From the Guardian, 1st May 2007
The British government, the European Union and the United Nations all claim to be trying to prevent “dangerous” climate change. Any level of climate change is dangerous for someone, but there is a broad consensus about what this word means: two degrees of warming above pre-industrial levels. It is dangerous because of its direct impacts on people and places (it could, for example, trigger the irreversible melting of the Greenland ice sheet(1)and the collapse of the Amazon rainforest(2)) and because it is likely to stimulate further warming, as it encourages the world’s natural systems to start releasing greenhouse gases.
The aim of preventing more than 2°C of warming has been adopted overtly by the UN(3) and the European Union(4) and implicitly by the British, German and Swedish governments. All of them say they are hoping to confine the concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to a level which would prevent 2°C from being reached. And all of them know that they have set the wrong targets, based on outdated science. Fearful of the political implications, they have failed to adjust to the levels the new research demands.
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Sunday, May 20, 2007
Science and Politics at the Two Degree Threshold
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Designing Cities for people
May 15, 2007
From Celsias.com
This story about Urban Design and our poor success in doing this is an interesting look at how we have a lot of improvements to make in how we do this. Check out the video at the bottom.
See the story.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
SE Qld's transport priorities must change
May 14, 2007
From
Encouragingly, the Brisbane City Council last year formed an independent taskforce of academic and private sector experts to examine the implications of climate change mitigation and peak oil for the city. The taskforce report was released in late March and sets out, in detail, the enormity of the task the city faces in responding to the climate change and energy challenge. The taskforce recommends a target of zero net household greenhouse emissions by 2020, including car use, as well as a reduction in the city's oil consumption of 50 per cent by 2026.
To achieve this goal the taskforce recommends that by 2020, 40 per cent of all travel in Brisbane should be by foot, bicycle or by public transport.
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US Trying to Weaken G-8 Climate Change Declaration
Monday, May 14, 2007
From Common Dreams dot org
WASHINGTON — Negotiators from the United States are trying to weaken the language of a climate change declaration set to be unveiled at next month’s G-8 summit of the world’s leading industrial powers, according to documents.
A draft proposal dated April 2007 that is being debated in Bonn by senior officials of the Group of Eight includes a pledge to limit the global temperature rise this century to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, as well as an agreement to reduce worldwide greenhouse gas emissions to 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. 0514 01
The United States is seeking to strike that section, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post
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Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Beattie to lift coal royalties
May 09, 2007
From Courier Mail (QLD, AUST)
QUEENSLAND'S coal industry will be hit with increased royalties in next month's state budget to help curb climate change.
Premier Peter Beattie said today he was planning to increase coal royalties to force the industry into paying for clean coal technology research.
Speaking in New York, Mr Beattie said the increase would be for their own good because if the industry did not clean up coal it would not survive.
He said research was vital to cut greenhouse gas emissions, save the planet and ensure the long-term future of Queensland's powerhouse coal industry.
He angrily accused the state's coal companies of reneging on an agreement to provide $300 million for research into clean coal technologies.
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Read the article.
Monday, May 14, 2007
Warming triggers `alarming' retreat of Himalayan glaciers
Fri, May. 11, 2007
From Real Cities dot com
"The presence of glaciers is very vital to the Himalayan river systems," said Anil Kulkarni of the Indian Space Research Organization, who has used satellite data to measure the glacial retreat. "It is really alarming. We have to be really concerned."
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As the glaciers recede, lakes on the Tibetan Plateau are rising steadily, and experts foresee floods, landslides and mudflows from mountain lakes overrunning their banks.
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Glacial retreat in the Himalayas may have a surprising impact in extremely arid areas far from the mountains.
Yao said oases in China's far western deserts, such as the Taklimakan, get their underground water from glacial runoff. Towns are usually built around the oases.
"If the glaciers disappear, then the oases will also disappear," Yao said.
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Sunday, May 13, 2007
Why does atmospheric CO2 rise
1. Why does atmospheric CO2 rise ?
Time and again, some people claim that human activities are only
a minor source of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) which is swamped
by natural sources. Compared to natural sources, our contribution is
small indeed. Yet, the seemingly small human-made or `anthropogenic'
input is enough to disturb the delicate balance. "Anthropogenic CO2
is a biogeochemical perturbation of truly geologic proportions"
[Sundquist] and has caused a steep rise of atmospheric CO2.
