest colleges in the College & University Green Power Challenge are among the nation’s highest in green power use: University of Washington, Oregon State University, Western Washington University, Gonzaga University, Evergreen State College, Southern Oregon University, Lewis & Clark College, Pacific Lutheran University, and Whitman College.

“We applaud the leadership demonstrated by organizations that are helping reduce carbon pollution and spur the growth of clean, American-made energy sources by increasing their use of renewable energy,” said EPA Acting Administrator Bob Perciasepe. “As President Obama has made clear, clean energy is critical to our health, our economy, our security, and our ability to effectively address climate change.”

Green power includes electricity produced from solar, wind, geothermal, biogas, eligible biomass, and low-impact small hydroelectric sources. Green power represents the renewable energy resources and technologies that provide the highest environmental benefit.

As part of EPA’s Green Power Partnership, more than 1,400 organizations are purchasing more than 27 billion kWh of green power annually, avoiding carbon pollution equal to that created by the electricity use of more than 2.8 million American homes. The partnership provides quarterly updated lists of partners using green power including K-12 schools, local government, and technology and telecommunications industries.

U.S. Top 50 Green-Powered Organizations: www.epa.gov/greenpower/toplists

College & University Green Power Champions: www.epa.gov/greenpower/initiatives/cu_challenge.htm

EPA Green Power Partnership: www.epa.gov/greenpower

Follow EPA on Twitter: https://twitter.com/EPAgov

U.S. EPA News

Read More »

Emissions and removals of greenhouse gases from land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) for the UK, 1990-2011

Posted by admin on April 15th, 2013

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Estimates of greenhouse gas emissions for the constituent countries of the UK.
Environment and countryside

Read More »

Republican cites bible to refute climate change

Posted by admin on April 11th, 2013
Joe Barton
In 2010, Joe Barton apologised to BP over a deal requiring the company to set aside $ 20bn for oil spill clean-up costs. Photograph: Haraz N Ghanbari/AP

The Texas Republican Joe Barton stands out even among his fellow conservative Republicans who have made it an article of faith to deny the existence of a human component to climate change.

On Wednesday, Barton cemented that reputation by citing the Old Testament to refute scientific evidence of man-made global warming, drawing on the story of Noah’s ark.

“I would point out that if you are a believer in the Bible, one would have to say the great flood was an example of climate change,” Barton told a congressional hearing on Wednesday in a video first shown on the Buzzfeed website. “That certainly wasn’t because mankind had overdeveloped hydrocarbon energy.”

Barton was speaking at a house subcommittee hearing called by the Republican leadership to promote a bill that would allow Congress to fast-track a controversial pipeline that would pump crude from the tar sands of Alberta to refineries on the Texas coast.

The Texas congressman began by reiterating his support for the Keystone XL pipeline. He went on to say that he did not dispute the existence of climate change – just any connection to human activity, such as the greenhouse gas emissions produced by the burning of fossil fuels.

“I would point out that people like me who support hydrocarbon development don’t deny that climate is changing,” he said. “I think you can have an honest difference of opinion of what’s causing that change without automatically being either all in, that’s all because of mankind, or it’s all just natural. I think there’s a divergence of evidence.”

Barton has made a reputation for his outspoken rejection of man-made climate change, and for his support for the oil industry.

In 2010, in the wake of the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, Barton became an object of ridicule for offering a profuse apology to the oil company

Barton told then-BP-chairman Tony Hayward he was ashamed that the White House had reached a deal requiring the company to set aside $ 20bn for clean-up and restoration costs. “I think it is a tragedy of the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterise as a shakedown, in this case, a $ 20bn shakedown,” Barton said at the time. “I apologise. I do not want to live in a country where any citizen or corporation that does something that is legitimately wrong is subject to some sort of political pressure that, again in my words, amounts to a shakedown. So I apologise.”

Environment news, comment and analysis from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk

Read More »

America Teaches Climate Change for First Time in Schools

Posted by admin on April 11th, 2013

For the first time, climate change has been included in American teaching guidelines for science.

Following Tuesday’s adoption of the guidelines, school children in the US will now participate in extensive climate change lessons.

However, the finalized standards were considerably weaker than from previous drafts.

