The UN believes that the upcoming Climate Change talks in Copenhagen will not produce a Treaty. And Obama quietly takes himself off of the attendee list. Democrats in the Senate still push for a Climate Change bill. Without a UN agreement we are in for quite a surprise.
Politics unfold with the people in the background mobilizing themselves to show the politicians that representation means legislation. And support for Cap and Trade in America wanes as polluting industries weigh in to change Climate Change legislation into something close to business as usual.
If politicians are not going to do it for us, we must do it for ourselves. Science Journal shows some numbers that empower average citizens to change their lives to change the world.
The American Petroleum Institute weighs in on the Climate Change bill and how it will hurt Americans. What hurts Americans is the oligopoly (oiligopoly) of the oil market, controlled by 5 companies, that raises prices needlessly while reaping the highest profits in world history during a recession.
Solar power is starting to become economical to utilize.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Africa
I stumbled upon a list of environmental websites focused on Africa and thought I might share some of the stories from the sites with you.
AFROL news gives a thorough background to deforestation in Africa. Under 10% of primary forests are left and many stands are left unhealthy from selective logging. Poverty and foreign demand are large threats to the forests while local management through sustainable agriculture could be the savior.
Nigeria has been heavily impacted by the oil industry, in the Rivers State 80% of the area is classified as being heavily impacted by environmental pollution. Shell and Chevron are the main oil companies in Nigeria and find constant opposition to their destruction of livelihoods and environments. This link is an overview of Nigeria, its people and the history of oil. This is an overview of Chevron in Nigeria. And this is an overview of Shell's world wide operations, partially focusing on Ken Saro-Wiwa who was killed by the Nigerian government at the request of Shell due to his direct non-violent opposition to Shell.
Earthlife Africa gives a climate change report for 2009, much to learn.
Global Forest Watch has a great feature on its website that lets you generate maps on forest cover and deforestation around the world.
This is a review of UN climate change agreements and its use of the term 'sustainable forest management' that has been manipulated into allowing forest practices that degrade the environment. I am always surprised that companies that degrade the environment almost always have the ability to water down regulation that affects their business. It is called regulation and it is supposed to be crafted so that it does not ruin a business but too often business ruins us.
AFROL news gives a thorough background to deforestation in Africa. Under 10% of primary forests are left and many stands are left unhealthy from selective logging. Poverty and foreign demand are large threats to the forests while local management through sustainable agriculture could be the savior.
Nigeria has been heavily impacted by the oil industry, in the Rivers State 80% of the area is classified as being heavily impacted by environmental pollution. Shell and Chevron are the main oil companies in Nigeria and find constant opposition to their destruction of livelihoods and environments. This link is an overview of Nigeria, its people and the history of oil. This is an overview of Chevron in Nigeria. And this is an overview of Shell's world wide operations, partially focusing on Ken Saro-Wiwa who was killed by the Nigerian government at the request of Shell due to his direct non-violent opposition to Shell.
Earthlife Africa gives a climate change report for 2009, much to learn.
Global Forest Watch has a great feature on its website that lets you generate maps on forest cover and deforestation around the world.
This is a review of UN climate change agreements and its use of the term 'sustainable forest management' that has been manipulated into allowing forest practices that degrade the environment. I am always surprised that companies that degrade the environment almost always have the ability to water down regulation that affects their business. It is called regulation and it is supposed to be crafted so that it does not ruin a business but too often business ruins us.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Stumbling Foreword
An alternative annual report for Chevron was drafted. It highlights the human and environmental cost of Chevron's activities around the world and shines light on why we want a different system of procuring energy. Check out the site and the report.
With Obama in the whitehouse new coal fired power plants were supposed to not be built again, but the administration is rescinding and now in the Markey-Waxman bill new coal plants will be allowed to be built under certain conditions due to the coal industry's new lobbying effort that touts "clean coal" as the way of the future. The real gem behind "clean coal" is not an effort to protect the health of humans and our environment but is a desperate grasp at the remaining coal reserves that are large enough to power the US and China for the next 350 years. Clean Coal is a sham.
Check out this "off grid" home, it costs over $500,000 to make but it is more environmental than your home. It is shocking to me that people are so willing to spend money on luxury items, many people have homes worth over 1/2 million dollars so why not demand low emissions with your luxury goods? A note about the article: hydrogen power is a technology that is not developing quickly and it emits water vapor, many people do not know that water vapor is a more powerful greenhouse gas than CO2.
Check this funny thing out, the video is gross but helps your imagination become more active about the wide-reaching changes that Climate Change will bring. Apparently mucus blobs occur in the ocean and with recent changes these blobs are becoming more popular; they house dangerous bacteria and viruses and suffocate sea-life.
