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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on July 2nd, 2008 NOAM CHOMSKY TALKS PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on July 1st, 2008
Pass the Sugar, Sugar Florida will buy out sugar company to restore Everglades - the immediate beneficiaries are a sugar family of immigrants that escaped Cuba when Fidel Castro took the reigns. Nearly 300 square miles of sugar plantation in the Everglades will once again become marsh, as Florida Gov. Charlie Crist announced last week that the state will buy the land from U.S. Sugar Corp. If all goes to plan, the $1.75 billion deal may be the largest environmental restoration in the history of the United States. Environmentalists have long lamented the sugar industry’s role in diverting and polluting the Everglades’ water supply; the River of Grass is only half the 11,000 square miles it was in the early 20th century. U.S. Sugar, which has farmed the Everglades for nearly 80 years, plans to go out of business within six years. The deal is, says Kirk Fordham of the Everglades Foundation, “an achievement of breathtaking significance and priceless value.” Sweet. sources: Los Angeles Times, Herald-Tribune, Reuters, CNN, The New York Times, Associated Press Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on June 30th, 2008
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on June 28th, 2008 Dear colleagues writes Dr. Will Allen: Developing and implementing initiatives that address sustainability issues - be they social, public health or environmental - inevitably involves a long process of difficult dealings with a great variety of individuals, groups, and institutions who can make them fail or succeed. The Learning for Sustainability site - http://learningforsustainability.net - has just been updated with links to on-line resources around the human dimensions and social process aspects of these. The site structures the wide range of areas that are needed to address social change in a practical way, and brings links to lot of on-line resources together in one easy to access site. The benefit to the reader is that each link is annotated to provide a guide to its contents. A central section links the reader to a range of guides, tools and checklists that can be drawn upon for guidance in this area to address issues involved in multi-stakeholder participation and engagement. Lessons are drawn from different sectors including the environment, HIV/AIDS, public health, climate change, disaster management, and conservation. A new page in this section now covers tools, tips and techniques for facilitators and other social engagement specialists. Other sections provide links to best and emerging practice in specific areas including social learning, adaptive management, network building and mapping, dialogue, knowledge management, and evaluation and reflection. Research links cover action research, systems thinking, participation, integration and interdisciplinarity. One page lists on-line resources for both post-graduate research students and their supervisors. The Learning for Sustainability site - http://learningforsustainability.net - also manages additional pages on finding volunteering and job opportunities in the sustainability sector. The Sparks for change blog is a recent addition to the site this month. It has been included as mechanism to highlight ideas and people that encourage constructive change. Readers are encouraged to suggest sites to add, thoughts to share, or stories that they think need to be written. All this material is easily accessible through the main site indexing system. from: Dr. Will Allen ————- Google Search - Results 1 - 10 of about 182,000 for Will Allen Sustainable Development: Learning for Sustainability Leadership Dialogue: Will Allen and Anthony Flaccavento Leadership for a Changing World: Forums Sustainable development - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Forum: Science and Innovation for Sustainable Development - … International Journal of Sustainable Development (IJSD) - 10… Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on June 27th, 2008 A revolution on the horizon: 7,000 more wind turbines. In the next 12 years, 7,000 wind turbines will spring up across the hills and around the coasts of Britain, in a £60bn renewable energy programme outlined by Gordon Brown. They will be the highly visible symbols of what the Prime Minister called “the most drastic change in our energy policy since the advent of nuclear power” – a shift to producing at least a third of UK electricity from carbon-free renewable sources, compared to under 5 per cent today. Britain’s share of this works out at a 15 per cent renewable energy target, split between electricity, heating and transport, with electricity bearing the lion’s share: between 30 and 35 per cent of UK power will need to be renewable by the target date, compared with 4.5 per cent today. The investment programme and timetable needed to achieve this in a mere 12 years are demanding, and comment was split yesterday between environmentalists and renewable energy suppliers, who were delighted, and more cautious commentators who questioned whether such a technical undertaking was possible