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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on August 16th, 2008 RIO 9 / LAREF 2009 We like to draw your attention to the RIO 9 - World Climate & Energy Event, together with the LAREF 2009 - Latin America Renewable Energy Fair on March 17th-19th, 2009 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The contributions for the scientific program of RIO 9 (PV, Solar thermal, Wind power, biomass, finance, policy, education, etc.) can be uploaded via http://www.rio9.com/participation/callfo… until October 14th, 2008. As the former RIO events in 2002-06, RIO 9 will be a meeting point for leading scientists, politicians, the public and decision makers from the industry. Among all renewable energies such as wind, solar, biomass, geothermal and hydro, RIO 9 will have a focus on photovoltaic power generation. Please find further details and the brochure for the Call for Papers via: http://www.rio9.com/download/Call_for_Pa… We would like to invite you to participate in the global discussion and look forward to welcome you at RIO 9 - World Climate & Energy Event and the Latin America Renewable Energy Fair LAREF 2009 (information for exhibitors is provided via http://www.rio9.com/download/LAREF2009_E…) In case of any questions or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact us via e-mail, fax or phone. CONFERENCE ORGANIZATION: RIO 9 - LAREF 2009 - Organization Office: phone: (+55 21) 22 11 50 26 E-mail: info at rio9.com Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on August 13th, 2008 From: sniffenj at un.org forwarding of News Release from: Charlotte Opal Ensuring that biofuels deliver on their promise of sustainability - Biofuels soon to be measured by international standards. 300 experts and representatives of the public and private sector have come LAUSANNE, 13 August 2008 – Are biofuels a panacea or a threat to climate, However, such diverse constituencies as businesses, academics and The standard is intended to be used by investors, governments, The draft criteria of the Roundtable for Sustainable Biofuels, developed Over 300 experts from corporations, civil society groups, academic Steering Board members include, among others, individuals from BP, Bunge, —————————– The following members of the Roundtable’s Steering Board can be contacted Barbara Bramble, National Wildlife Federation, USA +1 202 797 6601 For more information, please call Charlotte Opal, +41 21 693 5351, or *********************************** ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on August 12th, 2008 Bauhaus-era plant to power Jordan Valley eco-tourism. http://www.israel21c.org/bin/en.jsp?enDi…; Less well known, however, are the many other projects built throughout the 1920s to 1950s in the International Style. One of the most ambitious of these was the Rotenberg Power Plant, which from 1932 supplied both sides of the Jordan River valley with electricity up until 1948 when it was destroyed. In 1994, the Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty turned the area into an international border crossing. Now, an equally ambitious Israeli-Jordanian initiative project, spearheaded by Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME), aims to revive the area, and the Rotenberg compound along with it, as a unique eco-tourism site spanning both sides of the border.
‘This is 20th century industrial archeology.’ In May, a design workshop (also called a charrette) took place with the participation of faculty and students from Yale University and the Bezalel Academy of the Arts together with Jordanian and Palestinian architects. FoEME presented the results of the charrette in Jordan and Jerusalem, along with recommendations from pre-feasibility studies and business plans. The group recommended utilizing the site’s architectural heritage: a 2,000-year-old bridge built by the Romans to connect the cities of Beit Shean (today in Israel), Pella and Um Quais (today in Jordan); a khan (inn) from the Middle Ages that served travelers passing from east and west; an Ottoman era bridge that connected the railway from Akko (Acre) to Damascus; a Turkish customs house and police station; an additional bridge built under the British Mandate and, of course, the modernist Rotenberg power station. “The [station] rivals some of the industrial sites in the US from the same period on the same scale, like some of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) projects,” says Prof. Alan Plattas of the Yale University School of Design, at the charrette presentation at Jerusalem’s Van Leer Institute. “We’re not going to restore the power station. What we have now are the remains. We’ll convert the existing structures, stabilize the ruins, and reuse other structures. This is 20th century industrial archeology,” says Plattas, who further noted that the site’s old railroad station “is a little gem of modernist Bauhaus building.” The ultimate goal, he said, will be to turn the whole area into a major attraction for the newly burgeoning field of eco-tourism. “Tourism, over time, will supplement and overtake agriculture as the economic base in the region, especially on the Jordanian side. Former workers housing will be converted to eco-lodges, the power station will be reconstructed as a visitor center, and the surveillance apparatuses will be converted to birdwatcher shelters,” he says. Bird-watchers, it turns out, are a target market for a region that is one of the world’s major way stations for migratory bird, and re-flooding the present day dry lakebed would create a bird sanctuary. Baqura is already among the best preserved multi-ecosystem habitats in Jordan and FoEME estimates that the lake would serve to attract the more than 500 million migratory birds that cross the Jordan River Valley twice annually, as well as a good number of the world’s 60 million birdwatchers, along with assorted hikers, bikers and other various and sundry nature lovers. “Adjacent kibbutzim have already developed tourism industries,” says Plattas, who envisions a car-free compound surrounded by “reservoirs of parking, where people would leave their cars behind and convert to other modes of transport available at the park.”
