Author name: Edouard

Edouard is an experienced sustainability and energy professional committed to bringing our societies to a carbon neutral future. He has been writing on related topics on this very blog since 2007.

Retrofitting the Empire State Building

What happens when organizations like the Clinton Foundation and the Rocky Mountain Institute work together ? Answer: they retrofit the Empire State Building. This will cut by the energy consumption by 40 percent. Built during the 1930s to create thousands of jobs and answer the economic crisis, its $20 million retrofit will occur as we […]

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Why renewable energies aren’t that sustainable

Even if I am an advocate of an increased use of renewable energy sources I am fully aware of their drawbacks. To me, they don’t constitute the panacea most people claim they are. After my posts on why renewables aren’t perfect solutions and the climate change mitigation paradox I would like to share with you

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Can we cut by 40% our GHG emissions by 2020 ?

When the IPCC published its various reports in 2007 it concluded that to avoid dramatic climate changes, cutting by as far as 40 percent greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions could be necessary. This contrast heavily with the targets the United States and the European Union set as they are closer to 20 than to 40 percent.

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On environmental issues at the G20

The 20 leading countries in terms of economy – aka the G20 – met today in London and little was said about environmental issues. This is a problem as the Group’s population accounts for 2/3 of the total and 85 percent of the GDP. This appears quite well by reading TreeHugger and George Monbiot’s article

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A look at the main future automotive technologies

With peak oil approaching, alternatives are being sought to power our cars. From hybrids to biofuels and from electricity to algae, the possibilities are numerous. Terra Eco, a French magazine, published recently an article on this very topic and the least we can say is that the findings are interesting. Cars in 10 or 20

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Pictures of Earth Hour: how we waste energy

Earth Hour was a tremendous success as many people participated. Cities turned down the lights of  their monuments and the pictures of the event are amazing and totally illustrate how much energy and money we could save. The Boston Globe proposed a series of 17  great pictures illustrating the phenomenon. Instead of turning down all

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Over three billion trees planted !

After reaching the one billion mark in 2007, the UNEP decided to plant seven billion around the world before the Copenhagen meeting which will decide of the future of the Kyoto Protocol. The Billion Tree Campaign announced today that over three billion trees had been planted for the operation. Worldwide, people of all conditions keep

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Great astrophotographies – March 2009

This is that time of the month: the one for me to present my selection of the best pictures of the NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD). I would like to give this a special emphasis on Mars, as I finished the Martian Trilogy. As always, this month was packed with beautiful images and

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Tonight is Earth Hour

Tonight at 8.30 pm local time it will be Earth Hour. This event launched by the WWF is promoting awareness on global warming. Many cities and companies all around the world will participate. Last year no less than 50 million people switched their lights off for the occasion. This year, the NGO is targeting one

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Worth an article: my March 2009 tweets

Since I don’t have that much time to blog, I restrain myself to publishing here around 25 articles per month. However, many more great news are worth reading and blogging about. My goal being to provide you with the latest headlines and best researches on sustainable development, climate change and the world energy sector ,

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