Climate Change Science needs to be as accurate as possible to help non-believers alter their beliefs. This article from Science reveals a recent study finding that CO2 emissions have been increasing for thousands of years due to natural processes, the earth is naturally heating up as it arises out of an ice age and we are speeding up that process making earth inhospitable to us.
To our knowledge Earth has been through 5 mass extinction periods, this is the 6th. The loss of habitat is the greatest threat, World Resources Institute provides some commentary, figures and facts.
Companies and scientists are trying to harvest hydrocarbons from algea, it would mean oil forever! This article follows a recent college graduate that tried to get a job with one of these projects and was unable. The promises from algae seem to be inflated and the government is throwing millions at it, and like hydrogen battery cells commercial viability is so far off we might be better off focusing on more promising technologies.
The developing world is spending its energy on growing their economy out of poverty, they have been demanding money from the industrialized countries to little avail. These countries will increase emissions greatly for the next several decades with or without our help. We can give them the tools to develop environmentally or we can leave them to act like poor people; poor people do what is necessary for survival today, not tomorrow. If I was in their position I would do no different.
River Delta's are sinking and Science reveals some new studies about it.
With Obama in the whitehouse new coal fired power plants were supposed to not be built again, but the administration is rescinding and now in the Markey-Waxman bill new coal plants will be allowed to be built under certain conditions due to the coal industry's new lobbying effort that touts "clean coal" as the way of the future. The real gem behind "clean coal" is not an effort to protect the health of humans and our environment but is a desperate grasp at the remaining coal reserves that are large enough to power the US and China for the next 350 years. Clean Coal is a sham.
Check out this "off grid" home, it costs over $500,000 to make but it is more environmental than your home. It is shocking to me that people are so willing to spend money on luxury items, many people have homes worth over 1/2 million dollars so why not demand low emissions with your luxury goods? A note about the article: hydrogen power is a technology that is not developing quickly and it emits water vapor, many people do not know that water vapor is a more powerful greenhouse gas than CO2.
Check this funny thing out, the video is gross but helps your imagination become more active about the wide-reaching changes that Climate Change will bring. Apparently mucus blobs occur in the ocean and with recent changes these blobs are becoming more popular; they house dangerous bacteria and viruses and suffocate sea-life.
Climate Change Science needs to be as accurate as possible to help non-believers alter their beliefs. This article from Science reveals a recent study finding that CO2 emissions have been increasing for thousands of years due to natural processes, the earth is naturally heating up as it arises out of an ice age and we are speeding up that process making earth inhospitable to us.
To our knowledge Earth has been through 5 mass extinction periods, this is the 6th. The loss of habitat is the greatest threat, World Resources Institute provides some commentary, figures and facts.
Companies and scientists are trying to harvest hydrocarbons from algea, it would mean oil forever! This article follows a recent college graduate that tried to get a job with one of these projects and was unable. The promises from algae seem to be inflated and the government is throwing millions at it, and like hydrogen battery cells commercial viability is so far off we might be better off focusing on more promising technologies.
The developing world is spending its energy on growing their economy out of poverty, they have been demanding money from the industrialized countries to little avail. These countries will increase emissions greatly for the next several decades with or without our help. We can give them the tools to develop environmentally or we can leave them to act like poor people; poor people do what is necessary for survival today, not tomorrow. If I was in their position I would do no different.
River Delta's are sinking and Science reveals some new studies about it.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Change?
A group of scientists visited the garbage patch in the Pacific that is the size of Texas, some say it is larger. The patch mainly consists of plastic products but many other products are there, entangling sea life in a floating garbage grave. This link has a video to watch and the highlight in the video is the phrase "benign by design" which is a call to manufacturers to create products that have the full life cycle of a product in mind. Products become trash, instead they should be an input into a natural system, like forks created from biodegradable material. Along with biodegradable products a residential food-waste pick-up system is needed.
The Economist holds debates on its website, this session the debated claim is: tackling climate change means leaving fossil fuels behind. On this link are links to articles relating to this debate. 60% of respondents say yes, fossil fuels should be left behind (The debate is sponsored by Dow Chemical). From my glance at this what is missing is the broader conversation that climate change is just one part of the equation when it comes to pollutants that relate to climate change; we have species die-off, contamination of water used for human consumption, toxic-chemical contamination of humans, top-soil degradation, and more to worry about. We should switch from a fossil-fuel economy for more then the reason of Climate Change.
A study claims that a greater return on investment for reducing carbon emission is experienced when money is spent on contraception in the unindustrialized world than on green technology. Most of the growth in population (3 billion more people) in the next 40 years will be in the unindustrialized world, but the industrialized world pollutes so much more than the rest of the world so a focus on reducing the wealthy peoples' consumption will actual do the most for combating environmental degradation.
