Οι στόχοι της Ε.Ε. για την ενέργεια

Καθημερινή, 22 Ιανουαρίου 2008

Η Ευρωπαϊκή Επιτροπή παρουσιάζει την Τετάρτη τα προσχέδια μιας σειράς νόμων για την ενεργειακή πολιτική των «27».

Γενικοί στόχοι

Μείωση 20% των εκπομπών των αερίων του θερμοκηπίου μέχρι το 2020, συγκριτικά με τα επίπεδα εκπομπών του 1990. Η μείωση ενδέχεται να αυξηθεί στο 30% εφόσον υπάρχει διεθνής συμφωνία επί του ζητήματος.

Το 20% της ενέργειας μέχρι το 2020 χρειάζεται να προέρχεται από ανανεώσιμες πηγές ενέργειας όπως η αιολική, η ηλιακή, η υδροηλεκτρική και η χρήση βιομάζας. Η συμμετοχή των ανανεώσιμων πηγών στη συνολική παραγωγή ενέργειας την τρέχουσα χρονική περίοδο, αντιστοιχεί στο 8,5%.

Τα καύσιμα των μέσων μαζικής μεταφοράς πρέπει να χρησιμοποιούν βιοκαύσιμα σε ποσοστό 10%. Διαβάστε περισσότερα...

Wildlife Numbers Decline as Desperate Refugees Seek Meat

ENN, January 22, 2008

There are no real winners in Africa’s many tribal and political conflicts and the list of losers keeps growing.
Animal conservation groups say they have found a link between the decline of African wildlife, much of it threatened or endangered, and refugee camps. It appears that a thriving black market in illegally caught meat has grown up in the camps due to the lack of animal protein provided by the international aid organizations that provide food for the camps. Read more...

Judge Tells Navy to Reduce Sonar Impact

Associated Press, January 3, 2008

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A federal judge ordered the Navy on Thursday to adopt measures that would lessen the impact of sonar on whales and other marine life during exercises near Southern California.
The preliminary injunction issued Thursday requires the Navy to create a 12-nautical-mile no-sonar zone along the coast and have trained lookouts watch for marine mammals before and during exercises. Sonar should be shut down when mammals are spotted within 2,200 yards.
Cmdr. Jeff Davis said the Navy does not believe the ruling "struck the right balance between national security and environmental concerns.". Read more...

Read also: Navy not exempt from California sonar curbs: judge (February 5, 2008)

(DON'T!) Do it like Beckham

Soccer America Daily, January 15, 2008

David Beckham has the largest carbon footprint in human history according to British environmental group Carbon Trust. Having flown 250,000 miles last year, owning 15 gas-guzzling cars, and fueling mansions around the world has Carbon Trust calculating that the Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder is responsible for 163 tons of carbon dioxide, compared to the 9.4 tons of CO2 the average Brit "produces.". Read more...

How Green is Tata's Nano?

Planet2025, January 13, 2008

...The concern is that a supercheap auto will encourage development on the American model—relying on the car rather than mass transit. More drivers will add to air pollution, already a critical problem in more than half of India's cities, and to the carbon in the atmosphere that causes global warming. "This car promises to be an environmental disaster of substantial proportions," says Daniel Esty, an environmental expert at Yale. Read more...

Extinction threat to Scots bird

BBC News, January 15, 2007

The Scottish crossbill, the UK's only endemic bird which is native to the Highlands of Scotland, faces extinction, according to a new report. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds warns that unless action is taken to halt a rise in global temperatures, the species is under severe threat.
The bird, which lives only in Scots pine forests, is already on the conservation body's endangered list. Read more...

2007 Second Warmest Year On Record

ENN, January 11, 2007

WASHINGTON, DC — "With the record for 2007 now complete, it is clear that temperatures around the world are continuing their upward climb", writes Frances Moore in a recent Earth Policy Institute release, "2007 Second Warmest Year on Record". "The global average in 2007 was 14.73 degrees Celsius (58.5 degrees Fahrenheit)-the second warmest year on record, only 0.03 degrees Celsius behind the 2005 maximum. Looking at the northern hemisphere alone, 2007 temperatures averaged 15.04 degrees Celsius (59.1 degrees Fahrenheit)-easily the hottest year in the northern half of the globe since the record began in 1880." Read more...

