Interview: Al Gore explains how you can fight global warming

Interview: Al Gore explains how you can fight global warming: Is an interview of Al Gore about what people can do to decrease their carbon emissions, and steps individuals can take to fight global warming. An Inconvenient Truth

A study on the real cost of food

The real cost of a bag of salad: You pay 99p. Africa pays 50 litres of fresh water goes into the real cost of cheap groceries shipped from halfway around the world. More and more every product, from groceries on upward, is shipped around a global free market. The high lord muckety mucks who make all the decisions seem to think free trade is the solution to all economic problems. But what of other problems it creates?

In this specific case the article discusses the issue of groceries. For example, a bag of lettuce, grown halfway across the world, and shipped to your grocery store, and hopefully you'll remember to eat it before it rots. Maybe that lettuce is grown, as the article suggests, in a farming region where water is a scarce commodity, like Kenya. It may cost you a dollar to buy that bag of lettuce, but it costs the farmer 50 liters of water, and then there's the transportation and preparation costs and resources expenditures.

The article focusses primarily on water resources. One of the growing worldwide problems is maintaining water supplies for everything people are doing. But one should remember as you look at the article, hand in hand with water supply issues is oil and energy supply problems.

For example ... In Egypt, vegetables have become such an important export that the government has threatened military action against any country upstream that dams the Nile or its tributaries. Maintaining water supply threatens world peace.

For example ... Almost everybody in Europe who has eaten Kenyan beans or Kenyan strawberries or gazed at Kenyan roses has bought Naivasha water. It is sucking the lake dry. Naivasha is a lake in Kenya that's beeing overutilized to provide water for a range of uses. Water abuse is causing environmental degradation.

Transport and environment: facing a dilemma

The European Environment Agency (part of the EU) has published a study about transportaion, pollution, and economics titled Transport and environment: facing a dilemma.

Green Car Congress has a summary: European Environment Agency Report on the Transportation Dilemma

It goes into a 23% increase in greenhouse emissions from transportation since 1990, in Europe. Those increases have largely offset decreases in greenhouse emissions from other sectors. Since that puts at risk meeting the Kyoto meeting goals on greenhouse emissions reduction, they're
looking at several angles of transportation and reduction of emissions in that sector.

They give these key messages:

Freight transport volumes grow with no clear signs of decoupling from GDP

More goods are transported farther and more frequently. This results in increased CO2 emissions and slows the decline in air pollutant emissions. Relative decoupling of growth in freight volumes from economic growth has only been achieved in the EU-10, where the growth in GDP exceeds the high growth in transport volume.

Passenger transport volumes have paralleled economic growth

Passenger transport volumes have grown in most Member States. Relative decoupling has been achieved in only five new EU Member States. It is, however, likely that with time development in the EU-10 will parallel the older ones.

Greenhouse gas emissions from transport are growing

Transport's energy consumption (and their emission of greenhouse gases) are increasing steadily because transport volumes are growing faster than the energy efficiency of different means of transport. The increase in greenhouse gas emissions from transport threatens European progress towards its Kyoto targets. Therefore, additional policy initiatives and instruments are needed.

Harmful emissions decline, but air quality problems require continued attention

Transport, especially road transport, is becoming cleaner because of increasingly strict emission standards for the different transport modes. Nevertheless, air quality in cities does not yet meet the limit values set by European regulation and still has a major negative impact on human health.

Road freight continues to gain market share

Road transport has gained a greater and rising share of the freight market. This development constitutes a move farther away from the EU objective of stabilising the share at its 1998 level. At present, there are policy initiatives aimed at a modal shift for long-distance and large-scale transport.

Air passenger transport grows, while the share of road and rail remain constant

Changing the modal split towards rail transport and away from passenger cars is not being achieved. There are still no signs of this common transport policy goal being met. Both modes are growing at the same rate as total passenger transport volume. In addition, the share of aviation is increasing whereas the share of bus and coach is decreasing.

Developments in fuels contribute to emission reductions

All countries where data are currently available have met the 2005 limit value for low sulphur content in road transport fuels. The remaining ones are expected to hit their targets as well. In addition, some countries have already achieved the 2009 target on zero sulphur fuels. Moreover, steps towards sulphur reduction are being taken in other modes. However, much work remains to be done.