The vexing thing is that, in the global carbon cycle, the rising level
of atmospheric CO2 and the human origin of this rise are about the only
two things that are known with high certainty. Natural CO2 fluxes
into and out of the atmosphere exceed the human contribution by more
than an order of magnitude. The sizes of the natural carbon fluxes
are only approximately known, because they are much harder to measure
than atmospheric CO2 and than the features pointing to a human origin
of the CO2 rise.
...
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Thursday, May 10, 2007
BAN THE BULB: Worldwide shift to CFLs
But what about all those flood lights which light our bridges and buildings?
May 9, 2007
From Earth Policy
On February 20, 2007, Australia announced it would phase out the sale of inefficient incandescent light bulbs by 2010, replacing them with highly efficient compact fluorescent bulbs that use one fourth as much electricity. If the rest of the world joins Australia in this simple step to sharply cut carbon emissions, the worldwide drop in electricity use would permit the closing of more than 270 coal-fired (500 megawatt) power plants. For the United States, this bulb switch would facilitate shutting down 80 coal-fired plants.
The good news is that the world may be approaching a social tipping point in this shift to efficient light bulbs. On April 25, 2007, just two months after Australia’s announcement, the Canadian government announced it would phase out sales of incandescents by 2012. Mounting concerns about climate change are driving the bulb replacement movement.
In mid-March, a U.S. coalition of environmental groups—including the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Alliance to Save Energy, the American Coalition for an Energy-Efficient Economy, and the Earth Day Network—along with Philips Lighting launched an initiative to shift to the more-efficient bulbs in all of the country’s estimated 4 billion sockets by 2016.
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Blitz spirit needed to face threat of climate change
Wednesday May 9, 2007
From Guardian (UK)
The government's climate change bill has nowhere near the vision commensurate to the scale of the threat. The Stern Review has already set out the facts: we can carry on as we are, leading to a global economic collapse, or we can try to halt the worst ravages of climate change by stabilising CO2 at 450 parts per million (ppm) in the atmosphere, or we can aim to stabilise CO2 at 500-550 ppm.
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Solar energy storage system
2 May 2007
From Australian National University
This is further proof that base-load energy demands can be supplied by renewable energy sources.
“Because we are storing energy before generating electricity, we can deliver multi-megawatt base-load electricity and meet peak loads on-demand in the same way as coal, nuclear or gas fired power stations do. The efficiency of our storage system is also very high because we use a chemical process that has no extra energy losses regardless of how long the energy is stored.
Read the article.
See ANU Engineering description of the technology. Read More......
News Corp carbon neutral by 2010
May 10, 2007
From News (Aust)
NEWS Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch has announced a dramatic shake-up to make all the company’s businesses carbon neutral within the next four years, to combat the “clear, catastrophic threats” posed by climate change.
Mr Murdoch has laid out a plan for the company’s film and television, newspaper, publishing and online divisions to reduce their energy use, invest in cleaner technologies, and buy carbon credits to balance out emissions that cannot be eliminated.
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Read the article.
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Public purse props up fossil fuel industries
May 8, 2007
From Sydney Morning Herald
GOVERNMENT subsidies to some of Australia's electricity generation companies are so big they exceed the profits made by those companies, a report on energy and transport subsidies says.
Government support for the coal industry and coal-fired electricity is so generous that in some cases it has led to the construction of coal-fired power plants when other types of electricity generation would have been cheaper, the report by the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology Sydney has found.
Subsidies to fossil fuel energies, worth close to $10 billion, result in a serious market distortion, create an unfair disadvantage to renewable energy, and help increase greenhouse gas pollution, says the report, written by the institute's research principal, Chris Riedy, and commissioned by Greenpeace.
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Read the article.
Monday, May 07, 2007
Industry caught in carbon ‘smokescreen’
April 25 2007
From Financial Times
Companies and individuals rushing to go green have been spending millions on “carbon credit” projects that yield few if any environmental benefits.
