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Friday’s Green Numbers round-up 01/15/2010

January 15, 2010 by Tom Raftery

Photo credit arekiiu

Here is today’s Friday Green numbers round-up:

TVA purchasing up to 815MW wind power from Kansas and Illinois

TVA has inked four deals to purchase wind power generated in Illinois and Kansas.

The federal utility said today that the contracts will allow it to purchase up to 815 megawatts of renewable wind energy, and will move it closer to a goal of having more than half its power generation come from non-carbon emitting sources”

tags: tva, iberdrola, wind energy, renewable energy, illinois, kansas, greennumbers
U.S. Imported 4.35 Billion Barrels of Oil in 2009, Spending Over Half a Million Dollars per Minute

Having provided 12 consecutive monthly updates on the level of foreign oil imports in the U.S. last year, energy expert T. Boone Pickens said that based on the latest figures from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA), the U.S. imported 63% of its oil, or 4.35 billion barrels in 2009, sending nearly $265 billion, or $502,473 per minute, to foreign governments. “

tags: oil, T. Boone Pickens, pickens plan, natural gas, greennumbers, doe, eia
Breaking: 2009 hottest year on record in Southern Hemisphere and tied for second globally ? Climate Progress

Eli Kintisch at Science Magazine just published, ?2009 Hottest Year on Record in Southern Hemisphere.? He quoted NASA mathematician Reto Ruedy of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies on the as-yet-not-released December and yearly data.

We?ve all been waiting for NASA?s final report on the year ? to see whether 2009 will be the second hottest year on record and whether NASA would make an official prediction that 2010 is likely to be the hottest on record, as the UK?s Met Office has and as Hansen himself did

tags: nasa, hansen, 2009, 2010, climate change, Hottest Year on Record, greennumbers
Scottish ministers approve three onshore wind projects

“Three wind farm schemes with a combined capacity of almost 260MW have been approved by the Scottish Government this week.

A new ?80 million wind farm consisting of 21 turbines with a capacity of 52.5MW is to be built near Thurso, while fourteen new turbines have also been approved for the existing Rothes wind farm, at Cairn Uish near Elgin, bringing its total capacity up to 95MW.

And, Scottish energy minister Jim Mather today (January 14) announced that a 33 turbine, 118MW wind farm at Muaitheabhal, dubbed the “first large scale wind farm in the Western Isles”, has also been given the go ahead.”

tags: scotland, Wind farm, wind energy, wind farms, wind turbines, lewis, muaitheabhal, greennumbers
16% of NYC new car sales to be EVs by 2015

Management consulting firm McKinsey & Co. came out with new research today that suggests electric vehicles, including battery-electric and plug-in hybrid electric cars, could make up as much as 16 percent of new car sales in New York City come 2015, or as many as 70,000 cars.

tags: electric vehicles, phev, ev, bev, plug in hybrid, new york, greennumbers
A Single ?32 LED bulb, over its lifetime, has energy savings of over ?280

The iconic, compact fluorescent lightbulb is dead: meet its next generation replacements that are brighter, more efficient, longer-lasting, and mercury-free

tags: cfl, compact fluorescent lightbulbs, led lighting, led, greennumbers

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Green Numbers round-up 12/18/2009

December 18, 2009 by Tom Raftery

Photo credit MildlyDiverting

Welcome to this Friday’s Green numbers round-up!

IBM Reveals Five Innovations that Will Change Cities in the Next Five Years

IBM unveiled a list of innovations that have the potential to change how people live, work and play in cities around the globe over the next five to ten years:

· Cities will have healthier immune systems

· City buildings will sense and respond like living organisms

· Cars and city buses will run on empty

· Smarter systems will quench cities’ thirst for water and save energy

· Cities will respond to a crisis — even before receiving an emergency phone call

tags: greennumbers, ibm, smart city, water, energy
Brazil holds 1,800MW wind power auction

“Brazil has held its first energy sale directed exclusively at wind power. More than 1,800MW of wind energy was contracted $82.8 per MWh. The proceeds of the auction will allow for the construction of 71 generation projects across five states in the northeast and south of the country.”

tags: brazil, wind energy, auction, greennumbers, wind, wind power
Global governments commit $4bn to carbon capture and storage projects worldwide

The US and Australian governments and the EU have committed more than $4bn in support for 13 carbon capture and sequestration demonstration projects. The projects being supported include power plants of about 300MW.

The Australian-funded Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute formed a partnership with international non government organisation The Climate Group to accelerate the construction of plants in five countries within Europe, China, India, Australia and the US.

tags: greennumbers, eu, australia, us, ccs, carbon capture and storage, the climate group
Alaskan Coastline Triple-Threatened, Eroding at Incredible 45 Feet Per Year (Video) : TreeHugger

A study out of the University of Colorado at Boulder shows that a substantial piece of the northern Alaska coastline is eroding at an astonishing rate of 45 feet a year thanks to three major threats – less ice, more waves, and warmer water.

tags: greennumbers, alaska, coastline, erosion, ice melt
50 reasons why global warming isn’t natural

A British newspaper today published a list of “100 reasons why global warming is natural”.

