Anti-Wind Group: Renewable Energy Foundation

Just after the government announced major plans for a wind power expansion in the UK a report appears criticising the potential of wind. That's a bit odd considering the momentum behind this most developed of renewable energies, particularly when studies have shown that it is just such large scale plans as announced by the government that most effectively deal with variability by dispersing generating systems over a wide geographical area. So who is behind this report?

It's funded by the innocuously named Renewable Energy Foundation. There is some PR blurb on the website but perhaps a quote from it's chair Nole Edmonds (yes the one off TV!) clarifies things most easily:

"Politicians are promoting wind turbines as a green icon, but they are misleading the public into believing the propaganda of the wind industry. The reality is that wind power is too costly and can never meet our energy needs- but it will destroy the countryside."

Whatever you think of wind power it's quite clear that reports produced for this group should be taken with a grain of salt: they are certainly not objective.

However, the report has been gladly taken up by...

• The Telegraph
• The Daily Mail

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

Northern Slush-Cap

The North Pole is set to be ice-free in summer henceforward, and ripe for exploitation. There could be all sorts down there that we could set fire to!

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/exclusive-no-ice-at-the-north-pole-855406.html

whilst plant life takes to the hills

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/jun/26/scienceofclimatechange.forests

On the upside, Spain has given rights to our ape cousins - those that are left.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article4220884.ece

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

Re-externalising those externals. ( A short term memory problem?)

There seems to be a lot of backtracking in the air as people who should really know better consider selling their own long term futures for the sake of a pleasant afternoon in the sun. Maybe we're just not that bright.
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/the-ecocrunch-can-britain-still-afford-to-go-green-853415.html

Oxfam confirms that the food for cars movement is pushing the food for people movement back 30% whilst the carbon market is criticised by Stern and others for being something of a curate's egg.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20080625/twl-uk-biofuels-oxfam-bd5ae06.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jun/25/carbonemissions.fossilfuels


Plus - a blast from a previous post about jellyfish - making the news on a beach near you - from now on...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jun/25/climatechange.fishing
http://throbgoblins.blogspot.com/2008/02/lifes-beach.html

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

James Hansen Calls for Trial of Oil Giant CEO's

Twenty years after his first testimony to congress about the dangers of climate change James Hansen is back. According to the New York times he is back with attitude. Or more seriously, he has long since run out of patience with obstructionist politicians and companies that are pushing us all down a destructive path that we need not be on. The timeline of climate change and its public presentation durning the last twenty years is here.

Hansen called for the trial of oil company CEO's who where involved in spreading misinformation about climate change in an attempt to stifle decisive action. An attempt that worked and that we are not paying the price for. Interestingly the NYT ignored this aspect of the story! We have to cross the channel and read the Telegraph or the Guardian to find out about Hansen's statements on the parralles between big oil and big tabacco and how they delt with science.

Hansen tells the Guardian:

When you are in that kind of position, as the CEO of one the primary players who have been putting out misinformation even via organisations that affect what gets into school textbooks, then I think that's a crime.

Against this backdrop it is rather sad to see Gordon Brown begging for more oil. New Labour don't seem to get it--The opportunities of greentech, and the need for action, that is.

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

Climate Change and Weather Patterns in North America

Given the current flooding in Iowa it's probably not a bad time to publish one of the most comprehensive reports yet on North American weather and the way that it is being effected by climate change. Well, that what the US Climate Science Program has done.


Related:

• 4 Page Summary.
• Climate Science Posts on Climate Change Action.
• Posts relating to the USA on Climate Change Action.
  

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

Evolution in action

A MORI poll suggests that the British public are paying even less attention that I thought they were, but Nil Desperandum:

Whilst plans are afoot to provide at least the microgeneration infrastructure to enable a power-down.

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

Energy Futures

As New Labour unveil their plan to achieve emissions reductions only 60% less than everyone else thinks is necessary, and even the World Economic Forum ask for 50% cuts and a firm legislative framework, our glorious leader heads for Jeddah to ask for some of the uber-profits to be ploughed into wind, wave and nuke back home. Just don't try enriching your own uranium, guys. That's not for the likes of you! But have some more jets, to be going on with.

