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oliebol   oliebol Norvan Vogt's TIGblog
Norvan Vogt's profile

Carbon Trading Won't work
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Carbon Trading is one of these things that economists love because it looks so clean and simple on the pages of a textbook. But in the real world it's very hard to make it work like it should. If it's not set up right, if it's not policed right, then it can be worse than useless. The big companies get to pollute more AND charge us more, and the pollies get to tell us they're fixing the greenhouse problem.

Voters have got no way of knowing because we have to rely on the government to actually tell us how much CO2 has been reduced. The only "proof" we have that greenhouse emissions have been reduced is that everything gets more expensive! Carbon dioxide has no taste, no smell, you can't see it and it's mostly emitted a long way from where people live.

The problem with carbon trading is that it puts all the power and knowledge about how to reduce emissions into the hands of bureaucrats and big companies. They are asking us to trust them to reduce greenhouse gases, without giving us any proof back that they are actually doing it except increased prices. We know they can increase prices already for no reason, we don't need another demonstration!

A scheme should give everyone direct ownership for reducing their emissions, by making it easy for them to make lifestyle decisions to produce less emissions. We keep getting told that this is a global problem for the whole of humanity, if that's the case we need a scheme where we can all help, and not get screwed by businessmen. Our scheme would actually put responsibility for climate change into everyone's hands, instead of just talking about it. Our scheme is as follows:

1. Start switching all our power generation over to renewable, and develop the technology enough so it can, but the technology to meet base load does already exist, like solar storage, hot rocks, hydro.
2. Switch our interstate freight transport infrastructure over to be based on rail
3. Switch our intracity transport over to electric cars and compressed air cars as well as electric light rail. Electric cars have a short range but can be recharged at home from power generated by renewables.
4. Help people to change habits in home, and use new technologies to reduce emissions in the home.
5. Work with businesses so that the development of ALL new technologies and production methods are considered for their greenhouse impact. This would help to avoid problems like we saw yesterday with this new gas, Nitrogen Triflouride, being used by makers of plasma screens, which is the worst greenhouse gas yet known, with 17 thousand times the global warming effect of carbon dioxide.

July 4, 2008 | 2:29 AM Comments  1 comments

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deepabysss   deepabysss Daniel Tennet's TIGblog
Daniel Tennet's profile

Healthy Recipes
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic


July 3, 2008 | 11:25 PM Comments  0 comments



MiaLillan   MiaLillan MiaLillan's TIGblog
MiaLillan's profile

Cyclone Nargis
Related to country: Myanmar

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone out there knew about a way to get in contact with people in Myanmar after the cyclone? I'm not even sure if communication is up in Myanmar. I am worried about friends and people who are close enough to me to be family in Myanmar's capital Yangon. If there is anyone who knows how to get in contact with people in Myanmar or has any current information about what is happening there it would be great if they could let me know somehow. If you know anything about what happened to the International School of Yangon after the cyclone I would love to hear from you, and if you have any other information (anything at all) I would really like it if you could let me know. I find it very frustrating that there is so little information that the outside world can get from Myanmar. If there is anyone who is in the same situation as I am at the moment maybe we could become friends and help each other through this time because I know how hard it is.

So, if there is anyone who knows anything about the cyclone in Myanmar or is in the same situation I am in it would be nice if you let me know.
Thanks

July 3, 2008 | 12:03 AM Comments  0 comments

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nallan   nallan Nigel Allan's TIGblog
Nigel Allan's profile

Climate Witnesses send a message to G8 leaders
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

We recently worked with Climate Witnesses from the G8 nations to send a letter to each of their respective leaders. The letters highlighted the impact of climate change in their country and also outlined the solutions that the CWs and WWF want to see G8 leaders take leadership on.

Check it out...
www.panda.org/climatewitness/g8

July 2, 2008 | 8:01 PM Comments  0 comments



mydemand   mydemand Tiara's TIGblog
Tiara's profile

SOLS 24/7 - Education & Support for the Marginalized


The SOLS (Science of Life) 24/7 organization, founded by the family of young Malaysian social entrepreneur Raj Ridhvan Singh (recently shortlisted as one of KLue’s Blue Chillies) builds boarding schools across Cambodia, Timor Leste, and Malaysia for marginalized young people. In these schools, students learn 2 years of English, maths, business, leadership, character, and volunteering skills, amongst others. This enables them to reintegrate with the rest of society, obtain jobs, and support themselves.

Malaysiakini also has an interview and video profile with Raj about the SOLS 24/7 school in Malaysia.

I’ve met Raj briefly and heard him speak about his project, and I find him really passionate and sincere towards his cause. I do have some questions about the Science of Life system itself (some of the students talk about it being an actual subject, but there’s no actual information on it specifically) but overall this initiative is doing a lot of good to those that really need the help.

SOLS 24/7 is in great need of funding, support, and volunteers. If you can help, contact Raj at +6012 6398 442 or email him at raj@sols247.org.


July 2, 2008 | 1:07 AM Comments  0 comments



IYPF   IYPF IYPF's TIGblog
IYPF's profile

Indian entrepreneur named 2008 Energy Champion in "Green Oscars"
Related to country: India

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Here's further proof that the simplest tools often make the greenest sense. For making woodstoves that save 43,000 tons of wood each year, the CEO of a green business in India won the top honors at the Ashden Awards held in London recently. Svati Bhogle helms TIDE, which makes efficient woodstoves and kilns especially for small industries, stoves renowned for conserving 30 percent of fuel. TIDE and its 10,000 products are also directly credited for having improved working conditions for 110,000 workers.

The Ashden Awards iis known as the "Green Energy Oscars" and recognizes and rewards local communities for utilizing sustainable energy. For her win, Bhogle received £40,000.

For more details of the story check out:
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/080619/world/britain_india_energy_climate_environment_1