Aid only trickles to Pakistan’s monsoon disaster.

August 18, 2010

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) — Pakistan is reeling from a natural disaster affecting 20 million people but relief groups say donors have been painfully slow in helping.

When a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti in January, donors responded with $13 billion in aid. Within 24 hours Hollywood mega-stars like George Clooney, Madonna, Tom Cruise and Beyonce had signed up for a telethon to raise money for Haiti’s quake victims.

By contrast nearly three weeks after flood waters inundated one-fifth of Pakistan, the United Nations has collected roughly half of the $460 million it has called for to meet the immediate needs of 20 million flood victims.

This week Oscar winner and U.N. goodwill ambassador Angelina Jolie made a high-profile plea to ask the international community to give more aid to Pakistan.

Pakistan’s flood-affected areas

Pakistan flood: Before and after

“Hopefully there are a lot of people ready to give money,” Jolie told British television network ITN.

Aid workers and analysts say there are several possibilities why governments, individual donors and celebrities are not giving to Pakistan the way they’ve done with other disasters. None, they add, is a good excuse.

The relatively low death toll — roughly 1,500 killed — may have created the impression that Pakistan’s floods are not as severe as the Haiti quake and the Indian Ocean Tsunami where tens of thousands were instantly killed.

U.N. officials say the death toll in Pakistan’s floods belies the desperate and often life-threatening conditions of the 20 million victims. Many of them have lost their homes, their belongings and their sources of income.

Analysts say governments may also be suffering from “donor fatigue” with Pakistan. For years now Pakistan has been on a seemingly constant round of donor needs — money to revive its feeble economy, fight the Taliban, recover from the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, the 2009 refugee crisis and now these floods.

“A donor never gets fatigued,” Islamabad-based political analyst Mosharraf Zaidi told CNN.

“A donor, just as an idea, is not about ‘I’m fresh so I’ll give.’ You don’t give because you’re fresh. You give because of humanity.”

There’s also the perception that Pakistan is run by corrupt politicians and the aid won’t get to those who need it.

This week Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani insisted all aid would be transparent. Aid professionals say if you don’t trust the Pakistani government, then give to an international aid group you do trust.

“There are so many ways people can give that doesn’t have to be rooted in the government if that was a concern,” said OXFAM’s country director in Pakistan, Neva Khan.

Aid groups and analysts say the worst excuse not to give is the perception among many in the west that Pakistan is just not a good place, a country full of militants. It’s an image reinforced by the media’s obsession with extremism in Pakistan, says Mosharraf Zaidi.

“I think that coverage is fundamentally one of great reasons why it’s been hard for people to reach into their wallet.”

The cooling global economy may also have governments and individuals reluctant to give but analysts say the consequences of not giving to Pakistan could be costly.

In the short run people will go hungry, suffer from disease, and lose their fight to survive. In the long run a nation that’s critical in the fight against extremism may face a political crisis that could further destabilize the region.

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Except for Kuwait  and the UAE – the Islamic States are not on the donor list – Why? Is this not Ramadan time – if nothing else?

Seemingly, it is all coming from the US, UK, EU, Japan, Australia, Denmark, Switzerland. We  find China at less the $2 million – and we learned that Pakistan refused $5 million from India. At the pledging we learned that Georgia is contributing $1oo,ooo and there are small amounts from around the world.

All of the above seems strange but clear to us. It is the US that fights to keep Pakistan in one piece as it did in Iraq. Can Pakistan hold when the real enemy is climate change?

Much of the UN rebuttal is mush and we will report on how this unfolds.

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Departing U.N. official calls Ban’s leadership ‘deplorable’ in 50-page memo.

Inga-Britt Ahlenius wrote a 50-page memo upon the end of her term as head of the U.N. Office of Internal Oversight Services. (2008 Photo By Mark Garten/Associated Press)

By Colum Lynch

Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 20, 2010

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/19/AR2010071904734.html?referrer=emailarticle

UNITED NATIONS — The outgoing chief of a U.N. office charged with combating corruption at the United Nations has issued a stinging rebuke of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, accusing him of undermining her efforts and leading the global institution into an era of decline, according to a confidential end-of-assignment report.

The memo by Inga-Britt Ahlenius, a Swedish auditor who stepped down Friday as undersecretary general of the Office of Internal Oversight Services, represents an extraordinary personal attack on Ban from a senior U.N. official. The memo also marks a challenge to Ban’s studiously cultivated image as a champion of accountability.

Shortly after taking office in 2007, Ban committed himself to restoring the United Nations’ reputation, which had been sullied by revelations of corruption in the agency’s oil-for-food program in Iraq.

But Ahlenius says that, rather than being an advocate for accountability, Ban, along with his top advisers, has systematically sought to undercut the independence of her office, initially by trying to set up a competing investigations unit under his control and then by thwarting her efforts to hire her own staff.

“Your actions are not only deplorable, but seriously reprehensible. . . . Your action is without precedent and in my opinion seriously embarrassing for yourself,” Ahlenius wrote in the 50-page memo to Ban, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post. “I regret to say that the secretariat now is in a process of decay.”

Ban’s top advisers said that Ahlenius’s memo constituted a deeply unbalanced account of their differences and that her criticism of Ban’s stewardship of the United Nations was patently unfair.

“A look at his record shows that Secretary General Ban has provided genuine visionary leadership on important issues from climate change to development to women’s empowerment. He has promoted the cause of gender balance in general as well as within the organization. He has led from the front on important political issues from Gaza to Haiti to Sudan,” Ban’s chief of staff, Vijay Nambiar, wrote in a response.

“It is regrettable to note,” Nambiar added, “that many pertinent facts were overlooked or misrepresented” in Ahlenius’s memo.

The departure of Ahlenius, 72, coincides with a period of crisis in the United Nations’ internal investigations division. During the past two years, the world body has shed some of its top investigators. It has also failed to fill dozens of vacancies, including that of the chief of the investigations division in the Office of Internal Oversight Services. That post has been vacant since 2006, leaving a void in the United Nations’ ability to police itself, diplomats say.

“We are disappointed with the recent performance of [the U.N.'s] investigations division,” said Mark Kornblau, spokesman for the U.S. mission to the United Nations. “The coming change in . . . leadership is an opportunity to bring about a significant improvement in its performance to increase oversight and transparency throughout the organization.”

The U.N. General Assembly established the Office of Internal Oversight Services in 1994 to conduct management audits of the United Nations’ principal departments and to conduct investigations into corruption and misconduct. The founding resolution granted the office “operational independence” but placed it under the authority of the secretary general and made it dependent on the U.N. departments it policed for much of its funding and administrative support.

The dispute between Ahlenius and Ban has underscored some of the resulting tensions and exposed a protracted and acrimonious struggle for power over the course of U.N. investigations.

While Ahlenius cited Ban’s move to set up a new investigations unit as a sign that he was seeking to undermine her independence, Nambiar said that it was intended to strengthen the United Nations’ ability to fight corruption.

Ahlenius also clashed with Ban over her efforts to hire a former federal prosecutor, Robert Appleton, who headed the U.N. Procurement Task Force, a temporary white-collar crime unit that carried out aggressive investigations into corruption in U.N. peacekeeping missions from 2006 to last year. The unit’s investigations led to an unprecedented number of misconduct findings by U.N. officials and prompted federal probes into corruption.

Ban’s advisers said they blocked Appleton’s appointment on the grounds that female candidates had not been properly considered and said that the final selection should have been made by Ban, not Ahlenius.

“The secretary general fully recognizes the operational independence of OIOS,” Nambiar said. But that, he said, “does not excuse her from applying the standard rules of recruitment.”

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The above story, as per – http://www.orf.at/#/stories/2004590/ - also echoed in Vienna.

Scheidende UNO-Diplomatin rechnet mit Ban ab.

Die scheidende Chefkontrolleurin der Vereinten Nationen geht laut Medienberichten mit Generalsekretär Ban Ki Moon hart ins Gericht. Ban habe ihre Arbeit als oberste Korruptionsbekämpferin unterlaufen und die UNO in eine Ära des Niedergangs geführt, schrieb Inga-Britt Ahlenius laut einem Bericht der „Washington Post“ gestern in einem vertraulichen Memorandum.

Entgegen seinen Ankündigungen zum Amtsantritt 2007 habe Ban die durch mehrere Affären angeschlagene Reputation der Vereinten Nationen nicht mit allen Mitteln geschützt.

——————————
„Verwerflich“

Vielmehr habe er ihr Amt der Chefrevisorin mehr und mehr geschwächt, schreibe Ahlenius in dem 50-Seiten-Papier an Ban: „Ihr Handeln ist nicht nur bedauerlich, sondern sogar verwerflich.“ Es sei beispiellos und „meiner Meinung nach für Sie selbst beschämend“. Das Blatt zitierte: „Ich bedaure es, sagen zu müssen, dass das Sekretariat in einem Zerfallsprozess ist.“

Kritiker werfen Ban seit langem vor, die UNO nur zu verwalten und vor wirksamen politischen Initiativen zurückzuschrecken. UNO-Mitarbeiter wiesen die Vorwürfe in der „Washington Post“ als „unfair“ zurück. Ban habe mehrere politische Schwerpunkte gesetzt, etwa beim Klimaschutz und bei der Gleichstellung der Frau. Die Abrechnung der scheidenden Schwedin sei ein „höchst unausgewogener Ausdruck ihrer Differenzen“ mit Ban.,

Assistant Secretary of Energy for Policy & International Affairs David Sandalow.

TOPIC:              Upcoming Clean Energy Ministerial July 19-20^th

This is written on the basis of a US Department of State Press Conference  – Thursday, July 15, 2010.

————

This article follows our posting of July 14, 2010:

The Major 17 Economies were joined by Bangladesh, Denmark, Barbados, Ethiopia, Singapore and the UAE at the recent Rome meeting – to be followed by a July 19-20, 2010 Washington DC Meeting on Clean Energy – all this to build a program for Cancun.  Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on July 14th, 2010 by Pincas Jawetz ( PJ at SustainabiliTank.com)

We said at the time that the July 19 – 20, 2010  Washington DC Ministerial meeting will be a sequel – now we are convonced that is actually a different kind of meeting and I do not think that its eyes will be towards Cancun.