In an article by MotherJones Obama is criticized for his lack of dedication to tackling Climate Change during the recent UN meetings. Is Obama not doing enough, or is there a lack of popular support for him doing a lot followed by a political climate focused on economic recovery of large corporations that will only make small changes in the next decade to mitigate climate change? Blame Obama, or blame the business and political system? Remember that ExxonMobile just finished a costly advertisement campaign against climate change science, and we just had 8 years of an executive administration that denied climate change is anthropogenic. Non-scientists are being required to make scientific judgments and thus far many of them are confused and unprepared for the task.
And some news about the melting of the ever-so-important Greenland ice-shelf.
The Economist holds debates on its website, this session the debated claim is: tackling climate change means leaving fossil fuels behind. On this link are links to articles relating to this debate. 60% of respondents say yes, fossil fuels should be left behind (The debate is sponsored by Dow Chemical). From my glance at this what is missing is the broader conversation that climate change is just one part of the equation when it comes to pollutants that relate to climate change; we have species die-off, contamination of water used for human consumption, toxic-chemical contamination of humans, top-soil degradation, and more to worry about. We should switch from a fossil-fuel economy for more then the reason of Climate Change.
A study claims that a greater return on investment for reducing carbon emission is experienced when money is spent on contraception in the unindustrialized world than on green technology. Most of the growth in population (3 billion more people) in the next 40 years will be in the unindustrialized world, but the industrialized world pollutes so much more than the rest of the world so a focus on reducing the wealthy peoples' consumption will actual do the most for combating environmental degradation.
In an article by MotherJones Obama is criticized for his lack of dedication to tackling Climate Change during the recent UN meetings. Is Obama not doing enough, or is there a lack of popular support for him doing a lot followed by a political climate focused on economic recovery of large corporations that will only make small changes in the next decade to mitigate climate change? Blame Obama, or blame the business and political system? Remember that ExxonMobile just finished a costly advertisement campaign against climate change science, and we just had 8 years of an executive administration that denied climate change is anthropogenic. Non-scientists are being required to make scientific judgments and thus far many of them are confused and unprepared for the task.
And some news about the melting of the ever-so-important Greenland ice-shelf.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Water, Oil & UN Climate Change Summit
Scientific American asks the question: How much does fossil fuels get in subsidies from the American Government? The answer is $72 billion between 2002 and 2007.
The Economist has a go at explaining the challenges facing the global automobile industry. People no longer want gas-guzzlers that are over-sized and have a short life-time, and the industry will be reeling from this. USA and Europe propped up their automobile companies during this last year of recession, but these companies have not made very large changes yet. When they sell cars that we should have due to our environmental challenges they will probably return to making large sums of money. Smaller, more efficient, alternative fuels, alternative materials- this is want we need.
The Environmental Defense Fund makes a concise case for a Climate Bill in 2009. Obama wants one passed before the UN Climate meeting. A lot is expected from this UN meeting and while China and the US have not been dedicated to change before China is picking up the slack. China may eclipse the US in promises and effort, but ears and eyes are still on the US.
Water has been cheap in the USA and people are using this resource as the market predicts; liberally. Some Californians use their water with few conservation efforts. The times will change, will people's water use change proactively?
Globally, this summer was not as hot as other recent summers, this means ice in the Arctic has had its life extended, but it will melt away in the next couple of decades.
Environmental Justice for the Ivory Coast concludes; a company dumped 500 tons of sludge from refining oil in 2006 and automatically people died and became sick. The settlement arrives but the company still denies responsibility for the incident.
People can now off-set the carbon emissions from their plane flights, this article tells you how, another organization that supplies this service is www.carbonfund.org.
The Economist has a go at explaining the challenges facing the global automobile industry. People no longer want gas-guzzlers that are over-sized and have a short life-time, and the industry will be reeling from this. USA and Europe propped up their automobile companies during this last year of recession, but these companies have not made very large changes yet. When they sell cars that we should have due to our environmental challenges they will probably return to making large sums of money. Smaller, more efficient, alternative fuels, alternative materials- this is want we need.
The Environmental Defense Fund makes a concise case for a Climate Bill in 2009. Obama wants one passed before the UN Climate meeting. A lot is expected from this UN meeting and while China and the US have not been dedicated to change before China is picking up the slack. China may eclipse the US in promises and effort, but ears and eyes are still on the US.
Water has been cheap in the USA and people are using this resource as the market predicts; liberally. Some Californians use their water with few conservation efforts. The times will change, will people's water use change proactively?
Globally, this summer was not as hot as other recent summers, this means ice in the Arctic has had its life extended, but it will melt away in the next couple of decades.
Environmental Justice for the Ivory Coast concludes; a company dumped 500 tons of sludge from refining oil in 2006 and automatically people died and became sick. The settlement arrives but the company still denies responsibility for the incident.
