The New York Times today reports that the Energy Protection Agency of the United States of America- the agency, based in Washington, that was founded in 1970 with the purpose of cleaning up the environment and ensuring purer land, water and air- has been given the go-ahead by President Obama to regulate the emissions of static, large-scale polluters of greenhouse gases. Covering primarily coal-fired power stations, but paralleling a proposed EPA programme to restrict emissions from road vehicles, this move comes as the president is frustrated in his attempts to pass a more thoroughly comprehensive climate bill, which is being opposed by business groups and certain factions of the senate alike.

The EPA is thus being given powers of regulation which are being seen as a way to push members of the senate towards agreement with large-scale climate regulation. This ‘back door’ route being instigated by Obama will focus on large scale industrial sources of pollution, and a minimum emission rate of at least 25,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year has been described in an effort to allay the fears of smaller businesses and also due to the fact that carbon dioxide, emitted in large quantities from coal-burning sources, is seen as less hazardous to health than other pollutants, such as sulphur dioxide, which has a vastly lower maximum limit after which penalties are imposed.

According to information gathered by The New York Times, the proposal of Lisa P Jackson, the EPA administrator, will mean that facilities pumping out 25,000 tons of carbon dioxide or more per year, along with five other chemicals, will need to obtain special operating and/or construction permits- these other gases being methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride. Such large-scale facilities are said to be currently responsible for almost 70 percent of the United States’ greenhouse gas emissions.

The proposal now faces several months of drafting.

Posted under Environmental News

Masdar City. You might know of it: the zero waste, zero emissions, zero everything, solar powered city of tomorrow being built in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. On completion, planned for 2014, it will house 40 to 50 thousand people in a 100% renewable energy, totally sustainable, celebration of technology and design signed by architect Sir Norman Foster. The video advertisement ends with the slogan ‘One day, all cities will be built like this.’ In the birds-eye perspective renderings it looks more like a fortified Roman settlement, a square and walled-in energy efficient enclave. Like those, it relies on a meticulous precision, engineering genius and an enormous initial investment. The wall in question is intended to protect from hot desert winds and while that sounds like a good idea it makes it look very much like an overgrown gated community. As a centre of research into renewable energy, it is a bit confusing and/or interesting that it is located in the UAE:

Abu Dhabi has one of the world’s biggest per capita carbon footprints and sceptics fear Masdar may be just a fig leaf for the oil-rich Gulf emirate. Others fear Masdar City -on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi City- may become a luxury development for the rich.’*

It is by no means an impossible place, it will indeed exist and construction is now underway. Compared to other utopias it might be a little less unrealistic in terms feasibility but as THE solution it is as far away as any previous Eldorado. First of all, at a projected cost of almost £12 billion, the money-is-no-object-attitude is a somewhat disrespectful and misleading approach to the urgency and magnitude of the problems we have to deal with. 45.000 of ‘the best people from academia and corporations’ will have to wait another 5-6 years before definitively moving into Masdar. The impossibility of the slogan is of course the ‘all cities’ part of it, the reality of today being that over half of the world’s population now live in cities or urban settings and every week one more million move from countryside to cityscape. The kind of capital, planning, control and conformity necessary to erect and maintain something like Masdar is very far away from the everyday on-goings of the poorer suburbs of Rio de Janeiro or Johannesburg or London or Younameit City.

Let us hope the Abu Dhabi of 2014 at least can function as a source of inspiration, something that can show a functional and full-scale implementation of technologies that could be helpful to some extent. Connected to Masdar all kinds of pretty impressive projects are taking off, some of them more generally applicable than others. And not everything there is dependent on computer regulated plumbing; ‘the city will make use of traditional Gulf architecture to create low-energy buildings, with natural air conditioning from wind towers.’ We can try to pick up some threads from the Formula One of cities and other similar projects while we attempt to come up with more generic and low-cost interventions. Both the silvery cutting-edge and the rustic old-school solutions are needed. But as we are waiting for the evaluation of the first few years of Masdar City, use the meantime to find out how we can [eco] switch our habits and try to contribute

* Article ‘Work starts on Gulf “green city” ‘ from 10 February 2008 on the BBC website, read it here.

See the promotional video on the Masdar Initiative on You Tube link here.

land leif ahnland

Posted under Climate, Eco Build, Environmental News, Renewable Energy

You all know the company EcoSwitch, and are familiar with their informative articles on the net. But are you aware of the other features that they provide;

Green Search

Eco Forum
Eco Profiles
Eco Radio

Green Search enables you to search for only green companies. You may be searching for a way to make your electricity consumption greener; Green Search would return only green company results. This enables you to take your life greener without having to troll the internet finding a way of doing this, and what’s better than having it all at the click of a button!

