This-Above-All

Unshackled, big auto will keep choking the world on diesel fumes | New Scientist

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 18 Jun 2017 14:42:00 +0000

Unshackled, big auto will keep choking the world on diesel fumes | New Scientist: "Not held to account ,By Olive Heffernan in New Scientist (call for WTBD_Work to be done in the Automobile Industry and Political Regulaters court (to court?)

The failure of governments to hold to account one of the world’s most polluting industries is perhaps the real scandal. Strong governmental oversight is now needed.

The US and the EU, which together certify most new diesel vehicles, must up their game to ensure reliable results from regulatory testing. The good news is that both will introduce fresh policies to that end this year. In Europe, this means a real-driving emissions test to better gauge actual pollution.

Done properly, this will help to reinstate public trust in governmental oversight of the auto industry – something that has surely been lost.

And countries that have yet to adopt strict diesel NOx standards – such as Australia, Brazil, China, Mexico and Russia – must do so without delay. Global enforcement of even tougher standards would be better still, and it is predicted that this could avoid 174,000 unnecessary deaths in 2040 alone.

The problem remains, however, that vehicles will still be able to pollute the air to certified limits, without full knowledge of the consequences for public health. Solving that will be a much greater challenge, but one that we must ultimately aspire to."

More Work less Talk and true useful Jobs!

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Where does the $8bn UN peacekeeping budget go? | Global Development Professionals Network | The Guardian

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 16 Jun 2017 18:23:00 +0000

Where does the $8bn UN peacekeeping budget go? | Global Development Professionals Network | The Guardian:

With the current and continuing flood in imigration to Europe (the EU in fact) in easily understood flight from war rife zones and poverty, I am glad to have found this article from The Guardian in response to my incomprehension as to how our international governemental bodies ( well paided) apeared to fail in what we (I at least) asumed to be the their mandat?

I would like to congratulate Italy for what it apears to be it's humanitarian stance (alone?) in saving fleeing boat-people across the Meditaranian sea.

Seems we could do better?

This blog on environmental and sustainable development had many posts tagged "Wedge-a-War" has proved highly inefficent even if I had hoped to contribute in some small way to making a "Better World".

Please read my tagged posts and comment to improve our collective efficiency in the face of so many inacceptable situations seen from our developped EU countries.

As a closing word. What is the percentage of fleeing peoples whishing to enter the former Soviet Union?

Work Well-Wedge these damed wars and Best of Luck, ALL.

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Build your confidence:"Five Rude And Insulting Interview Questions -- And How To Answer Them"

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 23 May 2017 16:48:00 +0000

Need a confidence booster.?

Read the following link from Forbes Reading List-

PS for once Forbes are not defending the Worlds Richest when it is the poor often very very poor who need help-International Help; (Wedge these damned wars please !)

Five Rude And Insulting Interview Questions -- And How To Answer Them:

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EU nations set to wipe out forests and not account for emissions from New Scientist

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 23 May 2017 16:30:00 +0000

OhOh! Are the EU (and their governing national-passing the buck- bodies) not to mention the notorious lobbyists leading us all up the "garden" path?

(We are already having to contend with missleading national govenments giving us issues such as BREXIT! Big financial winners Wales, Scotland and Research, the latter being my own field.

As the well known song goes:"When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn!!!

REF: Paper from the highly reputable New Scientist

EU nations set to wipe out forests and not account for emissions | New Scientist:

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AdSense is a free, easy way to host ads on your site and earn extra revenue f...

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 08 May 2017 22:08:00 +0000

AdSense is a free, easy way to host ads on your site and earn extra revenue f...:

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REF:Deaths from international terrorism compared with road crash deaths in OECD countries. - PubMed - NCBI

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 05 May 2017 13:40:00 +0000

Why Finland now leads the world in nuclear waste storage : Nature News & Comment

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 06 Apr 2017 16:05:00 +0000

Why Finland now leads the world in nuclear waste storage : Nature News & Comment: "Why Finland now leads the world in nuclear waste storage"

Please read this News brought by the famous Science Magazine NATURE.