———–

The Department of Energy’s Assistant Secretary for Policy and International Affairs, David Sandalow, gave a background briefing and answered questions on the web regarding the importance of the upcoming Washington DC – Clean Energy Ministerial meeting. He discussed Energy Secretary Chu’s hopes on what will be accomplished.

The following countries will be represented:  Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, the European Commission, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Korea, Japan, Mexico, Norway, the Russian Federation, Spain, South Africa, Sweden, the U.A.E. and the U.K.

This list excludes Indonesia from the Major Economies Forum which are 16 + The EU and then at their Rome meeting of June 30 – July 1, 2010, added on Ministers from a variety of representative smaller economies: Bangladesh, Denmark, Barbados, Ethiopia, Singapore, UAE.

This list includes in addition to the EU also all The Scandinavian States: Denmark, Norway, Spain and Sweden. As well it includes Belgium and Spain. It does not include Bangladesh, Barbados, Ethiopia, Singapore which were part of the meeting of June 30 – July 1, 2010 but it does include from that meeting Denmark that was a participant because of its hosting the Copenhagen meeting, and the UAE that seemingly represents the oil exporting countries.

The Washington meeting includes also Belgium because by now they have become the half year Presidents of the EU for July 1 till  December 31, 2010, and it retains Spain that held this position during the first half of 2010. To top this there is also an actual EU delegation at the table besides the temporary Presidents. We assume that this delegation is there because Malta, Cyprus and other EU delegations are not there. Place was also found for all major four Scandinavian Countries – Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden – surely nice people all of them.

I write all of this in order to say that some better way has to be found on how to treat the EU and the World, when the Obama Administration wants indeed to show that it is serious about climate change by inviting just the large emitters that total 80% of the global emissions, or, if intent to bring in also some small representation of the small countries, that do not have substantial emissions, but proportionately are going to bear a major part of the suffering, the Rome initiative of having present also Bangladesh, Barbados and Ethiopia would have been just fine – and the total figure would have been then 16 + 1 (the EU) + 3 (this for Bangladesh, Barbados, Ethiopia) and it obviously would have included as part of the 16 also Indonesia.

For more information, the link to the website is:   http://cleanenergyministerial.org/

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At question time I asked from Mr. Sandalow why is Indonesia not at the meeting, and why was the symbolic, but important participation of the small number of really very small economies dropped?

The answer was that Indonesia said they are not coming because they participate at that time at a South  Asia meeting. The fact that the small economies were dropped is “because this is for the large energy markets – for 80% of the ENERGY MARKET  and not for the whole world.”  THE IDEA IS COME UP WITH ACTIONS TO PROMOTE CLEAN ENERGY, he said.

It would have been easier to accept that answer had the US also kept out the additional 6 EU States that were not among the original 16 + EU. We also would like to ask why UAE – though we think that they clearly are a better choice then Saudi Arabia – but still not exactly your ideal partner when you try to disengage from oil even though they do in effect – as holders of serious financial reserves – also participate in the financial benefits from looking for a cleaner future.

The above, because after Copenhagen we hoped for the involvement of business interests in order to create the working alternative to the Kyoto process – the interest of business in going green. For this to be effective one must have at the table mainly the real big emitters who indeed coincide with the biggest economies.

We thought that amounted to the maximum of 16 and – under EU conditions – just one more chair for the EU. Now there will be 23 chairs at the Washington table. The higher number decreasing the chance for success.

Monday, July 19, 2010 at 9am there will be an open press conference when the meeting starts.

Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate Discusses Advancing Agreement at COP 16

The Return of the Bicycle.
Analysis by Lester R. Brown*
 http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52066

WASHINGTON, Jul 6, 2010 (IPS) – The bicycle has many attractions as a form of personal transportation. It alleviates congestion, lowers air pollution, reduces obesity, increases physical fitness, does not emit climate-disrupting carbon dioxide, and is priced within the reach of the billions of people who cannot afford a car.

Bicycles increase mobility while reducing congestion and the area of land paved over. Six bicycles can typically fit into the road space used by one car. For parking, the advantage is even greater, with 20 bicycles occupying the space required to park a car.

Few methods of reducing carbon emissions are as effective as substituting a bicycle for a car on short trips. A bicycle is a marvel of engineering efficiency, one where an investment in 22 pounds of metal and rubber boosts the efficiency of individual mobility by a factor of three.

The bicycle is not only a flexible means of transportation; it is ideal in restoring a balance between caloric intake and expenditure. Regular exercise of the sort provided by cycling to work reduces cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, and arthritis, and it strengthens the immune system.

World bicycle production, averaging 94 million per year from 1990 to 2002, climbed to 130 million in 2007, far outstripping automobile production of 70 million. Bicycle sales in some markets are surging as governments devise a myriad of incentives to encourage bicycle use. For example, in 2009 the Italian government began a hefty incentive programme to encourage the purchase of bicycles or electric bikes in order to improve urban air quality and reduce the number of cars on the road. The direct payments will cover up to 30 percent of the cost of the bicycle.

China, with 430 million bikes, has the world’s largest fleet, but ownership rates are higher in Europe. The Netherlands has more than one bike per person, while Denmark and Germany have just under one bike per person.

China dramatically demonstrated the capacity of the bicycle to provide mobility for low-income populations. In 1976, this country produced six million bicycles. After the reforms in 1978 that led to an open market economy and rapidly rising incomes, bicycle production started climbing, reaching nearly 90 million in 2007.

The surge to 430 million bicycle owners in China has provided the greatest increase in mobility in history. Bicycles took over rural roads and city streets. Although China’s rapidly multiplying passenger cars and the urban congestion they cause get a lot of attention, it is bicycles that provide personal mobility for hundreds of millions of Chinese.

Among the industrial-country leaders in designing bicycle-friendly transport systems are the Netherlands, where 27 percent of all trips are by bike, Denmark with 18 percent, and Germany, 10 percent. By contrast, the United States and Britain are each at 1 percent.

An excellent study by John Pucher and Ralph Buehler at Rutgers University analyzed the reasons for these wide disparities among countries. They note that “extensive cycling rights-of-way in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany are complemented by ample bike parking, full integration with public transport, comprehensive traffic education and training of both cyclists and motorists.”

These countries, they point out, “make driving expensive as well as inconvenient in central cities through a host of taxes and restrictions on car ownership, use and parking.… It is the coordinated implementation of this multi-faceted, mutually reinforcing set of policies that best explains the success of these three countries in promoting cycling.” And it is the lack of these policies, they note, that explains “the marginal status of cycling in the UK and USA”.

The Netherlands, the unquestioned leader among industrial countries in encouraging bicycle use, has incorporated a vision of the role of bicycles into a Bicycle Master Plan. In addition to creating bike lanes and trails in all its cities, the system also often gives cyclists the advantage over motorists in right-of-way and at traffic lights. Some traffic signals permit cyclists to move out before cars. By 2007, Amsterdam had become the first western industrial city where the number of trips taken by bicycle exceeded those taken by car.

Within the Netherlands, a nongovernmental group called Interface for Cycling Expertise (I-ce) has been formed to share the Dutch experience in designing a modern transport system that prominently features bicycles. It is working with groups in Botswana, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Ghana, India, Kenya, Peru, South Africa, and Uganda to facilitate bicycle use.

Sales of electric bicycles, a relatively new genre of transport vehicles, also have taken off. E-bikes are similar to plug-in hybrid cars in that they are powered by two sources – in this case muscle and battery power – and can be plugged into the grid for recharging as needed.

In China, where this technology came into its own, sales climbed from 40,000 e-bikes in 1998 to 21 million in 2008. China had close to 100 million electric bicycles on the road that year, compared with 18 million cars. These e-bikes are now attracting attention in other Asian countries similarly plagued with air pollution and in the United States and Europe, where combined sales now exceed 300,000 per year.

In contrast to plug-in hybrid cars, electric bikes do not directly use any fossil fuel. If we can make the transition from coal-fired power plants to wind, solar, and geothermal power, then electrically powered bicycles can also operate fossil-fuel-free.

Above all, the key to realising the potential of the bicycle is to create bicycle-friendly transport systems. This means providing bicycle trails and designated street lanes for bicycles, designed to serve both commuters and people biking for recreation, and making bike parking facilities and showers available at workplaces. This simple bicycle is a winner in the Plan B economy.

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*Lester R. Brown is founder and president of the Earth Policy Institute. This article is excerpted from Chapter 6, “Designing Cities for People” in Brown’s ‘Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilisation’ (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2009), available on-line at  www.earthpolicy.org

New pact to let European public track pollutants.

The 17 states that have ratified the Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers are: Albania, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovakia, Sweden and Switzerland. The European Commission is also a party.

—–

GENEVA (Reuters) – Friday, July 2, 2010 – European citizens will be able to find out what dangerous substances are emitted in their neighborhoods under an environmental treaty to go into effect in 17 countries in October, the United Nations said on Friday.

Participating states will have to issue public inventories of major pollutants that their industries, traffic, agriculture and enterprises spew into the air, soil and water, including greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.

Some 86 categories of substances — ranging from mercury and other heavy metals, benzine, asbestos, pesticides including DDT, and dioxins — are covered under the pact.

“These inventories are made available to the public over the Internet and generally also through a downloadable map that helps people identify major pollutants that are traveling through their neighborhoods to discover what is in their backyard …,” Michael Stanley-Jones, an environmental expert at the U.N. Economic Commission for Europe (ECE), told reporters.

“It doesn’t cover all chemicals, but it does cover the major releases of chemicals,” he said.

The pact, signed in 2003 by 36 countries, enters into force on October 8 after being ratified recently by a 17th country (France), according to the Geneva-based agency. It is open to all U.N. member states for ratification.

“It is truly a global instrument, part of a global movement initiated in the 1980s after the major accidents in Bhopal and Chernobyl,” said Stanley-Jones.

A catastrophic industrial accident in central India killed nearly 8,000 people in 1984 when tons of toxic gas leaked from a pesticide plant of Union Carbide, a subsidiary of Dow Chemical Co, the largest U.S. chemical maker.

The Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine in 1986, the world’s worst civil nuclear accident, sent radiation over most of Europe.

The protocol to the 2001 Aarhus Convention enables citizens to voice concern over pollution to industry or regulators.

“As the major greenhouse gas pollutants are included in the protocol, this will give decision-makers and the public powerful new tools for identifying the major industrial sources of greenhouse gas emissions,” Stanley-Jones said.

