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Obama faces coal conundrum
As an environmentalist this is the one reason why Obama (and McCain to clarify) will not get my vote, because neither of them have gained my trust on this. I was looking this time for someone who would truly lead on the environment to bring the country to a higher consciousness to see that solar, wind, geothermal, biofuels (not ethanol) were what this country must have now to lead us into the 21st Century not only to save our planet but ourselves. It is an understatement to say that I am disappointed that there is not one candidate who is on that higher level of consciousness about this important crisis.
There is no change and there will not be significant progress regarding the climate crisis and political will if Obama (and yes, others as well) still plays to the coal industry while touting an environmental plan. As the article states, there is no such thing as clean coal... and it isn't only about that. It is about the cancer, and the mercury, and the asthma, and the lung diseases, and the toxicity, and the pollution... and the mountaintop removal that is destroying the beauty of this country. Yet, we didn't hear any of them talking about this in any campaign speech or in any debate.
Nothing about the devastation done to Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky and other states in blowing up the mountains that will continue to be blown up regardless of how the coal is burned. This is why I concentrate on Obama. I know McCain is not going to care... I was hoping Obama would, but have seen more and more that he does not and I will not give him a free ride on it. I expect better and I expect truth from those who claim to want 'change' because real change means telling the people the truth. Yet he continues to lie every single time he discusses clean coal technology when he doesn't tell people the truth about the availability or feasability of it.
Some say this isn't enough to change their vote... all well and good. It is for me, because the longer candidates think they can still get votes no matter how much they fail us they won't ever try to keep their promises and earn them. I have had enough of politicians who claim to want to do the right thing but then turn around and do exactly what everyone else does or as the money dictates. And pushing 'clean coal' out of political expedience at a time when our Earth's delicate climate balance is on the brink of tipping instead of taking a true and bold moral stand is not the right thing to do now. As an environmentalist this is the one reason why Obama (and McCain to clarify) will not get my vote, because neither of them have gai... more -
Greenland: roar of melting glacier sounds climate change alarm
When are we going to hear the roar of the American people demanding Washington Dc wake the hell up and stop touting some bogus 80% by 2050 emissions reduction line when it is obvious that will be too late? However, the price of gas is supposedly going down now so conveniently before 'election' day and with the current global financial crisis so conveniently placed where it is I suppose dealing with climate change will now be an afterthought to governments that really weren't going to do much about it anyway.
To me this all seems surreal. It is like slowing down to watch a car wreck and then speeding up once you get by to continue on your way because the thrill of seeing it is gone because you really didn't care if anyone was hurt, it was just exciting to look at. 'Oh my, the Greenland ice caps are melting... how terrible... look at that video... oh boy, something to talk about today...then... nothing to see here, move on... let's look at pictures of Jamie Lynn Spears breastfeeding instead.' The Earth is speaking to us, crying out to us. The signs are everywhere. And we continue driving down the road turning our radios up so as not to be bothered, thinking someone will take care of that; or, it won't melt enough in my lifetime to make any difference; or, it is all natural or the will of God so why fight it. I just do not know what else can be said anymore.
We need to be scaling more chimneys and unfurling more banners, and standing around more fossil fuel plants, and shouting even louder, and writing relentlessly to newspapers and media and badgering representatives in Dc and elsewhere, and we need to be telling ALL presidential candidates that "clean coal' is not the answer. We need to pull over and get out of the car and do something besides gawking at the tragedy unfolding before our eyes.
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From the article:
Flying low over the vast, white expanse of Greenland's Ilulissat glacier, one of the biggest and most active in the world, the effects of global warming in the Arctic are painfully visible as the ice melts at an alarming rate.
The helicopter lands on a granite cliff overlooking the Ilulissat ice fjord, or Kangia in Greenlandic, offering a magnificent, panoramic view of elaborate ice formations as they float towards the sea at a rate of two meters (yards) an hour, spilling massive icebergs into the open water.