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Pesticides Health Warning well worth being brought to readers & concerned citizens notice._Ref: Webzine Pure-Sante in French, Translation below

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 06 Apr 2017 15:59:00 +0000

PETION

Pesticides & santé : Big Chimie veut nous imposer PLUS de perturbateurs endocriniens REF: Webzine Pure Sante in French.

MY TRANSLATION

Health & pesticides: Big (and powerful) Chemical firms and the EU Commission are being strongly criticised for not taking sufficient care in the use of pesticides.

NON AU SABOTAGE CHIMIQUE DE NOS VIES !!

NOT TO BE TAKEN LIKELY
Such Issues must be correctly treated in the renewal of our transatlantic commercial agreements.

LINK for Readers of French

http://po.st/yQiPsm

Follow-up to previous post_The Biowaste4SP

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 18 Oct 2016 09:18:00 +0000

MORE ON BIOWASTE ENERGY FOR AFRICA_

PARTNERS NAMED FOR MORE INFO

"The Biowaste4SP project focused on biowaste in Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco and South Africa, identifying streams that could be put to better use. It produced a catalogue of residues from agriculture and food production, and looked into ways of transforming these materials into bioethanol, biogas, chemicals, biofertiliser, or food and feed ingredients.

READ MORE: Biowaste from EC /europa.eu/research/infocentre/

Enjoy.

Making the most of Africa's biowaste - Information Centre - Research & Innovation - European Commission

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 18 Oct 2016 08:58:00 +0000

Making the most of Africa's biowaste -
from my EU RSS feed on my other pages Converstions... Materials Sci....etc (tweeked) I am sorry to add. But readers, especially my African readers, will find the direct link below

"Making the most of Africa's biowaste
Cassava peel, sugar cane vinasse and overripe bananas - residues such as these may be known as biowaste, but that doesn't mean they're necessarily wasted. An EU-funded project identified sources and current uses of such materials in five African countries and proposed quick, simple ways of processing them into products with higher added value."

A company name is easy to make "Biowaste African Energy"? Comments welcome.

Cheers and Best wishes.

READ MORE:Making the most of Africa's biowaste - Information Centre - Research & Innovation - European Commission:

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Decyphering Eco-terms Blue & Green Water_forget the colours

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 14 Oct 2016 13:43:00 +0000

A picture is worth a thousand words or to cite Napoleon Bonaparte:

"Un bon croquis vaut mieux qu'un long discours"

"A good sketch is better than a long speech"

WATER APPEARS IN TWO FORMS

Voici voila ,but do visit Professor M.Falkenmark, of Stockholm International Water Institute Stockholm International Water Institute for a well documented and illustrated paper.

Enjoy.

DO READ MORE... Water and food LINK to full article:

The Water Perspective by Professor M.Falkenmark, Stockholm International Water Institute (pdf free to download).

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Carbon capture, storage and utilisation technologies: A critical analysis and comparison of their life cycle environmental impacts

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Sep 2016 16:19:00 +0000

Following my previous post I would like to bring readers attention to this paper taken from my RSS feed today 17/09/2016.

"Highlights

•: 27 life cycle assessment studies reviewed of which 11 focus on CCS and 16 on CCU.
•: CCS reduces the GWP by 63–82% but increases some other life cycle impacts.
•: The GWP of CCS is significantly lower than that of CCU.
•: However, other environmental impacts from CCS are higher compared to CCU."; Read the full review paper 100% FREE LINK

Our best shot at cooling the planet might be right under our feet Ref: Global Dev Professionals Network_The Guardian UK

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Sep 2016 15:55:00 +0000

Our best shot at cooling the planet might be right under our feet.- brought to us by the Global Development Professionals Network.

Global temperature record brocken:

"Every one of the past 14 months has broken the global temperature record. Ice cover in the Arctic sea just hit a new low, at 525,000 square miles less than normal. And apparently we’re not doing much to stop it: according to Professor Kevin Anderson, one of Britain’s leading climate scientists, we’ve already blown our chances of keeping global warming below the “safe” threshold of 1.5 degrees." quoted from the Guardian.

