The New York Times reports that the nation’s top military and intelligence services expect that the global warming phenomenon will create huge challenges to the U.S. security interests.

The effects of climate change could force the U.S. to increase military interventions as developing nations deal with increased flooding, drought, pandemics and the prospect of millions of refugees caused by rising temperatures that are melting the polar ice caps and glaciers and changing traditional weather patterns.

The issue for the military is not what’s causing global warming, or who’s causing it, or even how to reduce the effects by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Military planners assume the global warming threat is real, and they’re planning on how to deal with the consequences over the next 20 to 30 years.

Times reporter John Broder says military planners are concentrating on Africa, the Middle East and Asia, where the risk of climate change and the prospect of mass migrations of refugees could spark humanitarian and severe political upheavals.

Broder also notes that the military’s concerns about climate change could help convince the Senate to approve the GHG cap-and-trade bill (H.R. 2454) that was approved by the House earlier this summer. Click here for details.

The NYT article is here.

The big advantage of the Smith Newton, made by Britain’s Smith Electric Vehicles, is the potential to eliminate GHG and other air pollution problems associated with gasoline- and diesel-powered trucks. There are also powerful fuel-cost savings as most recharging for the Smith Newton can be done overnight when electricity rates are cheapest.

The Smith Newton has a top speed of 50 mph, and a range of 100 miles on a single charge of its lithium ion batteries. It will take six to eight hours to recharge, which makes them suitable for corporate fleet vehicles that return to a central location each night. A Smith Electric brochure on some of the benefits of an EV truck is here.

Disadvantage: Cost. These first vehicles will cost nearly three times a standard diesel truck, well over $150,000.

However, these costs are expected to moderate once Smith Electric Vehicles U.S. completes its assembly plant in Kansas City, MO. Once the factory is up and running next year, it will provide 120 green jobs. Smith Electric also says it will help coordinate federal and state incentive programs to help offset the higher cost of going electric.

Companies taking delivery of at least one Smith Electric truck include:

• Coca-Cola Enterprises
• Frito-Lay
• AT&T
• Staples
• Pacific Gas & Electric, and
• Kansas City Power & Light.

Coca-Cola already plans to add a couple more.

More details on Smith Electric Vehicles are here.

That’s the image Fairmont Hotels & Resorts wants its customers and business partners to picture. It’s part of the luxury hotel chain’s Green Partnership Program to not only boost business, but cut operating costs and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as well.

The chain has pledged to reduce its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 20% below 2006 levels by 2013. Fairmont’s touting this strategy because tracking GHG emissions is becoming the major benchmark for its industry, and the chain intends to position itself as an industry leader.

To help meet its CO2 reduction goal, Fairmont just adopted a Green IT strategy to attack energy usage. By the end of the year, Fairmont hotels will:

• automatically power down computer workstations and laptops after one hour of inactivity, which will earn the chain GHG reduction credits of 1,356 tons of CO2 a year
• divert electronic wastes from disposal to recycling in markets that support e-waste recycling
• develop donation standards to make sure Fairmont hotels and spas send e-wastes to qualified and respected recycling companies and charities
• adopt a green procurement policy to only buy products that are certified under the Energy Star or Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool programs, and
• partner with service companies that adopt Extended Product Responsibility programs.

Fairmont’s Green IT announcement is here.

The hotel chain has also adopted a green laundry program, using an ozone disinfection system that reduced energy costs by 20%. The Laundry Ozone Purification System is a non-invasive and passive injection technology that Fairmont says has dramatically reduced water, sewer, gas and electric bills at its Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa in Sonoma Valley, CA.

Details about Fairmont’s ozone laundry program are here.

The company just announced that it will no longer purchase any carbon offsets as part of its strategy to become a carbon-neutral computer organization.

Instead, the company intends to rely on purchasing power from renewable energy suppliers and investing in energy-efficient data processing technologies.

To do all this, the company is building a new data processing center outside of Buffalo, NY, so it can rely totally on hydroelectric power from Niagara Falls. That right there eliminates most of its GHG emissions and need for any carbon credits.

Then to make this new data center most efficient, Yahoo! will use 90% of that power to run its servers at the Lockport, NY facility. Only 10% will be used for cooling, an industry first, according to Yahoo! The best other companies have achieved is a 50/50 split in powering servers vs. cooling them.

The company is investing in modern Green IT equipment instead of relying on carbon credits because, “We believe creating highly-efficient data centers will have a greater long-term, direct impact on the environment” and this will give Yahoo! a leadership role in combating climate change, says Yahoo! co-founder David Filo.

The reason Yahoo! won’t need so much power for cooling at its Lockport, NY data center is because the company’s building is configured to draw in the outside air in the Buffalo area to handle 100% of server cooling duties. This is achieved by a new design that Yahoo! says resembles a chicken coop. The company calls its new building design the Yahoo! Computing Coop.

The Yahoo! carbon neutral announcement is here and its blog is here.

Skip the greenwashing, but proudly tout how your offering helps reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

It turns out most consumers want to buy something green — they’re just looking for a reason to do it. So don’t be shy about telling them why your products are good for reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) and GHG emissions.