in the time scale. For example, hitting the targets means at least trebling the current scale of wind-farm construction, adding 4,000 more onshore turbines to the 2,000 already in place, and installing 3,000 turbines in the sea, at a rate of two every three days between now and 2020, Christmas and bank holidays not excepted. Questions were raised as to whether or not Britain has the manufacturing capacity, or the number of engineers necessary to carry out the installations. The Government said it could be done. John Hutton, (ultimately responsible for energy) and the Energy minister, Malcolm Wicks, all affirmed their commitment to meet the targets, while accepting how challenging they were. The commitment comes from the top. It was clear from his speech yesterday that after a long time being at best lukewarm about renewable energy, Mr Brown has himself undergone a damascene conversion to the real merits of the wind turbine and its related technologies. There are two reasons for this. One is the new concern about security of Britain’s energy supplies, thrust into sharp focus by the soaring oil price in the past six months, which Mr Brown reminded the country was worse than the two oil shocks of the 1970s. Britain needs to kick its coal, oil and gas habit, and Mr Brown reminded everyone that he also feels nuclear power sits alongside renewables as the way to do this. The other is the realisation that the development of low-carbon energy technology, which is taking off across the world, represents a potential employment bonanza for Britain. Calling it “a green revolution in the making,” Mr Brown said it could provide 160,000 new jobs. Suddenly, jobs and a stable economy, with which Mr Brown has always concerned himself, fit into the scheme of things alongside helping the environment – and they all go forward as one package. “If the Government actually means it this time, then Britain will become a better, safer and more prosperous country,” said Greenpeace’s executive director, John Sauven. “We could create jobs, reduce our dependence on foreign oil and use less gas, and in the long run our power bills will come down. But it won’t happen without real government action.” In numbers 60,000,000,000 Cost in pounds of Gordon Brown’s renewable energy plan 160,000 Number of jobs the Government claims will be created Blueprint for the future * Britain will source 15 per cent of energy use from renewables by 2020 (compared to 1.5 per cent today). * Renewably-sourced electricity will rise to about 35 per cent (4.5 per cent today). * Heat produced by biomass burning, solar power and heat pumps will be 14 per cent of demand (0.6 per cent today). * Renewable transport fuels – biofuels – may play a part but must be sustainable. Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on June 26th, 2008 From: P.Newell at uea.ac.uk Meeting the development needs of the majority of the world’s people in a carbon-constrained world presents a global challenge of staggering proportions. There is currently little research, however, about the role of institutions and policy processes in reconciling the growing levels of demand for energy investment in rapidly industrialising countries with the goal of clean development aimed at facilitating a transition to a lower carbon economy. An ESRC Climate Change Leadership Fellowship on The Governance of Clean Development will address this issue. The programme of work will explore the conditions in which the governance context nationally and internationally helps to determine (i) the nature, scale and direction of investment flows in the clean development sector (within and beyond the United Nations Clean Development Mechanism) and (ii) the extent to which those flows are able to simultaneously satisfy social as well as environmental ends. As part of this programme, applications are invited for a fully funded 3 year PhD studentship based in the School of Development Studies at UEA to be supervised by Prof. Peter Newell to begin in October 2008 (or as soon thereafter as possible). The subject of the research will be a comparative study of the governance of clean development in India and South Africa and will involve field work in both those countries. The studentship will allow significant involvement in the research and communication work associated with the fellowship at one of the UK’s leading centres for research on climate change development. The studentship includes PhD student fees, field work costs and project related travel, a stipend plus a Research Training Support Grant. To see the terms and conditions of ESRC studentships see http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/ESRCIn… Applications are welcome from candidates with a minimum 2.1 undergraduate degree (or equivalent) and a relevant Masters degree or relevant experience. Please note that due to funding restrictions only EU and UK citizens are eligible. Applications should include a CV, a covering letter outlining relevant experience and interest in this area of work and a completed application form which can be downloaded from: http://www1.uea.ac.uk/cm/home/schools/ss…. They should be submitted to Daniel Lightening, SSF Admissions, University of East Anglia Norwich, NR4 7TJ Tel +44 (0) 1603 