Last week the UK firmly threw its hat into the fusion ring with the UK Company AWE joining the National Ignition Facility (NIF) based in the US to push for energy’s Holy Grail: nuclear fusion. If fusion can be harnessed and surplus energy is harvested over and above the vast amounts of energy needed to stabilise and sustain the reaction then the long sought silver bullet, we are told, will be here. The promise of limitless clean fusion energy within fifty year, which has probably been around for fifty years is nearly here.
But, and this is the largest ‘but’ I will ever type, the technology still has some immense hurdles to cross yet.
Read the rest of this story »
Helle Thorning-Schmidt is the leader of the Danish Social Democrats and Prime Minister of Denmark.
On Thursday the 15th of September 2011 the Danish right wing government of the past decade lost its slim majority. The former opposition is currently negotiating the alliance of a new government which looks like it will be more green than red.
From 2001 and until recently, Denmark was run by a liberal-conservative government supported by a far right nationalist party. Although holding a narrow majority of seats in parliament, this constellation pulled through a constant flow of tax breaks and privatizations made possible by feeding the Danish People’s Party lumps of – excuse me – xenophobic policies in turn for their votes. This dictatorship of a majority if there ever was one – more often than not, the remaining near-half of parliament was held from influence – is set to end, it appears, not to be replaced by a corresponding red block of parties.
Read the rest of this story »
24 presenters from 24 time zones in 13 languages with 1 message.
The 24 Hours of Reality event is now live! The Climate Reality Project, founded by Al Gore in 2006, will over the course of the day showcase presentations, in 13 languages, from all over the world about the reality of the climate crisis. They started the live broadcast in Mexico City and every hour they will move on to a new location such as the French Polynesia, London, Beijing, New York, Islamabad and many other cities. At the moment they are in Canberra, Australia, talking about how extreme weather is impacting the country. Over 2 million people have currently tuned in to the live broadcast.
You can watch the live stream below:
Read the rest of this story »
I read an article last week, which suggested that Warren Buffett, America’s richest man WANTS the IRS to charge him more tax. I initially decided that either the summer heat must be getting to me and I’m seeing things or that Mr Buffett had just visited Amsterdam or something! Billionaires arguing about paying more tax! aren’t you guys supposed to complain about the “insidious tax burden” they face having to pay 2-5% of annual earnings in tax, against the 30-50% the rest of us pay (once you factor in VAT, rates, income tax, National Insurance, etc). Then I hear about several French Billionaires wanting to do the same thing! What is our crazy world coming too!
Read the rest of this story »
A few days ago I wrote about Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry, the three front-runners in the Republican primary, and just where they stand politically when it comes to our climate and environment. As one can imagine their anti-science positions and climate skepticism didn’t result in a very positive environmental record. Now one of the more unknown Republican candidates in the primary have spoken out against his fellow Republican party members for their anti-science rhetoric.
It’s the former Utah Governor and former Ambassador to China, Jon Huntsman who said in an interview on ABC’s This Week this past Sunday that the climate change skepticism coming from Romney, Bachmann and Perry is “not a winning formula” saying he “wouldn’t necessarily trust any” of his opponents.
Read the rest of this story »
The Tangshanpeng wind farm in China.
The Chinese government recently declared that they are intending on placing a cap on their annual carbon emissions which will allow the individual provinces in China to regulate and plan their emissions more effectively. The hope is that this cap will provide a stable enough environment for the government to then introduce an inaugural carbon trading scheme which will further help push emissions down and generate capital to be invested in carbon mitigation schemes and renewable technologies. The introduction of a cap and trade scheme is hoped to reduce carbon emissions by between 40-45% below 2005 by 2020.
Read the rest of this story »
Manhattan Anti-Fracking rally, NYC, on June 25, 2011. Photo credit:
Adrian KinlochThe atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration is now 394 parts per million (ppm) but top climate scientists and biologists say that it must be urgently reduced to about 300 ppm for a safe and sustainable planet for all peoples and all species (for details simply Google 300.org or 300 ppm CO2). However the World is now undergoing a coal to gas transition, a gas rush and a gas boom, with gas derived from conventional on-shore and off-shore sources and also from shale deposits and shallower coal seams that are being subject to hydraulic fracturing or “fracking”. Because methane (85% of natural gas) leaks (3.3% US average, up to 7.9% from fracking) and is 105 times worse as a greenhouse gas (GHG) on a 20 year time frame with aerosol impacts included, a coal to gas transition represents a huge threat to a World that must get to zero greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution by about 2050 if it is to avoid a disastrous 2 degree Centigrade temperature rise. Read the rest of this story »