The Instant Messaging feature on ecoswitch.com enables you to communicate with people via the magic of the internet. But what makes it so different to msn? Being an eco-friendly site, it enables you to swap tips about you can makes your life a greener place. You are also able to learn new things whilst teaching other others how to be as environmentally aware as you are.

Eco Video enables you to watch videos on being how to be more environmentally aware. It’s like YouTube; it allows you to upload your own videos and watch others that have been uploaded and you can rate and comment on videos.

Eco Profiles allows you to network and meet new people. You are able to connect with others that are interested in the environment, and how they can do their bit to change the state of the world. Meeting new people is always fun and trading tips means that you can both make your life greener together. You may ask what is so different about Eco Profiles to their Instant Messaging feature; Eco Profiles allows you to exchange nudges, comment on someone’s profile, write a little bit about yourself and upload a photo. It makes it that bit more personal to you, and allows people to put a face to the person that they are talking to.

Eco Radio is just like any other radio; you are able to listen to music when you tune in. The difference being that they play adverts from eco-friendly companies. It is also hosted on an eco-friendly server. This means that the hosting company is doing its bit to change the world.

But not only are they providing this service, they have their website hosted with an eco-friendly company. With this company it means that with every new server and customer, they plant an extra tree in the ground. This offsets their carbon emissions that are given off by their servers, because the trees suck up the carbon dioxide given off by the data centre.

At the overall look of this website and company, it is a forerunner in the race to make the world more environmentally aware. It has features that encourage people to look around and join the eco profiles and instant messaging features. Tuning into Eco Radio will enable people to listen to the latest music. You are able to look up anything from recycling to finding an eco-friendly destination for your next holiday on ecoswitch.com. This type of company makes it easier for people to make their lifestyles greener and do their bit for the environment.

Posted under Uncategorized

European scientists have said that through harnessing the power of the desert sun and feeding it into an electricity super grid, the energy collected could produce enough to meet all of Europe’s electricity needs, and cut CO2 emissions dramatically – all by using the latest in photovoltaic cells and the intense desert heat to boil water and power turbines.

Arnulf Jaeger-Walden, speaking at the Euroscience Open Forum in Barcelona, said that by capturing just 0.3% of the sunlight falling on the Sahara and Middle East deserts Europe’s energy requirements could be met. The expansive solar farms that would harvest this energy would produce electricity either through photovoltaic cells, or by concentrating the intense desert heat to boil water and drive turbines. These measures, combined with power from other renewable sources, such as wind or geothermal, would be channelled into a 5,000 mile super grid, stretching from Siberia to Morocco and Egypt to Iceland.

The super grid has become a central focus for EU summits deliberating solutions to the energy and fuel crises. The idea remains in its fledgling stage, but supporters have highlighted the super grid’s ecological serviceability to help Britain make the ‘green’ switch – however, critics have drawn particular attention to the substantial costs estimated by developers. But despite such financial considerations, the proposal has already answered a more conventional criticism of solar power.

Winning the backing of Gordon Brown and Nicholas Sarkozy, the grid proposal has already answered the most frequent criticism hailed at renewable power – that it is uneconomic because of the unpredictability of the weather. Grid-supporters boast that by drawing power from wind and solar farms across a large strip of Europe, there will be a consistent flow of power being generated.
The design of the grid itself has been evolved to a highly efficient module. Forming the main arteries of the electrical super grid would be high voltage direct current (DC) power lines. These heavy duty cables emit less energy loss over long distances than traditional alternating current (AC) lines and are three times as efficient.

These alterations are a part of what the EU scientists argue to be a more effective and economic way to meet the renewable energy targets of 2020. Scientists argue that because North African sunlight is an intense stream of consistent energy, solar photovoltaic panels set up in the Sahara could generate up to 300% more electricity produced by equivalent panels in northern Europe.

However, before the proposal can help the EU meet its target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2020, much time, planning and investment is needed. But the scientists working on the project are estimating that with an investment of around £356bn it could produce 100 GW by 2050, which is more than the combined electricity output from all sources in Britain.

Despite any reservations over the project, one thing is already for sure. Britain is more than willing to look for alternative methods to help meet their 2020 requisite. Being set to miss the EU target, the Sahara solution is just one of many foreign affairs that can be hoped-on to solve the UK’s domestic dilemma.

