CITIES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species)has decided to NOT bring many marine species under its protection. The Japanese Embassy hosted a dinner before the day of the vote and served Blue Fin Tuna, one of the species being voted on.
The New Zealand Plant Conservation Network has put out a new book, Threatend Plants of New Zealand, and it claims that 184 plants in New Zealand are on the brink of extinction.
A new way to farm fish is developed to use less water, the CS Monitor reports.
Scientific American is all about water awareness this month. Check out their site and see how water intensive your lifestyle is.
A new process is developed to take more oil out of the Alberta Tar Sands for less of an environmental impact. This is very significant. This is either making what was already going to happen not so bad, or it will legitimize something that should be stopped.
At a convention in California a group of scientists called for climate intervention research. They are discussing the ethics of geoengineering the climate to reverse global warming.
The White House will host a Conservation Summit to bring together conflicting interests to discuss land management. A focus will be placed on participatory management, where localities have more responsibility in land management and the feds release their grip on all decision making. This has been building in the academic land management field for some time.
29 US Governors are pushing the White House to support renewable energy more. Governors are trying to meet ambitious pollution reduction targets, create jobs in their states, and upgrade and connect the energy grid. Governors want more cash subsidies and less tax breaks for renewable energy. Cash is more immediate and clear for the market to understand than tax breaks.
The UN announced that it will enlist the international consortium of national academies of science, the InterAcademy Council, to review the IPCC due to recent controversies. The basic conclusions of the IPCC are not in question, the UN just wants to address any legitimate skepticism of the IPCC, its practices and its findings.
Showing posts with label renewable energy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label renewable energy. Show all posts
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Friday, November 13, 2009
The Time to Act is Now. But, First Do Your Research
The International Energy Agency released a report covering the cost of inaction for abating Climate Change via not reaching a global agreement in Copenhagen this December. A key to the Copenhagen meeting is the USA passing national Climate Change legislation, without the USA little will happen as we are a world leader and the largest polluter in the world. The oil, gas and coal industries are increasing their efforts to kill the US Climate Change bill and supporters of the bill, mainly non-profits, are being outspent in advertising. 14 Democratic Senators have decided to back the coal industry and GRIST highlights this in a report, the Senators back the coal industry by supporting a way to give pollution permits under the national cap and trade bill that would, in effect, give lots of money to large polluters just because they pollute a lot. Giving away so many permits gives polluters money instead of gets money for out government which is currently in a financial crisis.
Standard Oil was John D Rockefeller's Company and its goal was to control the oil market, they were mostly successful until 1911 when they were broken up by the US Congress. Since Standard Oil was broken up into 32 companies they have reformed into several companies that, individually, make more profit than any companies in history (BP, Shell, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and smaller ones like Valero). Since Standard the price of oil has not reflected market fundamentals (supply and demand), speculation on oil pushes the price up, Reuters covers the current state of oil prices and predicts another bubble like last year when oil shot up to $148 a barrel and oil companies broke all records for profits during a global recession.
The International Energy Agency claims that oil reserves have been inflated to not alarm people that we are running out of oil. This map from the Guardian shows Global Oil Reserves, check it out.
The Environmental Defense Fund claims that polls show that the majority of Americans want renewable energy now, and a climate change bill from Congress. The PR against getting out of the coal, oil and natural gas business comes from the coal, oil and natural gas companies claiming that doing anything now would raise energy prices too much. The overall cost of not switching to renewables now is the larger cost that we should be trying to avoid.
A group of Engineering experts claim that it is impossible for Britain to meet its renewable energy targets. A fleet of electric scooters was just put on the market in Britain; progress in environmentalism is still being made.
The Boston Globe published a list of the top ten green technology jobs. They are almost all green collar (environmental blue collar) jobs.
The Journal of Science highlights new study that claims that bad decisions are contagious when a decision maker is influenced by someone they identify with or feel close to. Good thing to be aware of.
Standard Oil was John D Rockefeller's Company and its goal was to control the oil market, they were mostly successful until 1911 when they were broken up by the US Congress. Since Standard Oil was broken up into 32 companies they have reformed into several companies that, individually, make more profit than any companies in history (BP, Shell, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and smaller ones like Valero). Since Standard the price of oil has not reflected market fundamentals (supply and demand), speculation on oil pushes the price up, Reuters covers the current state of oil prices and predicts another bubble like last year when oil shot up to $148 a barrel and oil companies broke all records for profits during a global recession.
The International Energy Agency claims that oil reserves have been inflated to not alarm people that we are running out of oil. This map from the Guardian shows Global Oil Reserves, check it out.
The Environmental Defense Fund claims that polls show that the majority of Americans want renewable energy now, and a climate change bill from Congress. The PR against getting out of the coal, oil and natural gas business comes from the coal, oil and natural gas companies claiming that doing anything now would raise energy prices too much. The overall cost of not switching to renewables now is the larger cost that we should be trying to avoid.
A group of Engineering experts claim that it is impossible for Britain to meet its renewable energy targets. A fleet of electric scooters was just put on the market in Britain; progress in environmentalism is still being made.
