The Environment Friendly Thread

[Federer]

LEARNING TO SPEAK CLIMATE
Ilulissat, Greenland

Sometimes you just wish you were a photographer. I simply do not have the words to describe the awesome majesty of Greenland’s Kangia Glacier, shedding massive icebergs the size of skyscrapers and slowly pushing them down the Ilulissat Fjord until they crash into the ocean off the west coast of Greenland. There, these natural ice sculptures float and bob around the glassy waters near here. You can sail between them in a fishing boat, listening to these white ice monsters crackle and break, heave and sigh, as if they were noisily protesting their fate.
You are entirely alone here amid the giant icebergs, save for the solitary halibut fisherman who floats by. Our Greenlandic boat skipper sidles up to the tiny fishing craft, where my hosts buy a few halibut right out of his nets, slice open the tender cheeks and cut me the freshest halibut sushi I’ve ever tasted. “Greenland fast food,” quips Kim Kielsen, Greenland’s minister of the environment.
We wash it down with Scotch whiskey cooled by a 5,000-year-old ice cube chipped off one of the floating glacier bits. Some countries have vintage whiskey. Some have vintage wine. Greenland has vintage ice.
Alas, though, I do not work for National Geographic. This is the opinion page. And my trip with Denmark’s minister of climate and energy, Connie Hedegaard, to see the effects of climate change on Greenland’s ice sheet leaves me with a very strong opinion: Our kids are going to be so angry with us one day.
We’ve charged their future on our Visa cards. We’ve added so many greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, for our generation’s growth, that our kids are likely going to spend a good part of their adulthood, maybe all of it, just dealing with the climate implications of our profligacy. And now our leaders are telling them the way out is “offshore drilling” for more climate-changing fossil fuels.
Madness. Sheer madness.
Most people assume that the effects of climate change are going to be felt through another big disaster, like Katrina. Not necessarily, says Minik Thorleif Rosing, a top geologist at Denmark’s National History Museum and one of my traveling companions. “Most people will actually feel climate change delivered to them by the postman,” he explains. It will come in the form of higher water bills, because of increased droughts in some areas; higher energy bills, because the use of fossil fuels becomes prohibitive; and higher insurance and mortgage rates, because of much more violently unpredictable weather.
Remember: climate change means “global weirding,” not just global warming.
Greenland is one of the best places to observe the effects of climate change. Because the world’s biggest island has just 55,000 people and no industry, the condition of its huge ice sheet — as well as its temperature, precipitation and winds — is influenced by the global atmospheric and ocean currents that converge here. Whatever happens in China or Brazil gets felt here. And because Greenlanders live close to nature, they are walking barometers of climate change.
That’s how I learned a new language here: “Climate-Speak.”
It’s easy to learn. There are only three phrases. The first is: “Just a few years ago ...” Just a few years ago you could dogsled in winter from Greenland, across a 40-mile ice bank, to Disko Island. But for the past few years, the rising winter temperatures in Greenland have melted that link. Now Disko is cut off. Put away the dogsled.
There has been a 30 percent increase in the melting of the Greenland ice sheet between 1979 and 2007, and in 2007, the melt was 10 percent bigger than in any previous year, said Konrad Steffen, director of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado, which monitors the ice. Greenland is now losing 200 cubic kilometers of ice per year — from melt and ice sliding into the ocean from outlet glaciers along its edges — which far exceeds the volume of all the ice in the European Alps, he added. “Everything is happening faster than anticipated.”
The second phrase is: “I’ve never seen that before...” It rained in December and January in Ilulissat. This is well above the Arctic Circle! It’s not supposed to rain here in winter. Said Steffen: “Twenty years ago, if I had told the people of Ilulissat that it would rain at Christmas 2007, they would have just laughed at me. Today it is a reality.”
The third phrase is: “Well usually ...but now I don’t know anymore.” Traditional climate patterns that Greenland elders have known their whole lives have changed so quickly in some places that “the accumulated experience of older people is not as valuable as before,” said Rosing. The river that was always there is now dry. The glacier that always covered that hill has disappeared. The reindeer that were always there when the hunting season opened on Aug. 1 didn’t show up.
No wonder everyone here speaks climate now — your kids will, too, and sooner than they think.

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
August 6, 2008, on page A23 of The New York Times edition.

[coolbryan_love]

Cars idling at crossings in Delhi burn 1,000 cr a yr..

