Friday, July 31, 2009

Overcoming barriers to beat climate change


A new report by McKinsey & Company suggests that if "a significant set of barriers" can be overcome, the US economy could reduce its energy consumption by 23% by 2020. The report:


"offers a detailed analysis of the magnitude of the efficiency potential in non-transportation uses of energy, a thorough assessment of the barriers that impede the capture of greater efficiency, and an outline of the practical solutions available to unlock the potential."


"The research shows that the U.S. economy has the potential to reduce annual on-transportation energy consumption by roughly 23 percent by 2020, eliminating more than $1.2 trillion in waste – well beyond the $520 billion upfront investment (not including program costs) that would be required. The reduction in energy use would also result in the abatement of 1.1 gigatons of greenhouse gas emissions annually – the equivalent of taking the entire U.S. fleet of passenger vehicles and light trucks off the roads."

"Such energy savings will be possible, however, only if the United States can overcome significant sets of barriers. These barriers are widespread and persistent, and will require an integrated set of solutions to overcome them – including information and education, incentives and financing, codes and standards, and deployment resources well beyond current levels."

"In addition to the above central conclusion, five observations will be relevant to a national debate about how best to pursue energy efficiency opportunities of the magnitude identified and within the timeframe considered in this report."

  1. Recognize energy efficiency as an important energy resource that can help meet future energy needs while the nation concurrently develops new no- and low-carbon energy source
  2. Formulate and launch at both national and regional levels an integrated portfolio of proven, piloted, and emerging approaches to unlock the full potential of energy efficiency
  3. Identify methods to provide the significant upfront funding required by any plan to capture energy efficiency
  4. Forge greater alignment between utilities, regulators, government agencies, manufacturers, and energy consumers
  5. Foster innovation in the development and deployment of next-generation energy efficiency technologies to ensure ongoing productivity gains.



** If you enjoyed this post please also check out:

Six Americas - which one are you?

Americans and climate change


COMMENTS ALWAYS WELCOME !!

So please, tell us what you think.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Environmental Nanotechnology: Predicting the Interaction of Artificial Nanoparticles with Natural Environments

CSIRO scientist Dr Amanda Barnard has been awarded the prestigious Mercedes-Benz Environmental Research Award at the 21st annual Banksia Foundation Awards, held on Friday evening, 24 July 2009. Below is some information on her work on nanotechnology.

Dr. Amanda Barnard, CSIRO


Environmental Nanotechnology: Predicting the Interaction of Artificial Nanoparticles with Natural Environments


As we search for solutions to our future energy needs, carbon emissions, global warming, industrial toxins, and disease, it is clear that keeping the balance between technological development and environmental protection has never been harder.


Nanoscale materials, only millionths of a millimetre in size, may offer solutions to our biggest problems. However, care is needed as these new ‘nanoparticles’ are largely untested, are (literally) unique on an atomic scale, and we have little or no historical data to guide assumptions regarding the possible risks.


Using highly accurate supercomputer simulations, Dr Amanda Barnard's research focuses on predicting the environmental stability of nanoparticles, to understand how these tiny artificial pieces of matter interact with natural ecosystems.


Dr Amanda Barnard is an internationally renowned scientist, with many years experience in predicting the properties of dozens of different nanoparticles. Her ground-breaking theoretical models can see a path through the complexity of this problem, and investigate situations that experiments cannot.


As more and more nanoparticles are produced in laboratories, and introduced into everyday products, Dr Barnard’s predictive model will be in great demand, but priority number one is to understand what happens when nanoparticles are exposed to our most precious resources, air and water.



** If you enjoyed this post please also check out:


'Clean Coal' ???


New Green Jobs ??


Top 10 Environmental Posts


Six Americas - which one are you?

Americans and climate change


Speaking to Americans about Climate Change



COMMENTS ALWAYS WELCOME !!


.
So please, tell us what you think.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Clive Hamilton lecture "The Rebirth of Nature and the Climate Crisis"


Here is the blurb on a fantastic lecture called "The Rebirth of Nature and the Climate Crisis" given by Clive Hamilton recently as part of the Sydney Ideas lecture series being hosted by Sydney University.

In recent times a new theory of a living Earth has captured imaginations. According to James Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis, the Earth is a living system in which the biosphere interacts with other physical components of the Earth to maintain conditions suitable for life.

The prevention of climate catastrophe, some argue, requires a shift to a new consciousness, one based on a rediscovery of the idea of a living Earth. To understand how such a philosophical transition might occur, it helps to consider the last great historical transformation of consciousness, the one that gave us the modern view of the Earth.

The emergence of the mechanical philosophy in the second half of the 17th century changed our deepest conception of the world. Previously the Earth was seen as alive and intentioned; the new science saw it as dead. Although Renée Descartes is usually regarded as the seminal thinker of the mechanical philosophy, in fact its roots can be traced to the thirteenth century Scottish theologian Duns Scotus.

Isaac Newton’s work saw the triumph of the conception of a dead Earth, yet Newton himself did not reject the old ‘Hermetic’ philosophy for the new one but held to versions of both. While writing his great mathematical work, the Principia, he also devoted himself to esoteric studies. If Newton could simultaneously be the father of modern science and conceive of the world as alive, could his insights provide the seeds for a new ecological consciousness? And does Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis solve Newton’s conundrum of how to marry a conception of a living Earth with the methods of modern science?

