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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on July 5th, 2008 Why Fly When You Can Float? Behemoths in the Air - A New Age for Dirigible. ZLT Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik for details please see: Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on July 4th, 2008 We received an e-mail showing how little costs to buy gasoline (in German called Benzin) and diesel fuel if you live in a so called developing oil-exporting country or in the USA Date: July 4, 2008 1 Liter = 0.264174 gal (US Liq) The Austrian e-mail evokes the following list. We went then and looked up other countries and found that Austria is actually a bargain when compared to other developed economies. The Austrian 1.32 Euro/liter is 2.16 times what the complaining American sissies are paying, but only 78.7% of what Norwegians are paying or 80.7% of what the Dutch are paying. On the other hand Japan at 0.99 Euro/liter is another chaeap-shot so is Canada at 0.88 Euro/liter. And you know already what we think? Those that pay more for their gasoline have also decreased their dependence on oil by efficiency methods and conservation - they also developed alternatives to oil and have started building the economy of the future. So, it is actually the US that is falling behind while it transfers its funds to the Gulf States hoping that the increased National Debt will devalue the US$ to the point that it remains valueless paper in their hand.The problem is that they do not sit on the money anymore. They actually buy assets with that money - among that buying spree they also buy up chunks of America. So what then? Will they agree to American taxation without representation - or the US will eventually find out that Bush made a Faustian Deal with the US oil companies and with his Arab friends. Our advice to our Austrian readers is thus - DO NOT COMPLAIN ABOUT THE TAX ON FUEL - BUT MAKE SURE THE MONEY IS USED SO THAT EVENTUALLY YOU WILL HAVE TO BUY LESS OF IT. The following is what we got in the mail - then look at what we added for the sake of analysis. if our other readers want to get the actual numbers in US dollars, please use the above conversion factors. BENZINPREISE INTERNATIONAL Benzin that is Gasoline - but much of the posting is about Diesel - this because in Europe the motor-fuel of choice is high quality Diesel. Afghanistan Normalbenzin € 0,43 Algerien Diesel € 0,11 Aserbaidschan Diesel € 0,31 Ägypten Diesel € 0,14 Ãthiopien Super € 0,24 Bahamas Diesel € 0,25 Bolivien Super € 0,25 Brasilien Diesel € 0,54 China Normal € 0,45 Ecuador Normal € 0,24 Ghana Normal € 0,09 !!!!!!! Grönland Super € 0,50 Guyana Normal € 0,67 Hong Kong Diesel € 0,84 Indien Diesel € 0,62 Indonesien Diesel € 0,32 Irak Super € 0,60 Kasachstan Diesel € 0,44 Katar Super € 0,15 Kuwait Super € 0,18 Kuba Normal € 0,62 Libyen Diesel € 0,08 !!!!!!! Malaysia Super € 0,55 Mexico Diesel € 0,41 Moldau Normal € 0,25 Oman Super plus € 0,20 Peru Diesel € 0,22 Philippinen Diesel € 0,69 Russland Super € 0,64 Saudi Arabien Diesel € 0,07 !!!!!! Südafrika Diesel € 0,66 Swasiland Super € 0,10 !!!!!! Syrien Diesel € 0,10 !!!!! Trinidad Super € 0,33 Thailand Super € 0,65 Tunesien Diesel € 0,49 USA Diesel € 0,61 Venezuela Diesel € 0,07 !!!!! Vereinigte Arabische Emirate Diesel € 0,18 Vietnam Diesel € 0,55 Weißrussland Diesel € 0,51 EU und dem Finanzminister sei dank ist der Österreicher bzw. Europäer dumm Bitte dieses E-Mail weiter zu schicken damit wenigstens einige Leute Benzinpreise auf der eigenen Webseite And looking at international prices for July 4, 2008 at - http://benzinpreis.de/international.phtm… Land Normalbenzin in € Superbenzin in € SuperPlus in € Diesel in € Österreich 1,26 1,29 * 1,28 1,32 * UK 1,40 1,46 1,50 1,58 Finnland 1,47 1,50 1,50 1,36 Frankreich 1,39 1,34 * 1,44 1,37 * Irland 1,26 1,26 1,15 1,43 Island 1,35 1,40 1,47 1,50 Israel - 1,05 - - Italien 1,36 1,46 1,34 1,45 Japan 0,99 1,08 - 0,79 Kanada 0,88 0.87 0.82 0.90 Neuseeland 1,03 0,97 - 1,46 Niederlande 1,56 1,61 1,69 1,31 ** Norwegen 1,60 1,61 1,46 1,56 Schweden 1,37 1,39 1,36 1,47 Schweiz 1,24 1,21 * 1,23 1,37 * Ungarn 1,29 1,26 1,20 1,31 Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on July 4th, 2008 Groundbreaking Lawsuit Accuses Big Oil of Conspiracy to Deceive Public About Climate Change. Now you see why the Bushies love “tort reform”… Posted by Democracy Now!, www.Democracy Now! on July 3, 2008. Earlier this week a judge in Georgia blocked the construction of a coal-fired power plant because the plant did not set limits on carbon dioxide emissions. In what is being described as an unprecedented ruling, the judge said the plant could not receive an air pollution permit unless it limits its emissions. Today we are going to look at the rapidly growing field of global warming litigation. I am joined here in Aspen, Colorado by the attorney Steve Susman. He is the founding partner of the law firm Susman