Posted under Articles, Environmental News, Renewable Energy

Car manufacturers are not yet meeting European Union targets on fuel efficiency and lower carbon dioxide emission on the majority of their new models, according to environmental campaigners. A pan-European lobby group, Transport and Environment (T and E), has called the industry out for fighting against current EU legislation and, even more worryingly, proposed future limits.

Car travel contributes a large chuck of Europe’s C02 limits, with individual car journeys being one of the most straight forward areas that people can address if they wish to reduce their carbon footprint. Carbon emissions, despite increased public awareness on the issue of climate change, have continued to rise across the EU. Britain looks likely to meet its Kyoto targets; however emissions from aviation and shipping, as well as other forms of transport, are not including in this carbon balance sheet, a fact which leaves a bitter taste in the mouths of many environmental campaigners.

In fact, transport in the EU was responsible for just under 30% of all emissions in 2006, an increase of 35% on 1990′s level. The assumption that car manufacturers, consumers and politicians, in being well informed about climate change, will naturally act to reduce emissions is clearly wayward. Transport and the Environment highlight the fact that the 14 biggest car manufacturers in the EU still have to reduce engine emissions by 17% to reach the EU’s 2012 targets.

Transport and Environment’s report does not place responsibility solely at the door of the giant motor industry. It also found that car buyers were unwilling, as yet, to take the effort into leaving behind their penchant for gas guzzling past models in favour of low-emission, more environmentally friendly vehicles. A change in consumer culture would surely drive a response from the manufactures, which are, after all, as eager to meet the most up-to-date aspirations of their target demographic.

With motor magazines and television programmes still dominated by an outmoded, puerile appetence for speedy and sex y cars, it seems unlikely that this change in culture is anywhere close to arriving.

The fact that many car adverts now tout their emissions levels gives some cause for hope, as it suggests that, at the very least, people are aware of the environmental issues that are so inherent with driving.

Whilst consumers are currently left to their own free will when considering their next car purchase, the manufactures are, in theory, being forced to alter the carbon emissions of their current models thanks to EU legislation, legislation that is expected to become more stringent in the immediate future.

The German manufacturer BMW was identified by the report as having made an effective step toward the goal of reducing the negative impacts that their cars have. In 2007 the manufacturer managed to cut the emissions of its entire fleet by just over 7%, through an engineering process designed to reduce carbon emissions.

Overall the German car industry has been one of the most vocally opposed groups to influence its domestic politicians. Thanks to intensive lobbying Agela Merkel, their chancellor, has made a compromise with Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, to reduce the penalties that car manufacturers will incur if they break the legislation. They also discredited the need for immediate efforts to be made to halt climate change by phasing in, rather than just introducing, target emissions, proof, if proof were needed, that politicians and businesspeople should be kept as far apart as gunpowder and a naked flame.

Posted under Articles, Climate, Corporate, Environmental News

Rich countries may be allowed to invest in the construction of nuclear power plants in foreign developing countries and still get credit for cutting green house gas emissions back home.

The June 2-13th climate talks held in Bonn, Germany were attended by some 170 nations. Rich countries can gain credits for cutting green house gases by investing in wind farms or hydroelectric dams abroad.

But the debate is about whether investment by rich countries in foreign nuclear power plants should be allowed. Some nations are seeking to expand the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) so that it allows nuclear power to be developed in foreign countries. The CDM will run until 2012 as part of the United Nation’s Kyoto Protocol which aims to decrease greenhouse gas emissions in the short-term.

As well as nuclear power, some nations believe that Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) should also be introduced into the Clean Development Mechanism. This process involves carbon dioxide emissions being captured as they leave the power plant’s exhaust towers, and then later buried in porous rock for storage. Nations that enter replanting schemes also want to get credit for planting forests which absorb carbon dioxide and create oxygen.

Environmentalists – and some nations – are sceptical about CCS. They see it as a system that only exists to allow power plants to remain open for longer, thus prolonging our dependence on fossil fuels. The feud regarding nuclear power is more complicated however. People find it hard to forget the dire consequences of a nuclear accident – Chernobyl still haunts the minds of many government officials and environmentalists alike. Nuclear power does provide some benefits though. Not only does it produce a high amount of energy, but it is also emits almost no greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. It is seen as a quick fix to a serious long term problem.

