Documents link wind farm foes to energy firm

By Stephanie Ebbert Globe Staff / May 15, 2008

A new lobbying firm for the group opposing a wind farm off Cape Cod filed a federal document last month reporting that its work for the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound is partially funded and shaped by an international energy conglomerate.

The disclosure represents the first documented financial connection between the group opposing the wind farm and Oxbow Corp., which mines and markets energy and commodities, including coal, natural gas, and petroleum.

The Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound immediately decried the filing as a mistake, and the lobbying firm later amended it in the US Senate Office of Public Records to eliminate the reference to Oxbow.

read more at Boston Globe

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Nature: Human-caused warming

from Climate Progress by Joe

Nature has published the first article to “formally link observed global changes in physical and biological systems to human-induced climate change, predominantly from increasing greenhouse gases.” See news story here and the article, “Attributing physical and biological impacts to anthropogenic climate change” (subs. req’d, abstract below).

NASA’s discussion of the piece here explains, “human-caused climate change has made an impact on a wide range of Earth’s natural systems, including permafrost thawing, plants blooming earlier across Europe, and lakes declining in productivity in Africa.” The image at right: “Impacts from warming are evident in satellite images showing that lakes in Siberia disappearing as the permafrost thaws and lake water drains deeper into the ground.” The lead author explained:

“This is the first study to link global temperature data sets, climate model results, and observed changes in a broad range of physical and biological systems to show the link between humans, climate, and impacts.” …

"Observed impacts included changes to physical systems, such as glaciers shrinking, permafrost melting, and lakes and rivers warming. Biological systems also were impacted in a variety of ways, such as leaves unfolding and flowers blooming earlier in the spring, birds arriving earlier during migration periods, and plant and animal species moving toward Earth’s poles and higher in elevation. In aquatic environments such as oceans, lakes, and rivers, plankton and fish are shifting from cold-adapted to warm-adapted communities.

More at Climate Progress

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Seed giants see gold in climate change

By Hope Shand

After failing to convince an unwilling public to accept genetically engineered foods, biotech companies see a silver lining in climate change. They are now asserting that farmers cannot win the war against climate change without genetic engineering.

According to a new report from ETC Group, the world's largest seed and agrochemical corporations such as Monsanto, BASF, DuPont, Syngenta, Bayer and Dow, along with biotech partners such as Mendel, Ceres and Evogene, are stockpiling hundreds of patents and patent applications on crop genes related to environmental stress tolerance at patent offices around the world. They have acquired a total of 55 patent families corresponding to 532 patents and patent applications.

In the face of climate chaos and a deepening world food crisis, the gene giants are gearing up for a public relations offensive to rebrand themselves as climate saviors. The companies hope to convince governments and reluctant consumers that genetic engineering is the essential adaptation strategy to insure agricultural productivity.

read more at Asia Times

Hope Shand is the research director of the ETC Group (www.etcgroup.org) and a contributor to Foreign Policy In Focus.

(Posted @ AT with permission from Foreign Policy in Focus)

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Freetricity’s Inexpensive residential wind turbine

Freetricity’s E2D Windmaster is a roof-mounted small residential wind turbine that comes with an affordable price tag. Though it sports a small propeller that could prove hazardous to hummingbirds and the like (though its size and roof mounting will reduce bird and animal interactions) and doesn’t look like it could withstand hurricane-force winds, the price and benefits may make it worth exploring....

The larger 48volt model produces 300 to 400 kwh per month with 6 hours of 12mph wind a day. Models range in price from $1,399 (12v) to $2,299 (48V)...

more at ENN

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Solar Rights?

from After Gutenberg by jcwinnie

“Even Al Gore had to fight to put solar panels on the roof of his house,” and Toronto Treehugger Lloyd Alter is of the opinion that we should remove stupid “restrictions and covenants limiting the installation of solar hot water and photovoltaic systems from housing.” 8 states now have “solar rights” laws that prevent restrictions by lower levels of government on solar power installations.

