Month: February 2009

Worsening water scarcity crises in China

I was reporting last week that many countries in South Asia are facing water scarcity. And to recent articles I read, it seems that the phenomenon is also witnessed in China as well, but an even more worrying way. An article from the Green Leap Forward brings us great information on that worsening trend. This …

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The price of the Amazon’s protection

One of the latest reports by the WWF is giving a price on the protection of the Amazon rain forest, which represents by itself 40 percent of the global remaining rain forests. Current prices of avoided greenhouse gases emissions and other services  provided by the forest – like erosion protection – aren’t valued enough yet …

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Posters from WWII that could be useful nowadays

We have seen previously that climate change and its many consequences – rising sea levels, decreasing amounts of snow and thus water – could dramatically change and even endanger our lives in a not so distant future. Embracing a more frugal lifestyle would enable us to cut our emissions and pollutions. Some ideas from the …

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Why the Grenelle is a disappointment

On October 2007, the newly elected French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced after weeks of talks an important series of measures to make France a more sustainable country. This was the Grenelle de l’Environnement. But after months, only one conclusion comes to mind: the Grenelle is a disappointment, and this even with the billions of investments …

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Home insulation gets the attention it deserves

I have been advocating for three years now the thermal insulation of buildings as one of the best ways to decrease our global fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gases emissions. This week, the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States plan to insulate millions of buildings. These operations will be financed by the local governments …

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Water scarcity in South Asia

The latest UNEP publication is stressing the importance of water issues in South Asia (from Iran to India and Bangladesh), a region accounting for a fourth of human population but only a twentieth of the planet’s freshwater resources. Among the main threats are over-exploitation, pollution, high population growth and the lack of cooperation between neighboring …

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The end of nuclear waste ? Part II

Last week I wrote about a technology that decreases the amount of radioactive waste by hybridizing fission and fusion. Now comes another breakthrough as TerraPower prepares to launch reactors using depleted uranium. Such material would lead to lower risks of nuclear proliferation. Additionally, the amount of uranium on Earth could last centuries or even millennium …

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China will burn coal (a little) more efficiently

According to Clean Tech, China will close down 31 GW of inefficient coal-fired plants and will replace them by cleaner and more efficient ones. This has to be compared with the 792.5 GW of coal plants at the end of 2008 in the country. Previously applied, such measures enabled the country to decrease the amount …

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Towards sustainability: electricity

For the second part of this series – the first one was on heating – we are having a look at electricity consumption of households and the various ways we can decrease it. This will enable you to have lower energy bills – always a good thing with the hard times we have – to …

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20,000 leagues under the sea with Google

I already noted how Google is preoccupied by the environment and how it is investing in renewables. This commitment becomes more concrete with the new Google Earth which enables to learn on oceans’ environmental issues. Among the partners of this project are the Cousteau Society and the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural …

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