Archive for the ‘Environment’ Category
July 28th, 2010 | 
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A recent bit of news from Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) suggests that James Lovelock, the scientist behind the Gaia theory of Earth and its life systems, might have a point when he criticises most renewable energy sources as inefficient at best and foolish at worst.
In its latest interim management statement, issued this week, SSE reported that “weather conditions” during April, May and June contributed to a full 30 per cent drop in electricity output from its wind farms, hydroelectric facilities and Slough biomass heat and power plant. Output from those sources fell to 700 gigawatt-hours during that period, compared to the 1,000 gigawatt-hours generated during the last quarter of 2009.
While SSE didn’t elaborate on those “weather conditions,” one factor certainly had to be the fact that the first half of 2010 saw the “driest first six months of the year for 100 years,” according to the UK’s Met Office. And, as the climate continues changing, Britain can expect that type of situation to become more common, the agency warns.
If hydroelectric power sources are threatened by climate change, wind energy’s greatest shortcoming is its great variability, Lovelock warns in his latest book, The Vanishing Face of Gaia:
“Used sensibly, in locations where the fickle nature of wind is no drawback, it is a valuable local resource, but Europe’s massive use of wind as a supplement to baseload electricity will probably be remembered as one of the great follies of the twenty-first century … ,” he writes.
Lovelock argues the only clean energy sources that make sense for society are nuclear and solar thermal energy. All the rest aren’t viable without heavy injections of government subsidies and green cheerleading, he says.
Lovelock acknowledges he sometimes takes a bit of hyperbolic licence to make his points — as when he warned that global warming will lead to a die-off of billions of humans this century, resulting in only a “few breeding pairs of people” left in the Arctic. But does he have a point here? Is the bit of news from SSE a warning sign that we’d be better off by aggressively developing nuclear and concentrating solar power (such as that proposed in the Desertec project), and forgetting more intermittent clean-energy sources?
What do you think? Let us know in the comments section below.
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A solar-powered catamaran recently set sail off the coast of Spain to begin a three-summer-long campaign highlighting the need for renewable energy.
The 46-foot WWF Solar is part of WWF Spain’s “Embárcate” (Get on Board) campaign to promote clean energy and marine ecosystem conservation. The vessel, which set off last week, will sail along the Mediterranean coastline for the next three summers to promote its message.
“The WWF Solar is powered completely by the sun,” said José Luis García Varas, head of the marine programme at WWF Spain. “It does not use sails, and it does not use any fossil fuels. It is a boat that causes no pollution — it does not emit any CO2 whatsoever. The Solar shows that we can easily substitute fossil fuels with renewable energy.”
At every stop it makes, the WWF Solar and its crew plan to disseminate information about endangered Mediterranean habitats and species and the need for sustainable resource use. During the first few days of the voyage, WWF staff and volunteers also led locals and tourists on trips on the WWF Solar, as well as on diving expeditions and guided hikes.
Among the spots the WWF Solar is set to visit are marine protected areas such as the Cap de Creus Canyon, which is home to the greatest density of submarine canyons in the Mediterranean.
“We can safeguard the Mediterranean region’s biodiversity in a way that benefits both people and the environment,” said García Varas. “Renewable energy is an important part of this as is raising awareness that there are many other sustainable practices, such as operating small-scale fisheries, that make it possible for people and the environment to thrive.”
Photovoltaic panels covering the WWF Solar’s 65-square-metre roof provide enough power to allow the boat to travel at an average speed of 5 knots. When fully charged, the boat’s batteries can run its engines for 90 nautical miles, which is the equivalent of two full nights of sailing (around 18 hours of power).
The WWF Solar set a Guinness World Record in 1997 when a crew of five took it from Basel, Switzerland, to New York City to complete the first clean-energy-powered motorised crossing of the Atlantic Ocean. After that trip, the boat’s developer — the Swiss association Transatlantic 21 — donated the vessel to WWF.
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This post is part of series written by TreeHugger contributors about trading in your car for a bike for trips that are two miles or less in distance. The series is sponsored by the Clif 2-Mile Challenge.
