TOP STORY

China and US Held Secret Talks on Climate Change Deal

"A high-powered group of senior Republicans and Democrats led two missions to China in the final months of the Bush administration for secret backchannel negotiations aimed at securing a deal on joint US-Chinese action on climate change, the Guardian has learned.  The initiative, involving John Holdren, now the White House science adviser, and others who went on to positions in Barack Obama's administration, produced a draft agreement in March, barely two months after the Democrat assumed the presidency.  The memorandum of understanding was not signed, but those involved in opening up the channel of communications believe it could provide the foundation for a US-Chinese accord to battle climate change, which could be reached as early as this autumn."  [The Guardian]

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Chinese Farmers Become Eco-refugees as the Desert Spreads

"Dust storms hit his village in Gansu province more often than in the past. The water table is falling. Temperatures rise year by year. Yet Huang says this is an improvement. Three years ago the government relocated him from an area where the river ran dry and the well became so salinated that people who drank from it fell sick...'We have taken every measure we can think of to stop the desert moving closer and submerging our crops and villages.'" [The Guardian]

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As Alaska Glaciers Melt, It’s Land That’s Rising

"Global warming conjures images of rising seas that threaten coastal areas. But in Juneau, as almost nowhere else in the world, climate change is having the opposite effect: As the glaciers here melt, the land is rising, causing the sea to retreat." [New York Times]

Toxic Waste from Hudson River Cleanup Headed to Texas

"In a bit of good news for the environment, work got underway this week to clean up hazardous PCB pollution that General Electric dumped into New York’s Upper Hudson River. But there’s also some bad news—which is that the toxic waste is being sent to a landfill that sits atop the Ogallala Aquifer, a key drinking-water source for West Texas."  [Grist]

Broad and Diverse Support for Waxman-Markey's American Clean Energy and Security Act

Pete Altman excerpts letters of support from a "broad and diverse range of constituencies, including businesses, unions, elected officials, environmental groups, organizations representing low-income Americans and people of faith and coalitions combining some of those constituencies."  [Switchboard]