GALAPAGOS ISLANDS REMOVED FROM UN LIST OF WORLD HERITAGE SITES IN DANGER.

Ecuador’s headway in combating threats posed by invasive species, unbridled tourism and over-fishing has allowed the Galapagos Islands to be removed from the list of World Heritage sites considered to be in danger by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The Galapagos, comprising 19 islands and a marine reserve, are situated some 1,000 kilometres from the South American continent. Deemed a World Heritage site in 1978, they have been described as a unique “living museum and showcase of evolution.”

Situated where three ocean currents meet, the Galapagos were formed by seismic and volcanic activity.

Along with the islands’ extreme isolation, these processes led to the development of unusual animal life, such as the land iguana and the giant tortoise, which inspired Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection after his visit to the Galapagos in 1835.

They were put on the list of sites in danger in 2007, and the World Heritage Committee, currently meeting in the Brazilian capital, Brasilia, welcomed the Ecuadorian Government’s ongoing efforts to bolster conservation measures, especially in the use of biosecurity measures to prevent foreign plant and animal species from reaching the islands through the use of sniffer dogs and other means.

The Committee also lauded the country’s moves to limit the number of tourists and arrivals of ships and aircraft, as well as to control fishing.

Imagine a truly unique New York City location with charm, history and spectacular water views: a location that will delight even the most sophisticated socialite or businessperson.  And envision this against the magnificent backdrop of the New York City skyline.

The place is on the Brooklyn side under the Brooklyn Bridge – an area full of good restaurants, The Old Ice Cream Factory, but the Grimaldi’s old Pizzeria commends lines that extend a bloc long – never seen this except at lines for airport clearance.

The venue is Bargemusic, a floating concert hall that The New York Times calls “inviting… ideally intimate… with grand views.”  The 102-foot long covered barge, which was once used to transport coffee, is beloved by discriminating concertgoers around the world and is now one of New York City’s most unusual and enchanting event venues.

Anchored at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge, Bargemusic began first Thursday night JAZZ Series in June 2007.

The address: Fulton Ferry Landing, Brooklyn, NY 11201

At a time Mayor Bloomberg, who when he got into office thought that recycling has to turn a profit, now in his third term, is decreasing public transportation service which is a boon for the taxi industry – just one more group that is important at election time political money gathering.

Oh well, but Bargemusic can still be reached by public transportation even though bus service is obviously non-existant.

Bargemusic, as said, is located at Fulton Ferry Landing near the Brooklyn Bridge.

Directions: Take the A train to High Street station (Use the Fulton Street Exit. Walk downhill on Cadman Plaza West to the East River, 3 blocks); F train to York Street (go right on Jay to Front Street. On Front Street turn left, and turn right on Old Fulton Street; walk downhill to the river); or 2 or 3 train to Clark Street station (walk west on Clark Street to Columbia Heights; turn right; walk downhill to the end of the street).

Then you see:

We received the announcement about the July – August Monday Jazz Series and got intrigued by the July 5 and July 12 concerts which we will write about here. But when we saw the Summer 2010 program we picked up this last Monday, we also saw great Friday, Saturday and Sunday concerts with a mainly classic repertoir, but quite a sprinkling of new music – like the Friday July 23 concert with Riley, Lou Harrison, and Hamza El Din music and titles like: Water Wheel, Mystic Birds Waltz, and Sunrise of the Planetary Dream. That weekend, also the Saturday night and Sunday 3pm concerts are of new music.We intend to go back for some of these concerts.

We recommend you look up www.bargemusic.org for full program.

BARGE MUSIC

The Jazz and More Monday Series:

July 5 • Monday, 8 pm
$20 ($10 students)
Jazz and More
Steven Beck, Piano
with
The Batteries Duo
Josh Frank and Gareth Flowers, Trumpets and Electronics

This is the one concert we already attended and as said, we will attend also the next concert for balance.

This first concert was all in a new adventurous genre performed by well established musicians who experimented with the unknown. Next concert will be eclectic but of the known kind – Brahms, Faure, Piazolla, Jobim, and someone all new to me – Yoed Nir – all this in a jazz format?

From the July 5th concert, Steven Beck, a star graduate pianist of Julliard with already an impressive list of appearances contributed here with two good trumpet players who alternated on the trumpet while using a computer directed electro-acoustic system that seemingly allowed them to improvise at will, and surprise Steven Beck who was doing his thing on the piano. In the end the younger folks in the audience produced strong applause, while the older folks – said Oh Well – they are really nice kids, but what did they say? Really – this is only in New York, and we are very glad it happens here. It can help you forget the real villains of the city – and these are not the musicians.

We will go back on this coming Monday, and update our readers – I hope to see you there also.

THE UPDATE IS BECAUSE WE DID GO BACK LAST NIGHT AND WANT TO REPORT ON A TERRIFIC EVENING.

July 12 • Monday, 8 pm
$20 ($10 student)
Jazz and More
Brahms Sonata for Cello and Piano in e minor, Op. 38
Yoed Nir World of Cello, improvisation for Electric Cello solo, loop station and guitar effects
Faure Après Un Reve - this was replaced by a Rachmaninoff piece.
Piazolla Libertango
Jobim How Insensitive
Yoed Nir, Cello
Ilya Kazantsev, Piano

The two main musicians, Jerusalem-Israeli Yoed Nir and Moscow-Russian Ilya Kazantsev, proved themselves in the Brahms and the Rachmaninoff pieces as extremely talented young musicians of high international promise. We look forward to watch their carers unfold as such.

Nevertheless, there is more to it, and this is why the concert was part of the new series of “Jazz and More,” rather then billed as a concert of pure classic music.  Yoed Nir also likes to use his August Diehl (Hamburg 1902) cello he got on loan from The America-Israel Cultural Foundation that was created by Vera and Isaac Stern, also as an accustic cello connected to an electronic system he operates with the sharp points of his modern shoes (by the way – I finally realized that there can be a good use for these terribly shaped shoeware).

We heard first his solo creation – “World of Cello” that was “an improvisation for Electric Cello solo, loop station and guitar effects,” and later, when he brought on also Ziv Shalev. an Israeli guitarist living in Queens, New York, a terrific rendition of Jobim’s “How Insensitive” that got long applause from the bargefull of very a mixed audience. Now, with this they can tour Brazil and be greeted as great Jobim innovators – quite a mouthful indeed.

Not to be left behind, Ilya Kazantsev cooperated with Yoed Nir on Piazzoll’s Libertango, and this piece could be taken also to Buenos Aires and create a stir there too.