In a subject regarded as crucial to future generations, the final guidelines reduced the amount of time dedicated to climate change by around a third.

Previous drafts were also more explicit about the role of humans as a force for climate change.

In up to 40 states, with many for the very first time, climate change will feature as a core feature of education for both high school and middle school students, with the new teaching standards for science.

While the Next Generation Science Standards are not compulsory, educational experts and scientists from 26 states assisted their development. Involved in the three-year initiative, the US Global Change Research Program’s co-chair of the climate education group, Frank Niepold, said for the first time the standards will bring offer a level of cohesion to climate change teaching.

Currently, science standards vary widely from state to state, said Niepold. He added that students can finish college without knowing the basics.

Meanwhile in Britain, last month’s draft guidelines excluded children under 14 from learning about climate change in the curriculum.

Alliance for Climate Education’s deputy director, Mario Molina, sad that in responding to comments from the public, climate change devoted sections had to be cut by 35 percent. But he believed that this was to compress a wealth of material, rather than for political reasons.

In fact, he explicitly states that climate change is not up for political debate.

“Climate change is not a political issue and climate change is not a debate. It is science. It is strongly supported heavily research science, and our hope is that teachers will not see this as a political issue or a political debate,” he said.

While the new guidelines will assist teachers on climate change teaching, it was imperative that science organizations could offer resources and support to teachers who may be unfamiliar with the area in contrast with other science topics.

Enviro News – News

Read More »

Canadian Nobel Laureate Testifies Keystone XL Pipeline Refusal an Important Step in Addressing Climate Change

Posted by admin on April 11th, 2013

Today Mark Jaccard tells Congress the US must reject Keystone XL pipeline and encourage minimal development in the Alberta oil sands if Obama is truly committed to preventing dangerous climate change.

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA–(Marketwired – April 10, 2013) - Dr. Mark Jaccard of British Columbia’s Simon Fraser University will testify in front of the U.S. Congress Subcommittee on Energy and Power today that President Obama must reject TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline if meaningful action is to be taken to prevent a 2 degree Celsius increase in global temperature.

A rejection of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline will slow development in the Alberta oil sands, according to Jaccard, and better position the U.S. for a transition to a low-carbon economy. The oil sands, along with other polluting fossil fuels, are not a viable fuel source if a 2 degree temperature increase is to be avoided.

A rejection of Keystone “is an important step in addressing increasing carbon pollution in our atmosphere, but it must be combined with many such acts in North America and the rest of the world. Decisions about projects like Keystone XL are of little use unless they are leveraged to greater effect. In this case, the US government should note that it cannot support oil sands expansion while the Canadian government is not making the effort necessary to achieve its 2020 emission reduction target – a target that the US is on course to achieve.”

“In the short to medium term, the denial of Keystone XL will help to slow development of the oil sands. As a growing source of carbon emissions, slowing the expansion of oil sands is an important step. But this act alone is not enough to stem the rapid rise of human carbon pollution. It must be combined with many such acts in North America and the rest of the world. And that’s why the decision about Keystone XL must be made in consideration of a far broader, far more important question,” says Jaccard.

“If we act to prevent dangerous climate change – to which President Obama says he is committed – there is definitely no need for new pipelines to the oil sands, and even existing ones may be in peril over the coming decades as production stagnates.”

A full copy of Jaccard’s testimony can be accessed here: http://docs.house.gov/meetings/IF/IF03/20130410/100616/HHRG-113-IF03-Wstate-JaccardM-20130410.pdf

Professor Mark Jaccard has been a professor in the School of Resource and Environmental management at SFU since 1986. He has a PhD from the Energy Economics and Polity Institute at the University of Grenoble. Professor Jaccard has worked on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change since the 1990s and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.

For more information on Professor Jaccard visit his SFU page: http://www.rem.sfu.ca/people/faculty/jaccard/

His blog is Sustainability Suspicions: http://markjaccard.blogspot.ca

His twitter is @MarkJaccard

Marketwire – Environment

Read More »

Wine Production Threatened By Climate Change

Posted by admin on April 9th, 2013

Wine production will be threatened by climate change, according to a new study. While global warming will make it challenging to raise grapes in traditional wine country, production will shift to other regions.

