Less than half of the general public in the U.K. thinks that climate change or global warming is caused by man-made activities. That’s the word according to a survey in London’s The Times newspaper.

The Times reports that only 41% of the British public believes that it’s a scientific fact that global warming has been caused by human activity. Other findings:

• 32% believe that the link between human activity and global warming is still unproven
• 15% don’t believe the planet is warming up, and
• 8% say that it’s “environmentalist propaganda” to blame global warming on human activity.

Driving Britons’ rising disbelieve is the prospect of a new round of green taxes intended to drive up the cost of using fossil fuels to make clean and renewable energy more competitive. The new taxes are coming because the U.K. has agreed to legally binding agreements to cut its carbon emissions by 34% by 2020 and by 80% by 2050.

The U.S. has yet to agree to any mandatory cuts, though Congress is considering bills that call for 20% cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.

The U.K.’s energy secretary dismisses the poll because “the overwhelming body of scientific information is stacked up against the [global warming] deniers and shows us that climate change is man-made and is happening now.” Political leaders in London admit they have more work to do to convince the public that the threat is real.

Meanwhile, The Times also reports that if climate change does lead to the catastrophe that many predict, the changes could happen in just a few months. It only took six months for the world to plunge into a deep freeze during the last major ice age 12,800 years ago, according to geological professor William Patterson with Canada’s University of Saskatchewan.

That’s the way the U.S. Chamber of Commerce hopes to derail federal plans to regulate carbon dioxide (CO2), the most abundant greenhouse gas (GHG) released. The LA Times reports that group is seriously proposing to recreate the Scopes Monkey Trial that so entertained Americans in the summer of 1925.

The Chamber’s Bill Kovacs thinks having a judge decide whether climate change science — supported by the National Academy of Sciences and other reputable, international scientific organizations — is true or not. Kovacs has asked EPA to hold a public hearing/trial/spectacle to end the debate about global warming science.

The Chamber hopes to rouse public opposition against a pending EPA plan to declare that CO2 is a “pollutant” that could be regulated under the Clean Air Act. The U.S. Supreme Court has already ruled that EPA has the legal authority to do this.

The so-called EPA “endangerment” proposal is separate from the pending plan in Congress to create a cap-and-trade program to regulate American GHG emissions. EPA chief Lisa Jackson has said her agency would not use the Clean Air Act to regulate GHG emissions if Congress adopts cap-and-trade legislation.

However, if Congress fails to act, EPA will, and any EPA action is expected to be more onerous than a federal cap-and-trade program. Reason: EPA could directly regulate each facility’s GHG emissions, and the agency has the enforcement muscle to make noncompliance more expensive than compliance.

The Chamber hopes the climate change trial would prove that EPA hasn’t used the latest scientific analysis to support its possible regulation. The Chamber reports on its blog that the agency used secondary scientific sources that weren’t adequately peer-reviewed to justify regulating CO2 and other GHG releases. The Chamber fears that such regulation would wreck havoc on the U.S. economy. Click here.

EPA will deny this trial request, so watch for the Chamber to then ask a federal court to order this climate change trial.

Note: The Scopes Monkey Trial pitted Clarence Darrow against Williams Jennings Bryan in an evolution vs. creationism debating match. Darrow’s client was found guilty of teaching evolution.

The law was simple. Tennessee had banned teaching of evolution.

Bryan won in court, but most observers felt he lost the debate. In any case, the effort exposed him to widespread ridicule and he died five days later.

The solar power industry just got a big jolt in the arm, not in California, but in New Jersey.

Thanks to a $515 million investment by PSE&G, New Jersey will retain its status as the nation’s second-largest solar power generator. California is first. The investment will generate 80 megawatts of solar power capacity and reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Under the Solar 4 All program, PSE&G will spend $314 million to build solar gardens on top of its buildings, as well as on schools, municipal buildings, low-income housing and closed garbage dumps. It’s also hoping to use the solar gardens to encourage business to invest in economic development zones.

The second part of the Solar 4 All project is installation of small solar arrays on the state’s 200,000 utility poles. The $200-million contract went to New Jersey-based Petra Solar, which will build the world’s largest pole-attached solar system. The 40 megawatts from these units will be sold into the wholesale grid. Petra says the contract will create 100 new green jobs in the Garden State. Click here for details. Photos of the pole-mount arrays are here.

