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      The greening of Africa

      April 14, 2011 /

      This article from Time is fascinating on several fronts. It highlights the potential for a green movement in Africa, where the expansion of deserts can be halted and reversed with green initiatives. It also addresses how carbon credits can be used to great effect.

      Two global agreements aim to put that right. The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) allows developed-world businesses that need to offset their pollution to buy certified emission reductions, or carbon credits, to fund the reduction or sequestering of carbon dioxide in the developing world. The Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation program (UN-REDD), launched in 2008, allows polluters to pay developing-world farmers to keep their trees, which store carbon dioxide as they grow. UNEP is working with scientists in Kenya, China, Niger and Nigeria to quantify how much carbon each ecosystem swallows — comparing the appetite of a rain forest with, say, that of a mangrove swamp — and when completed in 2012, those formulas will determine how much to pay each landowner. The UNEP’s Steiner says “farming carbon” this way is far cheaper than new technology to capture and store carbon dioxide emissions at their source.

      Estimates of how much the new market is worth vary wildly. The World Bank says carbon sequestration could be worth $1.5 billion a year to Africa, while Sukhdev reckons UN-REDD will be worth an eventual $30 billion to $110 billion a year globally. Manfred Kern of agritechnology company Bayer CropScience argues that the potential for monetizing natural assets is almost infinite. There is no reason, he says, that what works for trees should not also work for earth. “For the urbanized world, soil is just dirt, mud,” Kern told a U.N. conference in Bonn in May 2008. “But soil is the source of our food, the very future of humanity. We must recognize that soil has a value higher than gold.” What is clear is the potential. “It is essential that climate change be viewed as a major development opportunity for Africa,” World Bank managing director Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said last year.

      Carbon credits and trading are very controversial, but the impact on places like Africa cannot be discounted.

      Conservation, Energy Independence, Global Warming, Renewable Energy, Sustainability

      Is U.S. Government Heading For A Shutdown?

      April 8, 2011 /

      It’s not exactly what anybody wants and it’s not the ideal situation for the American people, but it is looking more and more like there will be a government shutdown in the United States of America.

      Online wagering fans have been betting back and forth over the last couple of weeks while keeping a close eye on the situation, but as of now, it looks like the two main parties of government can’t come to an agreement on the budget and there will be a shutdown.

      Leaders in both Chambers of Congress spent the last few hours pointing fingers and trying to win a public relations battle rather than trying to settle the situation.

      And with both sides offer different versions of the story, it’s unclear what is exactly happening amidst the talks.

      Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid suggests that the problem stems around ideology and claims that both sides have actually made plenty of progress as far as the actual budget is concerned. The Republicans, on the other hand, suggest that this is solely based around the numbers and they are trying their best to cut down the American debt, which is currently at $14 trillion.

      In the mean time, it doesn’t look like a short term bill will be an option. President Obama has vowed to veto any such temporary solution, calling it a distraction from a long-term solution, which is obviously what is really needed to remedy this mess.

      As it stands now, the government shutdown will begin at midnight Saturday – that is unless the two sides can agree on a budget for the rest of the year.

      Stay tuned as the we are going to find out more about this situation very shortly. Hopefully cooler heads prevail but as of right now, it looks like both sides are too far apart to prevent a shutdown.

      Uncategorized

      President Obama will not abandon nuclear energy in spite of Japan

      March 30, 2011 /

      nuclear power plant and smoke

      In his speech today about energy independence, President Obama made it clear he would not abandon nuclear energy. This may be controversial for many in light of the tragedy in Japan, but Obama pointed out the fact the nuclear energy does not emit carbon, so it’s critical if we are concerned about climate change, along with its importance for energy independence.

      The key is safety. Just as with offshore drilling, the key is learning from mistakes and having a commitment to sensible regulation and safety.

      It will be interesting to see how this sells to the left. On the right, this was probably necessary to get Republicans like Lindsay Graham back to the negotiating table on an energy bill.

      Conservation, Energy Independence, Global Warming, Renewable Energy, Sustainability

      Swedish city weans itself offof fossil fuels using biomass

      December 11, 2010 /

      Stories like this provide inspiration for those of us who see a future without reliance on fossil fuels, particularly oil from the Middle East or Russia.

      When this city vowed a decade ago to wean itself from fossil fuels, it was a lofty aspiration, like zero deaths from traffic accidents or the elimination of childhood obesity.

      But Kristianstad has already crossed a crucial threshold: the city and surrounding county, with a population of 80,000, essentially use no oil, natural gas or coal to heat homes and businesses, even during the long frigid winters. It is a complete reversal from 20 years ago, when all of their heat came from fossil fuels.

      But this area in southern Sweden, best known as the home of Absolut vodka, has not generally substituted solar panels or wind turbines for the traditional fuels it has forsaken. Instead, as befits a region that is an epicenter of farming and food processing, it generates energy from a motley assortment of ingredients like potato peels, manure, used cooking oil, stale cookies and pig intestines.

      A hulking 10-year-old plant on the outskirts of Kristianstad uses a biological process to transform the detritus into biogas, a form of methane. That gas is burned to create heat and electricity, or is refined as a fuel for cars.

      Once the city fathers got into the habit of harnessing power locally, they saw fuel everywhere: Kristianstad also burns gas emanating from an old landfill and sewage ponds, as well as wood waste from flooring factories and tree prunings.

      Over the last five years, many European countries have increased their reliance on renewable energy, from wind farms to hydroelectric dams, because fossil fuels are expensive on the Continent and their overuse is, effectively, taxed by the European Union’s emissions trading system.

      But for many agricultural regions, a crucial component of the renewable energy mix has become gas extracted from biomass like farm and food waste. In Germany alone, about 5,000 biogas systems generate power, in many cases on individual farms.

      This is one of many ways we could be taking advantage of recycling all of the waste we have in this country.

      Energy Independence, Renewable Energy, Sustainability

      People-Powered Gyms

      November 26, 2010 /

      This seems so obvious and logical it amazes me that it has taken so long for this trend to take hold. That said, it’s encouraging to see more gyms adopting the concept of people power to generate electricity, along with more companies who are providing the green exercise products.

      The Green Microgym in Portland, Ore., has all the usual stuff you’d expect — sweaty people, thump-thumping music, sleek exercise equipment — but it has some extras as well. Everywhere you look, there are power cords. And these aren’t the typical kind that let you surf the Web while you slog away on a spin cycle or elliptical machine — although you can do that too. The gym uses specially configured exercise equipment that captures the energy you create while pedaling, converts it into electricity and channels it into the power outlets.

      The idea of using exercise equipment to generate electricity is not new. A gym in Hong Kong has been doing this since 2007. Lots of music festivals have turned to bicycle generators to power their concerts. And some hipster bars are even making customers pedal for a few minutes to get their pitchers of perfectly blended margaritas.

      But clean (and healthy) energy is just now starting to catch on in U.S. gyms. There are now converters on exercise equipment in more than 80 locations in North America, including My Sports Clubs in New York City and Washington. “We have seen a significant increase in interest in the past six months, which is a good sign that fitness centers are ready to invest in green technologies,” says Mike Curnyn, co-founder of the Green Revolution, a Connecticut-based firm that wires bikes into a central battery that can store energy.

      The article points out there there are a number of different options. Some rig the exercise equipment to channel energy directly to wall outlets, while others like Green Revolution send the energy to storage batteries. Plug Out is a brand that sends the energy directly to a standard wall outlet and the energy created is automatically used before the building draws power from the grid. Other companies are ReRev and Resource Fitness.

      Expect this market to explode over the next several years.

      Renewable Energy, Sustainability

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