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Ihering Alcoforado

Biofuels: indirect land use change and climate impact - 0 views

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    "The objective of this study is to:  compile the available recent literature on ILUC emissions;  compare these emissions with the assumed gains of biofuels;  assess how ILUC changes the carbon balance of using biofuels;  formulate policies to avoid these extra emissions associated with ILUC. Trends in land use, with and without biofuels All the studies on global agricultural markets reviewed predict that new arable land will be required to meet future global demand for food and feed. Although there will be increased productivity on current arable land (intensification), food and feed demand will probably grow faster, which means that mobilization of new land is likely to occur. Biofuels produced from crops (the current mainstream practice) will add extra demand for crops like wheat, rice, maize, rapeseed and palm oil. This will increase prices for these crops (as well as for land) and lead to two impacts: intensification of agricultural production and conversion of forests and grasslands to arable land. In this report we consider the issue of indirect land use change initiated by EU biofuels policy and seek to answer the following questions:  What is the probability of biofuels policies initiating land use changes?  What greenhouse gas emissions may result from indirect land use change, expressed as a factor in the mathematical relation given above?  What technical measures can be applied and what policy measures adopted to limit or entirely mitigate indirect land use change and the associated greenhouse gas emissions? We first (Chapter 2) broadly discuss the mechanism of indirect land use change. We next discuss why there is a perception among stakeholders that there is a serious risk that EU biofuels policy will initiate indirect land use change (Chapter 3) and consider the figures cited by other studies as an indication of the magnitude the associated greenhouse gas emissions  (Chapter 4). We then broadly consid
Arabica Robusta

This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs the Climate review - Naomi Klein's powerful and ... - 0 views

  • Much of this book is concerned with showing that powerful and well-financed rightwing thinktanks and lobby groups lie behind the denial of climate change in recent years.
  • Klein interprets the marginalisation of climate change in the political process as the result of the machinations of corporate elites. These elites “understand the real significance of climate change better than most of the ‘warmists’ in the political centre, the ones who are still insisting that the response can be gradual and painless and that we don’t need to go to war with anybody… The deniers get plenty of the details wrong… But when it comes to the scope and depth of change required to avert catastrophe, they are right on the money.”
  • Klein is a brave and passionate writer who always deserves to be heard, and this is a powerful and urgent book that anyone who cares about climate change will want to read. Yet it is hard to resist the conclusion that she shrinks from facing the true scale of the problem. When I read The Shock Doctrine (Guardian review headline: “The end of the world as we know it”), I was unconvinced that corporate and political elites understood what they were doing in promoting the wildly leveraged capitalism of that time, which was already beginning to implode. The idea that corporate elites are in charge of the world is even less convincing today. The neoliberal order has recovered, and in some countries even achieved a spurious kind of stability, but only at the cost of worsening global conflicts.
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  • Another problem with pinning all the blame for climate crisis on corporate elites is that humanly caused environmental destruction long predates the rise of capitalism.
  • Though she identifies the prevailing type of capitalism as the culprit in the climate crisis, Klein doesn’t outline anything like an alternative economic system, preferring instead to focus on particular local struggles against environmental damage and exploitation. In many ways this makes sense, but in a global environment of intensifying scarcities, giving priority to local needs is unlikely to be a recipe for harmony. Whether in the Congo in the 1960s or Iraq at the present time, internecine conflicts – exploited and aggravated by the geopolitical stratagems of great powers – have led to a condition of endemic war.
  • Throughout This Changes Everything, Klein describes the climate crisis as a confrontation between capitalism and the planet. It would be more accurate to describe the crisis as a clash between the expanding demands of humankind and a finite world, but however the conflict is framed there can be no doubt who the winner will be. The Earth is vastly older and stronger than the human animal.
Hans De Keulenaer

Is nuclear power essential to addressing climate change and energy independence? - NewTalk - 0 views

