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UN CLIMATE TALKS

U.N. climate deal in Paris may be graveyard for 2C goal.  The
U.N.'s Paris climate conference, designed to reach a plan for
curbing global warming, may instead become the graveyard for its
defining goal: to stop temperatures rising more than 2 degrees
Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Achieving the 2C (3.6
Fahrenheit) target has been the driving force for climate
negotiators and scientists, who say it is the limit beyond which
the world will suffer ever worsening floods, droughts, storms and
rising seas.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/01/us-climatechange-paris-insight-idUSKBN0OH1G820150601


Europe's Top Oil Firms Jointly Call for Carbon Pricing.  Europe's
top oil and gas companies urged governments around the world to
introduce a pricing system for carbon emissions, as governments
meet in Bonn, Germany, on Monday to work on a U.N. deal to fight
climate change. Criticised for not doing enough to tackle climate
change, the chief executives of BG Group, BP, Eni, Royal Dutch
Shell, Statoil and France's Total said carbon pricing "would
reduce uncertainty and encourage the most cost-effective ways of
reducing carbon emissions widely."
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2015/06/01/business/01reuters-europe-carbon-un.html


AIR POLLUTION

In a Nation of Smokers, Beijing Bans Lighting Up Indoors. 
China's capital began imposing the country's toughest ban on
smoking in public places Monday in hopes of stemming a looming
health crisis in a society where smoking remains a nearly
ubiquitous part of dining, social events and life in general.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_CHINA_SMOKING_BAN?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


Other related articles: 
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/02/world/asia/beijing-smoking-ban-air.html

http://www.latimes.com/nation/ct-china-smoking-bans-20150601-story.html


Indoor air purifiers may aid heart patients.  People with heart
conditions may benefit from using indoor air purifiers, suggests
a small study from China. While the study can't say air purifiers
prevent heart attacks or other major medical problems, several
risk factors for heart disease improved among young and healthy
adults who were exposed to purified air.
http://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/indoor-air-purifiers-may-aid-heart-patients-115053001495_1.html


West Berkeley residents air public health concerns.  Bad air,
noise, traffic, obesity, mental health issues, homelessness and
lack of information were among the concerns cited Tuesday at a
city health department-sponsored meeting at the West Berkeley
Library. Thirteen members of the West Berkeley area attended the
session conducted by four consultants from Oakland-based Bright
Research Group, working on a $42,000 city contract to engage the
community in the process developing of health department
priorities.
http://www.insidebayarea.com/breaking-news/ci_28216250/west-berkeley-residents-air-public-health-concerns


New App Gives Air Quality Forecast to Sacramento Region
Residents.  The Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management
District (AQMD) has launched an app, which gives daily air
quality forecasts and air pollution conditions to residents in
the Sacramento region. The new Sacramento Region Air Quality app
can now be downloaded for free on mobile devices with iOS, Google
Play or Windows app stores. 
http://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2015/06/01/741051/10136790/en/New-App-Gives-Air-Quality-Forecast-to-Sacramento-Region-Residents.html


CLIMATE CHANGE

Climate Model Suggests Everest Glaciers Could Nearly Disappear. 
By the end of this century, the landscape around Mount Everest
may drastically change. As the planet continues to warm, the
Everest region of Nepal could lose most of its glaciers,
according to a study published in the journal The Cryosphere.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/02/science/mount-everest-glaciers-melt-disappear-nepal.html


AP Interview: France warns climate change threatens security. 
Climate change is a threat to international security, France’s
influential Environment Minister Segolene Royal warned Saturday —
adopting an unusually hawkish stance as she heads to the U.S. to
push for a global deal on reducing emissions at a landmark Paris
conference this year. She will have to push especially hard in
Washington, but she relishes the challenge. Royal, longtime
former partner of President Francois Hollande and one of France’s
most experienced female politicians, is playing a key role ahead
of U.N. climate talks in Paris in December.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/ap-interview-france-warns-climate-change-threatens-security/2015/05/30/c328e82e-06e7-11e5-93f4-f24d4af7f97d_story.html


National targets cover 75 per cent of global emissions, study
finds. Three quarters of global emissions are now limited by
national targets, researchers say, raising the prospect of a
credible climate change deal being agreed later this year.  The
2015 Global Climate Legislation Study covers 98 countries plus
the European Union, which together are responsible for 93 per
cent of global emissions.
http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2410710/national-targets-cover-75-per-cent-of-global-emissions-study-finds


Warmer Oceans Will Make Typhoons More Intense. While the 2015
Atlantic hurricane season is expected to be relatively quiet,
thanks to the influence of a healthy El Niño, the typhoon season
in the northwest Pacific has been jam-packed so far, even for an
area that normally sees the highest tropical cyclone activity and
a large proportion of the strongest storms.
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/warming-increases-typhoon-intensity-19049


10 Years Since Katrina: A Look Back At The Busiest Hurricane
Season. Ten years ago, the U.S. experienced its busiest hurricane
season ever recorded. The year saw 28 named storms — 15 of them
hurricanes — including Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the
Gulf Coast. Four major hurricanes hit the U.S. in 2005, beginning
in July with Hurricane Dennis.
http://www.npr.org/2015/06/01/410291173/10-years-since-katrina-a-look-back-at-the-busiest-hurricane-season


