All posts by bujinkan

Buy Back the Climate

climate change, green, green living

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“According to the Kyoto Protocol countries and corporations can trade their CO2 quotas. This means that the right to pollute can be allocated to those willing to pay.

The more CO2 quotas we buy – the more expensive it gets for the industry to pollute with CO2. Hopefully, this will make them rethink the continued use of fusil fuels. Let’s buy back our climate!”

CO2QUOTA.ORG IS A WEB-BASED NGO
The idea is simple. Together we can buy the CO2 quotas of the world in order to own them without using them.
By offsetting the CO2 quotas we limit the emission of CO2 and prevent global warming.

HOW DOES IT WORK?
We buy CO2 Quotas from the world and instead of using the quotas we issue a certificate corresponding
to the size of the quota and sell it to you. In this way the quota is never used.

What’s the guaranty that the quotas aren’t used anyway? Our accounts are audited by Deloitte.
All our revenue will be used to maximize purchase of CO2 quotas.

WHO IS BEHIND?
We are a small group of environment-friendly people from Denmark believing in the opportunities
of the internet. The internet enables people to communicate. The internet democratizes the world.
In other words: The internet gives people a voice and a platform for action and participation.

[CO2quota.org]

Foam Flush Toilets

eco-friendly products, green, green living

The author of ‘Poop Culture‘ shares his thoughts on some new, eco-friendly flushers:

“The restrooms are bright, airy, and plastered with infographics explaining the benefits of the Clivus Multrum foam flush toilets. Instead of flushing with 1.6 gallons of water, these toilets generate a biocompatible foam to lubricate the bowl and wash your waste down into the compost receptacle below. It uses just three ounces of water — 98.5% less than a normal toilet. According to Clivus Multrum, this facility will handle over 500,000 people a year and save over a million gallons of water.”

“The architecture was great, the place was sparkling, and everything about the experience was top-notch — except when it came to flushing the toilet. Whenever I’m in a public toilet, my inclination is to flush with my foot. That’s what my dad taught me, and the lesson stuck. No matter how clean-smelling these toilets may be, they’re still public toilets, and public toilets are disgusting. No one wants to touch anything in a public toilet. And yet:

“I didn’t want to touch the toilet lid, which I had to move to access the flush button. And I certainly didn’t want to touch the flush button — never mind touching it twice, as the sign implores. Enlightened pooper though I may be, I can only imagine all the disgusting fingers that have been jabbing into that hole — fingers that have just swiped toilet paper across a dirty butt, but have not yet been cleansed with soap and water.”

[PoopCulture]

USDA: Ethanol-driven feed costs cut U.S. meat output

current events, ethanol, fo' real?, mnp is for the aminals, news, uh oh

High feed costs, created by the explosive growth of the fuel ethanol industry, will lower U.S. beef and broiler chicken output this year by a quarter billion lbs from earlier forecasts, the U.S. government said on Friday.

The Agriculture Department said beef output would dip by 62 million lbs and chicken by 124 million lbs from last month’s estimate, with total red meat and poultry production forecast for 90.359 billion lbs. Cattle, hog and poultry feeders say abrupt increases in feed costs — predominantly corn — are squeezing their operations.

[ScientificAmerican]

Climate scientist ‘duped to deny global warming’

climate change, current events, fo' real?, green, science

A Leading US climate scientist is considering legal action after he says he was duped into appearing in a Channel 4 documentary that claimed man-made global warming is a myth. Carl Wunsch, professor of physical oceanography at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said the film, The Great Global Warming Swindle, was ‘grossly distorted’ and ‘as close to pure propaganda as anything since World War Two’.

He says his comments in the film were taken out of context and that he would not have agreed to take part if he had known it would argue that man-made global warming was not a serious threat. ‘I thought they were trying to educate the public about the complexities of climate change,’ he said. ‘This seems like a deliberate attempt to exploit someone who is on the other side of the issue.’ He is considering a complaint to Ofcom, the broadcast regulator.

[Rawstory/TheObserver]

EU leaders to make Europe change lightbulbs

climate change, current events, eco-friendly products, green, green living, policy, sustainable architecture

BRUSSELS – European homes, offices and streets will have to use energy-efficient lighting by the end of the decade, EU leaders decided on Friday.