Global Temperature Targets and how to achieve them

"If we want to stay below the upper ceiling of 2 degrees, though, we still have a shot. But it’s going to take a monumental effort. Anderson and his colleagues estimate that in order to keep within this threshold, we need to start reducing emissions by a sobering 8%–10% per year, from now until we reach “net zero” in 2050. If that doesn’t sound difficult enough, here’s the clincher: efficiency improvements and clean energy technologies will only win us reductions of about 4% per year at most."

Quick look

"Maybe our engineers are missing the point. The problem with geo-engineering is that it proceeds from the very same logic that got us into this mess in the first place: one that treats the land as something to be subdued, dominated and consumed. But the solution to climate change won’t be found in the latest schemes to bend our living planet to the will of man. Perhaps instead it lies in something much more down to earth – an ethic of care and healing, starting with the soils on which our existence depends.

Of course, regenerative farming doesn’t offer a permanent solution to the climate crisis; soils can only hold a finite amount of carbon. We still need to get off fossil fuels, and – most importantly – we have to kick our obsession with endless exponential growth and downsize our material economy to bring it back in tune with ecological cycles. But it might buy us some time to get our act together." ref The Guardian

Well known but quickly forgotten.

"Feeding the world isn’t about higher yields; it’s about fairer distribution. We already grow enough food for 10 billion people. In any case, it can be argued that regenerative farming actually increases crop yields over the long term by enhancing soil fertility and improving resilience against drought and flooding. So as climate change makes farming more difficult, this may be our best bet for food security, too."

READ MORE?

1. Our-best-shot-at-cooling-the-planet-might-be-right-under-our-feet? from The Guardian Global Development Professionls Network

REFERENCES brought to us by the Guardian

a) PNAS Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Enhanced top soil carbon stocks under organic farming

read for free at their link above.

Journal of CO2 Utilization _Open Access Feed added to my Main Header Space. Content thanks to Elsevier

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 08 Jun 2016 13:49:00 +0000

I trust readers will profit from this globally important new open access feed inclusion due to the highly reputable peer reviewed journal Elsevier.

I have just downloaded the following Review Article for addition to my personal library:

"Carbon capture, storage and utilisation technologies: A critical analysis
and comparison of their life cycle environmental impacts. " Rosa M. Cue´ llar-Franca, Adisa Azapagic *, from the highly reputable School of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science, University of Manchester,

I trust readers will enjoy joining me in reading this and related articles and hopefully put into practice sustainable climate frendly projects.

Enjoy,
JA.

CO2 as a raw material_How to make the most of carbon dioxide free via Nature contents:

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 17:48:00 +0000

On 29 September, the XPRIZE Foundation based in Culver City, California, announced a 4½-year competition that will award US$20 million to the research team that can come up with the best way to turn carbon dioxide from a liability into an asset.

Read full information, chemical sequence schemas and example of production from Nature News

29 Oct. 2015

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And from New Scientist's Environment RSS feed on my page_Pollutants found in fish we eat can compromise body’s defences

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 17:36:00 +0000

And I know of at least on PhD here in France, with international study experience in the field of marine biology unable to find work!!!! Now planing to undertake Nursing training!!!! Hardly preventive medcine!!!!
!
No further comment

Risk assessment of radioisotope contamination for aquatic living resources in and around Japan_encouraging figures for sea fish. Full paper on PNAS

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 17:19:00 +0000

Risk assessment of radioisotope contamination for aquatic living resources in and around Japan:

Risk assessment of radioisotope contamination for aquatic living resources in and around Japan

Author Affiliations

Edited by David Cox, Nuffield College, Oxford, United Kingdom, and approved January 26, 2016 (received for review October 6, 2015)

Significance

Quantification of contamination risk caused by radioisotopes released from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant is useful for excluding or reducing groundless rumors about food safety. Our new statistical approach made it possible to evaluate the risk for aquatic food and showed that the present contamination levels of radiocesiums are low overall. However, some freshwater species still have relatively high risks. We also suggest the necessity of refining data collection plans to reduce detection limits in the future, because a small number of precise measurements are more valuable than many measurements that are below detection limits.

