Stop making the planet history 01 July 05

This is the first time I’ve thought about the contraction and convergence issue, and it’s an idea I can really buy into. However, the first step is one that seems difficult to achieve, especially at this junction. Unless Bush surprises the world by deciding to agree on a number – that is, an acceptable amount of GHG emissions – everything remains abstract. I also think that “the simple recognition that all human beings are born equal with certain inalienable rights: not just to life and liberty, but also to an equal use of the earth’s atmosphere” isn’t so simple for a lot of people, especially Americans, who might see this as a bit too socialist. Ironic as it is – we, the land of liberty – inherent in most thoughts and actions is the idea that we should still be able to do whatever we want to the world. That is, we think that WE own it.

“No one owns the air above us, and not even the strongest military empire can take more than its fair share for long.” Absolutely correct. But I think that because we’re taking more than our fair share, and we will for too long, the whole world will be in trouble.

Stephen
http://stopwarming.blogspot.com

1. SUBSISTENCE POVERTY: It is possible to be poor, but have all the necessities of life (clean water, adequate food & shelter). That’s how people have lived for 99+% of our time on earth. A bit of sanitation & modern low-cost medicine would probably be enough to keep most alive to ripe old age, since they wouldn’t suffer all the rich-folk, expensive diseases.

2. DIRE POVERTY: This poverty increasingly found today involves polluted water or lack of water & inadequate food & shelter – due to others’ taking these over, polluting/harming them, and to some extent overpopulation (though this latter is not as big a factor as the other 2).

From what I saw in India 30 years ago, the first type of poor people seemed to be at least as happy as the rich (e.g., middle class Americans, etc), if not more so, partly because they didn’t have high expectations & weren’t trying to impress anyone or keep up with the Joneses.

The 2nd type of poverty has to be reduced & those people have to be brought up to at least the level of the 1st type of poverty – even if this means the rich have to become more energy/resource efficient, or sacrifice & make do with only one yacht instead of 2, or 20 sets of clothing, instead of 30, or eating a bit less meat (lands are often taken from the subsistent poor for livestock feed that serves the rich & middle class). It’s a moral imperative to help our dire poor brothers & sisters, even if there are no laws to enforce this. We have to stop making the world uninhabitable for the subsistent poor, pushing them into dire poverty. First, do no harm!

Hope everyone is well, I have been working away for a couple of weeks and am just catching up. Just as we were expecting something on GW from the G8 meeting today, the awful events in London have wiped almost all other news off the air. I had hoped that we would hear that an approach to tackling GW could be constructed along the lines of: The US seeks domestic energy efficiency to reduce its dependency on imported fossil fuels and to provide new markets for the US R&D and Industrial base providing an economic stimulus and greater security, but refuses to acknowledge GW. These measures co-incidentally will reduce GHG emissions.

The rest of the world seeks CO2 reductions to avoid planetary catastrophe through measures which will, coincidentally support R&D and manufacturing to provide the technology to do this, also stimulating the economy and reducing dependence on imported fossil fuels.

Perhaps we could live with this Chinese wall between the two camps and just get on with the process?

Anyway, some good news on alternative power generation. First in Germany, a ‘virtual power plant’ where a computer in a university links 1000 RE micro-generating plants together to manage heat and power production & storage as required. The system is demonstrating 92% efficiency, twice that of a centralised generating based system. Second, in the US, a couple of Physicists have patented a new type of Solar PV array using a modified NASA PV cell which is achieving 37% efficiency.

Excellent articles and a video link to the German (English language) Technology TV programme. Use this link: http://www.evuk.co.uk/news/index2.html#news_top

and follow the links from the July News page.

Hope you enjoy this one Lynn, it’s a real ‘Natural Capitalism’ story.

best to all for now,

back with some, (hopefully good) news on two Wales-based projects next week.

Colin

Hi again, don’t know if this is the right forum for this but… Is it clear where the US academy of science and Bruce Albert stands in the GW?

And where does Russia stand now and how big impact does Yury Izrael have on the Russian standpoint and what did they mean with “a missunderstanding”?

And most important of all, how much of their staitments are based on facts and research?