Green Options » kyoto

Prince Charles Runs Aston Martin on English Wine

Max Lindberg — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 23:33:45 +0000

Bonnie Prince Charles, in a symbolic gesture, has converted his 38 year old Aston Martin rag top to run on ethanol, derived from English Wine. Aides said the action was due to the pattern of Royal trips set by the Foreign Office.

Prince Charles Chief Aide, Sir Michael Peat is quoted as saying:

‘Charles only travelled two or three hundred miles a year in the Aston but he wanted it to be environmentally friendly. It just happened that our bioethanol supplier makes the fuel from surplus English wine.’

The Prince has been reducing his carbon footprint, already cutting carbon emissions by 12.5 percent, in line with the Government’s Kyoto target. He has since doubled the target to a 25 percent reduction in emissions by 2018.

One Is the Loneliest Number

Timothy B. Hurst — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 08:05:00 +0000

While watching video of Al Gore’s recent talk at TED (which is quite good), I was struck by a particular slide he showed. The slide had a list showing all of the countries that attended the Kyoto climate talks. Highlighted on that list was the single remaining country yet to sign on to the Kyoto Protocol. Guess which one it was!

Wikipedia

10 Top Environmental Headlines of the Week

Gavin Hudson — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 19:49:25 +0000

In case you missed them the first time around, here are the top 10 international environmental headlines that made news in the blogosphere for the week of March 31 - April 6.

1. Asia — United Nations Climate Change Talks: “Kyoto II” climate talks open in Bangkok

“The first formal talks in the long process of drawing up a replacement for the Kyoto climate change pact opened in Thailand on Monday with appeals to a common human purpose to defeat global warming.

‘The world is waiting for a solution that is long-term and economically viable,’ U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon said in a video address to the 1,000 delegates from 190 nations gathered in Bangkok.

Read more of this story »

Is Kyoto All for Naught?

Joshua S Hill — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 19:10:32 +0000

The life of someone looking to support the environment is a tough one, especially with news like this. The Kyoto Protocol was supposed to be Earth’s savior; or at least a benefit concert. But new information provided by the Chinese government has shown that by 2010 Chinese greenhouse gas emissions will have managed to eclipse the reductions achieved by all the countries underneath the Kyoto protocol.

Researchers at the University of California worked with the data and calculated that China’s emissions by 2010 will equate to at least 600 million metric tons greater than the countries was in 2000. Note the ‘at least’ in there, because according to the majority of the computer models, their emissions will actually be twice that figure.

Even hoping for the best possible scenario, the smallest figure calculated is five times as large as the 115.90 million metric tons in reductions that the US Energy Information Agency estimates will have been achieved by the Kyoto protocol members.

“The emissions growth rate is surpassing our worst expectations, and that means the goal of stabilizing atmospheric CO2 is going to be much, much harder to achieve,” says Maximillian Auffhammer of the University of California, Berkeley.

Prior to now, estimates have been focusing only on national data of pollution. However Auffhammer, and Richard Carson from the University of California, San Diego, used national data on pollution produced by Chinese provinces. The increased detail in the data has allowed them to make a more precise and horrifying calculation.

China, a country that is deemed a developing country under the United Nations, is thus not required to reduce its emissions under the Kyoto protocol. Of course it can agree too, and in the wake of the upcoming Olympic Games there has been some move to do so, but as of yet they have set no firm targets. As such, the UoC pair estimate that CO₂ emissions will rise by 11% per year over the next two years. Previous estimates ranged between 2.5% and 5%.

This most recent finding concerning China’s emissions comes only days after the world’s marathon record holder, Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia, declared he was an unlikely entrant in the 2008 Olympic marathon. “The pollution in China is a threat to my health and it would be difficult for me to run 42 kilometres in my current condition,” says Gebrselassie.

And while this only forced the Chinese government to reiterate that they pledge to have clean air for the summer games, it brings to mind a question: what are the Chinese sacrificing so that Games’ venues are clean?