In short – it was a great evening in BARGEMUSIC topped only by the great weather of last night. The temperature posted on one of the buildings near the old Fulton Ferry Landing in Brooklyn, was 77-78 F and there was a breeze and perfect visibility of Manhattan’s East Side shore that we did not experience for years. The Empire State Building tower was red-gold-red in the honor of the Spanish win at the World Cup, a long line of people was snaking along the block waiting for Grimaldi Pizza, and another line pf people was snaking out the door of the Ice Cream factory that stands on the slip next to where the barge is anchored.

See you on Friday, July 23rd 8 pm on the Barge for the Celebration of Terry Riley’s 75th Birthday.

The program will include: Riley’s String Quartet (1960) and Mystic Birds Waltz – Sunrise of the Planetary Dream Collector;  Lou Harison’s String Quartet; and Hamza El Din – Escalay (Water Wheel). The playing quartet is voxare made up of Emily Ondracek, Galina Zhdanova, and Erik Peterson on violin and Adrian Daurov on Cello.

—————————-

The continuation of the Monday Series:

July 19 • Monday, 8 pm
Tickets $20 ($10 Student)
Jazz and More
Deanna Kirk Trio

July 26 • Monday, 8 pm
$20 ($10 student)
Jazz and More
Jeff Newell’s New – Trad Octet

August 9 • Monday, 8 pm
$20 ($10 student)
Jazz and More
Jesse Elder, Piano/Composition
Logan Richardson, Alto Saxophone
Konichi Ebina, Dance/Choreography
Petr Salidar, Photography

August 16 • Monday, 8 pm
$20 ($10 student)
Jazz and More
Foldersnacks
Jesse Elder, Composition/lyrics/voice/keyboard/piano
Zack Foley, Lead Vocals
Terrence McManus, Guitar
Aidan Carroll, Electric Bass
Devin Gray, Drums

August 23 • Monday, 8 pm
$20 ($10 student)
Jazz and More
ZigZag Quartet

August 30 • Monday, 8 pm
$20 ($10 student)
Jazz and More
Rob Schwimmer’s Wild World of Piano and Theremin

———————————————————————
For reservations and further information
phone: (718) 624-2083
fax: (718) 624-1155
email: info@bargemusic.org
web: http://www.bargemusic.org/
address: Fulton Ferry Landing, Brooklyn, NY 11201

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.

—————

*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

A SWISS-led Project. They also came up with the Swatchmobil that turned into best-selling SMART car.

Why does the US not do this sort of work. Think about the availability of the Huntsville, Alabama facilities, could they figure out work on Solar Flight projects?

————————-

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/20…

The Alaska Wilderness League tells us of new Washington chicaneries that endanger the Tongass National Forest by trying to dish out the trees to private clear-cutters. The Environmentalists recommend that we BBQ Alaska wild salmon in order to support the existing communities of that area.

Greece Seeks Regional Deal To Aid UN Climate Talks.

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.

Credits for the following go to a tip I got from a friend, Bob Larick, at a presentation by Ambassador Federico Alberto Cuello Camilo to the UN University on topics of Environment and Migration on the Hispaniola Island where man made disasters in Haiti augment the fact that a fault goes through the island, and poses a natural danger to both States – Haiti and the Dominican Republic. While we cannot but be defensive when it comes to nature, we must nevertheless make sure we do not compound on those potential disasters. This friend gave me the example of the MUD VOLCANO OF INDONESIA.

————————–
 http://www.eturbonews.com/15181/sidoarjo…

DO WE SEE HERE AN INDONESIA GOVERNMENT COVER-UP?

OK – LET IT BECOME A SITE FOR TOURISM — BUT LET IT BE ALSO A SITE FOR LEARNING.

WHY NOT ESTABLISH A SCHOOL FOR OIL INDUSTRY EXECUTIVES AND GOVERNMENT PEOPLE FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD – RIGHT THERE IN SIDOARJA, INDONESIA – SO RESPONSIBILITY CAN BE TAUGHT THERE. WE SUGGEST THAT THE WORLD REINSURANCE INDUSTRY SPONSOR THE SCHOOL!

Indonesia

Sidoarjo mud vulcano disaster zone – new tourist attraction?

Sidoarjo mud vulcano / Image via discover-indo.tierranet.com

Mar 29, 2010JAKARTA, INDONESIAN – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Monday visited a disaster zone caused by a massive mud volcano blamed on gas drilling and said it could be turned into a tourist attraction.

The mud has been devouring land and homes in East Java’s Sidoarjo district since May 2006, endangering as many as 100,000 people and causing US$4.9 billion (S$6.86 billion) worth of damage, an Australian expert estimates. It has buried 12 villages, killed 13 people, displaced more than 42,000 and wiped out 800 hectares (1,977 acres) of densely populated farming and industrial land.

In a rare visit to the area, Mr Yudhoyono acknowledged community anger over delayed compensation payments but promised that the disaster would be turned into an opportunity.

‘With good layout and good concepts, we can turn this place into something useful for the community, whether as a geological tourist attraction, fishery or for other public activities,’ he said. ‘If it’s managed well, I have confidence this will be an attractive place and bring good to the local community. We need to think of a long-term solution and development of the district for the interests of the larger community.’

He did not explain whether the proposed geological tourism attraction would perpetuate the official line that the volcano was triggered by a small earthquake at Yogyakarta, 280 kilometres (174 miles) away.

Independent scientists earlier this year unveiled fresh evidence that gas drillers were to blame for the ongoing mudflow which continues to ruin lives. In a paper published by the journal Marine and Petroleum Geology in February, a group led by experts from Britain’s Durham University said a nearby gas drilling operation was almost certainly responsible. The company being fingered for the disaster, Lapindo Brantas, replied in the same journal that the earthquake unleashed the volcano as its gas drillers probed for gas nearby.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mud_volcano

MUD VOLCANOES:

“A mud volcano may be the result of a piercement structure created by a pressurized mud diapir which breaches the Earth’s surface or ocean bottom. Temperatures may be as low as the freezing point of ejected materials, particularly when venting is associated with the creation of hydrocarbon clathrate hydrate deposits.

Mud volcanoes are often associated with petroleum deposits and tectonic subduction zones and orogenic belts; hydrocarbon gases are often erupted. They are also often associated with lava volcanoes; in the case of such close proximity, mud volcanoes emit incombustible gases including helium, whereas lone mud volcanoes are more likely to emit methane.

A drilling accident offshore of Brunei in 1979 caused a mud volcano which took 20 relief wells and nearly 30 years to stop the eruption.

