Friends of the Earth Biofuels Database

My friends who is working on her sustainable business MBA found this recently.

You can view impacts of a selected biofuel (source), or compare: Friends of the Earth Biofuels Database.

This looks like a very interesting starting point for anyone contemplating producing or relying on biofuels.

Clean Alternative Energy Act

Proposition 87 will be voted on in California in November to tax oil drilling. This is considered the most expensive initiative in history with $105 million spent to date.

The idea, capped at $4 million, is to use the proceeds to sponsor projects in solar, wind, and ethanol, among other energy options.

The initiative boasts spokespersons of both Clinton and Gore as well as a number of Hollywood celebraties.

The rest of the article can be found here:
California's Big-Bucks Battle Over Clean Energy

An Inconvenient Truth

Thank you all for joining us yesterday for the Center for Law and Social Responsibility Environmental Advocacy Project & Environmental Law Society screening of An Inconvenient Truth. The film will be available on DVD to purchase in late November, and should be in the NESL library by spring semester.

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www.climatecrisis.net is the website for the film. Check it out to learn more about what you can do, today, to make a difference. Did you see those stats about Americans having the highest carbon emissions load of any other country? Let's each of us change that, for ourselves, right now.

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And, now that you've seen it -- train to be an Inconvenient Truth presenter. Check out www.theclimateproject.org for more details and an application form.

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Don't forget the Global Warming Action Conference in November! If you're interested in a group rate, contact Iva Ziza at ivaziza@gmail.com.

Mass. Climate Action Network's 5th Massachusetts & New England Global Warming Action Conference

Sunday, Nov. 19, 8:30 am - 6:00 pm

MIT's Stata Center, 32 Vassar St, Cambridge, MA

Hosted by MIT’s Technology & Culture Forum (TAC)
Co-sponsors: Clean Water Action, Conservation Law Foundation,
Environmental League of Mass., MassPIRG,
Mass. Sierra Club, Mass. Technology Collaborative

- What you, your town, city, state, company, or university can do about global warming
- Learn from & network with climate activists, technical experts & policy specialists

For updated conference program information, go to www.MassClimateAction.org

Oceanic Dead Zones

The U.N. has posted that scientists have found 200 "dead zones" in our oceans, a thirty-four percent increase in two years.

Dead zones are described as location where pollution strangles the marine life and those that rely upon them.

The cause of the dead zones are primarly thought to be fertilizer, sewage, and the burning of fossil fuel.

Here is the full report:
http://www.gpa.unep.org/bin/php/igr/igr2/supporting.php

NYU Environmental Law Journal Essay Contest

The NYU Environmental Law Journal is pleased to announce the fourth annual National Student Essay Contest. The contest, which recognizes outstanding student scholarship on current topics in environmental and land use law, takes place each year, with submissions due in early January and the winners published in the third issue of each volume of ELJ. The contest is open to all students enrolled in any U.S. law school and to individuals who have graduated from a U.S. law school within the last year. Essays must be original; they may have been submitted for course credit, but they must not have been published elsewhere or have been written as part of paid employment. Each year the contest entries are judged by a panel that includes the Editor-in-Chief of ELJ, the Submissions Editor, an NYU School of Law faculty member, and a reader selected from the greater community of environmental law practitioners and scholars. The winner of the contest receives a $1000 cash prize.

For more information: feel free to contact us at law.elj@nyu.edu if you have any questions. Thanks, and we look forward to receiving many great entries,

Kathy Hanna
Managing Editor
NYU Environmental Law Journal

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The flyer will be posted on TWEN.

SWEP

We had a great turnout on Thursday for the Society for Women Environmental Professionals event. Our guest speaker was Sonya Ward, a program manager at ENSR's Integrated Site Closure Group in Pennsylvania which focuses on environmental compliance and site remediation. She spoke on the importance of networking for career growth.

Another SWEP meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, November 14th at 6 p.m. in the Seaport Hotel Lounge in conjunction with visiting chapters for the Brownfields Conference. Everyone is invited.

Cathy Roberts, the Environmental Studies Director at Holy Cross, announced The Blackstone Canal Symposium in Worcester on November 3rd and 4th. For more information, www.nps.gov/blac.

The 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Wangari M. Maathai, "a world-renowned environmentalist" is speaking at the Holy Cross campus on October 25th from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on "The Greenbelt Movement in Africa: Mobilizing Ordinary People to Improve the Environment and Their Day-to-Day Lives". This event is FREE!

Any other events in the community - do tell!

Watch "An Inconvenient Truth" with the ELS!

The Environmental Law Society and the Center for Law and Social Responsibility invite NESL students and members of the legal community to a screening of "An Inconvenient Truth".

If you haven't heard of it, "An Inconvenient Truth" is a film by former Vice President Al Gore on the effects of global warming and our role in reversing them. In his review of the film, Roger Ebert wrote: "This is not a boring film.... You owe it to yourself to see this film."

So if you haven't seen it, now's your chance!

Our panelists during intermission will be:

* David Cash, Director of Air, Energy & Waste Policy for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs
* James W. Hunt III, Chief for Environmental and Energy Services, City of Boston
* Ann Weeks, Litigation Director, Clean Air Task Force

Room 305
October 19th, 2006
3:15 p.m.

~ Refreshments will be provided ~

For those interested in International Environmental Law

International Environmental Law Committee of the BBA:

Stuart Sleeman, Material Content Manager for the ESH Department of Sensata Technologies, will discuss how the European WEEE and RoHS directives have affected US multinationals and EU Member countries. He will also discuss what you will need to put in place for and the potential impact of China’s version of the RoHS directive which will become effective on January 1, 2007.

-- OK, I don't know what half that means, so it's a great opportunity to show up and learn. Remember, the BBA just asks for $7 if you eat lunch there.

Date and Time
Friday, October 13, 2006
12:30 p.m.

Location
Boston Bar Association
16 Beacon Street
Boston, MA 02108