Environmentalists disagree. They believe that nuclear power is not the energy of the future and that rich nations have a responsibility to the planet to push renewable energy solutions in developing countries instead. Martin Hiller of WWF says that nuclear power “should not be in the CDM. The CDM should be about renewable energy.”

Should we put our trust in nuclear power to help fight against rapidly increasing levels of greenhouse gas emissions or would nuclear fallout be too much of a deterrent? If nuclear waste is disposed of in a suitable and efficient fashion then there is surely no issue. But staff hired in developing countries to run the plants must be trained extremely well to ensure that this will, in fact, be the case.

Posted under Articles, Environmental News

Over 4 million hectares of forest, an area approximately the size of Switzerland, is being lost to logging in Africa every year, a rate which is double that of the worlds average for deforestation. A recently published United Nations atlas uses satellite images taken decades apart to show that overpopulation, growth of cities, climate change, pollution and deforestation are all continuing to desecrate the African environment, despite growing international concern over man’s impact on the natural environment.

The atlas portrays the plight of the 300 million people who do not have dependable supplies of water, and states that areas experiencing water shortages will increase by a third by 2050. The recent conflict in Darfur has also resulted in a loss of ground layer vegetation in the Jebel Marra area of Sudan, as the influx of refugees has produced a new found population that far exceeds the carrying capacity of the already frail land.

What is of specific concern about the Atlas for developing countries is that it shows without doubt that Africa, a continent which does not heavily contribute to global greenhouse emissions, is bearing the brunt of the negative effects of the changing climate. Of special concern is the reduction in size of glaciers in Uganda and Tanzania and the reduction of water supplies over the entire continent, with the UN atlas clearly showing that Lake Chad is drying and that the snow peak on Mount Kilimanjaro, in Tanzania, is reducing in size. The problem of deforestation was also of concern over the entire continent, but was at its worse in 35 countries, including Malawi, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Although the atlas portrays a fairly predictable, pessimistic picture there are some areas where land degradation, deforestation and the effects of climate change have been combated through the actions of individual communities, governments and international organization. One such area that showed hope was a national park developed in south-eastern Tunisia that has helped to counter the effects of over-grazing.

Just under 200 governments have agreed to sort out a new UN treaty on climate change by the end of next year, this atlas is another piece of evidence detailing how important it is that developed countries curb their carbon emissions for the good of not just themselves, but for those countries who are not responsible but will nevertheless have to deal with the implications of a changing global climate.

Posted under Articles, Environmental News

After investigations into the United Nations run, Carbon Credit system, there are fears the scheme may be predominantly pointless. The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) encourages businesses in developing countries to cut greenhouse gasses by rewarding them with cash handouts. The companies are given money to use towards environmentally friendly schemes; however it seems that developing businesses are already becoming environmentally sound off their own backs. Evidence suggests that in India, money has been put towards changes which would have been made regardless of sponsorship. One company has been earning astounding amounts from the scheme, possibly as much as $500 m (£250 m) over ten years!

These findings undermine the usefulness of the scheme, reinforcing doubts that CDM solely has actually contributed very little towards cutting emissions, therefore not proving particularly proactive in the battle against global warming.

Yvo De Boer, the man at the top of CDM defended the companies fundamentals, “We’ve got a procedure that works,” however he also admitted that there was a possibility for flaws in the system “At the end of the day it’s always a matter of judgement … and no, it’s not watertight.”

To receive Carbon Credits from the CDM companies must prove that they will cut gas emissions, additional to those that they intended to reduce before the offer of credits. The buyers of the credits are developed western companies, often in Europe who use them to meet targets, this proves cheaper than cutting emissions in their factories and offices. Essentially the programme aims to give Western companies a low cost way to control their gas emissions, whilst getting businesses in developing countries involved in reducing climate change.

Three Indian companies, receiving money to aid emission cuts have been investigated; one was already undergoing changes before it became involved in the scheme and a said it would have continued with its changes regardless of the money it was given. The second received money exceeding the costs of the amendments it made, the third company was in dispute over whether it really deserved to be part of the scheme.

More than 1,000 companies have already qualified for Carbon Credits, a further 3,000 have applied and the trade in CDM Carbon Credits runs at $10bn per year. Whilst the interaction, trade and environmental awareness built between developed and developing nations can only be positive, this system needs to be refined to produce a more merit able contribution in the battle against global warming.

Posted under Articles, Environmental News

Glastonbury is the kingpin of summer festivals, but its hazy, hippie-riddled image has had to adjust in the last few years in order to reconcile its apparently well-intended ethos with the fact that pilling thousands of smoking, drinking, drug taking people into a field for a weekend can produce some rather negative consequences for the environment.