New Scientist - China emissions to swamp Kyoto reductions by 2010

Photo Courtesy of fortes via Flickr

Day 1 in Bali…

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 19:49:59 +0000

Australia ratifies the Kyoto Protocol.

Indonesia Hopeful for Tree Planting Record

Joshua S Hill — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 14:05:29 +0000

In my continuing series on "Stories that don’t make you want to cry", I have found once again the universe lining up to help me. This time though, it’s more than just a step in the right direction, it’s a step away from the brink.

According to Greenpeace, Indonesia had the fastest pace of deforestation in the world between 2000 and 2005, with an area of forest equivalent to 300 soccer pitches disappearing each hour.

But they’re looking to turn things around and, in all reality, on their heads!

Ahead of the U.N. climate change summit being held in their native Bali this December, the Indonesian people – from the lowest to the highest in status, including the President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono – will be planting a total of 79 million trees in one day!

Scheduled for November 28th, the tree planting will be part of a global initiative launched at U.N. climate change talks in Nairobi last year. The Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign has so far planted 346,469,727 trees, with a total pledge of 1,130,983,692 trees. 79 million is definitely going to help matters!

"Everybody, residents and officials from the lowest unit of the government to the president, will take part in this movement," said Ahmad Fauzi Masud, spokesman for the Indonesian forestry ministry. "It will be a national record and, possibly, a world record."

Indonesia is listed as Southeast Asia’s biggest economy – not surprising when you’re home to Bali – but sadly, they are also one of the world’s three biggest greenhouse gas emitters, along with the U.S., China and Brazil. This comes as a result of its massive deforestation, in conjunction with peatland degradation and forest fires, according to a recent report sponsored by the World Bank and Britain’s development arm.

Additionally, environmental groups are worried that the continued and rapid growth of palm oil plantations throughout Indonesia are damaging the countries rainforests. Despite the fact that many of these plantations are out to fuel (haha, get it, “fuel”?) new plans for biofuels, the damage to the rainforests may be a greater threat.

Participants from 189 countries will be gathering in Bali this December to discuss a new deal to fight global warming. With the Kyoto Protocol running out in 2012, and in the wake of earlier talks between envoys from participating countries, the talks will hopefully bring about a new goal that countries like the U.S.,, Australia, China and India will all be able to agree too.

ENN - Indonesia to Plant 79 Million Trees in One Day

Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign

Photo © UNEP

Africa Likely to be Worst Hit by Global Warming

Joshua S Hill — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 13:05:45 +0000

Editor’s note: Please join us in welcoming Joshua S. Hill to the Green Options writing team. Based in Donvale, Australia, Joshua is a freelance writer who’s published articles on global warming/climate change at Mongabay.com, and the Canada Free Press. He’ll be contributing to our coverage of these issues, as well as delving into green technology.

It’s been two days since negotiators from 158 nations announced to the world from Vienna that they had "…reached broad agreement on the main issues." And though the agreement was nothing more than a possible plan for countries to enact, it was a step in the right direction, especially with the planned international climate summit to be held in Bali this December.

For a long time countries such as China, America, Canada and Russia have been hesitant to commit to clear cuts in carbon emissions. The loudest opponent of such cuts has been America, who until recently, has seemingly decided that being the bad guy in the global warming scenario was a favorable position to be in.

European countries – lead by Germany and Britain – have long been petitioning for a global commitment to cutting their emissions – the emissions that are believed to be the biggest contributor to the greenhouse gasses poisoning out atmosphere, and bringing our planet to its knees, so to speak.

And so, only a few days after this "broad agreement" was reached, British researchers have announced to the world that, if nothing is done soon to combat the rising temperatures, Africa will face a crisis that will pale the current hunger crisis, with an additional 70 million Africans at risk of hunger by 2080.

Having already suffered an increase of about 0.7 degrees Celsius during the last century, Africa is likely to be the worst hit over the coming century. "This is the continent that will come under the most severe pressure from climate change," said David King, the British government’s chief scientific adviser, in a presentation in Pretoria this past Wednesday. Gordon Conway, the chief scientific adviser for Britain’s department for international development, added to King’s sentiments, saying that "It’s going to get wetter and drier.”