This is a quick look at the first 50 of their claims – and a debunking of each one

tags: greennumbers, global warming, debunk, denial
Solar Could Meet 15% of US Demand by 2020

A consortium of solar industry trade groups released a report indicating that solar photovoltaics could provide up to 12 percent of Europe’s electricity and the combination of PV, concentrated solar power and solar thermal could deliver 15 percent of electricity in the U.S. by 2020.

tags: solar, greennumbers, solar thermal, solar concentrating, photovoltaic, Concentrated solar power
300 Million-Year-Old Limestone Houses Ultra Efficient Data Center 22 Stories Underground : TreeHugger

“In western Pennsylvania, a data center is using the benefits of a very cool location. It’s Iron Mountain’s man-made caverns in an old limestone mine, and in room 48, an experiment in data center efficiency design and the use of geothermal environmental conditions for extra efficiency is taking place. In other words, researchers are trying to find out if putting data centers deep underground will be an ideal place for them. “

tags: iron mountain, greennumbers, data center, datacenter, limestone, cavern
Sony Ericsson Announces Two Green Phones; Meet the Elm and the Hazel : TreeHugger

“As part of their GreenHeart effort to release mobile phones that lean on the eco-friendly side, Sony Ericsson has released two options – the Elm and the Hazel – both of which seem to have green features that set them above other similar devices on the market, including using recycled materials and eliminating toxic materials. The new phones do more than just ditching the paper manuals.”

tags: elm, hazel, greenheart, sony ericsson, mobile sustainability, greennumbers

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

GreenMonk news roundup 12/04/2009

December 4, 2009 by Tom Raftery

Photo credit just.Luc (just.Censored)

World’s largest reinsurance company: Something must be done

“Globally, the average number of major weather-related catastrophes such as windstorms, floods or droughts is now three times as high as at the beginning of the 1980s. Losses have risen even more, with average increases of 11 percent per year since 1980, the reinsurance company Munich Re says in a statement.

“Something must be done.”

tags: climate change, greenmonktv, weather-related catastrophes, windstorms, floods, drought, munich re
Progress Energy Carolinas plans to retire remaining unscrubbed coal plants in N.C.

Progress Energy announced that by the end of 2017, the company intends to permanently shut down all of its remaining N.C. coal-fired power plants that do not have flue-gas desulfurization controls (scrubbers) because it is too expensive to fit them with the required pollution controls.

tags: progress energy, coal fired power stations, coal, scrubbers, sulfur, greenmonktv
Environmental groups unprepared for ‘Swift Boating’ of climate science | Grist

Are the climate skeptics increasingly winning the battle for public opinion? On the very eve of the Copenhagen conference, there are signs that they are—and that environmental groups are allowing them to do.

Polls on both sides of the Atlantic over the last weeks indicate that fewer people now believe that global warming is taking place or that humanity is responsible.

tags: climate change, swift boat, greenmonktv
Global emissions only ‘few billion tonnes’ short of targets, says Stern | Environment | guardian.co.uk

Offers on the table ahead of the Copenhagen climate change talks are only “a few billion tonnes” short of the scale of annual CO2 emission cuts required to meet 2020 environment targets, Lord Stern said today.

He acknowledged there was a “significant way to go” but insisted: “It is possible to get there.”

tags: copenhagen, climate change, co2 emissions, Lord stern, greenmonktv
World leaders apologise for climate failure in Copenhagen airport ads

Superb advertising campaign in Copenhagen Airport where today’s world leaders are writing apologetic notes from a possible future where they didn’t act to prevent climate change

tags: copenhagen, airport, zapatero, merkel, lula, gordon brown, greenmonktv, obama
Global Carbon Emissions Increased Despite Recession |Triple Pundit

“Despite an economic crisis dubbed the “great recession,” carbon emissions grew last year by two percent, to a total of 8.7 billions of carbon. Last year, every person in the world produced an average of 1.3 tons of carbon, according to a report by the Global Carbon Project. During 2000 to 2008, the growth rate of atmospheric carbon increased 1.9 parts per million (ppm) a year, up from 1.3 ppm during 1970 to 1979.”

tags: carbon emissions, recession, global carbon project, greenmonktv
NASA satellites detect unexpected ice loss in East Antarctica

“Using gravity measurement data from the NASA/German Aerospace Center’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission, a team of scientists from the University of Texas at Austin has found that the East Antarctic ice sheet-home to about 90 percent of Earth’s solid fresh water and previously considered stable-may have begun to lose ice.

The team used Grace data to estimate Antarctica’s ice mass between 2002 and 2009. Their results, published Nov. 22 in the journal Nature Geoscience, found that the East Antarctic ice sheet is losing mass, mostly in coastal regions, at an estimated rate of 57 gigatonnes a year. A gigatonne is one billion metric tons, or more than 2.2 trillion pounds. The ice loss there may have begun as early as 2006. The study also confirmed previous results showing that West Antarctica is losing about 132 gigatonnes of ice per year.”

tags: nasa, grace, East Antarctic ice sheet, antarctic, greenmonktv
Australia’s wine industry in peril from climate change | Business | guardian.co.uk

“Research by Macquarie University alerts Australian wine growers to consider new varieties of grapes to fend off the impact of climate change”

tags: wine, australia, climate change, greenmonktv

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Green Numbers round-up 12/04/2009

December 4, 2009 by Tom Raftery

Photo credit Jeremy Brooks

2009 set to be ‘in top five warmest’ years ever

This year will be one of the top five warmest years globally since records began 150 years ago, according to figures compiled by the Met Office.

