We know that there was a lack of US leadership in the last 8 years concerning global issues the like of - ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE. We also know that an Administration that inherited a National economy with huge surplus ended up in deficit within a mere first term, and will leave a now behind a bankrupt economy begging for foreign aid - this as its inheritance to the next inhabitant of the Washington White House. Should it easily be renamed a Red House in need of becoming a Green House?

But, was it all avoidable without radical change? Just think of the writings of Dmitry Orlov whom we started to cover on this website. See the parallel impact on the G-7 - Russia is not part of this group and China and India were not yet included in this group - does the OECD as configured at this time - still have relevance for the future of global leadership? Ask those that visited China this week-end.

China remembers its own local Schindler.

By JEFF KINGSTON, Special to The Japan Times, Sunday, Aug. 10, 2008.

John Rabe (1882-1950), known as the Oscar Schindler of China, was an employee of Siemens and a Nazi party member when he helped establish the International Safety Zone (ISZ) toward the end of 1937 to provide a refuge for Nanjing’s noncombatants.

The good Nazi: John Rabe in his air raid shelter behind his house JEFF KINGSTON

As a result, he is credited with helping save the lives of some 250,000 Chinese from the marauding Japanese troops. As a Nazi, Rabe got more respect from the Japanese than his other Western colleagues running the ISZ and on a few occasions by showing his swastika armband he managed to stop Japanese soldiers in the midst of raping Chinese women. In general, however, the good intentions of the ISZ were ignored by soldiers allowed to run amok for six gruesome weeks.

Were it not for the timely intervention of the German President Johannes Rau in 2003, Rabe’s house in Nanjing would have been bulldozed for a road-widening project. On a visit to the city, Rau prevailed on local authorities to move their roadwork elsewhere, and in 2004, Siemens agreed to provide funding to help restore the dilapidated house.

It opened as the John Rabe Research and Exchange Center for Peace and Reconciliation in October 2006. Its mission is to “refresh memories and learn lessons paid with blood from this agonizing period.” According to the director, Dao Luan Tang, the message of the Rabe house is a hopeful one, offering a contrast to the unremitting inhumanity on display at the Massacre Memorial.

Rabe emerged from the dustbin of history due to the research of author Iris Chang. She managed to unearth his unpublished diaries and included excerpts in her controversial book, “The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of WWII” (1997). Subsequently the diaries were published as “The Good Man of Nanking: The Diaries of John Rabe” (1998).

Rabe, precisely because he was a Nazi, is an especially inconvenient eyewitness for the revisionist Japanese historians who try to deny, minimize, shift or otherwise evade responsibility for the Imperial Japanese Army’s savage rampage in Nanjing.

In February 1938, Siemens recalled Rabe to Germany, where he gave lectures about the outrages in Nanjing and showed a film shot by the American missionary John Magee depicting the brutal consequences of Japan’s reign of terror. He also made the mistake of writing to Adolf Hitler, detailing the atrocities, leading to his arrest by the Gestapo, apparently for activities inconvenient to bilateral diplomacy. He was released due to the intervention of Siemens, but forbidden to lecture, write, show films or converse on the phone concerning what had happened in Nanjing.

After the war, Rabe got caught up in a de-Nazification program that left him unemployed and destitute. When news filtered back to Nanjing, where he was lionized for his good deeds, the grateful citizens raised $2,000 for him, a grand sum at the time, and every month sent food parcels. The statue of Rabe that now stands in front of his house in Nanjing was built with money raised by overseas Chinese students in Hamburg, Germany, where he was raised.

Nestled at the edges of the leafy Nanjing University campus across the street from the Angel beauty salon, the Rabe house gets relatively few visitors — It has, in total, only seen about 10,000 since it opened.

Currently the exhibits, which consist mostly of documents and photographs, have Chinese and English explanations, but I was told a draft Japanese translation is being checked for accuracy and should be ready in 2009.

The Rabe house is an intimate space that helps one imagine Nanjing at the time, and the staff is friendly and helpful. On request, they will show versions of the video displays with English captions for non-Chinese speakers.