Off in the distance, huge boulders of ice break off of the imposing Ilulissat glacier, more commonly known by its Greenlandic name Sermeq Kujalleq, creating a thunderous roar as the glacier recedes in one of the planet's most striking examples of global warming.
"The ice in some places on the coast is now melting four times faster than before," says Abbas Khan, a Dane who studies the movements of Greenland's glaciers at the Danish Space Centre.
The Ilulissat glacier and icefjord have been on UNESCO's world heritage list since 2004 and is the most visited site in Greenland, its ice and pools of emerald-blue water admired by tourists and studied by scientists and politicians around the world.
The glacier is the most active in the northern hemisphere, producing 10 percent of Greenland's icebergs, or some 20 million tonnes of ice per day.
But the glacier is in bad shape, experts warn.
Recent estimates by US scientists who study NASA's satellite images daily show that it is rapidly disintegrating.
It has shrunk more than 15 kilometres (9.3 miles) in the past five years, and is now smaller than it has ever been in the 150 years of observation and topographical data.
According to professor Jason Box and his team from the department of geography at Ohio State University, the Ilulissat glacier may not have been this small in 6,000 years.
more at the link
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Photo credit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielheaf/1343411263/ When are we going to hear the roar of the American people demanding Washington Dc wake the hell up and stop touting some bogus 80% by ... more -
China mulls green tax to curb pollution
China is studying whether to impose an environmental tax on polluters to cut their emissions, the official China Daily reported on Saturday.
The newspaper quoted Pan Yue, a deputy minister for environmental protection, as saying several government agencies had formed a team of experts to research the issue.
Pan gave no details of the proposed tax or when it might be introduced. But he said the team was also studying the issues of compensation for environmental damage, and the creation of a system for companies to trade rights to emit polluting gases.
China has increasingly turned to its tax system to fight severe pollution created by its economic boom. Last year, it cut export tax rebates for energy-intensive products, and this month it raised consumption taxes on large passenger vehicles. China is studying whether to impose an environmental tax on polluters to cut their emissions, the official China Daily reported on Sat... more -
Climate change could stop corals fixing themselves
Climate change is depriving coral reefs across the globe of the building materials used to make their shells. Current plans to curb greenhouse gas emissions may not be enough to fix the problem, according to new research.
The daily life of corals is a constant battle against erosion. The reef builders patch up holes in their shells, left by nibbling sea creatures, using a mineral called calcium carbonate. To keep up with repairs, corals in the wild usually require three times as much of the mineral as sheltered corals grown in laboratories.
Before the industrial revolution, says Ken Caldeira of Stanford University, 98% of all corals lived in waters above the required calcium carbonate threshold.
But the situation is changing, according to Caldeira, who has built a model to study how greenhouse gas emissions tinker with the chemistry of open water oceans.
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Oceans are becoming saturated with Co2 and corals are suffering for it. This is important because corals play a very important role in the health of our oceans, which in turn plays a very important role in the health of the web of life in our oceans, which then plays a vital role in our own health. Mitigating carbon emissions is now key: how many times does it have to be said?
The impasse between what politicians in this country want and what this world now needs is vast and bringing dangerous consequences to us. We can no longer afford to ignore scientific warnings regarding the deterioration of our oceans, and we cannot wait until politicians see it as politically expedient to do something or until we have passed the point of no return.
Besides carbon mitigation and freezing emissions, I believe we need a major global tree planting initiative to be undertaken. Planting trees in areas of great deforestation can help to return many of the carbon sinks that have been lost to us from illegal logging practices and overconsumption. This would then hopefully help to balance the amount of Co2 in the atmosphere instead of most of it being soaked up by oceans. This is a human made catastrophe and only humans can reverse it. Hopefully, it is not too late. Climate change is depriving coral reefs across the globe of the building materials used to make their shells. Current plans to curb gr... more -
Hope of mankind: Oxyfuel Boiler
Beneath the gargantuan grey boiler towers of Schwarze Pumpe power station which pierce the skies of northern Germany, a Lilliputian puzzle of metal boxes and shining canisters is about to mark a moment of industrial history.