For longer than I care to remember I’ve been a cycle commuter. For short to medium distances I can’t think of a better way to travel.
I lived on the inner city fringe for roughly 20 years. For half of that time I didn’t own a car. I rode everywhere, for everything. To work, to play, to study, to lecture, to shop, to eat. I rode to first dates. I rode to awards ceremonies. I rode … Read the full story on TreeHugger
How many TreeHugger hot buttons can be pushed in one post? After Toronto cyclist Charles Prinsep was killed in 2007 while riding across the country, his friends set up Charlie’s FreeWheels. It takes kids at risk in Toronto’s roughish Regent Park and teaches them to fix bikes.
But Charlie had other passions besides bikes; he was off to the Sorbonne to study urban planning, and was seriously into tech, geo-tagging and blogging about his bike trip until the day he was killed. This Saturday… Read the full story on TreeHugger
New bunker fuel sulphur standards in the Baltic and North Seas may worsen air pollution, the International Chamber of Shipping warns…
Delayed action on carbon emissions takes hold in the US, Australia and UN.
Illegal logging has fallen up to 75 per cent over the last decade in Cameroon, Brazil and Indonesia, a study finds…
Shipping lines claim new low-sulphur fuel standards will increase costs and have to be passed on to passengers and cargo owners…
The next month or two should determine whether 2010 is to be the hottest year since temperature record began…
China is set to pilot an emissions trading scheme before 2015 after a decision at a high-level meeting, reports local media.
Tropical Storm Bonnie was expected to reach the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday, delaying efforts to fix the well.
Scientists and academics accuse the energy giant of trying to buy silence to protect itself after the spill.
About $100,000 of a $4 million fine levied against a Greek shipping company will be used to help restore Puget Sound’s marine environment.
ATLANTA – With slow, carefully monitored half-turns of a valve 5,000 feet below sea level, BP blocked oil from gushing from its Gulf of Mexico well Thursday afternoon. Officials warned however that the well might be too fragile to sustain a long-term seal at its top.
The City of Tacoma has agreed to pay nearly $525,000 in environmental penalties and mitigation expenses for improperly disposing of refrigerated appliances between 2004 and 2007.
NEW ORLEANS – In a nail-biting day across the Gulf Coast, engineers struggled to make sense of puzzling pressure readings from the bottom of the sea Friday, trying to determine whether BP’s capped oil well was holding tight or in danger of springing a new leak.
NEW ORLEANS – The Gulf Coast found itself in an odd moment of limbo Saturday: The oil has been stopped, but no one knows if it’s corked for good.
OLYMPIA - The gypsy moth trapping program operated each summer by the state Department of Agriculture is under way.
A stretch of degraded habitat on the South Fork Skokomish River once slated to be a dam reservoir will soon house 28 large woody debris structures to provide refuge for fish and improved water quality.
Jurdy supports clean energy by the pint …
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Ask most people who follow the clean energy and low-carbon technology markets, and you’ll hear a common refrain: Without a standard price on carbon dioxide emissions that fairly reflects true environmental costs, we don’t have a prayer of building a green global economy anytime soon.
The most recent warning to that effect came today from WWF-UK and The Cooperative Financial Services, which together released a report titled, “Toxic fuels, toxic investments: Why we need mandatory greenhouse gas reporting.” The report finds that today’s lack of carbon reporting requirements is allowing oil and gas companies to invest heavily in high-carbon energy developments such as Canada’s tar sands without having to disclose potential future risks to investors.
“Emitting carbon dioxide will become more and more expensive in the future, as regulation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is progressively tightened up,” the report’s executive summary states. “Yet oil and gas companies are not disclosing to investors the potentially huge costs they will have to pay in order to continue emitting massive amounts of CO2 and other GHGs in the future … The failure of companies to measure and disclose their exposure to future carbon costs obscures the risk associated with high-carbon investments, and contributes to a misallocation of resources.”