The waste that revellers leave behind is one of the main problems. At Glastonbury, Police have handed out old film canisters to smokers for the last couple of years, encouraging people to use them as portable ashtrays. With each cigarette butt taking fourteen years to biodegrade the remnants of a couple of cheeky puffs can easily outlast an individual’s desire to wallow in the mud for a weekend.

People’s experience at any festival is determined as much by the weather as the line up. Infamous Glastonbury washouts have been blamed for slower ticket sales this year, but poor weather can also cause people to choose to leave their battle worn festival equipment in the campsites, rather than take it with them. At Roskilde, a festival of a similar size and with a community feel similar to that at Glastonbury, torrential downpours and strong winds combined to make last year’s festival less than ideal, and the majority of tents were abandoned in the mud. Organizers spent over one million euro cleaning up after their guests, money that organizers and punters alike would doubtless rather see spent on music or toilets. Everyone forgets or neglects to take their tent pegs, but to combat the environmental problems this causes Millets has specially designed a set which biodegrade.

At Glastonbury there are a team of ‘Green Police’ who have the powers to ban serious environmental miscreants from the festival for life. The majority of these wrongdoers are caught doing wrong in the river which runs through the site. In 2004 over 4,000 fish died because ammonia levels in the water were so high. Over three days the bladders of revellers can cause a lasting damage to the local ecosystem, with frogs and toads being especially affected by the high levels of ammonia and drugs which enter the water ways.

To try and reduce the event’s carbon footprint car share schemes have been set up, as the means by which one arrives at a festival accounts for 80% of each individual’s carbon emissions over the course of a three day festival. Greenpeace have provided solar-heated and renewable electricity powered showers for people to clean themselves under.

Festival goers are starting to bring back the spirit with which these big events, and Glastonbury especially, were once unabridged from. To find out more check out A Greener Festival, an excellent website that helps organizers and visitors achieve environmental excellence for their events.

Posted under Articles, Environmental News

Toyota have successfully developed a zero-emissions car that runs on hydrogen, and can travel as far as 516 miles on a single tank.

The environmentally-friendly FCHV-adv is the latest model of fuel-cell hydrogen powered cars, and is already considerably better than it’s Toyota predecessors. Toyota have improved fuel efficiency by 25 per cent by renovating the fuel-cell unit and tweaking the brake system amongst other things. The all-new FCHV-adv also has a bigger fuel tank and a significant increase in storage pressure. This allows the vehicle to travel up to 97 miles per hour (157 kph) and to run for 516 miles – the previous model only had the ability to manage 205 miles.

The benefits of owning one of these fuel-cell cars are numerous. Not only are they entirely emissions-free (the vehicle emits only water) but they also run on hydrogen: a cheap fuel which is inexhaustible. Petrol-heads will be very pleased to learn that these hydrogen fuelled machines achieve all of these things without compromising driving performance. Despite these advantages, a major problem for the fuel-cell car market is the lack of established fuelling stations – a huge rehaul would be required in order to accomodate the new vehicle’s fuel type, and it would be extremely expensive.

The history of the fuel-cell vehicle is rather short: both Toyota and Honda brought one into existence in late 2002. Ever since their has been an ongoing struggle between the rival companies to bring their vehicles into mass-production and commercialization.

So how do the flagships of these two companies compare so far? Toyota’a FCHV-adv employs a nickel-metal hydride battery which can withstand temperatures as low as -30 degrees celsius. Honda’s equivalent – the sporty FCX Clarity – is a sedan car which uses a lithium-ion battery and can withstand the same extremes of temperatures as the Toyota. However, performance-wise the Honda is a little inferior. Its fuel tank only allows it to run for a maximum of 385 miles. That’s significantly less than the 516 miles the Toyota pushes. The Honda FCX Clarity does provide the driver with slightly more speed though – it can reach 99 miles per hour: a whole 2 miles per hour faster than the Toyota.

Honda are currently ahead of their rival Toyota in the race to get its fuel-cell vehicles on the road. They will lease the cars in the United States this month – by the end of the year they will also lease them in Japan. Honda’s target is to sell 200 units between these two countries within 3 years.

The Toyota FCHV-adv will be revealed and showcased at next month’s G8 summit in Japan. 70 other hybrid cars and buses will also be on show during this event.

Posted under Articles, Environmental News