The issue at hand is that the coastal regions of Africa are going to be at risk of major flooding, and the central regions at risk of worsening drought.

How is it then that, under the sheer weight of public opinion and scientific evidence – despite what critics like Alan Caruba say in naïve articles entitled "The Year the Global Warming Hoax Died" – the governments of such powerhouses as America and China still believe they can move through this continuing century as if there is nothing wrong?

It was only a couple of months ago that a report was released worldwide proving that the next century is going to be the most critical for our planet. The report was based on new computer models, tested on historical data gathered in the 1980’s, and proven to accurately predict the conditions that followed.

Governments and skeptics used this report – selecting paragraphs that proved their opinion, and leaving the rest behind – to further their scare tactics, though, saying that it was simply proof that we are in a natural increase of global temperatures. The report concluded that, while we are indeed reaching a point where the natural warming of our planet is growing, our own additions of carbon waste to the atmosphere have brought the change of climate to a point where it will increase over the next several decades beyond that which is naturally acceptable and common. It is up to us to make drastic changes over the next several years, to ensure that our planet is not a roiling ball of gas for our descendants.

Thankfully there is movement, and while it is minimal, it is a start. At the APEC summit being conducted in Sydney, Australia, political group GetUp have presented 18 cardboard boxes filled with a petition containing some 500,000 names. The petition – which contains some 91,000 Australian names – endorse the following message; "I want our governments to take sweeping action to dramatically cut greenhouse pollution, shift to clean energy and solve the climate crisis now."

Whether this will be even heard by the powerbrokers meeting in Sydney, or whether it will do any good, is a matter for another time, but the sheer weight of public opinion is growing to a point that soon the governments of the world will have no option but to act.

Or, at least, we can only hope that is true.

Reuters

Also on GO:

Germany Pressures China on Climate Change

Japan Ups Ethanol Made from Biomass

Maria Surma Manka — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 13:42:24 +0000

Under pressure to meet Kyoto Protocol targets and reduce carbon dioxide emissions, several ministries in the Japanese government have issued a report recommending increasing ethanol production from domestic biomass resources.

The report advises boosting ethanol made from wood waste and mass-produced grains to account for 38 million barrels, or about 6 percent of Japan’s annual gasoline consumption.

Currently Japan produces very little ethanol on its own and is heavily dependent on imported gasoline. Even so, the cost of ethanol continues to be an issue. In order to encourage use and development, the report proposes modifying the taxes on ethanol, which is mostly imported from Brazil. But even if Japan used the new super-harvest grains like rice and sorghum that can be planted in abandoned fiels, ethanol production costs may still be quite high.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has promised to increase the use of biomass in fuels as part of the island nation’s larger plan to shift away from fossil fuel use to slow global warming.

Japan needs to meet its Kyoto Protocol goal to cut its global warming emissions by 6 percent from 1990 levels by the 2008-2012 period. The agreement excludes emissions from biofuels like ethanol.

Reuters, via Planet Ark

Red, Green, and Blue: Carbon Dioxide Is Guilty as Charged

Ryan Thibodaux — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 18:33:55 +0000

Last year, several major oil companies got together and produced two commercials that tried to convince Americans that the more CO2 we produce, the merrier. We breathe it out. Plants breathe it in. It's part of the circle of life. Just like that Elton John song! CO2 is our life-supporting friend, they said. We need as much of it as we can get. Thankfully, those ads were laughed off the air.

They did, however, help continute the "debate" on carbon dioxide's connection to rising global temperatures. CO2 may be necessary for life, but too much of it causes global warming. Really, it does! Look:

No, it isn't proof. Scientists don't often speak in the language of proof and absolute truths. With that said, the above variation of a graph developed and published in the journal Nature by J.R. Petit in 1999 shows a striking correlation between the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere and temperature over the last 450,000 years. The graph also shows that the earth does a lot of its own regulating of both CO2 and temperature, a truth that climate change and CO2 connection skeptics are all too eager to point out. Fair enough, but in that entire 450,000 year span, CO2 parts per million levels were never above 300. Today, atmospheric CO2 concentration has surpassed 380 ppm, and is climbing rapidly (think Al Gore riding the lift up to the top of the screen in An Inconvenient Truth).

