Archive for Climate change
To CleanTechies : « Biochar is charcoal type created by the pyrolysis of biomass, and differs from ordinary charcoal only in the sense that its primary use is not for fuel, but for biosequestration or atmospheric carbon capture and storage.»
«As much as 12 % of the world’s human caused greenhouse gas emissions could be sustainably offset by producing biochar. That’s more than what could be offset if the same plants and materials were burned to generate energy, »
Since CCS isn’t exactly the great solution some coal companies want to make us believe, perhaps biochar could sort of do the same, but at a lower cost.
I heard that term before as extreme events are unfolding. But two contributors of the Huffington Post believe that what we are witnessing this summer - fires in Russia, floods in Pakistan, heat waves in America – is a sign of global weirding.
And they make quite a point as in a few weeks, so many weather extremes took and are taking place. Last week a glacier four times bigger than Manhattan broke off into the sea.
I send you to the complete article as I believe it is quite a must read for any responsible citizen. This shows once again it is high time to act !
Most of us – the general public – are at a loss with climate change issues. This can be explained by the impressive complexity of the issue and the lack of time to understand it. Now comes Jeremy Grantham, a top hedge fund manager.
In his latest newsletter he published a simple text on global warming and everything you need to know about it. M. Grantham stresses the fact that we need to act as it would cut energy dependence and pollution and would create jobs.
Like TreeHugger I really wish that ” all the bosses of multimillion dollar businesses could see things so clearly.” Now we need all business managers and politicians to share his views. Continue »
As TreeHugger noted yesterday the President of the Russian Confederation, Dimitri Medvedev, believes that the current heat wave and assorted droughts and wild fires occurring in his country are a wake up call.
Indeed, having a look at the current situation in Russia and its capital city Moscow sure makes you think about climate change and how associated phenomena can turn any country in a most dramatic situation.
The situation is so dire that Russia may soon change its mind on global warming and may now be willing to avert it before it is too late… or is it already the case ?
I write a lot about China – and even more as it became the world’s first energy consumer – and too little about its neighbor, India. So when I find something on how the local goverment is advancing on cleantech, I have to share this.
To CleanTechnica : ” India is on target to achieve the target to set ten percent renewable energy generation capacity by 2015. “ This means the capacity of solar, wind and other low carbon energies could reach 48 GW by this date.
To date the average per capita energy consumption and greenhouse gases emissions pale in comparison to Western standards but as the economy grows, so do the CO2 emissions. Continue »
I have been committed since January 2007 to bring you each month a selection of the latest headlines and best researches on sustainable development, climate change and the world energy sector.
However, I don’t blog as much as I would like to and generally write around 25 posts per month. But many more news are worth reading. This is why I use Twitter to share more news that are worth your time.
I believe it offers a good complement to this website. So if you are on Twitter and like this selection, don’t hesitate to start following me. Continue »
After a long break I am finally back to writing for CleanTechies. The occasion was given by the International Energy Agency as it released on Monday its latest country report on France.
As I wrote there : Although France has not been immune to the global economic downturn, the climate change plan known as the Grenelle de l’Environnement is still considered by the IEA as having “many positive provisions”.
As always to read the full article please go to CleanTechies. All ratings and comments are greatly appreciated and I look forward to reading from you there.
To the US NOAA ” Last month’s combined global land and ocean surface temperature made it the warmest June on record and the warmest on record averaged for any April-June and January-June periods “
The Guardian notes that the data released suggest that ” 2010 is now on course to be the warmest year since records began in 1880.” It will be more and more difficult for sceptics and deniers to say there is no such thing as climate change.
Indeed we are accumulating extreme events and temperatures, which is to the IPCC the exact definition of human-made climate change. It is high time we get moving !
This is the message published today in three leading European newspapers by the Environment Ministers of the United Kingdom, Germany and France, respectively Mr. Chris Huhne, Dr Norbert Röttgen and Mr. Jean-Louis Borloo.
This bold call for action changes from the traditional European Union’s message which clings to cutting emissions by 20 percent by 2020. To them, sticking to such a target would leave the cleantech market to China, Japan or the US.
I am very glad that some people in the highest positions finally understand that the more we will act on climate change, the better it will be for our economies, our societies and our planet. Continue »
This was a shock to me. To TreeHugger : ” According to an assessment of per capita carbon emissions by the Netherlands Environmental Agency, China now emits on a per person basis more than France.
” While emissions in France in 2009 were 6 tons, those in China were 6.1 tons -up from 2.2 tons in 1990. Which really means that China can no longer claim to be a developing nation. “
The study – and the original New York Times’ article – bring further interesting findings I will propose you in the full article. Continue »