And that’s in the UK, which falls under the EU’s Emission Trading Scheme that is at least trying to establish a baseline price for carbon pollution. Such is not the case with top polluters China — which is talking about implementing “half-mandatory” carbon trading by 2014 — and the US, where the much-vaunted hope for a climate bill before this November’s mid-term elections has withered into a resounding “Nope.”
Such developments in the world’s number-one and number-two carbon emitting countries threaten existing carbon markets that are already struggling in the ongoing shaky economy. With EU carbon prices at record lows, carbon brokers are losing their jobs left and right.
Could this be a precursor to the first death rattles for carbon trading? Energy analyst/investment advisor Chris Nelder seems to think so, warning that the carbon emissions legislation game is one that “cannot be won.” His solution? For the US, anyway, he believes the answer lies with a comprehensive energy plan that incorporates all energy sources, phases in an increasing proportion of renewables and makes the most of “every last BTU.”
But is that realistic? Can we really transition from fossil fuels to clean energy using the approach of carrots for renewables versus sticks for oil, gas and coal? And can we do it in a reasonable time frame that addresses both declining fossil fuel reserves and accelerating climate change?
Where do you place your bets? Let us know.
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The European Union and six member states have reached a deal on the experimental nuclear fusion reactor they are backing.
Greenpeace demands a nuclear-free Veneto at the Lido di Venetia (© Francesco Alesi / Greenpeace)
This morning 20 GP activists from Italy and Austria made a 2000 square-metre anti-nuclear-sign at the Lido di Venezia in a spectacular protest against the planned nuclear ‘renaissance’ in Italy.
Italy is planning the construction of four new nuclear power plants. The plans include a new nuclear power plant at the south of Venice, only 160 kilometres from the Austrian border and next to the most popular Italian tourist beaches. As part of the protest Greenpeace handed over a petition to the Venetian governor Luca Zaia asking him to declare the Veneto region a Nuclear Free zone.
(© Francesco Alesi / Greenpeace)
Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is ignoring the majority of the Italian population who, after the Chernobyl disaster, voted at a referendum in 1987 to ban nuclear power in Italy. Two thirds of Italians are against nuclear energy.
The country has chosen to adopt AREVA’s infamous EPR reactor design which is not yet operational anywhere in the world. The prototypes currently being built in
Finland and France are already notorious for their safety concerns, massive cost overruns and schedule delays.
It’s not even that Italy needs nuclear energy, on the contrary. Energy efficiency and renewable energy programmes will deliver three times more energy by 2020 than these nuclear plans. That’s a renaissance of which Italy could be proud.
(More information is available in Italian on Greenpeace Italy’s website and in German at Greenpeace Austria.)
<img alt=”Frank Water Team at WOMAD photo” src=”http://www.youthlinks.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/9e2d2_Frank-Water-Team.jpg” width=”468″ height=”342″ All photos by author - taken at WOMAD 2010 festival
Here’s a frequent question asked by people wanting to create positive sustainable changes in the world: Is it more effective to work as a change agent from inside the current system or is it better to be an agitator shaking things up on the outside? Katie Alcott, founder of Frank Water, has wrestled with this question in her mission to raise awareness about the importance of safe drinking water and sanitation. Her decision to infiltrate t… Read the full story on TreeHugger
Today’s big stories from the nuclear industry:
Press TV: Bushehr nuclear plant ready by Sept.?
‘Iran’s first nuclear power plant in Bushehr will come on stream in the southern city of Bushehr by September generating 1,000 megawatts of electricity, officials say. Iranian Energy Minister Majid Namjou made the remark Tuesday on the sidelines of the inauguration ceremony of a power plant in the city of Mahallat in the central province of Markazi. Namjou said the power generation capacity of the country is presently around 42,000 megawatts. The head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Ali-Akbar Salehi, in an official visit to Bushehr nuclear power plant last week, expressed hope that the reactor will launch operation in September. Meanwhile, the head of Russia’s State Nuclear Energy Corporation (Rosatom) announced on Tuesday that preparations for the launch of the Bushehr power plant would be finished by the end of August. “Everything is going as it has been planned. The preparatory works on the first phase of the physical launch must be finished by the end of August,” Sergei Kiriyenko said. RIA Novosti quoted him as saying that the construction of the plant will not be affected by UN Security Council sanctions.’