Drilling or an earthquake may have resulted in the Sidoarjo mud flow on May 29, 2006, in the Porong subdistrict of East Java, Indonesia. The mud covered about 440 hectares, or 1,087 acres (4.40 km²), and inundated four villages, homes, roads, rice fields, and factories and displaced about 24,000 people, killing 14. The gas exploration company was operated by PT Lapindo Brantas. In 2008, it was termed the world’s largest mud volcano and is beginning to show signs of catastrophic collapse, according to geologists who have been monitoring it and the surrounding area. A catastrophic collapse could sag the vent and surrounding area by up to 150 meters in the next decade. In March 2008, the scientists observed drops of up to 3 meters in one night. Most of the subsidence in the area around the volcano is more gradual, at around 0.1 cm per day. Now named Lusi, the mud volcano appears to be a hydrocarbon/hydrothermal hybrid. Lusi is actually a contraction of Lumpur Sidoarjo, where lumpur is the Indonesian word for “mud”".

——————

In Azerbaijan, eruptions are driven from a deep mud reservoir which is connected to the surface even during dormant periods, when seeping water still shows a deep origin. Seeps have temperatures up to 2–3 °C above the ambient temperature.^[1]

Approximately 1,100 mud volcanoes have been identified on land and in shallow water. It has been estimated that well over 10,000 may exist on continental slopes and abyssal plains.

Features:

• Gryphon: steep-sided cone shorter than 3 meters that extrudes mud
• Mud cone: high cone shorter than 10 meters that extrudes mud and rock fragments
• Scoria cone: cone formed by heating of mud deposits during fires
• Salse: water-dominated pools with gas seeps
• Spring: water-dominated outlets smaller than 0.5 meters
• Mud shield and many other kinds of features

Emissions:

Hydrate-bearing sediments, which often are associated with mud volcano activity.
Source: USGS, 1996.

Most liquid and solid material is released during eruptions, but various seeps occur during dormant periods.

First order estimates of mud volcano emissions have recently been made (1 Tg = 1 million metric tonnes).

• 2002: L.I. Dimitrov estimated that 10.2–12.6 Tg/yr of methane is released from onshore and shallow offshore mud volcanoes.
• 2002: Etiope and Klusman estimated at least 1–2 and as much as 10–20 Tg/yr of methane may be emitted from onshore mud volcanoes.
• 2003: Etiope, in an estimate based on 120 mud volcanoes: “The emission results to be conservatively between 5 and 9 Tg/yr, that is 3–6% of the natural methane sources officially considered in the atmospheric methane budget. The total geologic source, including MVs (this work), seepage from seafloor (Kvenvolden et al., 2001), microseepage in hydrocarbon-prone areas and geothermal sources (Etiope and Klusman, 2002), would amount to 35–45 Tg/yr.”^[2]
• 2003: analysis by Milkov et al. suggests that the global gas flux may be as high as 33 Tg/yr (15.9 Tg/yr during quiescent periods plus 17.1 Tg/yr during eruptions). Six teragrams per year of greenhouse gases are from onshore and shallow offshore mud volcanoes. Deep-water sources may emit 27 Tg/yr. Total may be 9% of fossil CH₄ missing in the modern atmospheric CH₄ budget, and 12% in the preindustrial budget.^[3]
• 2003: Alexei Milkov estimated approximately 30.5 Tg/yr of gases (mainly methane and CO₂) may escape from mud volcanoes to the atmosphere and the ocean.^[4]
• 2003: Achim J. Kopf estimated 1.97×10¹¹ to 1.23×10¹⁴ m³ of methane is released by all mud volcanoes per year, of which 4.66×10⁷ to 3.28×10¹¹ m³ is from surface volcanoes.^[5] That converts to 141–88,000 Tg/yr from all mud volcanoes, of which 0.033–235 Tg is from surface volcanoes.

Locations

Europe and Asia

Two mud volcanoes on the Taman Peninsula near Taman Stanitsa.

Satellite image of mud volcanoes in Pakistan.

Mud volcanoes are generally few in Europe, but dozens can be found on the Taman Peninsula of Russia and the Kerch Peninsula of southeastern Ukraine. In Italy, they are common in the northern front of the Apennines and in Sicily. Another relatively accessible place where mud volcanoes can be found in Europe are the Berca Mud Volcanoes near Berca in Buz?u County, Romania, close to the Carpathian Mountains.

Many mud volcanoes exist on the shores of the Black Sea and Caspian Sea. Tectonic forces and large sedimentary deposits around the latter have created several fields of mud volcanoes, many of them emitting methane and other hydrocarbons. Features over 200 meters high exist in Azerbaijan, with large eruptions sometimes producing flames of similar scale (see below). Iran and Pakistan also possess mud volcanoes in the Makran range of mountains in the south of the two countries. In fact, the world’s largest and highest volcano is located in Balochistan, Pakistan.^[6]

China has a number of mud volcanoes in Xinjiang province. There are also mud volcanoes at the Arakan Coast in Myanmar (Burma). There are two active mud volcanoes in South Taiwan, and several inactive ones.

The island of Baratang, part of the Great Andaman archipelago in the Andaman Islands, Indian Ocean, has several sites of mud volcanic activity. There was a significant eruption event in 2003.

A drilling accident offshore of Brunei in 1979 caused a mud volcano which took 20 relief wells and nearly 30 years to stop the eruption.

Drilling or an earthquake may have resulted in the Sidoarjo mud flow on May 29, 2006, in the Porong subdistrict of East JavaIndonesia. The mud covered about 440 hectares, or 1,087 acres (4.40 km²), and inundated four villages, homes, roads, rice fields, and factories and displaced about 24,000 people, killing 14. The gas exploration company was operated by PT Lapindo Brantas. In 2008, it was termed the world’s largest mud volcano and is beginning to show signs of catastrophic collapse, according to geologists who have been monitoring it and the surrounding area. A catastrophic collapse could sag the vent and surrounding area by up to 150 meters in the next decade. In March 2008, the scientists observed drops of up to 3 meters in one night. Most of the subsidence in the area around the volcano is more gradual, at around 0.1 cm per day. Now named Lusi, the mud volcano appears to be a hydrocarbon/hydrothermal hybrid. Lusi is actually a contraction of Lumpur Sidoarjo, where lumpur is the Indonesian word for “mud”.

In Pakistan there are more than 80 active mud volcanoes, all of them in Baluchistan province; there are about 10 locations having clusters of mud volcanoes. In the west, in Gwadar District, the mud volcanoes are very small and mostly sit in the south of Jabal-e-Mehdi toward Sur Bandar. Many more exist in the north-east of Ormara. The remainder are in Lasbela District and are scattered between south of Gorangatti on Koh Hinglaj to Koh Kuk in the North of Miani Hor in the Hangol Valley. In this region, the heights of mud volcanoes range between 800 to 1550 feet. The most famous is Chandaragup. The biggest crater found is about 450 feet in diameter. Most mud volcanoes in this region are situated in out-of-reach areas having very difficult terrain. Dormant mud volcanoes stand like columns of mud in many other areas.

Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan and its Caspian coastline are home to nearly 400 mud volcanoes, more than half the total throughout the continents. In 2001, one mud volcano 15 kilometers from Baku made world headlines when it suddenly started ejecting flames 15 meters high.^[7]

North and South America

A cold mud pot in N. California, showing the scale of them

Glen Blair, CA, cold Mud Pot

Mud volcanoes of the North American continent include:

• A field of small (<2 meters high) fault controlled cold mud volcanoes is located on California’s Mendocino Coast, near Glen Blair/Fort Bragg. The fine grained clay is occasionally harvested by local potters.^[8]
• Shrub and Klawasi mud volcanoes in the Copper River basin by the Wrangell Mountains, Alaska, USA. Emissions are mostly CO₂ and nitrogen; the volcanoes are associated with magmatic processes.
• An unnamed mud volcano 30 m high and with a top about 100 m wide, 24 km off Redondo Beach, California, and 800 m under the surface of the Pacific Ocean.
• A field of small (<3 meters) mud volcanoes in the Salton Sea geothermal area near the town of Niland, California. Emissions are mostly CO₂.
• Smooth Ridge mud volcano in 1,000 m of water near Monterey Canyon, California.
• Kaglulik mud volcano, 43 m under the surface of the Beaufort Sea, near the northern boundary of Alaska and Canada. Petroleum deposits are believed to exist in the area.
• Maquinna mud volcano, located 16-18 kilometers west of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.
• There are many mud volcanoes in Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, near oil reserves in southern parts of the island of Trinidad. As of August 15, 2007, the mud volcano titled the Moruga Bouffle was said to being spitting up methane gas which shows signs that it is definitely active. There are also several other mud volcanoes in the tropical island which include:
  • the Devils Woodyard mud volcano near Hindustan
    

    

    One of the Devil’s Woodyard Volcano (Hindustan, Trinidad & Tobago)

  • the Moruga Bouffe mud volcano near Moruga
  • the Piparo mud volcano
  • the Chatham mud volcano located underwater in the Columbus Channel; this mud volcano periodically produces a short-lived island.

Yagrumito Mud Volcano in Monagas, Venezuela (6 km from Maturín)

South American mud volcanoes include:

• Venezuela. The eastern part of Venezuela contains several mud volcanoes, all of them, as in Trinidad, having an origin related to oil deposits. The image shows the Volcán de lodo de Yagrumito, about 6 km from Maturín, Venezuela. Its mud contains, water, biogenic gas, a certain amount of hydrocarbons and an important quantity of salt. Cows from the savanna often gather around to lick the dried mud for its salt content, which is an integral part of their diet needed to produce milk.

• Colombia. Volcan El Totumo [1], which marks the division between Bolivar and Atlantico in Colombia. This volcano is approximately 50 feet (15 m) high and can accommodate 10 to 15 people on its crater; many tourists and locals visit this volcano due to the medicinal benefits of the mud; the volcano is located next to a cienaga, or lake. This volcano is currently under a legal fight between the Bolivar and Atlantico Departamentos because of its tourist value.

Yellowstone’s “Mud Volcano”

Yellowstone’s “Mud Volcano” feature (NPS, Peaco, 1998)

The name of Yellowstone National Park‘s “Mud Volcano” feature and the surrounding area is misleading; it consists of hot springs, mud pots and fumaroles, rather than a true mud volcano. Depending upon the precise definition of the term mud volcano, the Yellowstone formation could be considered a hydrothermal mud volcano cluster. The feature is much less active than in its first recorded description, although the area is quite dynamic. Yellowstone is an active geothermal area with a magma chamber near the surface, and active gases are chiefly steam, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen sulfide.^[9]

The mud volcano in Yellowstone was previously a mound, until suddenly, it tore itself apart into the formation seen today.^[10]

EVEN THOUGH WE KNOW THAT WE ARE JUST LOSING TEMPORARILY ONE HOUR WHEN SPRINGING THE CLOCK FORWARD, WE NEVERTHELESS APPRECIATE THE E-MAIL WE GOT FROM THE NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION – WE TAKE A SERIOUS LOOK AT WHAT THEY SAID.

from: “Becky Garland, National Wildlife Federation” <beoutthere@nwf.org>
date:    Sat, Mar 13, 2010 at 6:00 AM
subject:    Take advantage of your extra hour of sunlight.
 https://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1#inb…

Dear Pincas,

Did you know that America’s kids spend only four to seven minutes outside per day?  In fact, by the time most children go to kindergarten, they have spent more than 5,000 hours in front of a television – enough time to earn a college degree!

This weekend, you can help reverse these worrisome trends simply by using your extra hour of sunlight to go outside! Click here for a list of ways you and your kids can unplug this weekend.

Then, be sure to take the Be Out There Pledge indicating that you will make outdoor play a healthy habit for your kids. It will take less than a minute—and you’ll receive fun tips and interactive tools to inspire you and your family to Be Out There all year long!

Sincerely,

Rebecca Garland
Executive Director, Be Out There
National Wildlife Federation
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Posted in Copenhagen COP15, Eco Friendly Tourism, Future Events, Green is Possible, Reporting from Washington DC, The US States

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We picked up some ideas from Katie McCaskey of an aol blog – http://www.housingwatch.com/2010/02/19/kill-your-lawn-earn-some-green/

Katie pointed out that Southern California residents have  now further good financial reasons for doing sane things and rip out their water-wasting turf – did you hear that they will get even a check in the mail?

These programs were instituted by Southern California utilities because of water shortage and above triggered my memory of things past that occured when I tried to do sane things in New York State and found that one must bow to the conventional narrow minds running the system.

In Southern California homeowners are now required to replace grass with drought-tolerant, native plant species or install permeable surfaces which filter water back into the ground. Common permeable surfaces that are allowed include:  flagstone, brick, and gravel. The rebate is $1 per square foot, up to a maximum of 2,000 feet.

Cyberhomes blogger Marcie Geffner writes:
The rebate might not be enough to persuade homeowners who really love their lawns. But for me, the offer was a no-brainer as I wanted to replace my big boring lawns with flagstone walkways, cactus and other plants that are more natural to the climate, if not necessarily native.

Other water-saving rebates available through LADWP include incentives to replace toilets and clothes washers with high-efficiency models, timer controlled irrigation, and pressure-reduced sprinkler nozzles. If you’re willing, there is even a rebate for installing synthetic turf.

Kathie McCaskey suggests – “Check with your local utility company or DSIRE.org to see what environmentally-conscious rebates are available in your area.”

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>

The Happiest People: Hmmm. You think it’s a coincidence? Costa Rica is one of the very few countries to have abolished its army, and it’s also arguably the happiest nation on earth.

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF, New York Times, OP-ED Columnist.