Sierra Club Sues Shell

Emagazine.com, January 14, 2007

The Sierra Club, the nation’s largest and oldest environmental group, filed suit in federal court last week against Shell Oil over ongoing pollution at a refining and chemical plant complex along the Houston Ship Channel in Texas. According to the lawsuit, Shell should be held financially accountable—in the amount of $32 million each—for an estimated 1,000 incidents between 2003 and 2007 when its Deer Park, Texas facility exceeded maximum allowable levels of pollution. [..]

“Shell is paying to pollute,” says Joshua Kratka of the National Environmental Law Center, which represents the Sierra Club (and the nonprofit Environment Texas) in the lawsuit. He told reporters, “Shell is factoring these fines into its costs of operating these facilities.” Read more...

STOP στις πλαστικές σακούλες

ΟΙ ΠΑΞΟΙ ΑΝΟΙΓΟΥΝ ΤΟ ΔΡΟΜΟ!

από το ΟΙΚΟ, της Καθημερινής, 11 Ιανουαρίου 2008

Από την 1η Ιανουαρίου του 2008 έχει ξεκινήσει στον Δήμο Παξών μια σημαντική προσπάθεια -κατόπιν δημοτικής απόφασης- για την αποφυγή χρησιμοποίησης της συμβατικής πλαστικής σακούλας. «Μέσα από τον τοπικό Τύπο της Κέρκυρας και την εφημερίδα του Δήμου ενημερώθηκαν οι κάτοικοι και κυρίως οι καταστηματάρχες, οι οποίοι καλούνται να αντικαταστήσουν σταδιακά τις συμβατικές με χάρτινες ή οποιουδήποτε άλλου τύπου ανακυκλώσιμες σακούλες», εξηγεί ο δήμαρχος Σπύρος Μπογδάνος. Ενώ από την 1η Ιανουαρίου του 2010 στη Γαλλία θα χρησιμοποιούνται -βάσει νόμου- από τα καταστήματα μόνον οι εναλλακτικές σακούλες.

Διαβάστε ακόμα: Το αφιέρωμα του ΟΙΚΟ στην πλαστική σακούλα

Διαβάστε ακόμα: Αντίστοιχα παραδείγματα από την Ευρώπη (Ελευθεροτυπία)

Διαβάστε ακόμα: Στοιχεία κατανάλωσης (Ελευθεροτυπία)

Britain starts new push for nuclear power

by Pete Harrison, ENN, January 10, 2008

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain gave the go-ahead to a new generation of nuclear power stations on Thursday, setting no limits on nuclear expansion and adding momentum to atomic energy's worldwide renaissance.
The government argues that Britain must build nuclear plants to help meet its climate change goals and to avoid overdependence on imported energy amid dwindling North Sea oil supplies. Read more...

China launches surprise crackdown on plastic bags

Reuters, January 8, 2008

By Guo Shipeng and Emma Graham-Harrison

BEIJING (Reuters) - China launched a surprise crackdown on plastic bags on Tuesday, banning production of ultra-thin bags and forbidding its supermarkets and shops from handing out free carriers from June 1.
China uses too many of the bags and fails to dispose of them properly, wasting valuable oil and littering the country, China's cabinet, the State Council, said in a notice posted on the central government Web site (http://www.gov.cn/). Read more...

'No clear trend' in forest loss

By Richard Black Environment correspondent,

BBC News website January 8, 2008

Data on tropical forest cover is so poor that we do not know if the forests are declining, a study has found.
Alan Grainger from the UK's University of Leeds examined UN analyses going back almost 30 years, and found that "evidence for a decline is unclear". Writing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), he proposes a global forest monitoring system. Read more...