Isn't it distractingly comfy to think that the Saudi oil supremo was once a shepherd boy? Sounds like a bad film.

Sorry it's all Grauniad today. Just the way it crumbled.

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

Paddling in deep waters.

Here is a an excellent article by Johann Hari in the Grauniad.

Meanwhile- China's neaveau riche are perplexed at the high price of filling up their new cars, American farmers are angry that their grain fed, BSE riddled cattle are not welcome once they've travelled half way 'round the world to South Korea, Israel practices bombing runs for Gearge's farewell bash and the Big Oil Giants return to Iraq after 35 years lusting on the sidelines.



But on the other hand - Good news for a future on two wheels as history's third-best-ever invention gets some much needed support.

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

Environmental justice, oil shale, solar, wind, ccs, oil subsidies, independent media.

Just to fill a void in the number of posts recently i thought i`d share a few of the stories that have caught my eye.

Firstly, as i`ve been reading Laura Westra's book about environmental justice and human rights I was interested to read in De Smog Blog that the tiny Arctic village of Kivalina has joined up with some litigators who previously worked on Tabacco and it's link to cancer. The parralles are facinating, and hopeful:

From a legal point of view, it is not enough to prove that burning fossil
fuels is damaging to the environment. They must also demonstrate that Big Oil
conspired to lie about their product to the public. They have a lot to work
with.

For instance, ExxonMobil was specifically implicated by the Union
of Concerned Scientists of funding a Big Tobacco-style PR campaign to
misinform the public on climate science.


While the fossil fuel lobby has been highly successful at delaying meaningful regulation around climate change, they may have over-played their hand. By investing so heavily in distorting public debate around climate change, they have given lawyers like Susman and Berman plenty of potential evidence to drag into the light of day.

In a not unconnected development, Alberta is expecting a rapid ramping up of its oil shale extraction. Many of the effected lands are of disputed soverignty, indigenous groups are not seeing the benefits of these hugely distructive schemes.

In better news, solar is expected to achive grid-connected price parity by 2015! In other words, solar power from pv will cost the same per KWh as electricity from the grid. This isn't the same as having producing power for the same cost as fossil fuels, but it dosent have to be, solar can work without a complex transmission system and such small scale on site uses will make the economics work. Things aren't exactly bleak for the wind industry either; the only real question is how quickly new manufacturing capacity can be brought online. Meanwhile the fossil fuel industry is doing its best to talk up carbon capture and storage.

But weather it's a new renewable energy paradigme that you are after, or an altered version of fossil fuel power sans carbon emissions, one thing that we can surely agree on is the stupidity of the world bank (world development bank?) subsidising old coal power technology.

Fortunately for our fight against climate change, and for broader struggles against corporate power and state complicity there is a growing base of indipendent media. Notably The Real News Network has just teamed up with Celsias to improve coverage of climate change and related issues. That is exciting as i`m a big fan of both these organisations.

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

Cost of living

The UN High Commissioner for refugee reports that climate change is exacerbating conflicts that are displacing 37 million people - and rising. They warn that this is the beginning of a trend. No shit.
Meanwhile the Washington horse trading continues around whether or not to do anything about anything at all, or just plod on in ever decreasing 4 year circles of election expediency. Does Obama think the American way of life is negotiable? Does McCain? Hmm

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

Fool supply.

Widespread flooding in the US midwest leaves the harvest rotting in sodden fields; flooding in the uk threatens the survival of ground nesting birds; the EU complains that the US is dumping its subsidised Biofuels on European markets (subsidised agricultural dumping, moi?) and the absolute king of Saudi lands opts to crank the tap up a notch even though it's a financial (rather than supply) problem. Funny how we believe him when he claims limitless oil reserves, but not when he grasses the world's financial markets up on their profiteering.

So we can all get back to "normal" now, can we? Is there anybody anywhere who still thinks it's that simple?

Oh - and Solar power begins a break through to "grid parity".

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

Book List

Books i`m thinking of buying...