The UK’s weather service projects that, unless there is an exceptionally cold spell before the end of the year, temperatures will be up on last year.

tags: global warming, copenhagen, la nina, el nino, greennumbers
Seven Answers to Climate Contrarian Nonsense: Scientific American

“a partial list of the contrarians’ bad arguments and some brief rebuttals of them.”

tags: greennumbers, climate change, sceptics, answers
Five eco-crimes we commit every day

“WHEN the UN Climate Change Conference opens in Copenhagen next month, all eyes will be on the delegates’ efforts to broker a deal that will prevent catastrophic global warming. Yet amid all the talk of caps, targets and trading, it is easy to forget who is ultimately responsible for the mess we find ourselves in. I have long argued that climate change begins at home. Each of us in the developed world has played our part in creating this problem and, while there is no doubt that coordinated global action is needed to tackle it, we can each be part of the solution.

So, ask yourself this: how green am I really? You might think you are doing your bit for the environment, but even if you shun bottled water, buy local produce and reuse your plastic bags, chances are that you have some habits that are far more environmentally damaging than you realise. What’s more, if everyone else is doing these things too, their detrimental effects really add up.”

tags: eco-crimes, climate change, copenhagen, greennumbers
News – EU could easily make 40 per cent cuts by 2020 – The Ecologist

“Phasing out fossil fuels, encouraging faster take-up of renewables and making radical improvements in energy efficiency would double Europe’s emission cuts, says study

The EU could double its target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 without resorting to building new nuclear power stations or unproven technologies like Carbon Capture and storage (CCS), according to research released by the Stockholm Environment Institute. “

tags: eu, ccs, carbon capture and storage, greennumbers, greenhouse gas emissions, 2020, Stockholm Environment Institute
Bord Gais nears deal in €500m windfarm acquisition – Irish, Business – Independent.ie

Irish energy co. BORD Gais is in exclusive talks to acquire the windfarm assets of SWS, the Cork-based energy and business services group, with some sources indicating that bidding topped the €500m mark.

tags: bord gais, sws, greennumbers, windfarm
Over $200 billion in Canadian assets at risk from global warming: report

More than $200-billion worth of Canadian assets are at risk from global warming, says an international report released Monday.

The research was prepared for WWF-Germany and Allianz Group by the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research in the United Kingdom.

tags: wwf, allianz, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, global warming, climate change, greennumbers, canada, canadian assets
South Korea set its carbon reduction target at 30 per cent : Environment

“South Korea said ahead of this month’s climate summit in Copenhagen that it faces challenges in meeting its proposed emission target. Economy Minister Choi Kyung Hwan confirmed Seoul’s target of reducing emission of greenhouse gases by 30 per cent of the 2020 business-as-usual levels.

tags: south korea, copenhagen, emission target, carbon reduction, greennumbers

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

New version of Eye on Earth site – more data, less visible!

December 1, 2009 by Tom Raftery

Photo credit Tom Raftery

We last wrote about the Eye on Earth site in July 2008. If you can’t remember that far back, a quick recap – Microsoft and the European Environmental Agency (EEA) signed a non-exclusive five year deal with a goal to make environmental information more accessible to citizens in Europe.

EyeOnEarth, the first product of that agreement was launched on July 30th 2008 as a site listing water bathing quality for beaches and waterways throughout Europe. What was unique about the site was that it contained historical data going back as far as 1991 as well as the ability for anyone browsing the site to give their own feedback on beaches/waterways. A superb way to capture and present grassroots water quality data.

In the last couple of weeks, there have been major changes to the EyeOnEarth website. The site has been moved to Microsoft’s new cloud computing services platform Windows Azure, and data from 6,000 air quality monitoring stations across Europe is now also included in the site. The air quality data includes information on ozone, particulate matter (PM10) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) but, curiously, doesn’t include sulphur dioxide (SO2) or carbon dioxide (CO2).

The site has now been combined with Bing Maps and Silverlight controls which work quite well once you realise that you have to type in the name of the location you are interested in into the search bar at the top to see any data. Intuitively I initially clicked on air and water stations on the map but this failed to do yield any data. This appears to be a function of your zoom level because once you zoom in far enough, a click on an air or water station will yield the information.

The fact that the site is written in Silverlight is disappointing as the number of computers with Silverlight installed is somewhere between 32% and 47%. There is a non-Silverlight version of the site available but I failed to get this to work either on my Vista PC or on my iPhone.

The lack of a working platform for mobile is a big disappointment, frankly. Back in 2008 Microsoft’s Director EU & NATO, reassured me that:

We haven’t tested or adapted the site for mobile access now due to time constraints but mobile access is a core component of our vision for the Observatory portal as we like to offer an alerting/subscription service

I took this to mean that there would be a mobile version of the site developed.

However, what Microsoft and the EEA have now delivered is an SMS service whereby you can text a command to a UK number (+44 7786 201 106) – this allows you to receive instant updates on air and water quality for any location in the EEA member countries, however, as far as I can tell there is no way to add data to the site from your mobile, something I’d be very keen to do if I had the option.

The addition of the air quality data to Eye on Earth is a very welcome development, however making the site less accessible, and not having a mobile version of the site means that this update of the site would appear to be a case of one step forward and two steps back.

