It’s true. I shopped until late so no post today. You know the economy comes first.
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More tomorrow I promise.
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Went Cristmas Shopping Today – Had to save the economy
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Category Archives: Energy Tough Love Blog
Global Carbon Emmissions Are Picking Up – The 2 degree minimum is long gone
Normally I like to stay upbeat for the holidays, but this year is harder than most. This report is pretty depressing.
Global carbon emissions reach record 10 billion tons — threatening 2 degree target
Global carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels have increased by 49 per cent in the last two decades, according to the latest figures by an international team, including researchers at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, University of East Anglia (UEA).
Published today in the journal Nature Climate Change, the new analysis by the Global Carbon Project shows fossil fuel emissions increased by 5.9 per cent in 2010 and by 49 per cent since 1990 – the reference year for the Kyoto protocol.
On average, fossil fuel emissions have risen by 3.1 per cent each year between 2000 and 2010 – three times the rate of increase during the 1990s. They are projected to continue to increase by 3.1 per cent in 2011.
Total emissions – which combine fossil fuel combustion, cement production, deforestation and other land use emissions – reached 10 billion tonnes of carbon1 in 2010 for the first time. Half of the emissions remained in the atmosphere, where CO2 concentration reached 389.6 parts per million. The remaining emissions were taken up by the ocean and land reservoirs, in approximately equal proportions.
Rebounding from the global financial crisis of 2008-09 when emissions temporarily decreased, last year’s high growth was caused by both emerging and developed economies. Rich countries continued to outsource part of their emissions to emerging economies through international trade.
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Happy birthday to me. More tomorrow.
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Australia To Help India Walk Away From Nonproliferation – That’s too damn bad
This piece dithers on a bit before getting to the heart of the matter and offers few solutions. But, that may be because there are not any. Russia has sold uranium to India before and probably will again. I do not know whether China has sold uranium to India or not. I know they would in a heart beat.
Can we talk? Reversal on uranium sales to India opens up a whole new world
- by: Mike Steketee
- From: The Australian
- December 03, 2011 12:00AM
WE should be thankful for small mercies. Before delivering a triumph to Julia Gillard on selling uranium to India, Labor’s national conference this weekend is having a debate on the issue.
That will be a change because so far we’ve heard little more than applause for the Prime Minister’s announcement three weeks ago that she would seek to change party policy to allow sales to a country that has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
She says it is time to modernise the party platform. Those who agree present the change as little more than tidying up a diplomatic anomaly.
There is a case for a change in policy, including the contribution nuclear power can make to reducing India’s carbon emissions, the practical reality that other countries are willing to sell uranium to India and that we already sell to countries like China and Russia.
But there is more to it than that.
“I am horrified that the media have not explained the enormity of this proposal,” says Ron Walker, a former diplomat.
As a head of the nuclear division in the Department of Foreign Affairs in the 1990s and chairman of the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency in 1993, his views are worth considering.
No anti-nuke activist, he subscribes to the policy first adopted by the Fraser government: that we should use our position as a major uranium supplier to demand strict safeguards against nuclear non-proliferation.
Leaving aside its surreptitious development of the nuclear bomb, India has been presented as the model nuclear citizen. Unlike China, Russia and Pakistan, it has not exported its nuclear weapons technology and expertise, at least on any significant scale.
Therefore, so the argument goes, India deserves to be made the exception to the rule that we do not sell uranium to countries that do not sign the NPT.
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He writes plenty more. Go read it. More next week.
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Humans Are Literally Space Hogs – Living little is a valuable lesson
When I first started talking about living in small spaces, the idea was for the space to be portable. Some houses were built on truck beds, some were built on trailers and some were easily dismantled. The idea at the time was to live where you wanted to live but not be tied down. Some of the attraction was that you could have the amenities of home without the RV costs. The craze caught on and people began to build them into a fixed space in a conventional setting. Now they have moved into the wild. Very cool idea.
MNN BLOGGERS
‘TINY’: Give big to a short film about small houses
Now that the season of giving is officially upon us, find out how you can chip in to help make the short documentary, ‘TINY: A Story About Living Small,’ a well-polished reality.
A very happy [insert non-shopping-related descriptor here] Tuesday! Hopefully you aren’t too entirely burnt-out or broke as a result of yesterday’s responsible gift-buying bonanza because a great new Kickstarter fundraising campaign worth showing a little financial love to has recently come to my attention. And the topic of this creative project is a great one: dramatically downsized living.