The decision to order a massive switchover that will affect the lives of all the European Union’s 490 million citizens came at a summit of the 27-nation bloc as part of an ambitious green energy policy to fight climate change.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who chaired the summit, told a news conference: “We’re not saying people should throw out all the bulbs in their house today but people should start looking at what’s in the shops.

The leaders asked the executive European Commission to come up with proposals for saving power in office and street lighting by 2008 and in homes by 2009.

[Reuters]

Human-powered gyms in Hong Kong

clean businesses, current events, fo' real?, green, green living, news, renewable energy, science, sustainable architecture

French inventor Lucien Gambarota and Wharton grad and entrepreneur Doug Woodring are bringing clean, sustainable energy to the gym using good old-fashioned manpower. The two have joined forces with Hong Kong’s California Fitness, a subsidiary of 24 Hour Fitness Worldwide, to launch a revolutionary concept in which energy burned off by exercisers is diverted and converted to power lighting fixtures, while excess energy is stored in a battery. The gym’s 13 step, cycling and cross-training machines in the “Powered by YOU” program are popular with members. As gym member Rita Wong states, “It’s very good motivation. You can watch yourself burning fat to turn on the light.”

[Inhabitat]

Navarra embraces green energy

biofuel, current events, fo' real?, green, green living, policy, renewable energy, solar, wind

“At the moment, less than 7% of Europe’s needs are covered by wind power, biofuels or solar energy.

But in the Navarra region, in north-eastern Spain, almost 70% of the electricity comes from the wind and the sun.

You do not have to look far in Navarra to see a windmill. Not the sort that Don Quixote fought, but the hi-tech turbines that provide much of the electricity here.

With no coal, oil or gas of its own, this mountainous region deliberately went for renewable energy in the late 1980s.  The first wind farm was built in full view of the regional capital Pamplona, so that people could get used to it.

Now, with some 1,100 windmills dotted all over Navarra, this tiny region is capable of generating more electricity from renewable sources than big EU countries like France or Poland.”

[BBC News]

Memos Tell Officials How to Discuss Climate

climate change, current events, fo' real?, green, not-so-green, policy, uh oh

Internal memorandums circulated in the Alaskan division of the Federal Fish and Wildlife Service appear to require government biologists or other employees traveling in countries around the Arctic not to discuss climate change, polar bears or sea ice if they are not designated to do so.

In December, the Bush administration, facing a deadline under a suit by environmental groups, proposed listing polar bears throughout their range as threatened under the Endangered Species Act because the warming climate is causing a summertime retreat of sea ice that the bears use for seal hunting.

Environmentalists are trying to use such a listing to force the United States to restrict heat-trapping gases that scientists have linked to global warming as a way of limiting risks to the 22,000 or so bears in the far north.

It remains unclear whether such a listing will be issued. The Fish and Wildlife Service this week held the first of several hearings in Alaska and Washington on the question.

Over the past week, biologists and wildlife officials received a cover note and two sample memorandums to be used as a guide in preparing travel requests. Under the heading “Foreign Travel — New Requirement — Please Review and Comply, Importance: High,” the cover note said:

“Please be advised that all foreign travel requests (SF 1175 requests) and any future travel requests involving or potentially involving climate change, sea ice and/or polar bears will also require a memorandum from the regional director to the director indicating who’ll be the official spokesman on the trip and the one responding to questions on these issues, particularly polar bears.”

The sample memorandums, described as to be used in writing travel requests, indicate that the employee seeking permission to travel “understands the administration’s position on climate change, polar bears, and sea ice and will not be speaking on or responding to these issues.”

Electronic copies of the memorandums and cover note were forwarded to The New York Times by Deborah Williams, an environmental campaigner in Alaska and a former Interior Department official in the Clinton administration.

“This sure sounds like a Soviet-style directive to me,” Ms. Williams said.

[NYTimes]

EU agrees on renewable energy target

current events, green, news, policy, renewable energy

European Union leaders have agreed to adopt a binding target on the use of renewable energy, such as wind and solar power, officials say.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Europe was now able to lead the way on climate change.

The 27 EU states will each decide how they contribute to meeting a 20% boost overall in renewable fuel use by 2020.

The measures could include a ban on filament light bulbs by 2010, forcing people to switch to fluorescent bulbs.

The bulbs last longer but more are more expensive to buy.

In another key measure, agreed on Thursday, EU leaders said they would cut carbon dioxide emissions by 20% from 1990 levels by 2020.

[BBC News]