(From THE BEST book on how to create a sustainable future)
RAISING ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN A NEW MATERIALS ECONOMY - Part II*

http://www.earthpolicy.org/Books/Seg/PB3ch11_ss6b.htm

Lester R. Brown

There is a vast worldwide potential for cutting carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by reducing the use of materials. This begins with the major metals–steel, aluminum, and copper–where recycling requires only a fraction of the energy needed to produce these metals from virgin ore, and with the recycling and composting of most household garbage. It continues with designing cars, appliances, and other products so they are easily disassembled into their component parts for reuse or recycling.

Germany and, more recently, Japan are requiring that products such as automobiles, household appliances, and office equipment be designed for easy disassembly and recycling. In May 1998, the Japanese Diet enacted a tough appliance recycling law, one that prohibits discarding household appliances, such as washing machines, TV sets, or air conditioners. With consumers bearing the cost of disassembling appliances in the form of a disposal fee to recycling firms, which can come to $60 for a refrigerator or $35 for a washing machine, the pressure to design appliances so they can be more easily and cheaply disassembled is strong.

Closely related to this concept is that of remanufacturing. Read the rest of this entry »

Consider for a moment that an asteroid is about to strike the earth. Think about it for a second. Has it been a second? Do you have it in mind? Here, let me help: It’s twice the size of the moon and really rocky looking. Looks like it would hurt if you punched it. Make your knuckles bleed, even. Okay, you’ve fully considered this asteroid? Now, understand that it’s going to wallop our planet in two days. We can see it coming, a bright, growing ball of fire, visible day and night, headed right for us. Dogs howl, cats mewl, grandma calmly asserts that Judgment Day is nigh. Now imagine that we’re told that all we have to do to avert calamity (and judgment!) is BLOW–as hard as we can, all of us, all six billion Earth inhabitants, at the same time.

Don’t you think we’d organize somehow, across the globe immediately to make sure that every last one of us went PUFFFFFFF! or WHOOOF! or however people blow in foreign lands, at the given time? Damned straight we would. We’d have billions of people, from the Congo to Iceland, from Wichita to Istanbul, puffing like mad to blow that asteroid off course.

I know it’s silly to talk about Read the rest of this entry »

Study after study (you’ve been reading them right, because I’ve little inclination to provide links to the stockpile o’ studies) have shown that fish stocks all over the world are in serious, serious decline. As in, 90% of the big fish have plumb disappeared. That is, disappeared into our bellies. A number of predictions have these same species going extinct altogether no later than the middle of the century. Yet, we remain in denial. THERE ARE SO MANY TUNA, after all, right? How can we possibly eat every last salmon?

Remember the passenger pigeon? The American bison? (check the pile of bison skulls above…just a few days of hunting…can you even fathom this?) Will we ever learn?

The answer is a resounding maybe. The U.S. government, long known the world over for its progressive attitude toward our fellow species (okay, compared to some), is now considering a total ban on salmon fishing off the U.S. Pacific coast. Pretty staggering, if you ask me. Yes, it’s an economic decision, one based on keeping fisheries afloat in the long haul (we daren’t kill them all today, when we want to kill them tomorrow!), but no matter which way you slice the sushi (dear god, did I just type that?), it’s a sound notion. READ MORE HERE. Then pick up the telephone and call your representatives. Urge them to vocally support this plan.

READ ON: The Big Break

Not that there are any global warming denialists (is that a word? is now, as a word is merely an utterance than conveys a meaning), but, my oh my, are we no paying attention or not?

It’s often said that humans need to see the speeding train bearing down upon them before they take action. See this picture? There’s an engine and caboose in there, as well as a whole load o’ freight cars in there if you take a close look.

I admit I’m a fan of Jeffrey Sachs. He runs around with Bono (whose cultivated persona always makes me laugh), does his best as an economist to solve the world’s problems, and writes in a compelling manner. But could it be that he’s a touch too hopeful? That however much poverty has contracted in the past decades, this contraction, like the U.S. (and global) economy is a soon-to-be-burst bubble blown up large by an overheated and quick-burning oil economy? Am I delusional in thinking the coming decade is going to find a large surge in the number of starving humans? Do I dare call Sach’s hopefulness naive? I don’t want to. I want to believe. I want to think Nike-like slogans, espoused by our political poppets, can save us all. Even though I know the kids in this photo can’t quite afford shoes. No, they can’t.
From the Asia Times Online:

Soaring global rice prices are hitting the stomachs of Asia’s poorest citizens. The people of East Timor, where nearly 40% live on less than 0.55 US cents a day, have just been told they may not receive their annual quota of food aid.

