China’s emissions far worse than previously thought
March 11, 2008
Posted in Green News
China’s carbon dioxide emissions are increasing at a faster pace than expected, according to a new analysis by economists at the University of California, Berkley and San Diego. This means that current global warming forecasts are “overly optimistic”, and that action is urgently needed to curb greenhouse gas production in China and other rapidly industrialising countries, the researchers say.
Previous estimates said the region that includes China will see a 2.5 to 5 percent annual increase in carbon dioxide emissions between 2004 and 2010. The new analysis put the growth rate at least 11 percent. What this means is that the projected annual increase in China alone over the next several years is greater than the current emissions produced by either Great Britain or Germany, the university says in a media statement.
The growth in China’s emissions will “dramatically overshadow” the emissions cuts pledged by all the developing countries in the Kyoto Protocol, it adds.
Maximillian Auffhammer, who co-authored the study said the paper should serve as an alarm challenging the widely held belief that actions taken by the wealthy, industrialised nations alone would be sufficient to stablilise atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide. “Making China and other developing countries an integral part of any future climate agreement is now even more important,” he said.
Photograph of Shanghai © George Clerk, iStockphtoto.com
Via :: Science Daily
Broccoli found to hold immunity-boosting chemical
March 11, 2008
Posted in Food
Researchers think that a chemical in broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables, such as cabbages and radishes, may hold a key to restoring the body’s immune system, which weakens as we get older. Scientists at UCLA found that sulforaphane, a chemical in broccoli, switches on a set of antioxidant genes and enzymes in specific immune cells in the body. These cells then combat the harmful effects of molecules known as free radicals that can damage cells and lead to disease. So eat your brocolli! Read more at ScienceDaily
Plug-in cars may need too much water
March 11, 2008
Posted in Transport
Vehicles that can be plugged in to the electricity grid and recharged overnight are seen as the green cars of the future. But a new study has shown that replacing petrol cars with plug-ins could put strain on water resources. That’s because electricity comes from large steam-turbine generators and nuclear reactors, which must be cooled with water, writes ScienceNow.
In a report to be published in the June issue of Environmental Science & Technology researchers estimate that if by 2015 there were 10 million plug-in cars on the road, power plants would require an additional 1.1 percent of water to generate the electricity they need. This has implications for water-scarce regions. And, says an environmental scientist, it shows that perhaps more attention needs to be paid to water demands when capital investments are being made in the electricity industry. (See Sunday Times article on Eskom’s potential water crisis.)
Renewable energy may offer a less thirsty solution. For instance, Google has a project on the go using solar power to recharge plug-in vehicles. See Google harnesses the sun
Via :: ScienceNow
Online guide for green travellers
March 11, 2008
Posted in Green News
The UN Environment Programme has launched an Internet-based campaign called Green Passport to raise awareness on sustainable tourism. Tourism is the world’s biggest industry and is continually growing, but it must be sustainable to keep damage to the planet at a minimum, Unep head Achim Steiner said at the campaign’s launch in Berlin on Friday.
The World Tourism Organisation estimates that there will be 1.5 billion tourists in the world in 2020, representing 21 percent of the world population. Over 9-million people visited South Africa in 2007, an 8.3 percent rise from 2006, according to the SA department of environmental affairs and tourism. The department is aiming for 10-million in 2010. This will put considerable strain on natural landscapes, especially, coastlline, mountains and biodiversity. Other tourism-related impacts result from the rise in the number of flights, an increased demand for water and energy that can bring tourists into conflict with local populations, and more pollution.
But don’t let this put you off going on holiday. The Green Passport website tells you what you need to know about being a green tourist – the kind that’s respectful to the environment and good for the economic and social development of the host communities.
Via :: Environment News Service
Top athlete pulls out of Olympic marathon because of pollution
March 10, 2008
Posted in Green News
World marathon record-holder Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia says he won’t compete in the Olympic marathon this year because of fears that Beijing’s air pollution would damage his health, Reuters reports. But he will compete in the 10,000 metre race. The long-distance star suffers from asthma.
Via :: Environment News Network
Thou shalt not pollute the Earth
March 10, 2008
Posted in Green News
Polluting the Earth and genetic modification are two of the new mortal sins announced by the Vatican. Monsignor Gianfranco Girotti, a Vatican spokesperson, reportedly said that the old sins – sloth, envy, gluttony, greed, lust, wrath and pride – had a “rather individualistic dimension”. The new list apparently serves to illustrate how people’s vices have an effect on others as well.
The seven deadly sins for our times are: genetic modification, carrying out experiments on humans, polluting the environment, causing social injustice, causing poverty, becoming obscenely wealthy and taking drugs.
Source :: Telegraph.co.uk
Arizona to get world’s biggest solar plant
March 10, 2008
Posted in Renewable energy
Even if SA’s power monopoly Eskom does decide to go ahead with its plan to build the 100MW concentrating solar power (CSP) plant near Upington that Treevolution wrote about last year, it will no longer be the world’s biggest. A 280MW CSP plant is being built about 100km southwest of Phoenix, Arizona. At full capacity the plant, known as Solana, will be able to produce enough electricity for 70,000 households, while avoiding over 400,000 tons of greenhouse gases, says the Arizona Public Service Company (APS).
The new facility is being built by Abengoa Solar and is expected to start producing power in 2011. “The facility would be the largest solar power plant in the world if in operation today,” says APS. The utility will buy all the plant’s power for the first 30 years at a cost of about $4 billion. Read more
Aw, look at the cute baby elephant
March 9, 2008
Posted in Conservation
Start your week on a warm and fuzzy note. Kim Wolhuter is a professional wildlife filmmaker who has a blog on which he posts short clips of his life behind the camera in a game reserve in Zimbabwe. (Tough job, but I suppose somebody’s got to do it.) The two latest entries have been of a particularly cute little elephant – Wolhuter says he’s about five weeks old – playing in water with his herd.
Watch the videos on Wildcast.net
Solar ‘leaves’ to flutter on your walls
March 9, 2008
Posted in Renewable energy
This clever renewable energy concept is the brainchild of an American design group called SMIT (Sustainably Minded Interactive Technology). The house pictured below has been fitted with solar leaves (seen close up on left) These small flexible solar cells are apparently wired together and then onto the side of a building. They were inspired by ivy climbing up a wall. The cells flutter prettily in the wind – though one wonders how much wind they could withstand before they start to blow off. The designers also have a solar leaf that is also a wind power solution. You can find out more about the solar leaves on the SMIT website.
Make a change: Green tip #8
March 9, 2008
Posted in Green tips, Lifestyle
When I was a child, the standard birthday gift for fathers was socks or cotton handkerchiefs. Adult men could be relied upon to have one on hand in an emergency. But nowadays everybody seems to carry tissues, which are more convenient when you have a cold, but you can’t embroider your initials on them or scent them with lavendar to sniff delicately when you have a headache now, can you?
The world uses 25-million metric tons of tissue each year and much of it is wasted, according to the Environmental Paper Network. This means that every day, so much tissue is used that it could stretch all the way to the moon and back. (This does include loo paper as well as facial tissue.)
So save a few trees and avoid unnecessary packaging by replacing packets of disposal tissues with some cotton handkerchiefs.
Photograph: iStockphoto.com
Via :: Friends of the Earth
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