The UK will stick to its current target of cutting emissions by 34% from 1990 levels by 2020. to meet the targets of its 2008 Climate Change Act, as advised by The Committee on Climate Change.
That’s quite a commitment, considering that the UK currently has nearly half the US carbon footprint. Americans average 29 tonnes each, according to a new Norwegian count this summer. Per capita the UK carbon footprint is sixteen tonnes per person per year. That makes further cuts all the more impressive. Barclay’s Bank is saying that “The Copenhagen failure did little to alter the expected supply-demand balance under the EU ETS and it is not likely to have changed the underlying hedging pattern of power sector participants”.
Australia is also sticking by its plan to introduce the climate legislation needed in 2010 to support the Copenhagen Accord to avert climate catastrophe. The new pro-”Future” government of Kevin Rudd, has its legislature impeded by the same Fossil Party that impedes action in the US. Yet, Rudd is going ahead, though it likely will cost him his government.
And yesterday Brazil just signed into law the highest of the range of greenhouse gas emissions cuts it had pledged at Copenhagen: of 39% cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.
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Chemical structure of the antibiotic tetracycline–one of the four classes of antibiotics that sampled soil microbes showed increased resistance to in the 2009 Study.
The prevalence of antibiotic resistant genes (ARG) in soil bacteria has been increasing steadily over the past seven decades, despite tighter controls on the use of antibiotics for agricultural purposes (in Europe). This is according to a recent benchmark study/analysis* of soil samples from five sites in the Netherlands. The research team, lead by David Graham of Newcastle University in the UK, found that “Seventy-eight percent of detected resistance genes, associated with four classes of antibiotics, showed increasing levels since 1940.”
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Jamais CascioAn older post, appropriate for today’s context: more fresh blogage Monday. Happy New Year, all! – eds I’m getting a shiver of deja vu these…
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African Elephant Bull Photographed in Kruger Park on 20 June 2009.
The author’s last two posts have shown that culling is often used as a “solution” to limit the growth in animal numbers in a particular situations. At the extremes, some animal rights lobbyists oppose the killing of animals on the basis of principle alone ignoring environmental or wildlife issues while some legislators look for a fast fix without a long term view and justify killing by the need to protect the remaining.
There are always a range of opinions and solutions which can be considered in these cases. There is normally neither enough time nor enough information to allow the development of a solution that is acceptable to all and guarantees a longterm solution to the problem. In this context, it is instructive to look at the elephant as an example of the difficulties in finding solutions even in very well studied cases.
Please note that this is a layman’s understanding based on a quick “reading” of two recent major reports and is clearly open to much discussion. The author is simply trying to get a simple overall understanding of managing elephant populations and to also present some interesting information contained in the two reports.
Controlling an Over Abundance of Elephants
Although many press reports focus on the threats to elephants through capture, poaching and commercial hunting, the African Elephant in South Africa is probably more threatened by their successful adaption to protected ranges than directly by man.
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Some people will go to great lengths to get the best gas mileage possible. There are simple ways of doing this of course, like using a light touch on the gas pedal and coasting whenever possible. If you’re mechanically inclined you can retard the timing or even perform an engine swap in pursuit of high MPGs.
Or you can add a hideous duck tail to your geo metro. Hey, whatever works, right?
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Chrysler was in dire straits earlier this year, and while bankruptcy is now behind the Pentastar, the battle that looms ahead will prove if Chrysler can truly remain a viable company. Chrysler’s hope rests with Fiat, the Italian car comglomerate who took a 30% stake in Chrysler as part of the bankruptcy proceedings. While we’ve heard much and seen little thus far in regards to the future Chrysler lineup, the Detroit International Auto Show should give some hint as to the direction of Chrysler/Fiat.
One such car sure to make a big impression (in a small way) is the universally hailed Fiat 500 subcompact. Supposedly, Fiat will have an electric version of the 500 on display in Detroit next month.
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Pictured above is a solar charging station under development by Toyota. The company has plans to open the first of 21 in the Spring of 2010, signaling a move by Toyota to become a vertically integrated company. First, make the plug-in car. Then, build the charging station that it plugs in to. It’s comparable to the same company both digging up the oil, and building the car that runs on the oil. But better.
In many ways this is an understandable move. Toyota has held a leadership position in the hybrid market, and, as such, the company has long resisted any mention of a future move to plug-in vehicles. Why cut sales short, with all the expense that that entails: retooling assembly lines and so on – when yours is the market leader?
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Today, a European company put the finishing touches on a wind project in North Dakota which Americans have known for decades is “the Saudi Arabia of Wind.”
Spain’s Iberdrola Renovables, the parent company of Iberdrola Renewables Inc that built the project, grew in the wake of the Kyoto Accord signing (and resulting renewable energy legislation) in Europe, to become a giant global wind company.