“Major exceptions are for national security (facilities) and also the nuclear industry — radioactive substances are not covered by the protocol,” he said, noting that countries may add further substances and facilities to their national registers.

Countries outside of Europe, including Chile and Mexico, have developed their own registers and China’s industrial region of Shanghai is also drawing one up, according to the expert.

The 17 states that have ratified the Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers are: Albania, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovakia, Sweden and Switzerland. The European Commission is also a party.

Japan

Better Place launches switchable-battery electric taxi project in Tokyo

The Tokyo Electric Taxi Project marks another important technological milestone in the development of the Better Place EV network and demonstrates that battery switch technology provides the optimum solution for transitioning taxi fleets around the world to electric vehicles.

Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry commissioned Better Place to conduct a demonstration of the company’s battery switch technology, in partnership with Nihon Kotsu, Tokyo’s largest taxi operator, in a real-world application with taxis that will be in service nearly around-the-clock for a 90-day period.

The battery switch technology demonstrated in the Tokyo Electric Taxi Project allows taxi drivers to exchange a depleted battery with a fully charged one in less time then it takes to fill up at an LPG station. This enables the drivers to return to service with minimal downtime and makes electric taxis a viable option for taxi operators, which in turn benefits urban communities by removing a significant portion of harmful tailpipe emissions.

Please see: http://www.betterplace.com/global-progre… for photos and videos regarding those working taxis.

The World Wants Electric and no gimmicks – no hidden gasoline engines please!

—- —-

Nissan Says Electric Car Is Sold Out for This Year.

By NICK BUNKLEY, The New York Times,  May 25, 2010

DETROIT — Nissan’s chief executive, Carlos Ghosn, said Tuesday that the company had already received 19,000 orders in the United States and Japan for the electric car that it would start selling at year-end.

Daniel Acker/Bloomberg

The Nissan Leaf, which is scheduled to arrive in dealerships later this year, is meant to travel 100 miles on a full charge.

Jeff Kowalsky/Bloomberg News

Carlos Ghosn, Nissan’s chief.

More than six months before the car, the Nissan Leaf, arrives at dealerships, the preorders mean that the car is sold out for this year and that the company might stop taking reservations, Mr. Ghosn said during a visit to the Detroit Economic Club.

“The preorders are such that we are very comfortable with what we have undertaken,” Mr. Ghosn said after the speech. “The more we advance into it, the more comfortable we are with it.”

Nissan plans to break ground Wednesday in Smyrna, Tenn., for a plant to build batteries for the Leaf and eventually other models, part of its goal to sell at least 500,000 electric cars worldwide starting in 2013. The first Leafs will be made in Japan, with assembly in Tennessee planned to start in 2012.

Mr. Ghosn’s enthusiasm for electric vehicles contrasts with some recent studies and with comments from other automakers, including Honda, suggesting that pure electric vehicles have little short-term potential.

General Motors is scheduled to begin selling a battery-powered plug-in car, the Chevrolet Volt, later this year, but the Volt also has a small gasoline engine so that drivers can go beyond the battery’s expected range of 40 miles a charge.

Mr. Ghosn said he did not want the Leaf, whose expected range is 100 miles on a full charge, to have a range-extending engine, a feature that G.M. has said would assuage drivers’ worries about being stranded with a dead battery with no fast or easy way to recharge.

“We wanted to do a zero-emission vehicle,” Mr. Ghosn said. “I don’t want gasoline in the car, period.”

Nissan has given the Leaf a starting price of $32,780, minus a $7,500 federal tax credit. The Volt, whose price has not been disclosed, is expected to sell for close to $40,000 before the tax credit.

Among the other electric vehicles planned for sale in the United States within several years are a battery-powered version of Ford’s compact car, the Focus, and the Tesla Model S sedan, which will be built in California as part of a new partnership with Toyota announced last week.

The preorders for the Leaf include 13,000 in the United States, where dealers take a $99 deposit, and 6,000 in Japan.

Mr. Ghosn said sales in the United States would be concentrated in areas where there was sufficient means to support electric vehicles, like cities in California and other states that are installing charging stations.

“We don’t want to put the consumer in a situation where he buys the car and he doesn’t know how to charge it and he doesn’t know how to take care of it,” he said.

“We will make sure that in the markets in which we put the car, the consumer has the basic infrastructure to be able to drive the car with peace of mind and not have to worry.”

Mr. Ghosn, who also is chief executive of Nissan’s partner, the French automaker Renault.

He declined to speculate on what would have happened if Nissan and Renault had completed the alliance they sought with G.M. in 2006, but he said he had no complaints about the American government’s financial support to G.M. and Chrysler last year.

“No government in the world, no matter on the left or on the right, is going to let go hundreds of thousands of jobs,” Mr. Ghosn said.

 http://calendar.columbia.edu/sundial/web…

[PDF]

H2O/CO2 splitting. This event is free, but RSVPs are required. To register, please email Carey Russell ( crussell at ei.columbia.edu) or visit: http://calendar.columbia.edu/sundial/webapi/get.php?vt=detail&id=40808&con=standalone&br=ei_brand.

THE LENFEST CENTER FOR SUSTAINABLE ENERGY at THE EARTH INSTITUTE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY.

and the RISO DTU, Roskilde, Denmark.

Fuel Cells and Solid State Chemistry Division & The Danish Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Academy,

Sustainable Fuels from CO2, H2O, and Carbon?Free Energy

Tuesday May 4, 2010

Faculty House, President’s Room Suite, Columbia University, New York, NY

West 116th Street between Amsterdam Avenue and Morningside Drive

What technologies can be used to recycle CO2 into carbon?neutral liquid hydrocarbon fuels

(synthetic gasoline, diesel, alcohols, etc) using renewable or nuclear energy?  What is the state?of?the?art?

At what prices can such fuels be produced?  Can they compete against fossil fuels and biofuels?

9:30 am Welcome and Introduction

Klaus Lackner (Columbia University) and Mogens Mogensen (Risø National Laboratory)

9:50 am Capture of Carbon Dioxide from Ambient Air for CO2 Recycling

Klaus Lackner, Ewing?Worzel Professor of Geophysics, Head of Dept of Earth & Environmental

Engineering, and Director of the Lenfest Center of Sustainable Energy, Columbia University

CO2 capture

10:30 am Carbon Dioxide Capture Using Nanoparticle?based Ionic Materials

Alissa Park, Lenfest Junior Professor in Applied Climate Science, and Associate Director,

Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy, Columbia University  – CO2 capture

11:00 am The Columbia Energy Frontier Research Center:  Toward Efficient and Inexpensive PV

Jim Yardley, Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, and Managing Director,

Energy Frontier Research Center, Columbia University – Photovoltaics

11:30 am Photochemical CO2 Reduction: Current Status and Challenges

Etsuko Fujita, Brookhaven National Lab  – Photochemical conversion.

————–

12:00 pm Lunch (to be served)

1:30 pm High Temperature Solar?driven Thermolysis of CO2

Reed Jensen, Los Alamos Solar Energy LLC  – Thermolytic H2O/CO2 splitting

————-

2:00 pm Solar?driven H2O/CO2 Splitting via Thermochemical Cycles

Rich Diver, Sandia National Lab – Thermochemical H2O/CO2 splitting

2:30 pm Production of Synthetic Fuel by Electrolysis: Potential and Challenges

Mogens Mogensen, Research Professor, and Director of Strategic Electrochemistry

Research Center, Risø National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy, DTU, Denmark

Electrolytic  – H2O/CO2 splitting

3:00 pm Production of Synthesis Gas by High Temperature Electrolysis of H2O and CO2

Carl Stoots, Idaho National Lab  – Electrolytic H2O/CO2 splitting

3:30 pm Numerical Simulation of a High Pressure Water Electrolysis System

Masahiro Kawaji, Professor, Dept of Mechanical Engineering, City College of New York  – Electrolysis

4:00 pm Solid Oxide Electrolysis Cells: Long?term Durability

Sune D. Ebbesen, Scientist, Fuel Cells & Solid State Chemistry Division, Risø National Laboratory for

Sustainable Energy, DTU, Roskilde, Denmark – Electrolytic H2O/CO2 splitting

4:30 pm Recycling CO2 by Electrolysis of H2O and CO2: Economics and Electrode Materials

Christopher Graves, PhD Student, Columbia University, New York, New York – Electrolytic H2O/CO2 splitting

This event is free, but RSVPs are required.  To register, please email Carey Russell ( crussell at ei.columbia.edu) or visit:
 http://calendar.columbia.edu/sundial/web…

The event was opened by Ron Cogan the editor and Publisher of Ron Cogan’s Green Car Journal who is tracking innovations in the auto-motive industry – “Since 1992 Green Car Journal is a quarterly publication focusing on vehicles that uses energy and technology environmentally friendly.” The Green Car of the Year is an award from the Green Car Journal. In the most recent issue – Green Car Journal, winter 2009/2010 chose Audi A3 TDI as its winner.

Turbocharged Direct Injection ( TDI) is the technology used to describe and name specific types of diesel engines produced by the German automotive industry business Konzern, Volkswagen Group. These are fundamentally turbodiesel engines, which feature specific technology, namely turbocharging, and cylinder-direct fuel injection. These TDI engines are widely used in all mainstream Volkswagen Group marques of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles produced by the company (particularly those sold in Europe). They are also used in marine engine – Volkswagen Marine, and Volkswagen Industrial Motor applications.
TDI is a registered trademark of Volkswagen AG.

The TDI engine  directly injects diesel and and air where a fuel injector sprays atomised fuel into the main combustion chamber of each cylinder, rather than into the pre-combustion chamber prevalent in older diesel engines of the indirect injection. The engine also uses forced induction by way of a turbocharger to increase the amount of air which is able to enter the engine cylinders,  and most TDI engines also feature an intercooler to lower the temperature (and therefore increase the density) of the ‘charged’, or compressed air from the turbo, thereby increasing the amount of fuel that can be injected and combusted. These, in combination, allow for greater engine efficiency, and therefore greater power outputs (from a more complete combustion process compared to indirect injection), while also decreasing emissions and providing more torque than its non-turbo and non-direct injection petrol engined counterpart. Because of the lowering of emissions moment, some call the TDI a green technology.