So, while we may have to say goodbye to Bordeaux, we may also say hello to Chateau Yellowstone. Due to climate change, researchers expect the globe’s premier wine regions’ production to fall by two thirds.

Chile, California’s Napa Valley, Tuscany in Italy and Rhone and Bordeaux regions in France will experience steep declines in wine production by 2050, according to the study, as the warming climate makes it more difficult to grow the grapes in the traditional wine country.

Wine Production Threatened

However, they also anticipate compensation, with regions once considered unsuitable becoming suitable. This could result in increased grape varieties right from the hills of central China, north-west America, and northern Europe including the UK.

Study author and senior scientist from Conservation International, Lee Hannah, said that climate change would produce a big shakeup in wine production’s geographic distribution.

Scientists predict that regions that enjoy cool winters with hot, dry summers will experience big changes.

“It will be harder and harder to grow those varieties that are currently growing in places in Europe,” Hannah said. “It doesn’t necessarily mean that [they] can’t be grown there, but it will require irrigation and special inputs to make it work, and that will make it more and more expensive.”

Climate Change Wine Production

Wine grapes are considered one of the most fastidious crops, sensitive to sunshine, rain and small temperature shifts. When it comes to predicting climate change effects, the sector has certainly been forward-looking. 

For years, wine experts have been aware that a drier, hotter climate would alter growing conditions for many of the most prized wine areas – compelling vineyards to protect grapes from the sun by misting them on the vine, or moving the more sensitive vines to terrain that is more hospitable.

But even the researchers were surprised at the extent of the changes. For Europe’s Tuscany, Rhone, and Bordeaux, the future was bleakest, with a 85 percent production decrease predicted by 2050.

Australia and California’s wine growing areas were also expected to be hit hard, with a 74 percent and 70 percent drop, respectively. South Africa’s Cape area could expect losses of 55 percent, and Chile would be hit by a 40 percent decline.

Image Copyright Jim G – Courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Enviro News – News

Read More »

Climate Change Causing Antarctica Sea Ice Increase

Posted by admin on April 2nd, 2013

Antarctica’s sea ice is actually expanding due to climate change, according to a new study.

The somewhat contradictory phenomenon is believed to be a result of melting underneath Antarctic ice shelves, which creates cold fresh water plumes, the study said in the Nature Geoscience journal.

With a relatively low density, the melt water accumulates in the ocean’s top layer. During the Autumn and Winter, these cool surface water then more easily re-freeze.

The researchers from the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) in De Bilt said this justifies the observed sea ice peak within these seasons.

Shrinking Artic sea ice and expanding Antarctic sea ice has intrigued climate scientists over the last few decades. While the Antarctic has been expanding at a rate of 1.9 percent every ten years, the Artic has been progressively shrinking.

Lead author from the KNMI, Richard Bintanja, asserted that despite global warming, Antartica’s sea ice increasing due to ice sheets from beneath melting.

But other scientists have equally plausible explanations for the occurrence.

The British Antarctic Survey’s Paul Holland has stuck to last year’s findings that climate change induced wind shifts were moving ice away from the coast. This then exposed water in some areas, which enabled them to freeze and generate more ice.

“The possibility remains that the real increase is the sum of wind-driven and melt water-driven effects, of course. That would be my best guess, with the melt water effect being the smaller of the two,” he explained to the London Science Media Centre.

Published in November 2012 again in Nature Geoscience, Holland’s study was the first direct evidence from evidence derived over the past twenty years. More than five million daily ice motion measurements were captured over the period to illustrate the long-term fluctuations in Antarctica’s sea ice drift.

Meanwhile, with a lack of direct evidence, the KNMI study appears to be a theory. However, they did use a computer-based climate model to replicate their findings. In response to the cool, fresh surface layer, in the Southern hemisphere the sea ice expanded during autumn and winter.

Enviro News – News

Read More »

Momentum for nature’s ‘blue carbon’ solution to climate change

Posted by admin on April 2nd, 2013

Efforts to restore marine ecosystems that store vast amounts of carbon have received a boost with the launch of a new website that provides the latest blue carbon science and policy.

IUCN – News

Read More »
« Older Entries