This mini power plant is a pilot project for carbon capture and storage (CCS) - the first coal-fired plant in the world ready to capture and store its own CO2 emissions.
Next week the pilot - an oxyfuel boiler - will be formally commissioned.
A cloud of pure oxygen will be breathed into the boiler. The flame will be lit. Then a cloud of powdered lignite will be injected.
The outcome will be heat, water vapour, impurities, nine tonnes of CO2 an hour… and a landmark in clean technology.
Because the CO2 will then be separated, squashed to one 500th of its original volume and squeezed into a cylinder ready to be transported to a gas field and forced 1,000m below the surface into porous rock where it should stay until long after mankind has stopped worrying about climate change.
This is the technology once lavishly described by the former UK Chief Scientist Sir David King as "the only hope for mankind"; and the plant operators, Vattenfall, have worked furiously for two years to get the pilot running.
"We are very proud - we think this is the future for coal," says Vattenfall's Hubertus Altmann.
They funded the 70m-euro project themselves because they wanted to lead a technology they believe solves the conundrum of providing energy security through plentiful coal supplies whilst avoiding the CO2 emissions officially blamed for climate change. ACCESS ALL AREAS
In video: Inside the CCS plant
Green-carpeted marquees are currently being furnished for the guests who will swell the applause at the grand inauguration. But big questions hang over this technology overall, particularly over where the CO2 will be stored and who will pay the high costs of building and running the CCS plants.
The EU wants to see 10-12 full-scale power plants demonstrating CO2 capture within the next few years, but although a number of other firms will soon join the race with pilot projects, no full-scale CCS coal plant has yet been commissioned.
The British government has promised a decision in October on how it will fund a full-scale CCS in the UK. It hopes to avoid landing the taxpayer with the bill, but questions over CCS funding in Europe are as yet unresolved by the European Commission and the European Parliament.
*** click the link for the continuation of the story**** Beneath the gargantuan grey boiler towers of Schwarze Pumpe power station which pierce the skies of northern Germany, a Lilliputian pu... more -
Cut greenhouse gases to save coral reefs: scientists
To keep coral reefs from being eaten away by increasingly acidic oceans, humans need to limit the amount of climate-warming greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, a panel of marine scientists said on Wednesday.
"The most logical and critical action to address the impacts of ocean acidification on coral reefs is to stabilize atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration," the scientists said in a document called the Honolulu Declaration, for release at a U.S. conference on coral reefs in Hawaii.
Ocean acidification is another threat to corals caused by global warming, along with rising sea levels, higher sea surface temperatures and coral bleaching, the scientists said.
Coral reefs are a "sentinel ecosystem," a sign that the environment is changing, said one of the experts, Billy Causey of the U.S. National Marine Sanctuary Program.
"Although ocean acidification is affecting the health of our oceans, the same thing -- increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere -- is going to in fact be affecting terrestrial environments also," Causey said by telephone from Hawaii.
Coral reefs offer economic and environmental benefits to millions of people, including coastal protection from waves and storms and as sources of food, pharmaceuticals, jobs and revenue, the declaration said.
But corals are increasingly threatened by warming sea surface temperatures as well as ocean acidification.
Oceans are getting more acidic because they have been absorbing some 525 billion tons of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide over the last two centuries, about one-third of all human-generated carbon dioxide for that period.
The carbon dioxide combines with sea water to form carbonic acid.
Marine researchers have long recognized acidification in deep ocean water far from land, but a study published this year in the journal Science found this same damaging phenomenon on the Pacific North American continental shelf from Mexico to Canada, and quite likely elsewhere around the globe.
The water became so corrosive that it started dissolving the shells and skeletons of starfish, clams and corals.
Stabilizing carbon dioxide emissions was the Honolulu Declaration's top long-term recommendation. The key short-term recommendation was to nurture coral reefs that seem to have natural resilience against acidification.
This could be adopted immediately by managers of protected marine areas, Causey said.
