"Setting out Obama's green agenda
VIEWPOINT
Peter Seligmann
Barack Obama will become the 44th president of the US as the world is engulfed in a global economic crisis, says Peter Seligmann. He calls on the new president not to ignore the environment, which is "rapidly reaching a tipping point".
What an odd juxtaposition of almost giddy anticipation and deep anxiety as we prepare for a US presidential inauguration that will be celebrated worldwide.
Hopes for a new year and a new global leader of vision and courage collide with a tremendous angst as people everywhere are engulfed by the global economic crisis.
Alongside the urgent action needed to keep the economy afloat, there is a course that President-elect Barack Obama can chart that will help our global society move into a new era of sustained security.
This security is not only for our economies, but also for our health and for present and future generations to thrive.
Another young US president, Theodore Roosevelt, summed up that course about 100 years ago when he said: "The conservation of natural resources is the fundamental problem.
"Unless we solve that problem it will avail us little to solve all others."
'Tipping point'
As Mr Obama becomes the 44th president, one of his toughest challenges is also his greatest opportunity.
The global environment is rapidly reaching a tipping point, much like our global economy.
Once it passes that point, it will be all the more difficult to pull it back to stability.
Our Earth is being altered to the point where it cannot sustain much of the life that has thrived for millennia; species extinctions today are occurring at an estimated 1,000 times the normal rate.
When our landscapes, rivers and coral reefs can no longer sustain robust species populations, humans are also in trouble.
People depend on healthy ecosystems for the very fundamentals of survival: clean air, fresh water, soil regeneration, crop pollination and other resources that we often take for granted until they are scarce or gone.
Just as the current financial crisis reveals how the world's economies are interconnected, we also must recognise the fundamental links between human well-being and Earth's ecosystems.
When we abuse and degrade the natural world, it affects our health, our social stability and our wallets.
Natural capital
How great is the challenge?
Well, today, 25% of wild marine fisheries are over-exploited, while another 50% are highly degraded.
West African fisheries have declined by 80% since the 1990s, resulting in thousands of fishermen searching for jobs in Europe.
When the Newfoundland cod fisheries collapsed in the early 1990s as a result of overfishing, it meant the loss of tens of thousands of jobs and cost $2bn (£1.4bn) in income support and retraining.
Tropical deforestation and land degradation contributes more global greenhouse gas emissions than all the world's cars, trucks, planes and trains combined.
What is lost in Indonesia or the Amazon affects the climate in New York, Paris and Sydney.
More than a billion people lack access to safe drinking water. In the poorest countries, one in five children dies from a preventable water-related disease.
This is a crisis that is worsening as ecosystems are damaged, increasing droughts and floods.
Mismanagement and corruption tied to natural resource exploitation have fuelled violent conflict in many countries including Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Violence linked to natural resource loss and degradation has led to unimaginable human suffering in such places as Darfur.
Tensions in the Middle East are fed by conflict over water and oil, as well as religion and politics.
Under pressure
Now, climate change exacerbates the threats posed by over-consumption, pollution and habitat destruction.
We are already witnessing rising oceans, spreading disease, reduced freshwater sources and myriad other serious threats.
Recent studies show half of the world's population could face a climate-induced food crisis by the end of this century.
Yet as overwhelming as the global environmental crisis has become, it offers some of today's greatest opportunities.
First, we must make conservation of nature a core principle of development; they cannot be separated.
Often an unintended consequence of development projects is the depletion or degradation of natural systems. We must recognise the value of nature and invest to protect it.
Ecosystem destruction costs our global economy at least $2 trillion (£1.4 trillion) every year.
That is the value forests provide by storing the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, cleansing fresh water supplies, and preventing soil erosion.
It includes the value oceans and coral reefs provide in food security for millions who rely on fisheries as their primary source of protein.
Overall, global ecosystems services have been assessed to be worth as much as $33 trillion (£22.6 trillion) a year.
Every home owner understands that restoring and replacing a plumbing system, or a heating unit, is far more expensive than taking care of the system properly.
Well, the same is true for nature's ecosystems.
Restoring a forest costs 10 times as much as maintaining what we have. Building a reservoir and filtration system is far more expensive than preserving the intact forest systems that naturally filter and cleanse our drinking water.