Published: January 6, 2010
from – SAN JOSÉ, Costa Rica

Hmmm. You think it’s a coincidence? Costa Rica is one of the very few countries to have abolished its army, and it’s also arguably the happiest nation on earth.

There are several ways of measuring happiness in countries, all inexact, but this pearl of Central America does stunningly well by whatever system is used. For example, the World Database of Happiness, compiled by a Dutch sociologist on the basis of answers to surveys by Gallup and others, lists Costa Rica in the top spot out of 148 nations.

That’s because Costa Ricans, asked to rate their own happiness on a 10-point scale, average 8.5. Denmark is next at 8.3, the United States ranks 20th at 7.4 and Togo and Tanzania bring up the caboose at 2.6.

Scholars also calculate happiness by determining “happy life years.” This figure results from merging average self-reported happiness, as above, with life expectancy. Using this system, Costa Rica again easily tops the list. The United States is 19th, and Zimbabwe comes in last.

A third approach is the “happy planet index,” devised by the New Economics Foundation, a liberal think tank. This combines happiness and longevity but adjusts for environmental impact — such as the carbon that countries spew.

Here again, Costa Rica wins the day, for achieving contentment and longevity in an environmentally sustainable way. The Dominican Republic ranks second, the United States 114th (because of its huge ecological footprint) and Zimbabwe is last.

Maybe Costa Rican contentment has something to do with the chance to explore dazzling beaches on both sides of the country, when one isn’t admiring the sloths in the jungle (sloths truly are slothful, I discovered; they are the tortoises of the trees). Costa Rica has done an unusually good job preserving nature, and it’s surely easier to be happy while basking in sunshine and greenery than while shivering up north and suffering “nature deficit disorder.”

After dragging my 12-year-old daughter through Honduran slums and Nicaraguan villages on this trip, she was delighted to see a Costa Rican beach and stroll through a national park. Among her favorite animals now: iguanas and sloths.

(Note to editor of the New York Times: Maybe we should have a columnist based in Costa Rica?)

What sets Costa Rica apart is its remarkable decision in 1949 to dissolve its armed forces and invest instead in education. Increased schooling created a more stable society, less prone to the conflicts that have raged elsewhere in Central America. Education also boosted the economy, enabling the country to become a major exporter of computer chips and improving English-language skills so as to attract American eco-tourists.

I’m not antimilitary. But the evidence is strong that education is often a far better investment than artillery.

In Costa Rica, rising education levels also fostered impressive gender equality so that it ranks higher than the United States in the World Economic Forum gender gap index. This allows Costa Rica to use its female population more productively than is true in most of the region. Likewise, education nurtured improvements in health care, with life expectancy now about the same as in the United States — a bit longer in some data sets, a bit shorter in others.

Rising education levels also led the country to preserve its lush environment as an economic asset. Costa Rica is an ecological pioneer, introducing a carbon tax in 1997. The Environmental Performance Index, a collaboration of Yale and Columbia Universities, ranks Costa Rica at No. 5 in the world, the best outside Europe.

This emphasis on the environment hasn’t sabotaged Costa Rica’s economy but has bolstered it. Indeed, Costa Rica is one of the few countries that is seeing migration from the United States: Yankees are moving here to enjoy a low-cost retirement. My hunch is that in 25 years, we’ll see large numbers of English-speaking retirement communities along the Costa Rican coast.

Latin countries generally do well in happiness surveys. Mexico and Colombia rank higher than the United States in self-reported contentment. Perhaps one reason is a cultural emphasis on family and friends, on social capital over financial capital — but then again, Mexicans sometimes slip into the United States, presumably in pursuit of both happiness and assets.

Cross-country comparisons of happiness are controversial and uncertain. But what does seem quite clear is that Costa Rica’s national decision to invest in education rather than arms has paid rich dividends. Maybe the lesson for the United States is that we should devote fewer resources to shoring up foreign armies and more to bolstering schools both at home and abroad.

In the meantime, I encourage you to conduct your own research in Costa Rica, exploring those magnificent beaches or admiring those slothful sloths. It’ll surely make you happy.

———–

Our further take: The US had to build a stronger military in the belief it must safeguards the supply of oil and other natural resources to keep up a military hardware production needed to strengthen that military. Does that sound like a chicken and egg cycle? Does this explain lack of time and resources to do something about social issues, education, and the environment? Are people really happier even when provided with a longer car and wider highway? We refer our readers to www.CultureChange.org – a site that followed this for years.

This amazing article was penned by Fidel Castro himself, then later we watched how Presidents Morales of Bolivia and Chavez of Venezuela spoke in the Copenhagen plenary similar words to these, in the name of the ALBA group of Latin and Caribbean States, on that very important Friday-the eighteenth.

Today, when finally writing about this, I also wonder if besides Simon Bolivar and Jose Marti, Chavez is not ready to accept also Abraham Lincoln as a third member of a historic triumvirate intended to set the Western Hemisphere apart from global machinations, provided President Obama does indeed stretch out a friendly hand to Cuba? I believe that this is within the realm of possibilities, and perhaps the easiest way for the US to free itself of the tyranny of oil and the influence of the oil lobby of Washington. I believe that our times start looking more and more like the pre-WWII days. The Abraham Lincoln Brigade that went to Spain had among its people some of the best the US had to offer. They were not stupid and recognized the Stalinist stealth-riders, as well as the fascist opponents, and remained true to democracy ideals that brought them there. Climate change provides the world the same opportunity as fighting for democracy did in those years. If Obama is ready to rein in the US extremists when it comes to economic relations with the countries of the Southern part of the Western Hemisphere, new line-ups are possible based on new agreed common goals of helping in the sustainable development of these countries, rather then continuing to regard them only as source of raw materials. Had the US done so earlier the world might have been a friendlier place to America – at least in that part that fell into the geopolitical Western Hemisphere Monrovian design.

Clearly, Castro and Chavez will criticize the US when being held at bay by the stick of US corporations, but when approached as partners for change they might actually be ready for political compromise. The reality is that even though they do not apply democracy to their States, the did eradicate analphabetism, hunger, and established health care systems, ahead of the US. Venezuela can help fund such positive activities thanks to its income from oil, but they seem ready to help fund also other positive activities if offered a place at the American table. The way they show pride in their baseball culture that derived from the US via Cuba, shows to me that I am not dreaming about pie in the sky.

———–
 http://monthlyreview.org/castro/2009/10/…

Reflections of Fidel: The ALBA and Copenhagen.

The festivities associated with the 7th ALBA Summit, held in the historic Bolivian region of Cochabamba, showed the rich culture of the Latin American peoples and the joy elicited in children, young people and adults in general by the singing, the dancing, the costumes and rich expressions of the human beings of all ethnic groups, colors and shades: aborigine, black, white and mixed people. We could see there thousands of years of human history and precious culture that explain the determination with which the leaders of various Caribbean, Central and South American peoples convened that summit.

