Simon

Libby Rosenthal over at the International Herald Tribune’s Business of Green blog worries, just like me, about the lack of green issues being raised in the US primaries. Having spent the last week in the United States and having watched all the presidential candidates debate, I’m struck by how little talk there is of climate change and what the United States intends to do about it! The climate threat that faces us today is the important issue that should be among the top things discussed between the different presidential candidates. Cause the climate threat will affect everything from healthcare to immigration and Iraq to education and welfare. Libby Rosenthal acknowledges this and put weight on America's most foolish decision to attempt to disrupt the climate actions that needs to be done around the world by not signing the Kyoto Protocol. But from the world’s perspective, the issue of whether America will join with other countries in controlling global warming is a key issue, and one that should be discussed in front of the American public: The United States is, after all, the major developed nation that has not signed the Kyoto Protocol. After the Australian federal election last year were decided on the climate change inaction by John Howard, Australia signed the Kyoto Protocol and left USA alone. Libby Rosenthal continues by adding that "the most disturbing thing in some ways is not what the candidates think, but how little this important issue is being discussed, despite 24/7 television coverage. That means the candidates have not had to explain how they will handle tough questions like how to get U.S. car makers to participate in emission reductions; how to discourage Americans from driving gas guzzlers; and whether the United States will step up to the plate to control its emissions, even if China does not." Unfortunately, at the moment, it doesn't seem like the USA elections will be decided upon the different candidates "green" credentials and ideas any day soon. Image credit: Alexdecarvalho. Image licensed under a Creative-Commons Attribution license.

SLU, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, have started a rather massive campaign against global warming deniers. The message that: “without proper facts anyone can say anything” about climate change and its effects, will be advertised using the site http://ww.koldioxidensvänner.se (roughly translated to “the friends of co2). The message will be advertised in the largest newspapers in Sweden. They will also fill Stockholm's (the Swedish capital) subway with print ads (see image example below) and web advertisements on Aftonbladet.se, a large newspaper in Sweden (where you could probably find many global warming deniers). I don’t really understand why they need to spend money on a campaign targeted against the very small minority of global warming deniers, mostly old men who votes for right wing parties, in Sweden. But I hope the people who see the advertisements will see/understand the whole message and not only the “satire” slogans like “co2 is our future” or “the greenhouse effect is fake”. Here are three videos from “the friends of co2” that are parts in the advertisement campaign: ">" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"> ">" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"> ">" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355">

A new study by Kenneth Vogel from the University of Nebraska shows that farming switchgrass as biofuel will produce 540% more energy than is required to grow and manufacture it. This can be compared to 25% for corn ethanol and 93% for soybean ethanol. But one of the more interesting and positive result from the study was that the emissions created by switchgrass would be around 94% lower than the emissions from petrol. That means switchgrass would be almost carbon neutral. Another positive thing with using switchgrass as biofuel is that it does not need to take up valuable land areas. Kenneth Vogel explains that switchgrass only needs to be grown on secondary croplands. And the switchgrass only needs to be planted once as it returns year after year. Rainer Zah, head of the Life Cycle Assessment & Modelling group of the Swiss Materials Science and Technology research institution, EMPA, in Saint Gallen, acknowledges that switchgrass seems to be a very promising fuel but he worries about its dinitrogen oxide emissions, a more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Image credit: AdsitAdventures. Image licensed under a Creative-Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works license.

Did you know that it takes 15 000 litres of water to produce one kilo meat from an animal who is being feed with grains. 1500 litres of water is needed to produce one kilo of grains. Read more over at UN's World Water Day website.

Here is a rather old, but good, documentary about Greenpeace’s famous Rainbow Warrior. The documentary tells the story about the very first Rainbow Warrior who were sunk by the French foreign intelligence agency (DGSE) while docked in Auckland harbour, New Zealand, on 10 July 1985. Video after the jump. Link to video: The Rainbow Warrior: what really happened

The 30 December 2007 the 82 year old Bert Bolin, a Swedish meteorologist who served as the first chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), passed away. He was one of the people who played a key roll in the launch of UNs Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He served as its chairman during 1988 to 1998. Many people believe he was the single most important person when it comes to our understanding and knowledge about the climate, even more important than Al Gore. During his lifetime Bert Bolin earned many awards and honours for his work in climate research. In 1984 he was rewarded the Carl-Gustaf Rossby Research Medal. 1988 he was honoured with the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement. 1995 Bert Bolin. Near his ending year’s first chairman of IPCC he was in 1995 rewarded with, what many consider as the nobel prize for environmental sciences, the highest atmospheric science award of the American Meteorological Society and the Blue Planet Prize. When the latest IPCC report was released Bert Bolin urged for action. But not action based on an “all-knowing” scientific research but from what we already know about our climate. But Bert Bolin foresaw that no real actions would take place until 2008. Hopefully he is correct.