Traditional measures of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) do not reflect changes in the quality and quantity of a nation's natural assets.
Imagine measuring your personal financial condition without factoring in a dramatic and ongoing decline in your assets.
The world needs US leadership to begin honestly accounting for the state our natural assets.
The Obama administration can bring these issues into the mainstream during this critical time of reorienting the US's national priorities.
Initiatives to advance natural resource conservation in other countries have typically lacked strong political support and received only a small fraction of the total resources dedicated to international engagement.
Mr Obama and his team should fully integrate and fund ecosystem conservation priorities within US national security considerations, as well as foreign policy and development assistance.
By helping restore and protect developing nations' natural heritage throughout the world, the US will strengthen the bonds of friendship and trust through sustainable collaborations.
The stakes are high, and the benefits of bringing ecosystem conservation to the forefront of our foreign policy will be enormous.
As 2009 begins, we face a new era of unprecedented global economic, health and security challenges.
Confronting these challenges requires a bold new commitment to protect our most valuable joint asset - planet Earth.
Peter A Seligmann is chairman and chief executive of US NGO Conservancy International
The Green Room is a series of opinion articles on environmental topics running weekly on the BBC News website
Do you agree with Peter Seligmann? Do you think Barack Obama's administration will take the environment seriously? Do you think the US will be a serious player in the global green agenda? Or are the problems facing the world too big for one nation to make a difference?"
Hunger. Water pollution. Air pollution. Global warming. Climate change. Geopolitical unrest. We can work together. There is an answer: please see http://www.campaignforgreen.com/.
Showing posts with label sustainable energy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sustainable energy. Show all posts
Monday, January 19, 2009
Friday, January 16, 2009
Endangered Species, Pollution, Alternative Energy
Endangered Species, plant and animal species that are in danger of extinction (dying out). Over 8,300 plant species and 7,200 animal species around the globe are threatened with extinction, and many thousands more become extinct each year before biologists can identify them. The primary causes of species extinction or endangerment are habitat destruction, commercial exploitation (such as plant collecting, hunting, and trade in animal parts), damage caused by nonnative plants and animals introduced into an area, and pollution. Of these causes, direct habitat destruction threatens the greatest number of species. *****
Species become extinct or endangered for a number of reasons, but the primary cause is the destruction of habitat by human activities (see Environment). As species evolve, most adapt to a specific habitat or environment that best meets their survival needs. Without this habitat the species may not survive. Pollution, drainage of wetlands, conversion of shrub lands to grazing lands, cutting and clearing of forests, urbanization and suburbanization, climate change due to global warming, and road and dam construction have destroyed or seriously damaged and fragmented available habitats. *****
Pollution is another important cause of extinction. Toxic chemicals—especially chlorinated hydrocarbons, such as dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)—have become concentrated in food webs, the interconnected food chains that circulate energy through an ecosystem. These toxic chemicals strongly affect species near the top of the food chain. Both DDT and PCBs interfere with the calcium metabolism of birds, causing soft-shelled eggs and malformed young. PCBs also impair reproduction in some carnivorous animals. Water pollution and increased water temperatures have wiped out endemic species of fish in many habitats. Oil spills destroy birds, fish, and mammals, and may contaminate the ocean floor for many years after the event. Acid rain, the toxic result of extreme air pollution, has been known to kill organisms in freshwater lakes and destroy large tracts of forested land. *****
Reviewed By:
Reed F. Noss, B.S., M.S., Ph.D.
Research Associate, Center for Conservation Biology, Stanford University. Courtesy Associate Professor, Fisheries and Wildlife Department, Oregon State University. Editor of Conservation Biology.
- - - - -
Pollution, climate change, global warming, deforestation . . . something can be done, using totally green, totally sustainable alternative energy. For more information, please see www.campaignforgreen.com.