Full details of the PSE&G solar program are here.

Granted, New Jersey’s not particularly known as a sunny state, like Arizona, California, and Florida, but that really doesn’t matter for solar power. The Solar Energy Industries Association says solar can work in a variety of areas. Click here for solar FAQS. And, the industry says solar investments usually pay for themselves in four years. Click here for the association’s myth-buster page.

However, PSE&G says its solar project will raise residential electric bills between $1.20 and $4 a year.

Other alternative and energy efficiency programs promoted by PSE&G include:

• $150 million in loans to help pay for 30 megawatt solar gardens on business, residential and municipal building rooftops
• $240 million to provide energy audits at small businesses, hospitals and homes, and
• $50 million to replace mercury vapor street lights with induction fluorescent lights.

Reason for all the investment: State law requires that 22.5% of New Jersey’s electricity be supplied by renewable sources by 2020.

Thanks to a $515 million investment by PSE&G, New Jersey will retain its status as the nation’s second-largest solar power generator. California is first. The investment will generate 80 megawatts of solar power capacity and reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Under the Solar 4 All program, PSE&G will spend $314 million to build solar gardens on top of its buildings, as well as on schools, municipal buildings, low-income housing and closed garbage dumps. It’s also hoping to use the solar gardens to encourage business to invest in economic development zones.

The second part of the Solar 4 All project is installation of small solar arrays on the state’s 200,000 utility poles. The $200-million contract went to New Jersey-based Petra Solar, which will build the world’s largest pole-attached solar system. The 40 megawatts from these units will be sold into the wholesale grid. Petra says the contract will create 100 new green jobs in the Garden State. Click here for details. Photos of the pole-mount arrays are here.

Full details of the PSE&G solar program are here.

Granted, New Jersey’s not particularly known as a sunny state, like Arizona, California, and Florida, but that really doesn’t matter for solar power. The Solar Energy Industries Association says solar can work in a variety of areas. Click here for solar FAQS. And, the industry says solar investments usually pay for themselves in four years. Click here for the association’s myth-buster page.

However, PSE&G says its solar project will raise residential electric bills between $1.20 and $4 a year.

Other alternative and energy efficiency programs promoted by PSE&G include:

• $150 million in loans to help pay for 30 megawatt solar gardens on business, residential and municipal building rooftops
• $240 million to provide energy audits at small businesses, hospitals and homes, and
• $50 million to replace mercury vapor street lights with induction fluorescent lights.

Reason for all the investment: State law requires that 22.5% of New Jersey’s electricity be supplied by renewable sources by 2020.

With energy prices starting to climb again, it’s a good time to focus on energy efficiencies. And, the good news is that taming your cooling bills in the summer does not require big investments in new equipment, software or fancy controls.

The secret is basic maintenance. EPA just published some reminders on how businesses can control their electric bills and improve their environmental footprint at the same time. Remember, when you cut your electric bill, you’re also cutting air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

To get your company and employees to go green this summer, EPA recommends:

1. using programmable thermostats so you don’t waste money cooling the building after hours when nobody’s working
2. making sure managers are using facility controls properly, and
3. inspecting and maintaining cooling system equipment because cooling and ventilation accounts for 20% of your electric bill in the summer.

And, if you do decide to buy new equipment, such as printers, fax machines, computers, shop for Energy Star qualified products.

Click here to get the Energy Star fact sheet on how businesses can cut summer power bills. For energy management at buildings and plant management, click here.

Specific ideas on how to get employees to do their part to be green and help control the air conditioning bill this summer, are on the Energy Star site — click here.

Cisco reveals that when it focused on improving its workers’ quality of life, productivity jumped sharply and contact with customers remained just as high as when everybody was working out of an office all the time.

After opening up telecommuting to his employees 18 months ago, Cisco CEO John Chambers says his company has tallied $277 million in productivity savings.

The company also claims credits for helping reduce smog and ozone air pollution as well as carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gas emissions by keeping its workers’ cars off the road.

