Surface area required to power the world with zero carbon emissions… – Todd’s Posterous Blog .
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Monthly Archives: August 2009
Climate Hijack
Climate Change has taken so much of the mind space that other environmental and I may add developmental issues have taken a backside. The focus on climate change will hurt our ability to solve other issues.
Biodiversity loss, desertification, unsustainable fishing… where are the spaces at the top table for these?
By singing the climate tune so loudly, have environmental groups unwittingly helped to create a situation where climate change is all that politicians and the public hear?
Has the media contributed? A couple of years ago I added up the number of articles we had written on the BBC News website within the preceding nine months about various issues.
The scores were four for deforestation, four for desertification, 17 for biodiversity – and on climate change I stopped counting when I reached 1,000.
In large part, what journalists report reflects what is going on in the big world; but have we, too, forgotten the larger messages of the UN Geo-4 report, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, and other audits of a society whose environmental problems run much wider and deeper than climate change?
via BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Hijacked by climate change?.
Business Model Design and Innovation: Business Models Beyond Profit – Social Entrepreneurship Lecture
China Outdoes U.S. in Making Solar Products
Chinese companies have already played a leading role in pushing down the price of solar panels by almost half over the last year. Shi Zhengrong, the chief executive and founder of China’s biggest solar panel manufacturer, Suntech Power Holdings, said in an interview here that Suntech, to build market share, is selling solar panels on the American market for less than the cost of the materials, assembly and shipping.
Backed by lavish government support, the Chinese are preparing to build plants to assemble their products in the United States to bypass protectionist legislation. As Japanese automakers did decades ago, Chinese solar companies are encouraging their United States executives to join industry trade groups to tamp down anti-Chinese sentiment before it takes root.
via China Outdoes U.S. in Making Solar Products – NYTimes.com.
The waterpolitics Of The Tibetan Plateau and the future of half the world’s population
In Asia, the availability of water has become a key issue that could determine whether the region is characterized by cooperation or interstate and international conflict in the years to come.
Undoubtedly, China holds the key to the above question as it controls the Tibetan plateau. The plateau is home to enormous glaciers and the world’s greatest river systems. These rivers act as a ridge-rope for the world’s two most populous countries, China and India, and also to Bangladesh, Myanmar (Burma), Bhutan, Nepal, Cambodia, Pakistan, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, which combined are home to 47 percent of the global population.
via The Geopolitics Of The Tibetan Plateau | Sramana Mitra on Strategy.
Solar Power
“If we talk about geothermal or wind, all these other sources of renewable energy are limited in their quantity,” Eicke Weber, director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, in Freiburg, Germany, told me last fall. “The total power needs of the humans on Earth is approximately 16 terawatts,” he said. (A terawatt is a trillion watts.) “In the year 2020 it is expected to grow to 20 terawatts. The sunshine on the solid part of the Earth is 120,000 terawatts. From this perspective, energy from the sun is virtually unlimited.”
There are two main ways to harness it. The first is to produce steam, either with parabolic troughs like the ones in Nevada or with a field of flat, computer-guided mirrors, called heliostats, that focus sunlight on a receiver on top of an enormous “power tower.” The second way is to convert sunlight directly into electricity with photovoltaic (PV) panels made of semiconductors such as silicon.
[...]
“I always say the United States addresses the idealists, those who want to save the planet—the Birkenstock crowd. In Germany the law addresses anyone who wants to get 8 percent return on his investment for 20 years.”
Solar Power — National Geographic Magazine.
Via – Rajesh Jain.
The Steel Conundrum
If Australia wants to keep a prosperous steel making industry in Australia we must follow China, Japan and the US on carbon. If we choose to let their steel into Australia without a carbon levy, but impose a carbon levy our own steel, then Kevin Rudd must go down to Wollongong and explain to the workers why they must lose their jobs while increasing the world’s carbon emissions.
via Business Spectator – News – Selling out steel – Robert Gottliebsen.
Delhi Climate Change Exhibition
Climate Change Technology Development and Transfer International Conference & Exhibition
22 – 23 October 2009
New Delhi, India
Closing date for Austrade applications – 14 September 2009
About the event
Austrade invites you to participate in this inaugural international exhibition organised by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, jointly with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). This exhibition is being held in conjunction with a high-level conference on climate change organised by the Government of India and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) which will be opened by the Prime Minister of India, Dr Manmohan Singh and attended by Environment Ministers from around the world.
The high-level conference will comprise of senior climate change negotiators from developed and developing countries, acclaimed industry experts and senior business representatives from across the portfolios of renewable energy and clean technology.
Austrade will lead the Australian participation and capability presentations at this event which expects to attract over 5,000 potential business visitors from India and other markets. For further details on this event please visit: www.delhiclimatechangeexhibition.in
The exhibition will showcase:
• New / clean technologies
• Energy efficiency solutions
• Environmental services
• Efficient transport solutions
• Water management
• Agricultural solutions
• Renewable energy solutions
• Energy security
• Green building materials and services
• Waste management
• Green IT solutions
• Food security
Via: John O’Brien @ LinkedIn | Discussion: Adelaide Cleantech Network
The renewable energy debate in Australia
Cadbury’s Sustainability Statement on Palm Oil
The palm oil Cadbury uses in Australia and New Zealand comes primarily from Malaysia and is not sourced from Sumatra, Borneo or any of the regions where the Orangutan is under threat. Cadbury also has a long and proud record on the environment. Our ‘Purple Goes Green’ initiative has been widely recognized with Cadbury winning independent recognition on everything from packaging reduction, water reduction and sustainable agriculture. Furthermore, as a business we have a target to reduce our carbon footprint by 50% by 2020 – a commitment that goes far beyond what most Governments are requiring, and a commitment that we are currently on target to meet.
Cadbury stands unashamedly behind our decision to reduce the size, and the wholesale price to our customers, of our Cadbury Dairy Milk range in order to ensure that it remains a treat all Australians can enjoy. We have taken this action to ensure Cadbury Dairy Milk remains affordable, but not at the cost of the environment. That is why we pay an additional ‘social’ premium through the GreenPalm certification process to ensure the palm oil we purchase comes from sustainable sources. This premium is directly passed on to the growers and producers of sustainable palm oil so that they are rewarded for sustainable business practices, and have an incentive to grow more palm oil in a sustainable manner.
We want consumers to continue to love our chocolate, and it makes no sense whatsoever for us to make changes that the majority of people won’t appreciate. We believe as a business we are doing the right thing and are acting far more responsibly than many other companies that use palm oil without any of the assurances Cadbury are able to provide.
We remain immensely proud of our products and continue to believe that Cadbury Dairy Milk is the best tasting milk chocolate in the world.
via Palm Oil.
That is a very clear statement from a company which wants to do the right thing and make money at the same time. The language used and the direct communication used is very impressive.