Species become extinct or endangered for a number of reasons, but the primary cause is the destruction of habitat by human activities (see Environment). As species evolve, most adapt to a specific habitat or environment that best meets their survival needs. Without this habitat the species may not survive. Pollution, drainage of wetlands, conversion of shrub lands to grazing lands, cutting and clearing of forests, urbanization and suburbanization, climate change due to global warming, and road and dam construction have destroyed or seriously damaged and fragmented available habitats. *****
Pollution is another important cause of extinction. Toxic chemicals—especially chlorinated hydrocarbons, such as dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)—have become concentrated in food webs, the interconnected food chains that circulate energy through an ecosystem. These toxic chemicals strongly affect species near the top of the food chain. Both DDT and PCBs interfere with the calcium metabolism of birds, causing soft-shelled eggs and malformed young. PCBs also impair reproduction in some carnivorous animals. Water pollution and increased water temperatures have wiped out endemic species of fish in many habitats. Oil spills destroy birds, fish, and mammals, and may contaminate the ocean floor for many years after the event. Acid rain, the toxic result of extreme air pollution, has been known to kill organisms in freshwater lakes and destroy large tracts of forested land. *****
Reviewed By:
Reed F. Noss, B.S., M.S., Ph.D.
Research Associate, Center for Conservation Biology, Stanford University. Courtesy Associate Professor, Fisheries and Wildlife Department, Oregon State University. Editor of Conservation Biology.
- - - - -
Pollution, climate change, global warming, deforestation . . . something can be done, using totally green, totally sustainable alternative energy. For more information, please see www.campaignforgreen.com.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Carbon? Why?
World 'needs radical cuts' on CO2
By Tanya Syed
BBC News
Renewable technologies could help arrest climate change
More carbon dioxide needs to be absorbed than emitted by 2050 in order to prevent catastrophic climate change.
That is the conclusion of a report by the Worldwatch Institute which urges bigger cuts in greenhouse emissions.
The authors say that even a rise in temperatures of 2 degrees C poses unacceptable risks to natural systems.
*****
Global greenhouse gas emissions need to peak before 2020 and decrease drastically until 2050, the report says.
More CO2 will have to be absorbed than emitted in the second half of this century.
The report outlines 10 key challenges that must be adopted to avoid catastrophic climate change.
These include long-term planning, global co-operation and innovative solutions such as improved building design incorporating a variety of efficiency measures.
*****
But they add that it is still possible to arrest and manage climate change with renewable technologies and more efficient ways of living.
_____
But does there have to be emissions? What if there were no emissions to cut?
For the answers to those questions, please see www.campaignforgreen.com.
By Tanya Syed
BBC News
Renewable technologies could help arrest climate change
More carbon dioxide needs to be absorbed than emitted by 2050 in order to prevent catastrophic climate change.
That is the conclusion of a report by the Worldwatch Institute which urges bigger cuts in greenhouse emissions.
The authors say that even a rise in temperatures of 2 degrees C poses unacceptable risks to natural systems.
*****
Global greenhouse gas emissions need to peak before 2020 and decrease drastically until 2050, the report says.
More CO2 will have to be absorbed than emitted in the second half of this century.
The report outlines 10 key challenges that must be adopted to avoid catastrophic climate change.
These include long-term planning, global co-operation and innovative solutions such as improved building design incorporating a variety of efficiency measures.
*****
But they add that it is still possible to arrest and manage climate change with renewable technologies and more efficient ways of living.
_____
But does there have to be emissions? What if there were no emissions to cut?
For the answers to those questions, please see www.campaignforgreen.com.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Geopolitics-free Research Into Energy Alternatives
In a recent article----
Gulf Oil States Seeking a Lead in Clean Energy
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
Published: January 12, 2009
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — With one of the highest per capita carbon footprints in the world, these oil-rich emirates would seem an unlikely place for a green revolution.
Gasoline sells for 45 cents a gallon. There is little public transportation and no recycling. Residents drive between air-conditioned apartments and air-conditioned malls, which are lighted 24/7.
Still, the region’s leaders know energy and money, having built their wealth on oil. They understand that oil is a finite resource, vulnerable to competition from new energy sources.
So even as President-elect Barack Obama talks about promoting green jobs as America’s route out of recession, gulf states, including the emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, are making a concerted push to become the Silicon Valley of alternative energy.
They are aggressively pouring billions of dollars made in the oil fields into new green technologies. They are establishing billion-dollar clean-technology investment funds. And they are putting millions of dollars behind research projects at universities from California to Boston to London, and setting up green research parks at home.
