On July 9, 2008 | Tags: Energy, renewables, solar |
An information that really caught my eyes in my RSS feeds is the fact that 90 percent of Israeli houses have a solar water heater. This is a huge percentage.
It can be explained by the interest of the local government for this energy source as early as the 1950s. In 1983, up to 60 percent of households had these appliances.
Israel is thus taking profit of its most important insolation. But solar energies also work in less sunny places. It is to be hoped that more countries will follow this example. Read out more »
On July 8, 2008 | Tags: Climate change, Europe, IPCC |
Carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases emissions have been increasing continuously since the beginning of the industrial revolution at the end of the 18th century.
According to the IPCC experts who met the EU environment ministries today, this trend have to be reversed and emissions have to start decreasing within the next seven years.
To these experts, the European Union can lead the way and set an example. This meeting took place as the G8 representatives are meeting on climate change. Read out more »
On July 8, 2008 | Tags: Sustainable development |
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization - FAO, part of the United Nations - the amount of people undernourished rose by approximately 50 million in 2007.
Many factors contributed to such a dramatic increase, like the increasing population and demand, biofuels production (see cartoon on the left) and climate change related phenomena.
As world population increases and as food prices keep on soaring, I doubt this situation will reverse any time soon. This is a most scary prospect. Read out more »
On July 7, 2008 | Tags: Energy, Europe, renewables |
After India’s plan on climate change last week, the United Kingdom announced a plan due expand in an important way the use of renewable energies.
Up to 7,000 wind turbines - including 3,000 offshore - will be installed by 2020 in order to multiply by a factor ten the importance of these energies in the UK energy mix.
This will cost up to 100 billion £ (126 billion Euros or 198 billion USD) over the next twelve years and is due to create up to 160,000 jobs. A most interesting prospect. Read out more »
On July 4, 2008 | Tags: Climate change, Personal, transport |
Two weeks ago I took some vacations and visited my family near Nancy. Additionally, I went to the renewable energies fair in Paris. It was also the opportunity for me to have a most interesting meeting.
All this brought me to travel up to 1,600 kilometers (approx. 1,000 miles). By choosing the train instead of my Toyota Yaris, I avoided the emissions of up to 208 kilograms of carbon dioxide.
With this travel, I am reaching a total reduction of 800 kilograms of CO2 this year. I plan to reach a minimum of a thousand five hundred kilograms in 2008. Read out more »
On July 3, 2008 | Tags: Climate change, coal, Oil, USA |
James Hansen, a top NASA official famous for his speech twenty years ago on global warming strikes back. His first discourse rose awareness on climate change in the United States.
In his anniversary speech, he stated that large oil and coal companies would commit crimes against Humanity and Nature if they continued emitting important amounts of greenhouse gases.
To Mr. Hansen, we have to act now as “we’ve already reached the dangerous level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.” Read out more »
On July 2, 2008 | Tags: investments, renewables, solar |
According to the UNEP, multiple factors are benefiting renewable energies as world investment in this sector rose by 60 percent in 2007 compared to 2006.
Investment reached last year $148 billion (93 billion euros) and this trend is most likely to continue as forecasts mention $600 billion per year by 2020.
As we can see, a sheer revolution is taking place and this new report strongly reinforces my willingness to work in this sector. Read out more »
On July 2, 2008 | Tags: Climate change, India |
The government of the world’s largest democracy announced this week it’s first plan ever to mitigate climate change and to move toward a more sustainable development. This is great news.
However, there are no real targets in any specific subject such as renewable energies - with a specific mention of solar - water, agriculture and energy efficiency.
I personally think that the more defined targets will come once all rich countries will have pledged to reduce their own emissions and proposed help to India. Read out more »
On July 1, 2008 | Tags: Energy, nuclear |
Last month, a speech on the future of nuclear energy at the International Atomic Energy Agency stated that the amount of nuclear plants worldwide is due to rise by 60 percent by 2030.
This would bring the amount of nuclear reactors to around 700, a figures that has to be compared to the current 435 according to the World Nuclear Association.
The majority of this increase in demand will occur in Asia (notably China and India) as well as in the Middle East, Africa and South America. Read out more »
On June 30, 2008 | Tags: Astronomy, photo |
Since my article last month, the NASA’s Astronomy Picture Of the Day has been packed with images taken from Mars, thanks to the Phoenix mission.
It also proposed us some very nice pictures from various celestial views such as Saturn’s rings (left, taken by the Cassini mission) or the usual pictures of galaxies.
An interesting month even if it lacked the truly awesome pictures of nebulae I get used to come to appreciate while browsing the APOD. Read out more »
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An information that really caught my eyes in my RSS feeds is the fact that 90 percent of Israeli houses have a solar water heater. This is a huge percentage.
