Sustainable development

France seeks alternatives to GDP

Gross Domestic Product, also know as GDP, is not a sustainable indicator. Indeed it only focuses on the economy and makes no mention of societies and environment. So we need alternatives that would take that into account. This is even more urgent with the current economic downturn. Indeed, even if things are slowly and difficultly […]

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An interesting geoengineering idea

I was previously noting that  the Sahara desert is slowly turning green. To a new study hurrying the process and extending it to the Australian outback by planting eucalyptus trees (left) could absorb our global CO2 emissions. Indeed this geoengineering idea would absorb eight billion tons of carbon a year. But we shouldn’t forget that

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Book Review: Sustainable energy – without the hot air

I finished reading this weekend a book I strongly recommend to anyone interested by sustainable development and energy as it is packed with figures and findings that are due to start discussions among CleanTechies. One of the main findings of this book is that electrifying our cars and installing heat pumps in our buildings would

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Deforestation in Brazil decreases by 46 percent

To the pictures taken by satellites the annual rate of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest have dropped by no less than 46 percent this year. If these figures were confirmed by ground data this would prove significant. These figures are the lowest since record keeping begun 21 years ago and can be explained by the

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Worth an article – my August 2009 tweets

Since I don’t have 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, I had

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UK considers High Speed Rail project

High speed rail is a fantastic sustainable alternative to cars and planes for longer distances. This is why countries such as Spain, China or the United States are currently working or plan to work on such projects. Due to halve the time necessary to link by train the capital to cities like Edinburg, Glasgow or

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Could the US tax more gasoline ?

It is a well known fact, US gasoline tax is ridiculously low compared to many countries in the European Union and other nations. The table on the left brings data from the OECD on this. US drivers pay less than 10 euro cents per liter of tax when their German, British, Italian, French or Turkish

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Is waste to energy a good idea ?

There is a lot of buzz going on about waste to energy as many cities are thinking about it. Meanwhile, a CleanTechies’ member started a most interesting series on the matter and one of my follower on Twitter wonders if it should be supported. Personally I think we should reduce, reuse and recycle first –

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Can natural gas be an alternative to coal ?

I read in The Daily Green an article on how natural gas could be a solution to environmental and energy issues in the United States as it emits half the carbon dioxide of coal and roughly 25 percent less than oil. Another advantage of this fossil fuel is that there are ample reserves in America

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Asian nations working on reforestation

India is known for planting thousands of trees in single days but it seems that Pakistan is also working on massive afforestation projects as it planted no less than 541,176 trees in 24 hours. Meanwhile, Bangladesh is ready to invest billions in environmental protection and received $19 million from Germany and the United States for

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