Oh, and don’t fret if your think your competition is greener than you.  It turns out that companies making many environmentally friendly products aren’t doing such a great job of making the case for themselves.

Nearly 70% of those consumers surveyed by the Carbon Trust recently said they can’t reliably tell which companies are truly green. That creates a huge opportunity for marketers who can beef up their green campaigns.

The value of getting on your soapbox is underscored by other findings, such as:

• 66% said it’s important to buy from environmentally responsible companies that work on reducing their own and their customers’ carbon footprints
• 63% said they’d likely buy a product if they knew what you’re doing to reduce its carbon footprint
• 59% are skeptical about environmental claims
• 25% avoid buying from companies with poor ethical records, and
• 14% stopped buying from companies with poor environmental records.

But to win over consumer confidence, don’t just rely on advertising claims. Carbon Trust’s Harry Morrison says consumers aren’t looking for hype.  So you’ll need to offer real green benefits and have those benefits touted either in the media, through accreditation or some non-partisan third party.

The Carbon Trust survey is here.

To help you get started on your carbon footprint homework, Carbon Trust offers some tools to benchmark your energy, fuel, and vehicle usage as well as employee travel. For the Trust’s carbon footprint calculators, click here.

Wanna beat the recession and get a leg up on your competitors at the same time? Then make sure you’re shouting about the (real) eco-friendly aspects of your products and services.

Skip the greenwashing, but proudly tout how your offering helps reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

It turns out most consumers want to buy something green — they’re just looking for a reason to do it. So don’t be shy about telling them why your products are good for reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) and GHG emissions.

Oh, and don’t fret if your think your competition is greener than you.  It turns out that companies making many environmentally friendly products aren’t doing such a great job of making the case for themselves.

Nearly 70% of those consumers surveyed by the Carbon Trust recently said they can’t reliably tell which companies are truly green. That creates a huge opportunity for marketers who can beef up their green campaigns.

The value of getting on your soapbox is underscored by other findings, such as:

• 66% said it’s important to buy from environmentally responsible companies that work on reducing their own and their customers’ carbon footprints
• 63% said they’d likely buy a product if they knew what you’re doing to reduce its carbon footprint
• 59% are skeptical about environmental claims
• 25% avoid buying from companies with poor ethical records, and
• 14% stopped buying from companies with poor environmental records.

But to win over consumer confidence, don’t just rely on advertising claims. Carbon Trust’s Harry Morrison says consumers aren’t looking for hype.  So you’ll need to offer real green benefits and have those benefits touted either in the media, through accreditation or some non-partisan third party.

The Carbon Trust survey is here.

To help you get started on your carbon footprint homework, Carbon Trust offers some tools to benchmark your energy, fuel, and vehicle usage as well as employee travel. For the Trust’s carbon footprint calculators, click here.

It may be hard for some global warming skeptics to believe, but the effects of all those greenhouse gases (GHGs) accumulating in the atmosphere are already creating severe climatic changes.

A new study from the U.S. Global Change Research Program concludes there’s no doubt that climate change is here, and that unless action is taken to reduce CO2 and other GHG emissions, like today and right away, the effects will intensify. The program uses scientific experts from 13 federal agencies and the White House.

The report clearly makes the case that former vice president Al Gore was right about global warming.

Weather changes are already making an impact in the U.S. include more severe droughts in the Southwest, more storms in the Midwest and East and rising sea levels from Alaska to Florida. The cause? Human activity, from the industrial revolution through today.

And, what’s going to really upset those who don’t want to believe global warming is a problem, is that this report isn’t the work of President Obama, but the summation of 10 years of research conducted by the Bush administration.

The report warns that the weather changes caused by global warming will be more severe as the years pass. For example, summertime in Illinois will soon feel like steamy Louisiana.

As weather patterns change, snowpack and water supplies are already diminishing in the West, Southwest and Northwest. This hurts more than farmers and ranchers. Falling water levels in streams and rivers reduces hydroelectric power generation.

The U.S. Global Change Research Program report is here.

To see a slide of the extreme jump in carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere compared over the past 800,000 years, click here. The site includes other slides graphically proving that global warming is occurring now.

The study’s top 10 key findings that will make global warming skeptics howl are here.

The state has already struck deals with two companies to build manufacturing facilities in Tennessee and create 1,000  new “green” jobs for the Volunteer State. 

The lure: State tax breaks to offset future carbon taxes or emission fees.

The Tennessee tax break promises to offset costs of carbon emission fees or taxes to green energy manufacturers or suppliers that invest at least $250 million in the state.  The first to take up the offer from Gov. Phil Bredesen (D) are:

• Waker Chemie AG, which will build a $1 billion plant and create 500 jobs in Bradley County, and
• Hemlock Semiconductor Corp., which will build a $1.2 billion facility and create 500 jobs in Montgomery County.

The green component: Both plants will produce polycrystaline silicon, a material used to make solar cells and semiconductors.

The tax breaks are part of the Bredesen administration’s plan to create so-called “green-collar” jobs in Tennessee. Other incentives the state offers: fast-track approvals for infrastructure development, job training assistance and tax credits for job creation.

To find out more about Tennessee’s tax credit, go here.