Of the 2,000 Cisco workers surveyed:

• 91% said telecommuting is “somewhat or very important” to their job satisfaction
• 69% said they improved productivity by working from home
• 75% said timeliness of their work improved
• 80% said ability to communicate with co-workers is the same or better when telecommuting, and
• 80% said telecommuting improved their quality of life.

Cisco workers averaged two days a week telecommuting.

The Cisco survey is here.

Part of the way to make telecommuting work is to use computer software — virtual office technology — that lets the employee link up with company and customer computers remotely. Cisco provides this type of networking gear under the name Cisco Virtual Office.

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.

It’s the Hummer. The future of the green car has arrived, well before Detroit automakers agreed to meet President Obama’s proposal to make cars that get 39 mpg on average, 30 mpg for light trucks. The Hummer already gets 100 mpg. At least a modified version does — on paper.

Derided by folk singers Them Eastport Oyster Boys as an “Eco-Destroyer,” the gas-guzzling behemoth is now available as a hybrid electric that reportedly gets 100 mpg on its gasoline engine.

As with most electrics, though, it only gets a 40-mile range when running on all electric mode. But considering its size and weight, a 40-mile range is pretty good. It may be just enough to get you to the next gas station for a fill up.

The big green plus is that this Hummer greatly reduces greenhouse gases and smog-producing air pollution. And, it helps reduce American dependence on imported oil.

Pictures of  the hybrid Hummer, converted by Raser Technologies, are here.

It’s not a joke. Raser is serious about introducing the modified Hummer and started cozying up to politicians yesterday. Sen. Orin Hatch (R-UT) introduced his fellow Senators yesterday afternoon to the electric-hybrid Hummer H3 during a photo op and drive around the block event on Capitol Hill.

However, as with all things Hummer, there’s controversy. Some say Raser’s 100 mpg claim is bogus, that the electric hybrid Hummer only gets 33 mpg. Still, that’s better than most small and mid-sized cars on the road today.

Price tag? If you have to ask, then it’s not for you.

The 100-mpg Hummer was developed by Raser in cooperation with General Motors and its Hummer division.

New York yesterday joined Illinois and Virginia and dozens of cities in banning purchases of bottled water by state and municipal agencies.  NY Gov. David Paterson (D) says bottled water manufacturing alone creates 2.5 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) a year.

The bans are designed to cut costs of the water and related disposal/recycling expenses and critically, to promote the use and safety of municipal tap water.

These regulatory phaseouts also serve as a warning to all companies to consider ways to reduce their environmental footprints.

To see a list of other cities and states considering ways to discourage bottled water usage, click here.

Bottle water also contributes to global warming because of the associated CO2 emissions from fossil fuels used to power trucks, vans and ships that deliver the product. Another key negative is that it takes more water to make a bottle of bottled water than the bottle contains.  To see one such analysis, click here.

To calculate what the associated GHG emissions might be for your products, click here for EPA’s calculators.

There’s plenty — and we do mean plenty –  of room for American companies to go green without creating new products, services or trendy environmentally friendly gimmicks.

What’s the secret? Some of the best cost cutting opportunities will be found by improving energy efficiencies to reduce the gluttonous power demands by most modern industries.

Turns out that American producers are “spectacularly inefficient,” according to a new review of operations at 20 facilities by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

The companies with the most to gain by improving energy efficiencies are the modern industries, like semiconductor manufacturers.  High-tech industries use up to one million times more energy, pound-per-pound of output, than do traditional manufacturers, according to the MIT study.

Between making a manhole cover and a micro chip, making a micro chip consumes far more energy and resources. “The seemingly extravagant use of materials and energy resources by many new manufacturing processes is alarming,” says study author, Timothy Gutowski.

The solar power industry gets a thumbs down from Gutowski for its energy consumption. He warns energy usage by solar panel makers is so inefficient that it undermines the point of trying to make these products when you conduct a lifecycle energy balance on them.

In another example, Gutowski says energy-saving opportunities lie ahead for new coating operations that use vapor phase processing. This technique currently relies on vaporizing material in a vacuum chamber to coat surfaces. This may be efficient from a coating point of view as long as energy costs are low. But as energy prices rise, processors may want to work on liquid processing alternatives that don’t demand as much energy.

The MIT study is here.