“We have been forced to provide less food to East Timor; provide less rice than we intended to,” Paul Risely, Asia spokesperson for the United Nations food agency, told Inter Press Service (IPS). “We have requested the people of East Timor to look for local substitutes.”

“Any chance to reduce high malnutrition rate is severely curtailed,” added Risley of a country that suffers from chronic malnutrition, where some 46% of the children are stunted and 42% of children below five years are underweight. Currently, the WFP has pledged to feed one in five people in East Timor which has a population of 1.1 million people…

…last year Vietnam placed limits on rice exports in order to meet domestic demand, triggering a spike in the price of its grain in the world market. The ban stemmed from national food security concerns in the communist-ruled country. Hanoi wanted to avoid a local food shortage due to flooding in the rice-growing central regions.

Yet, such a weather-related feature, which some are attributing to climate change, was only one reason to push global rice prices to new heights. Another trigger includes the steady rise in oil prices, making fertilizer more expensive, pushing the cost of harvesting up, and increasing the cost of transporting the grain.

Read the entire article here.

<1> Couldn’t help but tip my hat to INXS with the title, however awkward.

<2> Apologies for reverting to ‘web harvester’ mode, like so many other eco-sites, but this is too good to pass up.

The Mechanical Electric Knee Brace Power Generator. I’m not sure what they call it, could be in the article, but it’s going to save the planet.

Indeed. One walks and powers one’s GPS/mobile phone/portable game system/DVD player/iPod in the process. No kidding. Is that nifty, or what? Anyone have any issues with free electricity?

One small issue I can see being raised: These things are awfully complicated with lots of advanced engineering and manufacturing required to produce. In a world where these see heavy adoption rates, is it not likely that all the power used to create the device would far outweigh any power it would generate in its lifetime? What’s more, is the problem not that we need to charge the plethora of electronic devices with which we daily arm ourselves, but that we need to reduce our addiction to such nonessentials? One cannot really be concerned with climate change AND continue acquiring all the latest electronic gadgetry, am I right? Just food for thought. What do you think?

[source Discovery News article here]

apple, ipod, power

Last night, I hopped in the gas-guzzler and made my way down to San Francisco, where Earth Policy Institute founder, Lester Brown, gave a riveting talk at the World Affairs Council. The talk was part of his book tour for the recently released “most important book on the planet,” Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization. If you care about the future and you haven’t read the book, you need to correct that mistake pronto. I cannot possibly urge you more strongly. Please. Read it for yourself and for those whom you care about.

I can’t say it LOUD ENOUGH!

READ THIS BOOK.
I won’t summarize a one-hour talk that summarized a book you will be reading shortly. In fact, you can read it for FREE, online, RIGHT HERE. What matters most is that we’ve twelve years (until 2020), to reduce our carbon footprint by 80%, or we’re absolutely cooked. Will the will to achieve this achievable goal manifest? I’m not betting on it, not when I look around and within. Around me I see the majority of people, even the “Treehuggers” who aren’t ready to really commit to the changes required. Aren’t ready to do more than buy a Prius and some carbon offset passes. Within me I see a person who can rail at the lack of will in others yet who does so out of frustration that he isn’t likely to make those changes either. Oh, I’ll try, but 80% in little more than a decade? It’s going to take more than incremental baby steps.

Some of you know that I refuse to come out for any of the current presidential hopefuls. I don’t see any of them as qualified, untainted, or possessing the fortitude to do what is right for not only our country, but the world. That said, hearing one of my true heroes come out in support of Obama, gave me pause. Brown sees Obama’s message as more forceful than a handful of proffered solutions to the topical (my word, not Les’) problems that fascinate us (war, economy, health). He finds Barack to be a leader whose VISION will offer new solutions to many problems, including environmental. He sees Obama as the only candidate that will bring about the environment in which bold solutions will be not only dreamed up but executed. What’s more, Brown finds hope in the millions of youth who are whole-heartedly adopting Obama’s “Yes, we can!” message.