The park will be developed in stages, with Phase 1 on the Jordanian side of what is a truly unique border. At Peace Island the charrette witnessed first-hand Israelis and Jordanians entering the site, without the need for visas and passports - due to terms of the 1994 treaty that took into account “the special circumstances of the Naharayim/Baqura area, which is under Jordanian sovereignty, with Israeli private ownership rights.” The owners, in this case, include concessionaires Israel Electric Corporation, formerly the Palestine Electric Corporation, whose visionary founder, Pinchas Rotenberg, was awarded use of the Jordan and Yarmouk rivers to supply hydroelectric power to Mandatory Palestine, by the British authorities. Rotenberg successfully negotiated with Jordan’s Emir Abdallah to use 1,500 acres of land that was under Transjordanian control. The station operated from 1933 until it was destroyed by the Arab Legion in 1948 and became part of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. “The power station has a history of shared international cooperation that has been interrupted,” says Plattas. Travel itself has its own rhythms and the ongoing tension between Israel and its neighbors has blocked traditional traffic flow, says environmental consultant Aviad Sar Shalom. “Tourism in the area today is mainly on the Israeli side from north to south. This project will restore the natural tourism circulation of east to west.”
Bromberg says the next step will be for the Jordanian side to be declared a national park, and to link the Israeli sites of Naharayim and Gesher, “and then we’ll continue undertaking concrete investment in the infrastructure in a parallel fashion, preparing everything for the linkage into one cross-border Peace Park. If all goes well, we’ll have enough in place to be able to open in two and a half years time.” FoEME’s feasibility studies, says Bromberg, “predict that within five years of opening, we can expect 250,000 local visitors (Jordanian and Israeli) and 200,000 foreign visitors within 10 years. That will create many different types of employment as rangers, managers, service providers and small business opportunities such as concessions on bike and electric cart rentals, souvenirs, food service, guides, etc.” Because bird-watching takes place in the early morning or at dusk, the project forecasts an expansion in accommodation and transport providers on either side. “On the Israeli side there are already many establishments that will directly benefit such as B&Bs and kibbutz guest houses but we predict that demand will increase and facilities will upgrade. Presently, on the Jordanian side, there are limited facilities - the Pella guest house has only 10 rooms - so we intend to work with aid agencies to develop a training program that can help the rural communities to create a B&B infrastructure in the town of North Shuna and the village of Baqura.” It’s not just wishful thinking, Bromberg points out. “Certain aspects of the project already exist. The Israeli side [Gesher/Naharayim] is already open. And the Jordanians have already started to bring groups to the site; local students and teachers, entrepreneurs and potential investors. Northern Jordan is an area that is very poorly visited at the moment and with high unemployment. That’s why the authorities have shown such interest.” Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on August 11th, 2008 From: glen.peters at cicero.uio.no
A report analyzing the changes in Chinese emissions more broadly from 1992 to 2002 can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/es070108f (subscription required to Environmental Science and Technology). —————– Glen Peters Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on August 11th, 2008 EU-Russia relations in jeopardy as bombs hit Tbilisi. By Phillipa Runner for EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS, August 11, 2008 - The suspension of EU-Russia negotiations on a new bilateral pact, freezing talks on visa-free travel for Russian citizens and holding back EU humanitarian aid to Chechnya until Russia ends aggression in Georgia could be among ideas debated by EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Wednesday (13 August).