Abstract

Food contamination caused by radioisotopes released from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant is of great public concern. The contamination risk for food items should be estimated depending on the characteristics and geographic environments of each item. However, evaluating current and future risk for food items is generally difficult because of small sample sizes, high detection limits, and insufficient survey periods. We evaluated the risk for aquatic food items exceeding a threshold of the radioactive cesium in each species and location using a statistical model. Here we show that the overall contamination risk for aquatic food items is very low. Some freshwater biota, however, are still highly contaminated, particularly in Fukushima. Highly contaminated fish generally tend to have large body size and high trophic levels.

Footnotes

1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: okamura@fra.affrc.go.jp.

Author contributions: H.O. designed research; H.O. performed research; H.O., S.I., T.M., and S.E. contributed new reagents/analytic tools; H.O. analyzed data; and H.O., S.I., T.M., and S.E. wrote the paper.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.
See Commentary on page 3720.
This article contains supporting information online atwww.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1519792113/-/DCSupplemental.

Freely available online through the PNAS open access option.

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Ecology: Global change and terrestrial plant community dynamics_from the renowned PNAS, (US Academy of Science) Paper freely available.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 10:38:00 +0000

Global change and terrestrial plant community dynamics

Is I believe, a most welcomed contribution to help adjust to climate change.

Read the full paper below (page foot)

Author Affiliations

Contributed by Janet Franklin, February 2, 2016 (sent for review October 8, 2015; reviewed by Gregory P. Asner, Monica G. Turner, and Peter M. Vitousek)

Significance

Global terrestrial vegetation plays a critical role in biogeochemical cycles and provides important ecosystem services. Vegetation has been altered by anthropogenic global change drivers including land-use change, altered disturbance regimes, invasive species, and climate change, for decades to centuries, or in some cases millennia. Vegetation responses to land use and disturbance can be more immediate than to climate change and can be long lasting. The effect of global warming on water balance may have a stronger influence than the direct effects of temperature on vegetation. Models deployed at multiple ecological scales, populations, communities, and landscapes will be required to forecast vegetation responses and feedbacks to accelerated global change.

Abstract

Anthropogenic drivers of global change include rising atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses and resulting changes in the climate, as well as nitrogen deposition, biotic invasions, altered disturbance regimes, and land-use change. Predicting the effects of global change on terrestrial plant communities is crucial because of the ecosystem services vegetation provides, from climate regulation to forest products. In this paper, we present a framework for detecting vegetation changes and attributing them to global change drivers that incorporates multiple lines of evidence from spatially extensive monitoring networks, distributed experiments, remotely sensed data, and historical records. Based on a literature review, we summarize observed changes and then describe modeling tools that can forecast the impacts of multiple drivers on plant communities in an era of rapid change. Observed responses to changes in temperature, water, nutrients, land use, and disturbance show strong sensitivity of ecosystem productivity and plant population dynamics to water balance and long-lasting effects of disturbance on plant community dynamics. Persistent effects of land-use change and human-altered fire regimes on vegetation can overshadow or interact with climate change impacts. Models forecasting plant community responses to global change incorporate shifting ecological niches, population dynamics, species interactions, spatially explicit disturbance, ecosystem processes, and plant functional responses. Monitoring, experiments, and models evaluating multiple change drivers are needed to detect and predict vegetation changes in response to 21st century global change.

Please do not hesitate to read the full paper via the link below:

Global change and terrestrial plant community dynamics:

And why not join the community of readers of highly credible peer reviewed journal PNAS.(Proceedings of the American Academy of Science) Link to all subject matter.

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Shale Gas Debate-UK widget added to my pages. NB. CO2 sequestration and use as a raw material in innovative materials

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 15 Apr 2016 18:03:00 +0000

The struggle control and reduce ever increasing CO2 gas (and all major green house gases) is far from over.