Godfrey. Earlier this year he helped file a groundbreaking lawsuit on behalf of 400 Inuit villagers in the Alaskan town of Kivalina who are being forced to relocate because of flooding caused by global warming. The suit accuses 20 oil, gas and electric companies of being responsible for emitting millions of tons of greenhouse gases causing the Arctic ice to melt. Companies named in the suit include ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, ConocoPhillips and Peabody. The suit also accuses eight of the corporations of being involved in a conspiracy to mislead the public about the causes of global warming. Susman and his legal team have adopted a legal strategy similar to that used by lawyers who fought Big Tobacco in the 1990s. Susman was also involved in that litigation – he was an attorney for the tobacco giant Philip Morris. Steve Susman also recently represented the Texas Cities for Clear Air Coalition in their successful effort to block the energy company TXU from building 10 new coal-burning power plants. The case was featured in Robert Redford’s documentary, “Fighting Goliath—Texas Coal Wars.” Attorney Steve Susman joins me here in Aspen. Steve Susman is founding partner of the law firm Susman Godfrey. He recently filed a pioneering global warming lawsuit against Exxon Mobil, BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and 20 other oil, coal and electric companies on behalf of residents of the Alaskan Native coastal village of Kivalina. Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on July 2nd, 2008 If Africa Will Agree To Stop Shooting at Itself, and if the Donor Countries Can Agree To Do Something Positive in the Follo-up To A World-Agreement on a new Climate Change agreement, Africa Should be Indeed a Major Part of a Carbon Trading Mechanism. In Anticipation of the Above, Some Tough Minded People Want To Try To Have Propsals On The Table For Real Plans Of Action. We Wish Them, And Ourselves - the Best of Luck. Subject: Solicitation of African Carbon Offset Projects & Travel Sponsorship Opportunity July 2, 2008 At COP‐13 in Bali, the UNFCCC Secretariat announced its intent to convene the first Africa Carbon Forum, in partnership with the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) and the multilateral agencies supporting the Nairobi Framework, including UNEP, UNDP, UNIDO, UNECA, and the World Bank. The Nairobi Framework aims to assist developing countries, especially those in sub‐Saharan Africa, to enhance their participation in the CDM. This groundbreaking high‐profile event will combine a carbon investment trade fair, a policy forum for African DNAs and climate change officials, as well as targeted capacity building for the CDM. The Forum will take place from 3 ‐ 5 September 2008 at Le Meridien Hotel, Pointe Des Almadies, in Dakar, Senegal. Further details and a draft agenda can be downloaded from the IETA website: http://www.ieta.org/ieta/www/pages/index… The organizers therefore invite all interested parties to attend and to submit their carbon offset project concepts for consideration. As co‐organizers of the Forum, UNEP and UNDP have pledged to provide travel sponsorships for CDM project champions from across the African continent to attend the event, based on a competitive selection. See attached document for additional details on the sponsorship procedures and requirements. http://www.ieta.org/ieta/www/pages/index… ————- BACKGROUND At COP13 in Bali, the UNFCCC Secretariat announced its intent to convene the 1st Africa Carbon Forum, in collaboration with the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) and the partner agencies of the Nairobi Framework, including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), The World Bank and the African Development Bank. The Nairobi Framework was initiated with the specific target of helping developing countries, especially those in sub-Saharan Africa, to improve their level of participation in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). OBJECTIVE This event will bring together representatives from designated national authorities (DNA), national focal points (NFP), representatives from several UN agencies, governments and the private sector. The Africa Carbon Forum is a platform that will strengthen links between CDM project developers and the region’s investment community, provide opportunities for DNA representatives to exchange views and share their experiences relating to the CDM, while facilitating knowledge sharing and transactions between project sponsors and global carbon offset credit buyers. The Forum will take place from 3-5 September 2008 in Dakar, Senegal, at Le Méridien Hotel, located in the Pointe Des Almadies area. The complete schedule of this three-day event will be available shortly. The Africa Carbon Forum provides a platform for companies to Present, Showcase, Meet and Interact. The exhibitor section will be open to the following types of entities: ——————- Also