Corporations Taking the Lead on Climate?

Corporations Taking the Lead on Climate?
In a Washington Post op-ed yesterday titled, "The Planet Can't Wait," columnist David Ignatius noted that business activism may offer the best hope of moving the U.S. government to address climate change.
Corporations are increasingly filling the void left by governments. Worldwatch researcher Erik Assadourian describes several promising initiatives in his article "Next Steps for the Business Community" in the March/April issue of World Watch. Among them is a recent pledge by investment banking firm Goldman Sachs to stem its own release of carbon and to lobby governments around the world to address climate change.
Yet the U.S. business community remains far behind Europe, where in the U.K., "several large companies are pushing the government to increase U.K. efforts to reduce carbon emissions, including creating targets for emissions trading beyond 2012, and eliminating 'the policy inconsistencies and perverse incentives that undermine the effectiveness of climate policy,'" notes Assadourian in his chapter "Transforming Corporations" in State of the World 2006.
While these efforts are encouraging, at least one of the companies involved in the U.K. initiative has been simultaneously resisting effective climate regulation in the U.S. To achieve a future where corporations advocate for strong climate policy, it will be essential to create a fully transparent lobbying system that punishes companies that promote laws solely prioritizing their own bottom lines at the expense of society.
As more companies realize it is ultimately in their best interest to lend their voices and dollars to slow climate change, governments around the globe, including the United States, will be forced to take action.

Much ado about ethanol

Much Ado About Ethanol
Last week, President Bush announced in his State of the Union address that the United States is "addicted to oil." This realization comes not a moment too soon, as a peak in global oil production may be on the horizon, according to experts featured in this month's Peak Oil issue of World Watch magazine.
Luckily, there are alternatives. Biofuels, particularly ethanol, may be part of the answer. By fermenting plant material into ethanol, the U.S. and other oil-guzzling nations could grow a much larger share of their fuel domestically, offering them an opportunity to dramatically reduce reliance on oil imports and mitigate the release of carbon into the atmosphere. (See State of the World 2006, Chapter 4: Cultivating Renewable Alternatives to Oil.) As Worldwatch biofuels project manager Suzanne Hunt notes in a recent Reuters article, the biggest potential for large-scale production lies in cellulosic ethanol technologies—ethanol made from agricultural, forestry, and municipal wastes, not food crops.
This spring, Worldwatch will launch its landmark report, "Biofuels for Transportation: Global Potential and Implications for Sustainable Agriculture and Energy in the 21st Century." The study—developed in cooperation with the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) and the Agency for Renewable Resources (FNR), with funding from the German Ministry for Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture (BMELV)—is being conducted by an international group of experts and explores the potential of biofuels as a major fuel source in the 21st century.

US-India Nuclear Deal

U.S. - India Nuclear Deal: Reckless on Every Score
The security risks inherent in the nuclear cooperation agreement reached yesterday between President Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh far outweigh the energy benefits of the deal, according to researchers at the Worldwatch Institute. Spending the same money on new, clean energy options would provide greater energy security without increasing the risk that terrorists will get their hands on new nuclear arsenals.
The deal, if supported by the U.S. Congress, will undermine international non-proliferation efforts at a critical time. "It's now going to be tough to argue that Iran and North Korea should be denied nuclear technology while India—which has failed to even join the Non-Proliferation Treaty—is given the same technology on a silver platter," said Worldwatch President Christopher Flavin.
Proponents claim that nuclear power will be India's ticket to energy security and prosperity in this energy-starved country of 1.1 billion people. India currently relies on large quantities of dirty, low-grade domestic coal and expensive oil imports to supply its power needs. Blackouts are a chronic problem in many regions and threaten to constrain booming industrial development.
But according to Worldwatch's 2006 State of the World report, nuclear power is not India's best option. Nuclear power provides only 3 percent of the country's electricity today, and even if the 30 new nuclear plants the government hopes to build are actually completed over the next two decades (India has consistently fallen short on its past nuclear ambition) nuclear would still provide only 5 percent of the country's electricity and 2 percent of its total energy.
In Chapter 1: China, India, and the New World Order, Flavin and Worldwatch research director Gary Gardner offer another solution: "Renewable energy resources such as solar, wind, and biomass are far more practical energy options for China and India. Both countries have vast land areas that contain a large dispersed and diverse portfolio of renewable energy sources that are attracting foreign and domestic investment as well as political interest."
Globally, the nuclear construction business has been in decline for more than two decades, and in terms of new plants, it is now a dead industry in most nations, including the United States. Worldwide, nuclear power is growing at less than 1 percent per year. By contrast, renewable energy—wind, solar, and biofuels—is on a growth surge, averaging annual expansion rates of 25-35 percent, as President Bush noted enthusiastically in speeches in Colorado and Michigan last week.
Worldwide nuclear power generation increased by a mere 2 percent in 2004 (see Vital Signs 2005), while renewables surged. Grid-connected solar photovoltaic power grew in existing capacity by 60 percent per year from 2000-2004, and wind power capacity came in second, experiencing a global growth rate of 28 percent per year. Investment in the world's renewable energy sector reached $30 billion in 2004, according to the Renewables 2005: Global Status Report.

Greening the library

Different environmental issues have been the prominent agenda in international policy dialogues in education and in research. The continuous creation of various systems to protect and find meaning in every aspect of the environment proves that environmental degradation is a never-ending issue.

Environmental information covers variety of disciplines and broad in its scope. It can be presented from many points of view and in a different of formats: print or digital.

This blog attempts to give awarenesss to librarians to play a real role in helping stakeholders find quality environmental information and dissemination and practice greening our profession.

We as information professional may utilize our skills in the creation, generation, production of information tools to give an impact to protect our precious environment.