Will the temperature line in the graph follow the CO2 line's lead? The earth hasn't needed this degree of self-regulation for at least 800,000 years. Worse still, we haven't yet experienced the full consequences of this astonishing carbon dioxide concentration.

It isn't just me and Al who say so. The recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report confirmed the CO2 connection and the human responsibility for the dramatic increase in its atmospheric levels. They concluded (PDF):

Most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations.

"Very likely" is defined as a greater than 90% probability. As summarized in the UK's Independent, the IPCC also reported:

The target for stabilising CO2 levels in the atmosphere which some scientists and politicians increasingly hope to aim for - an upper limit of 550 parts per million - would probably involve a rise of 3C, perhaps one as high as 4.5C, and almost certainly no lower than 1.5C, the report says.

But a 3C rise would bring about enormous damage to agriculture, weather patterns and ecosystems across the world with catastrophic effects on human society.

The figure of 550ppm represents a doubling of atmospheric CO2 compared with the level pertaining before the Industrial Revolution. The current CO2 level is about 382ppm, having risen from 315ppm 50 years ago, and is rising by more than 2ppm annually, with the rate increasing.

The IPCC, a collection of more than 2000 of the world's top climate scientists, concluded without reservation that climate change is happening, that humans are responsible, and that emitting billions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere is one significant culprit. But can their findings really be trusted? The NRDC writes:

Overall, the IPCC report will include work from more than 2,000 scientists appointed by more than 130 countries…

The process is rigorous, based on open and transparent peer review.

The Summary for Policymakers is reviewed line-by-line by scientists and government experts to ensure that it is a completely accurate reflection of the detailed scientific findings and that all comments have been fully considered.

The IPCC brings fresh eyes to the issue — 75 percent of Fourth Assessment Report writers were not involved in the Third Assessment.

Now that we all agree that carbon dioxide is a major contributor to climate change, I know what your next question will be: "But what about the much discussed 'issue' of 'global warming' on SUV-free Mars?" Well, unless you're planning on buying a timeshare there, it's not much of an issue at all. More importantly, that globe isn't really warming, at least not in terms that have any parallel here on earth.

Some warming has been observed over the past 30 years, but it is largely confined to Mars's South Pole Cap region. To the extent that any truly "global" warming has occurred on Mars in recent years, it is a warming trend with decidedly unearthly roots. Mars's climate, unlike the earth's, is highly sensitive to immense dust storms. When these storms are active, the dust absorbs the sun's heat and warms the thin Martian atmosphere. When the storms aren't active, no such warming happens. Massive dust storms are not a cause of global warming or much of anything else on earth, making the comparison of the two planets' climate mechanisms crude at best and grossly misleading at worst.

Coming back to our little blue world, it is important to remember that carbon dioxide is not the only cause of global climate change. Other greenhouse gasses like nitrous oxide and methane are intense heat trappers as well, and their levels have also increased dramatically in the earth's atmosphere in the Industrial Age.

It's not just gasses, either. A variety of feedback loops also intensify warming trends. For instance, ice at the poles does our planet the great service of bouncing sunlight away from the surface and back out into space. When this ice melts, however, the (no longer white) water molecules absorb the sun's heat instead of radiating it away. The oceans warm. More ice melts. More heat is absorbed… Vicious, isn't it?

That viciousness is why we need to take immediate steps to curb carbon emissions and other climate change triggers. Mandatory carbon caps? Market-based carbon reduction incentives? Individual carbon taxes (while reducing personal income taxes)? I'm for it. All of it.

Now.

Temperature and CO2 image credit: Woods Hole Research Center

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