Environmental Roundup: June 5, 2009

James, we are moving to a monthly schedule--you can expect to receive the Environmental Roundup on the first Friday of every month!

Video Blogging from Bonn
International climate change negotiations are underway in Bonn, Germany. These negotiations, formally known as an "intercessional," are running from June 1 to 12 and are intended to lay the groundwork for countries to form a binding agreement to tackle the climate crisis. The agreement is expected to be finalized during further negotiations in Copenhagen, Denmark, later this year.

Two Friends of the Earth U.S. staff (Kate Horner and Karen Orenstein) are in Bonn to participate in the negotiations, and they're producing this video blog to keep folks back home up to speed.  Watch the videos...

House Democrat Goes Wrong Way on Biofuels
Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) is threatening to hold climate and energy legislation hostage if it doesn't end existing limits on global warming pollution from biofuels. In particular, Peterson is demanding that the way this pollution is measured be altered: he wants to ignore some of the pollution that's produced from the creation of cropland for biofuel feedstock production. (For example, pressure for land on which to grow corn for ethanol can lead to deforestation.) When this "land use change" is accounted for, most biofuels in use today actually result in more global warming pollution than traditional gasoline.

If you have a minute, please call Rep. Peterson's office at (202) 225-2165 and ask him to stop trying to prevent accurate accounting for global warming pollution from biofuels.

Learn more about the Renewable Fuels Standard or Biofuel Subsidies.

Ship Shape: Celebrate World Oceans Day!
This Monday, June 8 is World Oceans Day! After many years and much effort on the part of oceans advocates, the United Nations declared June 8th, 2009 as the first official World Oceans Day.

World Oceans Day provides us with an opportunity to recognize why the oceans matter to us. Unless we spend a lot of time in or near the ocean, it can be easy to think of the ocean as a vast blue "other" that has nothing to do with our daily existence. Read more...

Report to Expose Dangerous Nano-Silver in Consumer Products
Friends of the Earth will release a report next week showing how potentially harmful nano-silver particles are being put into a wide variety of consumer products in the U.S. The report will address human health and environmental risks from these particles. Upon its release, the report will be posted at www.foe.org.

Activist of the Year
The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, a coalition of public interest groups working on nuclear issues, recognized Friends of the Earth's southeastern nuclear campaign coordinator, Tom Clements, as its "Grassroots Activist of the Year" on April 28. Learn more about Tom's award and his work in the Carolinas.