The meeting was a great success. Bolivia was the venue. I recently wrote on the excellent prospects of that country, an heir to the Aymara-Quechua culture. A small group of peoples from that area are bent on proving that a better world is possible. The ALBA – created by the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and Cuba, inspired by Bolivar’s and Marti’s ideas, as an unprecedented example of revolutionary solidarity- has showed how much could be done in barely five years of peaceful cooperation. This started shortly after Hugo Chavez’s political and democratic victory. Imperialism underestimated him, and deliberately tried to oust him and remove him. The fact that for a good part of the 20th century Venezuela had been the world’s largest oil-producer, practically owned by the Yankee transnationals, made the chosen path particularly rough to pursue.

The powerful adversary had neoliberalism and the FTAA [Free Trade Area of the Americas]; two instruments of domination always used after the Cuban Revolution to crush resistance in the hemisphere.

It is irritating to think of the shameless and disrespectful way in which the US administration imposed the government of millionaire Pedro Carmona and tried to have elected President Hugo Chavez removed, at a time when the USSR had disappeared and the People’s Republic of China was a few years away from becoming the economic and commercial power it is today, after two decades of over 10 percent growth. The Venezuelan people, like that of Cuba, resisted the brutal thrust. The Sandinistas recovered, and the struggle for sovereignty, independence and socialism gained ground in Bolivia and Ecuador. Honduras, which had joined the ALBA, was the target of a brutal coup d’etat inspired by the Yankee ambassador and propelled from the US military base in Palmerola.

Today, there are four Latin American countries that have completely eradicated illiteracy: Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua. A fifth country, Ecuador, is quickly advancing towards that goal. The comprehensive healthcare programs are underway in the five countries at an unprecedented pace in the Third World. The programs of economic development with social justice have become projects of these five states, which already enjoy great prestige in the world for their brave position in the face of the empire’s economic, military and media power. Three English speaking Caribbean countries of black ancestry, determined to fight for their development, have also joined the ALBA.

This alone would be a great political merit if in today’s world that were the only big problem of man’s history.

The economic and political system that in a short historical period has led to the existence of more than one billion hungry people, and many more hundreds of millions whose lives are hardly longer than half the average of those in the wealthy and privileged countries, was until now the main problem for mankind. But, a new and extremely serious problem was strongly discussed at the ALBA Summit: climate change. A danger of such magnitude had never been known in human history.

As Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales and Daniel Ortega waved the people goodbye in the streets of Cochabamba yesterday, Sunday, that same day, according to news spread by BBC World, Gordon Brown was chairing in London a session of the Major Economies Forum mostly made up by the highest developed capitalist countries, the main culprits for the carbon dioxide emissions, that is, the gas causing the greenhouse effect.

The significance of Brown’s remarks is that they have not been made by a representative of ALBA or one of the 150 emerging or underdeveloped countries on the planet but of Great Britain, the country where industrial development started and one of those which have released most carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. The British Prime Minister warned that if an agreement is not reached at the UN Summit in Copenhagen, the consequences will be ‘devastating.’

Some of the ‘catastrophic’ consequences would be floods, droughts and lethal heat waves claimed the environmental group Nature World Fund referring to Brown’s assertion. “The climate change will be out of control within the next five to ten years if the CO2 emissions are not drastically cut down. There will not be a plan B if Copenhagen fails.”

The same news source claims that: “BBC specialist James Landale has explained that not everything is happening as expected.”

Newsweek reported that “it seems more unlikely every day that the states will commit to something in Copenhagen.”

According to reports from the major American press outlet, the chairman of the session, Gordon Brown, said that “if no agreement is reached, there is no doubt that the damage of the uncontrolled emissions will not be repaired with a future agreement.” He then went on to mention such conflicts as “unchecked migration and 1.8 billion people afflicted by water shortage.”

Actually, as the Cuban delegation claimed in Bangkok, the United States led the highest industrialized countries most opposed to the necessary reduction of emissions.

At the Cochabamba meeting, a new ALBA Summit was convened. The timetable will be: December 6, elections in Bolivia; December 13, ALBA summit in Havana; December 16, participation in the UN Copenhagen Summit. The small group of ALBA nations will be there. The issue is no longer “Homeland or Death”; it is truly and without exaggeration a matter of “Life or Death” for the human race.

The capitalist system is not only oppressing and plundering our countries; the wealthiest industrial nations wish to impose to the rest of the world the bulk of the burden in the struggle on climate change. Who are they trying to fool with that? In Copenhagen, the ALBA and the Third World countries will be struggling for the survival of the species.

Fidel Castro Ruz
October 19, 2009
6:05 PM

To Andy Revkin of the New York Times and friends that will be in Copenhagen already Friday November 4th – a Jazz menu and to Franny Armstrong if you are still in London – the INSIDE COP15 launch Party.

From Dr. Lee Schipper: Dear Friends – In honor of the two weeks that follow, my oldest jazz friends in Copenhagen and I will present a preview jazz concert of a successful COP 15, as the Jazz Mitigators in Copenhagen at Paridise Jazz,

2100 hours on Friday Dec. 4.  Paridise Jazz is in “Huset”, Magstaede 14.

For those whose Danish is up to snuff, here is the poster from the concert venue:
 http://www.paradisejazz.dk/nov_dec.2009_…

Lee Schipper, Ph.D
Project Scientist
Global Metropolitan Studies

2614 Dwight Way 2nd floor
University of California Berkeley
CA 94720-1782 USA

TEL +1 510 642 6889
FAX +1 510 642 6061
CELL +1 202 262 7476
skype: mrmeter
 http://metrostudies.berkeley.edu/

Senior Research Engineer
Precourt Energy Efficiency Center
Stanford University

=========================
Hi, I thought you would find this event of interest:

Event:
Inside Cop15 Launch Party

Date:
Friday, December 04, 2009 from 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM (GMT)

Location:
1 London Bridge
London, London SE1
United Kingdom

Hosted By:
WWF UK

Get more information or Register to attend

Thinking of Climate Change, and Copenhagen, I found this week-end Financial Times (November 28-29, 2009) quite amazing:

page 3 of Life & Arts section (- why that section? -) had the “Waving and Drowning” article about the very active President of the Maldives, who won elections last year replacing the longest ruling dictator in Asia, and since shot up to become the leader of the Small Islands Developing States in matters of climate change.

