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 !
What if we could in the same time slow down climate change, increase health and boost agriculture ? Is this too good to be true ? No, as to a NASA scientist we could do just that by focusing on both methane and soot (black carbon).
Out of the 400 ideas that were studied, these 14 were chosen as they have a direct and immediate impact on people’s lives. None of these methods are concerning carbon dioxide, which also have to be tackled in the meantime.
One of the main ways is switching to cleaner burning cookstoves. I have previously tackled this topic here and explained how this could save two million people per year. Continue »
I don’t talk about food often here. However, with so many starving people around the world, I should talk more about agricultural advances as feeding nine billion people by 2050 will be the biggest challenge ever faced.
To Ecogeek : ” A new type of rice (from) the University of Agricultural Sciences in Bangalore, India has many advantages over typical rice varieties. It requires less water to grow, it’s higher in protein and it emits less methane over its life cycle. ”
” This rice, which is not genetically modified but a hybrid crop, uses 60 percent less water than conventional rice crops. It only needs to be watered once a week even in arid climates.”
Here is another reason to act quickly and massively on climate : as we have seen previously, permafrost in Russia and other countries from these latitudes are trapping vast quantities of methane, a very potent greenhouse gas.
But as temperatures rise and rise and as the climate gets weirder and weirder, vast quantities of permafrost could melt by mid-century, thus releasing huge amounts of methane.
As the AFP noted last week : ” Russia’s vast permafrost areas may shrink by a third by the middle of the century due to global warming “ Continue »
Sometimes, the simplest things work best. To Grist : ” Bill Clinton urged mayors at the Large Cities Climate Summit to go after a pollutant 25 times more powerful than carbon dioxide: methane.”
” By capturing it from landfills, from which it leaches in prodigious amounts, cities could use it to generate power. Wrestling CO2 could take years, but harnessing methane could make a big difference and make it more quickly.”
Reducing greenhouse gases emissions AND generating clean electricity at the same time ? That sure sounds like a good idea. This reminds me we could do the same in farms. (Go to Fuel Fix for more)
To the New York Times : ” Hydropower, a renewable energy source often overshadowed by excitement about wind and solar power, is enjoying something of a global resurgence.”
” Huge, controversial dam projects have recently made headlines in Brazil, Chile and Laos. Many developing countries, hungry for energy to supply their growing economies (…) are determined to keep building more modest-sized dams too. “
” Record amounts of hydropower capacity came online in 2008 and 2009 (…) according to Richard Taylor, executive director of the International Hydropower Association in London. “ Continue »
This week the New York Times ran another great article on energy, this time on why natural gas may be worse than coal, regarding climate change. Until now, this energy source was said to be emitting half less than coal.
The implications of such a fact could be huge as the world wouldn’t be able to count on natural gas to be a bridging energy source. Indeed, even environmentalists were until recently advocating natural gas…
But is it really the case about natural gas in general or just specific types ? It turns that, like for oil, unconventional gas is more polluting that the traditional one. Continue »
To the World Meteorological Organization the main greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide – keep increasing in the atmosphere, and this despite the efforts and the economic recession. To the WMO :
” The report highlights concerns that global warming may lead to even greater emissions of methane from Arctic areas. To the Bulletin, total radiative forcing of all long-lived greenhouse gases increased by 27.5% from 1990 to 2009.”
Meanwhile, NASA reports 2010 is the hottest year on record so far. It seems that more than ever before, drastic action is needed. Will the call be heard in Cancun ? Continue »
According to the UNEP : ” International efforts to protect the ozone layer are a success and have stopped additional ozone losses and contributed to mitigating the greenhouse effect.”
I believe we should capitalize on the success governments around the world achieved in 1987. We should do something for the 25th anniversary and go further with a global agreement on greenhouse gases emissions.
The Montreal Protocol cut emissions in an important way but a more targeted action is needed soon on other air pollutants like carbon dioxide and methane… Continue »
While traveling at 220 km/h in the TGV between Nancy and Paris I read about the Fresh Kills landfill and how it became a beautiful park in Staten Island. This is a continuation of my previous post, Turning a landfill into a beautiful garden.
Indeed Courrier International proposed last week the translation of the full article from The Ecologist on how what was considered as the world’s biggest landfill became “a bird-watcher’s paradise”
This article really made me think about what we can – and should – do about our planet’s landfills. As we will see, this would be a win-win-win project. 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 »
