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Let’s start with the fact that climate change is anthropogenic. More or less, people have agreed on that. That means it’s caused by human behavior. That’s not to say that engineering solutions aren’t important. But if it’s caused by human behavior, then the solution probably also lies in changing human behavior.
— Harvard biologist E. O. Wilson in “Why Isn’t The Brain Green?”, an examination of why climate change placed at #20 in a Pew Research Center poll “ranking the issues that Americans said were the most important priorities for this year.”

April 20, 2009

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link 'Green Revolution' Trapping India's Farmers In Debt

As the world’s population surges, the international community faces a pressing problem: How will it feed everybody?

Until recently, people thought India had an answer.

Farmers in the state of Punjab abandoned traditional farming methods in the 1960s and 1970s as part of the national program called the “Green Revolution,” backed by advisers from the U.S. and other countries.

Indian farmers started growing crops the American way — with chemicals, high-yield seeds and irrigation.

Since then, India has gone from importing grain like a beggar, to often exporting it.

But studies show the Green Revolution is heading for collapse….

April 15, 2009

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photo Once again, Europe is pulling far ahead… “Europe Addresses Inefficient Water Pumps”: Earlier this month, the European Commission set dates consigning the incandescent light bulb to the dustbin of history. Late last week, governments and energy mavens in Brussels took aim at another last-century technology: wasteful water circulators. These circulators pump water warmed by boilers to radiators in our homes and offices. European Union officials say most circulators use too much electricity, causing unnecessary damage to the climate. Most of the 140 million circulators in use today in Europe keep pumping water whether or not it is needed, according to the commission. Up to 20 percent of average household energy bills pay for electricity to run these inefficient circulators, it says. A new regulation – part of the commission’s so-called eco-design campaign – would allow only very high-efficiency, “intelligent” circulators by 2015. These units function only when needed and can adjust speed. The regulation also would require standard circulators to be removed from the E.U. market by 2013.

Once again, Europe is pulling far ahead…

“Europe Addresses Inefficient Water Pumps”:

Earlier this month, the European Commission set dates consigning the incandescent light bulb to the dustbin of history.

Late last week, governments and energy mavens in Brussels took aim at another last-century technology: wasteful water circulators.

These circulators pump water warmed by boilers to radiators in our homes and offices. European Union officials say most circulators use too much electricity, causing unnecessary damage to the climate.

Most of the 140 million circulators in use today in Europe keep pumping water whether or not it is needed, according to the commission. Up to 20 percent of average household energy bills pay for electricity to run these inefficient circulators, it says.

A new regulation – part of the commission’s so-called eco-design campaign – would allow only very high-efficiency, “intelligent” circulators by 2015. These units function only when needed and can adjust speed.

The regulation also would require standard circulators to be removed from the E.U. market by 2013.

March 30, 2009

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link Hungry shrimp eat climate change experiment

And the most improbable headline of the year award goes to….

It is another nail in the coffin of using ocean fertilisation to cool the planet. Early results from the latest field experiment suggest the technique will fail.

“I think we are seeing the last gasps of ocean iron fertilisation as a carbon storage strategy,” says Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution at Stanford University.

Earlier this month, the controversial Indian-German Lohafex expedition fertilised 300 square kilometres of the Southern Atlantic with six tonnes of dissolved iron. The iron triggered a bloom of phytoplankton, which doubled their biomass within two weeks by taking in carbon dioxide from the seawater. Dead bloom particles were then expected to sink to the ocean bed, dragging carbon along with them.

(Via azspot.)

March 30, 2009

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photo GOOD (via aja) We focus a great deal on electricity and oil consumption; sometimes we forget that water conservation is crucial to sustainability, especially in the water-scarce west where an enormous amount of energy is used to get the stuff into homes and places of work.

GOOD (via aja)

We focus a great deal on electricity and oil consumption; sometimes we forget that water conservation is crucial to sustainability, especially in the water-scarce west where an enormous amount of energy is used to get the stuff into homes and places of work.

March 30, 2009

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link City dwellers have smaller carbon footprints, study finds

No surprise. For more on the subject, check out this list of top 50 greenest cities in the US.

The report by London-based International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) looked at 11 major cities on four continents, including London, Tokyo, New York and Rio de Janeiro.

It found per capita greenhouse gas emissions for a Londoner in 2004 were the equivalent of 6.2 tonnes of CO2, compared with 11.19 for the UK average.

In the US, New Yorkers register footprints of 7.1 tonnes each, less than a third of the US average of 23.92 tonnes.

Link via peterwknox & gooneruk.

March 23, 2009

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link Chernobyl Radiation Still Harming Animals

March 19, 2009

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link Climate change and the oceans: bleak prospects for the fish

(via azspot)

March 17, 2009

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quote
The great American drilling boom is over.
—

Clifford Krauss, NYT. Think of as one of the recession’s silver linings:

The number of oil and gas rigs deployed to tap new energy supplies across the country has plunged to less than 1,200 from 2,400 last summer, and energy executives say the drop is accelerating further.

March 15, 2009

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photo Five-Foot Sea Level Rise to Hit San Francisco by 2100 The global warming-driven rise in sea levels will cause $100 billion in property damage, the report says, and put 480,000 people at risk of a “100-year flood event” if no actions are taken.

Five-Foot Sea Level Rise to Hit San Francisco by 2100

The global warming-driven rise in sea levels will cause $100 billion in property damage, the report says, and put 480,000 people at risk of a “100-year flood event” if no actions are taken.

March 13, 2009

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