Report ranks banks on climate change strategies
January 12, 2008
Posted in Business
Financial institutions have a crucial role to play in supporting solutions to combat climate change, and while some banks are rising to the challenge, the sector still has a long way to go, according to a new report that analyses the climate change governance practices of 40 of the world’s largest banks.
“With nearly $6-trillion in market capitalisation, banks are the world’s major capital providers and risk management experts. As such, banks have a vital role in finding timely, practical and cost-effective solutions to mitigate climate change and adapt the [global] economy to its already apparent effects,” the report says.
Sixteen US banks, 15 European, five Asian, one Brazilian and three Canadian banks in several different classes of financial services, including diversified banks, investment banks and asset managers, were assessed on their climate change strategies.
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2007 second-hottest year on record
January 11, 2008
Posted in Green News
People who like statistics may be interested to know that 2007 was the second warmest year on record, with a global average temperature of 14.73 degrees Celsius, according to a report by the Earth Policy Institute. This is just 0.03 degrees Celsius cooler than 2005, the hottest year on record at 14.76 degrees Celcius.
Global average temperature has been steadily increasing, the report says, with the eight warmest years since 1880 all occurring in the last decade. According to a table compiled by the institute the eight hottest years are as follows:
2005: 14.76 C
2007: 14.73 C
1998: 14.72 C
2002: 14.69 C
2003: 14.67 C
2006: 14.66 C
2004: 14.60 C
2001: 14.57 C
Data from Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies shows that global average temperature has risen from 14.02 degrees Celsius in the 1970s to 14.26 degrees in the 1980s and then to 14.40 degrees in the 1990s. In the 21st century so far the temperature has averaged 14.64 degrees Celsius, says the report.
Via: Environmental News Network
Make a change: Green tip #6
January 8, 2008
Posted in Green tips, Lifestyle
It really is a waste to throw kitchen leftovers into the dustbin when, with the help of a few worms, it could so easily be converted into nutritious organic fertiliser. And, before you turn your nose up at the thought of keeping a bucketful of little wrigglies as pets, consider this: Cape Town’s famous, five-star Mount Nelson Hotel has a wormery and it’s causing such excitement that it’s even been on TV.
A wormery is ideal for people who don’t have space to make a compost heap and it doesn’t appear to be that complicated to set up and maintain one. Wizzard Worms, based in KwaZulu-Natal, offers to deliver just the worms (by courier – who’d have thought?) or they can deliver a complete wormery (they cost just under R600, including delivery); plus the organisation offers ongoing support and information.
If you want to know more, Wizzard Worms’ website has tons of information on how a domestic wormery works and how to set one up yourself.
Carbon dioxide emissions are bad for human health, study finds
January 4, 2008
Posted in Green News
For each 1 degree Celsius increase in temperature caused by carbon dioxide emissions, the resulting air pollution could lead to more than 20,000 deaths a year worldwide and many more cases of respiratory illness and asthma, a Stanford University study has found.
According Mark Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford, the study is the first specifically to isolate carbon dioxide’s effect from that of other global-warming agents. It is also the first to find quantitatively that “chemical and meteorological changes due to carbon dioxide itself increase mortality due to increased ozone, particles and carcinogens in the air”.
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Make a change: Green tip #5
January 3, 2008
Posted in Green tips, Lifestyle
We all know that we should use compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) because they consume less electricity, but the following calculations help to drive this point home:
If you use 60-Watt incandescent bulbs and burn them for 3 hours a day using electricity that costs an average of 35c/kWh, then each bulb will cost you R1.89 a month. If you use 11-Watt CFLs, each bulb will cost 35 cents a month in electricity. By changing to CFLs, over the course of a month you’ll save 49 Watts of electricity and R1.54 in costs. In a year the savings will total R18.48.
From April the price of electricity will increase by 14.2 percent, this means your annual savings per CFL could increase to about R21. Say you have an average of 10 lightbulbs switched on every night, your savings could amount to around R200 a year.
So, even though CFLs are more expensive than conventional light bulbs, chances are you’ll recoup the extra cost in less than a year. In addition, the life expectancy of a CFL is six times that of an incandescent bulb – 6,000 hours versus 1,000 hours.
Source: Eskom, “Saving electricity means saving money”
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