Round Up of Environmental News for May 17, 2011

Solar farm near Climax losing money because of property taxes

Producing 225,592 kilowatt hours of electricity in its first year of operation, a solar farm in eastern Kalamazoo Coun­ty that went online in early 2010 has exceeded expectations.

Also exceeding expecta­tions is the property tax, said Sam Field, a Kalamazoo attor­ney and one of the owners of Kalamazoo Solar.

The $27,689 tax bill for the Charleston Township prop­erty means that the owners are losing money, even when being paid a premium price of 45 cents a kilowatt hour by Consumers Energy, he said.

Green as a Status Symbol: Why Increased Prices May Increase Sales

The significantly higher price of green products inhibits my, and other consumers, ability to purchase them, but more importantly it creates a divide between consumers that are able to purchase green goods and those that are not. The sentiments associated with this divide are often carried over into the sustainability movement as a whole giving it an exclusionary, or even elitist, vibe. It seems the simple answer would be to find a way to make green products cheaper.

Yellowstone bison get more room to roam

Two extra-wide, ankle-busting, road-blocking cattle-guards; 900 feet of jackleg fencing tied into rock outcroppings and other natural obstacles; a handful of heavy-duty gates: All to ensure that Yellowstone's renowned wild bison can roam more freely than they have in years. Starting in full next winter, the animals will be permitted on 75,000 acres surrounding Gardiner, Mont., between the national park's northern boundary and the brand-new barriers, until May 1. When Yellowstone is buried in snow, bison tend to leave for lower ground in search of food. And for decades, each winter they've been rounded up for slaughter, shot, and, more recently, hazed back into the park with horsemen, vehicles, even helicopters. That's because around half the park's bison test positive for exposure to abortion-inducing brucellosis, which many ranchers fear could spread to cattle in surrounding areas. The Interagency Bison Management Plan, adopted in 2000 by the National.

The rest of this story is behind a pay wall.  I'll probably stop linking to these folks.  But I'm in a hurry this morning and don't have time to find more about the story from another news site.

UK sets new legally binding emissions target

The United Kingdom, the first to enshrine reductions in climate change causing emissions into law, today announced a 2025 target of a 50 per cent emissions cut from 1990 levels.

The target, enshrined in the 4th Carbon Budget for the period 2023-2027, was the minimum level recommended by the independent Committee on Climate Change. 

I'm happy that folks are finally getting on the bandwagon to care about the Earth.  I'm sad that folks are still deluded into believing that reducing carbon emissions will have sort of real impact on climate change . . . which keeps us from taking steps to ensure we adapt quickly enough to protect most humans from the negative impacts to human lifestyles from climate change.