Rahul Jacob, the interviewer for the FT, subtitled the article – “Afternoon tea with the FT: Mohamed Nasheed, president of the Maldives, is determined to draw the world’s attention to the threat his country faces from rising sea levels, even if it means holding cabinet meetings under water.” I knew what he was talking because just last night, on the NOW program on CNN TV, David Broncacio showed a meeting of this underwater cabinet as they were preparing their document for the Copenhagen Conference. The FT describes the Presidential menu in the Male office included Fish rolls, Fishcakes, Tuna sandwiches, doughnuts and Lipton tea. The whole event was clearly courtesy of the melting ice at the two global poles.

The FT page had a small area – bottom left – on four ENGINEERED SOLUTIONS – one worse then the other. The fourth was: RE-ICING THE ARCTIC as a plan to save the world presented by Hazel Sheffield. The suggestion for the re-icing process is to spray salty water over the shores of Greenland.

But that was not all! page 5 of the same section was titled: “WHITE CHRISTMAS” and the point was that that YOU DRINK WHITE WINE IF YOU WANT TO HAVE A WHITE CHRISTMAS. Now I am convinced that we near deep trouble – under water covers, no ice and no red wine!

Will Copenhagen scratch at the problem?

Indonesia deports journalists covering Greenpeace.
 http://us.asiancorrespondent.com/breakin…

Nov. 19 2009 – AP
Indonesia has deported two foreign journalists covering a Greenpeace demonstration against forest destruction on the western island of Sumatra  bringing to 15 the number of people kicked out of the country over the protest.

Kumkum Dasgupta, an editor for the Hindustan Times, and Raimondo Bultrini, an Italian reporter from the L’Espresso weekly newspaper, were questioned for hours after visiting a Greenpeace camp near land owned by PT Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper, one of Indonesia’s largest paper companies.
The two journalists had received their visas from the central government, but had not sought permission from local officials to travel in the area, said Jumintar Lubis, the head of immigration in Riau Province.

Greenpeace had sought to draw attention to destruction of forests ahead of a key U.N. climate conference in Denmark. Indonesia’s once abundant jungle is being torn down at an alarming rate, threatening endangered tigers, elephants and orangutans.

Thirteen foreign Greenpeace activists have been deported this week over the protest, including 11 over the weekend, the environmental group said. Indonesian police also detained 44 Indonesian activists and charged 21 with allegedly trespassing on private property.

Restricting the media’s movements is out of step with Indonesia’s improved press freedom since late dictator Suharto was swept from power more than a decade ago, the Committee to Protect Journalists said in a statement.

Italy denounced the expulsion of Bultrini and an Italian Greenpeace activist at the Indonesian Embassy in Rome. The Foreign Ministry requested that their rights be guaranteed by Indonesian authorities.

-Associated Press

————————————

Environmental Media Alliance Worldwide is the Global ej-Forum on
World Environmental Journalists an reaching 4418 EJ professionals
over 174 countries.This EGroup was founded 6th February,2000
and is managed by Dharman Wickremaratne
Secretary /CEO, Asia Pacific forum of Environmental Journalists(APFEJ)
Sri Lanka Environmental Journalists Forum(SLEJF)
PO Box 26, 434/3 Sri Jayawardenapura -SRI LANKA.
 http://www.environmentaljournalists.org

Email<ejournalists@gmail.com>

Telling Denmark’s Story.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009
2:00 – 3:30 p.m.
1334 Longworth House Office Building

The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) and the Embassy of Denmark invite you to a briefing on how Denmark has transitioned to a low carbon economy and emerged as a global clean energy technology leader. Much of the debate over climate policy in the United States has focused on costs, job losses, and concern about international competitiveness.  However, multiple analyses and case studies show that addressing climate change can actually bring multiple benefits.  Indeed, from 1990 to 2007, Denmark reduced its carbon dioxide emissions by more than 13 percent while at the same time growing its economy by more than 45 percent.  In addition, Denmark has gone from 99 percent dependence on foreign energy sources in the 1970s to energy independence today.

This briefing will explain how Denmark reduced its carbon footprint by investing in energy efficiency and renewable energy, and how this strategy has translated into a thriving economy and a high quality of life for its residents.

Speakers for this event include:
Søren Jensen, Deputy Chief of Mission, Danish Embassy;  Adam Monroe, President, Novozymes North America;
Michael Davidsen, Washington Manager, COWI Group; Greg Towsley, Director for the Innovation Platform “Zero-Impact of Commercial Buildings in the USA”;  Grundfos Management A/S Copenhagen.

Denmark is the setting for the upcoming United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations to establish an international treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

As nations around the world look for ways to reduce emissions and grow their economies, the Danish story shows what is possible through investments in combined heat and power (CHP), district energy, public transport, electric vehicles, offshore and land-based wind turbines, bioenergy production, recycling, and more.  Renewable energy makes up more than 19 percent of the total energy supply and 28 percent of electricity in Denmark (despite almost no hydropower resources), compared to seven and nine percent, respectively, in the United States.  More than half of Denmark’s electricity is cogenerated with heat using highly efficient CHP technology, compared to eight percent in the United States.  Energy technology exports now account for more than nine percent of total Danish exports, and the country is among the most prosperous in the world.

This briefing is free and open to the public.  No RSVP required.
For more information, contact Laura Parsons at (202) 662-1884 or  lparsons at eesi.org.

Environmental and Energy Study Institute
Carol Werner, Executive Director
———-
EESI is a national nonprofit that works to advance a cleaner, more secure and sustainable energy path. EESI was established in 1984 by a bipartisan group of Congressional environmental and energy leaders to meet the critical need for rigorous, informed debate, independent analysis and innovative policy development related to energy and environmental issues.

This posting is very appropriately done on Halloween Day – but it is for real – and shows how contrite humans can be – AP Reports from the Turku shipyards, Finland, about “THE OASIS OF THE SEA” or the biggest floating contraption, four times the size of the Titanic, is fit to be a floating out-of-the-harbor resort with six neighborhoods. Despite many energy-saving devices, this is a slap to eco-tourism.
The ship’s first leg on its maiden trip to Port Everglades, Florida, will take it from nearby Helsinki to close to Copenhagen – pity this does not happen a month later so the climate convention minions will not have the chance to see it.
——————

Huge Cruise Ship Squeezes Under Bridge
MATTI HUUHTANEN of   AP News.
HELSINKI (Oct. 30) — It’s five times larger than the Titanic, has seven neighborhoods, an ice rink, a golf course and a 750-seat outdoor amphitheater. The world’s largest cruise ship is finally finished and Friday it began gliding toward its home port in Florida.
The Oasis of the Seas will meet its first obstacle Saturday when exits the Baltic Sea and must squeeze under the Great Belt Bridge, which is just 1 foot taller than the ship — even after its telescopic smokestacks are lowered.

To be on the safe side, the ship — which rises about 20 stories high — will speed up so that it sinks deeper into the water when it passes below the span, said Lene Gebauer Thomsen, a spokeswoman for the operator of the Great Belt Bridge.