Humour:

• philisophical thoughts on joking matters
• on humour (thinking in action)
• laughter and ridicule:towards a social critique of humour
• comedy (new critical idioms)

Law:

• Environmental justice and the rights of future and unborn generations

Globalisation:

• Stuffed and starved
• No Logo

Environmental Policy:

• Green Giants? Environmental policies if the EU and US
• Environmental Politics and Policy in Developed Countries
• Brining Society Back In: Grassroots Ecosystem Management, Accountability and Sustainable Communities.

Inneqaulity:

• The Conscience of a Liberal
• Inneqaulity Matters: The Growing Inneqaulity in America and Its Poisonus Consequesnces
• Inneqaulity and Poverty Re-examined
• Global Trends in Income Inneqauity
• Trade Growth and Inneqaulity
• The American Class Structure in an Age of Growing Inneqaulity
• Who Gets What: Analysing Economic Inneqaulity in Austalia
• America Works: critical thought on Americas exceptional labour market

Neuroscience:

• A brief tour of humand conscousness: from imposter poodles to purple numbers

PR:

• Be your own spin doctor, a practical guide to using the media

Sustianability:

• The ecology of commerce

Russian Lit:

• Cancer Ward
• The Brothers Karamazov

Social Change

• positive energy: harnessing people power to social create change

Fractals:

• On growth and form
• The fractal geometry of nature

Architechture:

• Adapting buildings and cities to climate change
• Architechture in a climate of change
  

Economics:

• Capital
  

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

Freecyclotherapy

While even TopShop goes a shade of green (after it's own fashion) the UK and other national governments reject/block/throw away an EU bill to halt domestic waste proliferation as it might interfere with consumption patterns. Heaven forfend!

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/proud-to-be-prudent-meet-the-new-army-of-frugalistas-847463.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/britain-blocks-meps-plan-to-halt-waste-proliferation-847467.html

Meanwhile Nuclear Energy investors vote to pull the plug on any deal that doesn't involve screwing the customer for every penny they can get. Nice to know they're taking their responsibilities seriously.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/utilities/article4138424.ece

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

Introducing Ugmug McDuff

As the Arctic sea ice disappears the rate of thawing across the vast expanse of arctic permafrost triples - threatening all sorts of feedback unpleasantness. On the plus side we'll get all manner of ice age throwbacks er... thrown back.

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/arctic-thaw-threatens-siberian-permafrost-846951.html

Meanwhile - the UK government thinks about doing away with tedious pollution regulations so as to facilitate the expansion of Heathrow -contrary to all public consultation and all good judgement.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article4133526.ece

(I would like to apologise to Nygel Packet - sometime Knight of the Occassional Table - for stealing his moniker. I hope you don't mind)

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

Green Jobs: An Idea Worthy of Greater Attention in the UK?

One idea that seems to be working well for the Americans is Green Collar Jobs. In a slow economic climate with well paid manufacturing jobs at a premium and outsourcing being used a a boogeyman an idea that combines big industry, economic growth and domestic production is bound to do well. My only quaestion is why have the americans come to this so soon after the seriousness of climate change has been established while us in Europe still havent found a way of broading climate friendly policies into a mainstream political force? Perhaps we can learn something from the Yanks.

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

Climate Change Protests Halt Coal Train in UK

Climate change activists have halted a train laden with coal as it headed towards Drax power plant, the largest coal plant in the UK and second largest carbon source in Europe.

Leave it In The Ground is apparently one of the groups involve although The Coal Hole are also connected. [UPDATE: The Climate Camp are also involved the question will soon be who isn't involved!] And a nice simple message that is to! It feels a bit more solid than asking for emissions trading, doesn't it? Cap and trade looks like the system that will be replicated the world over, but gaming of the system seems to be a very real probability. Leaving fossil fuels in the ground is a somewhat less tricky system when it comes to assessing the success.

James Hansen, NASA's chief climate scientist has stressed the necessity of stopping the exploitation of coal reserves, which if burnt--even over centuries--will release enough carbon to completely destroy the stability of Earth's atmosphere.