RELATED STORIES

War and reconciliation: a tale of two countries
Nanjing now: philosophy, history and Jacuzzis
Some look forward to a harmonious future

The World Values Survey is available at: www.worldvaluessurvey.org www.happyplanetindex.org

Download the reports
Download the Happy Planet report (2006, pdf)
Download the European Happy Planet report (2007, pdf)

See the Global HPI map:  http://www.happyplanetindex.org/map.htm

Yesterday, an extremely interesting TV program introduced the concept of “Global Dimming.”

We all are familiar by now, and swear by it, that we are in the midst of a  “Global Warming” phenomenon. We know that this is caused by fossil CO2, and some other gases, that accumulate in the atmosphere. These gases impact global climate in an unseen way. They are not smog causing as such. Their direct effect is not seen to the naked eye.

But there is a second effect - this one has to do with carbon particulates and as well some other - more active - gases - that originate also from the burning of these fossil fuels. these gases are the sulphur and nitrogen compounds.
So, these other particles and gases do two things - they can nucleate small droplets of water and these droplets, together with the carbon particles, create a second effect - they block the sun rays that try to reach us. So, we end up having two effects - the heat that did reach us has a much harder time getting to us, but some of the sun rays that would have reached us - do not reach us. The sum total effect is that we have Global Warming, but also a “Global Dimming” effect. THE BEIJING OLYMPICS SHOW US BOTH EFFECTS - FOR US ALL TO SEE!

The TV program told us of an Israeli scientist, Jerry Stanhill who back in the 1950s mapped out the insolation in Israel for the purpose of planning the water distribution for Israel’s agriculture. Others measured water evaporation.

For some reason, in the 1990s, the same Jerry Stanhill, 40 years older, repeated his study and found out that there was an average  drop in 22% in the amount of solar radiation hitting Israel. Reading of his study, a lady scientist in the German Alps, looked at the sun reaching her area, and got similar results. Others found that there was a parallel DECREASE in evaporation. The evaporation studies, done all over the world were then reviewed in Australia and in the Maldives Islands, and confirmed. Of special interest were the studies by a scientist called Ramanathan, who looked at two islands in the Maldives - at the extreme ends of this chain of islands - and found that the more polluted island in the north end had much less sun and less evaporation then the southern-end island that gets cleaner Antarctic air and has more sunlight.

So, we do not want to rain on China’s parade. But, as environmentalists, we do not see only the glitter.

Seven years in the making, billions of dollars spent, great buildings, real terrific architecture, millions of happy people - and we are happy for China’s progress. China has indeed lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty - but in this Year of the Rat - we also see the Dragon of Smog. Is this pollution a must that comes with progress? Can, and will, the Chinese, and ourselves learn from these SMOG HIGHLIGHTS of an otherwise happy event? With Bush, Sarkozy, Putin, Fukuda and some other Heads of State in town to watch the opening - will their eyes also see what there is for all to see - THE SMOG? Will they pull together and say - let us do something about this so that there will be light from the sun, and no global warming as well? Can they get themselves to praise those aspects of the games and of the architecture for the games, that stressed green energy? Will they speak up and say - if we want these solar panels, and the rest of solar technology to be effective - we must also think of what the enhanced fossil fuels born smog does by sabotaging these efforts.

From:  Dan.Harding at earthscan.co.uk
Subject: The Power of Sustainable Thinking
Date: August 7, 2008

Systems expert, counselling psychologist and Earthscan author Bob Doppelt is at the forefront of attempts to tackle climate change by transforming thinking and behaviour.

Using proven ‘staged-based’ methods for altering cognitive patterns, his forthcoming book The Power of Sustainable Thinking is a manual for changing the mindset of individuals and organizations.

‘In this important book, Doppelt brings his in-depth experience as a sustainability practitioner, and his professional background as a counselling psychologist, to bear. He illustrates that major thinking and behavioural changes are necessary to resolve the climate crisis, and that serious behavioural change requires us to consciously reframe our thinking and embrace a new logic of personal, social and environmental costs and benefits.’ Eban Goodstein, professor of economics, Lewis and Clark College, founder and project director, Focus the Nation

Pre-publication review copies are now available – journalists and book review editors are welcome to contact me for more information, and to enquire about author interviews and articles.