592805, E-mail:d.lightening@uea.ac.uk quoting ESRC/Newell. The deadline for applications is August 15th 2008. A telephone interview will be held in late August at a date to be confirmed. For further information and queries please contact Prof. Peter Newell P.Newell at uea.ac.uk Professor Peter Newell From November 2007 to October 2008 I will also be: James Martin Fellow Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on June 26th, 2008 About the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) is an independent not-for-profit organisation aiming to create a lasting relationship between shareholders and corporations regarding the implications for shareholder value and commercial operations presented by climate change. Its goal is to facilitate a dialogue, supported by quality information, from which a rational response to climate change will emerge. CDP provides a coordinating secretariat for institutional investors with a combined $57 trillion of assets under management. On their behalf it seeks information on the business risks and opportunities presented by climate change and greenhouse gas emissions data from the world’s largest companies: 3,000 in 2008. Over 8 years CDP has become the gold standard for carbon disclosure methodology and process. The CDP website is the largest repository of corporate greenhouse gas emissions data in the world. CDP leverages its data and process by making its information requests and responses from corporations publicly available, helping catalyse the activities of policymakers, consultants, accountants and marketers. For more information, visit web site: WWW.CDPROJECT.NET Letter from CDP CEO: CDP’s information request 2008 is now complete and we have received a high level of very informative, detailed company responses, as more and more companies seek to understand their impact on the climate and the impact climate change will have on their business. We have also seen some very interesting developments in the global political climate in the past few months. The UK government is considering a mandatory reporting scheme for corporate greenhouse gases, the New Zealand government is looking at a cap and trade system. In the USA, the Lieberman-Warner Bill, although defeated in the Senate earlier this month, showed how a future cap and trade system in the USA might shape up. Climate change will be on the agenda at the G8 Summit in Japan next month and Tokyo’s Metropolitan government has just voted unanimously for a cap and trade system which will cover the capital’s offices and factories. We still have a very long way to go to reaching a global agreement, but the political appetite is growing. Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on June 25th, 2008 Cooperative Spirit Emerges at Whaling Commission Meeting. SANTIAGO, Chile, June 24, 2008 (ENS) - With whaling nations and their allies on one side and pro-conservation nations on the other, annual meetings of the International Whaling Commission have been increasingly gridlocked and acrimonious. But today at the 60th annual IWC meeting in Santiago there was a breakthrough. The 81 member governments agreed on a new way of dealing with the issues that separate them. After intensive discussions among officials during the last week, including a closed door commissioners’ meeting on Sunday all nations seem prepared to make the new approach work. First, the IWC has agreed to change the rules of engagement under which meetings operate, in the hope of developing an atmosphere more conducive to change. The establishment of a small working group, which is the second development, will allow substantive issues that have persisted in dividing the Commission to be addressed. The group will attempt to resolve 33 significant issues. “This a major step forward - for the first time in 20 years we have agreed to a concrete process to talk about the substantive issues that divide us,” said New Zealand Conservation Minister Steve Chadwick in Santiago. The crux of the problem is that commercial whaling has been prohibited throughout the world’s oceans for the last 20 years, but in reality it has continued under the guise of scientific whaling by Japan. “Members of the Commission have always known what these issues are, but until now have never agreed to sit down together and try to find a way out of the impasse,” Chadwick said. “My meeting yesterday with Peter Garrett, the Australian Minister for the Environment, reconfirmed both countries’ determination to find a way to end scientific whaling,” said Chadwick. “New Zealand and Australia share very similar views on whale conservation and we will continue to work closely at the IWC to ensure a constructive meeting that maximizes the protection of whales.” The meeting opened Monday with speeches of welcome by Chilean Minister of Foreign Affairs Alejandro Foxley and Chilean Minister for the Environment Ana Lya Uriarte. Outside the meeting, Uriarte and more than a thousand Chileans formed a human whale sculpture, calling for the protection of whales. Today, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet and ministers from Chile, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Costa Rica gathered at Quintay on the coast, to witness the declaration of the new