from Denmark: Based on the unequal geographical distribution of CDM activities where the Least Developed Countries (LDC) are largely under represented and the increasing microfinance activities in these countries, the Executive Board to the CDM launched the idea to explore the possibilities for combining CDM development with microfinance mechanisms. The COP endorsed the concept and the Government of Denmark decided to finance the project. The purpose of the project is to identify possible synergies between the CDM, especially CDM Programme of Activities (PoA), and microfinance mechanisms. The objective is to enhance CDM activities in LDCs, in particularly sub-Saharan Africa, by exploring ways to improve the financial feasibility of mitigation projects that are pertinent to LDCs. DANIDA has appointed the Danish consulting engineering company NIRAS A/S to execute the study for which we have engaged the services of the internationally recognised experts Ms. Christiana Figueres and Mr. Hans Jürgen Stehr to enhance our in house capacity. We would like to report to the EB on the advance of PoAs worldwide. Thus, if you are developing a PoA we would like to know the country(ies), the sector, and the foreseeable CPAs. We are particularly interested in PoAs in LDCs and Africa, but would be happy to receive information on PoAs in other regions. We will collate the information received and make it available to users of Climate L, as well as include it in the report to the EB. We recognise the sensitivity of particular information during the project development process due to competition issues and will thus make sure that no confidential information is distributed and that the information will be collected without attribution to who is developing the PoA if requested. Ms. Hanne Holm-Jørgensen NIRAS email: hhj at niras.dk Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on July 2nd, 2008 Israel hosts conference on Green Revolution in Africa. Sunday, June 1, 2008 - Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, Special Advisor to the UN Secretary General on Millennium Development Goals, said in Israel, at the opening of the International Conference on Israel and the African Green Revolution: “Israel must make the transition from a state that receives aid to a state that gives aid.” Sachs added that Africa would like to have Israel as a partner in the continent’s green revolution, and that Israel has the technological know-how that Africa needs in three main fields: agriculture, public health and medicine, and solar energy. At the conference, which opened at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem, representatives from Israel, and from the international community, presented various approaches to agricultural development on the African continent and discussed how to effectively implement them in order to alleviate the present food and water crisis. Israel and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) also signed, for the first time, a memorandum of understanding for cooperation in the field of agriculture. Prof. Sachs, head of the Earth Institute at Columbia University in New York, is a world-renowned economist and is especially prominent in the efforts to reduce poverty in underdeveloped areas of the world. In his speech, Prof. Sachs mentioned that hundreds of millions of people around the world suffer from hunger, lack of water, disease and unemployment despite the wealth, advanced technology and know-how that exist in today’s world. “All this causes instability and emigration,” Prof. Sachs stated, “and instead of cooperating to find solutions to the problems, the world reacts with fear and builds walls.” The conference, which was organized by MASHAV, (the Center for International Cooperation, the Israeli body responsible for extending aid to developing countries), was attended by hundreds of delegates representing African states and international aid organizations, as well as MASHAV trainees in Israel and academics. Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on July 1st, 2008
Pass the Sugar, Sugar Florida will buy out sugar company to restore Everglades - the immediate beneficiaries are a sugar family of immigrants that escaped Cuba when Fidel Castro took the reigns. Nearly 300 square miles of sugar plantation in the Everglades will once again become marsh, as Florida Gov. Charlie Crist announced last week that the state will buy the land from U.S. Sugar Corp. If all goes to plan, the $1.75 billion deal may be the largest environmental restoration in the history of the United States. Environmentalists have long lamented the sugar industry’s role in diverting and polluting the Everglades’ water supply; the River of Grass is only half the 11,000 square miles it was in the early 20th century. U.S. Sugar, which has farmed the Everglades for nearly 80 years, plans to go out of business within six years. The deal is, says Kirk Fordham of the Everglades Foundation, “an achievement of breathtaking significance and priceless value.” Sweet. sources: Los Angeles Times, Herald-Tribune, Reuters, CNN, The New York Times, Associated Press Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on June 30th, 2008