The Honolulu Declaration will be presented to the United Nations and to other global, regional and national forums. To keep coral reefs from being eaten away by increasingly acidic oceans, humans need to limit the amount of climate-warming greenhouse... more -
States Sue EPA Over Refinery Emissions
New York and 11 other states sued the Environmental Protection Agency, claiming it failed to regulate global-warming gas emissions from refineries.
In a lawsuit filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, the states said the EPA's air-pollution-control regulations for refineries violate the Clean Air Act because they don't include standards to control greenhouse-gas emissions from new or updated equipment.
"The EPA's refusal to control pollution from oil refineries is the latest example of the Bush administration's do-nothing policy on global warming," Andrew M. Cuomo, New York's attorney general, said in a statement.
Timothy Lyons, a spokesman for the EPA, said that the attorneys general could better spend their time and taxpayers' dollars by encouraging Congress to "take sound environmental action on legislation." The agency is now taking public comments that it will consider for potential regulations on greenhouse gases under the Clean Air act that would address emissions from vehicles as well as manufacturing plants such as refineries, he added.
In a decision last year, the Supreme Court ruled that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are considered air pollutants under the Clean Air Act and that the Bush administration has legal authority to regulate them. The oil industry argues that the Clean Air Act isn't the right vehicle to regulate emissions, saying that it would be too cumbersome and expensive. The lawsuit comes amid a flurry of talk in Washington about the costs of curbing global warming emissions and their burden on industry. "What we need is a deliberative concerted effort that takes into account greenhouse gases but also economic concerns," said Charles T. Drevna, president of the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association, an industry trade group.
The other states joining in the lawsuit are California, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington; the District of Columbia and New York City are also plaintiffs. New York and 11 other states sued the Environmental Protection Agency, claiming it failed to regulate global-warming gas emissions fro... more -
We can't stop climate change in a deforesting world
If forest and peatland destruction continues unabated, we will never be able to prevent a rise in global temperatures
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Coal fired power plants rated worldwide - lots of useful info
repost this link with more creativity if you wish.
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Eat kangaroo to 'save the planet'
Switching from beef to kangaroo burgers could significantly help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, says an Australian scientist.
The gas produced by sheep and cows through belching and flatulence is a huge contributor to global warming - much more than carbon dioxide. But kangaroos produce virtually no methane gas because their digestive systems are different.
Dr George Wilson, of the Australian Wildlife Services, urges farming them. He says they have a different set of micro-organisms in their guts to cows and sheep. Sheep and cattle account for 11% of Australia's carbon footprint and over the years, there have been various proposals to deal with the problem.
Now Dr Wilson believes kangaroos might hold the answer. He said: "It tastes excellent, not unlike venison - only a different flavour." The country already produces 30 million kangaroos farmed by landholders in the outback. But Dr Wilson is keen to see that population dramatically increased to produce the same amount of kangaroo meat as that currently produced by conventional livestock. Switching from beef to kangaroo burgers could significantly help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, says an Australian scientist. ... more -
Eat kangaroo to 'save the planet'
Switching from beef to kangaroo burgers could significantly help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, says an Australian scientist.
The gas produced by sheep and cows through belching and flatulence is a huge contributor to global warming - much more than carbon dioxide.
But kangaroos produce virtually no methane gas because their digestive systems are different.
Dr George Wilson, of the Australian Wildlife Services, urges farming them.
He says they have a different set of micro-organisms in their guts to cows and sheep.
Sheep and cattle account for 11% of Australia's carbon footprint and over the years, there have been various proposals to deal with the problem.
Now Dr Wilson believes kangaroos might hold the answer.
He said: "It tastes excellent, not unlike venison - only a different flavour."
The country already produces 30 million kangaroos farmed by landholders in the outback.
But Dr Wilson is keen to see that population dramatically increased to produce the same amount of kangaroo meat as that currently produced by conventional livestock. Switching from beef to kangaroo burgers could significantly help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, says an Australian scientist. ... more -
Do some math on reducing CO2 and get a surprise ...