Filmmaking team Merete Mueller and Christopher Smith have taken to Kickstarter to raise post-production funds for their short documentary: “TINY: A Film About Living Small.” The film (watch a teaser clip below) follows Smith as he attempts, with no previous building experience, to erect a 130-square-foot cabin in the Colorado mountains while also profiling similarly small-minded Americans. Explains Mueller on the project’s Kickstarter page: “Rather than an informational documentary about tiny houses, the film will explore the idea of ‘home’ and what makes us feel comfortable in a particular landscape or building. The film will be a meditation on the relationship of home to environment, of quality and simplicity to a life well lived.”
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Go there and read. More tomorrow.
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Drill Deep Drill Dangerous – When are they ever going to get this right
Let me get this straight. They want drill baby drill in Artic and through shifting salt strata further south in Brazilian waters and yet this is the best they can do. My god are we in trouble.
http://ecopreneurist.com/2011/11/29/profit-over-protection-in-brazil/
Profit Over Protection in Brazil?
November 29, 2011 By Chris Keenan
We’ve got another oil spill. This time it’s off the coast of Brazil, and Chevron has already stepped up to take responsibility for the incident, which occurred when the company didn’t correctly assess the pressure of the reservoir they were tapping. The oil leaked through a breach in the drill’s bore hole and has spread through seven nearby fissures in the sea floor.
Up to 110,000 gallons of oil have already been spilled, and up to 4,200 gallons may still be leaking from seabed cracks. The good news is that the sunny beaches of Rio de Janeiro haven’t been affected, so vacationers, vacation on!
In all fairness, it is certainly a positive that the oil hasn’t affected Brazil’s coasts – but it’s a small victory. Chevron has been working around the clock to clean up the spill, and they face millions of dollars in fines.
The Rio de Janeiro state environment minister, Carlos Minc, was quoted in the O Globo newspaper saying that Chevron “can’t come here and create whatever environmental mess they want” and that he “want[s] to see the CEO of Chevron swim in that oil”.
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Go there and read. More tomorrow.
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Atrazine Peaks In Illinois Waters In April And May – Still getting the word out never hurts
I got this from my buddy Darryl Malek-Wiley. At:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001252051472
He has been a very active environmentalist in Southern Louisiana for 30 years. He got it here:
Atrazine in water tied to menstrual irregularities, low hormones
Women who drink water contaminated with low levels of the weed-killer atrazine may be more likely to have irregular menstrual cycles and low estrogen levels, scientists concluded in a new study. The most widely used herbicide in the United States, atrazine is frequently detected in surface and ground water, particularly in agricultural areas of the Midwest. The newest research, which compared women in Illinois farm towns to women in Vermont, adds to the growing scientific evidence linking atrazine to altered hormones.
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| University of Georgia |
| The herbicide atrazine is frequently detected in surface and groundwater, especially near cornfields in the Midwest. |
By Lindsey Konkel
Environmental Health News
Environmental Health News
Nov. 28, 2011
Women who drink water contaminated with low levels of the weed-killer atrazine may be more likely to have irregular menstrual cycles and low estrogen levels, scientists concluded in a new study.
The most widely used herbicide in the United States, atrazine is frequently detected in surface and ground water, particularly in agricultural areas of the Midwest. Approximately 75 percent of all U.S. cornfields are treated with atrazine each year.
The newest research, which compared women in Illinois to women in Vermont, adds to the growing scientific evidence linking atrazine to altered hormones.
The women from Illinois farm towns were nearly five times more likely to report irregular periods than the Vermont women, and more than six times as likely to go more than six weeks between periods. In addition, the Illinois women had significantly lower levels of estrogen during an important part of the menstrual cycle.
Tap water in the Illinois communities had double the concentration of atrazine in the Vermont communities’ water. Nevertheless, the water in both states was far below the federal drinking water standard currently enforced by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
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It is a long article. I stopped at the mention of Illinois. Go there and read. More tomorrow.
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The Next Annual Climate Summit – Same as the last one
They hold these every year and every year they get nowhere. The worldwide oil, natural gas and coal interests are just to strong for them to come too an agreement. But take heart, they are meeting in South Africa, the leading polluter in Africa bar none. Geographically their proximity to Antarctica is frightening. Not only that but they are the leading proponent of coal gasification. One of the nastiest 19th century practices still in use. Then there are the Canadians and their oil sands.
Durban for Dummies: What’s at stake at the international climate-change summit in South Africa
By Mike De Souza, Postmedia News November 27, 2011
???OTTAWA – A two-week United Nations climate change summit in the South African coastal city of Durban begins Monday with nations far apart on negotiations to achieve a binding treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prevent dangerous changes in the atmosphere.