Many thanks to The Insitute, IOM3 -Materials World (MW) prompted by their page,"members letters" in particular to F. Glasser and his team at Aberdeen Uni.,Scotland for their work in the "Extraction of CO2 like Sulphur") and CO2 capture in cement and concrete.

Cf. REF's as follows:

1. F.P. Glasser et al. Sequestering CO2 by Mineralization into Useful Nesquehonite-Based Products.
Iom3.org nanocem-cements-future

2. F.P.Glasser et al. Magnesium based cements for CO2 Capture and Utilisation. Cement and Concrete Research.

Capture and sequestering of CO2 -carbon dioxide-otherwise liberated to the atmosphere, is it appears, a minimum requirement in any shale gas extration project. Better, I guess, is the use of CO2 as a raw material to include in innovative materials products. This would certainly help responsible exploitation of such mineral reserves as Coal and Shale.

It is also imperative that coal exploitation, coal burning for power generation must be orientated (urgently) in a similar direction ie in the direction of CO2 sequestration and in the CO2 incorporation in materials to provide new and innovative products.

Fredrik Glasser FIMMM, FRSE replies to a IOM3 member's question "Can we capture CO2 like sulphur." His response is brief "YES WE CAN",

"But the the road to market is not straight forward.

"The intense conservatism of the building industry is an important hold point, so too is the obsession of UK policy with underground storage of liquid CO2 largely to the exclusion of other routes that might deliver positive economic value This policy is neither cheap nor assured and will require massive capital investment investment and ongoing subsidy." [NB. as mentioned Prof Glasser is based in Aberdeen, Scotland the capital (and capital intensive) of UK's fossil energy, North Sea Gas."

My Comment :Glasser's remarks on policy are of particular importance. Considering CO2 as a raw material in the sustainable economic sense to innovate production of new and improved products and processes could possibly stimulate a more diverse and lively economic playing field as opposed to (or at least complimentary to) the "brushing the dirt under the carpet, Capturing and sequestration, building prisons approach.

ALSO
Huge reserves are still available and exploited in several nearby countries, eg. Germany and even moreso Poland in our EU. cf . MW on the huge still unexploited Polish coal reserves

But, could Poland have seen the light?

"Prof. Lewiński's group has shown that appropriately designed precursor compounds in reaction with carbon dioxide lead to fabrication of a microporous material (with pore diameters below 2 nm) resulting from self-assembly of luminescent nanoclusters. Novel microporous material, composed of building blocks with zinc carbonate core encapsulated in appropriately designed organic shell (hydroxyquinoline ligands), is highly luminescent, with photoluminescence quantum yield significantly higher than those of classical fluorescent compounds used in state-of-the-art OLEDs."

Ref:

Carbon dioxide paves the way to unique nanomaterials

INSTITUTE OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY OF THE POLISH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

This above is an over simplified introduction to the huge amount of reaseach being undertaken world wide, on "CO2 as a very useful raw material in a mulitude of processes and products" .

Raw Materials demanding Innovations

"The emissions paradox

Compared to other building materials concrete has a low carbon footprint, i.e. it emits less CO2 per tonne. And yet, the enormous volumes used mean that concrete production accounts for about 3 - 8 percent of the man-made CO2 emissions worldwide.

Comparative relative energy and CO2 per construction material

However, given the very large volumes, total emissions are considerable. Because a small reduction in emission can make a real difference, our team of researchers can punch well above their weight and lay the basis for a global reduction of millions of tonnes of CO2 annually." cf Source:nanocem.org/cement-concrete/sustainability-emissions

AND from "The concrete solution, IOM3 Conference News MW June 2015

More facts:

Standard concrete mix releases up to 79.7kg of CO2 per tonne cf. nanocem value of 0.13 kgCO2/kg concrete. ie. 130kgCO2/tonne roughly 1.6x nanocem's figure. PARADOX indeed must find the reason for this

By 2020 concrete’s embodied CO2 is estimated to reduce to 71.8kg per tonne of concrete

Certification to responsible sourcing standard BES 6001 has risen to 91%.