Dan Harding
Marketing Executive
Earthscan Ltd
Dunstan House
14a St Cross Street
London EC1N 8XA, UK
Tel: +44 (0)20 7841 1953
Fax: +44 (0)20 7242 1474
www.earthscan.co.uk

—————

Further links of high interest regarding the need for a “Sustainable Thinking” volume:

Extracts from the book: http://www.earthscan.co.uk/Portals/0/pdfs/PoST_Marketing_Pack.pdf

Doppelt’s opinion piece: http://www.earthscan.co.uk/Portals/0/pdfs/Doppelt_Opinion_Piece_August_2008.pdf

Introducing the hybrid you can hear (so it won’t run you over).
By Michael Savage, The Independent, Thursday, 7 August 2008

Lotus said its “safe and sound hybrid technology” simulates the traditional grunt of a combustion engine

The fearsome roar of their engines is one of the first things to come to mind at the mention of Lotus, the stylish, lightweight British sports cars.

That familiar growl could soon be heard coming from a far more modest source: beneath the hitherto tranquil bonnets of other manufacturers’ electric cars.

Lotus is developing technology that will put the roar of the traditional combustion engine under the hoods of eco-friendly vehicles, in an attempt to make the quiet cars safer for unsuspecting pedestrians – particularly the blind – and cyclists.

Stealthy hybrids and electric cars have come in for criticism from groups representing the blind and partially sighted, concerned that the low hum of the vehicles puts those with imperfect sight at greater risk of being hit on the roads. Some are almost silent at slow speeds.

The engine noise is produced by a waterproof loudspeaker positioned next to the car’s radiator, making the sound seem to originate from under the bonnet. The system produces a pitch and frequency designed to help pedestrians identify the car’s speed and distance.

Lotus adapted the system from technology previously developed to block outside noise from the inside of its cars.

Electric vehicles are tipped to become a more common sight on the roads over the coming decade as drivers seek ways of minmising the cost of ever-higher petrol prices and the issue of global warming moves up the agenda.

Mike Kimberley, chief executive of Group Lotus, said: “The increased acceptance of greener vehicles such as hybrid and electric vehicles is to be encouraged; they have an important role in improving fuel economy and reducing emissions. Our technology increases pedestrian safety, while retaining the car’s environmental benefits.”

Duncan Vernon, road safety manager for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, said: “We need to look at ways of ensuring the safety of pedestrians. We welcome innovative solutions which address this.”

Lotus hopes that manufacturers of electric and hybrid cars will adopt the technology, which it says can also be fitted to cars already on the roads for a sum that would not “break the bank”.

Pressure is growing on the Government to introduce minimum noise requirements for road vehicles, to ensure the noise-augmenting technology is used and that the new wave of quiet eco-friendly cars poses no risk to vulnerable pedestrians.

Clive Wood, transport policy officer at the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association, said: “Blind and partially sighted people use the noise of oncoming traffic as a cue for when it is safe to cross a road. If a quiet hybrid electric vehicle is approaching, then they will no longer have this cue and are immediately put at risk.”

He added: “We recognise the environmental benefits of these vehicles. However, more consideration needs to be given to the safety implications to visually impaired pedestrians.”

Silent danger on the street

*Electric and hybrid cars are so quiet many fear they pose a risk to pedestrians. One US study found electric and hybrid cars moving slowly had to be 40 per cent closer to pedestrians than conventional vehicles before their location could be detected. They have no noisy pistons, internal explosions or fan belts which cause the roar we associate with the traditional car engine. Hybrids pose an added problem. For much of the time, they are powered by a combustion engine. But at low speeds, an electric motor takes over, making them very quiet. The new system from Lotus kicks in when sensors detect the electric motor is working.

From:    munekata at iges.or.jp
Subject: IGES Call for Abstracts: Climate-Friendly Transportation Strategies in Asia: Overcoming Obstacles to Co-benefits
Date: August 6, 2008

Call for Abstracts: Climate-Friendly Transportation Strategies in Asia: Overcoming Obstacles to Co-benefits.

The Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) Climate Policy Project invites abstracts (two A4 pages) on co-benefits of greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation in Asia’s transportation sector.

Selected authors will be invited to contribute full-length papers for a multi-chapter book project. Selected authors will also be sponsored to attend the Better Air Quality (BAQ) 2008 Workshop in Bangkok, Thailand and present their findings at a pre-event panel scheduled for 11 November 2008.

