Planet Eco Innovation

Natural resource wealth does not automatically lead to more prosperity for the local populations but often makes matters worse. David Ugolor from Nigeria will share his experiences as a NGO activist fighting for the rights of the local population to a fair share of the oil profits and the protection of the environment. This workshop will focus on natural resources as a factor for international crises and how climate change is likely to affect this field in future. We look forward to a lively debate with your participation around the following questions.-Conférences, débats

Scrapping fossil fuel subsidies could play an important role in cutting greenhouse gases while giving a small but not insignificant boost to the global economy a new report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) says.

• Utility Xcel agrees to disclose its financial risks from climate change.

• Suit against ExxonMobil for violence in Indonesia can proceed, judge says.

• Habitat for endangered elephants and tigers in Sumatra to be expanded.

Sustained high oil prices on into the future could prompt entrepreneurs and scavengers to seek oil and oil derivatives from plastic items long ago thrown away in landfills, according to waste experts. "By 2020 we might have 9 billion people on the planet ... and we could be in a really resource-hungry world with the oil price climbing and a supply situation ... where natural gas is limited," said waste-management guru Peter Jones. "It is those drivers, those conditions, which will encourage the possibility of landfill mining." The potential for useful-materials recovery from landfills is huge, including reuse and recycling of metals as well as a vast wealth of buried plastics.

The Republican platform for 2008, hammered out by the Republican National Committee ahead of the party's convention next week, is mildly greener than in 2004, making it "the greenest platform we've ever had," according to a member of the committee. The draft platform acknowledges humans' role in climate change but still takes digs at the issue and only supports solutions where no one has to alter their lifestyle. "The same human activity that has brought freedom and opportunity to billions has also increased the amount of carbon in the atmosphere," it says.

In his convention speech on Wednesday night, Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden said an Obama administration will make "alternative energy a national priority ... creating 5 million new jobs, and finally breaking us from the grip of foreign oil." Biden accused John McCain of being wrong on everything "from Amtrak to veterans," and said, "John voted again and again against renewable energy -- wind, solar, biofuels. That's not change, that's more of the same." In an earlier speech, Bill Clinton said Obama will find "economically beneficial ways to fight global warming ...

Santa Barbara County supervisors on Tuesday voted 3 to 2 in favor of allowing offshore drilling along their coastline -- a move that has no practical impacts, but is rich with symbolism. The southern California county was hit with a devastating 3-million-gallon crude oil spill from an offshore platform in 1969; it coated beaches, killed wildlife, and helped to kick-start the modern environmental movement. While the vote will do nothing to change congressional and state policy, it shows how attitudes are changing in the face of high gas prices. Fifty-one percent of Californians now say they approve of offshore drilling, up from 41 percent last year, according to polling conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California. Gov.

• Summer Arctic sea-ice drops to second lowest level on record.

• China's carbon emissions from power plants to increase by a third this year, report says.

• Japan publishes "research" on 4,500 whales it's killed.

• German study finds going veg can cut carbon emissions.

High oil prices, increased domestic natural-gas production, and a well-publicized push from a former oil man have all boosted interest in natural-gas vehicles in the United States lately. This spring, the natural-gas equivalent of a gallon of gasoline was selling for about $1.50 less than gasoline on average nationwide. And in some places like Utah, where vertical integration of natural-gas utilities keeps prices unusually low, the difference is even larger. Energy independence enthusiasts in and out of Congress are (naturally) gassed about the possibilities. Right now, the U.S.

Ending fossil-fuel subsidies around the world could slash greenhouse-gas emissions by up to 6 percent and help the economy at the same time, according to a new United Nations report [PDF]. Globally, governments spend some $300 billion on fuel subsidies that encourage consumption, delay transition to cleaner energy sources, and mainly benefit the already-rich even though most of the programs are intended to help the poor with fuel costs. "In the final analysis, many fossil-fuel subsidies are introduced for political reasons but are simply propping up and perpetuating inefficiencies in the global economy," said U.N. Environment Program director Achim Steiner.

In a rousing speech endorsing Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention Tuesday night, Hillary Clinton said her erstwhile rival would "transform our energy agenda by creating millions of green jobs and building a new, clean energy future." Virginia Senate candidate Mark Warner also addressed energy and climate (as he told Grist he would): "If we actually got ourselves off foreign oil, we can make our country safer," he said in his keynote address.