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    Calling climate change one of the greatest challenges ever faced by the human race, some former opponents of nuclear power have recently become its advocates, if cautious advocates. Our purpose here is not to debate climate change, but rather "Is nuclear power essential to addressing climate change and energy independence?"
Jeff Johnson

The Ethics of Climate Change: Pay Now or Pay More Later?: Scientific American - 0 views

  • What should we do about climate change? The question is an ethical one. Science, including the science of economics, can help discover the causes and effects of climate change. It can also help work out what we can do about climate change. But what we should do is an ethical question.
  • Weighing our own prosperity against the chances that climate change will diminish the well-being of our grandchildren calls on economists to make hard ethical judgments
Hans De Keulenaer

Virtual power plants could tame coming grid chaos - tech - 11 June 2009 - New Scientist - 0 views

  • Fears over energy security and climate change have led to record investment in renewable energy. But a major problem threatens to stall progress towards a more sustainable future: national electricity grids are far from ready to cope with the variable output from the new technologies. A solution might be at hand, though, and would not involve radical changes to the existing infrastructure. Treating groups of dispersed power sources, such as solar and wind generators, as a single entity could solve the problem, creating the virtual equivalent of a single large power station.
Colin Bennett

John Grant: Waking Up To Green Innovation on PSFK - 0 views

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    When the idea of a low carbon economy first raised its head some expected a sea change in public attitudes. This change would impact the regulatory framework, acknowledge the responsibilities of businesses,  encourage development of sustainable practices and generally save the world from itself. It seems that some observers are surprised at the slowness of the sea change. Perhaps the level of innovation required is not materialsing because the need, in fact, is not urgent enough in the minds of business, government or consumers. Over the last decade, governments have put in place frameworks for action, but the timing is over many years - a serious commitment which should encourage. On the other hand, perhaps we should not expect a huge change in lifestyle look and feel as we grow into an efficient low carbon society.
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    Isn't the problem that climate is a global issue, which encompasses so many aspects of day-to-day life. So it's at the same time the ultimate global and local issue, requiring us to change everything for everyone. Those expecting sea change will have to wait for quite a while.
Peter Fleming

Climate change fears may worsen depression - Health - Mental health - msnbc.com - 0 views

  • According to accumulating evidence, climate change won't just trigger new cases of stress, anxiety and depression. People who already have schizophrenia and other serious psychological problems will probably suffer most in the aftermath of natural disasters and extreme weather events.
  • Then, there's the general sense of sadness that can come from reading about climate change again and again, and recognizing that the world is changing.
Hans De Keulenaer

T2419.pdf (application/pdf Object) - 0 views

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    The report presents how climate will change according to climate models concerning the planning and building of electric power networks from the present state to the period from 2016 to 2045. The essential impacts of changes in weather conditions on planning and building of electric network are defined regionally based on the climate change scenarios. The importance of the effects is shown as costs and failure durations for different line structures. Moreover, the influence of the climate change on the loading capacity of the power system components is presented. On the basis of all these factors it will be judged how strong an effect the climate change has in the present electric power network and how one should be prepared for it.
Sergio Ferreira

Global options for tackling climate change | EU - European Information on Climate Change - 0 views

  • xamines some of the main policy options and instruments available for mounting a global response to problems such as rising sea levels, biodiversity loss and failing crops. 
Hans De Keulenaer

Companies, Carbon and Climate Change: The Carbon Disclosure Project Issues its 5th Glob... - 0 views

  • Today, the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) released its much-anticipated Global Corporate Climate Change Report (CDP5). This is the fifth annual report by the CDP tracking carbon disclosure and attitudes toward climate change in the world's largest companies. The CDP additionally this year launched the Climate Disclosure Leadership Index (CDLI), an honor roll for companies who are best addressing climate change issues.
Arabica Robusta

Climate Change Messaging: Avoid the Truth » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Na... - 1 views

  • Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger published the op-ed “Global Warming Scare Tactics” in the New York Times on April 8. Participants in recent debates over climate change may recognize their names. They’re the guys who run the Breakthrough Institute, a pseudo-contrarian “environmental research organization.”
  • While occasionally on point in its charges against the big organizations, the essay (based on interviews with mostly white male leaders of large national groups) had nothing to say about the environmental justice movement, or other grassroots groups led by women and people of color. It neglected as well the environmental movements of the Global South, today the heart of the climate justice movement.
  • Is fear of disruption of what Habermas calls the life-world the sole inducer of civic action? Of course not: social movements also cohere around other shared, negotiated understandings, identities, diagnoses of problems, and assessments of opportunities. Might fear paralyze rather than mobilize? Yes: in cases when the perceived threat appears impervious to resistance, and when commitment to the cause flags over time. Fear-based campaigns require a tangible evil: a draft card, a nuclear plant cooling tower, a polluting facility’s smoke plume, an Operation Rescue picket line.
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  • Of the massive, coordinated, ongoing effort by Exxon-Mobil, the Koch brothers, and the Heartland Institute (et al.) to do to climate science what the Tobacco Institute did to cigarette science, Nordhaus and Shellenberger have only this to say, “Some conservatives and fossil-fuel interests questioned the link between carbon emissions and global warming.” There’s no mention of how under- and mis-educated TV weathermen have been central progenitors of climate change skepticism. There’s no acknowledgement of how Big Coal, Oil and Gas have bought off local and national legislators, stalled attempts to put forward even wimpy programs (like cap and trade), or underwritten NPR’s gushing embrace of fracking.
Jeff Johnson

Friedman: Learning to Speak Climate (NYTimes) - 0 views

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    Some countries have vintage whiskey. Some have vintage wine. Greenland has vintage ice. Sometimes you just wish you were a photographer. I simply do not have the words to describe the awesome majesty of Greenland's Kangia Glacier, shedding massive icebergs the size of skyscrapers and slowly pushing them down the Ilulissat Fjord until they crash into the ocean off the west coast of Greenland. There, these natural ice sculptures float and bob around the glassy waters near here. You can sail between them in a fishing boat, listening to these white ice monsters crackle and break, heave and sigh, as if they were noisily protesting their fate. Greenland is one of the best places to observe the effects of climate change. Because the world's biggest island has just 55,000 people and no industry, the condition of its huge ice sheet - as well as its temperature, precipitation and winds - is influenced by the global atmospheric and ocean currents that converge here. Whatever happens in China or Brazil gets felt here. And because Greenlanders live close to nature, they are walking barometers of climate change.
Colin Bennett

The Energy Blog: Big Business Says Addressing Climate Change 'Rates Very Low on Agenda' - 0 views

  • Nearly nine in 10 of them do not rate it as a priority, says the study, which canvassed more than 500 big businesses in Britain, the US, Germany, Japan, India and China. Nearly twice as many see climate change as imposing costs on their business as those who believe it presents an opportunity to make money. And the report's publishers believe that big business will concentrate even less on climate change as the world economy deteriorates. . . . more
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    Climate is a global and an outcome measure. No wonder 'business does not care', or better - gives it only lip service. But as for the multi-B$ carbon markets, that's a different story. The term 'shark pit' comes to mind.
Colin Bennett

Terminology: "Global Warming" or "Climate Change?" - 0 views

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    The terms "global warming" and "climate change" are often used interchangeably. I've pretty much used "global warming" over the years, but now I'm making the switch to "climate change:" It's the term used by the United Nations, academia, and it's more inclusive, since "change" can refer to increased rain, drought, or any type of weather event other than just warming. So is there really a difference in definitions?
Colin Bennett

LEED 2009: Rating System Is Shifting its Focus to Energy and Carbon for Commercial Buil... - 0 views