Due Date: 1 September 2008

Project Rationale:

Rising rates of motorization in developing Asia have become a source of concern outside and inside the region. Outside the region this concern stems from projections that carbon emissions from Asia’s transport sector could triple by 2025. Inside the region it stems from projections that urban air pollution levels, fuel costs, and commuting times could increase just as sharply over the same period. The key to altering these projections may lie in integrated transportation policies. Integrated transportation policies are so named because, rather than focusing on either developmental or climate goals, they pursue both objectives simultaneously. Integrated policies therefore have the potential to be more cost-effective than isolated climate or developmental policies.

A number of studies have demonstrated this potential by estimating the developmental benefits of integrated policies. These benefits are commonly referred to as co-benefits.  The values of co-benefits are often found to be significant in developing Asia, which would presumably draw interest from regional policymakers. But while the influence of this research seems likely to expand, thus far its impacts on policies have been limited. This book project seeks to determine why these potentially sizable impacts have yet to materialize in developing Asia’s transport sector. More concretely, the project’s main goal is to understand the opportunities for and obstacles to maximizing the co-benefits of transportation policies in developing Asia.  A second goal is to propose countermeasures based on that assessment.

Abstracts should focus on one of the following three themes.

Analytical Framework: Papers should identify categories of transportation policies with significant co-benefits and barriers to realizing those benefits. Papers may focus on technical, financial, political, and social barriers. Analytical frameworks offering explanations for why some categories of policies are more likely to succeed than others are encouraged.

Case Studies: Papers should examine specific projects/programmes/ policies where the co-benefits have or have not materialized in developing Asia.  Submissions should highlight the actors, interests and institutions that contributed to the case’s performance. Comparative case studies are encouraged.

Co-benefits in the Post-2012 Climate Regime: Papers should explore opportunities for recognizing and rewarding transportation co-benefits in the post-2012 climate regime. Insights into how the post-2012 climate regime could strengthen the design and implementation of integrated transportation policies are encouraged.
Abstracts should be submitted as a PDF file attachment by email to  cobenefits at iges.or.jp by 1 September 2008. Include “IGES CO-BENEFIT ABSTRACT” on the subject line of the email.  The abstract should include the following: the title of the paper, name and institutional affiliation of author(s) and their disciplines on the title page. Only English-language submissions will be considered.

The IGES Climate Policy Project will acknowledge receipt of all submissions by email. Notification of selected abstracts will be made by 15 September 2008. The authors of selected abstracts will be asked to submit the draft version of full paper by 5 November 2008. This call for abstracts is open to policy practitioners, scholars, and students from both developed and developing countries. The focus of study should be Asia; cases outside the region can be used for comparative purposes.

About the Climate Policy Project at IGES

The mission of the project is to recommend effective climate policies for sustainable development in Asia in this era of evolving global climate regime. In Phase 4 of its research (April 2007-March 2010), the project is conducting research on four sub-themes: market mechanisms, adaptation, climate regime beyond 2012, and co-benefits. This call for papers is specifically designed to assist the work of the sub-themes of climate regime beyond 2012 and co-benefits. For additional details of the project, please refer to http://www.iges.or.jp/en/cp.

For additional details regarding this call for abstracts, please contact:
Dr. Ancha Srinivasan, Principal Researcher and Manager at:        cobenefits at iges.or.jp

Thursday, Aug. 7, 2008

Nissan shows off prototypes of electric, hybrid vehicles.

By HIROKO NAKATA, Staff writer, Japan Times online.

YOKOSUKA, Kanagawa Pref. — Nissan Motor Co. unveiled prototypes Wednesday of electric and gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles it plans to launch in Japan and the United States in business 2010.

an AP photo is titled Silent speed: A prototype of Nissan Motor Co.’s new gasoline-electric hybrid speeds along the automaker’s test course Wednesday in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture.
The announcement, made at Nissan’s Oppama plant in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, where its lithium-ion battery R&D center is located, comes at a time when competition for environment-friendly vehicles is heating up in Japan. Nissan previously said it will begin mass-marketing electric vehicles globally in business 2012.

However, “the design will be totally different” when Nissan launches the final versions in business 2010, Nissan Executive Vice President Mitsuhiko Yamashita told reporters.

MMC batteries near.
Kyodo News

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. and two other firms said Wednesday they will start mass producing lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles at a new factory in Kusatsu, Shiga Prefecture, in business 2009.