“According to our sources, Russia is going to launch a last attack on Georgia with the aim of regime change,” the EU diplomatic contact said. “I’m afraid the Russians may storm Tbilisi soon. I hope the ministers [still] have something to discuss next week.” The French EU presidency has called the emergency EU foreign ministers session for 10:00 local time on Wednesday to respond to the situation, with EU ambassadors to meet in Brussels on Tuesday afternoon to prepare the agenda. No extraordinary meeting of EU leaders is foreseen for now, despite a call by Poland to hold an emergency summit. French president Nicolas Sarkozy will travel “in the coming days” to Moscow to meet Russian president Dmitry Medvedev. Meanwhile, French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner and Finnish foreign minister Alexander Stubb arrived in Georgia on Sunday night. The plane touched down at Tbilisi International Airport just a few hours after the airport was struck by Russian bombers. “We must find the means for an immediate ceasefire, accepted by both sides,” Mr Kouchner told AFP following talks with Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili. “We must move quickly, this is not a diplomatic exercise, it’s an exercise of survival.” “We are now in the business of crisis management, we are now in the business to broker peace. We are not in the business of seeking who has done what, when, where and how,” Mr Stubb said. Bitter resentment: Russia says its actions are designed to protect Russian passport holders and peacekeepers in the Georgian breakaway republic of South Ossetia, in line with existing treaties. It has accused Georgia of “genocide” in shelling the South Ossetian town of Tskhinvali last week, during what it called Mr Saakashvili’s “suicidal” bid to defeat the rebels. But Georgia says the Russian-backed separatists provoked its attack on Tskhinvali, which Russia used as a pretext to attack the small NATO and EU-aspirant state. It says the Russian push is designed to reassert power in Russia’s old sphere of influence and to cut off an emerging oil and gas corridor between Europe and the Caspian Sea. The UN refugee centre estimates that 10,000 to 20,000 people have become internally displaced in Georgia, but news reports on the ground indicate the figure could be tens of thousands more. Casualty estimates range from a few hundred soldiers and civilians, to over 2,000 mostly civilian deaths, with at least two reporters killed. EU and US leaders conducted intensive telephone diplomacy over the weekend, with the US president and the NATO secretary general both criticising Russia’s “disproportionate” use of force. US practical help has so far been limited to helping airlift home 2,000 Georgian soldiers from Iraq, while the EU has earmarked €1 million for humanitarian aid.
—————————- The GUAM are Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova. www.sustainabiliTank.info even has an Asian GUAM button for Georgia and Azerbaijan - two States in the Caucasus region that are of high importance to the EU as transit area for oil and gas lines originating in Azerbaijan and in the Central Asian States. Georgia has applied for acceptance to NATO and has developed friendly relations also with the US. A confrontation in Georgia is not unthinkable for the NATO members, even though the Balkan-alike Caucasus area is much more difficult to defend by the Atlantic alliance then the original post-Yugoslavia real Balkans. Nevertheless, bypassing the UN Security Council with biting resolutions that can hurt the Russian economy is in the cards. The Wall Street Journal today points out the fall in the Russian stock market and the impact Putin’s decisions have on potential future investments in Russia. Further, with a rising China, Russia would be unrealistic in its evaluation of its position in the world and the WSJ starts seeing the possibility that Medvedev, the nominal President, might indeed distance himself from Putin, the nominal President. These are interesting days that sprang out in the shadow of the Olympics. Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on August 11th, 2008 From: cseipt at agu.org La version française de ce message est disponible en bas. _____________________ Dear Colleagues and Friends, Applications are invited for the inaugural round of African Climate Change Fellowships. The African Climate Change Fellowship Program (ACCFP) aims to support African professionals, researchers and graduate students to undertake activities that will enhance their capacities for advancing and applying knowledge for climate change adaptation in Africa. The program is jointly administered by the global change SysTem for Analysis, Research and Training (START), the Institute of Resource Assessment (IRA) of the University of Dar es Salaam and the African Academy of Sciences (AAS), with financial support from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada. This Call for Applications is extended to researchers, scientists, and