Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Archives for September 16, 2009

Israel, Denmark and Renault Commit to Electric Cars

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Renault_vers-zero-emission-dispatchCAR manufacturer Renault has announced a commitment to the production of at least 100,000 electric cars by 2016. 

The announcement was made at the Frankfurt Motor Show with the cars to be built for drivers in Israel and Denmark.  

The success of electric vehicles will depend on the development of a network of charging points and swapping stations.  The Danish and Israeli governments have apparently committed to this infrastructure working with electric-vehicle recharging specialists, Better Place.  

Presumably Renault also believes that the price of oil will rise.   [Read more…] about Israel, Denmark and Renault Commit to Electric Cars

US Rejects Kyoto Ahead of Copenhagen

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Europe has clashed with the US Obama administration over climate change in a potentially damaging split that comes ahead of crucial political negotiations on a new global deal to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.    US negotiators have told European counterparts that the Obama administration intends to sweep away almost all of the Kyoto architecture and replace it with a system of its own design.  Read more here (The Guardian) and here (German Press).   via Benny Peiser.

Warming Hawaii (Part 2): A Note from Tim Curtin

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Tim Curtin _temp and co2 chart ver 2 A TECHNICAL paper, Secular temperature changes in Hawai‘i, published just last year in Geophysical Research Letters indicates there has been recent warming on the island of Hawaii and this has been most evident at high elevations. Retired economist, Tim Curtin, has reviewed the paper and comes to a different conclusion.

Mr Curtin has also plotted his own chart, see above,  drawing on the atmospheric CO2 data recorded at the Mauna Loa Slope Observatory since mid-1958 and the temperatures reported at the same location. Interestingly despite the increasing interest in changes in climate, Mr Curtin comments that since 1992 data collection has been erratic at this key site.

Tim Curtin explains his objections and conclusions:  [Read more…] about Warming Hawaii (Part 2): A Note from Tim Curtin

No Place for Morality in School Science

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AGW_World Vision_Youth DecideIN some Australian schools science teachers are being asked to tell about the dangers of global warming and show Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth in order to prepare the students for the big vote at http://youthdecide.com.au/ .

The vote is sponsored by World Vision; Australia’s largest charitable organisation with a history of working with schools. 

When I was about 13, in about 1976, my school promoted World Vision’s 40 Hour Famine to raise money to feed children in poor countries.  I only raised a small amount through the sponsorship program but it made me feel like I had participated in something good – something worthwhile. 

Now World Vision is involved in not only humanitarian work but also the politics of climate change:   ‘Youth Decide ’09’ is a national youth vote on climate change sponsored by World Vision and no doubt results from the poll will be used leading up to the United Nation’s Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen to tell the Rudd Government how Australian Students want cuts in emissions by at least 40 percent by 2020.  [Read more…] about No Place for Morality in School Science