UPDATE: Just thinking now that if there were an api to this data and if it were geotagged, it would make a really interesting Augmented Reality Layar for a mobiles.

Green Numbers round-up 11/27/2009

November 27, 2009 by Tom Raftery

Photo credit Jeremy Brooks

EU environment commissioner urges to cut emissions by 30 percent – COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009

“Europe should set a good example by agreeing to cut emissions by 30 percent from 1990 levels before the start of the climate change conference in Copenhagen, urges Stavros Dimas, the Environment Commissioner of the European Union.”

tags: europe, eu, copenhagen, climate change conference, stavros dimos, greennumbers
Global Carbon Emissions Increased 2% Despite Recession

“Despite an economic crisis dubbed the “great recession,” carbon emissions grew last year by two percent, to a total of 8.7 billions of carbon. Last year, every person in the world produced an average of 1.3 tons of carbon, according to a report by the Global Carbon Project. During 2000 to 2008, the growth rate of atmospheric carbon increased 1.9 parts per million (ppm) a year, up from 1.3 ppm during 1970 to 1979”

tags: co2, carbon emissions, recession, crisis, global carbon project, greennumbers
Hong Kong people dump billions fewer plastic bags : Environment

“Four billion fewer plastic bags a year are being thrown out with the rubbish by Hong Kong people as the city’s environmental consciousness grows, officials said Wednesday. A government study found there had been a 66.5-per-cent drop in the number of plastic bags thrown away in the past four years from 8.7 billion a year to 4.6 billion”

tags: plastic bags, hong kong, greennumbers
Rising sea levels: A tale of two cities – Maputo, Rotterdam

“When people talk about the impact of rising sea levels, they often think of small island states that risk being submerged if global warming continues unchecked.

But it’s not only those on low-lying islands who are in danger. Millions of people live by the sea – and are dependent on it for their livelihoods – and many of the world’s largest cities are on the coast.

By 2050 the number of people living in delta cities is set to increase by as much as 70%, experts suggest, vastly increasing the number of those at risk.

To shed light the impact of rising sea levels, we are taking a close look at two very different cities, Rotterdam and Maputo , and their varying responses to the problem. “

tags: rotterdam, maputo, sea level rise, thermal expansion, glacier melt, greennumbers, ice sheets
Department of Energy – Secretary Chu Announces $620 Million for Smart Grid Demonstration and Energy Storage Projects

“At an event in Columbus, Ohio this afternoon, Secretary Chu announced that the Department of Energy is awarding $620 million for projects around the country to demonstrate advanced Smart Grid technologies and integrated systems that will help build a smarter, more efficient, more resilient electrical grid. These 32 demonstration projects, which include large-scale energy storage, smart meters, distribution and transmission system monitoring devices, and a range of other smart technologies, will act as models for deploying integrated Smart Grid systems on a broader scale. This funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will be leveraged with $1 billion in funds from the private sector to support more than $1.6 billion in total Smart Grid projects nationally. “

tags: doe, department of energy, steven Chu, smart grid, smart meter, greennumbers, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
The Eight Biggest Myths about Sustainability in Business

“In our research, and in engagements with dozens of Fortune 1000 companies, we are sometimes surprised at the reluctance to pursue environmental sustainability initiatives, because of misconceptions about their cost or benefits. But we have also seen how some companies have embraced sustainability whole-heartedly, and are profiting from it.

As a way of helping to get every company on the journey to sustainability, here are some of the most common myths we have heard from otherwise successful companies. As surprising as some of these might sound — like the idea that there is no money to be had from sustainability efforts — these ideas persist in companies large and small and in any industry.”

tags: sustainability, csr, greennumbers, myth
Verizon Wireless Fined $468,600 for Environmental Violations

“USA based Verizon Wireless has agreed to pay a US$468,600 civil penalty to settle self-disclosed violations of federal environmental regulations discovered at 655 facilities in 42 states.”

tags: verizon, verizon wireless, greennumbers, epa, mobile sustainability, environmental, compliance

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

GreenMonk news roundup 11/14/2009

November 14, 2009 by Tom Raftery

Energy agency warns of ‘irreparable’ damage – Short Sharp Science – New Scientist

“Take all the power stations in the United States. Together, they produce almost 1000 gigawatts of electricity – enough to boil several billion kettles simultaneously.

Now imagine building another five power stations for every one that already exists in the United States. That is about the amount of electricity generation that the world is on track to add over the next 20 years. And three-quarters of the new stations will use fossil fuels.”

tags: energy efficiency, international energy agency, iea, greenmonktv
Mini ice age took hold of Europe in months – environment – 11 November 2009 – New Scientist

Around 12,800 years ago the northern hemisphere was hit by the Younger Dryas mini ice age, or “Big Freeze”. It was triggered by the slowdown of the Gulf Stream, led to the decline of the Clovis culture in North America, and lasted around 1300 years.

Until now, it was thought that the mini ice age took a decade or so to take hold. Not so, say William Patterson of the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada, and his colleagues.