academics working in fields related to climate change and climate change adaptation as well as professionals and practitioners with experience and responsibilities related to policy, planning or management of climate sensitive resources, sectors, systems or livelihoods. A variety of Fellowship types are offered to support projects, research, and other activities that advance adaptation in Africa. The Fellowships range in duration from 2-18 months, and award amounts range from USD $5,000 - $36,000, depending on Fellowship type. Eligibility is limited to citizens of member states of the African Union who are 40 years of age or younger. All application materials must be received no later than 17 September 2008. Applications that are incomplete or received after the deadline will not be reviewed. If you have questions about the ACCFP and this Call for Applications or if you have trouble accessing the ACCFP website and application materials, please contact the Pan-African START Secretariat at pass at ira.udsm.ac.tz. We ask that you please help us spread the word about this exciting opportunity to other colleagues and friends. Forward this email to qualified individuals that might be interested to apply! Best Regards, Clark Seipt On behalf of START, IRA, and AAS ____________________________________________ Cher collègues et amis, Cet appel à candidatures s’étend aux chercheurs, scientifiques et académiciens travaillant dans des domaines liés au changement climatique et à l’adaptation au changement climatique et aussi aux professionnels et spécialistes qui ont de l’expérience et des responsabilités liés à la politique, la planification ou la gestion des ressources, secteurs, systèmes ou moyens de subsistance vulnérables au climat. Une variété de types de bourses de recherche est offerte dans le but de soutenir les projets, la recherche et les autres activités qui permettent des avancées sur l’adaptation en Afrique. Les bourses de recherche ont une durée variant de 2 à 18 mois, et le montant accordé varie de 5 000 à 36 000 dollars, selon le type de bourse. L’éligibilité est restreinte aux citoyens des pays membres de l’Union Africain âgés de 40 ans ou moins. Une description de chaque type de bourse de rechercher ainsi que les instructions et directives pour la préparation et le dépôt d’une candidature pour être boursier ACCFP sont disponibles dans l’appel à candidatures 2008. L’appel à candidatures 2008 ainsi que les documents nécessaires au dépôt d’une candidature sont disponibles sur le site Internet du Secrétariat Panafricain START à l’adresse suivante: http://accfp.pass-africa.org. Les documents nécessaires au dépôt d’une candidature doivent être soumis au plus tard le 17 septembre 2008. Les candidatures incomplètes ou reçues après la date limite ne seront pas étudiées. Si vous avez des questions à propos d’ACCFP et de cet appel à candidatures, ou si vous avez des problèmes pour accéder au site Internet et au documents de candidature d’ACCFP, merci de contacter le Secrétariat panafricain START à l’adresse suivante: pass at ira.udsm.ac.tz. Nous vous remercions de bien vouloir faire suivre ce message à propos de cette opportunité à vos autres collègues et amis, et aux individus qualifiés susceptibles de postuler! Je vous prie d’agréer, Madame, Monsieur, mes respectueuses salutations, Clark Seipt Au nom de START, de l’IRA, et de l’AAS Clark Seipt Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on August 9th, 2008 Coincidentally, I started to read yesterday morning a new book by Dmitry Orlov titled - “Reinventing Collapse.” The book was released by New Society Publishers www.newsociety.com and was sent to me by Perseus Distribution of Jackson Tennessee. Dmitry Orlov was born and grew up in Leningrad, and came first to the US in 1985 and after 10 years started going back and forth so he says - hehasbecome a witness to the changes in Russia. Orlow is an engineer who worked in high-energy Physics and in Internet Security. He came under our cross-hairs when it turned out that he is also a leading Peak Oil theorist. But this is not why I am mentioning him today. The reason is much deeper then that. Dmitry Orlov writes that when he came back to the US in 1996, after a longer stay in Russia where he just got married, but also said that at the time he started to understand the reasons why the Soviet Union collapsed - and horror - he started to see that the US had already at that time all the symptoms of the same disease that did in the Soviet Union. He writes that he came back with his wife to make for themselves a new life in the US, but he also started to write about his insights that made him see that the second shoe will drop eventually - that is the US after the Soviet Union - two very different States - but nevertheless two States with similar destinies because they suffer from very similar malaise. His description of the ingredients of a super-power collapse are as follows: (a) A severe and chronic shortfall in the production of crude oil; (b) A severe