Click on the headline (link) for the full text.
Many more articles are available through the Energy Bulletin homepage
Roses, rings, and manure: the carbon neutral wedding
Richard Bell, Post Carbon Institute (blog)
…My passion [for unusual publications] has carried over to the Internet, but the thrill of finding something new has attenuated. What can you do when even a few minutes of poking around brings you to “Cats that look like Hitler”?
But jaded though I may be, it’s still possible for someone to break through. And thus I present Portovert, “The first and only magazine for eco-savvy brides and grooms.” As a guy, I appreciate the little throw-away outreach to men. On the armada of brides’ magazines at the usual newsstand, I can’t remember seeing a cover that had anything to do with men in any way, shape, or form-sort of the praying mantis approach, if you know what I mean.
I don’t even know if there is a printed copy of Portovert. The home page offers what could pass for the usual fare on any old bride’s magazine: a white-rose bouquet, a bride getting her veil adjusted, a honeymoon vacation give-away. The most intriguing element of the home page was a prominently featured section entitled, “Calculate your wedding emissions.”
A quick click, however, takes you to a link for Native Energy, Bringing New Renewables to Market. The emissions in question are carbon, and Native Energy offers to make your wedding “carbon neutral.” Using a handy calculator, you enter the number of people coming to your wedding, how far you think they’re driving or flying, how big the hall is, and poof, out pops the number of tons of carbon you need to offset. And for a fee based on the number of tons of CO2 your wedding will generate, NativeEnergy will provide those carbon offsets from a Native American windfarm or a methane project on a farm in Pennsylvania.
…Scientists tell us that we have to make huge cuts in our total carbon output if we are going to stabilize the climate. In the best of all possible worlds, I suppose we could be building windmills and methane digesters and planting trees at such a clip that we offset the amount of carbon we were producing, at least for a little while. But without reducing the demand for carbon-generating activities, in the end no matter how ingenious we are, we will run out of potential offsetting activities.
So why not start reducing demand for oil right now? That’s what’s missing in the Portovert/NativeEnergy approach.
(19 Feb 2007)
Snow future for alpine tourism?
Dale Bechtel, Swiss Info
For the first time, a number of Swiss tourist regions have joined forces to develop a strategy to minimise the negative effects of climate change.
The nine destinations in the Bernese Alps commissioned a study by Bern University, which will release its findings next month and a series of recommendations.
The study, “Climate change and tourism – an analysis of scenarios for the Bernese Oberland up to the year 2030” points out that the effects are manifold and complex.
They cannot, it says, be reduced to a simple formula equating rising temperatures with the disappearance of snow and therefore the death of skiing.
…The report states that whichever scenario plays out, all mountain resorts will have to make major investments in order to adapt. As water becomes scarcer following dry summers, ski lift operators may have no choice but to import water to feed their growing arsenal of snow cannon.
(19 Feb 2007)
How successfully can a country isolate itself from the effects of global warming? The Swiss are making studies, planning strategies to save their tourist industry. But how can they keep the price of travel cheap, ensuring a flow of tourists, as energy prices climb? Isn’t it likely that air travel will be constrained, because of its inordinate role in causing global warming? Ironically, the article pictures happy tourists from India, whose flight to play in the snow helped cause the problem.
Among the several additional features at the original article is a photo gallery, showing how glaciers in Switzerland have melted away over the last century. -BA
Australia refused talks on sea levels, island nation says
Richard Baker, Sydney Morning Herald
THE Prime Minister of a Pacific island nation in danger of being submerged if sea levels rise, Tuvalu, was rejected by his Australian counterpart when he sought a meeting on the topic, senior Tuvalu officials said.
An adviser to the Tuvalu Government’s environment department, Ian Fry, said the Tuvalu Prime Minister, Maatia Toafa, requested a meeting with John Howard at the Pacific Islands Forum in Fiji in October to discuss the climate change crisis facing the country, but was denied.
Mr Fry, an environmental law expert at the Australian National University, said: “It’s unfathomable to me as to why they don’t want to discuss it.”
A senior Tuvalu Government source said it was the second time in six years that Australia had refused such requests. “Tuvalu has been seeking bilateral dialogue at prime ministerial level with Australia but more than twice now we have been turned away,” he said.
Neither Mr Howard’s office nor the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade yesterday responded to questions on the claims
(20 Feb 2007)
The first stirrings of tension between the countries who caused global warming (US, Europe, Japan, Australia), and those who will suffer most from it (tropical and low-lying countries). -BA
Guilt-Free Pollution. Or Is It?
James Kanter, NY Times
…Mr. Grover could no longer be called an environmental zealot. Indeed, he is now in the mainstream of a budding market where individuals can buy and sell rights to offset “carbon footprints” from their personal activities, such as driving a car, using disposable diapers, even jet-setting across the Atlantic.
These days, pop stars, chief executives and politicians vaunt how they offset carbon emissions by planting trees or investing in renewable energy projects – many in poorer countries in Africa or in India.
Pledges by celebrities, like Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain and members of the band Coldplay, have helped generate huge publicity for these carbon-offset trading companies. In turn, the companies have actively sought out a green glitterati and concerned consumers in Europe and the United States.
The operations reflect a new consciousness about climate change, but scientists and environmental watchdogs say that the carbon trading actually may be producing little of real value to the environment.
“These companies may be operating with the best will in the world, but they are doing so in settings where it’s not really clear you can monitor and enforce their projects over time,” said Steve Rayner, a senior professor at Oxford and a member of a group working on reducing greenhouse gases for the International Panel on Climate Change. “What these companies are allowing people to do is carry on with their current behavior with a clear conscience.”
(20 Feb 2007)