"If some environmentalists have their way, simple math suggests life as we know it will end ...
Those who view fossil fuel the way Carrie Nation did Demon Rum point out that were everyone on Earth to burn just a gas tank’s worth of carbon each day, CO2 in the atmosphere would still double in a decade. Skeptics may discount climate models as metaphysical, but true believers consider the human costs of prohibition an acceptable price for environmental salvation. Gore’s 2006 Nobel Prize speech elevated environmentalism from a pretext for social intervention to a categorical imperative by declaring: “We must abandon the conceit that individual, isolated, private actions are the answer.…They will not take us far enough without collective action.”
It took two centuries for daily per capita carbon consumption in America to reach the roughly 100-pound level that currently lights homes, powers industry, and keeps the Internet humming. But like driving, all those welcome activities increase the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The average American currently generates 22 tons of CO2 a year, but to limit 21st century warming to 2.5 degrees Celsius, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change suggests cutting the global rise in CO2 to one part per million by 2050. That’s only a small multiple of the weight of the CO2 people exhale, and realizing this goal within 42 years could require America to burn less carbon in a month than we do now in a day.
This draconian downturn unfolds from a single statistic: the 5-quadrillion-ton weight of Earth’s atmosphere. Your 792,000-ton share of the air may seem hefty, but one part per million of it is less than one ton. Goodbye, central heating; an average New England home furnace belts out six tons of CO2 a year. Ditto private cars; families living on a truly Earth-friendly carbon ration might spend breakfast debating whether to blow their half-pint gasoline coupon on a moped ride to town or use the daily kilowatt-hour allotment to turn the communal electric blanket up to 4. Holiday turkeys may end up as sashimi, since oven roasting could mean a heatless Thanksgiving night or Christmas Eve.
A personal CO2 limit of less than a ton per year does not even imply the right to buy that much fuel, because CO2 is only 27 percent carbon. Multiply your 1,745-pound annual CO2 ration by 27 percent, divide the result by 365 days, and…yikes! It’s 21 ounces of carbon a day—and falling. If the global population reaches 9 billion by 2050, expect a daily fossil fuel ration of a latté cup of gasoline, three Pilates balls of natural gas, or a lump of coal the size of a turnip.
If you suspect life on a pound of coal a day might be solitary, brutish, nasty, and short, you’re right. The countries with the smallest carbon footprints already feature the shortest life expectancies on Earth. Not that real prohibitionists should mind—when it comes to carbon, Sudan is bone dry."
Russell Seitz (russellseitz@gmail.com), a physicist living in Cambridge, Massachusetts, blogs on the climate wars at adamant.typepad.com.
Can you do the math? Really? Is that really what you want as your goal? You'd better be able to get there on your own after people start doing some math, too ... "If some environmentalists have their way, simple math suggests life as we know it will end ... ... more -
Hydrogen Cars are perhaps not the near term answer.
Everyone is looking for cheaper fuel. Who is looking at things from other points of view? Such as emission standards. In the near term it seems that hydrogen powered cars may be worse from that point of view than the gas guzzlers we drive today. Everyone is looking for cheaper fuel. Who is looking at things from other points of view? Such as emission standards. In the near t... more
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100 MW wind farm tp power 30,000 homes, Kansas.
In Barber County Kansas, Westar Energy and BP Alternate Energy have started construction on the Flat Rige Wind Farm, celebrated on june 24th with a groundbreaking ceremony for the site. Fourty Clipper 2.5 MW C-29 wind turbine generators will produce 100 MW of renewable energy, with RMT Windconnect working to lay the transmission lines and transfer this energy to the power grid.
"We are proud to be a part of Westar Energy's and BP Alternative Energy's efforts to invest in wind energy as a way of making the state of Kansas more energy independent."