and worsening trade deficit, (c) A runaway military budget and (d) Ballooning foreign debt. When such a soup starts boiling, then “the heat and agitation” are provided by (e) a fear of a humiliating military defeat, and (f) wide spread fear of a looming catastrophe. He looks then at all of those ingredients that existed in the Soviet collapse - that was an internal collapse - an implosion I would say. He laughs at the thought that it was caused by outside influences, stemming from the actions of the US, except for the fact that the Soviets fell for the arms race of the “star-wars” competition that caused them further exhaustion. On the other hand, he sees all these ingredients in the present state of the US, and he watched these aspects grow during the last decade. Orlov looks at Chernobyl as the backdrop of catastrophe that sent off the Soviet Union, and sees the need of oil in order to grow food in the US - at the tune of ten calories of fossil fuels to produce one calorie of food - this, and runaway foreign foreign debt, leading to the decrease in credibility of US monetary instruments - killer hurricanes and global climate upheaval - become the US fear of catastrophe. The eventual reason for the drop of the second shoe. I only mention here these morning thoughts - I will be getting back to this book later and write a book review. Now I intend to touch on another incomplete activity I found myself involved in yesterday. *** This was a “Pre-Concert Discussion” of the “Mostly Mozart” Lincoln Center Festival presentation of “REQUIEM.” Yesterday was the US premiere, but I will be seeing the show only tonight. All what I did was to sit in at the discussion between the Festival’s Director Peter Sellars, and Lemi Ponifasio, a Samoan living in Auckland, New Zealand, who is the Director/Choreographer/Designer of this Requiem. Again, this writing of mine is a half backed attempt, and not yet a finished review of the show. This will come later. But now what I want to say here is that all such words as “Director,” “Choreographer,” “Designer,” “Show,”"Review,” were actually knocked out of my head last evening, because I realized that we really are totally incapable of understanding the mind of those that do not think like us. Interesting, Peter Sellars, remarked in a even larger context - “in our age - the commentator on the Op-Ed page presumes to understand everything - we will see that it is not as simple as that.” My mention of Orlov’s look at history showed me how trite it is to think that the US led to the collapse of the Soviet Union, and that the US is safe because it thinks of itself as a democracy. Now, Lemi, and the movement of MAU in Samoa, and his troupe, that adopted the MAU name for their collective, are really no actors at all, according to how they see themselves. In effect they will be involved in CEREMONIES that come to them naturally - something that is not just a CELEBRATION - and this requiem is not a memorial for the dead - this because they are not dead at all - they are here with them - so it is as if there were a communal living with these unseen members of the community present. We will look in a future review at this as a “Requiem to Requiem” where the idea of a Requiem, in the second time it is mentioned in this comment, becomes sort of a synonim to culture, life, an island, an environment. Then the first mention of Requiem in the remark is the more accepted meaning. MAU is the name of the Samoan independence movement that took on the Germans, French, Dutch, and British. The meaning is Vision or Revolution. The activities of the MAU troupe serve “to energize dialogue and revive local oriented histories, arts, thought, languages, and narratives that have been silenced or excluded.” In those Pacific Islands a house is not a home where you close in your belongings like in a storage - their concept is that this is a space for life and all are invited. There is always a standing pole in their culture - this pole gives you sort of a vertical feel of space and you and all your ancestors reside there. We will see that eventually this home without walls becomes the whole island and its sufferings. To be true to our www.SustainabiliTank.info website, I will add that Lemi and Peter also touched on the problems of global warming that threaten the demise of cultures like Kiribas (Kiribati). So, will we someday have to try our own hand at this kind of Requiem when remembering the independent indigenous cultures of these Small Islands Independent States of today - the SIDS of the Pacific? This is the extent of how far I am ready to go here. *** Now, with the above two snippets, in my head, let me say that I sat down before my TV set to watch the NBC, Channel 4, reporting from Beijing, that was handled by NBC as if it was just an excuse to sell us ExxonMobil trying to sell us that they take on “the largest energy challenges of the World.” I was amazed when after that an NBC journalist actually added “while you watched the advertisements