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In China, overambition reins in eco-city plans.

Oekologie
Oekologie is a blog carnival–kindof like a monthly blog magazine–composed of articles on ecology, evolution, the environment and sustainability. The most recent edition (found here) features the “Biodiesel from Coffee Grounds” from last week as well as several other fascinating articles, including one I wrote for GAP.-Ben Connor BarriePhoto via kimberlyfaye
Press Release: EDF Welcomes New Global Climate Leaders as Poznan Talks End
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 
Contact:
Andrea Welsh, 202-572-3232 or 202-297-7723 (cell), awelsh@edf.org
 
(Poznan, Poland, Dec. 12, 2008)—Environmental Defense Fund praised developing nations for building momentum to stop global warming at the U.N. climate talks that headed for a conclusion here today, calling some emerging economies “new global leaders on climate change.”
 
“Developing nations have just raised the bar for action,” said Jennifer Haverkamp, EDF’s director for international climate policy. “They’re fed up with the waiting game; Brazil, Mexico, South Africa and Peru, to name some, have stepped up to the plate with proposals to lower their national emissions.”
 
EDF also applauded President-elect Barack Obama who, just days before negotiations started, pledged to lead the United States to engage in global climate talks and to move toward capping its own greenhouse gas emissions.
 
“We leave here with real momentum after that one-two punch, first the signal from Obama and then these developing country proposals,” said Annie Petsonk, EDF international counsel. “Obama asked for reports from Poznan, and we had more than 40 congressional staff here. That’s exactly the kind of engagement we need from the U.S. Congress.”
 
Steve Schwartzman, EDF’s director for tropical forest policy, added: “The deforestation issue is where developing and developed countries are coming together, even though negotiators barely managed to break the stalemate on technical details. We got a strong joint statement from 20 tropical and developed country ministers calling for early action to stop forest clearing, and Brazil committed to reduce its deforestation 70% in ten years.”
 
However, EDF said the overall results of the Poznan talks were “merely adequate” and called on world leaders to work harder to reach a shared agreement to stop global warming before temperatures rise 2ºC.
 
“We got the bare minimum of what we needed from the talks,” said Haverkamp. “We got a clear mandate and a timetable to move forward, but there’s a lot to do and less than a year to do it. The wait-and-see game must end.”
 
Petsonk added: “It’s time for the White House and Congress to take swift action on national legislation to cap U.S. emissions. The world is watching.”
 
At the global level, EDF called on world leaders to push hard to reach agreement at the Copenhagen climate talks in 2009.
 
“We’ve got momentum, we’ve got concrete proposals, and we’ve got new leadership in Washington. There’s a mountain of work between now and next December but it is eminently doable,” Haverkamp said.
Press Release: National Research Councils report on U.S. nanotechnology risk research strategy “thorough and forthright”

 
 
 
Statement of:
American Chemistry Council, Evonik Degussa Corporation, BASF Corporation, NanoBusiness Alliance, DuPont, Natural Resources Defense Council, Environmental Defense Fund, Lux Research, Inc.
 

The above organizations issue the following statement in response to today’s release of the National Academies’ National Research Council’s (NRC) review of the National Nanotechnology Initiative’s Strategy for Nanotechnology-Related Environmental, Health and Safety Research.

 

The undersigned organizations are members of an informal coalition of small and large companies, trade associations, environmental NGOs, and research organizations that for the past three years have been urging the federal government to increase its focus on the potential health and environmental impacts of nanotechnology.

 

We are pleased that the NRC’s report, Review of the Federal Strategy to Address Environmental, Health, and Safety Research Needs for Engineered Nanoscale Materials, presents such a thorough and forthright review of the NNI’s strategy document. Its report echoes concerns our organizations have raised since the release of the strategy in February 2008.

 

The NRC report lends all the more urgency to our coalition’s call for the independent development of a comprehensive roadmap to guide federal research on the EHS implications of nanotechnology. Our call was echoed last year by the U.S. Congress, in language contained in the Senate Committee report accompanying the Consolidated Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year (FY) 2008.

 

That legislation, signed by President Bush on December 26, 2007, expressed Congress’s intent that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) contract with the National Academy of Sciences’ (NAS) Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology (BEST) to “develop and monitor implementation of a comprehensive, prioritized research roadmap for all Federal agencies on environmental, health and safety issues for nanotechnology.” Under the provision included in the legislation, Congress urged EPA “to contract or enter into a cooperative agreement with the National Academy of Sciences’ Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology within 90 days of enactment” (by March 21, 2008) to develop and monitor implementation of the research strategy.

 

Unfortunately, the action called for by Congress has yet to take place. We urge the federal agencies comprising the NNI to act immediately to implement what Congress and a broad spectrum of stakeholders have requested.

 
Future Perspectives for Renewable Energy in India
India is facing an acute energy scarcity which is hampering its industrial growth and economic progress. Setting up of new power plants is inevitably dependent on import of highly volatile fossil fuels. Thus, it is essential to tackle the energy crisis through judicious utilization of abundant the renewable energy resources, such as biomass energy, [.]
In China, overambition reins in eco-city plans.
An experiment in sustainable living, Dongtan was billed as a urban center where green technologies and smart design could slash the carbon footprint of up to a half-million people.
Ethiopian Bulb Exchange Program
The new bulbs cost more but use 80% less electricityI found out listening to NPR today that the BBC has one of the largest science journalism departments in the world.

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