I had an interesting email exchange with Donald Brown of the Rock Ethics Institute about the moral case for taking non-violent action against coal power. I think that this argument, for illegal but highly moral action is strong. That being said I'm not going to endorse such action; that wouldn't be smart.

The BBC and Observer have picked up on this story and hopefully we will see more press as the day goes on. [UPDATE: Bibi from the Guardian has now penned a sympathetic piece.] [UPDATE 2: The Times have just published a piece and Indymedia coverage is improving].

The press association has also just done a story, i particularly like the following quote:

The activists say they will not leave the train until Drax's chief executive
Dorothy Thompson explains how the company's emissions of 20 million tonnes of
CO2 a year is compatible with tackling climate change.

What are the people behind this audacious stunt thinking?

What does it look like on the scene?



[UPDATE 3: Merrik has produced a rundown of where this latest action finds itself in the general battle over coal in the UK]

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

The World Bank: Part of the climate change solution?

In its latest report "Correcting the World’s Greatest Market Failure: Climate Change and the Multilateral Development Banks" the World Resources Insitute is skeptical about involving the world bank in the fight against climate change (PDF)--for various reasons i`m downright doubtfull.

“The World Bank needs to demonstrate leadership to steer investment towards
low carbon, environmentally sustainable development choices,” said Jonathan
Lash, president of the World Resources Institute, which produced the analysis.
“This will be difficult to achieve while simultaneously investing in many
‘business as usual’ projects, such as coal-fired power.”

WRI are writing about an important issue here, the dual roles of funding polluting projects and selling emissions permits. However, the IPS has already covored this ground in a report entitled simply World Bank: Climate Profiteer.

Related:

• World Bank Posts
• Finance

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

Catching the wind

When I was trying to give up smoking, I found that switching to a slightly lower tar brand made no difference if I just smoked more of 'em.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jun/10/carboncapturestorage.carbonemissions

Whilst the price of fertilisers explodes along with that of oil -limiting the possibilities already limited by the experience of globally imposed monocultures - George Monbiot makes a timely plea for peasants.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20080610/tts-uk-food-fertilizer-shortage-cb42c00.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jun/10/food.globaleconomy

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

PEAK Mango

We are all responsible for the predictable consequences of our own actions, in spades. We live in an open society - A wealthy democracy. There really aren't enough excuses to go 'round.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article4092822.ece

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article4092866.ece

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/oil-shortage-a-myth-says-industry-insider-842778.html

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article4092772.ece

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

For the love of god (and the planet) can we vote the Republicans out?

Ok so straying into politics just for a littlw while. It seems important to note that however much McCain has spoken about climate change in the past he recieved a zero score from the leage of concervation voters and has been very quite on the topic thus far. Obama on the other hand has indicated that Al Gore would be wellcome in his administration, and although that may not be likely, it shows just how big a shift we are talking about from the Bush administration.

Obama's energy plan is here, it's a long way from perfect but atleast progressives are a core part of his constituency, lets see if we can improve this plant, and more than anything get the current bastard out and a brighter prospect in!

And no, i dont think its at all odd that a Brit cares so much about the US president, in fact i wish the whole world had a vote, its quite a powerful job, and not limited to the US...

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

Paradise Lost, and some rhetorical questioning

Without global outrage or mournful fanfare- the island of Kiribati has given up in the face of the rising tide and is planning for evacuation. This is in stark contrast to the Virgin Island of Beef (oh yes) that PLANS ecological devastation in the name of luxury accomodation, big yacht marinas, and golf for the world's uber-wealthy. Well, they work SOOOO hard.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/paradise-lost-climate-change-forces-south-sea-islanders-to-seek-sanctuary-abroad-841409.html

and vis a vis Calvin's excellent post, below, on the food crisis - with particular reference to Agribusiness...

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

Global Food Crisis

10 suprising implications of high food prices.

"In 1798, Thomas Malthus famously and grimly predicted that population growth would be perennially held in “check” by inherent limits to food production. While the following 200 years have certainly witnessed their fair share of famines and food crises, the supply of food generally kept pace with demand, and life went on. Over the last decade, however, the demand for food has risen faster than supply, causing food prices to climb faster than the rate of inflation. The World Bank noted that since the year 2000, food prices have risen 75%, a figure which conceals even more dramatic increases, such as a 200% increase in the price of wheat and a 250% increase in the price of rice."