The Boston Globe published a list of the top ten green technology jobs. They are almost all green collar (environmental blue collar) jobs.
The Journal of Science highlights new study that claims that bad decisions are contagious when a decision maker is influenced by someone they identify with or feel close to. Good thing to be aware of.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
1/11/09: The human world is still confused and endangered, but atleast the times are interesting.
According to facts, and measurable results globalization has done the most to reduce poverty out of any effort ever made in the modern world. Emerging economies are tied to developed economies and right now that is not the best thing, and as modern history as shown increased economic protectionism in times of crises just makes the situation worst for everyone. So a slump in our wealth means a slump in poverty reduction.
Criticisms of the International Energy Agency (IEA) are emerging regarding their view of the future of renewable energy. The agency gives advice to many large governments in the world regarding energy policy. What the IEA's position on renewables has created is a reinforcement for government leaders that oil and coal will continue to be our energy sources in the next couple of decades.
This is an article from Canadian news. There is a perception that Canada is more "liberal" than America, but this article will show that this is not so true when it comes to the CBC. This article gives a critique of hydrogen and electric cars and while it is vastly misleading and pathetic there is some good information on the subject. Where the author goes wrong in the article is in two ways: one, although there are many technological obstacles to electric and hydrogen cars that is no reason to abandon the entire project, technology limitations has never stopped us especially when there is no alternative, two, the main critique of alternative cars is that they will be less powerful, more inconvenient and more costly- of course it will be at first and as it becomes more researched and manufactured cost and inconvenience will decline. But, the most ridiculous thing about the article is that because of a slightly higher cost and some inconvenience the author seems to suggest that we should just continue as we have been and accept the consequences of environmental degradation. I think that this is called Nihilism and laziness.
This article is an example of what the future will hold as the consequences for our toxic economy begin to reveal themselves as the bio-feedback mechanism rears its ugly, environmentally corrective head. Disoriented Pelicans are falling out of the sky in large numbers, test are being done, but so far it looks like our fault.
George Bush II has an environmental legacy? This is news to me, but apparently Bush is setting aside some non-controversial isolated bits of marine environment as a sanctuary. This totals 3 sanctuaries created by Bush, at least he did something good.
Criticisms of the International Energy Agency (IEA) are emerging regarding their view of the future of renewable energy. The agency gives advice to many large governments in the world regarding energy policy. What the IEA's position on renewables has created is a reinforcement for government leaders that oil and coal will continue to be our energy sources in the next couple of decades.
This is an article from Canadian news. There is a perception that Canada is more "liberal" than America, but this article will show that this is not so true when it comes to the CBC. This article gives a critique of hydrogen and electric cars and while it is vastly misleading and pathetic there is some good information on the subject. Where the author goes wrong in the article is in two ways: one, although there are many technological obstacles to electric and hydrogen cars that is no reason to abandon the entire project, technology limitations has never stopped us especially when there is no alternative, two, the main critique of alternative cars is that they will be less powerful, more inconvenient and more costly- of course it will be at first and as it becomes more researched and manufactured cost and inconvenience will decline. But, the most ridiculous thing about the article is that because of a slightly higher cost and some inconvenience the author seems to suggest that we should just continue as we have been and accept the consequences of environmental degradation. I think that this is called Nihilism and laziness.
This article is an example of what the future will hold as the consequences for our toxic economy begin to reveal themselves as the bio-feedback mechanism rears its ugly, environmentally corrective head. Disoriented Pelicans are falling out of the sky in large numbers, test are being done, but so far it looks like our fault.
George Bush II has an environmental legacy? This is news to me, but apparently Bush is setting aside some non-controversial isolated bits of marine environment as a sanctuary. This totals 3 sanctuaries created by Bush, at least he did something good.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
12/4/08: Could solar be cheaper than coal soon?
For environmental economics the focus is on the cots of generating energy from coal, oil, solar, wind, and other alternative energies. Currently, coal and oil are still cheaper. Oil is currently artificially low because the price is reflecting decreased output due to decreased demand. In economics this low price is supposed to encourage people to buy more so more production can occur so more can be charged for the product. The only problem with this traditional equation is that the Long-term costs of oil production and the environmental costs are not calculated into the equation. But, remember in the end it is many governments that control the selling of oil, so just raising prices to drastically reduce demand would bankrupt many countries (Venezuala, Saudia Arabia), and low oil prices will bankrupt them too.
Solar energy in particular needs to rise to the challange. Solar energy needs to become cheaper than coal. Once solar is cheaper than coal then we can power our power stations with solar and then can use electric cars. Electric cars powered by a power system that feeds off of solar would rid us of a dependence on coal and oil.
But, we must remember the pain that comes with creative destructionism. It kills jobs, profits, industries and companies. But, our system is based off of innovation and adaption.
Solar energy in particular needs to rise to the challange. Solar energy needs to become cheaper than coal. Once solar is cheaper than coal then we can power our power stations with solar and then can use electric cars. Electric cars powered by a power system that feeds off of solar would rid us of a dependence on coal and oil.
But, we must remember the pain that comes with creative destructionism. It kills jobs, profits, industries and companies. But, our system is based off of innovation and adaption.
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