At a time when oil is the most precious commodity in our planet, fuel worth Rs 1,000crore is wasted every year in Delhi by vehicles idling at its 600 traffic signals. If all drivers were to switch off their engines wherever the stoppage time exceeds 14 seconds - which would hold for, perhaps, all signals - the country would be richer by that amount, not to speak of cleaner air in the city.

This startling fact was revealed by a Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) study. The study says 98% of the drivers in the city don't switch off their vehicles at the signals, irrespective of the stoppage time. With fuel prices soaring and more than 950 vehicles getting added to Delhi's roads daily, this wastage is only going up. Back of the envelope calculations show that each vehicle owner in the city can save over Rs 3,100 annually just by ensuring that his or her car is switched off at every red light that lasts for more than 14 seconds.

"The survey results clearly indicate that at the 600 intersections in Delhi, 0.37 million kg of CNG, 0.13 million litres of diesel and 0.41 million litres of petrol are burned up everyday due to idling of engines. Converting these figures into monetary terms, based on fuel prices in October 2005, the losses work out to about Rs 2.72 crore daily. As fuel prices and congestion levels have increased in the last three years, the losses would have only gone up," said Purnima Parida, scientist at CRRI's traffic and transportation division.

To estimate the fuel loss caused by idling, the surveyors selected 12 intersections in Delhi - Kasturba Gandhi Marg, Feroze Shah Road, Shakti Nagar, Rao Tula Ram Marg-Outer Ring Road crossing, Dabri Mor, Ashram, Moolchand, Panchsheel, Paschim Vihar, Azadpur, Khanpur, Shyam Lal College and Ghazipur. Of these, eight crossings see heavy traffic volumes, two witness medium volume and three low volume.

Source TOI: Cars idling at crossings burn Rs 1,000cr a year in Delhi-Pollution-Earth-The Times of India


This is only bout Delhi...Wat if we accumulate this figure for India...We puys have a strength of 200K... So if each one of us try n switch off his/her vehicle even that can make a big change...

[Federer]

Tata Nano loses nano price tag

It seems the Tata Nano may have to say goodbye to its nano price tag. Indian company Tata Motors announced the 2008 arrival of the world's smallest car last year. It said the car would sell for 100,000 rupee ($2300). But now, news reports suggest Tata has been hit by the rising price of raw materials.

According to The Times, this means raw materials now make up 23% of the cost of producing the car, instead of the 13% share when manufacturing beg in 2003.

The rising price of raw materials affects the Nano disproportionately compared to other cars whose manufacturers have to spend more on the "frills" which Tata has dispensed with in the Nano. According to some, Tata has also suffered from the devaluation of the rupee: raw materials are priced in dollars.

I would expect the price of raw materials to hit others in the same way. Tata is not the only company seeking to bring cars to the growing middle class of emerging economies. In China, for instance, the Chery QQ is an equally cute, and nearly as cheap "light" car.

The question is: will the growing middle-class income in these countries overcome rising prices? If all goes according to plan, they will.

That's the point of development after all: more wealth, spread out over a larger portion of the population. According to Boston Consulting Group, 100 million households in countries such as India and China will be able to afford cars priced under $6,000 within eight years. So the Nano could more than double in price before it became unafordable to its target buyers.

[Federer]

GLOBAL WARMING Newspaper ARCHIVE - Click to visit

Newspaper articles about global warming tell the story of the Earth's climate and the diverse opinions and scientific discoveries surrounding the theory of global warming. From the Industrial Revolution to the Kyoto treaty and the advent of hybrid technology, the topic of global climate change has enthralled readers and sparked debate for centuries. Though many people argue over the theory's validity, global warming is a subject that affects us all and newspapers chronicle its discovery and the debate surrounding the issue.

Since ancient times, people have believed that human activity could affect the environment. The discovery of past ice ages shows that Earth's climate is in constant flux and that throughout history, scientists have searched for the cause of these changes. Though scientists discovered the greenhouse effect in the late 19th century, the theory of global warming wasn't accepted as a scientifically proven fact until 1992 when the United Nations held a Conference on Environment and Development. Today, global warming is a widely accepted reality and speculation about its effects range from the hysteria to the acceptance. Newspapers chronicle the slowly changing climate and the actions that have affected that change. The Global Warming Archive provides access to thousands of articles on the environment and the scientists who documented its change.

From developing nations to industrial countries, global climate affects everyone and newspaper articles tell the story of nature's dramatic impact on history. NewspaperARCHIVE.com, the largest newspaper database available online, has provided a free archive on the history of global warming granting access to thousands of original newspaper articles. The archive includes articles on the early discoveries of scientists, the development of technology, pollution, the greenhouse effect and global summits and treaties dedicated to the topic of global warming.