The project is aimed to be producing commercial energy by the end of the year, off setting 240,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions to the atmospher anually. In Barber County Kansas, Westar Energy and BP Alternate Energy have started construction on the Flat Rige Wind Farm, celebrated on jun... more -
Toyota to build Prius in US, stops truck production
"The company said Thursday it will start producing the Prius in 2010 at a plant it is building in Blue Springs, Miss. Toyota already builds a hybrid version of the Camry sedan in Kentucky, but this will be the first time the Prius, which has been on sale for more than a decade, will be built outside of Asia." -MSNBC
Toyota is also planning on temporarily stopping US production of its trucks and large SUVs because of declining demand. The plants will either temporarily close or build hybrid SUVs instead.
This is great news both for the environment and for our economy. It will ultimately result in more jobs for Americans and strengthen the "green-collar" job market. This is evidence of our economy's shift in the right direction.
What do you think? "The company said Thursday it will start producing the Prius in 2010 at a plant it is building in Blue Springs, Miss. Toyota alre... more -
EU lawmakers approve deal on airline CO2 emissions
European Union lawmakers approved a deal with governments on Tuesday to include aviation from 2012 in the EU's Emission Trading Scheme, a key tool to fight climate change.
Aviation generates 3 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions in the 27-member bloc but has been left out of the ETS so far because of concerns that its inclusion would damage the industry's ability to compete in international markets.
With air traffic set to double by 2020, however, Europe is keen to apply the "polluter pays" principle as it struggles to reduce output of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.
The European Parliament voted 640 to 30 in favor of a rule that airlines would have to cut emissions of carbon dioxide by 3 percent in the first year, and by 5 percent from 2013 onwards, paying for 15 percent of their emissions permits initially. European Union lawmakers approved a deal with governments on Tuesday to include aviation from 2012 in the EU's Emission Trading S... more -
G-8 leaders only pledge to halve emissions by 2050
Pledging to “move toward a low-carbon society,” leaders of the world’s richest nations endorsed Tuesday the idea of cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050, but did not specify whether the starting point would be current levels or 1990 levels, and refused to set a short-term target for reducing the gases that scientists agree are warming the planet.
The declaration by the so-called Group of Eight — the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Canada and Russia — came under intense criticism from environmentalists, who called it a missed opportunity and said it ignores the urgent need to cut emissions more rapidly.
However, European leaders, who have long pressed President Bush to adopt a more aggressive stance on climate change, said they were pleased with the agreement, which is nonbinding. They cast it as an important step toward laying the groundwork for a binding international treaty, to be negotiated in Copenhagen in 2009 under the auspices of the United Nations.
“This is a strong signal to citizens around the world,” the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, told reporters at a news conference near here. “The science is clear, the economic case for action is stronger than ever. Now we need to go the extra mile to secure an ambitious global deal in Copenhagen.”
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To me this sends a strong signal that for the fate of this Earth and our species to be in the hands of these eight countries means that nothing effective will be done to solve this urgent crisis. Again, this is what happens when you make this crisis a political issue. Halving by 2050 is NOT GOOD ENOUGH. The Arctic ice will be melted by then (which of course they probably want to be able to plunder the resources there as well,) coal plants will have spewed millions of tons of toxic gases into the air by then, and many islands in other parts of our world already threatened by sea level rise will be feeling the affects of our behavior. As it stands now we are approaching the third degree of a six degree doomsday scenario. Are these leaders so greedy and blind to scientific reports that they actually think this is good enough? And the fact that it is non binding is simply and honestly, BS.
As an environmentalist but more importantly as a citizen of the world I am outraged that these men of rich countries think they can tell the poor of this world who will feel the brunt of this most what they are going to do. I say it is time for people to tell them that they are going to do what must be done. I now have little hope for Copenhagen next year. All I see are political leaders using this crisis as an economic ping pong ball and bargaining chip as droughts become more pervasive and prolonged, glaciers continue to melt, storms become more intense, and the resources that we depend on from our land and oceans become scarcer and more polluted. As it is already the oceans are more acidic than we thought, and should this be the first summer the Arctic is ice free it is only a portent of more to come. We don't have until 2050 for politicians to get around to this!