Similar technology has been used by other automotive companies, but “TDI” specifically refers to these Volkswagen Group engines.
Naturally-aspirated direct injection diesel engines (those without a turbocharger) made by Volkswagen Group use the Suction Diesel Injection (SDI) label.
The reduced material volume of the direct injection diesel engine reduces heat losses, and thereby increases engine efficiency, at the expense of slightly increased combustion noise. A direct injection engine is also easier to start when cold, due to more efficient placing and usage of glowplugs.

Direct injection turbodiesel engines are frequent winners of various prizes in the International Engine of the Year Awards. In 1999 in particular, six out of twelve categories were won by direct injection engines: three were Volkswagen, two were BMW, and one Audi. Notably that year, the Volkswagen Group 1.2 TDI 3L beat the Toyota Prius to win “Best Fuel Economy” in its class. At this year’s New York Auto Show it was the TDI vehicles of Volkswagen that won the two awards we posted in http://www.sustainabilitank.info/#14211 but it was an Audi vehicle using the Volkswagen technology that got Ron Cogan “2010 Green Car of the Year” award. This was just a long way to say that Ron Cogan, like many others in the US, prefer the so called Clean-Diesel or Hybrid technologies to the budding electric vehicles – this may be nevertheless justified when considering the paucity of commercially available EV autos.

————–

But on April 1, 2010, Ron Cogan was introducing electric vehicles to the press present at the Jacob K. Javits Center.

He first introduced Steven Burns, the President of amp electric vehicles that we presented in http://www.sustainabilitank.info/#14173 followed by Jay Piters, President of REMY that provides the motors for the reconstructed vehicles that are sold by AMP.

The third introduction was to PEP Charger – the two outlet public charging station for the electric cars. The presentation was made by PEP Stations President James Blain and Vice President Brady Blain. The Public charging station are a supplement for those that can charge the batteries in their suburban homes

Following came three companies that do not just reconstruct existing products but build new EV cars from scratch.

The three cars presented were:

(1) the Mini electric NYC Scout bearing New York license plate M-59403 Official NY. The car is actually running around New York, checking out pot-holes etc. Their logo is “Mini goes Maxi” www.miniusanews.com and was introduced by Richard Steinberg, Manager, Electric Vehicle Operations and Strategy, BMW Group Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey He believes the Mini is ideal for the city. They have already produced 450 cars in use – leased. This car is a two seater but they intend to go to a generation of 4 seats and expect to start selling them in 2015.

(2) the Miev electric car from Mitsubishi Motors with a Michigan license plate 006 M 468 Manufacturer Feb. The car being made in Michigan by Mitsubishi, was presented by Bryan Arnett, Manager Product Strategy, Mitsubishi, Cypress, California. The car has an 80 miles range. They have at the show 8 vehicles to be available to drive around. They have produced already 180 vehicles and sold some.

(3) the Scandinavian Think City vehicle 100% electric, powered by ENerDel Lithium Ion system are made in Turku, Finland. It also had a Michigan license plate 024 M 272 – but will be produced in Indiana. The range is 100 miles. They are intent on cooperating with Mayor Bloomberg of New York City and we know that the Mayor made contact with the company at the time of the Copenhagen Conference.

A Year On, Little Change in Political Climate.

WASHINGTON, Mar 21 (IPS) – This time last year, United States federal legislation on climate change was starting to take shape, seemingly more pressing matters were taking up the bulk of U.S. policymakers’ time, and a major climate conference was looming at the end of the year. Twelve months later, the scene is eerily similar. The U.S. House of Representatives swiftly passed its bill last June, but the Senate now has four different paths it could take to address climate change – and has yet to move decisively toward any of them.

Likewise, while the economic recession has receded from the top of the Capital Hill agenda, reforming the country’s health care system now dominates debate here. And the follow-up to last year’s Copenhagen conference – in Cancún – awaits in November. But hope is far from lost, the European Union’s Climate Action Commissioner, Connie Hedegaard, told reporters in Washington Thursday.

As the outgoing Danish Minister of Climate and Energy, Hedegaard was charged with hosting December’s Copenhagen, which has been largely criticised by groups and countries hoping for strong climate action that would halt rising global temperatures. The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has said global average temperatures should not be allowed to rise more than two degrees.

“Staying below two degrees is a tremendous challenge and when I think about that challenge, I think how are we going to make? But then I remember back to where we were just three or four years back…look at all the progress that’s been made,” said Hedegaard. Her main message Thursday, though, and throughout her trip to Washington, is how crucial significant U.S. legislation to address climate change is to global efforts – and the domestic benefits it would have for the U.S.

In meetings over the past couple days with her U.S. counterpart Todd Stern – the U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change – as well as other major players here like U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson, White House Climate and Energy Office head Carol Browner and Representative Edward Markey, Hedegaard says she got the sense that they are not sure “what will fly and what will not fly or when” with regards to U.S. climate legislation.

“I definitely get the feeling that if [the legislation] fails this time then it would not come until after the midterm elections,” Hedegaard said. Those elections take place Nov. 2. The Cancun climate conference starts Nov. 29. When the parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change last met, in Copenhagen, a late push for the U.S. Senate to approve a climate bill before the start of the meeting had fallen short, and this was widely seen as decreasing both the potential effectiveness and the expectations of the conference.

Women’s Network For a Sustainable Future (WNSF) Provided us with a pink invitation to an event for which we were supposed to pay $55 for this “generously hosted by PricewaterCoopers event.”

There was also an early bird option for $40. When I wrote that I would like to cover the event for the Sustainable Development website – the PriceWaterhouseCoopers lady of my correspondence first did not react to our e-mail then it was a nope. The Advertised pink sheet said:
 http://www.wnsf.org/

 http://www.eventbrite.com/event/55129493…

Cordially invites you to its New York Luncheon Panel

The Business of Climate Change: Post-Copenhagen Opportunities

Including speakers from:
Consolidated Edison,
Interface,
JP Morgan Chase,
PricewaterhouseCoopers,
Siemens

A discussion of business risks and opportunities post-Copenhagen: What’s in store for companies nationally and internationally–and how to plan for it–with tips from those who were there.

Wednesday February 24, 2010
12 to 2pm

Generously hosted by
PricewaterhouseCoopers
300 Madison Avenue @ 42nd St.
New York City

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Kathy Robb
Chair, WNSF; Head of environmental practice, Hunton & Williams.

Marlys E. Appleton
Vice President, Sustainability Initiatives; Chair, Sustainability
Steering Committee.
AIG Global Investment Group (AIGGIG).

Dianne Dillon-Ridgley
Director, Interface Inc.

Shelly M. Esque
Vice President, Legal and Corporate Affairs; Director, Corporate
Affairs Group, Intel Corporation

Karen Flanders
Director, Corporate Responsibility, The Coca-Cola Company

Joanne Fox-Przeworski. Ph.D
Former UNEP Director for North America and founding director of the Bard Center for Environmental Policy

Ann Goodman. Ph.D
Executive Director, the Women’s Network for a Sustainable Future.

Sarah C. Howell
VP, Public Affairs, American Wind Energy Association.

Michele Kahane
Professor of Professional Practice, Milano, the New School for
Management and Urban Policy.

Clair Krizov
Executive Director, Environment and Social Responsibility, AT&T

Joyce LaValle
Former Senior Vice President, Interface Inc. A veteran in the commercial interiors industry and advocate for environmental sustainability

———-

ADVISORY COUNCIL

Ray Anderson
Founder and Chairman, Interface Inc.

Jo Ivey Boufford
Professor and Former Dean, Wagner School of Public Service, New York University.

Paula Di Perna
Former President, Joyce Foundation.

Eileen Fisher
Founder, Eileen Fisher Co.

Joyce Haboucha
Director, Social Investment, Rockefeller.

Noreen Harrington
Former Managing Director, Goldman Sachs.

Stuart Hart
Director, Sustainable Enterprise Institute, Cornell University.

Terri Ludwig
President, Merrill Lynch Community Development Company.

———–

SPONSORSHIP INFORMATION

WNSF welcomes support from companies, foundations and individuals to help us spread the word to as many businesswomen as possible on how corporate responsibility can foster sustainability.

If you are interested in sponsorship opportunities, please contact:
Ann Goodman, Executive Director. Please direct inquiries to  info at wnsf.org.

WNSF is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization.

Recent Sponsors

Alcoa Foundation, AT&T, BP, Cola-Cola Co., Con Edison, Eileen Fisher
Inc., Ford Foundation, JP Morgan Chase, Merrill Lynch, Nathan Cummings
Foundation, Novartis, Pfizer, Starbucks, Swiss Re, McGraw-Hill Cos.

Participation

WNSF believes that integrating responsible, sustainable practices throughout organizations is key to building sustainable enterprises — and a sustainable future. That’s why WNSF welcomes participation from women in all parts of business including marketing, communications, legal affairs, human resources, finance, strategy, philanthropy, corporate citizenship and environment, health and safety. There are no formal membership requirements. To get regular email updates on WNSF activities, send your contact information to:info@wnsf.org

———–

WNSF Leadership Circle

Founding Members:
Eileen Fisher Inc.
Intel
Joyce La Valle
Kathy Robb

Recent WNSF sponsors include:

Adobe
Applied Materials
AIG
Alcoa Foundation
AT&T
BP
The Coca-Cola Companies
Con Edison
DuPont
Eileen Fisher Inc.
Ford Foundation
Hewlett-Packard
Hunton & Williams
Intel
Interface
JP Morgan Chase
The McGraw-Hill Companies
Merrill Lynch
Nathan Cummings Foundation
Novartis
Pfizer
Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC)
Siemens
Starbucks
Swiss Re
Symantec

Initial web site design and hosting provided by Netting Solutions

===============

OK – without an invitation to those sandwiches, I found it convenient to stop by at 2:15 pm after an event on Kazakhstan at the George Soros Institute.

Actually, I found that things, might actually be better then the initial impression. True, I have seen before high power corporate women barging into topics of social interest at the fringes of the UN that were rather a celebration of “We have Arrived” and we are ready to impress our sisters, but at least the most recent additions to this organization seem to understand the political importance of the subject beyond the potential of a corporate gain for their employing firm, and the lady I was in e-mail contact with, I was told was a complete novice employee of the organization.

