• The Massachusetts Legislature had given preliminary approval to a Greenhouse Gas Bill that requires GHG emissions be reduced by as much as 25 % below 1990 levels by 2020 and 80% by 2050. The MA Senate is expected to pass it and Gov. Patrick has said he would sign it.

• In Japan, the government has announced its intention to implement carbon trading in order to meet its Kyoto Protocol targets. Japan’s stated goal is to reduce GHG emissions by 60-80% by 2050.

• In South Carolina, on July 28, representatives of over 2000 African American churches for the first time called all their members to act to mitigate climate change wherever possible. Well aware that health problems associated with climate changes such as excessive heat waves and polluted air affect those with lower incomes more than the general population, the leaders urged members to conserve energy and write or call their legislators to implement alternative energy sources.

• In South Africa, the government is set to begin regulating GHG emissions and is considering a carbon tax to mitigate the impacts of global warming. New legislation to that effect is expected to be adopted by 2012. The overall goal is to limit global temperature increases to no more than 2 degree above pre-industrial levels. The world’s average temperature has already increased by one degree in the last fifty years, leading to glacial melting, permafrost disintegration, oceanic temperatures increasing and a dramatic shift in plant and tree life northward across the globe.

• Effective July 30, the United Nations (UN) headquarters building in New York will take new steps to lower its CO2 emissions by turning thermostats up 5 degrees to 77º F. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon encouraged diplomats and bureaucrats inside headquarters to put away their heavy suits and turn to business casual attire or wear their national dress.

• As though to underscore each of the above actions, on July 29, a four square-kilometer chunk broke off the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf on the northern coast of Ellesmere Island in Canada’s Nunavut territory, releasing water from the fresh water lake it dammed into the ocean. Over the past century, 9,000 square kilometers of Arctic coast have melted away to less than 1,000 square kilometers.