They show that at the start of the Big Freeze, temperatures plummeted and lake productivity stopped within months, or a year at most. “It would be like taking Ireland today and moving it up to Svalbard” in the Arctic,”

tags: ice age, younger dryas, greenmonktv, big freeze, ireland
1933 Ford Hot Rod goes Electric – Bright Side Of News*

At SEMA 2009, AMP=D changed every hot rodders’ perception of performance and innovation. AMP=D introduced their all-electric powered ’33 Hot Rod. With 300+ hp [horse power] and over 660 foot pounds of torque in a 2400 pound car, it will stay with the best of the gasoline-powered Hot Rods.

tags: hot rod, ev, electric car, greenmonktv
Innovation: Can technology persuade us to save energy? – tech – 06 November 2009 – New Scientist

machines designed to change humans, as the persuasive technology group of Stanford University, California, calls them, could save us huge amounts of energy and money.

tags: energy efficiency, behaviour, greenmonktv
Harvesting Fog Provides Drinking Water, Food to Peruvian Slums : TreeHugger

“In Lima, Peru, more than 1.3 million people have no access to drinking water. The citizens without it are in the poorest areas, where water trucked in can cost nine times as much as it does in richer areas. So, citizens have had to either make do without running water, or, with the help of a German NGO, make dew into drinking water. “

tags: lima, water, fog, dew, greenmonktv
Antarctic iceberg found floating near Macquarie island | Environment | guardian.co.uk

“Dean Miller, an Australian fur seal biologist, was the first person to spot the large white object floating past Macquarie island in the far south-west corner of the Pacific Ocean.

“I’ve never seen anything like it. We looked out to the horizon and just saw this huge floating island of ice,” Miller told the Australian Antarctic division. “It was a monumental moment for me as it was the first iceberg I have seen.”

Estimated to be about 50m high – from the waterline – and 500m long, the iceberg is now about five miles (8km) off the north-west of Macquarie island, halfway between New Zealand and Antarctica south-west corner of the Pacific Ocean.”

tags: iceberg, ice melt, macquarie island, greenmonktv
Boreal Forests: The Carbon the World Forgot « Climate Progress

“When we think about forests and climate change, we tend to think about tropical forests. This is not without undue reason – some of the highest rates of deforestation are happening in Central and South America, Africa, and Asia Pacific. But one source of carbon, which happens to be the world’s largest terrestrial storehouse of carbon, has been mostly overlooked in international climate discussions to date. I’m talking, of course, about the boreal forest.”

tags: boreal forest, deforestation, peat, permafrost, greenmonktv
Are North American Companies Improving Their Climate Change Performance? | ClimateBiz.com

“With climate change legislation finally appearing to be making some headway in the U.S., and with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) having recently issued regulations mandating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reporting by high-emitting U.S. companies, a new report from Ethical Investment Research Services (EIRIS) entitled “2009 Climate Change Tracker: North America” arrives at an opportune moment. EIRIS is a global provider of research into corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance.”

tags: epa, ghg, eiris, greenhouse gas emissions, Ethical Investment Research Services, 2009 Climate Change Tracker: North America, greenmonktv
Accountability for Minerals in the Eastern DRC

The overall IT sector faces with regards to traceability through our supply chain and the activities underway at Hewlett Packard

tags: hp, hewlett packard, traceability, conflict minerals, greenmonktv
Explosion!: Lithium Battery Safety Still A Problem

“As recently as August, the largest lithium battery recycler in North America — Toxco — snagged a $9.5 million grant from the Department of Energy to build out battery recycling capacity in Ohio and pledged to provide “end of life management” for advanced vehicle batteries “in a safe and environmentally sound manner.” But this weekend multiple explosions and a major fire at the company’s Trail, British Columbia recycling facility can be fairly called bad advertising for that business.”

tags: lithium ion, batteries, explosion, safety, greenmonktv
“SuperFreakonomics” and climate change : The New Yorker

Another superb debunking of the SuperFreakonomics book

tags: superfreakonomics, debunking, greenmonktv
Powering cell phone towers with wind | Green Tech – CNET News

“Helix Wind announced Wednesday that it’s beginning a trial run in Southern California to see if its wind turbines might be useful for powering cell phone towers.

The manufacturer is becoming known for its small vertical-axis wind turbines that can generate electricity with winds as low as 10 mph, as well as its unique business model to finance them.”

tags: helix wind, wind turbines, small vertical-axis wind turbines, greenmonktv
Global warming threatens Asia’s giant cities – COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009

“A number of very large cities in Asia are “extremely exposed to threats such as storms and flooding”, according to a new report by global conservation organization WWF.

“Climate change is already shattering cities across developing Asia and will be even more brutal in the future. These cities are vulnerable and need urgent help to adapt, in order to protect the lives of millions of citizens, a massive amount of assets, their large contributions to the national GDP,” says Kim Carstensen, leader of the WWF Global Climate Initiative, at the organization’s homepage.”

tags: global warming, climate change, asia, wwf, greenmonktv
Warming drives off Cape Cod’s namesake, other fish – USATODAY.com

“Fishermen have known for years that they’ve had to steam farther and farther from shore to find the cod, haddock and winter flounder that typically fill dinner plates in New England.

A new federal study documenting the warming waters of the North Atlantic confirms that they’re right — and that the typical meal could eventually change to the Atlantic croaker, red hake and summer flounder normally found to the south.