Anyway, I seem to remember having already run into the Corporate Ladies of WNSF previously at an event at the outskirts of the UN Headquarters at the time of a Women’s Conference, but this time got really intrigued by the post Copenhagen and how to benefit from Copenhagen concept.

I understand that Dianne Dillon-Ridgley of Iowa City gave an inspirational description of the history of climate change policy.  She has experience with the Sustainable Development concept since her appointment by President Bush Senior’s White House to go to the Rio convention, as per http://www.wnsf.org/index.php?com=static…

Ann Godman is the Executive Director of the WNSF which she co-founded in 2002. She is now adjunct professor of corporate responsibility at the Center for Global Affairs at New York University, and affiliate professor at the graduate Center for Environmental Policy at Bard College. http://www.wnsf.org/index.php?com=static…

Helle Bank Jorgensen was the moderator of the panel, and the hostess of the panel, as she is Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers Denmark. Member of the PwC Global Sustainability Leadership Council. She gave me a PriceWaterhouseCoopers two page “Sustainable growth strategies” sheet with indication that PwC is sponsoring “Sustainability & Climate Change Thought Leadership.” I learned that PwC is promoting literature with titles like: A point of view series that covers the EPA new rules on GHG registration requirements and their regulation under the Clean Air Act. www.pwc.com

Also – “Sustainability: Are consumers buying it?” and “Going Green: Sustainable growth strategies.”

Capitalizing on a climate of change” seems to be a good introductory booklet - www.pwc.com and if you want to learn about the tax implications - www.pwc.com . Above all it seems that what PwC wants you to remember is that CSR is in vogue – “A comprehensive survey of corporate social responsibility reporting trends, benchmark and best practices” is something the consulting firm can help you with. The company distributed also booklets of “Rethink” as in Vision, Visibility and Strategy resulting in improved performance for your company. Obviously – there is nothing wrong in using greed to help achieve important societal goals – or who knows – the knowledge to avoid having to comply.                                       http://www.accaglobal.com/documents/denm…

Rebecca Craft was there to speak of Energy Efficiency at Con Edison, and I am sure Alison Taylor had things to add to this from the Siemens Corporation performance that we know well from what we were shown in Copenhagen, at the Siemens Denmark headquarters.

Then there was James Fuschetti, the only man that was still in the room when I arrived, and the only man on the panel, a Managing Director at JP Morgan Chase, a banking corporation that has female executives, but has also the sense to deal with Sustainability and Climate Change to the subject and not as a matter of female representation.

James Fuschetti is the Managing Director of the Office of Environmental Affairs at JP Morgan Chase and is responsible for its overall management and direction. Mr. Fuschetti spent 26 years as a banker and product specialist at JP Morgan Securities, Inc. During that time he lived in New York, Sao Paulo and London and worked with corporate and government clients in Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. In 1999 Mr. Fuschetti left JP Morgan to join the World Wildlife Fund (“WWF”) in Washington DC where he co-founded the Center for Conservation Finance. During his 7 years at WWF he helped develop financing solutions for large scale conservation projects in Asia and Latin America. In February 2008 Mr. Fuschetti returned to JP Morgan Chase to assume responsibility for the Office of Environmental Affairs. Mr. Fuschetti reports to William Daley.

The Program was mainly about “REFLECTING ON COPENHAGEN” and Ms. Jorgensen posed questions to the panelists:

- What are the risks and opportunities you see for your company after Copenhagen?

- Do you see a different reaction nationally vs. internationally?

- How do you successfully plan for the future in a time of such uncertainty?

- While there is no current federal regulation – there is state/regional regulation – how do you address this in your company?

- Any last questions – or tips?

That all sounds good and I hope she got good answers, but for the life of me I do not understand why these topics had to be in pink format? Our website will fight for full equality for women when climbing the corporate ladder but we do not think that this sort of plain business talk ought to be segregated by sex.

I was glad I went to look at this congregation as I walked away with the feeling that indeed it was not a Sarah Palin tea party, but rather a joint learning experience that actually could have an impact if the ladies in the audience felt more comfortable in hearing about the misery of our environment and our governing system from a woman, rather then in a more mixed setting.

Zero Carbon Caravan newsletter #4

Chris Keene , January 29, 2010.
The Zero Carbon Caravan finally made it to Copenhagen – see the blog zerocarboncaravan.blogspot.com (although it isn’t quite complete yet – we still have some audio recordings of meetings to upload).

You can follow Zero Carbon on Twitter http://twitter.com/0co2caravan

We got quite a bit of media coverage, they say  – three TV interviews and four on radio, mentions in the Times, Independent, Guardian and Telegraph and dozens of local newspapers, and lots of coverage on the internet.

We visited lots of interesting places showing solutions to climate change – in transport, energy, buildings, lifestyle and food production, as well as interviewing lots of people and visiting some really inspiring places demonstrating such ideas to the public.

We had four zero carbon concerts – two acoustic, one using solar electricity, and the other using electricity generated by a bicycle, and we held an international telephone conference at the University of East Anglia, as well as numerous public meetings.

In Copenhagen, the information collected on the journey was put onto datasticks and presented to two parliamentarians, Colin Challen, the chair of the All Party Parliamentary Climate Change Group in the UK, and Ingrid Nestle, the spokesperson on energy economics for the Greens in the German Parliament.

Unfortunately we failed in our objective – to get a good deal in the Copenhagen climate summit. But all is not lost. The Kyoto Protocol doesn’t end until the end of 2012, and there is a chance to influence the negotiators before the next COP (Conference of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol) in Mexico starting in late November this year.

AND THIS TIME WE NEED TO MAKE SURE WE SUCCEED in replacing the Kyoto Protocol with a new treaty which is adequate to the challenge of avoiding runaway climate change (like the situation at the end of the last ice age, when temperatures suddenly shot up 5C in 20 years – contrast that with the global warming we have had so far – less than 1C, which has already led to massive instability of the climate) and which is also fair.

So we’ve come  up with an idea which should get more attention than the caravan – a zero carbon world concert for a zero carbon world, some time in autumn 2010. Below are a few ideas we’ve had about how to organise it.  Tell us what you think of them – they are by no means set in stone yet, and it would be nice to get some more input into our plans.

The concert would be run over a 24 hour period, moving around the world as the day progresses (starting New Zealand, finishing Alaska?). All musicians would use only renewable electricity, and we could have a variety of different kinds, solar power, wind power, bicycle power etc, so it would be an opportunity for the different suppliers of green energy to showcase their products.

We would also use renewable electricity to put the concerts on the internet (there are internet service providers who use renewable electricity), so it would be a world concert, which would reinforce the idea of international solidarity, and the fact that global warming is a global problem which needs a global solution.

It would be nice to have 350 of something (different bands, or musicians, or, if we are able to manage it, different venues) to bring the public’s attention to the 350 ppm CO2 (carbon dioxide) in the atmosphere, which is the maximum safe level <http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/2008/TargetCO2_20080407.pdf>. I believe it would be useful to have some celebrities involved, in order to get maximum attention (though when I spoke to Bill McKibben of <http://www.350.org> in Copenhagen he said they didn’t work with celebrities).

Any celebrities participating would need to be very green in their lifestyles in order to avoid the accusations of hypocrisy levelled at the super rich celebrity rock stars with massive carbon footprints who took part in Live Earth, but we wouldn’t need many of them (assuming they each played for 2 hours it would just require 12 acts to cover the 24 hour day).  And I think needing to be super green could be useful to persuade people to take part – they would be seen to be the greenest musicians in the world, which would be very useful for their branding.

Getting the equipment to the venue in a zero carbon way is likely to prove difficult. They could use biodiesel made from waste vegetable oil (though definitely not palm oil, or anything else especially grown for fuel), though the trouble with this is there is not nearly enough for everyone to adopt this alternative to oil.  The truly progressive way forward for transport is to use electricity (see www.zerocarbonbritain.com), but as far as I know there are very few electric vehicles capable of carrying large loads (though I did investigate one, the cargo hopper in Utrecht, http://www.cargohopper.com/ on my zero carbon journey cycling and sailing to Copenhagen).

Finally,  watching the concert on the internet has to be done in a zero carbon way, and this is very easy to do – simply switch to a renewable electricity provider (it’s simple in Britain, though I’m not sure of the situation elsewhere).  In my view the best is Good Energy <http://www.goodenergy.co.uk/> but there are a number out there. Let me know what you think of the others.

ANY THOUGHTS, COMMENTS ON THE IDEAS ABOVE, CONTACTS (WITH MUSICIANS, ORGANISERS, RENEWABLE ENERGY SUPPLIERS ETC) OR ADVICE ON THE CONCERT WOULD BE VERY WELCOME

Please email me at  chris.keene at tiscali.co.uk or phone 0044 (0) 1603 614535 or 0044 (0) 7801 250982

Chris Keene
Coordinator, Zero Carbon Caravan <zerocarboncaravan.net>

Ranjit Devraj writes for IPS Terra Viva at the UN that the BASIC Group meeting concluded with an amazing – ‘Copenhagen Accord Not Legal, Kyoto Protocol Is.’ Nevertheless Brazil, South Africa, India and China – will submit their plans for voluntary mitigation actions by the Jan. 31, 2010 deadline stipulated by the Copenhagen Accord. That amounts to positive participation and denying it also.
 http://ipsterraviva.net/UN/currentNew.as…

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27, 2010

‘Copenhagen Accord Not Legal, Kyoto Protocol Is’
Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI, Jan 26 (IPS) – While the BASIC bloc countries – Brazil, South Africa, India and China – will submit their plans for voluntary mitigation actions by the Jan. 31 deadline stipulated by the Copenhagen Accord, they have taken care to emphasise that the agreement, reached at the end of the December climate change summit in the Danish capital, has no legal basis.

Addressing a joint press conference after a meeting of concerned BASIC ministers on Sunday, India’s environment minister Jairam Ramesh said: “We support the Copenhagen Accord. But all of us were unanimously of the view that its value lies not as a standalone document but as an input into the two- track negotiation process under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).”

Ramesh explained that the Accord was not a legal document and that the “understanding reached at Copenhagen was that the accord will facilitate the two-track negotiating process which is the only legitimate process to reach a legally binding treaty in Mexico.” The two-track negotiation process was agreed upon at the December 2007 Bali conference, pertaining to Long-Term Cooperative Action under the UNFCCC and the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.

