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.

Shuting down PCs at night could save billions

An article on TreeHugger caught my attention as it explained that half US employees – and similar figures in other countries – don’t turn off their computers at the end of their work day. The potential savings are impressive. In America: $2.8 billion, in the United Kingdom $420 million and Germany $1.2 billion. That’s right, […]

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More and more support for nuclear

Times they are a-changin’ sung Bob Dylan. This is true as after years of despisal more and more people – even environmentalists  previously against such solutions – support nuclear as a way to avoid dramatic climate change. This became apparent as Sweden stated it won’t stop as planned its nuclear plants next year and will

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The imperative of a Green New Deal

A recent Financial Times article caught my attention as it was written by both two eminent economists: Joseph Stiglitz and Nicholas Stern. This alone would represent an important event. But the topic was even more interesting as it is an important call for action to tackle both the economic downturn and the climate change crisis.

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Rain forests suffer from climate change

Rain forests around the world already suffer largely from deforestation. Now, another large threat is appearing as climate change leads to less water and thus less trees. Both the Indonesian and the Amazonian rain forests are at threat. This phenomenon will lead to even more climate change. This article will show how critical sound forests

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Assessing and ending light pollution

Light pollution is a major problem for astronomers in most if not all countries (see map) . But for the International Year of Astronomy this may change with the following initiative. Globe at Night allows astronomers to easily assess the phenomenon with a series of charts. By watching the Orion Constellation, it is simple to

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The motivating example of the Montreal Protocol

In 1988 was signed the Montreal Protocol, which restricted the use of CFC – ChloroFluoroCarbons – gases that harm the ozone layer, our sole protection against UV rays. To the NASA this was a tremendous success as large troubles have been avoided. Without this success, our world could suffer of massive DNA mutations induced by

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Did oil production peaked in 2008 ?

To this article of the Oil Drum world oil production peaked in 2008. Even if there is no 100 percent certainty, such a fact could represent another sign of the end of the world as we see it. Indeed, after the increasing global pressure on water resources, massive pollution and climate change, peak oil is

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The fifth World Water Forum

This week in Istanbul, Turkey, around 15,000 water specialists are meeting for the fifth World Water Forum. This occurs as water scarcity is increasing and is due to keep on doing so around the world. With the goal of bridging divides over water, this forum will tackle international issues as water scarcity is at the

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Why CCS won’t solve the climate change problem

The French magazine Science et Vie published this month a most interesting article on why Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) won’t be able to deliver all its promises of mitigating climate change. Indeed to many international scientific experts putting carbon to the ground is too risky, too expansive, too little and… too late ! This

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Blue Mars, by Kim Stanley Robinson

I finished in January the last part of the Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars Trilogy. After two months I still keep thinking about this book and its great plot, fantastic characters and awesome story telling. If my favorite book for 2007 was Collapse, there is no doubt  that the Mars Trilogy will be the books I

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