“Fishermen are businessmen, so if they have to go farther and deeper to catch the fish that we like to eat, eventually it won’t be economical to do that,” said Janet Nye, a fishery biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the lead author of the study.”

tags: cod, cape cod, fish, fisheries, climate change, noaa, greenmonktv
Report: Toyota plans bigger Prius with new battery – Yahoo! News

“Toyota is planning a larger version of its popular Prius hybrid, which will be powered by a new kind of battery, a Japanese newspaper reported Friday.

The new Prius, either a station wagon or SUV, is set to go on sale by the end of next year. It will be the first from Toyota Motor Corp. with a lithium-ion battery, which is more powerful than the nickel-metal hydride battery, now in its hybrids, according to the nationally circulated Yomiuri newspaper.”

tags: toyota, prius, greenmonktv, hybrid
BBC NEWS | Americas | Amazon deforestation ‘record low’

“The rate of deforestation in the Amazon has dropped by 45% and is the lowest on record since monitoring began 21 years ago, Brazil’s government says.”

tags: amazon, amazon rainforest, deforestation, greenmonktv

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Green Numbers round-up 11/14/2009

November 14, 2009 by Tom Raftery

Atmospheric CO2 Counter – WikiClimate

This page shows the current ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere.

The calculated figure uses estimates of the level of carbon dioxide (CO2 – the main greenhouse gas) based on actual measurements taken monthly a worldwide network of stations and collated by the Earth Systems Research Laboratory (ESRL) in Boulder, Colorado. The record of CO2 concentrations available from ESRL stretches back over 50 years.

tags: co2, ppm, carbon dioxide, greennumbers
Dan’s Wild Wild Science Journal

“Not that it will change any minds. The overwhelming evidence of the last decade has convinced all those it will I think, but just in case there are those who are just beginning to ask questions…

A few months back, I was adding up the record highs and the record lows for some sample years in the 1990’s and 2000’s. A friend tipped me to the raw data. He told me that there was a definite trend, with a marked decrease in record lows and an increase in record highs.

With just a little bit of research, I quickly spotted the pattern. Since the planet is warming due to increased greenhouse gases, it was no real surprise. I really should have written something about it back then, but it would be anecdotal and not science.”

tags: climate change, record high, record lows, temperature, greennumbers
Fourteen Democratic senators stick up for coal | Grist

“14 Democratic senators affirmed their allegiance to the profits of polluting industry at the expense of the health and jobs of their constituents. In a letter to Senate leaders, a bloc of senators with powerful coal interests in their states called for “fair emissions allowances in climate change legislation.” Their definition of “fair,” unfortunately, turns out to be full taxpayer subsidies for global warming polluters. “

tags: coal, pollution, polluter pays, greennumbers
Spain’s windfarms set new national record for electricity generation

“Wind energy provided more than half of Spain’s total electricity needs for several hours over the weekend as the country set a new national record for wind-generated power.”

tags: wind energy, spain, ree, wind, wind farms, greennumbers
Tuna in peril as catches reach triple the limit – environment – 12 November 2009 – New Scientist

“TIMES are tough for tuna. The guidance of scientists that advise groups that manage tuna stocks is falling on deaf ears.

The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas meets this week in Brazil to set catch limits. ICCAT’s scientific advisers have told it that stocks of the giant bluefin tuna are plummeting towards collapse. Catches in 2008 were at three times the ICCAT limit, which is itself more than what its scientific advisers consider sustainable (see “Tigers of the sea”)Movie Camera. “It’s like the year before the collapse of the northern cod,” says Dan Pauly at the University of British Columbia, Canada. In 1992 the Newfoundland cod fishery collapsed. It never recovered.”

tags: tuna, iccat, iotc, fisheries collapse, yellowfin, greennumbers
Atmospheric CO2 Counter – WikiClimate

This page shows the current ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere.

The calculated figure uses estimates of the level of carbon dioxide (CO2 – the main greenhouse gas) based on actual measurements taken monthly a worldwide network of stations and collated by the Earth Systems Research Laboratory (ESRL) in Boulder, Colorado. The record of CO2 concentrations available from ESRL stretches back over 50 years.

tags: co2, ppm, carbon dioxide, greennumbers
Dan’s Wild Wild Science Journal

“Not that it will change any minds. The overwhelming evidence of the last decade has convinced all those it will I think, but just in case there are those who are just beginning to ask questions…

A few months back, I was adding up the record highs and the record lows for some sample years in the 1990’s and 2000’s. A friend tipped me to the raw data. He told me that there was a definite trend, with a marked decrease in record lows and an increase in record highs.

With just a little bit of research, I quickly spotted the pattern. Since the planet is warming due to increased greenhouse gases, it was no real surprise. I really should have written something about it back then, but it would be anecdotal and not science.”

tags: climate change, record high, record lows, temperature, greennumbers
Fourteen Democratic senators stick up for coal | Grist

“14 Democratic senators affirmed their allegiance to the profits of polluting industry at the expense of the health and jobs of their constituents. In a letter to Senate leaders, a bloc of senators with powerful coal interests in their states called for “fair emissions allowances in climate change legislation.” Their definition of “fair,” unfortunately, turns out to be full taxpayer subsidies for global warming polluters. “

tags: coal, pollution, polluter pays, greennumbers
Spain’s windfarms set new national record for electricity generation

“Wind energy provided more than half of Spain’s total electricity needs for several hours over the weekend as the country set a new national record for wind-generated power.”

tags: wind energy, spain, ree, wind, wind farms, greennumbers

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Green Numbers round-up 11/06/2009

November 6, 2009 by Tom Raftery

Disney Buys $7M in Reforestation Offsets, a Corporate Record

Walt Disney Corp., by donating about $7 million to various conservation programs, aims to offset a portion of its emissions. Some are calling the move by Disney the biggest single corporate investment in forest carbon offsets to date.