A Financial Times investigation has uncovered widespread failings in the new markets for greenhouse gases, suggesting some organisations are paying for emissions reductions that do not take place.
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Italy heat wave risks power cuts
Thursday, 26 April 2007
From BBC News (UK)
Italy's government is facing calls to introduce a state of emergency to fight the threat of power cuts following the mildest winter since records began.
With summer still weeks away, rivers and lakes in the worst-affected North of the country have never been drier.
It is being taken as the latest sign that Italy could find itself on the frontline of the global warming war.
Now even the Vatican is taking the problem seriously, organising a conference to address the issue.
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Read the article.
Carbon Dioxide Air Capture Technology Achieved
April 25, 2007
From Phys Org dot com
This is a story about a promising device to extract carbon from the air and prepare it for easy sequestation.
It would be great if this technology worked flawlessly, though it will no doubt take some time to develop (time we likely don't have). As far as R&D funds go, we would be best to cover our arses setting up renewables plants for our energy production followed by reducing the amount of coal we burn. THEN we are in a safer position to expend the effort, R&D dollars and how ever long we like on developing such Carbon Dioxide exraction technologies.
Global Research Technologies, LLC (GRT), a technology research and development company, and Klaus Lackner from Columbia University have achieved the successful demonstration of a bold new technology to capture carbon from the air. The "air extraction" prototype has successfully demonstrated that indeed carbon dioxide (CO2) can be captured from the atmosphere. This is GRT’s first step toward a commercially viable air capture device.
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Sunday, May 06, 2007
Power station harnesses Sun's rays
Wednesday, 2 May 2007
From BBC (UK)
There is a scene in one of the Austin Powers films where Dr Evil unleashes a giant "tractor beam" of energy at Earth in order to extract a massive payment.
Well, the memory of it kept me chuckling as I toured the extraordinary scene of the new solar thermal power plant outside Seville in southern Spain.
From a distance, as we rounded a bend and first caught sight of it, I couldn't believe the strange structure ahead of me was actually real.
A concrete tower - 40 storeys high - stood bathed in intense white light, a totally bizarre image in the depths of the Andalusian countryside.
The tower looked like it was being hosed with giant sprays of water or was somehow being squirted with jets of pale gas. I had trouble working it out.
In fact, as we found out when we got closer, the rays of sunlight reflected by a field of 600 huge mirrors are so intense they illuminate the water vapour and dust hanging in the air.
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Climate change and Australia's health
03/05/2007
From ABC News (Aust)
Most of the dire warnings about climate change have focused on costs from damage to ecosystems, loss of habitat, and damage to property from freak weather patterns; fires, storms, floods and so on. There hasn’t been much attention given to the effect on the long-term health of populations.
But anything that radically affects housing, water and food supply, will affect our wellbeing. And climate change has the ability to affect all these in spades.
The latest United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report looked at the health implications of global warming and the news was grim. There'll be hundreds of thousands of deaths from crop failures and food shortages, floods, cyclones, droughts leading to mass population displacements, and water contamination leading to diarrhoeal diseases like cholera and dysentery.
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Harvesting houses for the planet
Wednesday, 2 May 2007
From BBC (UK)
Buildings are expected to feature as a crucial area for energy-saving in the UN's third report on climate change this week.
Russian design for houses made from sand and seawater blocks (image: Unido)
Unido says Russian sand and seawater blocks fit like Lego
Encamped on the edge of London's docklands development, a bazaar of corporate stalls is pursuing the green pound in Britain's ever-hungry construction industry.
Production of concrete, that staple of modern building, alone accounts for up to 10% of man-made greenhouse gas, US scientists believe.
Then there is the energy spent on shipping the materials, and finally the power needs of the finished buildings.
Yet with a bit of clever substitution and sourcing, and some deft adjustments to the existing housing stock, environmentalists believe that CO2 emissions could be reduced anywhere in the world.
House of straw
If the number of "green" consultancy companies at London's Think 07 trade fair is anything to go by, environmentally-friendly architecture is becoming big business in the developed world.
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