What exactly is the cost to society when one million hectares (8,861 sq. miles, an area roughly the size of Costa Rica) of Brazilian rainforest disappears? The United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) just released Mainstreaming the Economics of Nature, a report that aims to precisely answer that question. The report highlights government and business development policies that consistently fails to value the true cost of natural resources depletion. The report makes an excellent case for biodiversity loss valuation in all governmental decision-making processes. The report also highlights the strong link that exists between ecological conservation and a society’s ability to Continue reading
Energy Efficiency
The Lost Kittens for the week of 18 October
As the new week begins, we bring to you this compilation of Tweets and stories harvested during our internet fishing expedition over the past week. Have a great week ahead! — The Editors 1. Winner of the week’s top comedy award: 2. Nasa, via the NYT, brings perspective to Pakistan’s flooding woes: 3. Biomass more efficient than ethanol Biomass converted to electricity could achieve 80 per cent more “miles per acre” than the same material converted to ethanol, a group of United States researchers announced last year. As an example, the study by researchers from several US universities found that Continue reading
PAPER: Under ideal conditions, burning biomass is GHG neutral.
“If biomass is harvested in a sustainable way so that its long-term stocks are not depleted, and (it is) burned under ideal combustion conditions, it is effectively GHG (Greenhouse Gas) neutral.” from “Greenhouse Gas Implications of Household Energy Technology in Kenya.” American Chemical Society/Environmental Science & Technology. (2003) Authors: Rob Bailis, Majid Ezzati, and Daniel M. Kammen. The statement above would be music to the ears of solid biomass booster the world over were it not for one tiny, almost insignificant word: ideal. The lead-in to the full statement goes: “Under optimal conditions, biomass combustion results almost entirely in the Continue reading
Goal Looms for U.N.: Ending ‘Energy Poverty’
taken from Green, a NYT blog about energy and the environment By Elisabeth Rosenthal New York – Oct. 4th, 2010 — The United Nations Millennium Development Goals were adopted in 2000 as a commitment to improve health and education as well as end poverty in less fortunate parts of the globe. The eight goals include targets like universal childhood education, reducing infant mortality and ensuring environmental sustainability. This year there has been a growing movement to add a ninth goal: ending energy poverty. Some 1.4 billion people lack access to electricity. Energy experts like Nobuo Tanaka, executive director of the Continue reading
Why solar cookers are not a viable option for the energy poor
Solar cookers do not work as reliable substitutes for traditional biomass cooking.
That’s in part because rural inhabitants in developing countries are often small plot farmers who must get up when it’s still dark out to get things going on the farm. Breakfast, the key meal of the day if you’re a farmers, is impossible to prepare before sunrise using a solar cooker.
The working urban poor have a different problem. If a family is out all day and doesn’t return until after dark, how can they prepare dinner? Also, where can you safely leave your solar cooker with food cooking when you live in a shanty town?