The BASIC meeting and the press conference were attended by Carlos Minc, the Brazilian environment minister, his counterpart from South Africa, Buyelwa Sonjica, and the vice-chairman of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, Xie Zhenhua.

At the press conference, Xie said that the BASIC group’s objectives were consistent with the interests of the developing countries. “BASIC will take the lead in large-scale emission reduction and also stick to the policy of common but differentiated principle.” Sonjica said BASIC would not make any decision outside the Group of 77 (G-77) countries. “We see ourselves as adding value to the proposals of G-77,” she said.

Siddharth Pathak, a member of the international environmental group Greenpeace’s policy division, told IPS that the willingness of the BASIC group to support vulnerable countries by ensuring their participation in open and transparent negotiations and plans to provide technological and financial support was commendable. “We hope that this support will become tangible by the group’s next meeting in April.”

Pathak said that while BASIC appeared keen to consolidate itself as a group and also take along the G-77 countries, it needed to “demonstrate leadership, both in furthering negotiations on a fair, ambitious and legally binding agreement, and in terms of pushing industrialised counties to urgently reduce GhG (greenhouse gas) emissions and make their own appropriate contributions.”

Other analysts said the BASIC meeting had the potential of cementing differences both within and outside the bloc.

“What is crucial now is to see whether China and India will stick to carbon intensity figures in their action plans, as they announced before the Copenhagen meet,” said Siddharth Mishra, director at CUTS International, a leading economic policy and advocacy group. Carbon intensity is a measure of carbon dioxide emissions per unit of production.

“This will suit China well because it is already on a trajectory of lowering its energy intensity and it has voluntarily announced cuts of 40-45 percent before Copenhagen,” said Mitra. “India, too, can reduce the trend of the growth of its emissions and specify domestic regulations to ensure reductions in emissions from its dirty industries,” Mitra told IPS.

Mitra added: “We don’t know what the back-of-the-envelope calculations are, but both China and India may benefit from the pledge of 100 billion U.S. dollars by the end of the decade for developing countries to adapt to climate change and limit the global rise in temperatures, since industrialisation began, from exceeding two degrees Celsius.”

Denmark, as president of the Conference of Parties (CoP), has been asked by the BASIC ministers to convene immediately meetings of the two negotiation groups for the Kyoto Protocol and the Long-Term Cooperative Action in March and ensure that they meet on at least five more occasions before the 16th CoP in December.

After the BASIC countries joined hands with the United States in negotiating the Copenhagen Accord, at the end of the summit in the Danish capital, several developing countries expressed fears that the document would become legal and dilute the Bali two-track process.

BASIC ministers have also asked the rich nations to speedily distribute the 10 billion dollars they had pledged to the least developed countries and the islands to address climate change this year.

Brazil’s Minc said at the press conference that BASIC had decided to create its own fund to help small island states and the least developed countries. “The actual contributions will be decided at the next meeting of the BASIC in South Africa,” he said.

A day before the BASIC meet, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh let it be known that he had reservations over pressure from Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon for follow-up action on the Copenhagen Accord and get results by the Jan. 31 deadline.

While the Accord had called for “economy-wide emission targets” by 2020 by the Annex-1 (rich countries) and the other countries to submit “mitigation actions,” Rasmussen and Ban had written separately to all heads of state and governments on Dec. 30, urging them to submit their commitments by Jan. 31.

Their joint letter was silent on the Kyoto Protocol, raising suspicions. Mitra said that such suspicions first surfaced after the UNFCCC executive secretary, Yvo de Boer, failed to mention the Kyoto Protocol at a press conference held soon after the Copenhagen Accord. “The impression that there is a plan afoot to bury Kyoto is not helped by the fact that the European Union is pushing it as a first step to new negotiations.”

The Kyoto Protocol, the world’s only legally binding agreement, required 37 wealthy nations to cut GhG emissions by 2012, but asked for no commitments from developing countries. In contrast, the Copenhagen Accord does not talk of mitigation goals for the developed countries and is seen to be acting to lower the bar in climate negotiations when scientists warn that the climate is changing more rapidly than estimated earlier.

The Accord was opposed by Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua and Sudan on both substantive and procedural grounds. For that reason, it could not be accepted or endorsed by the CoP, which only “took note” of it, denying the document status at the U.N.

In an editorial on Tuesday, the respected ‘The Hindu’ newspaper commented that the response of BASIC “underscores the view of the developing world that the Copenhagen Accord chose to give insufficient importance to the central tenet of “common but differentiated responsibilities” outlined in the UNFCCC.

The Hindu editorial said one positive outcome of the “common strategy” adopted by BASIC countries was the fostering of “active South-South cooperation” to advance science. “Given that intellectual property rights on technology remain a major barrier to achieving higher energy efficiencies, such joint efforts involving India and China hold great promise.”

From: Franny Armstrong <franny@spannerfilms.net>

Date: Wed, Jan 13, 2010
Subject: [Age-of-Stupid] Waving goodbye to The Age of Stupid + Piers needs you

<< STOP PRESS – Piers the Stupid windfarm man is back in Bedford Town Hall all this week, making one last attempt to get some wind turbines stuck up at Airfield Farm. ie in the very same spot he was fighting to get them up in the film, back in 2005. He’d greatly appreciate any support from anyone who can turn up at the hearings dressed in blue. See his letter at the bottom of this message. >>

Hello and Happy New Decade,

So I thought this was rather symbolic: my friend bet a thousand quid that I couldn’t go one year without uttering the words “climate change”. Now I was feeling pretty confident, come Dec 31st, what with having any number of alternatives up my sleeve: you know, “global warming”, “greenhouse effect”, “anthropogenic warming”. So, anyway, there we were at my granny’s house in Dorset, watching Jools Holland count down to the new decade, and, on the stroke of midnight, in come 12 pipers piping, followed by a man dressed in a polar bear suit. “What do you think that’s all about then?” says friend, at precisely 7 seconds into the new year. To which I reply “Surely it’s got to be climate change”.

And therein lies the problem.

When we finished making The Age of Stupid eighteen months ago (eighteen months ago!), you see, Lizzie and I agreed we would promote it all the way to Copenhagen in December 2009 and then go our separate ways, patting ourselves on the back at a job well done and at a small contribution to keeping the atmosphere habitable to human life. With 18 months being 17 months more active promotion than yer average documentary gets to shake its bootie at. So off we went to Copenhagen – sponsored by many of you fine people, thanks again – and threw ourselves into The Stupid Show, which I will be going on about at great length in the next message, just as soon as we’ve sorted all the videos into some comprehensible order, but which was kind-of brilliant in a madcapedly underresourced way.

What the hell happened at Copenhagen?

I can’t explain better than:

- The final message that Lizzie and I filmed at 7pm on the last Sunday, after two long weeks inside the Bella Centre

- The final Stupid Show featuring Tony Juniper, Mark Lynas, Ed Miliband, Kumi Naidoo and President Nasheed from The Maldives in various states of exhaustion after we’d all been awake since Friday and everyone else had gone home.

- The Climate Scoreboard, which calculates that the Copenhagen accord (a weaker thing than a deal or an agreement, specially cos we don’t yet know whether anyone is going to sign up) would commit us to a 3.9 degree global temperature rise, which would mean something like: all coral dead, most forests dead, Southern Europe a desert, Australia with no agriculture and Africa uninhabitable. So not great then.

Radiohead’s Thom Yorke with The Stupid Show team shortly after he’d signed up to 10:10

The Age of Stupid, the film, is all over, therefore we can retire?

-> Team Stupid has done a fantastic job over the last few months putting everything in place so that the film will continue to be watched all around the world for years to come. Distribution deals are signed & sealed from Australia to Armenia. The DVDs are flying off the shelves. The Stupid shop has moved to its new home in a big warehouse. Indie Screenings is being handed over to our UK distributors Dogwoof. The downloads are winging their way through cyberspace and the pirates are swopping bittorrents for free on the internet, feeling smug whilst they do it (how come they get the best of all worlds? Couldn’t they at least feel bad as they nick our hard work?). There’s plenty more TV screenings coming up, including Discovery in America in March or April. We’re thinking that the prize for keenest country goes to the Netherlands, where 200,000 viewers watched it on mainstream TV the other week, 120,000 DVDs have been printed (70,000 given away in Belgium and the rest ordered by shops in Holland) and, according to several Dutch friends telling me independently, “Age of Stupid” has become a must-say phrase in the mainstream media, even when not talking about the film.

-> Cash-wise, the first of ten annual payments to our crowd-funders & crew went out last week. Sorry that we just missed Christmas: the problem was that 100+ of the 400 people wrote in to change their details, so that slowed things down considerably. But you should have got your cash now and if you haven’t please contact our accountant Kevin Lyons on theageofstupid@mklp.co.uk. About 40 people said they were delighted and/or surprised with their payment and one said he was totally regretting ever getting involved with the film, so that’s not such a bad ratio. Sorry we haven’t quite yet made you all millionaires.

-> Team Stupid has now disbanded. Many have packed their laptops and headed upstairs to 10:10 (Dan, Leo, Mal), one has gone to film school (Ben), two back to their old dayjobs (Sylvia, Sara), two unaccounted for somewhere in Copenhagen (Tom, Luke), one last seen heading off in a campervan surrounded by Danish police (Rop), one to a great job at the Carbon Trust (Andrew), one to musical adventures (Nick) and one to continue internationally coordinating NGOs (Jahlia).

-> Which therefore means that the winner of the lucky draw to captain the good ship Spanner Films solo from now till eternity is…. Rhiannon Roberts. Round of applause please. Yes, the poor gal will be all alone in Stupid Towers from now on – except we’re getting kicked out of Stupid Towers so will have to find a desk for her to squat somewhere else. So all Stupid or Spanner Films-related enquiries should now go to the hardy lass on rhiannon@ageofstupid.net. She’s only got 400 emails in her inbox at the moment, so sure she’ll get back to you real soon.

-> Having said all that, Andy Moore is also popping in from time to time, finishing up the American DVD, sorting out the Stupid Show, archiving all the used teabags and whathaveyou. He’s on andy@ageofstupid.net

-> Miss Lizzie doesn’t yet know whether she’ll do more filmmaking, more campaigning or more politicking but you can rest assured you haven’t heard the last from her… As for myself, I guess I fall into the next paragraph…

Rhiannon Roberts realises that where once there were nine she now stands alone

The Age of Stupid, the era, is not all over, therefore we cannot retire?