Colleges around the country are ditching cafeteria trays to lower water and energy use and to prevent wasted food. "If a college is looking to go 'green,' they need to start looking in the dining facility," said Sodexo spokeswoman Monica Zimmer; the food-service company expects 230 of the 600 colleges it serves to stop using trays. Skeptics worry about broken dishes, and some students worry about balancing their plates in bustling cafeterias, but it's hard to argue with the savings. The 18,000-student Georgia Tech went trayless in response to last year's drought, saving an estimated 3,000 gallons of water each day.

Setting up a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse-gas emissions would be one of Barack Obama's top economic priorities if he were elected president, right up there with a new health-care system, The Wall Street Journal reports. As part of an effort to cut emissions 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050, Obama would auction off pollution permits, raising more than $100 billion a year that could be spent on clean energy, efficiency, and green-jobs programs, among other things. If Congress didn't want to play along, an Obama administration "wouldn't hesitate to use Clean Air Act authorization to regulate" carbon dioxide emissions under the authority of the U.S. EPA, says Obama energy advisor Elgie Holstein.

Joehn Pallisetr is a UK based teacher who is enthusiastic about e-Portfolios. He blogs now on a group he has set up on Google. If you are interetsted in e-portfolios I recommend that you join.Here is his latest post:“Things still seem to be at the confusion stage it terms of what schools ‘must do’ and [...]

Twelve states, the city of New York, and the District of Columbia are suing the U.S. EPA for not regulating greenhouse-gas emissions from oil refineries. The suit accuses the agency of violating the Clean Air Act by refusing to issue standards for controlling carbon dioxide emissions from new or updated refinery equipment. In essence, the suit is an attempt to force the Bush administration to address climate change. The Supreme Court ruled last year that the EPA has the power to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act, but it has yet to do so. "The EPA's s refusal to control pollution from oil refineries is the latest example of the Bush administration's do-nothing policy on global warming," said New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who's leading the suit.

Ok - all you researchers out there - the summer break is coming to an end and the conference season starts tomorrow. So where can you meet up with us this autumn? This is not a comprehensive list but here is a few events Pontydysgu will be attending.Tomorrow I am speaking about the TTplus project [...]

Training of TrainersView SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: training trainers)As promised more on the Training of Trainers. The presentation is based on research we are undertaling through the TTplus project. The  project aims to support and improve the continuing professional development of trainers and has been examining the context in which training takes [...]

On the same day that President Bush moved toward creation of marine sanctuaries in the Pacific, his administration proposed cutting by 10 nautical miles a speed-limit zone in the Atlantic meant to protect critically endangered right whales. The proposal would cut the area covered by the speed zones to 20 nautical miles offshore from the original 30; ship collisions are the most common cause of death for the 300 or so North Atlantic right whales that comprise the world's entire remaining population. The speed zones would be the first to take effect on behalf of wildlife on the East Coast and would be in force each year during the whale's annual migration, requiring ships to slow to 10 knots.

On Monday, President Bush took the first step toward protecting three unique marine areas in the Pacific Ocean that are under U.S. jurisdiction, including waters around the Mariana Islands, Rose Atoll in American Samoa, and other coral reefs and atolls in the central Pacific. If all of the proposed areas are eventually protected, it would add 891,000 square miles of marine sanctuaries and/or national monuments to U.S. waters. Bush has not yet indicated what type of protection the areas will receive, if any, but he directed his cabinet on Monday to look closely at the three areas and explore the implications of such designations.

Ten polar bears were recently spotted swimming in open water off of the northwest coast of Alaska, federal officials confirmed on Friday. Polar bears were not often spotted in open water until about 2004, said Susanne Miller, who heads up the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's polar bear project. She and other biologists worry that the bears could exhaust themselves with long swims, which take more energy than moving on ice or land. Green groups point to the unusually high number of swimming bears as yet another sign of global warming, with melting ice forcing bears to swim farther than usual to hunt seals or reach stable territory. A higher-than-usual number of polar bears have also been seen on land this summer, perhaps because sea ice is retreating.