Continued...

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

Amory Lovins on Nuclear Power

In the wake of Gordon Brown's recent announcement on plans for new nuclear power in the UK there is a lively discussion about nuclear power, very liveley and very poorly informed for the most part.

In the video clip Amory Lovins, inernational energy policy guru takes nuclear to task.



Lovins has recently co-authored a report on nuclear power (pdf).

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

Quantum muckanics

Amongst all the variously encouraging tidings - Hummers being "reviewed" by GM, puffins taking a nose-dive and Bosch buying up all the solar they can eat - it's difficult to know exactly where we're at, vis a vis the end of all that we know and love. But where there's doubt there's room for hope.

Was it curiosity killed Schrodinger's cat, or lack therof?

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

Old King Coal

The Coal lobby tries to terrify Americans with the awful prospect of not living like Kings anymore and joining the rest of the planet. It might just work.

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

Heathrow Anti-Aviation Protest : May 31st.

May 31st was just the latest in a growing movement of protest against the expansion of heathrow, and of aviation more generally. At the heart of the protest is a coallition of residents groups and climate change campaigners. This may seem like a convenient alliance but not nessicarily one based on common values. However that is not really the case; both groups are strongly opposed to strong govornment ties to corporations and strongly supportive of local democracy. Also, as time goes by there is a growing awareness from local anti-aviation groups of the importance of climate change.

Fortunately several news channels picked up the story including sky news and ITN bellow:



Coverage of the protest was relatively good in the mainstream media but in general covored in more depth by blogs and campaign sites. A good overview of the coverage is available on Marc Vallee's blog.

More articles bellow:

1. Respect Renewal
2. Bubble in the Desert
3. Arthur Mag (politics of aviation)
4. Campaign against Climate Change (one of the organising groups)

Small media video coverage:

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

creativity and climate change

An inconvenient truth was one hard hitting film, it also continues to produce a lot of web traffic for my blog as i found a video of the talk on which it was based available online.

Now something interesting is happening--a musical based on the film! It's a parodic look at climate change, corporate greed and the general reluctance being shown by people to actually do anything about it.

We arent going to get moving on this without both a govornment shift and a cultural shift, the cultural shift comes from attiudes of individuals changing as a response to all sorts of encounters, this is where the creative industries have a role. As we move past consensus and onto solutions more and more people are getting engaged in changing outdated attitudes towards our planet. Comedy is perhaps the best way to do this, perticularly on a topic as loaded with cynicism and as prone to triggering defencive barriers as climate change.

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

Ontario and Qubec start cap and trade scheme.

Treehugger today picked up a story about Ontario and Qubec who are jointly moving ahead with a ghg emission cap and trade scheme. The significance of this is twofold, influence and direct impact. In terms of influence we are all hoping that the Canadian govornment will get its act together and put a federal system together; also Canada is one of the few countries that feature highly in the American conciousness so hopefully this will add futher to the pressure on US congressmen to implement a system soon. Lets just hope that in both cases we get progress soon, and we get progress worthy of the title.

In terms of direct impact Ontario and Qubec are only two of 13 provences but they have 60% of the population so it's more than a purely symbolic scheme. However when Alberta is convered by such a scheme the rest of the world will rest a little easier; there is a lot of very dirty carbon intensive oil shale in Alberta and it needs to stay in the ground.

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

off the scale

The risks - financial, explosive and ecological - involved in developing large scale nuclear energy capacity, will be borne by the public at large, whilst the profits will be concentrated in very few, increasingly monopolistic hands.
The ghastly prospect of favouring the noises being made by the Tories pecks at my head. Strange days indeed.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jun/02/renewableenergy.alternativeenergy

Home del.icio.us Digg This!

Power to the people?

I don't know - it's the thin end of a big red wedge! First one person wants power, then the whole damn world wants power.

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/greener-power-to-the-people-the-real-energy-alternative-837821.html

Home del.icio.us Digg This!