SustainabilityBlog.org » Climate Change

Introducing SustainabilityForum.com Blogs

Fabian — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 17:28:13 +0000

I wanted to let you know that there will not be regular posts from this blog in the next few months. I will from now on focus on my major website SustainabilityForum.com.

If you are interested in interesting blogs about Sustainability then you will find everything you need on the SustainabilityForum.com blog section here:

http://www.SustainabilityForum.com/Blog

Or visit my personal and professional blog where I blog about Sustainability, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Social Media here:

http://www.FabianPattberg.com/

See you there.

Regards,

Fabian Pattberg, Editor of SustainabilityBlog.org

Good article: UK’s challenge – Finding £550bn to build low-carbon economy

Fabian — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 16:36:29 +0000

Today I would like to point you to a very interesting and very relevant article on the aspect of financing the transition to a low carbon economy.

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If ever a time called for creative financing, now — 2010 in the UK — is the time. It’s a classic case of immovable object (the need to cut fossil fuel energy use and carbon emissions) meets unstoppable force (the government’s decision to slash the deficit with a £40 billion austerity programme). When the estimated cost to meet the UK’s 2020 climate and clean-energy goals stands at £550 billion, the funding mechanisms need to get very creative indeed.

The challenge looks even greater when you consider the vast array of projects and technologies that are needed to get from here, 2010, to there, 2020.

http://www.greenbang.com/uks-challenge-finding-550bn-to-build-low-carbon-economy_14643.html

Climate Change and the spread of malaria

Fabian — Mon, 24 May 2010 16:54:59 +0000

This is and will be a big and very difficult future topic once the climate actually goes down hill in a way we as humankind notice notably. Why? Well because the developing world will and is feeling this impact many times as strong . Therefore topics such as access to medicine, disease prevention and access to fresh drinking water will all have a very strong relation to climate change. At least this is what I think. In any case. Here is the article about the debate.

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Bednets and drugs will influence the spread of malaria far more than will climate change, according to a study that challenges fears that warming will aggravate the disease in Africa. Many researchers have predicted that rising temperatures will cause malaria to expand its range and intensify in its current strongholds.

But unlike usual models, which aim to predict how climate change will affect malaria in the future, researchers looked at how warming affected the disease throughout the last century.

Read the complete article here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/may/21/climate-change-insects

Worrying news: Overall emissions of US companies still on the rise

Fabian — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 14:05:33 +0000

This is worrying news indeed. Businesses in the US show no sign that their carbon emissions are falling. This is the article about this new report:

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In a report entitled S&P 100 Carbon Chasm, the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) analyzed emissions data reported to it by the US companies in the S&P 100, and found alarming evidence that overall emissions are actually on the rise.

To discern the trend of emissions by S&P 100 companies, the CDP used the data of the 51 companies that have reported emissions data to it over the three-year period of 2007-2009. The report found that emissions increased over that period by a rate of 0.36% per year.

Furthermore, according to the report, emissions are expected to increase even more as the economy recovers. According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), the economic recession has led to a 6.1% decrease in emissions from fossil fuels in the past year.
Read the complete article here:
http://www.socialfunds.com/news/article.cgi/2936.html

Australia the first to postpone carbon trading launch to 2013

Fabian — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 17:25:09 +0000

Now the question is whether this is a good sign or not for carbon trading in general. Trading will lower the price but some critics say that the concept is flawed. In any case. This is the beginning of the article.

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Australia on Tuesday shelved plans for a carbon trading scheme to cut greenhouse gas emissions until at least 2013, blaming the slow pace of global action and an obstructive opposition.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who has described climate change as “the great moral challenge of our generation”, said plans for a Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) were on hold after they failed to pass through parliament.

“The opposition decided to back-flip on its historical commitment to bring in a CPRS and there has been slow progress in the realisation of global action on climate change,” Rudd told reporters in Sydney.

Read the complete article here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100427/wl_asia_afp/australiapoliticsclimate

We need more like this – Green Energy UK crowned best in customer service

Fabian — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:22:44 +0000

It is a really good sign if a company is winning a customer service awards. It is even better news if that company is a company selling renewable energy. This is what Green Energy UK has done this week. We need more examples like that if the sustainability industry is to be seen as a proper business. Well done Green Energy UK.