The Nuclear N-Former: Nigeria: Draft bill for nuclear power ready
‘The Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission, NAEC, has attained another significant milestone in its quest to develop a sustainable nuclear power programme in Nigeria as it has successfully produced a draft bill that would form the legal framework for the nuclear industry in the country. The Director General of the Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission (NAEC) Dr. F. Erepamo Osaisai, who stated this at the presentation of the draft legal document by members of the stakeholders committee which finalized the draft bill, said that when eventually the draft document is considered by the National Assembly and passed into Law, the appropriate legal framework would have been laid for successful operations of the nascent nuclear industry in Nigeria. Osaisai commended the Committee which comprised of staff of the egal Adviser’s Office in the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, the Federal Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as the Office of the National Security Adviser, and other stakeholder organizations under the coordination of the Legal Unit of NAEC for the meticulous and painstaking endeavor to produce the draft bill.’
World Nuclear News: ‘Unknown’ welds went unchecked at Japanese plant
Japan Atomic Power Co (Japco) reported that it had never inspected a welded part in a pump within the reactor containment vessel of Tsuruga 1 - the country’s oldest operating unit - because it was unaware the weld existed. Under Japanese legislation, nuclear power plant operators are required to inspect welded parts periodically to check for signs of damage and degradation. Japco said that it had found that the recirculation pump at Tsuruga 1 had not been checked since it was installed at the unit. The 357 MWe boiling water reactor (BWR) began operating in March 1970.
LFP: Aboriginal coalition joins protest against shipping nuclear generators
‘Aboriginal voices have joined the growing international chorus opposing plans to ship radioactive nuclear generators along the Great Lakes. The Ontario Coalition of Aboriginal People, representing 7,000 status, non-status Indians and Metis, opposes the plan by Bruce Power and is demanding consultation and accommodation from the provincial and federal governments. “This is a big concern for all Canadians,” Brad Maggrah, president of the organization, said Tuesday. Despite appealing to Premier Dalton McGuinty, his Environment Ministry and Prime Minister Stephen Harper, “we haven’t heard anything,” he said. Bruce Power is looking for a licence from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission to truck 16 decommissioned generators the size of school buses to Owen Sound harbour. They would be loaded onto vessels that would travel through the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River to a recycling facility in Sweden. The plan is to ship the 100-tonne steam generators that have low-level radioactivity during a three-week period in September.’
Bloomberg: Areva Agrees to Extract Uranium as Jordan Plans First Reactor
‘July 27 (Bloomberg) — Areva SA, the world’s biggest maker of reactors, agreed to explore and extract uranium in Jordan as the country pursues its first nuclear power plant. Jordan’s joint chief of staff and Areva director Thierry D’Arbonneau signed the uranium-development agreement today, according to Jordan’s state news agency. Areva and partner Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., among three finalists in May to bid for construction of Jordan’s reactor, proposed Atmeal1. The two other proposals were Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd.’s Candu 6 reactor and the AES-92 VVER- 1,000 model of Russian state-run ZAO Atomstroyexport, according to a May 12 statement by the Jordan Atomic Energy Commission.’
The Energy Collective: South Africa still in pursuit of its nuclear future
‘This is not a good time to be looking to invest in nuclear energy in South Africa. Eskom, the major utility that would buy them, backed out of a multi-reactor tender a few years ago because it lacked the money to pay for them. Since then, with the global economic slowdown, things have not improved much. Investments are not forthcoming from international lending banks. Worse for Eskom, its grand plant to populate the country with 165 MW Pebble Bed reactors has come to an end. PBMR, the firm doing the R&D to develop the technology, has shut its doors losing its CEO and laying off most of the staff earlier this year. South Africa’s mining industry has felt the brunt of power shortages which have caused intermittent production shutdowns. The miners are furious that the government’s money has been spent and there are no new reactors to give them the electricity they need to stay open. South Africa’s government has not yet finished with plans for the number of nuclear reactors it wants to build, but expects an initial go-ahead from the cabinet for new units by the end of September 2010, the country’s energy minister has told NucNet July 15. Dipuo Peters said: “There will be an initial decision by the cabinet which should be made by September this year and that decision will be ‘yes’ to nuclear.”’