The deal they were supposed to agree in Copenhagen is meant to replace the Kyoto Treaty, which ends at the end of 2012. They didn’t manage in Copenhagen (the UN meeting called COP15), but all is not lost, as there is another shinding happening in Mexico next December, called, you guessed it, COP16. So if the deal can be done then, it can still come in in 2013, as Kyoto finishes, and that would be pretty much the same difference. We just lost a year of preparation time, which isn’t the end of the world.

So what can we, the humble citizens, do to help ensure that the deal gets done in Mexico?

Stupid is dead! Long live 10:10!

As The Guardian’s New Year’s Day 10:10 special edition headlined, “The politicians failed at Copenhagen. Now it’s over to you.”

When the politicians meet again next in Mexico in December, they need to be confronted by the news that the people – and businesses and schools and churches and table tennis clubs – have gone ahead on their own and started cutting emissions. Not in a changing-a-few-lightbulbs way, or in setting more long-distance targets, but in terms of actually knocking a few percent off the total emissions of whole countries in less than a year. Quite a task. To quote myself quoted in the Guardian (much easier than re-writing): “I think Copenhagen marks the end of traditional campaigning on climate change. Enough banners, enough websites, enough shouting in the streets. Now we need to roll up our sleeves and start solving the problem, all together. If we wait until the politicians get their act together, it will be too late.”

There is no way that the politicians would be able to ignore the people plonking, say, 2% cuts from, say, UK, Australia, Germany, Iceland, Norway and the Maldives down on the Mexico table, just as they’re having their first coffee. Or, to put it more positively, the politicians would realise that the citizens are ready to build the low-carbon future and this will give them the political space they need to make the deal as strong as the science demands.

10:10 is absolutely storming ahead in the UK, so the major mission now is to get at least 7 or 8 other countries up to speed, out of the 33 which have contacted us wanting to set up their own version of 10:10 (rather hilariously, the main national broadcaster in the Netherlands launched their very own 10:10 last week. Not sure how we feel about this, but we have anyway now bought in super-star coordinator Susan Alzner – she of the UN climate week triumph (and Stupid Show laugh-o-meter, fact fans) – who will be presenting her world domination plans at the first 10:10 Board Meeting, er, tomorrow and then starting to implement the plan on Friday).

Here’s how you can get involved:

-> If you haven’t yet committed to cut your 10% this year, sign up now at http://www.1010uk.org. If you’re not in the UK, sign up at http://www.1010global.org. You’ve already missed the first 13 days of 2010, so have a little bit of catching up to do. Then persuade your kids’ school, your workplace, your girlfriend’s college and your grandfather’s knitting circle to sign up too. You’ll be joining: 53,874 people, 2,041 businesses, 1,051 Schools, Unis and Colleges and 1,424 other organisations. Big name sign-up of last week: Sony. Plus 116 local councils who between them cover a third of the UK population, which means that 20.45 million people will be getting their services (housing, waste, street lighting etc etc) with 10% less emissions than they did this year. Bloody amazing.

-> If you’re not on the 10:10 mailing list (regardless of whether you’ve signed up to cut your emissions), join by sending an email to addtolist@1010uk.org. All the 10:10 news goes out on there, I just send a few titbits occasionally.

-> Join 10:10′s Facebook page and follow us on Twitter (#1010)

-> Give 10:10 some of your cash by donating here or by entering the competition to win a genuine Picasso artwork, as the main thing slowing the campaign down is having to waste loads of effort on fundraising. And how much would you impress your new girl/boyfriend by casually giving them a Picasso for their next birthday?

-> Any questions or thoughts about 10:10, please write to hello@1010uk.org

So that’s where we’re at

I wanted to end this message with the rather delightful news that Channel 4 picked McLibel as the 14th best film of the last decade. But their website seems to have deleted all mention of it… there was honestly a big feature all about the best films and we even made it into the opening paragraph, which has somehow survived the cull: “As this most clunkily-named decade, the Noughties, goes gently into that good night, we’ve seen fit to round-up our pick of the best films from the cinematic era that gave us Steve Coogan Hollywood movie star, saw a postman taking on McDonald’s and winning in McLibel, while a splatstick horror director from New Zealand by the name of Peter Jackson changed the face of cinema with a story about some plucky midgets.”

So that’s it then: we made a film, which was called The Age of Stupid, and then we distributed it as best we could and then we turned our attentions to 10:10 in a bid to help usher in, er, The Age of Sense? The Age of Reason? The Age of Clever?

Hope all’s well with you,

Franny

Last two coats in the COP15 cloakroom at 8pm on the final Sunday… Nobody can say we didn’t try…

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

Public Inquiry for Airfield Wind Farm, as featured in ‘The Age of Stupid’, 12-> 15th January 2010

-> Please come to Bedford to show your support

Hello Age of Stupid fans,

Piers Guy from the film here.

If consented, Airfield Wind Farm will consist of 3 x 2MW wind turbines, located in Bedfordshire. These three turbines, proposed next to the Santa Pod drag racing strip, will produce around 14,000GWh of clean electricity per year, which is the equivalent to the usage of around 3,000 homes, savings thousands of tonnes of CO2 per year.

In the summer of 2009, Nuon Renewables appealed the planning application on the grounds of non determination. The Public Inquiry has been set for 10am on Tuesday the 12th of January at Bedford Town Hall, St. Paul’s Square, Bedford, MK40 1SJ. The inquiry will last until the 15th of January.

We really want the Planning Inspector to see the strength of support for the wind farm. We know CLOWD, the anti group featured in The Age of Stupid, will be there in large numbers trying to monopolise the proceedings, so it is vital that the we have as many supporters present as possible.

A strong turnout would send a very positive message to the Planning Inspector, we also would like as many people as possible to drop in throughout the week so that the inspector is continuously reminded of the support that exists for this project and also to boost the morale of the wind farm team at the enquiry.

At all times please wear bright blue (hats, scarves, t-shirts, jumpers etc.) if possible to show your support for the wind farm We will also have blue rosettes for people to wear.

Feel free to make banners, and make yourselves heard.

Hope to see you in Bedford!

Cheers,
Piers Guy

Any queries please contact:

Will Watson, Project Manager

Email: will.watson@nuonrenewables.com

Tel: +44 (0)1736 330171

Web: www.nuonrenewables.com

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Daimler eyes alliance with Nissan, Renault.
DETROIT (Kyodo), January 13, 2010,  The head of Daimler AG says the German carmaker is considering forming a partnership with Nissan Motor Co. if it can reach a deal on a proposed technological tieup with Renault SA.

“We have confirmed that we are in discussions with Renault. It is not just discussion, but there are other discussions going on as well,” Daimler Chairman Dieter Zetsche said Monday at the North American auto show in Detroit.

“If the discussions (with Renault) would come to any results, then obviously the potential expansion with Nissan is something to consider,” he said.

Zetsche said Daimler wants to strike a deal with Renault in the first half of this year.

Nissan and French maker Renault formed a capital tieup in 1999. If Daimler ties up with Nissan, the two are likely to work together on environmentally friendly vehicles, including electric cars, according to industry watchers.

—————————–

Earlier in the day, Ford Motor Co. Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally said his firm will maintain the current capital and business alliance with Mazda Motor Corp.

“We treasure our relationship with Mazda. It’s been very useful and beneficial for both of us even though we had to take down our equity position,” Mulally said.

Ford has had an 11 percent equity stake in Mazda since selling part of its shareholding in fall 2008.

The share sale was due to Ford’s financial plight amid the recession, Mulally said.

“Our relationship with Mazda will keep going,” he added.

Multidisciplinary International Scientific Conference on Energy, Environment and Health – Optimisati – Optimisation and Future Energy Systems.     Copenhagen, May 31 – June 2, 2010.

from: Kenneth Karlsson

First Announcement

Dear Colleagues,

The “International Conference on Energy, Environment and Health – Optimisation of Future Energy Systems” will take place in Copenhagen from May 31 to June 2, 2010. The conference which brings researchers from atmospheric physics and chemistry, air pollution modelling, environmental sciences, energy systems, human health and environmental economy scientific communities together, will take place at the Carlsberg Academy at the former resident of the Danish Nobel Price winner Professor Niels Bohr.

The aim of the conference is related to future energy scenarios and the consequences for health, environment, climate change and economy. Focus will be on interdisciplinary support systems for assessment of future energy production and consumption, including direct and indirect costs.

The conference consists of five successive sessions (more info on the sessions is available at the conference website – http://ceeh.dmu.dk):

1: Energy System Modelling
Keynote speaker: Professor Henrik Lund, Aalborg University, Denmark
2: Environmental and Health Impacts
Keynote speaker: Professor Steffen Loft, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
3: Economic Valuation
Keynote speaker: Professor Susan Chilton, Newcastle University, United Kingdom
4: Integrated Modelling
Keynote speaker: Markus Amann, IIASA, Austria
5: Future scenarios for energy production and consumption
Keynote speaker: Dr. Maryse Labriet, President of ENERIS

Deadlines
Abstract submission, April 1, 2010
Extended abstract submission, May 15, 2010
Early bird registration, April 1, 2010
Final registration, May 1, 2010

For more information please visit the website at http://ceeh.dmu.dk.

Hope to see you in Copenhagen!

Best regards from the Organising Committee,
Lise Frohn, Kenneth Karlsson, Allan Gross, Eigil Kaas and Jørgen Brandt

For more information please contact:

Lise Marie Frohn, Ph.D., Senior Scientist, Strategic Research Coordinator
National Environmental Research Institute, University of Aarhus
Department of Atmospheric Environment
Frederiksborgvej 399
DK-4000 Roskilde
Denmark
Phone: +45 46 30 11 78
Fax: +45 46 30 12 14
Email:  lmf at dmu.dk

From the latest news coming from Washington – “Under the new airport
rules, all citizens of Afghanistan, Algeria, Lebanon, Libya, Iraq,
Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Yemen must receive a pat
down and an extra check of their carry-on bags before boarding a plane
bound for the United States, officials said. Citizens of Cuba, Iran,
Sudan and Syria — nations considered ‘state sponsors of terrorism’ —
face the same requirement.”