This is the beginning of the complete article if you want to know about this story:

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A green utility firm in the UK has bucked the odds by winning an award for customer service, something small-business owners have graded utility providers poorly on.

Green Energy UK, which supplies green and renewable electricity to homes and businesses in Britain, was just named “Customer King 2010″ at Cisco’s and Real Business magazine’s annual customer service awards. the utility company was chosen over more than 100 other businesses to land the top prize for creating the best customer experience.

Read the complete article here:

http://www.greenbang.com/green-utility-crowned-for-top-customer-service_13822.html

So true: Let’s Stop Debating Global Warming and Start Convincing People to Solve It

Fabian — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:10:04 +0000

Global warming o Climate Change is our single biggest threat these days and still noone really seems to care about it that much. This article here is a great post on the need to stop debating and to start convincing people to solve it. This is the beginning of the Huffington Post article:

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Several years ago I invited John “Plasma Boy” Wayland onto my Sirius Satellite Radio show “The Lazy Environmentalist” to talk about eco-friendly cars. I had heard that he was having tremendous success drag racing an electric car called the White Zombie. John is quite animated and soon he was talking enthusiastically about blowing the doors off of gasoline-powered corvettes and mustangs in nothing but a modified 1972 Datsun running on battery-operated electric power. He described the thrill of creating eight hundred pounds of torque and roaring down the quarter-mile track in record time. He mentioned how much fun he had teasing his competitors about the fact that he’d just trounced them in a car running on American-made energy instead of imported oil. He described exactly the kinds of things millions of American men care about – fast speeds, raw power, and American self-reliance.

Read the complete article here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/josh-dorfman/stop-arguing-about-global_b_489968.html

The sustainable marine future? – German fishing boat flies giant kite to save fuel

Fabian — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 12:11:35 +0000

A german fishing boat flies giant kite to save fuel. How great is that? And this is a sign of how the marine future may look like? A really interesting article.

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The 15,000 tonne ‘Maartje Theadora’ is the first fishing vessel to use the system, in which a 160 square meter blue and white kite similar to a paraglider pulls the ship on a 300 meter rope, assisting its main engine.

“The challenge for us is to see how it works during trawling, because then the ship is not moving from A to B but it’s turning and moving around,” said Diederik Parlevliet, head of fishing firm Parlevliet & Van der Plas, operator of the ship.

It harks back to an earlier maritime age, when merchant ships — especially from the Netherlands — sailed the seas to Asia and the Americas. Modern steam power replaced sails, cutting travel times and making it more predictable.

Read the complete article here:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6281I720100309

Climate change report sets out an apocalyptic vision of Britain

Fabian — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 14:25:29 +0000

Now this is a frighting report for everyone living in the UK. Published today a report entitled Land Use Futures: Making the Most of Land in the 21st Century. This is the beginning of the article:

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Mass migration northwards to new towns in Scotland, Wales and northeast England may be needed to cope with climate change and water shortages in the South East, according to an apocalyptic vision set out by the Government Office for Science.

Heathrow would be converted into a giant reservoir by 2035, there could be severe restrictions on flying and driving and farmers would be forced to sell their land to giant agricultural businesses. Greenhouse gas emissions would be controlled by carbon rationing for individuals, which would lead to “significant shifts in lifestyle as everyone tries to stay within budget”.

The Government would ease pressure on the South East by planning to “disperse citizens to three new towns in Dumfries and Galloway, Northumberland and Powys”.

Read the complete article here:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article7041857.ece

World warming unhindered by cold spells: scientists

Fabian — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 07:16:59 +0000

If you are getting asked the same question about climate change and again and again: What about climate change? We have had the coldest weather imaginable this year. What can you possibly say other then: ‘ This is the weather and not the climate’. Here is another interesting article that will help you get more arguments that climate change is happening despite the current clod weather spells:

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The bitter cold, with more intense winter weather forecast for March in parts of the United States, have led some to question if global warming has stalled.

Understanding the overall trend is crucial for estimating consumption of energy supplies, such as demand for winter heating oil in the U.S. northeast, and impacts on agricultural production.

“It’s not warming the same everywhere but it is really quite challenging to find places that haven’t warmed in the past 50 years,” veteran Australian climate scientist Neville Nicholls told an online climate science media briefing.

Read the complete article here:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61O16A20100225