“Abu Dhabi is an oil-exporting country, and we want to become an energy-exporting country, and to do that we need to excel at the newer forms of energy,” said Khaled Awad, a director of Masdar, a futuristic zero-carbon city and a research park that has an affiliation with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, that is rising from the desert on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi. *****
The world is now consuming 80 million barrels of oil a day, and that could continue to rise steeply over the coming decades if population and consumption trends continue. That could mean having to add six Saudi Arabias worth of oil output just to keep up, according to Mr. Barker-Homek, at a time when scientists are warning that carbon levels need to be cut significantly to avoid potentially disastrous global warming.
****
For the rest of the world, the enormous cash infusion may provide the important boost experts say is needed to get dozens of emerging technologies — like carbon capture, microsolar and low-carbon aluminum — over the development hump to make them cost-effective.
“The impact has been enormous,” said Michael McGehee, the associate professor at Stanford who received the $25 million Saudi grant. “It has greatly accelerated the development process.”
Director of the largest solar cell research group in the world, Professor McGehee had tried and failed to get money from the United States government or American industries to commercialize cheaper solar cells. Research money is tight, he noted.
With the Saudi money he has hired 16 new researchers and expects the new energy cells to dominate the market by 2015. “People are astonished to see how big this grant is and where it came from,” he said, noting that his past grants from the United States government were one-fiftieth that amount.
Experts say the vast investments from the gulf states have already restarted stalled environmental technologies.
Hooray for them!!!! They are trying to solve problems. Why can't we do that here????? But we can, and for how we can, please see www.campaignforgreen.com for a totally sustainable, totally green energy free of emissions and more cost effective than even the alternatives already available.
Gulf Oil States Seeking a Lead in Clean Energy
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
Published: January 12, 2009
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — With one of the highest per capita carbon footprints in the world, these oil-rich emirates would seem an unlikely place for a green revolution.
Gasoline sells for 45 cents a gallon. There is little public transportation and no recycling. Residents drive between air-conditioned apartments and air-conditioned malls, which are lighted 24/7.
Still, the region’s leaders know energy and money, having built their wealth on oil. They understand that oil is a finite resource, vulnerable to competition from new energy sources.
So even as President-elect Barack Obama talks about promoting green jobs as America’s route out of recession, gulf states, including the emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, are making a concerted push to become the Silicon Valley of alternative energy.
They are aggressively pouring billions of dollars made in the oil fields into new green technologies. They are establishing billion-dollar clean-technology investment funds. And they are putting millions of dollars behind research projects at universities from California to Boston to London, and setting up green research parks at home.
“Abu Dhabi is an oil-exporting country, and we want to become an energy-exporting country, and to do that we need to excel at the newer forms of energy,” said Khaled Awad, a director of Masdar, a futuristic zero-carbon city and a research park that has an affiliation with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, that is rising from the desert on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi. *****
The world is now consuming 80 million barrels of oil a day, and that could continue to rise steeply over the coming decades if population and consumption trends continue. That could mean having to add six Saudi Arabias worth of oil output just to keep up, according to Mr. Barker-Homek, at a time when scientists are warning that carbon levels need to be cut significantly to avoid potentially disastrous global warming.
****
For the rest of the world, the enormous cash infusion may provide the important boost experts say is needed to get dozens of emerging technologies — like carbon capture, microsolar and low-carbon aluminum — over the development hump to make them cost-effective.
“The impact has been enormous,” said Michael McGehee, the associate professor at Stanford who received the $25 million Saudi grant. “It has greatly accelerated the development process.”
Director of the largest solar cell research group in the world, Professor McGehee had tried and failed to get money from the United States government or American industries to commercialize cheaper solar cells. Research money is tight, he noted.
With the Saudi money he has hired 16 new researchers and expects the new energy cells to dominate the market by 2015. “People are astonished to see how big this grant is and where it came from,” he said, noting that his past grants from the United States government were one-fiftieth that amount.
Experts say the vast investments from the gulf states have already restarted stalled environmental technologies.
Hooray for them!!!! They are trying to solve problems. Why can't we do that here????? But we can, and for how we can, please see www.campaignforgreen.com for a totally sustainable, totally green energy free of emissions and more cost effective than even the alternatives already available.
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