Once home, the $1.5 billion floating extravaganza will have more, if less visible, obstacles to duck: a sagging U.S. economy, questions about the consumer appetite for luxury cruises and criticism that such sailing behemoths are damaging to the environment and diminish the experience of traveling.
Travel guide writer Arthur Frommer has railed against Oasis and other mega ships he calls “floating resorts,” suggesting that voyages on such large vessels are “a dumbing down of the cruise experience.”
Oasis of the Seas, which is nearly 40 percent larger than the industry’s next-biggest ship, was conceived years before the economic downturn caused desperate cruise lines to slash prices to fill vacant berths.
“Obviously we did not want or anticipate she’d be born into the most significant economic downturn since the Depression,” Royal Caribbean International President & CEO Adam Goldstein told The Associated Press in an interview earlier this month. “Even in this environment, we’re excited about her.”
It sets sail as cruise lines clamor to increase capacity, adding newer — and bigger — ships to their fleets.
The Oasis of the Seas has 2,700 cabins and can accommodate 6,300 passengers and 2,100 crew members. Company officials are banking that its novelty will help guarantee its success.
The enormous ship features various “neighborhoods” — parks, squares and arenas with special themes. One of them will be a tropical environment, including palm trees and vines among the total 12,000 plants on board. They will be planted after the ship arrives in Fort Lauderdale.
In the stern, a 750-seat outdoor theater — modeled on an ancient Greek amphitheater — doubles as a swimming pool by day and an ocean front theater by night. The pool has a diving tower with spring boards and two 33-foot high-dive platforms. An indoor theater seats 1,300 guests.
Accommodations include loft cabins, with floor-to-ceiling windows, and 1,600-square-foot luxury suites with balconies overlooking the sea or promenades.
One of the “neighborhoods,” named Central Park, features a square with boutiques, restaurants and bars, including a bar that moves up and down three decks, allowing customers to get on and off at different levels.
The liner also has four swimming pools, volleyball and basketball courts, and a youth zone with theme parks and nurseries for children.
Frommer suggests that such ships should never even leave port: “Who would know the difference?”
“If the life on ship were a vital one, then you might justify building a ship so large,” Frommer told the AP in an e-mail exchange. “But when the activities program consists largely of ziplines, surf-boarding, rock-climbing, a boxing ring, and imitations of Cirque de Soleil, when the lecture program deals with napkin-folding (the subject matter on other humongous ships operated by the same company), then there doesn’t seem much appeal to well-read, intellectually curious people.”
Paul Motter, editor of Cruisemates.com, has said that other critics have also complained that these huge ships flood ports of call, dumping 5,000 people all at once in an area.
Motter said suites are sold out for most of the sailings. Junior suites are mostly sold out and there is availability in inside, ocean view and balcony rooms.
He said ticket prices are still high for the Oasis, running $1,299 to $4,829, compared with $509 to $1,299 on the company’s next most popular ship, Freedom of the Seas.
While environmentalists have said that the ship does not do enough to reduce air pollution and burns more fuel than a land-based resort, engineers at shipbuilder STX Finland said environmental considerations played an important part in planning the vessel. It dumps no sewage into the sea, reuses its waste water and consumes 25 percent less power than similar, but smaller, cruise liners.
“I would say this is the most environmentally friendly cruise ship to date,” said Mikko Ilus, project engineer at the Turku yard. “It is much more efficient than other similar ships.”
The Oasis of the Seas is due to make its U.S. debut on Nov. 20 at its home port, Port Everglades in Florida.

ALL ABOARD THE UN KYOTO-COPENHAGEN EXPRESS FOR CLIMATE CHANGE. 

A one-time train link between Kyoto and Copenhagen opens up next week – a United Nations-sponsored one-month, 9,000-kilometre journey symbolically joining the site of the last global warming pact with what is hoped to be the birthplace of the next major, and stricter, treaty to combat climate change. 

Launched by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the International Union of Railways (UIC) and the global conservation organization WWF, the Train to Copenhagen – in fact a carriage – will roll across the globe through the vast wilds of Russian Siberia and into Europe as part of the UN Seal the Deal! campaign to galvanize political will and public support for reaching a comprehensive global climate agreement in December. 

Train operators from around the world will participate in the Train to Copenhagen, raising awareness of the impact of the transport sector, which already accounts for over one fifth of global CO2 greenhouse emissions. These emissions are projected to double within only 40 years and railways are crucial in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and developing sustainable transport systems. 

“We are on the road to nowhere if existing policies and economic models prevail with their over-emphasis on private cars and on shifting shipments of goods to the roads,” UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said. “The Train to Copenhagen project is a showcase of sustainable transport solutions that will be part and parcel of a resource-efficient, low-carbon Green Economy of the 21st Century. 

“By Sealing the Deal on an ambitious climate agreement in Copenhagen, governments will get into gear to propel the world to a low-carbon future so that societies may also finally embark on a journey to more sustainable transport.” 

During the journey, environmental experts and climate change campaigners will send eye-witness accounts of global warming signs under way. Siberia is a global climate change hotspot, where thawing permafrost and melting peat bogs could slowly release billions of tons of methane and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere over coming years. 

The Train will roll out of Kyoto station on 5 November – leaving behind the Japanese city where the Kyoto Protocol that sets binding greenhouse gas reduction targets for 37 industrialized countries and the European Union (EU) was adopted on 11 December 1997 – and make its way by ferry to Daejeon, Republic of Korea (ROK). 

There it will board another ferry for Vladivostok in Russia’s Far East for that vast transcontinental journey to drum up support for a new compact with much stronger cuts to replace the Protocol on the expiration of the first commitment period at the end of 2012. 

Rumbling across Siberia, it will be hauled along the famous Trans-Siberian Railway and go by ferry across Lake Baikal, the most voluminous freshwater lake in the world, and stop in Moscow, the Polish city of Poznan and then Berlin before arriving on 5 December in Brussels, where it will join the Climate Express, which will be powered by 100 per cent renewable energy. 

This Express will take on board more than 400 climate change negotiators, campaigners and other high-profile personalities going to Copenhagen, for a 12-hour on-track conference focusing on how to solve the challenges posed by the transport sector with regard to global warming.  

On arrival, the Climate Express will remain at Copenhagen Central Station throughout the two-week conference, serving as a mobile exhibition open to the public about low-carbon transport solutions.  

“It is clear that business as usual is not an option if we want to reverse current trends and prevent catastrophic climate change,” UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer said. “If we can really integrate the costs of pollution into the price of transportation, rail will be a big winner.” 

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“We cannot afford another period where the United States stands on the sidelines,” he emphasized, adding that an “indecisive or insufficiently engaged” US will result in unnecessary and unaffordable delays in tackling global warming.