The share of biofuels is increasing, although currently reported shares are below the targets of the biofuels directive.

Car occupancy and lorry load factors decline in countries for which data are available

There are few data available on occupancy rates and load factors. Data for those countries show average occupancy rates for passenger cars are lower than a decade ago. Growing car ownership, the decreasing average size of households and disperse spatial patterns are the main causes for low occupancy rates. The limited data available also show a trend towards poorer use of heavy goods vehicle capacity. Apparently, the higher transport costs, resulting from lower utilisation, are exceeded by benefits such as reduced production costs. A reverse of these market trends could reduce environmental impact.

New technology can cut emissions and fuel consumption, but more effort is needed to achieve CO2 targets

New engine and vehicle technologies have entered the market, reducing pollutant emissions and improving fuel efficiency. Although the fuel efficiency of passenger cars has improved in recent years, more effort is required from car manufacturers to meet the goals of the voluntary CO2 commitment. Additional effort will be required by all stakeholders to bring the Community's objective of 120 g of CO2/km within reach.

Price structures are increasingly aligned with and yet well below external costs level

There are a number of initiatives to align price structures better with the external impact of transport. However, transport prices are generally well below the marginal social cost level. This is resulting in over-consumption of transport. Further improvement of transport pricing is an opportunity to better balance the benefits and negative impacts of transport.

Do you know what you're drinking?

Water contamination can have a negative affect on the health of you and your family. The effects may be immediate or long term. A USGS survey found that 70% of private wells were contaminated. EPA recommends that you test for a minimum of coliform bacteria, nitrate and lead, even if you have public water.

A simple water test can restore your confidence in the safety of you and your family. More importantly, testing may reveal contaminants that you have unknowingly been living with for many years.

Suburban Water Testing labs offers an extensive array of tests that can be performed. The tests come in various cost levels. This is information which can give you peace of mind.

Save the Rainforest! Buy a tree!

Here's an idea that ought to appeal to everyone. Rainforest Forever is selling trees in the Amazon rainforest. Or, more specifically, what they're selling is the timber rights. By buying up timber rights, you'll gaurantee some section of the rain forest does not get logged.

What you receive is a certificate and GPS coordinates for your tree.

Why should you care? Why should you buy protection for trees? Here's a few of the reasons they offer:

• The Rainforest Helps Us Breath
• The Rainforest has been shown to contain medicines that could heal the sick
• The Rainforest supports a huge abundance of life, and represents great biodiversity

Ultra motors display electric vehicles, launch later this year .:. NewKerala - India's Top Online Newspaper

Why is it that India has multiple companies building electric vehicles, and in the U.S. it's so difficult to find any for purchase?

Ultra motors display electric vehicles, launch later this year discusses a new company which has developed both a two-wheeler and three-wheeler electric vehicles. The three-wheeler is for demonstration, runs at 50 km per hour carrying a load of 500kg for 100km on single charge, and shows that the technology is not only affordable, clean and quiet but that it is scalable to heavy-duty applications.

In India the phrase "two-wheeler" means a motorcycle or scooter. The phrase "three-wheeler" is a sort of vehicle which doesn't exist in the U.S. I have a picture in an earlier article about plans by Mahindra (another Indian car company) to produce electric three-wheelers.

Ultra Motors is an English company. It's possible their plans are for offshored production in India and to distribute the vehicles worldwide. At the speeds quoted above, the three-wheeler is suitable only for congested urban areas (of which India has many).

Oooohh... this is more interesting than I thought as they've developed a nice hub motor.

Beluga Shipping to Try “Wind Hybrid” Kite Propulsion Assist for Cargo Vessel

Here's an interesting idea:  Attach a large kite to a cargo vessel, using the kite similarly to a sail.  It will decrease the fuel required to move the ship.  With decreased fuel you have decreased pollution, especially important as ocean ships tend to use the dirtiest of diesel fuel available.

Now, why use a kite?  Why not use a regular sail?  First, this system can be retrofitted onto existing ships very easily.  Second, there's a technical advantage in that a ship using a kite does not "heel" in heavy wind, keeping the ship and crew safer.

See: Beluga Shipping to Try “Wind Hybrid” Kite Propulsion Assist for Cargo Vessel

Company: Skysails