Environment Headlines – 18 August, 2005
Judge Reluctant to Rule on Global Warming / Cars replacing industry as Sound’s worst foe / Climate change: Heat and light / Will Climate Wake Up Call Be Answered? / Nuclear Waste: The 1,000-Year Fudge
Food & Water
Sustainable World Coming
Independent scientists, economists, politicians, and activists met to share knowledge and ideas for sustainable food systems as the industrial model is close to collapse. (First conference of the Sustainable World Global Initiative held July 14-15)
Faster CO2 emissions will overwhelm earth’s capacity to absorb carbon
If current production of carbon from fossil fuels continues unabated, by the end of the century the land and oceans will be less able to take up carbon than they are today, a new computer climate model indicates.
Sustainability and Environment – 31 July, 2005
US food aid needs to encourage local farmers /
When hybrids turn NASCAR /
Bill McKibben on Cuban agriculture /
Tipperary eco-village gets planning permission /
New climate pact: For good or bad? /
Six-country pact ‘not meant to undermine Kyoto’ /
Statement of UNEP on new pact /
National Geographic on global warming
Organic farming uses less energy for same yields
Organic farming produces same the corn and soybean yields as conventional farms, but consumes less energy and no pesticides, a Cornell study finds.
The Tragic Abuse of Corn
It was one of those things that you can’t quite believe is real. I was flipping through a magazine and saw an ad for a stove that burns corn kernels. For heat. Corn is food, not fuel, I thought, but the ad assured me that “Corn is replenished annually. It is a never-ending energy source, and thus is the new alternative fuel of choice.”
UK ‘Peak Speak’ Forum – London, 16th July
An open forum on the implications of the terminal decline of global oil production will be held just outside London (Hackbridge, Surrey) on Saturday July 16th 2005 from 10am until 5.30pm. Hosted by the UK ‘Peak Oil’ campaign group PowerSwitch.org.uk, the event will give many people already aware of ‘Peak Oil’ the opportunity to develop their understanding further.
Making the World Sustainable
Decades of an “environmental bubble economy” built on the over-exploitation of natural resources has accelerated global warming, environmental degradation, depletion of water and oil, and brought falling crop yields, precipitating a crisis in world food security with no prospects for improvement under the business as usual scenario.
Jatropha oil: A promising, clean alternative energy
Discovering an affordable and cleaner burning alternative energy source has long been the dream of industrial chemical engineer Robert Manurung.
Threats of Peak Oil to the Global Food Supply
Food is energy. And it takes energy to get food. These two facts, taken together, have always established the biological limits to the human population and always will.
What will we eat as the oil runs out? [update]
A major international conference on “Food Security in an Energy-Scarce World” is planned for June 23-25 in Dublin, Ireland. The conference will seek to answer the question: “How can the world’s population be fed without the extensive use of fossil fuels in the production, processing and distribution of food?” [The impressive list of participants is now available.]
Oil and Food: A Rising Security Challenge
From farm to plate, the modern food system relies heavily on cheap oil. Threats to our oil supply are also threats to our food supply. As food undergoes more processing and travels farther, the food system consumes ever more energy each year.
