On a per capita basis and including our fossil fuel exports, Australia is the developed country with the highest greenhouse gas pollution. Thus 2004 data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) reveal that “annual per capita fossil fuel-derived CO2 pollution” in tonnes CO2/person is 19.2 (for Australia; 40 if you include Australia’s coal exports), 19.7 (the US), 18.4 (Canada), 9.9 (Japan), 4.2 (the World), 3.6 (China), 1.0 ( India) and 0.25 (for Bangladesh).

The Rudd Labor commitment to “20% renewables by 2020″, “60% reduction on 2000 greenhouse gas pollution by 2050″ and no constraint on fossil fuel extraction for export ACTUALLY means (based on EIA data, assuming current constant coal, gas and CO2 pollution growth rates, constant population and including Australia’s fossil fuel EXPORTS) “annual per capita fossil fuel-derived CO2 emission in tonnes per person per year” of 43 (2007), 56 (2020) and 65 (2050).

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As feared the negotiations on Bali are going slow. This is mostly because of the fact that USA, Japan and Canada are trying to block 2020 targets for emission reductions. If you don’t like that these three countries will wreck the Bali climate conference you can sign a petition over at Avaaz.org calling for these countries to stop messing around.

Climate negotiations in Bali are in crisis. Things were looking good till now: near-consensus on a delicate deal, including 2020 targets for rich countries, in return for which China and the developing world would do their part over time. IPCC scientists have said such targets are needed to prevent catastrophe. But Japan, the US and Canada are banding together to wreck the deal, and the rest of the world is starting to waver…

We can’t let three stubborn governments throw away the planet’s future. We have until the end of Friday to do everything we can. Please sign our emergency global petition below — we’ll deliver it through stunts at the summit, a full-page ad in the Jakarta Post in Asia, and directly to country delegates to stiffen their nerve against any bad compromise. Add your name to the campaign below now!

68,599 have signed in 12 hours.
Update: 169,399 have signed in 45 hours

http://www.avaaz.org/en/bali_emergency/5.php?cl=42366443&signup=1

It wasn’t long ago since Western Digital teamed up with Kanguru in marketing a green hard drive for consumers and businesses. Now Western Digital is releasing a 500GB “green” hard drive that uses 30 percent less power than other hard drives.

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Today the government in UK unveiled plans to build around 7000 wind turbines off the coast of Britain. According to John Hutton, the Secretary of State for Business, these wind turbines would generate enough electricity for every home in the UK by year 2020.

The new wind farms would not just create 33 gigawatts of clean electricity it would also create jobs and boost the economy by making the UK’s wind industry two times the size of any other countries.

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Al Gore’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in Oslo, Norway:

Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Honorable members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen.

I have a purpose here today. It is a purpose I have tried to serve for many years. I have prayed that God would show me a way to accomplish it.

Sometimes, without warning, the future knocks on our door with a precious and painful vision of what might be. One hundred and nineteen years ago, a wealthy inventor read his own obituary, mistakenly published years before his death. Wrongly believing the inventor had just died, a newspaper printed a harsh judgment of his life’s work, unfairly labeling him “The Merchant of Death” because of his invention – dynamite. Shaken by this condemnation, the inventor made a fateful choice to serve the cause of peace.

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This past Saturday it was Climate Walks! Climate Walks is a global demonstration day for the climate. It is being held in thousands of cities in nearly 100 different countries on the same day.

In Berlin, Germany, around 1500-2000 people demonstrated. In London over 10 000 people joined up. In Belgium around 3500 people demonstrated around the EU headquarter. In Sweden demonstrations were held in all major cities. In Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, around 1000-1200 people demonstrated, in the rain and cold, against the inaction against climate change.

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CoolEarth Solar have patented a design for inflatable solar collectors that, according to the company, are about 400 times cheaper than the more expensive and ordinary polished aluminium mirrors. If their statistics turns out to be correct this will be a huge economic breakthrough for solar power.

Their design is 400x cheaper than polished aluminum mirrors, will withstand 130 mph winds, lasts a year, repairs with tape, takes 15 minutes to change out, costs $2 per balloon, or 18 cents per watt, compared to $5 per watt for conventional installations, and has a minimal effect on the ground underneath the array!

Learn more about these inflatable solar panels by watching the video after the jump. Read the rest of this story »