Πνιγμένη σε 110.000 τόνους σκουπιδιών βρίσκεται η Νάπολη

Ελευθεροτυπία, 8 Ιανουαρίου 2008

Σε κατάσταση συναγερμού βρίσκεται η Νάπολη και ολόκληρη η περιοχή της Καμπανίας στην Ιταλία, πνιγμένη σε 110.000 τόνους απορριμμάτων που συσσωρεύονται στους δρόμους εδώ και δύο εβδομάδες λόγω της υπερχείλισης των χωματερών. Είναι το τελευταίο επεισόδιο μιας χρονίζουσας κρίσης που έχει τις ρίζες της στη γραφειοκρατία, στην έλλειψη πολιτικής βούλησης, στο οργανωμένο έγκλημα αλλά και στις διαφωνίες των ντόπιων για την αντιμετώπιση του προβλήματος. [Σ.τ.Δ. Βρε τι μου θυμίζει, βρε τι μου θυμίζει...]

Διαβάστε περισσότερα...

Read also: Italy's "trash tsar" takes charge

First-ever study to link increased mortality specifically to carbon dioxide emissions

ENN, January 4, 2008

A Stanford scientist has spelled out for the first time the direct links between increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and increases in human mortality, using a state-of-the-art computer model of the atmosphere that incorporates scores of physical and chemical environmental processes. [..]

“This is a cause and effect relationship, not just a correlation,” said Jacobson of his study, which on Dec. 24 was accepted for publication in Geophysical Research Letters. “The study is the first specifically to isolate carbon dioxide’s effect from that of other global-warming agents and to find quantitatively that chemical and meteorological changes due to carbon dioxide itself increase mortality due to increased ozone, particles and carcinogens in the air.” Read more...

Trees Are Not The Answer To Climate Change

ENN, January 3, 2008

What was once seen as the solution to all our CO2 problems, the ability of trees to soak up anthropogenic carbon dioxide,has itself been hindered by global warming.
A 20-year analysis of 30 sites in the frozen north has discovered that trees ability to take in CO2 is weakening. Whereas once it was assumed that just by planting more trees we could slow down the climate change tide. These results tell us unquestionably that we need to stop passing the buck, and stop creating CO2. Read more...

Ηλεκτρικά αυτοκίνητα θα σώσουν το Παρίσι

ΤΑ ΝΕΑ, 3 Ιανουρίου 2008

Σε οικολογική πρωτεύουσα του κόσμου έχει βαλθεί να μετατρέψει το Παρίσι ο σοσιαλιστής δήμαρχος της πόλης Μπερτράν Ντελανοέ.
Μετά το Velib, την πρωτοποριακή υπηρεσία ενοικίασης ποδηλάτων, «εξαπολύει» εναντίον της κυκλοφοριακής συμφόρησης και της ατμοσφαιρικής ρύπανσης ένα ανάλογο πρόγραμμα με ηλεκτροκίνητα αυτοκίνητα. Η λογική στο Voiturelib (Ελεύθερα Αυτοκίνητα) παραμένει η ίδια : 2.000 ηλεκτροκίνητα οχήματα (για αρχή) θα περιμένουν τους Παριζιάνους (που θα έχουν εγγραφεί στη σχετική υπηρεσία) σε δεκάδες ειδικούς χώρους στάθμευσης και ενοικίασης ανά την πόλη. Διαβάστε περισσότερα...

Solar Cell Production Jumps 50 Percent in 2007

ENN News, December 31, 2oo7

WASHINGTON, DC — "Production of photovoltaics (PV) jumped to 3,800 megawatts worldwide in 2007, up an estimated 50 percent over 2006," says Jonathan G. Dorn, Staff Researcher at the Earth Policy Institute, in a recent release, "Solar Cell Production Jumps 50 Percent in 2007" . "Growing by an impressive average of 48 percent each year since 2002, PV production has been doubling every two years, making it the world's fastest-growing energy source.". Read more...