I don’t know that I flat out disagree with Les, but I’m not as hopeful. I saw millions of youth getting behind Clinton. I was one of them. We helped put him in office. And once he was there, we all sat back down. We held his feet to the flames not one time. And he got away with murder during the next eight years, putting into action not one of his liberal promises. Instead, he allied himself with big oil, with Monsanto, with the Bush family…he betrayed us in the worst way and oversaw/endoresed environmental transgressions of the worst kind. No, Obama isn’t Clinton. But I’ll tell you what, I’m gun shy as hell about the Democrats and their ‘promises’.

If Obama will press charges against Bush/Cheney, bring Edwards aboard as V.P., AND provide solid details about the people he will put into cabinet positions, he will earn my note. Otherwise, it will be my first (and likely not last) None of the Above vote. Sorry, Les. I want to agree with you, but I can’t. Yet.

Eco-Economy Indicator — ICE MELT

February 4, 2008

Eco-Economy Indicators are the twelve trends the Earth Policy Institute tracks to measure progress in building an eco-economy. Ice melting is one of the most visible indicators of climate change.

ICE MELT ACCELERATES AROUND THE WORLD
Frances C. Moore

With atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations at new record highs and global average temperature now some 0.8 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the frozen regions of the earth are showing us just how rapidly climate change can take effect. Recent years have seen ice melt accelerate and spread to new, previously unaffected regions. In many areas, the pace of melting has surprised even the scientists studying it most closely, providing a strong early indication that the consequences of climate change could come faster and be more severe than previously believed.

The most dramatic loss of ice in recent years has been the decline of summer sea ice in the Arctic Ocean. Between 1953 and 2006, the area covered by sea ice in September shrunk by 7.8 percent per decade, more than three times as fast as the average rate simulated by climate models. Researchers were further stunned in the summer of 2007 when Arctic sea ice extent plummeted to the lowest level ever measured, more than 20 percent below the 2005 record…

For entire text see http://www.earthpolicy.org/Indicators/Ice/2008.htm
For data see http://www.earthpolicy.org/Indicators/Ice/2008_data.htm

For an index of Earth Policy Institute resources related to Ice Melt see http://www.earthpolicy.org/Indicators/Ice/index.htm

And for more information on the effects of rising temperature and how to stabilize climate, you may be interested in Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization by Lester R. Brown (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2008), posted at http://www.earthpolicy.org/Books/PB3/index.htm.

[tags]lester brown, earth policy institute[/tags]

According to National Geographic (really, you should subscribe), golf courses in southern Nevada use 8 percent of the region’s water. EIGHT PERCENT, in an area that is extremely hard-pressed to provide enough water for its occupants.

What’s more, in comprehensive research of area tree ring data, it appears that 20th century rainfall figures for the Southwest represented a brief cyclical uptick, and that we’ve returned to ‘permanent’ drought stage that will last for centuries. From the Nat’l Geo article:

Last April, a month before Meko and Woodhouse published their latest results, a comprehensive study of climate models reported in Science predicted the Southwest’s gradual descent into persistent Dust Bowl conditions by mid-century…researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have used the same models to project Colorado streamflow. In their simulations, which have been confirmed by others, the river never emerges from the current drought. Before 2050, its flow falls to half the amount consumed today.

Do YOU golf? Does this seem like reasonable use of scarce resources to you? Given that your sport consumes more resources per participant than any other, would you agree that it’s time to shelve the game and rip out the courses in areas with limited water resources (the entire western United States)? Maybe it’s time for the golf cart-riders to find a sport that requires a bit of exertion? Can’t hurt the national waistline, can it?
Do you disagree? Why? Do share…

Among my very favorite energy writers is David Dubyne. “Embedded” in China, Dubyne’s ground-level observations are always well worth the read. Dubyne’s take on “making face” or “mianzi” is of particular interest. A snippet, then you can click to the meat:

I present to you a vision of the future: China has already leapfrogged to where we in the West will be within a decade, using coal to power our economies and cities as conventional worldwide oil production continues to decline. The pollution is the sight and smell of economic growth.

There are only 270 days left until the opening ceremony at the Beijing Olympics. by Between now and the time the torch is lit and the Green games start, 38 new pulverized-coal fired power plants will open.

Statement after statement about how this Olympiad will be environmentally friendly and the amazing lengths China is going to with regard to alternative energy power generation in Beijing is plastered around the news media daily. That is the truth – well, half of it. Media releases seem to conveniently leave out the other half of the information: While there is tremendous focus on this single city in Green development, the remainder of the country is left behind in a haze of…REST OF ARTICLE

china, oil, pollution