marine sanctuary in the Gulf of Corcovado. Establishing this new sanctuary demonstrates Chile’s commitment to marine protection. The IWC Scientific Committee reported on the status of Antarctic minke whales, North Pacific common minke whales, Southern Hemisphere humpback whales, Southern Hemisphere blue whales and small populations of bowhead, right and gray whales. There was positive evidence of increases in abundance for humpback, blue and right whales in the Southern Hemisphere, although they remain at reduced levels compared to their pre-whaling numbers. Special attention was paid to the status of the endangered western North Pacific gray whale, whose feeding grounds coincide with oil and gas operations off Sakhalin Island, Russian Federation. The population numbers only about 120 animals and although there is evidence that it has been increasing at perhaps three percent per year over the last decade, any additional deaths, for example in fishing gear as has recently occurred, put the survival of the population in doubt, the Scientific Committee said. The commission agreed to work together to try to mitigate human threats to this endangered population and there was praise for Japanese efforts to reduce bycatches in its waters. Ship strikes and entanglements are a threat to the endangered western North Atlantic right whale population which numbers around 300. The commission agrees again that mortality due to human causes should be reduced to zero as soon as possible. A new report submitted to the IWC Scientific Committee by the International Fund for Animal Welfare, IFAW, appears to confirm warnings from international researchers and conservationists that Japan is underreporting the number of whales it kills each year. “The government of Japan is unable to regulate the sale of whale meat in the country,” said Naoko Funahashi, director of IFAW Japan and co-author of the report. “DNA testing proves more fin whales are being sold in Japan than the government admits having killed.” The research team, led by Dr. Scott Baker of Oregon State University, analyzed DNA from 99 whale meat products purchased in Japanese markets since 2006 and identified six baleen whale species - humpback, fin, sei, Bryde’s, North Pacific minke, and Antarctic minke. In the case of the fin whales, the study used methods similar to human forensic genetics to identify products from a total of 15 individuals for sale in 2006 and 2007. But Japan reported a total of 13 fin whales killed under its scientific whaling program over the same period. Official records of whales entangled and killed in fishing nets do not seem to account for the additional fin whale meat in the market. Although the government of Japan claims to have DNA records for each whale killed, it refuses to share the information, said Funahashi. After considering the new report from the market surveys, the Scientific Committee again urged Japan to provide such data to help detect any illegal, unreported or unregulated catches. Three reports presented to the IWC Scientific Committee by conservationists Monday offer evidence that overfishing, not whales, is responsible for declining fish stocks around the world. The Humane Society International, WWF and the Lenfest Ocean Program offered reports debunking the science behind the “whales-eat-fish” claims emanating from whaling nations Japan, Norway and Iceland. The argument has been used to bolster support for whaling, particularly from developing nations. “Who’s eating all the fish? The food security rationale for culling cetaceans,” the report co-authored by Dr. Daniel Pauly, director of the University of British Columbia Fisheries Centre for the Humane Society International contrasts “the widely different impacts of fisheries and marine mammals.” Fisheries target larger fish where available and marine mammals consume mainly smaller fish and tiny crustaceans such as krill, the report points out. “Dr. Pauly’s findings should refute, once and for all, the misconception that whales are eating all the fish and need to be killed to protect the world’s fisheries,” said Patricia Forkan, president of the Humane Society International. Also presented to the IWC Scientific Committee was an analysis of the interaction between whales and commercial fisheries in northwest Africa. The model, funded by the Lenfest Ocean Program, shows no real competition between local or foreign fisheries and great whales. The third report is a review of the scientific literature originating from Japan and Norway - the two countries most strongly promoting the idea that whales pose problems for fisheries. Funded by WWF, the study found flaws in much of the science and concluded that “where good data are available, there is no evidence to support the contention that marine mammal predation presents an ecological issue for fisheries.” Dr. Susan Lieberman of WWF said, “These three reports provide yet more conclusive evidence that whales are not responsible for the degraded state of the world’s fisheries. It is now time for governments to focus on the real reason for fisheries decline - unsustainable fishing operations.” Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on June 22nd, 2008
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