In our latest web poll here on Green Blog we asked if you thought the Bali Climate Conference would be a success. Here are the results: A majority of the people said yes. They thought that the climate conference would be a success but that the result probably wouldn’t be enough. Around 25% of you thought that the conference would be a failure. But on the same time you wished it would turn out to be a success. 13% hadn’t really any idea how the outcome would be. And just as many thought that world leaders would fail once again making the climate conference a total failure. None of you thought that world leaders would come together and “do the right thing”. Our new web poll question: Is nuclear energy "green"? Cast your votes!

Are you a frequent RSS-reader? Yes? No? It doesn’t matter! Now you don’t just have to read to get your weekly dose of green news, blogs and rants. It’s time to start listen. It’s time to discover the green podcasts. The folks over at iTunes have collected some of the best environment related podcasts from around the web in one nice, free, corner. You will find green podcasts from the famous Grist and TreeHugger to the Lazy Environmentalist and The Sierra Club. To be able to subscribe to any of the podcasts you will need to download and install iTunes. It’s free and works on both Windows (XP or Vista) and Mac OS X.

In December last year Italy decided to join Australia and Ireland to ban incandescent light bulbs. The Italian budget committee voted in favour of an incandescent light bulb ban from the Green MP Angello Bonelli. The ban will take place in 2011. More European countries are planning on following Irelands and Italy’s “bright” decision in a, very, near future. The European Lamp Companies Federation plans for a incandescent light bulb phase out by year 2019. This just shows that government guidelines and actions do make more difference than what the private sector could accomplish. Image credit: So It's Come To This. Image licensed under a Creative-Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works license.

Do you remember, when Al Gore said he would do everything in his powers to influence the American people and politicians to value the climate issue much higher, placing it among the other top issues that would be heatedly discussed among the president candidates and the, hmm, two(!), political parties? Well, I am no US political expert. Heck, I am not even an US citizen. But from what I’ve heard and seen so far the discussions and talks about the climate threat have gone pretty much un-noticed. Sure you can say to the defence that USA hasn’t yet decided which two(!) persons who are eligible to fight for the presidency. But aren’t you, as an American and Earth citizen interested in where the different presidential contenders stand on climate and energy issues? Especially when you consider that USA is THE country that pollutes the worst, uses the most of earths resources and fuels the ignorant standpoint on climate change. Luckily Gristmill has made a table with the candidate’s stances on fuel-economy standards, renewable energy, and coal. John McCain is said to be the greenest of the Republican presidential candidates. But how green is he when he supports coal? Or maybe you should ask how bad (for the environment) the other Republican presidential candidates are? On a poll on Msnbc.com where you could “choose Iowa's biggest winners, losers”, from yesterdays Iowa caucus. One of the questions where: "Going forward from Iowa, what is the most important issue for all candidates to address with clear policies and new ideas?". Msnbc.com had listed six different options that you could choose from: Family values War in Iraq Illegal immigration Health care Taxes and the economy Terrorism I can't see "Climate Change" as an option. And none of them were directly related to the environment. Only four of those where in some way related to the climate threat and it’s effects (can you guess which ones?). So maybe it’s no wonder that Al Gore haven’t, yet, succeeded with his hopes to influence the American minds and politics when “Family Values” seems, for the majority of the American people, be much more important than the end of the civilization? Maybe Al Gore could put pressure on the climate issue by running for president? I do hope he will. Sure, he might not win, but he will sure shake things up. And like Michael Moore said this Wednesday; "Where are you, Al Gore? You can only polish that Oscar for so long. And the Nobel was decided by Scandinavians! I don't blame you for not wanting to enter the viper pit again after you already won. But getting us to change out our incandescent light bulbs for some irritating fluorescent ones isn't going to save the world."

Nokia recently released its brand new 3110 Evolve. It's a new, greener, phone from Nokia (maybe they wanted to impress Greenpeace?). The new phone uses "bio-covers" that, are said, to be made from over 50% renewable material. It also uses smaller packaging made of 60% recycled content. Nokia have also thrown in their best energy efficient charger. The charger uses 94% less energy than the Energy Star requirements. If you are in the need for a new phone this one might be worth to take a closer look at. But please, do not throw away your already working phone.

New numbers from WHO (World Health Organisation) shows that last year 21 342 people from around the world were killed by different nature catastrophes. About 134,6 million people got damages on their health or their property.

Today the price for a barrel of oil reached, for the first time ever, $100.