LINK: 'Plastics, the environment and human health

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 21 Jan 2016 18:49:00 +0000

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences | Table of Contents — July 27, 2009, 364 (1526): "Theme Issue 'Plastics, the environment and human health' compiled by R. C. Thompson, C. J. Moore, F. S. vom Saal and S. H. Swan"

Repeat :"Theme Issue 'Plastics, the environment and human health'

Sustainability science: Exploiting the synergies published in Nature (NPG)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 28 Nov 2015 15:55:00 +0000

Sustainability science: Exploiting the synergies

David Griggs, professor of sustainable development at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, and the University of Warwick, UK. reviews in Nature, Economist Jeffrey D. Sachs book

The Age of Sustainable Development

Columbia Univ. Press: 2015.ISBN: 9780231173148
Here I shall quote a couple of quotes which I can easily relate to from Griggs review:
"As a concept and practice, sustainable development emerged on the global scene in 1972, with the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment. Four decades on, in the year that the United Nations is due to set its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the idea remains fuzzy around the edges. Jeffrey Sachs's The Age of Sustainable Development sharpens our understanding. It is, in my view, the best, most comprehensive and most articulate exposition of sustainable development ever written."

Economic and Social factors are underlined:

ECONOMIC:

"Sustainable development was once considered a problem of developing countries, solvable through, and almost as a by-product of, economic growth. But no country has pulled itself out of poverty without fossil fuels, whose emissions drive climate change and pollution, or nitrogen-based fertilizers, which promote algal blooms. And richer countries have demonstrated the problems of uncontrolled development of land and resources, a factor in biodiversity loss. Sustainable development is crucial for all countries, so the SDGs will apply to every nation."

SOCIAL

"How to achieve a sustainable future? Education, Sachs notes, is a lynchpin. When girls stay in school for longer, fertility rates drop. Households with fewer children invest more in education, health and nutrition. He quotes Scottish economist Adam Smith, who wrote in The Wealth of Nations (1776) that because society benefits when people are educated, the costs should be “defrayed by the general contribution of the whole society”. That we have not achieved this more than two centuries later is a baffling and damning indictment." Blogger's note(Although the Scots are known for their legendary frugality many may take a book from the bicycle Dutch population. Granted Holland is a flat country.

SCIENTIFICALY MEASURED FACTS:

"Alongside the social challenges are climate change, ocean acidification and the current mass extinction of species — serious threats to humanity's capacity to thrive or even survive. For example, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is rising by more than 2 parts per million each year. Sachs concludes that no country is currently on a path to sustainable development."

HOLISTIC NATURE OF THESE PROBLEMS.

"What becomes clear is that understanding the links between these issues is essential. Along with development aims such as sanitation and health care for a growing and ageing population, there are environmental challenges such as mitigating climate change."

The full review and related links to NPG are well worth reading_Great background reading for COP21 participants and all concerned citizens!

Related links in NPG (Nature Publishing Group
Economics: Manufacture renewables to build energy security
Policy: Bring sustainable energy to the developing world
Eco-engineering: Living in a materials world
Policy: Sustainable development goals for people and planet
Ecodesign: The bottom line
Sustainability through computing
Related external links
Jeffrey Sachs
Sustainable Development UN Knowledge Platform

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Climate -COP21 Paris updates from Nature

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 28 Nov 2015 14:55:00 +0000

"Momentum builds for a new treaty as world leaders prepare
to descend on Paris."

"The road to a new global climate treaty
has been slow and plodding. But years
of delicate negotiations have given way
to cautious optimism as more than 190 nations
prepare for the marathon climate talks that
begin in Paris on 30 November."

writes JEFF TOLLEFSON

REF:

Pledges raise hopes ahead of climate talks (pdf)

418 | NATURE | VOL 527 | 26 NOVEMBER 2015

AND

First tranche of aid projects prompts concern over operations of fund for developing nations. (pdf)

writes SANJAY KUMAR in the same volume;

REF: 26 NOVEMBER 2015 | VOL 527 | NATURE | 419.