Bellona: Russia’s Kola NPP still struggling after recent shutdowns and a slump in energy demand, but authorities remain unperturbed
‘MOSCOW – Russia’s Kola Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) is still not out of the woods as engineers failed to re-launch Reactor Unit 3 after thunderstorms caused emergency shutdowns at the site in early July. It is also struggling against a record low demand for energy in the region, but local industry leaders are staunchly defending the aging plant, looking to make it tax-exempt and pushing for construction of new reactors. Kola NPP, located 200 kilometres south of the Kola Peninsula’s regional centre of Murmansk in Russia’s Far North, supplies electricity to the region’s consumers via two high-voltage power lines. On July 6 and 9, heavy thunderstorms caused breakdowns in the lines, and turbogenerators needed to be shut down as a result at Reactor Units 3 and 1 at Kola NPP, respectively. Measures were taken at the plant to avoid scramming Reactor 1, but Reactor 3 still had to be unloaded and scheduled for emergency repairs.’
Pigs feel optimistic or pessimistic about life depending on how pleasant their environment is, researchers at Newcastle University find.
The US proposes the expansion of inland and coastal ‘marine highways’ as a low-carbon freight alternative to road and rail…
Aurthur JD writes from Dalian in China…
I arrived in Dalian on the day of the funeral for firefighter Zhang Liang, who drowned beneath the thick crude when his crew jumped into the ocean – without safety gear – to attempt, in vain, to fix an underwater pipe. Our lead photographer, Jiang He, who by now has reached legendary status globally for capturing the final seconds of Zhang’s life, continued to cover the very emotional moments of this oil spill disaster.
Colleagues described how over 30,000 people lined the streets of Dalian to honor Zhang. And judging from Jiang He’s photos, there were many outpourings of grief for his untimely death, at the age of 25. People talked about whispers of anger from Dalian residents and firefighters against the corporations responsible for this tragic human and environmental disaster. And of their utter callousness: in the evening of the same day, a fancy celebratory dinner was held in one of Dalian’s classiest hotels for the leaders of Dalian PetroChina. A large banner with grammatically incorrect Chinese welcomed them to the “fire rescue live event.”
Dalian is known for its seafood as much as its beaches (not that they’re particularly magnificent – it’s just there’s very few decent beaches in northern China). So to complete the sarcasm, the fishing port of the city has been turned into a large storage yard of oil recovered from the sea and beaches. Thousands of fishing boats come in and out of the port delivering barrels of oil, which are then trucked to another location. The foul stench of fish that once ruled the port is now replaced by the acrid smell of oil and grime.\
–Aurthur
TAKE ACTION! Join the Energy [R]evolution
OLYMPIA - The Evergreen State College wants to eliminate the use of fossil fuels to heat the campus, perhaps substituting wood waste for natural gas to create steam.
Do dogs really imitate body movements of owners?
Move will save Maryland’s ‘world of water’ money, but some lament changing the longstanding fixture
One of Baltimore’s most famous harbor lights is going dark, in the name of energy-efficiency.
Having good friends and neighbours appears to boost survival chances by 50%, say researchers.
DETROIT (AP) — Just over a decade ago, electric cars were expensive niche vehicles for gadget lovers and celebrities. Now, Nissan and General Motors are competing to sell the most affordable electric car to middle-class America.
Dozens more people are reported dead or missing as the worst torrential rain in decades continues to wreak havoc in China.
The characteristic koalas, kangaroos and wombats of Australia share a common American ancestor, according to genetic research.
Researcher this summer hope to answer one of the oldest mysteries in weather science: why do hurricanes form?