That means Cuba and thirteen Muslim states: Afghanistan, Algeria,
Lebanon, Libya, Iraq, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia,
Sudan, Syria, and Yemen.

These news caused a lot of comments, but we think the wrong comments.

We assume obviously that Washington is ready finally to address the
terrorism issue. Airplane terrorism, as we learned on 9/11, is not
about transport of weapons but about terrorists – to be specific since
9/11 – we speak here about Islamic terrorists. If you want to catch
terrorists you must look for terrorists. Looking for baby formula is
not the answer – but looking for those passengers whose profiles are
suspicious might be a better bet. Sure, obviously, not all Muslims are
terrorists, and profiling is terrible – even illegal, but if you want
to catch terrorists you start with the profile that most fits Islamic
terrorists, and you bet – they are Muslims of any color. Even though
they may be traveling with documents issued by non-Islamic States,
i.e. the UK, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, France, Switzerland, or even the
US.

So, it is not easy to define exactly what papers are carried by the
terrorists, but you can have some guidelines to increase your chance
of catching them. looking for a profile of an Asian or African Muslim.
Then, learn from the Israelis how to talk to them – you may even find
out that they are so convinced that their cause is the right one, that
they will lower their guard and just plainly disclose that what you
see is all they got.

There may be a Jamaican convert to Islam who preached terrorism in the UK
and resides now in Kenya – a case in point. Kenya does want him either and
he will be sent back to Jamaica a second time. yes, this is a problem if you
are American and Jamaica does not cooperate – but he is a Muslim and no
Anti-Defamation league is enrtitled to tell you Mr. President that he should
not be stripped and searched if he wants to travel via the US to Jamaica.
This is simple.

But what about Cuba? Fidel Castro is more atheist then Catholic, surely
no Muslim. Whatever went on in the past is history to me and I do not believe
prologue to Mr. Castro. So why mix him and his country up with 13 Islamic
States involved in Islamic Terrorism? That is unless someone in the US longs
to see him give cover to such terrorists in the future so they get new reasons
to be after him? If the Jamaica case has anything to teach us – it is that the
US is better off reinsuring its rear parts from anger caused by mistreatment
and friendship is not achieved by mulling over past grief. Specially, as several
hundred former sugar baron families living in Florida should not be allowed to
hold hostage the US when it comes to real US interests.

Mr. President, I watched Bolivia and Venezuela leaders speak in Copenhagen,
they fumed and brimmed with words – no stones or missiles. Their ALBA is,
I think, the natural ally of a US that manages to disengage from the Islamic
world of oil. So, it is the US self interest that calls for you, Mr. President, to
invite Fidel Castro to Washington for a tete-a-tete and start on a way that
eventually will give the US the wall of safety it needs when addressing the 21st
Century centers of terror – the Islamists’ terror cancer that will continue to ooze
as long as we use oil.

Please start by taking him of that list!

The thirteen on that list include the obvious Iran – Syria – Lebanon
trio of the Shii’a Islam, it includes the Afghanistan/Pakistan US
theater of operations and Iraq, as well as the other US theater Saudi
Arabia, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan that misses Egypt and the Gaza strip. A
fourth historic region includes Libya and Algeria, then with Nigeria,
these are newer sources of oil for the US, and as such clear potential
sources of unhappy Islamists who complain about the changes in their
countries as fueled by oil money. In very few countries terrorism
against the US was actually started by rulers decree. Libya, Iran,
Syria, Sudan, Somalia may be the exceptions, but Saudi Arabia and
Yemen may have seen rulers who deflected anger against themselves into
anger against foreigners. In the majority of cases the terrorist is a
person of convictions and the situation could have been avoided had
the US and the rest of the Western World, tried to be less squanderous
with the oil we got addicted to.

Having said the above – let us get now to the point – MR PRESIDENT -
PLEASE – TAKE CUBA OFF THAT LIST BECAUSE THEY DO NOT BELONG ON THAT
LIST IN 2010.

* * * *

Please look – I am posting here four reference – links to news
articles of today’s New York Times.
 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/05/us/05t…

New Air Security Checks From 14 Nations to U.S. Draw Criticism
 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/05/world/…

In Yemen, U.S. Faces Leader Who Puts Family First
 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/05/world/…

Behind Afghan Bombing, an Agent With Many Loyalties
 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/05/world/…

Kenya Seeks to Deport Muslim Cleric to Jamaica

————————

THE UPDATE:

We have received a comment on this post and it presents a very valid point supposedly made at the UN General Assembly by the Foreign Minister of Cuba: “I mean if they were going to include us, then they should have at least thrown in North Korea.”

Even if the e-mail we received from ajay -   akazif at gmail.com  as presented by www. eggplantpost.com in http://eggplantpost.com/2010/01/05/cuba-… were a made up story, the argument holds water nevertheless. DID THE US INCLUDE CUBA ON THAT LIST BECAUSE IT WANTED TO AVOID BEING SEEN AS GOING AFTER A RAG-TAG OF ISLANIC COUNTRIES? Now, we believe that US security should be spoken here – not again US appeasement-for-oil please!

We spent half a day in Copenhagen with the Philips of Denmark company and saw their terrific inroads in European bulb exchange industry that is now practically eliminating incandescent lamp bulbs and even the conventional fluorescent. They gave me as a present one of their bulbs – a 7 Watt  50-60Hz bulb that provides in Europe at 230-240V light  like our 100W bulb – an 80% saving on energy input. The bulb works also in the US at 110V but obviously provides much less light. Anyway, the super in our building was all in owe when he saw the bulb that provides warm shade light and does not look like the contraptions sold now in the US that are being rejected by people because of the light color and contorted shape.

I also took a tour of an environmentally active neighborhood of Copenhagen and their climate conscious community businesses are actively promoting the exchange of bulbs to the Philips LEDs. No wonder that Philips was a main backer of the City of Copenhagen “Hopenhagen” festivities and the meeting of the world Mayors.

I intended to write all that up in length, but did not get yet to do it, when this morning I found in my e-mail the following that was picked up by my friend from the days we fought the global forces of oil – at the UN – to bring to attention that the world needs a future not based on oil – Dr. Harris Schoenberg. We see even the Phillips MASTER GLOW LEDbulb MV is not the latest and best. There is already in the works some new organic paint that will be LED activated and no bulb whatsoever! Just let lose the scientific sense of good people that want also to make a buck, and we will get the convenient answers we need – just put in cages those that tend to keep us chained to the old and scream murder when we want progress.

————

THE UPDATE: Our posting about LOMOX has become one of our most-read postings of 2010 and we have even been asked by entrepreneurs to establish for them the contact with the LOMOX Corporation. As we are not in this sort of business, we will nevertheless attach to this post one such show of interest in the hope that it does reach LOMOX anyway.

Also, we were made aware that there may be two methods of applying this ingenious wall cover – there is a method using the material as wall paper that contains the active ingredients, and that several floors in the new “Burj Babel” – that is the Burj Dubai / Burj Khalifa of Dubai tower – are rumored to be covered with this new material, and there is this newer futuristic paint.

———

From The Times of London
December 30, 2009

Glowing walls could kill off the light bulb: Organic LEDs could kill off the light bulb, first created by Thomas Edison.

Ben Webster, Environment Editor

Light-emitting wallpaper may begin to replace light bulbs from 2012, according to a government body that supports low-carbon technology.

A chemical coating on the walls will illuminate all parts of the room with an even glow, which mimics sunlight and avoids the shadows and glare of conventional bulbs.

Although an electrical current will be used to stimulate the chemicals to produce light, the voltage will be very low and the walls will be safe to touch. Dimmer switches will control brightness, as with traditional lighting.

The Carbon Trust has awarded a £454,000 grant to Lomox, a Welsh company that is developing the organic light-emitting diode technology. The trust said it would be two and a half times more efficient than energy saving bulbs and could make a big contribution to meeting Britain’s target of cutting carbon emissions by 34 per cent by 2020. Indoor lighting accounts for a sixth of total electricity use.

The chemical coating, which can be applied in the form of specially treated wallpaper or simply painted straight on to walls, can also be used for flat-screen televisions, computers and mobile phone displays.
As the system uses only between three and five volts, it can be powered by solar panels or batteries. Lomox, which will use the grant to prove the durability of the technology, believes it could be used in the first instance to illuminate road signs or barriers where there is no mains electricity.

Ken Lacey, the chief executive of Lomox, said that the first products would go on sale in 2012. “The light is a very natural, sunlight-type of lighting with the full colour range. It gives you all kinds of potential for how you do lighting,” he said.

Although organic light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have been available for several years, Mr Lacey said that concerns over cost and durability had prevented further development. He said that Lomox had developed a much cheaper process and discovered a combination of chemicals that were not vulnerable to the oxidation that shortened the operating life span of other types of organic LEDs.

Mr Lacey said the technology could be used to make flexible screens that could be rolled up after use, or carried into a presentation, for example.

Mark Williamson, director of innovations at the Carbon Trust, said: “Lighting is a major producer of carbon emissions. This technology has the potential to produce ultra-efficient lighting for a wide range of applications, tapping into a huge global market.

“It’s a great example of the innovation that makes the UK a hotbed of clean technology development.”

———————

The Attachment to Lomox and others:

Dated: 6th January 2010

Sub : LED PAINT
Dear Mr. Jawetz,
I found the article on LED PAINT development by LOMOX, Wales very interesting. I am ex Philips and have some knowledge of the lighting market. Since leaving Philips I founded Mishanti Consultancy Services Pvt. Ltd. We have implemented over the years a number of cutting edge technology projects that have been successful.

We have been recently approached by a well known Middle East investor willing to fund viable projects. Substantial funding is possible.
We were thinking of a Solar Energy Project along with LED. The article on LOMOX shows the advantages of LED paint over the conventional LED.
We would be interested to discuss with LOMOX possibility of tie-up in respect of further funding and promotion. As we all know, it requires great deal of investment to take a product from Lab to market.
I shall be grateful for your help in starting a dialogue with LOMOX, Wales.
Best Regards & Happy New Year

N. Roy

Director
Mishanti Consultancy Services Pvt. Ltd.

8, Camac Street, 5th Floor, Room no. 11
Kolkata – 700 017
India
Phone : 91 33 2282 2299 / 2282 6905
Mobile : 9831289873
Mail :  mishanti at cal.vsnl.net.in