[Federer]

Is Beijing's air safe to breathe?

Members of the US Olympic team came under fire earlier this week for embarrassing their Chinese hosts... by parading through Beijing airport with anti-smog masks covering their faces from ear to ear.

But with the Games' Opening Ceremonies less than a day away, the question remains whether such precautions are a good idea, or worthy of the apology the team members later made to Chinese officials.

One thing that is clear, however, is that the emergency anti-pollution measures enacted on 20 July - pulling half the cars off Beijing's streets, halting construction, shutting down factories - are having little to no effect on the city's pollution levels.

A frequently-updated chart of the city's Air Pollution Index (API), compiled by researchers at Tsinghua University in Beijing and the University of Rhode Island in the US, has found no correlation between the emergency measures and the air quality. In fact, pollution levels nearly doubled in the first week following the 20th, before subsiding.

The reason, says Kenneth Rahn of the University of Rhode Island, has everything to do with wind, and little to do with local pollution prevention measures.

So long as the winds continue to blow out of the south - where the forest of coal-fired plants that powers Beijing is located - air quality in Beijing will continue to worsen, until northern winds out of Mongolia clear the skies. It's a pattern that repeats itself about every two weeks during the summer, and as the Games are about to begin, Beijing is one week into foul air buildup.

But just how bad are pollution levels in the city right now? It depends on who you ask. Most days the API has remained below 100, the magic safe number, as determined by China's Ministry of Environmental Protection.

Yet each country's measurement of API is a little different, making it hard to say just how foul things really are. BeijingAirblog does a good job of converting Beijing's figures to US and Hong Kong API measurements. It finds that the city's current air pollution would register as moderate in the US and, surprisingly, high in Hong Kong.

Walking through central Beijing on Monday afternoon - early in the current week-long pollution buildup - I found pea-soup skies and a sun that disappeared behind a thick haze at 5:30, nearly two hours before actual sunset.

If I were an athlete, I think I'd make whatever apologies were necessary, but give them through the best mask I could find on any days I didn't see blue skies overhead. Still, I wouldn't be pointing any fingers; I doubt the API of Los Angeles in 1984 was much better than today's Beijing.

Phil McKenna, Beijing
NewScientist.com

[the_egonomist]

Originally Posted by coolbryan_love

This is only bout Delhi...Wat if we accumulate this figure for India...We puys have a strength of 200K... So if each one of us try n switch off his/her vehicle even that can make a big change...

Hey,

Interesting numbers. But there is a catch to this at well. There is such a thing as people taking this to an extreme.

If you do switch of your engines whenever the signal is 14 seconds or more, you might end up losing more fuel in starting the engine again. Its a none fact that vehicles end up using quite a lot of fuel to start. In idling they might not use as much.

My take is switch off engines when there is a minute on the signal.

Cheers.

P.S: I argued this long and hard with an automobile engineer

[coolbryan_love]

Originally Posted by the_egonomist

Hey,

Interesting numbers. But there is a catch to this at well. There is such a thing as people taking this to an extreme.

If you do switch of your engines whenever the signal is 14 seconds or more, you might end up losing more fuel in starting the engine again. Its a none fact that vehicles end up using quite a lot of fuel to start. In idling they might not use as much.

My take is switch off engines when there is a minute on the signal.

Cheers.

P.S: I argued this long and heard with an automobile engineer

Hmmm...Even i heard that in most of the green sessions...But i still switch off engine on my bike for any stoppage of more than 25 secs..n for car i too wait for a min...The prob here is most of the signals dun have time display...So at times the engine keeps runnin for couple of minutes...

[Federer]

Would like to join the discussion

The Damage to Cars plus No saving of Fuel :

This would not help to save fuel at all. Every time you start your car the fuel pump, pumps an excess amount of fuel into your motor to give it kinda of a jump start.
If you have a gas motor then you are actually doing damage to it. Over time restarting your car could actually wear your rings and bearings down. When a engine is not running it is not pumping oil thus you are not getting lubrication in your motor. So when you start your motor at the red light you are actually doing whats called a dry start. This is not good at all to do.
Once your motor starts to wear down you will actually get worse gas mileage and it will start to pollute the air around us. Not to mention it will not pass your state's emissions test.