Clive Hamilton is Charles Sturt Professor of Public Ethics at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics based at the Australian National University. Until early 2008 he was the Executive Director of The Australia Institute, Australia’s leading progressive think tank, which he founded in 1993.

He has held a number of visiting academic positions, including ones at the University of Cambridge, the University of Sydney and the Australian National University. He has just returned from a period as a Senior Visiting Fellow in the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University.

Clive is the author of a number of best-selling books, including Growth Fetish, Scorcher: The dirty politics of climate change, Affluenza (with Richard Denniss) and Silencing Dissent (with Sarah Maddison). His most recent book, The Freedom Paradox: Towards a post-secular ethics, was published last year.

Watch the video here


** If you enjoyed this post please also check out:


'Clean Coal' ???


New Green Jobs ??


Top 10 Environmental Posts


Six Americas - which one are you?

Americans and climate change


Speaking to Americans about Climate Change



COMMENTS ALWAYS WELCOME !!


.
So please, tell us what you think.

Thursday, July 02, 2009

Climate simulator (C-Learn)

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This also came through the listserve today. C-Learn is quick and easy to use software that shows the outcomes of various climate change scenarios (above shows "Business as Usual"). Worth checking out!
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Anyway, here is the message:

We are thrilled to announce the launching of C-Learn, an online freeware interactive climate simulator.

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Check it out at: http://www.climateinteractive.org/

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C-Learn is the 3-region version of the scientifically-reviewed policy-maker-oriented 15-20 region simulator "C-ROADS" built by Sustainability Institute, Ventana Systems, and MIT. You may have seen C-ROADS output in Jonathan Pershing's plenary presentation in April at Bonn. The simulator is being used by the Climate Action Initiative to support the UNFCCC negotiations with analysis and interactive policy exercises.

C-Learn allows users to test changes in fossil fuel emissions (in 3 global regions), deforestation, and afforestation and observe graphical and numerical results for CO2 concentrations, temperature, sea level rise, cumulative emissions, and emissions per capita.

C-Learn software, equations and interface will be shared using open source approaches via Climate Interactive, a partnership of organizations out of Sustainability Institute working to address climate change.

More information:

C-ROADS Overview:

http://www.climateinteractive.org/simulations/C-ROADS

Scientific Review Results:

http://www.climateinteractive.org/simulations/C-ROADS/technical

Project blog: http://climateinteractive.wordpress.com/

The slides Pershing presented:

http://climateinteractive.wordpress.com/2009/04/03/c-roads-and-pershing/

Direct link to C-Learn:

http://forio.com/simulation/climate-development/

Sustainability Institute:

http://www.blogger.com/www.sustainer.org and http://au.mc571.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=climateinteractive@sustainer.org



** If you enjoyed this post please also check out:


'Clean Coal' ???


Earthrace


UNFCCC: Why technology is so important


Splitting: 'jobs' versus 'the environment'


New Green Jobs ??


Top 10 Environmental Posts


COMMENTS ALWAYS WELCOME !!

.
So please, tell us what you think.

Positions of the major GHG emitting countries

I was looking around for some information on the GHG emission reduction policy positions of different countries (leading up to Copenhagen). Anyway, this information came through on the climate-l listserve (today).

The Finnish Institute of International Affairs' (UPI-FIIA) research programme on the International Politics of Natural Resources and the Environment has recently published the following publications that discuss the positions of major greenhouse gas emitting countries:

Climate sudoku: Japan's bumpy ride towars a post-2012 target

by Alex Luta
24 June 2009 -- UPI Briefing Paper 36

The Russian debate on climate doctrine: Emerging issues on the road to Copenhagen

by Anna Korppoo
5 June 2009 -- UPI Briefing Paper 33

Towards a new climate regime? Views of China, India, Japan, Russia and the United States in the road to Copenhagen

by Anna Korppoo, Linda Jakobson, Johannes Urpelainen, Antto Vihma, Alex Luta
4 May 2009 -- UPI Report 19


Also see the blog articles related to the Major Emitters:

Medvedev promised to cut emissions - or did he?
by Anna Korppoo, 23 June 2009

Is the new 'climate doctrine' marking a turning point in Russian policy?
by Anna Korppoo, 24 April 2009

Japanese Opinion Poll Supports 7% Emission Cuts
by Alex Luta, 26 May 2009

Additional complexities for Japanese mid-term target
by Alex Luta, 18 May 2009
http://www.upi-fiia.fi/en/blog/161/

Economy versus the Environment on Japan's Road to Copenhagen
by Alex Luta, 22 April 2009


For more information on the research programme on the International Politics of Natural Resources of the UPI-FIIA, please visit their hompage:

** If you enjoyed this post please also check out:


'Clean Coal' ???


Earthrace


UNFCCC: Why technology is so important


Splitting: 'jobs' versus 'the environment'

.

New Green Jobs ??

.

Top 10 Environmental Posts



COMMENTS ALWAYS WELCOME !!


.
So please, tell us what you think.