The new plant, to be completed by March 31, will produce 200,000 lithium-ion cells a year, enough to equip 2,000 of MMC’s next-generation electric vehicle, the iMiEV, according to a joint statement by the automaker, battery maker GS Yuasa Corp. and trading house Mitsubishi Corp.

Output will soon be quintupled to 10,000 cells a year, due to growing demand for lithium-ion batteries, they said.

Kyoto-based Lithium Energy Japan is building the facilities in Kusatsu. The joint firm was set up in 2007 by the two Mitsubishi firms and GS Yuasa Power Supply Ltd.

TOP STORY of Daily Grist, August 6, 2008.

Uppin’ Atom! - McCain tours nuke plant, renews call for nuclear power expansion in U.S.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain toured a nuclear plant in Michigan on Tuesday, using the opportunity to renew his call for the U.S. to build 45 new nuclear reactors by 2030. At the plant, McCain said that his love affair with nuclear power began when he encountered nuclear ships and submarines in the Navy. “I knew it was safe then, I know it’s safe now,” he said. However, the backdrop for his nuclear-safety claim was less than ideal. The nuke plant McCain was touring has been the site of a number of nuclear accidents: one reactor had a partial meltdown in 1966 and briefly caught fire this May. Another reactor leaked in 2005, temporarily shutting down the plant. On the tour, McCain accused Democrat Barack Obama of not fully supporting nuclear power, but Obama’s campaign refuted the claim. An Obama spokesperson issued a statement saying that Obama “supports safe and secure nuclear energy. … However, before an expansion of nuclear power is considered, Obama thinks key issues must be addressed, including: security of nuclear fuel and waste, waste storage, and proliferation.”

sources: Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Detroit Free Press
see also, in Muckraker: McCain to visit nuclear power plant with dismal safety record

————–

BUT AT www.sustainabiliTank.info we wonder if McCain’s Staff has read what the Japanese think of having been visited recently by a nuclear radiation leaking American submarine - the kind McCaine said he fell in love with.

OK - if the military needs them we will not talk further about this - but the needs of the missing US energy policy - that is a different matter. Nuclear Power and Drilling the Outer Shelf - both are unneeded by a US energy policy and we hate to see McCain and his people pushing Obama to go along also,with the wrong policies.

Shipping Costs Start to Crimp Globalization.

by: Larry Rohter, The New York Times, August 3, 2008.

When Tesla Motors, a pioneer in electric-powered cars, set out to make a luxury roadster for the American market, it had the global supply chain in mind. Tesla planned to manufacture 1,000-pound battery packs in Thailand, ship them to Britain for installation, then bring the mostly assembled cars back to the United States.

    But when it began production this spring, the company decided to make the batteries and assemble the cars near its home base in California, cutting more than 5,000 miles from the shipping bill for each vehicle.

“It was kind of a no-brain decision for us,” said Darryl Siry, the company’s senior vice president of global sales, marketing and service. “A major reason was to avoid the transportation costs, which are terrible.”

{ we wonder what Tesla was thinking - you make an electric car to save the world the CO2 emissions, and making that car you do unneeded emissions in having the parts circle the world because it saves some union headache when producing components in the US? }

The world economy has become so integrated that shoppers find relatively few T-shirts and sneakers in Wal-Mart and Target carrying a “Made in the U.S.A.” label. But globalization may be losing some of the inexorable economic power it had for much of the past quarter-century, even as it faces fresh challenges as a political ideology.

Cheap oil, the lubricant of quick, inexpensive transportation links across the world, may not return anytime soon, upsetting the logic of diffuse global supply chains that treat geography as a footnote in the pursuit of lower wages. Rising concern about global warming, the reaction against lost jobs in rich countries, worries about food safety and security, and the collapse of world trade talks in Geneva last week also signal that political and environmental concerns may make the calculus of globalization far more complex.

“If we think about the Wal-Mart model, it is incredibly fuel-intensive at every stage, and at every one of those stages we are now seeing an inflation of the costs for boats, trucks, cars,” said Naomi Klein, the author of “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.”

“That is necessarily leading to a rethinking of this emissions-intensive model, whether the increased interest in growing foods locally, producing locally or shopping locally, and I think that’s great.”

Many economists argue that globalization will not shift into reverse even if oil prices continue their rising trend. But many see evidence that companies looking to keep prices low will have to m