Asia

China’s cancer villages

To the Guardian : ” Nationwide, cancer rates have surged since the 1990s to become the nation’s biggest killer. In 2007, the disease was responsible for one in five deaths, up 80% since the start of economic reforms 30 years earlier. ” While the government insists it is cleaning up pollution far faster than other […]

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Can the Chinese nuclear expansion be safe ?

To Yale Environment 360 : “In the wake of the Fukushima meltdowns, some nations are looking to move away from nuclear power. But not China, which is proceeding with plans to build 36 reactors over the next decade. Now some experts are questioning whether China can safely operate a host of nuclear plants.” Indeed, building

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Japan adopts feed-in tariff to boost renewables

To Bloomberg : ” Japan approved a bill today to subsidize electricity from renewable sources, joining European nations in shifting away from nuclear power after the Fukushima reactor meltdowns in March.” ” (…) The bill allows for incentives that guarantee above-market rates for wind, solar and geothermal energy. The so-called feed- in tariff created a

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Good and bad news about nuclear

First, the good ones : To Reuters : ” Significant progress has been made in efforts to contain and stabilise the situation at Fukushima, the head of the United Nations atomic agency said on Friday.” And some bad : To the Wall Street Journal ” EDF announced that its EPR project in Flamanville, France (…)

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Down with coal ! 12 inspiring stories

Coal is the environmental enemy #1. It releases huge amounts of CO2 into our atmosphere and pollutes our soil and water. So when Grist writes on how 12 communities around the world stopped the expansion of coal I had to share. This happens as ” According to 2010 projections by the EIA, coal consumption in

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Five great reforestation projects

While browsing old articles on Sustainablog, I found one that I particularly liked on successful huge reforestation projects. I learned many cool things and thought that was well worth a post. ” Governments, NGOs, and even for-profit companies recognize the environmental and economic losses caused by deforestation, and are working to restore the health of

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Worth an article – my July 2011 tweets

I have been committed since January 2007 to bring you each month a selection of the latest headlines and best researches on sustainable development, climate change and the world energy sector. However, I don’t blog as much as I would like to and generally write around 25 posts per month. But many more news are

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Peak coal to occur in 2027

In a bit more than 15 little years, the entire world may face declining coal production. This was the subject of a post on The Oil Drum. This is a huge problem as to date it accounts for 41 percent of the world’s electricity (IEA 2010). ” World coal production is dominated by China. China’s

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Energy sobriety: Japan shows the example

Further to the Fukushima catastrophe in March, Japan has been decreasing in a massive way its electricity consumption. Indeed, only 17 nuclear reactors are bringing power to the grids out of the 54 existing ones. As the New York Times notes : ” Preliminary figures indicate that regions under conservation mandates have been able to

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Putting the A/C at the right temperature

Air conditioning is a fantastic invention as it allows to remain cool when temperatures are reaching 30°C and even 40°C. However, in many buildings around the world, the A/C is not set at the right temperature. As the New York times noted : “Without fail, every year since moving to Hong Kong, I get a

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