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    The green-building rating system has undergone a re-weighting of credits, changing allocation of points to reflect climate change and energy efficiency as urgent priorities. LEED has been criticized for allocating relatively few points to energy efficiency and renewable energy.
Glycon Garcia

Focus on European Smart Grids - 0 views

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    Focus on European Smart Grids\nby Michael Setters, Smart Electric News\nLondon, UK [RenewableEnergyWorld.com]\n\nA host of initiatives across Europe has led to an explosion in interest into how -- and where -- smart grids will be implemented and deployed.\n\nAccording to Jose Antonio Vanderhorst-Silverio, a leading voice in the Electricity industry, "It is clear that dramatic change is coming in the future for the electric utility industry...the way energy is generated, delivered and consumed [is] substantially changing the whole business model. This change is coming to a piece of the industry that hasn't been known for radical change over its 120 plus year history... Implementation of the Smart Grid will require a complete rethinking of the utility business model and business processes."
Hans De Keulenaer

Not a sheep: Climate Change scientists - 0 views

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    Junk Science has a selection of quotations from "leading climate change scientists" that I think are worthy of spreading so people can see what kind of people they are and what their real aims are.
Phil Slade

2010 Peak Oil Report | The Peak Oil Group - 1 views

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    "Business calls for urgent action on "oil crunch" threat to UK economy Taskforce warns Britain is unprepared for significant risk to companies and consumers Poorest to be hit hardest by price rises for travel, food, heating and consumer goods New policies must be priority for whoever wins the General Election Recommended packages include legislation, new technologies and behaviour-change incentives Fundamental change in demand patterns triggered by emerging economy countries London, 10 February, 2010: A group of leading business people today call for urgent action to prepare the UK for Peak Oil. The second report of the UK Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil and Energy Security (ITPOES) finds that oil shortages, insecurity of supply and price volatility will destabilise economic, political and social activity potentially by 2015. Peak Oil refers to the point where the highest practicable rate of global oil production has been achieved and from which future levels of production will either plateau, or begin to diminish. This means an end to the era of cheap oil."
Arabica Robusta

The Anthropocene Myth | Jacobin - 0 views

  • Who’s driving us toward disaster? A radical answer would be the reliance of capitalists on the extraction and use of fossil energy. Some, however, would rather identify other culprits. The earth has now, we are told, entered “the Anthropocene”: the epoch of humanity. Enormously popular — and accepted even by many Marxist scholars — the Anthropocene concept suggests that humankind is the new geological force transforming the planet beyond recognition, chiefly by burning prodigious amounts of coal, oil, and natural gas.
  • The important thing to note here is the logical structure of the Anthropocene narrative: some universal trait of the species must be driving the geological epoch that is its own, or else it would be a matter of some subset of the species. But the story of human nature can come in many forms, both in the Anthropocene genre and in other parts of climate change discourse.
  • Giving short shrift to all the talk of a universal human evildoer, she writes, “We are stuck because the actions that would give us the best chance of averting catastrophe — and would benefit the vast majority — are extremely threatening to an elite minority that has a stranglehold over our economy, our political process, and most of our major media outlets.”
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  • So how do the critics respond? “Klein describes the climate crisis as a confrontation between capitalism and the planet,” philosopher John Gray counters in the Guardian. “It would be be more accurate to describe the crisis as a clash between the expanding demands of humankind and a finite world.”
  • It is perfectly logical that advocates of the Anthropocene and associated ways of thinking either champion false solutions that steer clear of challenging fossil capital — such as geoengineering in the case of Mark Lynas and Paul Crutzen, the inventor of the Anthropocene concept — or preach defeat and despair, as in the case of Kingsnorth.
Colin Bennett

Incentives for Micro Generation announced by Ireland Energy Minister Eamon Ryan - 0 views

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    Energy Minister Eamon Ryan stated that the first 4,000 installations around the country will get a guaranteed 19cent a KWh. Minister Ryan went on to say "We are changing the rules and changing the nature of electricity generation in Ireland.
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