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on June 30th, 2008 Monday, June 30, 2008 Kyodo News Concerns about air pollution, food safety and “political tension” in China, and good facilities in Japan, were cited as reasons for making a final stop here prior to the Aug. 8-24 Olympics. Japan’s proximity to China, with only a one-hour time difference with Beijing, was another selling point. The teams will hold camps in 20 prefectures, from Hokkaido in the north to Kumamoto in the southwest, starting in July. About 150 athletes, coaches and other staff from Sweden will hold camps for 13 Olympic events in Fukuoka, partly because the city has numerous facilities and its airport provides direct flights to Beijing. A 30-member Dutch track and field team will also hold a camp in Fukuoka around the same time. A track and field team from Bahrain will hold an Olympic camp in Kaminoyama, Yamagata Prefecture. It decided against holding a camp in China partly because of worries about air pollution and food. The Bahrain team also held a camp in Kaminoyama before the 2007 World Championships in Athletics in Osaka. For that visit, Kaminoyama provided the team from the Muslim country with clarification regarding food ingredients, which apparently played a role in the team coming back. A French track and field team will hold a camp in Wakayama. The team initially planned to use Shanghai but judged it was better to avoid China because of “political tension” in the country, a team source said. Anti-France demonstrations were held in China after the Olympic torch relay in Paris drew rowdy protests. An Irish track and field team has selected Matsue, Shimane Prefecture.
G8 COUNTDOWN By ERIC JOHNSTON But he warned there appears to be insufficient political leadership, especially among developed countries, to reach that goal and said Japan needs to do more to push the matter forward. “Japan’s plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 60 percent to 80 percent by 2050 is impressive. Japan has also indicated that it might reduce emissions by 14 percent from the current level by 2020. Today, I call on Japan to provide further leadership in developing an even more far-reaching proposal,” Ban told a group of scholars, students and local residents during a meeting at Kyoto University. “There is a lack of political will at the leadership level (for midterm targets). Each country must contribute, and this is something I will discuss with Prime Minister (Yasuo) Fukuda on Monday,” Ban said. The 1997 Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012, and efforts are on to hammer out a new agreement in Copenhagen in December 2009. “Ambitious targets by all major emitters are essential to conclude the deal,” Ban said. “By Copenhagen, we must agree not only on long-term goals, but also on short and medium-term targets.” Ban arrived in Japan on Saturday on the first leg of a two-week Asia tour that will also take him to South Korea and China as well as next week’s Group of Eight summit in Toyako, Hokkaido. His visit comes at a time when international pressure is growing on Japan as host of the G8 summit to aggressively push other summit leaders to make a strong statement on the need for binding midterm emission reduction targets. However, hopes for strong leadership from both Japan and the G8 summit for such a statement dimmed earlier this month when Fukuda said it is up to U.N. negotiators, not the G8, to agree on midterm targets. Ban’s visit to Japan is designed to put political pressure on Fukuda to get the G8 leaders to make a statement that will show developing countries the rich nations are serious about taking the lead in reaching a climate change agreement. Many in Japanese industry, especially the steel and utility companies that burn a lot of coal, oppose midterm targets. At Sunday’s meeting, a representative from Kansai Electric Power Co. said the industry agrees that long-term goals are important, and spoke on the need for improved green technologies as the ultimate solution for reducing greenhouse gases worldwide. However, others noted that the consensus of the scientific community, as outlined by the U.N. last year, is that climate change is occurring much faster than previously thought and that action between now and 2020 is needed to prevent a global climate catastrophe. Ban praised Fukuda’s recently announced plan for a low-carbon future society, saying it is the kind of leadership by example other developed countries need to follow. He also said that improved energy efficiency and the widespread use of renewable energy sources are necessary to cut emissions by half by 2050. Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on June 29th, 2008 |
