Welcome ! As a young French Marketing professional with a Master's in International Management I have been selecting since January 2007 the latest headlines and best researches on sustainable development, climate change, cleantech and the world energy sector. Sounds great ? Don't hesitate to subscribe now !
If you aren’t familiar with US environmental politics, you might not have heard about Big Oil’s latest craze : building a 1.700 mile (2,736 km) long pipeline to bring tar sands oil extracted from Canada to the US Gulf coast.
After many twists and turns, President Barack Obama – the green Prez that should have been – seem to have finally decided to reject this huge and polluting project, and this albeit the important political pressure.
Is this the first step toward a more sustainable America ? Let’s hope Mr. Obama will fight on green issues. Not only will this help him get reelected, it would also help us all…
Canada is said to be an open country, democratic, always welcoming new people and new ideas. In theory… Indeed, Franke James, an absolutely brilliant and amazing artist is learning it’s not always the case. And she is learning it the hard way.
To make a long story short : ” The Canadian Government, led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative Party, is actively working to shut down (her) solo European art exhibition, which is set to tour 20 cities in Europe. “
I discovered Franke’s amazing visual essays years ago – she is one of the very first persons I followed on Twitter, thanks to a common acquaintance – and I have always loved them ever since. Continue »
Climate Progress published an article on how developing countries are more moving on climate change than developed, when the latter are responsible for the largest share of emissions…
This is completely crazy and sad at the same time. As they note : ” The countries that have made the smallest contribution to climate change may be doing the most to address it. “
” That would be Robin Hood in reverse — compounding the fact that we are all reverse Robin Hoods, maintaining our wealthy lifestyles by robbing our children of a livable climate and truly sustainable wealth” Continue »
While reading Courrier International one article on the MacKenzie river recently caught my attention. It was first published by The Walrus, a Canadian magazine published by a non-profit charitable foundation. Here is an extract :
” the Mackenzie River empties a watershed nearly the size of Western Europe into the Arctic Ocean. Draining half of Alberta and most of the Northwest Territories, (…) the Mackenzie is one of the world’s great water arteries. “
This huge river is being heavily exploited by the oil industry, and this poses a threat of global importance to climate change. See why. Continue »
The next Winter Olympic games are beginning this week in Vancouver and snow is lacking and has to be either shipped or manufactured. Current high temperatures are to the AFP up to 10°C (50°F).
After the air pollution issues being at the center of the Beijing Olympics two years ago, now climate is worrying organizators. All this is mirroring our environmental concerns all too clearly.
Contrary to what deniers claim, climate change is real and starts seriously worrying the International Olympic Committee (IOC). For more on this, please check out the New York Times article.
Solar and wind energies are going slowly but irresistibly mainstream as more and more large deals are being signed worldwide. Even if they still represent a tiny fraction of the world electricity generation, this will change this decade.
The 2.5 GW deal signed in Ontario (Canada) by Samsung for $6.6 billion – 4.7 billion euros – is showing this better than anything. The Ontario Green Energy Act was already a success. This new deal raises the bar even higher.
Even better, four plants will be implemented in Ontario, resulting in the creation of 16,000 jobs in promising industries. Continue »
Until now when I was thinking about Canadian energy I had the exploitation of oil shale in mind. But this is changing as the local wind energy industry is booming with up to 2,000 MW of installed capacity at the end of 2008.
This is only the beginning as a deal for an offshore wind farm of up to 4,400 MW was just signed in Ontario. This is to date the world’s largest deal of its kind. Other projects larger than a gigawatt are also due to be signed.
The Ontario province is indeed particularly active in green energy. Let’s hope that what occurs in Ontario will spread to the country as a whole. Continue »
I recently read a couple of interesting facts on bike sharing around the world. Since this transportation mean is the epitome of sustainable development I thought I might share them with you.
Montreal launched last week Bixi, the largest program of its kind in North America with 3,000 bikes for 300 stations. In the United States, Washington DC (pictured) launched its own last year.
But projects are gaining momentum and litterally sprout around the world. This is good news as it helps people to get rid of their cars in towns. Continue »
Last week, Radio Canada announced that their local government will increase in a large way the oil production to answer the demand from the USA. The demand could thus be multiplied by a factor five before 2015. Putting the oil supply from 1 million barrel per day to five million will require to extract more from Alberta States tar sands. This will require to build new pipelines from Alberta State to the United States as well as new refinery capacities.
The US Federal Government asked their neighbour to do so in order for them to decrease the oil imports from the Middle East, a region of the world that currently witnesses a surge of political problems ( war in Iraq, nuclear issue with Iran… ).
Extracting more tar sands from Canada will increase in a dramatic way this country’s greenhouse gases emissions. However, it has to be mentioned that this country ratified the Kyoto Protocol and is normally committed to decrease its harmful emissions. The new Prime Minister multiplied declarations about the fact that his country will not respect its promise.
It is interesting to note that Canadian emissions increased by 20 percent between 1990 and 2002 (source : Courrier International) when this Government agreed at the time of ratification to decrease greenhouse gases emissions by 6 percent.
Five million barrel per day will represent for the United States 25 percent of their total daily oil consumption and nearly half of their imports. With these figures in mind we can clearly understand why the US Federal government pushed their neighbour to increase oil production.
I would like to infer today’s post by stating that by doing so, the United States and Canada governments make another step back the Kyoto Protocol and the fight against climate change. In the meantime, the UK, Germany and France among others decreased their emissions as they agreed (respectively by 14, 18 and 2 percent).