The move is part of Disney’s effort to use “high quality offsets” to attain a net-zero emissions status, reports Reuters.”

tags: Walt Disney Corp, disney, greennumbers, drc, reforestation, offset, deforestation
Yosemite National Park to Have 20% More Wildfires by 2050 – And They’ll Be Stronger, Too : TreeHugger

“decreased snowpack and increased lightning strikes are going to cause wildfire flare ups in Yosemite National Park:

According to research published in the International Journal of Wildland Fire, Yosemite is likely to see about a 20% increase in both the number of fires and the area of land which burns at high intensity, from 2020-2049. “

tags: yosemite national park, yosemite, wildfires, climate change, greennumbers
EPRI’s Erfan Ibrahim: 5 Myths About the Smart Grid Buildout

Speaking at The Networked Grid conference Erfan Ibrahim — who heads EPRI’s work on communications, systems management and cyber security for the smart grid — dished out a sort of grab bag of opinions on a range of hot smart grid topics. Here are five myths, misunderstandings and truths he raised about how the smart grid should be rolled out…

tags: smart grid, epri, home area network, smart meter, demand response, greennumbers
UN: Developed countries need to cut gas emissions by 25-40 per cent

“UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on developed countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 25 to 40 per cent in an address to the Greek parliament Thursday. With just over a month remaining before a key UN climate change conference in Copenhagen, Ban urged leading nations to unite on accord that is “comprehensive, equitable, balanced and binding” at the December 7-18 talks.

Climate change negotiations are currently underway in Barcelona, Spain ahead of the Copenhagen conference.

At an international conference on immigration in Athens on Wednesday, Ban said a deal is also needed at the Copenhagen conference in order to curb environmental refugees.

“We are in a critical period…populations will relocate due to more extreme weather including prolonged droughts, intensive storms and wildfires,” Ban said, citing the rising migration numbers in Africa due to desertification and in Asia because of flooding.”

tags: ban ki-moon, un, greenhouse gas emissions, climate refugees, greennumbers
Walmart to Outfit 650 New and Renovated Stores With LEDs

Walmart, said it will use light emitting diode lights from Cree in new stores and retrofitted ones. In the first year, that will come to 650 stores alone.

The stores will replace ceramic metal halide lights, those honkers you see in the ceiling of big box retailers. The Cree bulbs will emit the same amount of light as a 70-watt bulb but use 82% less power.

tags: wal-mart, walmart, led, led lighting, energy efficiency, greennumbers
Smart Grid: American Industry Getting a $155 Million Energy Efficiency Upgrade

“A total of $155 million in Recovery Act money will be awarded to 41 industrial energy efficiency projects throughout the country. The DOE grant awards will provide funding for industrial heat and power systems, district energy systems for industrial plants and for technical and financial support for local industry. “

tags: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, energy efficiency, greennumbers, doe
Software Enabled Earth : Intel: Windows 7 improvements gain laptop users an additional 1.4 hours of battery life

“Microsoft and Intel engineers were able to reduce power usage of a Windows 7 laptop nearly 20 percent over an identical laptop running Windows Vista SP2.”

tags: microsoft, intel, windows 7, energy efficiency, greennumbers

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

GreenMonk news roundup 11/03/2009

November 3, 2009 by Tom Raftery

Al Jazeera English – Business – BP hit with record safety fine

“British Petroleum, one of the world’s largest energy companies, has been hit with a record fine of $87m for safety violations at a Texas refinery.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) handed down the fine on Friday, saying the company had failed to correct safety shortfalls at its Texas City refinery after a blast there in 2005 killed 15 workers and injured 170 others.”

tags: bp, british petroleum, osha, texas refinery, greenmonktv
India swamped by 420,000 tonnes of e-waste: lobby group

“India faces a mounting challenge to dispose of an estimated 420,000 tonnes of electronic waste a year that it generates domestically and imports from abroad, a green lobby group said Tuesday. “

tags: india, ewaste, toxic link, electronic waste, greenmonktv
Google, IBM and Microsoft with their heads in the clouds | Greenpeace International

“People could some day recall that it was the Information Technology (IT) industry’s advocacy for strong action which tipped the balance at the Copenhagen climate summit. But that’s not going to happen unless all of us press them to become climate champions. As our updated Cool IT Challenge leaderboard reveals, IT heavyweights such as Google, Microsoft and IBM are still hesitating to speak up on the urgent need for emissions reductions. “

tags: copenhagen summit, cool it challenge, greenpeace, greenmonktv, climate change
Hen harrier ‘near extinction in England’ – Times Online

“The hen harrier, one of the country’s rarest birds of prey, could be in danger of disappearing from England, a study has found.