What will it take to get the message through to these people? A global revolution? Remember this also, all of this opens the doors for government and multi nationals to continue their chokehold on the poor and oppressed. This climate crisis is just what they are looking for to institute a one world government and make the most profit they can from this. So of course, they will take their time. That is why they alone cannot be allowed to dictate to us what our future will be, especially when our survival is on the line. Good enough? No. It is an outrage. Pledging to “move toward a low-carbon society,” leaders of the world’s richest nations endorsed Tuesday the idea of cutting greenhouse... more -
The floating cities that could one day house climate refugees
At first glance, they look like a couple of giant inflatable garden chairs that have washed out to sea
But they are, apparently, the ultimate solution to rapidly rising sea levels.
This computer-generated image shows two floating cities, each with enough room for 50,000 inhabitants.
Based on the design of a lilypad, they could be used as a permanent refuge for those whose homes have been covered in water. Major cities including London, New York and Tokyo are seen as being at huge risk from oceans which could rise by as much as 3ft by the end of this century.
This solution, by the award-winning Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut, is designed to be a new place to live for those whose homelands have been wiped out.
The 'Lilypad City' would float around the world as an independent and fully self-sustainable home. With a lake at its centre to collect and purify rainwater, it would be accessed by three separate marinas and feature artificial mountains to offer the inhabitants a change of scenery from the seascape.
Power for the central accommodation hub is provided through a series of renewable energy sources including solar panels on the mountain sides, wind turbines and a power station to harness the energy of the waves.
Mr Callebaut said: 'The design of the city is inspired by the shape of the great Amazonia Victoria Regia lilypad. Some countries spend billions of pounds working on making their beaches and dams bigger and stronger.
'But the lilypad project is actually a long-term solution to the problem of the water rising.'
The architect, who has yet to estimate a cost for his design, added: 'It's an amphibious city without any roads or any cars. The whole city is covered by plants housed in suspended gardens.
'The goal is to create a harmonious coexistence of humans and nature.'
'And it has the other objective of providing housing for refugees from islands that have been submerged.'
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Well, it certainly is innovative, but I would have many questions about them if it ever came to be. Firstly, only holding 50,000 people, who would get picked to go on them? Also, what about security and provisions? Let us hope it doesn't get this far, although islands like Kiribati, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, and islands near Bangladesh are already dangerously close to getting there. Would you live on one? At first glance, they look like a couple of giant inflatable garden chairs that have washed out to sea ... more -
Hot future shock: heat wave temperatures to soar
During the European heat wave of 2003 that killed tens of thousands, the temperature in parts of France hit 104 degrees. Nearly 15,000 people died in that country alone. During the Chicago heat wave of 1995, the mercury spiked at 106 and about 600 people died.
In a few decades, people will look back at those heat waves "and we will laugh," said Andreas Sterl, author of a new study. "We will find (those temperatures) lovely and cool."
Sterl's computer model shows that by the end of the century, high temperatures for once-in-a-generation heat waves will rise twice as fast as everyday average temperatures. Chicago, for example, would reach 115 degrees in such an event by 2100. Paris heat waves could near 109 with Lyon coming closer to 114.
Sterl, who is with the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, projects temperatures for rare heat waves around the world in a study soon to be published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
His numbers are blistering because of the drying-out effect of a warming world. Most global warming research focuses on average daily temperatures instead of these extremes, which cause greater damage.
His study projects a peak of 117 for Los Angeles and 110 for Atlanta by 2100; that's 5 degrees higher than the current records for those cities. Kansas City faces the prospect of a 116-degree heat wave, with its current all-time high at 109, according to the National Climactic Data Center. During the European heat wave of 2003 that killed tens of thousands, the temperature in parts of France hit 104 degrees. Nearly 15,000... more -
a chairman that would WILLINGLY pay for the pollution his company is responsible f...
yup
"Virgin Group chairman Richard Branson told a forum on climate change Tuesday that aviation is a dirty business and that airlines should be willing to pay for the damage they cause to the environment." yup ... more
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