Articles from Google

LOS ANGELES — Southern California's heat wave has left tens of thousands of people without electricity. Southern California Edison says more than 27,000 of its customers were without power Tuesday morning, mainly in Orange and Los Angeles counties. Most have been blacked out for eight to 16 hours as temps hit 113 degrees in some parts. Los Angeles Department of Water and Power reports another 15,000 customers are without power in Los Angeles. Edison spokeswoman Vanessa McGrady says the heat has driven folks to use their air conditioners around the clock. She says transformers that usually cool down overnight are getting a workout and are blowing or burning out. (Read Full Article)

Climate-change heavyweights U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon and Nobel prize winner Al Gore urged more than 500 business leaders on Sunday to lend their corporate muscle to reaching a global deal on reducing greenhouse gases. The CEOs of PepsiCo, Nestle, BP and other major world businesses began meeting in Copenhagen, where politicians will gather in December to negotiate a new U.N.-brokered climate treaty. Despite the global financial crisis, both Ban and Gore said there was no time for delay in hashing out the specifics of how to cut greenhouse gases that contribute to warming the planet. "We have to do it this year. Not next year. This year," Gore said. "The clock is ticking, because Mother Nature does not do bailouts." The three-day World Business Summit on Climate Change is a precursor to the negotiations to determine what will succeed the Kyoto climate treaty that expires in 2012. (Read Full Article)