Installing new solar roofing modules made by Sharp, like the PowerGuard rooftop system from PowerLight, the photo voltaic panels are integrated into the roof tiles, which then can be snapped onto an existing roof without puncturing its surface.

More at After Gutenberg

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Greentech To The Rescue

from Peak Energy by Big Gav

Wired has a report on yet another person who gets it - Only Greentech Can Save U.S. Economy, Says Über-Investor

"The U.S. financial system is in a mess. The global marketplace is in the same disarray ... What the hell is going on? Can we get out of this mess, and how? And will our children be living in caves?"

New Yorker staff writer Nick Paumgarten posed those distressingly pertinent questions to Michael Novogratz, president of the Fortress Investment Group and the 317th-richest person in America, yesterday at the New Yorker Stories From the Near Future conference....

There's only one catch: We need another wealth-generating economic bubble. And that, said Novogratz, must come -- can only come -- from new energy sources and green technology.

"As the price of oil goes up, there's got to be a green revolution. I think of what will be the next driver of the American economy, and it's green energy. That's a huge growth opportunity. It's not about the pollution. It's about the energy. Gas will go to $10 a gallon," he said.

read more at Peak Energy

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Food is a Feminist Issue

Food is a Feminist Issue by Thomas at Feministe

This is a global distributional issue. This is about getting enough to eat. (I make no claim to originality here: several women are writing on this issue right now.)

Women are roughly 50% of the world’s population, do two thirds of the work, but earn 10% of the income and control just 1% of the world’s wealth... There’s enough food [so far], but some people due to poverty or other barriers cannot get it. That’s the conclusion of Bengali genius and Nobel Prize winning economist Amartya Sen, and the subject of his 1981 book Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation — but the conclusion will not be surprising to anyone who knows the history of the Irish potato famine, when due to English policies, Ireland was a net exporter of food, keeping food prices high, while its poor starved to death because their own potato crops failed and they could not afford to buy food....

more at at Feministe

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Corny weather

Food shortages -- not just food speculation -- set to worsen

from Gristmill by Tom Philpott

Remember in February, when a fertilizer magnate raised the specter of widespread famine if any of the globe's big farming regions hit a rough patch this year?

Here's what he said:

If you had any major upset where you didn't have a crop in a major growing agricultural region this year, I believe you'd see famine. ... We keep going to the cupboard without replacing and so there is enormous pressure on agriculture to have a record crop every year. We need to have a record crop in 2008 just to stay even with this very low-inventory situation.

Essentially, he's saying that the global food system now hangs on good weather. Uh oh....

read more at Gristmill | digg story

Women face tougher impact from climate change

By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters)

"Many destructive activities against the environment disproportionately affect women, because most women in the world, and especially in the developing world, are very dependent on primary natural resources: land, forests, waters," said Wangari Maathai of Kenya.

"Women are very immediately affected, and usually women and children can't run away," said Maathai, who won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize for her work on sustainable development.

"Men can trek and go looking for greener pastures in other areas in other countries ... but for women, they're usually left on site to face the consequences," she said. "So when there is deforestation, when there is drought, when there is crop failure, it is the women and children who are the most adversely affected...."

read more at Environmental News Network

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The U. S. Electric Grid: Ancient of Days

By Gail the Actuary at The Oil Drum

The primary reason for the likely problems is the fact that in the last few decades, the electric power industry has moved from being a regulated monopoly to an industry following more of a free market, competitive model. With this financing model, electricity is transported over long distances, as electricity is bought and sold by different providers. Furthermore, some of the electricity that is bought and sold is variable in supply, like wind and solar voltaic. A substantial upgrade to the electrical grid is needed to support all of these activities, but our existing financing models make it very difficult to fund such an upgrade.

If frequent electrical outages become common, these problems are likely to spill over into the oil and natural gas sectors. One reason this may happen is because electricity is used to move oil and natural gas through the pipelines. In addition, gas stations use electricity when pumping gasoline, and homeowners often have natural gas water heaters and furnaces with electric ignition. These too are likely to be disrupted by electrical power outages....

read more at The Oil Drum

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