DROUGHT

L.A. County drought plan decried by residents facing big water
bills.  Andrew Chadd was startled when he opened the notice from
the Los Angeles County agency that supplies water to his
neighborhood in the unincorporated community of Littlerock. To
conserve during the statewide drought, the letter said, Antelope
Valley water customers would have to collectively reduce
consumption 32%. But Chadd's family of seven would be required to
cut consumption 70% or potentially see their bill triple.
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-county-drought-20150601-story.html


DIESEL ACTIVITIES

E.P.A. Proposal Will Put Bigger Trucks on a Fuel Diet. Inside the
National Vehicle and Fuel Emissions Laboratory here, a mammoth
contraption, with steel rollers, advanced electronics and exhaust
tubes, is nearing completion. The project — an enormous “truck
treadmill” — is the new centerpiece of the Environmental
Protection Agency’s complex. One of the largest vehicle testing
centers in the world, the truck lab will play a crucial role in
shaping and enforcing a major new environmental mandate by the
Obama administration that could dramatically transform America’s
trucking industry.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/31/business/energy-environment/epa-proposal-will-put-bigger-trucks-on-a-fuel-diet.html?ref=energy-environment&_r=1


Other related articles:
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Tough-haul-for-clean-trucks-6296744.php


FUELS

EPA proposes a biofuels compromise — and makes nobody happy.  The
embattled Environmental Protection Agency on Friday released new
proposed rules for the volume of biofuels to be blended into the
nation’s fuels through 2016, in an effort to put itself back on
schedule after numerous missed deadlines but still failing to
please business interests on both sides affected by the rule.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/05/29/epa-proposes-a-biofuels-compromise-and-makes-nobody-happy/

http://www.wsj.com/articles/epa-proposes-three-year-ethanol-rule-1432911962?KEYWORDS=fuels


LUMBER LIQUIDATORS

Lumber Liquidators explains why it relabeled products; shares
bounce. Lumber Liquidators Holdings Inc.’s stock bounced sharply
off multiyear lows Monday, as investors digested the company’s
explanation as to why it held some wood flooring products, then
relabeled them with new safety-standard certificate numbers. The
stock LL, +2.40%  ran up 1.6% in morning trade, after being down
as much as 1.6% at an intraday low of $20.07 earlier in the
session.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/lumber-liquidators-explains-why-it-relabeled-products-shares-bounce-2015-06-01


VEHICLES

California bends but doesn't yield on ZEVs.  California
environmental regulators have decided that even the smallest
automakers will have to comply with ambitious clean-car rules
that mandate the sale of zero-emission vehicles. But the state is
giving them some wiggle room. At a May 18 hearing, the California
Air Resources Board rejected a plea from Jaguar Land Rover,
Mazda, Mitsubishi, Subaru and Volvo to be exempted from the
mandate. They had argued that their small r&d budgets will keep
them from developing and selling electrified cars as easily as
full-line automakers such as Ford, General Motors and Nissan,
which already must sell ZEVs.
http://www.autonews.com/article/20150530/OEM11/306019987/california-bends-but-doesnt-yield-on-zevs

https://transportevolved.com/2015/06/01/california-reaches-compromise-with-automakers-on-zero-emission-vehicle-mandate/


Smog checks now required on hybrid vehicles in California.  Did
you buy a hybrid car thinking one of the perks was not having to
go through the expense and hassle of smog checks? Tiumes are
changing and an exemption is no longer true, according to the
California Air Resources Board. John Swanton, air pollution
specialist for the California Air Resources Board, said the
hybrid vehicles have been exempt since the first ones in about
2001 because the state waited to see what the track record was on
their maintenance records.
http://www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com/stories/001/?ID=28436 

Why Electric Cars Are Rare Outside CA: Arcane 'Travel Provision'
Rule.  The sparsity of cars with plugs has been one of the
biggest frustrations for Northeastern electric-car shoppers and
advocates. While California buyers can choose among roughly two
dozen different battery-electric and plug-in hybrid offerings,
just a handful are available outside the state. And that's
despite nine Northeastern states having adopted California's
zero-emission vehicle sales rules.
http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1098525_why-electric-cars-are-rare-outside-ca-arcane-travel-provision-rule


MISCELLANEOUS

Wearable air quality sensor provides real-time data, contributes
to crowdsourced map.  Air pollution and poor air quality aren't
just concerns in the developing world, where smoky cookstoves and
lax environmental standards for vehicles and industry are the
norm, but also affect the health of people in some of the most
modern cities on the planet. 
http://www.treehugger.com/gadgets/tzoa-wearable-air-quality-sensor.html


BLOGS

5 Things to Know About Batteries and Electricity Storage.  Tesla
Motors and other companies are jumping into the budding business
of electricity-storage batteries. Here’s what you should know
about these super batteries.
http://blogs.wsj.com/briefly/2015/05/28/5-things-to-know-about-batteries-and-electricity-storage/?KEYWORDS=air+pollution


The subtle — but real — relationship between global warming and
extreme weather events.  Last week, some people got really mad at
Bill Nye the Science Guy. How come? Because he had the gall to
say this on Twitter: Billion$$ in damage in Texas & Oklahoma.
Still no weather-caster may utter the phrase Climate Change.
Nye’s comments, and the reaction to them, raise a perennial
issue: How do we accurately parse the relationship between
climate change and extreme weather events, as they occur in real
time?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/06/01/the-subtle-but-real-relationship-between-global-warming-and-extreme-weather-events/




California is in a drought emergency.
Visit www.SaveOurH2O.org for water conservation tips.