That’s the conclusion of a new climate change study published in the Sept. 4 edition of Science Magazine.

The study probably won’t convince the global-warming-is-a-hoax crowd because it confirms what most scientists and researchers, federal agencies through Republican and Democratic administrations, and international scientific organizations have been touting for years: Global warming is a problem and it’s not going away.

Bottom line: Greenhouse gases (GHGs), like carbon dioxide (CO2), cause the climate change phenomenon, and that these GHGs are man-made.

The proof of this is in Arctic ice core samples studied by researchers at Northern Arizona University (NAU).

They found that over the past 2,000 years, the Earth was slowing cooling. This average cooling trend continues through a warming trend in the Middle Ages and into the Little Ice Age that ran from the 13th to the 17th centuries. Then this cooling trend was reversed in the 20th century and dramatically after 1950. The effects of global warming or climate change are most pronounced in the Arctic Ocean, partly due to the tilt of the earth’s axis.

The Arizona Daily Star reports that the NAU explains why:

• Arctic temperatures have risen 2.2° since 1900 even though the Arctic has been receiving less of the Sun’s energy due to the tilt of the earth over the past 8,000 years
• The years 1999-2008 were the warmest in the Arctic in 2,000 years
• The years 1950-2000 were the warmest 50-year period in the Arctic in the same 2,000 years, and
• Arctic warming could be causing the unusually dry weather in the American Southwest by pulling winter storms farther north.

The full article on the study is available to Science subscribers. A free abstract of the NAU study is here. The Christian Science Monitor reports on the study, here.

One solution is the .pdf file by Adobe, which can help you eliminate paper, the hassles of filing and all the hardware costs associated with printing, faxing or copying a page.

That’s the promise offered by Duff Johnson, CEO of Appligent Document Solutions. Johnson helps companies get their arms around the .pdf technology to move towards the paperless office goal.

He promotes cost-saving opportunities in any office situation because each office-worker consumes 4,000 sheets, or 8 reams of paper a year. And Johnson likes to point out that making paper releases carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions on top of creating water and air pollution problems, even if the paper contains recycled content.

But “electronic” paper skips all that pollution, as well as the costs of maintaining copiers, fax machines, scanners, printers, software, etc. Then, there’s the savings on clerical costs of handling all the documents that can be better managed.

All this can be reduced with .pdf technology, as is detailed in a blog Johnson writes. Johnson’s articles are here.

In the pre-season matchups, Nissan just won an easy entry into the electric vehicle (EV) playoff race.

The company this week announced it will build affordable, mass produced EVs and start getting them on the road by 2010. It plans to make 100,000 EVs a year and will build them in Tennessee. Nissan’s EV is expected to be priced under $20,000, but officially, the company’s only saying that its EV will be very affordable. Global mass production will be under way by 2012.

All this opens the door for businesses to consider EVs as a way to enhance their green image. If Nissan delivers on the affordable promise, EVs will make economic sense for businesses, especially for company vehicles that cover predictable, regular routes.

Benefits include fuel savings (remember $4/gallon gasoline?) and credits for reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions as well as standard air pollution. And, unlike gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles and even some hybrids, a fully electric EV doesn’t burn any fuel while at idle.

If Nissan can come through on its promise to market an affordable EV, it could capture the market even though the company is a relative newcomer to the EV game. Other EV ideas in the works are pricey, top-end models. GM’s much touted Chevy Volt for example, is expected to cost more than $40,000.

Some photos of Nissan’s hybrid EV van and sedan offerings are here. Some pics of the Chevy Volt are here.

Nissan’s announcement pulled the rug out from under Ford’s big EV news. The American automaker got a press boost last week when it won a $5.9 billion loan from the Department of Energy to help produce EVs in 2010 and 2011. Nissan got a $1.6 billion loan for its EV work and newcomer, California-based Tesla Motors got $465 million to help produce its $50,000 Model S electric sedan.

For a pic of an electric Ford Focus and details of the DoE funding, click here.

And, while many are introducing green versions of their traditional products and services, this only nibbles at the edges of the sustainability goal.

So says the granddaddy of business machinery and computers, IBM. The company’s got its own green angle, as a consultant to promote eco-friendly business practices under the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) banner. IBM’s convinced that adopting CSR promotes long-term success and profitability, and it just completed its second global survey to prove the point.

CSR is not philanthropy or viewing regulatory compliance as a cost of doing business. It’s adopting environmental, social and economic policies that protect the planet, treat workers fairly, and still reward owners and shareholders.

But to evolve to this level of operation, companies need information, and they need to learn how to process information so they can polish their green images and product lines. The big roadblocks to implementing complete CSR programs are that companies fail to:

• collect and analyze all the right information about sustainability
• aggregate the data often enough so they have an up-to-date picture of market and regulatory realities
• collect enough CSR data from their supply chain partners. With inadequate data, companies are missing major opportunities to reduce inconsistencies, inefficiencies, waste and liabilities, and
• fully listen to and understand the concerns of key stakeholders — particularly their customers — who normally provide new ideas for market opportunities.

For example, IBM’s survey reveals that only 19% of companies collect carbon dioxide (CO2) emission data on a weekly or daily basis. Instead, they collect it monthly or quarterly. This meets regulatory requirements, but it misses out on the real green benefit offered with better data management — opportunities to improve energy efficiencies and reduce power consumption.

IBM’s survey is here.

IBM’s business consulting service department also promotes itself as a Green IT expert, helping clients improve energy efficiencies with their computer operations. Click here for IBM’s Green IT web page.

Going green is proving to be harder than most companies want to admit.

And, while many are introducing green versions of their traditional products and services, this only nibbles at the edges of the sustainability goal.