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Renewables key in race against climate change clock by Phys.Org's M.Hood.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 06 Nov 2015 16:43:00 +0000

"Any plausible game plan for capping the rise of Earth's surface temperature depends on replacing fossil fuels with energy sources that generate little or no carbon pollution." writes Marlowe Hood in Phys Org November 1, 2015.

India's commitment on RHS-->>
so please read on...

Hood quoting reliable sources continues:

"That means renewables, especially solar and wind, both of which face fewer constraints to growth than more established clean energy: a river can be dammed only so many times, and nuclear remains expensive and controversial.

But humanity has dithered for so long in the fight against global warming, experts say, that the window of opportunity for decarbonising the global economy fast enough to avoid devastating climate change is barely ajar.

"The cost and difficulty of mitigating greenhouse gases increases every year, time is of the essence," Maria van der Hoeven, executive director of the International Energy Agency, said in a special IEA report on energy and climate change released earlier this year.

The world's nations -– gathering in Paris in a month to ink the first-ever universal climate pact—have set a target of limiting global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.

Cross that red line, scientists say, and there will, almost literally, be hell to pay.

Science also tells us that, if we are to respect the 2 C limit, future greenhouse gas emissions cannot exceed a total "budget" of about 1,000 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide.

Carbon-cutting pledges from nearly 150 nations, unveiled on Friday, put us on track for a 3 C world.

This is a vast improvement on doing nothing. But even this unprecedented effort would use up three quarters of that carbon budget by 2030, leaving very little margin for closing the remaining gap. That's where the transition from fossil fuels to renewables comes in

President Obama is quoted as follows "Energy production accounts for two-thirds of global greenhouse gas emissions, and thus transformation of this sector is crucial", he and other experts said.
OTHER IMPORTANT SOURCES QUOTED:
"According to the UN climate science body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), low-carbon energy must account for at least 80 percent of global electricity production by 2050 to have a better-than-even chance of staying under the 2 C threshold".
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-11-renewables-key-climate-clock.html#jCp

Renewables key in race against climate change clock: "Renewables key in race against climate change clock"

ENCOURAGEMENT from SUMMAT LEVEL: US President Obama see image

US President Barack Obama speaks with Commander Col Ronald Jolly as he tours a solar array at Hill Air Force Base in Utah

"Decarbonising energy is probably the quickest way to decarbonise the world," Adnan Amin, director general of the International Renewable Energies Agency.

The good news is that renewables are expanding rapidly and attracting investment.

Nearly half of all new installed power generation capacity in 2014 was in renewables—37 percent wind, a third solar and a quarter hydro, according to the IEA.

Investment in the sector totalled more than a quarter of a trillion dollars in the same year, an 8.5 percent increase over 2013.

"Capital markets have already begun to shift away from dirty technology to clean technology," Christina Figueres, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, told journalists Friday in releasing an analysis of national emissions-reduction pledges.

ENDNOTE:

But renewables only account for about 20 percent of global electricity generation, and three-quarters of that is hydro. Of total energy consumption -– overwhelmingly dominated by coal, oil and gas –- less than five percent comes from clean technology, excluding nuclear.

The transition towards a low-carbon economy is also hampered by fossil fuel subsidies totalling more than half-a-trillion dollars every year, four times the amount allocated for renewables.

Experts say, the Paris climate summit, which starts at the end of this month, is so crucial.

"COP21" -– the Paris climate summit -–STILL "needs to give a global and long-term signal to the world economy that is relevant to investors," said Martin Kaiser, a climate analyst from Greenpeace.

Read the full article in PhyOrg

refs:
Read more on Phys Org

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Link_Wind power in Scotland - environment - From The New Scientist motivated arguably by "The Scots Independent Spirit and Renewable Energy Ambitions"

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 13 May 2015 18:01:00 +0000

"Scotland is arguably one of the greenest countries in Europe.(notice the nuance) It produces 40 per cent of Scottish electricity demand from renewable sources, and models suggest this could rise to 67 per cent by 2018. That's closing in on the government's goal of producing enough green power to supply the equivalent of all of Scottish demand by 2020.