While idling the engine for a long period of time can lead to overheating, it is actually better to leave your car running (while occupied, of course) when you have to stop for just a few minutes. It maintains the operating temperature of your vehicle, causing it to run more efficiently. Frequent starting and turning off of your vehicle does cause more wear, uses actually more fuel, and can be a safety hazard at red lights. Having your engine running and your car ready to move improves traffic flow, and enables you to move rapidly in an emergency. One example would be if someone was sliding to a stop behind you and you can see you will be hit, you can dodge to the side.


DISCLAIMER :None of the views are mine , tried to search and came up with these comments by those who obviously know smthng abt Cars.........

[Federer]

China's Bird Nest is really the Futuristic Stadium but is IT A gREEN bUILDING too??? ....

Nest of Steel

"It's an iconic structure, but a green building it ain't," Robert Watson, CEO of green building consultancy EcoTech International, said of the Bird's Nest.

The stadium features non-flush toilets equipped with sewage treatment systems, a rooftop photovoltaic system with a capacity to generate 130 kilowatts of power, and facilities to collect 58,000 cubic metres of rainwater annually.

But to Watson the structure itself, which used some 42,000 tonnes of steel, is the problem. "The fact that it uses 10 times the materials of a normal stadium, any green virtue is inundated by that," he said.

"Ninety percent of the structure does nothing but hold itself up," said Watson, who founded the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system for green buildings. Experts say the Water Cube fared better.

The $143 million venue's playful facade, which evokes giant soap bubbles, is made of ETFE, a durable plastic that allows natural light into the building and is a better insulator than glass.

"It's super lightweight, so it allows us to cut a lot of the structural load out of the building as a result," said Haico Schepers, leader of the sustainable buildings group at Arup, the engineering firm that was a partner in the Cube's design.

The daylight that the material conducts into the building is also harnessed to heat the swimming pool, reducing the pool enclosure's energy consumption by 30 percent.

Part of the building's success, said Schepers, was that its green aspects were not afterthoughts, but integrated into the design. "What we tend to find with sustainability is if you make it an add-on item, there's a large risk it gets costed out through the process," he said.

No Ostentation

Premier Wen Jiabao himself has urged energy efficiency in the Olympics venues as environmental sustainability becomes a theme of China's leadership, keen to ward off civil discontent sparked by widespread degradation.

"There will be no talk of extravagance or ostentation in organising the Olypmic Games. We should save every drop of water and every unit of electricity in the construction of the Olympic venues," local media quoted Wen as saying last year.

For its part, Beijing's organising committee has stressed the environmental aspects of the Olympic village, which include solar heating to supply hot water to its more than 16,000 residents, a rainwater collection system and a heating and cooling system that will cut electricity by 40 percent by using recycled water.

But experts say there have also been near-misses and lost opportunities. One of the buildings where Chinese athletes are training was built with timber from an uncertified source -- meaning it could have come from protected forests -- because Beijing's organising committee had little control over the contractor, Oben said.

The design for the basketball venue initially included giant LED screens on each side, a plan Watson said would have used as much energy in one project as several thousand Chinese families.

Still, despite some missed opportunities, environmentalists hope where things went well they will provide a template for what rapidly growing China could do in future.

"I think the ability to point at some of the innovations in these facilities, or the mistakes, will have some impact down the road," said Watson. "Certainly the best buildings in China are equivalent to the best buildings anywhere."

China, the Olympics, and the Environment

[Federer]

Go Green say the new Samsung W510 and F268 Phones

“Go Green” is the message by Samsung as it introduces two new eco-friendly phones. The new Samsung W510 and F268 are made of renewable materials.
Giving conservation of energy and resources prime importance, this thoughtful deed of Samsung will be truly appreciated. The new phones are made up of renewable and eco-friendly materials.
“Samsung is striving to continue to be a strong corporate citizen that contributes to environmental sustainability,” said Geesung Choi, President of Samsung’s Telecommunication Business. “Now we are trying not only to launch more environmentally-conscious products with more renewable material and less energy consuming, but also to expand proactively set up a phone recycling system”.

The Samsung W510 phone does not use heavy metals like Cadmium, Lead or Mercury. Furthermore, it has used a water soluble coating too. Extraordinary! Though F268 comes with all the accessories like charger and headset it does not contain Brominated Flame Retardant or PVC. Wow!
Apart from this, the Samsung F268 comes with an alarm that indicates when the battery is fully charged. The Samsung W510 and F268 are to be launched for the Korean and Chinese markets respectively in June.