Governments from around the world have reached a consensus, based on the latest scientific evidence, that global warming is being caused by human activity and that it will lead to a range of consequences such as melting ice sheets, rising sea levels, and more severe storms and weather. But they believe they can reduce the impact of climate change by taking action now.
Here is some background on what’s at stake:
What is the Kyoto Protocol?
The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement that updates the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The original convention was signed in 1992 and came into force in 1994. The nations that signed the UN treaty, both developed and developing nations, agreed on the necessity to take measures to prevent human activity from causing dangerous interference with the climate. It also recognized that rich countries produced the emissions in their industrial development which are causing the changes in the atmosphere and must do more than their counterparts in the developing world.
Go there and read. More tomorrow.
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Fascinating New Photos Inside Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant
I can’t post these photos here because there are 67 of them and they are linked. So I will just post the text. I might add that if you skip down to photo 40 or so you will see the real damage to the power plant itself. Most of the pictures are of the temporary village that houses the workers, the drive to the power plant and and the emergency control room. This is probably because this is where the photographer spent the bulk of his time and was bored. They are real cool for the geeks like me. Thank you Denver Post.
http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2011/11/14/inside-japans-fukushima-nuclear-reactor/5085/
Inside Japan’s Fukushima Nuclear Power Station
Posted Nov 14, 2011
Associated Press photographer David Guttenfelder, along with other reporters, was allowed inside the Fukushima nuclear power station to witness the devastation, for the first time, caused by Japan’s March 12th earthquake and tsunami.
Eight months later, the plant remains a shambles. Mangled trucks, flipped over by the power of the wave, still clutter its access roads. Rubble remains strewn where it fell. Pools of water cover parts of the once immaculate campus.
Tens of thousands of the plant’s former neighbors may never be able to go home. And just as Hiroshima and Nagasaki become icons of the horrors of nuclear weapons, Fukushima has become the new rallying cry of the global anti-nuclear energy movement.
Yet this picture is one of progress, Japanese officials say. It has taken this long to make the plant stable enough to allow Saturday’s tour, which included representatives of the Japanese and international media — including The Associated Press. Officials expect to complete an early but important step toward cleaning up the accident by the end of the year. (AP)
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Go there and see them. More next week.
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Happy Thanksgiving Everyone
Oh boy here comes Christmas.
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More tomorrow
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Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Suffers Falkland Syndrome – I got my doubts
You know, it is really hard to have fun with a nuclear disaster. You have heard the phrase of course, digging a hole to China. It became a popular phrase in the late 1880s because China was so far away and exotic and because it is on the “opposite side of the world”. However as this vido points out that phrase is spectacularly wrong.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAxGccJNw0A
So a nuclear disaster here in the US would actually amount to a St. Paul syndrome and a nuclear disaster in Japan would amount to a Falklands syndrome. Every since the discussion about what would happen if a nuclear reactor core got out of its containment and of course the wildly popular but who knows how true to real life movie “China Syndrome”, I’ve had serious doubts. The first premise is that the reactor core is “running” when it breaches the power station. The second premise is that it would tunnel down to the Earth’s magma. The third premise is that would somehow amount to an explosion that would end the world. Comon. Even in pristine imaginary terms that probably does not happen. First that is a lot of bedrock to eat through and the reactor still maintain its symmetry. No symmetry no nuclear reaction. Second if it hit the magma, it would lead to a volcanic eruption but we have those all the time. Am I saying it would be a good thing. NO. I just got doubts. These 2 authors think otherwise.
Fukushima: 27 Hiroshimas per day, China Syndrome inevitable, Abused Islanders
November 21, 2011 –
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Though when I read the article it seemed like her editors had merge 2 computer files to make for a very confusing piece. And this guy who quotes other sources.
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Fukushima: “China Syndrome Is Inevitable” … “Huge Steam Explosions”, or “Nuclear Bomb-Type Explosions” May Occur
Submitted by George Washington on 11/21/2011 23:45 -0500
I’ve repeatedly noted that we may experience a “China syndrome” type of accident at Fukushima.
For example, I pointed out in September:
Mainichi Dailly News notes:
As a radiation meteorology and nuclear safety expert at Kyoto University’s Research Reactor Institute, Hiroaki Koide [says]:
The nuclear disaster is ongoing.
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At present, I believe that there is a possibility that massive amounts of radioactive materials will be released into the environment again.
At the No. 1 reactor, there’s a chance that melted fuel has burned through the bottom of the pressure vessel, the containment vessel and the floor of the reactor building, and has sunk into the ground. From there, radioactive materials may be seeping into the ocean and groundwater.
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Both pieces are really long so you will have to go there and read them. More tomorrow.
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