China advanced several hundred years in its history.” I hope they will not fire him for this remark. GE spoke of biogas technology and that was fine, but Chevy Silver was trying to impress us with their miserable 20 mpg technology. Oh! Yes - we also saw John McCain bashing Obama in the campaign well paid advertisement - and we thought that at least this night we can forget about the US Presidential non-debate. This Chinese Coming-Out event was all about HARMONY. We watched the Tai-Chi performers and were told of Harmony between Man & Nature as the only chance for Sustainable Development for China and the rest of the World for next generation - and we said AMEN. When this is resolved there will be prosperity and environmentalism. You do not have to be naive and embrace China’s government, or take for granted the smiles on the faces of all the participating dancers and musicians. It was too uniform and large to be taken at face value - but there was enough there to say that it was an honest attempt to say - look - we suffered in our history from what others did to us - but we are a sleeping giant that is now showing - yes - we can and we will. China showed us that they are much closer to the MAU mentality now then they are to their previous MAO mentality. Yes, the legions of dancers and musicians were militarily trained. Their performance perfect, thus in some way threatening, but the content of their show was so we appreciate what they have given to the world - ink and paper for those believing in the needs of the press, and the compass for those in search of direction. Navigation is the means of communication with the great world, and they had their own naval chiefs of the caliber of a Christopher Columbus. These performers did not hate us - they CELEBRATED their return to the world stage, and this was their CEREMONY. After this show, China and us will never be the same. Just think of the fact that they reminded us that there were days China had the highest GNP in the world. We saw some of their ghosts, and we saw some of our ghosts. We saw Confucius, and yes, we remembered how it was members of the Atlantic community that committed them to opium enslavement. It was not said - but I knew it was somewhere there in that huge mat, center stage, on the floor of the stadium. Money is no problem, they bought the best architectural minds to work with their own best, and created the greatest venue for a global event. Pity that parts of the show were missed by us because of the commercialism of US TV world. We saw how some foreign leaders, like Putin, that did not smile, President Bush looked at his watch, we wondered why President Peres of Israel, who is secular, had to make the gesture of going on foot back to his hotel because of the Sabbath, but then these were not China’s problems that day. OK, now, I finished the Friday events. On Saturday morning I rushed to pickup the papers. The opening of the Olympics was really not the main set of news. That debatable honor went to Russia’s attack inside Georgia, and to the John Edwards attack on the US political system by having endangered the Democratic Party’s chances for meaningful change in Washington. I really have little to say about Edward’s male infidelity - that should have been left to be solved between him and his wife, but we know that this is not US reality. Such events can sink the US, as it happened in the Bill Clinton days. Clinton’s Presidency was decreased in potency, to the detriment of the American Nation, by some self appointed ethical judges who, as we know by now, some of them had much worse transgressions in their closets. What the US does not have is that vertical space the man from Samoa was talking about. There is no ceremonial thinking in our system - only raw hunt after the culprit who may have sinned much less then we did. And when the US is in decline, while China is on the rise - now we have things to think about - not so? And don’t forget - China holds the strings to the US treasury and Orlov made his unforgivable observations. As for the second news of the day - Putin moving on Georgia - that is tough for the Georgians but again, Putin is back in the oil-saddle and is flush with money too. In effect, we believe that he came to Beijing not as a teacher, but now he comes to Beijing as a student. He has learned from the Chinese that if you put your economy in better shape, outsiders and your own people as well, will criticize you less on human rights and other transgressions. He did not smile on TV, and he knows what his intent is now. So, what does Dmitry Orlov think of the opening of the Olympics and the near certainty that China will take over the Super-power manttle after the drop of what he described as the second shoe? Then, to remind us that change may not be as smooth as some may hope for, two American Olympic tourists were just stabbed while visiting the Drum Tower in the center of Beijing - reasons yet unknown. ***
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