Only six pairs bred successfully this year, a figure described as “critically low”. This has made the hawks especially vulnerable to hunters and natural events.”

tags: hen harrier, critically endangered, greenmonktv
Hundreds evacuated as floods hit Scotland and Wales | UK news | guardian.co.uk

“Hundreds of people were rescued from homes and vehicles after heavy rain and strong winds brought severe flooding to parts Scotland and Wales yesterday.

Around 100 people, many of them elderly, were rescued from flooded properties in Huntley, Aberdeenshire.

The Grampian fire and rescue service was continuing to search homes in the town today in an attempt to ensure nobody remained trapped.”

tags: climate change, wind, rain, flooding, scotland, wales, climate camp, greenmonktv
Spanish winemaker Torres warms to environmentalism | Business | guardian.co.uk

“Southern Britain may not be the only place in the world where risk-loving vintners can take a chance on global warming. Climate change is already changing habits at vineyards in southern Europe, forcing some producers, such as Spain’s Torres, to buy land in the Pyrenees – “just in case”, says the company’s chairman, Miguel Torres.”

tags: climate change, wine, torres, pyrenees, vineyards, greenmonktv
India: Europe can do better – COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009

“The Times of India reports unnamed Indian climate negotiators to be little impressed by the outcome of last week’s EU summit in Brussels. The summit gave a figure of 100 billion euros as the overall need for international climate funding by 2020, but failed to state how much of this will be provided by the EU.”

tags: climate funding, climate change, eu, india, copenhagen, copenhagen summit, greenmonktv
Britons least concerned about climate change – Telegraph

“The annual Climate Confidence Monitor found the number of people worrying about global warming worldwide has fallen by eight per cent to just over a third in the last year as the economic downturn kicked in.

Just fifteen per cent of people in Britain worry about climate change and how the world responds to the problem, the lowest figure for any of the 12 countries surveyed. The figure is down from 26 per cent last year.”

tags: climate confidence model, global warming, survey, greenmonktv
A greener Hula Hoop? | Life and style | guardian.co.uk

“United Biscuits, has joined the list of big food corporations that, after years of fruitless lobbying by green groups, is beginning to take notice of the palm oil problem.”

tags: united biscuits, hula hoops, palm oil, deforestation, rspo, greenmonktv
Greenpeace en la Sagrada Familia, Barcelona « El Blog de Greenpeace

GreenPeace agitating for climate change action on the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona as leaders meet in Barcelona to discuss climate change.

tags: greenpeace, climate change, barcelona, sagrada familia, greenmonktv
Leaking oil rig catches fire off Australia’s coast – World environment- msnbc.com

“A massive fire erupted on an oil rig that has been leaking into the Timor Sea and Australia’s government on Monday promised an investigation, the latest drama in a 10-week saga to plug the hole.

Rig operator PTTEP Australasia said no one was injured and nonessential workers were evacuated after the fire broke out on the West Atlas rig and Montara wellhead platform on Sunday.

The blaze started when workers began pumping heavy mud into a leaking well casing. An estimated 400 barrels of oil a day have escaped from the hole since Aug. 21.”

tags: oil, fire, pttep australasia, australia, pollution, oil slick, oil rig, greenmonktv
European satellite launched to explore climate change – Telegraph

“The European Space Agency (ESA) said the £282m device was put into space in the early hours of Monday morning to gauge the impact of climate change on the movement of water across land, air and sea.

It was lifted into space on a Russian Rockot launcher from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in northern Russia.

As the first space-based measure of the water in Earth’s soil and the saltiness of its oceans, scientists hope SMOS will be able to fill important gaps in our knowledge about the planet’s vital water cycle. “

tags: esa, satellite, water, salinity, smos, water cycle, greenmonktv
World leaders accused of myopia over climate change deal | Environment | The Guardian

“The head of the international group leading the fight against climate change has accused countries of pushing science aside in favour of self-serving “political myopia” ahead of the vital Copenhagen summit.”

tags: rajendra Pachauri, ipcc, copenhagen summit, climate change, greenmonktv
65% of global population demand governments commit to global deal

“Nearly two thirds (65 per cent) of people across the globe believe a new international deal to cut emissions is ‘very important’, according to the 2009 annual Climate Confidence Monitor research released today. “

tags: the climate group, climate confidence monitor, climate change, greenmonktv
An open letter to Steve Levitt

An open letter to Steve Levitt re the book Super Freakonomics – this is the best debunking of SuperFreakonomics yet.

Done with logic, a little maths and humour/humility.

tags: superfreakonomics, realclimate, steve levitt, greenmonktv
Green Inc. Column – Tempers Flare Over Chinese Involvement in Wind Farm Planned for Texas – NYTimes.com

“News last week of the first major influx of Chinese capital and wind turbine manufacturing expertise into the renewable energy market in the United States — a 600-megawatt wind farm planned for the plains of west Texas — had many readers of the Green Inc. blog in a state of agitation.”

tags: greenmonktv, china, Wind farm, texas, stimulus, iberdrola
Environmental Protection Agency Ireland

IBM and the Irish EPA have put together a site to show the water quality of lakes and beaches in Ireland

tags: ireland, ibm, epa, water quality, greenmonktv
Centrica invests £725m in windfarm – Low Carbon Economy

“Centrica is to invest up to £725 million into developing an offshore windfarm with 270MW of capacity.
“

tags: centrica, wind, offshore wind farm, greenmonktv

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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