North Dakota’s Senator Byron Dorgan still supports similar renewable energy legislation that virtually all the Democrats have supported and tried to pass many times, that would would create a nationwide Renewable Electricity Standard (RES).
But that legislation has been filibustered by the Republican Party so many times. Not only are we heading over the cliff of runaway climate change but America is also falling steadily behind in renewable energy market dominance because of years of Republican refusal to allow movement on renewable energy policies.
Now European wind companies are the only ones capable of building the wind energy that we need.
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Cow farts are emerging as a major source of the greenhouse gas methane, but scientists in Australia may be on to a simple way to nip that in the bud. Preliminary studies are showing that feeding “algae cakes” to cows results in a significant reduction in their methane emissions.
As reported in The Australian, a team of researchers at James Cook University anticipates a sustainable quadruple whammy from the new bovine diet: algae absorbs more carbon dioxide than other plants, it can be grown as a natural water cleanser for fish farms, it can be harvested as a biofuel crop, and the leftover “cake” produces an anti-methane effect on cattle.
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Sven Holthusen runs the EDISON project at Siemens’ Energy Sector in the Denmark branch of the international engineering giant. The EDISON project is working on raising charging power to as much as 300 kW so that batteries can be recharged on the go, in as little as six minutes.
The idea is to replicate the familiar: filling up at a gas station in 6 minutes or so, not in order to replace long slow overnight charges in home garages but to have an alternative to meet the needs of those apartment-dwellers who don’t have garages (and those who do, but who don’t sleep at least 6 hours at night) by making on-the-go-charges as available and as quick as filling up at a gas station.
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It really is miraculous how within hours of birth, some mammals find their legs and learn to walk. They might be unsteady at first, but it doesn’t take long for baby horses and other newborn animals to appear as though they’ve been walking for years, not days. Many animals seem to progress so quickly, but we humans do not, and a new study tells us why.
This study began in order to determine what’s holding humans back. Many animals walk within days of weeks or birth, while it takes human babies approximately one year to get on their feet and begin to walk. After examining the gestation period, adult body mass and adult brain mass, researchers discovered that brain mass plays the biggest role in which mammals walk faster. Those with a smaller adult brain mass seem to begin walking earlier on. Why? Well, they haven’t gotten that far yet. But it’s what sets us apart.
Humans might take longer to get on their feet than many of their fellow mammals on land, but we’ve got our larger brain mass to blame, or thank.
Image Via Flickr User Dingbat2005 with a Creative Commons License
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Earlier this year, our sister blog: Gas 2.0 covered the use of using pee for fuel after a breakthrough at Ohio University published this summer in the Royal Society of Chemistry’s journal, Chemical Communications.
Ohio University researcher Gerardine Botte had developed a catalyst that could extract hydrogen fuel from urine much more cheaply than water.
The breakthrough was important because water is increasingly scarce in many regions, and will get even more so, the worse that climate change gets.
And that means that we won’t be able to spare water to make fuel. And that’s why a specialty new waterless toilet that separates liquids from solids might just be in your future.
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London mayor Boris Johnson launched a new plan called the Electric Vehicle Delivery Plan for London that will allow all Londoners to be within one mile of an electric vehicle charging station in five years.
The plan calls for the installation of 25,000 charging points at public, residential and commercial spaces by 2015 in order to encourage the addition of 100,000 EVs within the city ASAP. The city government is doing their part by committing to add 1,000 EVs to the Greater London Authority fleet over five years.
This is another aggressive move by the city to clean up their transportation. The city successfully instituted congestion pricing in 2003, added hybrid double-decker buses, converted the Scotland Yard fleet to hybrids and air-powered vehicles and is testing state of the art fuel-efficiency technology.
With its track history, I have little doubt the city will meet its EV goals and can only hope that their ambition will rub off on the rest of the world’s major cities (and small cities, and suburbs…).
via Treehugger
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There are large steps and small steps that can be made to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and other pollution. I think these solar electric vehicles are something in between, but definitely something to start using!
The Solar Electric Vehicle Company creates innovative electric shuttles (i.e. large golf carts) for universities, resorts, stadiums, governments, shopping malls, airports, arenas, medical centers, etc. that combine electric vehicle (EV) technology with solar power technology. Looks like a good combination.
Not only that, but these vehicles are FREE!
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People in North Carolina and Virginia must have seen what’s going on in China with high-speed rail and decided they wanted some of that. They are now requesting over $5 billion in funding for high-speed rail.
Actually, as a former resident of both North Carolina and Virginia professionally and personally involved in this topic, I can say they have been working on this topic and wanting better rail for quite a long time.
Now, though, with the federal government pledging $8 billion in stimulus funding for high-speed rail, they may have their chance.
However, they are not the only ones who want this money!
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