Singapore Becomes a Model for Water Technology and Reuse
Adopting chemical-free, membrane technology to purify recycled water has relieved the island-state from concerns that scarcity of fresh water would threaten its long-term well-being.
Moreover, Singapore is working to become a research hub for recycled water technologies that could provide water-starved populations elsewhere with environmentally-friendly sources of fresh water.
Another (Negative) Positive Feedback Loop, in the Amazon
If you follow climate change issues, you’re no doubt aware of the vicious cycles known as positive feedback loops. For example, global warming causes the permafrost to melt, releasing methane gas, which adds to warming and melts more permafrost.
Kevin Drum highlights another, this one in the Amazon, where rising temperatures are causing the Amazon to release, rather than capture, carbon — in staggering amounts.
Big Energy’s Not-So-Big Commitment to Renewable Energies, Part 1
A report by the American Petroleum Institute (API) claims that the oil and gas industry invested $58 billion in greenhouse gas-mitigating technologies from 2000 to 2008. Closer examination reveals that only about 10% of that actually went to renewable energy.
Big Energy’s Not-So-Big Commitment to Renewable Energies, Part 2
In 2007, ExxonMobil spent about 10 times as much promoting its commitment to renewable energy than it actually invested in renewable energy. And despite the company’s pledge to stop supporting lobbying groups that confuse the public about global warming, it continues to fund Washington “think tanks†that question or deny global warming.
Rapid Transit Buses May Aid Climate Battle in Poor Cities
Bus rapid transit systems like TransMilenio in Bogata, Colombia, can play an important role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, reports the NYTimes. Using sleek, segmented low-emission vehicles that travel dedicated byways, TransMilenio provides 1.6 million trips per day and has reduced bus emissions in the city by 59 percent. Last year, TransMilenio qualified to sell carbon credits.
New Framework for Assessing the True Environmental Impact of Travel
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have built a new framework to evaluate the true environmental cost of travel by incorporating such factors as the impact of power plants that provide electricity for trains, upkeep of train stations, energy costs of airport runway construction and ore extraction undertaken to build a car.
The report, published in Environmental Research Letters, also looks at passenger occupancy, and illustrates the fallacy of assuming one form of transportation is automatically more eco-friendly than another.
Legitmate policy differences are healthy, but just making stuff up is bad form. From a press release on the Congressman’s own web site:
U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO-9) today introduced legislation that would save taxpayers $12.5 million this year and millions more in the future by prohibiting the United States from contributing to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which is fraught with waste and is engaged in dubious science.
“We all know that the UN is incompetent when it comes to spending money, and that is why American taxpayers should not be forking over millions more to one of its organizations that not only is in need of significant reform but is engaged in dubious scientific quests.†Luetkemeyer said. “… [My] goal is to deliver some of our people’s hard-earned money back into their pocketbooks instead of spending it on international junk science.â€
To put Luetkemeyer’s $12.5 million annual “savings” in perspective, that’s slightly less than the $680 billion House Defense Appropriations Bill would spend every 10 minutes.
Ben Armbruster takes the remainder of Luetkemeyer’s arguments apart. A sample:
Far from “junk science,†the IPCC is generally regarded as the world’s top authority on issues of global warming and climate change. The U.S. National Resource Council has praised the IPCC, calling its conclusions “accurate.†The Royal Meteorological Society referred to the IPCC as “the world’s best climate scientists.†In fact, the Nobel Committee seems to think so too, awarding the panel in 2007 with the Nobel Peace Prize “for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change.â€
Like all members of the House seeking another term, Luetkemeyer faces reelection in 2010.
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