People can now off-set the carbon emissions from their plane flights, this article tells you how, another organization that supplies this service is www.carbonfund.org.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
The State of Oil
Oil prices have been in the $70s region, slowly rising with the recovery of the economy, they fell recently to $71.82 a barrel and this low price has multiple implications. The lower the price the less incentive there is to invest away from using oil, and the higher the price the more incentive there is to explore for more oil using more costly sources; this means that where ever the price of oil goes we will produce a lot of it. People living next to the tar sands in Alberta, Canada (containing 178 billion barrels of usable oil) are hoping for low future prices to make the extraction operation there unprofitable due to the cancerous effect it is having on the citizens. And in the Gulf of Mexico oil is found under deep water, putting 3 billion more barrels into the global oil reserve.
Electric Cars are the most likely proposed alternative to the combustion engine, The Economist assesses the situation and comments on what governments need to do to assist the creation of this new market.
Have a lesson on water use and availability on Planet Earth.
One study on climate trends supports the idea that our recent warming stands in the face of the cooling of the past couple thousand years, we could be delaying an ice age.
Electric Cars are the most likely proposed alternative to the combustion engine, The Economist assesses the situation and comments on what governments need to do to assist the creation of this new market.
Have a lesson on water use and availability on Planet Earth.
One study on climate trends supports the idea that our recent warming stands in the face of the cooling of the past couple thousand years, we could be delaying an ice age.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Renewable Energy and a New Economy- Here We Come
I have just returned from a 2 month vacation and this blog will now be updated at least once a week. Thank you for reading.
PG and E is trying to start a project near San Francisco that would store energy from renewable sources in an underground facility so it can use energy during times when the sun is not shining and the wind is not blowing, this would make sources like coal less vital and neccessary.
National Geographic comments on sustainable agriculture, and on the page is links to a lot of other great stories and information sources.
Rocky Mountain Institute provides a great interactive map showing where we have received all of our oil in the US for the past 4 decades. Currently, in the NW of the US 17% of all oil at the gas station comes from the TarSands in Alberta Canada, a source that is greatly inefficient compared to our historical returns from investments on petroleum production, we are certainly using up all of the cheap sources of quality, known oil.
Amory Lovins, one of the frontmen at Rocky Mountain Institute recently received another reward, this time for energy efficiency. He is well aware of all the obstacles to his plans and ideas, most of them being politics and lack of knowledge on the part of engineers and other planners of our economy and infrastructure. An issue with increasing energy efficiency has been that the cheaper and more accessible it is the more a single person will use thus wasting the gains of increasing efficiency.
Mass Media Environmentalism focuses on Global Warming but much else is going on, is this monofocus good? I would say that the monofocus is often productive, but of course more needs to be explained to the public about the many environmental threats that exist today.
Wind energy is on the rise, but remember we can only receive a small fraction of our energy demand from wind, and each turbine takes a colossal amount of steel which carries a heavy environmental price.
The solar cell is becoming more efficient everyday, this is vital to using the sun's energy as a power source. A new solar cell efficiency record was set, it is expensive now but hopefully not in the near future.
Japan continues on with its economy, strengthening itself through technologies of the future, solar cells and big in Japan and on the rise.
PG and E is trying to start a project near San Francisco that would store energy from renewable sources in an underground facility so it can use energy during times when the sun is not shining and the wind is not blowing, this would make sources like coal less vital and neccessary.
National Geographic comments on sustainable agriculture, and on the page is links to a lot of other great stories and information sources.
Rocky Mountain Institute provides a great interactive map showing where we have received all of our oil in the US for the past 4 decades. Currently, in the NW of the US 17% of all oil at the gas station comes from the TarSands in Alberta Canada, a source that is greatly inefficient compared to our historical returns from investments on petroleum production, we are certainly using up all of the cheap sources of quality, known oil.
Amory Lovins, one of the frontmen at Rocky Mountain Institute recently received another reward, this time for energy efficiency. He is well aware of all the obstacles to his plans and ideas, most of them being politics and lack of knowledge on the part of engineers and other planners of our economy and infrastructure. An issue with increasing energy efficiency has been that the cheaper and more accessible it is the more a single person will use thus wasting the gains of increasing efficiency.
Mass Media Environmentalism focuses on Global Warming but much else is going on, is this monofocus good? I would say that the monofocus is often productive, but of course more needs to be explained to the public about the many environmental threats that exist today.
Wind energy is on the rise, but remember we can only receive a small fraction of our energy demand from wind, and each turbine takes a colossal amount of steel which carries a heavy environmental price.
The solar cell is becoming more efficient everyday, this is vital to using the sun's energy as a power source. A new solar cell efficiency record was set, it is expensive now but hopefully not in the near future.
Japan continues on with its economy, strengthening itself through technologies of the future, solar cells and big in Japan and on the rise.
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