LINK
Wind power in Scotland - environment - From The New Scientist motivated arguably by "The Scots Independent Spirit and Renewable Energy Ambitions"

Conversations-on-Innovations: Innovation union-A Free well illustrated pocket guide on Innovation & Growth_A Europe 2020 initiative

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 06 May 2015 18:35:00 +0000

Conversations-on-Innovations: Innovation union-A Free well illustrated pocket guide on Innovation & Growth_A Europe 2020 initiative: Innovation union-A Free well illustrated pocket guide on Innovation & Growth_A Europe 2020 initiative

This-Above-All

Unshackled, big auto will keep choking the world on diesel fumes | New Scientist

Where does the $8bn UN peacekeeping budget go? | Global Development Professionals Network | The Guardian

Build your confidence:"Five Rude And Insulting Interview Questions -- And How To Answer Them"

EU nations set to wipe out forests and not account for emissions from New Scientist

AdSense is a free, easy way to host ads on your site and earn extra revenue f...

REF:Deaths from international terrorism compared with road crash deaths in OECD countries. - PubMed - NCBI

Why Finland now leads the world in nuclear waste storage : Nature News & Comment

Pesticides Health Warning well worth being brought to readers & concerned citizens notice._Ref: Webzine Pure-Sante in French, Translation below

PETION

MY TRANSLATION

Health & pesticides: Big (and powerful) Chemical firms and the EU Commission are being strongly criticised for not taking sufficient care in the use of pesticides.

NON AU SABOTAGE CHIMIQUE DE NOS VIES !!

NOT TO BE TAKEN LIKELY Such Issues must be correctly treated in the renewal of our transatlantic commercial agreements.

LINK for Readers of French

http://po.st/yQiPsm

Follow-up to previous post_The Biowaste4SP

Making the most of Africa's biowaste - Information Centre - Research & Innovation - European Commission

Decyphering Eco-terms Blue & Green Water_forget the colours

Carbon capture, storage and utilisation technologies: A critical analysis and comparison of their life cycle environmental impacts

Our best shot at cooling the planet might be right under our feet Ref: Global Dev Professionals Network_The Guardian UK

Enhanced top soil carbon stocks under organic farming

read for free at their link above.

Journal of CO2 Utilization _Open Access Feed added to my Main Header Space. Content thanks to Elsevier

CO2 as a raw material_How to make the most of carbon dioxide free via Nature contents:

And from New Scientist's Environment RSS feed on my page_Pollutants found in fish we eat can compromise body’s defences

Risk assessment of radioisotope contamination for aquatic living resources in and around Japan_encouraging figures for sea fish. Full paper on PNAS

Risk assessment of radioisotope contamination for aquatic living resources in and around Japan

Significance

Abstract

Footnotes

Ecology: Global change and terrestrial plant community dynamics_from the renowned PNAS, (US Academy of Science) Paper freely available.

Global change and terrestrial plant community dynamics

Significance

Abstract

Shale Gas Debate-UK widget added to my pages. NB. CO2 sequestration and use as a raw material in innovative materials

Raw Materials demanding Innovations

"The emissions paradox

Comparative relative energy and CO2 per construction material

LINK: 'Plastics, the environment and human health

Sustainability science: Exploiting the synergies published in Nature (NPG)

The Age of Sustainable Development

Climate -COP21 Paris updates from Nature

Renewables key in race against climate change clock by Phys.Org's M.Hood.

Link_Wind power in Scotland - environment - From The New Scientist motivated arguably by "The Scots Independent Spirit and Renewable Energy Ambitions"

Conversations-on-Innovations: Innovation union-A Free well illustrated pocket guide on Innovation & Growth_A Europe 2020 initiative

NOT TO BE TAKEN LIKELY
Such Issues must be correctly treated in the renewal of our transatlantic commercial agreements.