Archive for July, 2008
On the exploitation of oil shale and sands…
Posted by: on July 30, 2008 in Tags: forests, Oil, pollution
You think drilling for Arctic oil would be an ugly mess ? Then have a look at the exploitation of oil shales and tar-sands that is already occurring in Canada and the United States.
The WWF released a new report on how recovering these difficultly recoverable oil barrels are literally destroying entire regions with massive deforestation and large air and water pollution.
Oil is already the second most polluting energy source. With such practices it is becoming an even bigger problem. It is high time for these countries to work on efficiency. Continue reading »
Better Place : an interesting project of hybrid cars
Posted by: on July 29, 2008 in Tags: Energy, renewables, transport
Even if oil prices decreased during the last weeks - as I write these lines they are around $120 at the NYMEX - there is no doubt they will soar again and reach $200 in the very next months.
Since our transportation habits are depending so much on this energy source, it is high time for our societies to change and shift to hybrid or full electric cars.
An Israeli investor, Shai Agassi, is banking on the latter with his project Better Place that may become a reality in his country but also in the UK, Portugal and Denmark. Continue reading »
Breaking the climate deadlock : a great report
Posted by: on July 28, 2008 in Tags: Climate change, Sustainable development
While browsing the many articles published on TreeHugger I came across one that read “The most important report you’ll read this year”. Quite a catchy title for quite important news.
According to the Climate Group, the debate over global warming is over as it is occurring and as all developed nations are now acknowledging it as a fact and want to act against it.
The former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair (above) gave a speech to support this new report with realistic solutions that was targeted at G8 countries during their meeting. Continue reading »
What happens when it is Monday evening and you haven’t posted the article you generally publish on Sunday ? Well, it’s easy, you write a quick article.
My review of this month’s astrophotographies will thus be brief, very brief. As a matter of fact there won’t be any descriptions of the photos I liked, just the links.
The thumbnail above is a detail of the picture that was proposed by the NASA astronomy picture of the day on July 19th, it shows M16 and the Eagle Nebula. Continue reading »
A great video on why CFL are fantastic
Posted by: on July 25, 2008 in Tags: Efficiency, Energy, Video
If you had a look recently at the sidebar of this blog, you may have noticed that I added a link on what is RSS just next to the subscription button.
This sends you to a page featuring a great video by the Common Craft Show. This company didn’t stop right there and did the same thing to explain CFL light bulbs in plain English.
In three minutes, those of you who still haven’t switched to these marvels will be convinced to take this first step towards decreasing your bills and CO2 emissions. Continue reading »
According to a study released today by the United States Geological Survey, a fifth of world oil and natural gas reserves may be located under the Arctic.
This would represent 90 billion barrels of oil and a lot of natural gas. As you can imagine, countries of this region - The United States, Canada and Russia - are willing to tap this real treasury.
But, wouldn’t burning all this oil spells disaster and certain doom to all of us ? This is a question I have been meaning to ask today. Continue reading »
Decreasing by 80 % US CO2 emissions by 2050 is possible
Posted by: on July 23, 2008 in Tags: Climate change, USA
You perhaps remember my lengthy article where I stated that cutting by a factor four our carbon dioxide emissions by the middle of this century is feasible.
Well, it seems I am not alone thinking this as a team of Minnesota scientists just released a study pointing to the same results : We can do it, it is just a matter of will and commitment.
This study also shows that we can cut by 30 percent our CO2 emissions by 2025, which is just as the IPCC recommended last year during the release of its AR4 report. Continue reading »
As the official website was launched today, I would like to write about this major event in the energy industry. After two years of talks a new giant energy company is born : GDF Suez.
The company is the product of the merger of Gaz de France and Suez. The group weights nearly 75 billion euros or 118 billion US Dollars, which is more than Gazprom (67 billion euros)
Other thing that has to be noted, Suez Environnement was launched on the stock market as an independent company. Continue reading »
Beijing Olympics and the fear of bad air quality
Posted by: on July 22, 2008 in Tags: China, Environment, pollution
After the algae bloom come the worries on Beijing’s air quality. To improve this, the local government took a drastic measure : cars will be allowed to drive on alternate days.
This measure is due to decrease by up to 60 percent the pollution of the 3.3 million cars of the city. Meanwhile, new subway and bus lines were opened.
Will all these measures be enough for athletes to have a good air quality ? It is to be hoped as many eyes worldwide will look at China’s efforts on pollution. Continue reading »
Smart meters lead to smart behaviors
Posted by: on July 21, 2008 in Tags: Efficiency, Energy, Europe, housing
Since the writing of my Master’s Degree thesis I am fully aware of how insulating housing is a vital part of solving both climate change and energy scarcity crises.
By reading a New York Times’ article I learned that halving houses’ carbon footprint in only five years is feasible. This is the result of an experiment carried out in Hove, United Kingdom.
Insulating buildings and using smart meters allow such drastic reductions and show that mitigating global warming and saving money can be done. Continue reading »
