President Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao vowed action on climate change last week.

CNN

President Obama will go to Copenhagen, Denmark, next month for a climate-change summit, the White House said Wednesday.

According to a news release, Obama is prepared to set a goal of reducing emissions to 17 percent below 2005 levels over the next decade.

The White House also reiterated Obama's goal of reducing U.S. emissions by 83 percent by 2050.

The targets come from a climate-change bill passed by the House of Representatives. The Senate has yet to pass the bill, so the United States has not committed itself to any binding goals.

Keep Reading...

President Obama will visit China next week

Frances Beinecke
Special to CNN

When President Obama visits China next week, global climate change will top the agenda. The stakes could hardly be higher - for the two Pacific powers and for the world.

Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao have a chance to make a good-faith start at the kind of cooperation the rest of the world might rally around at the global climate summit next month in Copenhagen.

In September, I visited China, where my organization, the Natural Resources Defense Council, has been active for nearly 15 years. I was able to see firsthand the efforts the Chinese were undertaking to harness their clean-energy potential.

I toured the green Olympic Village in Beijing, attended a clean tech conference in Shanghai and met with China's top climate negotiator, Minister Xie Zhenhua.

Keep Reading...

Jonathan Safran Foer
Special to CNN

Like most people, I'd given some thought to what meat actually is, but until I became a father and faced the prospect of having to make food choices on someone else's behalf, there was no urgency to get to the bottom of things.

I'm a novelist and never had it in mind to write nonfiction. Frankly, I doubt I'll ever do it again. But the subject of animal agriculture, at this moment, is something no one should ignore. As a writer, putting words on the page is how I pay attention.

If the way we raise animals for food isn't the most important problem in the world right now, it's arguably the No. 1 cause of global warming: The United Nations reports the livestock business generates more greenhouse gas emissions than all forms of transportation combined.

It's the No. 1 cause of animal suffering, a decisive factor in the creation of zoonotic diseases like bird and swine flu, and the list goes on. It is the problem with the most deafening silence surrounding it.

Keep Reading...

Drew Griffin
CNN 

Two men carry supplies to a village damaged by mudslides during Typhoon Morakot in Maolin, Kaohsiung county/ (Photo by STR/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)

An escaped pig caught by local residents lies along a stream of water flowing along a road in Liukuei, in the typhoon devastated area of Kaohsiung county, southern Taiwan. (Photo by Sam Yeh/Getty Images)

Keep reading

Exxon Mobil is paying the price for its pollution.

Terry Frieden
CNN Justice Producer

Oil giant Exxon Mobil Corporation has pled guilty and will pay $600,000 in fines for the deaths of 85 protected migratory birds in the firm's wastewater ponds in five states.

Waterfowl, hawks and owls protected under an international treaty were killed after landing in open uncovered pools where they were coated with or ingested fatal doses of hydrocarbons, federal officials said.

The facilities are in Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas.

"This is a great win for the environment," Acting Assistant Attorney General John Cruden told reporters in a telephone news conference.

Keep reading

Andrew L. Shapiro
Special to CNN

In a recent CNN commentary entitled "Green jobs: hope or hype?" Samuel Sherraden argues that green job creation will be insufficient to bring America out of recession. But Sherraden narrowly defines green as a "sector," and fails to see its potential as a strategy for the revitalization of the entire economy.

When the public debate is focused around the precise number of green jobs created in, say, a solar panel factory, we miss the opportunity as a country to think more broadly about greening the economy - and building a foundation for real growth and competitiveness.

The aspiration to create "green jobs" should really be seen as shorthand for two public priorities - immediate job creation and long-term transformation of the economy for sustainability and prosperity - and both goals can be addressed simultaneously. However, in judging our progress, a simple tally of jobs in "green sectors" is only a partial indicator of the impact and thus can be misleading.

Keep Reading...

In addition to being the keyboardist for the Rolling Stones for the last 27 years, Chuck Leavell writes that he is 'passionate about what trees and forests do for us.'

Chuck Leavell
Environmentalist, Author and Musician

In an age where we often hear about the alarming worldwide effects of climate change, global warming, and greenhouse gases, it is easy to forget that some solutions lie within our grasp.

Trees, particularly in urban areas, provide numerous benefits. They improve air and water quality, conserve water and reduce storm runoff, help reduce heat caused by buildings and pavement, and absorb carbon. It is up to us to ensure these trees are providing the maximum benefit and that we do our part to keep them healthy.

That's where research comes in. On July 19, America's largest fundraiser for tree research, the STIHL Tour des Trees, will kick off from New York City. Cyclists from across the world gather each year to travel more than 500 miles across different routes through the United States to benefit the Tree Research and Education Endowment (TREE) Fund and to raise awareness for the need for research to keep urban trees and forests healthy.

I am passionate about what trees and forests do for us. My wife, Rose Lane, and I are tree farmers in Georgia, carrying on a tradition of good stewardship of the land that her grandparents passed down to us and that was begun by earlier generations of the family more than 100 years ago. We do our best to care for the land in a responsible way, to set an example for our two daughters and two grandsons about caring for the earth.
Keep reading

The Empire State Building is set to reduce its energy output by 38 percent.

Asia Lindsay
AC360º Intern

Having just arrived in New York City, fresh from Manchester, England, and being the kind of person who carpools elevators, I was pleasantly surprised by the level of environmental consciousness in The Big Apple.

Take the Empire State Building, for instance. It is one of my (and America’s) favorite buildings, is famous for its romantic depiction in countless films, and it can now add tackling climate change to its impressive resume.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Bill Clinton’s Climate Initiative (CCI) and, of course, the Empire State Building Company have joined forces for the $500 million renovation to make the iconic building more eco-friendly. The project will also aim to boost the building’s LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) status to Gold – the highest rating in the green building industry. Keep reading