Why Motors Cars and Women Matter
Posted by annied in greentech on 12. Nov, 2009 | Comments Off
By Chris Milton
Last month I was invited to the IAA Frankfurt Motor Show. Renault was launching a complete range of electric cars and they were gathering various journalists to their bosom to help spread the message.
So I went and wandered around, picking up all sorts of bumpf on the Renault cars and various other eco and green transportation solutions.
Some were good. Renault’s in particular was impressive , and I’m not just saying that because they fed me free coffee and chocolate cheesecake.
Biochar: How to make the market work
Posted by annied in Cantos, green business, greentech on 09. Nov, 2009 | Comments Off
“Biochar Will Save the World!” proclaims a group page on Facebook. Popular mechanics writes of an “ancient charcoal” that can “put the brakes on global warming.” More than its prospects as a carbon sink or a fuel, it has massive prospects for development (the economic kind) for developing countries and emerging markets. But is it really that simple? A very wise Finance professor* once told me, “Anytime anybody tells you they have a market for that, be very suspicious.” It’s not that biochar couldn’t work, but that the market to make it work would have to be nuanced and highly regulated.
Carbon Credit Schemes Don’t Fall From the Sky, You Know
Posted by annied in carbon trading, climate change, energy on 23. Oct, 2009 | 1 Comment
Local Carbon Trading Scheme translates greenhouse gas emissions in a way everyone can understand
“I want my kids to feel they can do something about their future right now. I think everybody feels like this is all the hand of god, but this is a thing we’ve all been complicit in… I don’t want my kids to look at the future and feel like they can’t do anything about it. So I don’t want them to wait for some big carbon crediting scheme to come dropping out of the sky. I want them to feel like in their day-to-day approach they can do something,” says Sam Nelson, co-founder of the Maia Maia Project.
The Future Starts Here: Parliament debates 10:10
Posted by annied in campaign on 19. Oct, 2009 | 1 Comment
This week our Government has the opportunity to take a bold leap towards immediate cuts in our emissions. The Liberal Democrats have tabled a motion to garner cross party support for 10:10 Based on one simple ask, 10:10 calls on all of us to commit to a 10% reduction in our carbon emissions in 2010. On Wednesday, the motion being discussed will call on parliament, the government estate and the public sector to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by 10% in 2010 compared to 2009 levels. Gordon Brown, his cabinet, the shadow cabinet and the Liberal Democrat party have already signed up. At the time of writing, the 10:10 campaign has gathered over 35,000 supporters from all sectors. The motion may just have enough support to pass.
Blog Action Day: Ecopsychologist says that it’s time to “constructively frighten people.”
Posted by annied in campaign, climate change on 15. Oct, 2009 | Comments Off
Brayne:“The challenge is: how do we mobilize the fear centers of the brain in a way that doesn’t immobilize people. If you shout at them they shut down, if you don’t tell them what’s happening they do nothing…. We have to make this relevant to people’s personal survival.”
Brayne is convinced the way to do that is for the governments to tell their people the truth: at this point it’s a question of adaptation and mitigation– not avoiding a global temperature rise of two degree Celsius. We must change our collective behavior as a species and we must change now. We must paint a grim picture of the future and convince the public that it will happen.
One Giant Leap for Sandbag (one small step for Ed)
Posted by annied in DECC, campaign, climate change on 29. Sep, 2009 | Comments Off
“The West needs to do more or it’s an excuse for everyone else not to do more.” Though Worthington laments, “They’ll probably do it anyway just embarrass them.” She is confident about non-Western’s countries, in particular China’s ability to adjust their carbon emissions, “When China says it’s going to do something, it generally does it.”
Krakatoa: historical event is food for thought
Posted by annied in DEFRA, climate change on 28. Sep, 2009 | Comments Off
Listening to and old episode of the Dinner Party Download from APM’s Marketplace making dinner Friday night, the last day of the UN’s Climate Week. A segment of the
program told the story of the Krakatoa volcano in Indonesia. The volcanic erruption in 1883 caused alterations in global temperatures for at least five years and “red” [...]
Have you met Ade?
Posted by annied in green media on 22. Sep, 2009 | Comments Off
Ade Thomas, green.tv’s founder (our very own version of George Monbiot) has a conversation with the bloggess. For a guy who runs a tv channel and a web-design firm and works in London, he’s quite the naturalist. Ade talks about his boys, growing up in Oxford, fishing, urbanization and rapacious, invasive American invaders.