So says the granddaddy of business machinery and computers, IBM. The company’s got its own green angle, as a consultant to promote eco-friendly business practices under the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) banner. IBM’s convinced that adopting CSR promotes long-term success and profitability, and it just completed its second global survey to prove the point.

CSR is not philanthropy or viewing regulatory compliance as a cost of doing business. It’s adopting environmental, social and economic policies that protect the planet, treat workers fairly, and still reward owners and shareholders.

But to evolve to this level of operation, companies need information, and they need to learn how to process information so they can polish their green images and product lines. The big roadblocks to implementing complete CSR programs are that companies fail to:

• collect and analyze all the right information about sustainability
• aggregate the data often enough so they have an up-to-date picture of market and regulatory realities
• collect enough CSR data from their supply chain partners. With inadequate data, companies are missing major opportunities to reduce inconsistencies, inefficiencies, waste and liabilities, and
• fully listen to and understand the concerns of key stakeholders — particularly their customers — who normally provide new ideas for market opportunities.

For example, IBM’s survey reveals that only 19% of companies collect carbon dioxide (CO2) emission data on a weekly or daily basis. Instead, they collect it monthly or quarterly. This meets regulatory requirements, but it misses out on the real green benefit offered with better data management — opportunities to improve energy efficiencies and reduce power consumption.

IBM’s survey is here.

IBM’s business consulting service department also promotes itself as a Green IT expert, helping clients improve energy efficiencies with their computer operations. Click here for IBM’s Green IT web page.

Whether you want to or not right now, you may not have a choice once your competitors adopt green strategies, and it’s this kind of competitive pressure that’s driving cell phone maker Sony Ericsson to be green.

This summer marks a big expansion of the company’s GreenHeart initiative to make green telecommunications equipment that cuts energy usage by its customers and within its manufacturing facilities.

Sony Ericsson’s also adopting sustainable practices internally to become a green leader in its industry. For starters, Sony Ericsson plans to cut internal energy use by 20% by 2015. Its line of cell phones will use 15% less energy. The first phone products to achieve these green marks are its C901 GreenHeart and Naite phones, as well as its new MH300 GreenHeart headset. Click here for details.

But the company’s not just creating a line of green products. All of Sony Ericsson’s products will meet its new GreenHeart standards, and it’s adopting a wide mix of green initiatives, including:

• reducing reliance on hazardous materials used to manufacture its plastic parts
• replacing paper manuals with e-manuals to cut down on paper costs
• reducing the amount of packaging used to ship its products to reduce related carbon-dioxide emissions
• expanding use of recycled plastics, and
• substituting use of water-based paints to reduce the company’s volatile organic compound releases.

Click here for more details about the company’s GreenHeart program.

Many other green details, such as setting a goal to reduce the carbon footprint of each customer, are detailed in the company’s latest Corporate Responsibility Report.

Sony Errisson scores high on Greenpeace’s rating of green electronics companies. Click here to see what Greenpeace thinks green means.

It’s the little things you do to control everyday energy expenses, not fancy complicated new technology, that are racking up some big-time, green benefits. 

And, critically, the lessons learned in the past couple of years by McDonald’s can be adopted and customized for most any type of operation. That’s the encouraging news outlined in McDonald’s 2009 Global Best of Green report.

Some of the projects adopted by individual restaurants around the world include:

• cutting electricity use by 11% by developing software to help managers decide when to fire up operations
• improving energy efficiency by 22% by switching to green lighting and equipment
• cutting water use by 40% by installing high efficiency plumbing fixtures
• eliminating CFC refrigerants, which reduced energy use by 12% and greenhouse gas emissions by 25 tons
• reducing solid waste disposal costs by improving recycling programs, and
• motivating employees to search for energy savings opportunities.

Most companies don’t have the ability to hire extra staff and consultants to develop green projects that make economic sense now.

But McDonald’s has made the investment, and the company is sharing its results on more than 80 green projects that all ended up saving the company money. Why not learn from example instead of reinventing the wheel?

To read the Global Best of Green report, click here. The green report is part of McDonald’s Corporate Social Responsibility program.

So EPA now says greenhouse gas emissions are dangerous to human health and public welfare. Is it time to panic?

Hardly. This doesn’t mean we have to stop breathing carbon dioxide (CO2), and there won’t be any “cow tax” on dairy animal methane releases. But there’s lots of risk, extra costs and uncertainty ahead, because no matter how EPA ends up regulating GHG emissions to combat global warming, the coming barrage of regulations will drive up energy costs.

The big winners will be companies that create energy-efficient products and services that will help businesses and consumers offset higher energy costs. Other winners will be those in the renewable energy business hawking wind, solar and geothermal. There may even be a resurgent role for some nuclear as well.

The largest and most obvious targets are coal-fired power plants, as they’re the single largest source of CO2 releases, along with refineries and paper and steel mills and virtually any facility with an industrial boiler or process heater. But that’s not all. EPA’s also targeting facilities that release these other GHGs:

• methane
• nitrous oxide
• hydrofluorocarbons
• perfluorocarbons, and
• sulfur hexafluoride.

What’s so dangerous about these emissions? The problems, detailed in EPA’s so-called “endangerment” finding, include fears that the global warming (aka climate change) phenomenon will lead to:

• increased drought
• heavier storms and flooding
• more frequent and intense heat waves and wildfires
• rising sea levels, and
• a variety of harm to water resources, agriculture, wildlife and ecosystems.

The range of facilities to be regulated is huge, and it includes semiconductor plants, ceramic tile manufacturers,  food processors, transportation hubs, warehouses, schools, universities and even shopping malls.  Essentially, any facility with an industrial boiler or process heater powered by coal, oil or natural gas is ripe for direct GHG emission control regulations.

To review EPA’s justifications for all the coming regulations, click here.