November 3rd, 2009

Canadian organization enables peer-to-peer carbon comparisons

Posted by Heather Clancy @ 4:45 pm

Categories: Canada, air pollution, climate change, environmental health, global warming, green tech

Tags: P2P, Carbon, National Quality Institute /Zerofootprint Carbon Index, Peer To Peer (P2P), Internet, Heather Clancy

OK, probably not peer-to-peer in the sense that many techies have come to understand the term. But peer-to-peer in the sense that you can compare your results against businesses or organizations that are like yours. But only if you’re a Canadian company, I’m afraid.

The new National Quality Institute (NQI)/Zerofootprint Carbon Index is meant for use by members of the non-profit Canadian industry group NQI. It captures data related to common business activities and then converts it into total carbon output, carbon per square foot and carbon per employee. Members can view certain analysis anonymously to see where their results stand among similar companies. You can find out more about the tool at the main NQI Web site.

November 1st, 2009

Making money off global warming

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 11:16 am

Categories: Arctic, Blogroll, Canada, Europe, Russia, climate change, global warming, law & politics, ocean

Tags: Ice, Global Warming, Harry Fuller, Northwest Passage, Arctic, Canada, Arctic ocean, ice sheets, ice melt

Shipping companies are about to enjoy a centuries-old dream: the Northwest Passage will soon exist every summer across the Arctic. More profits moving stuff between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans via this new short-cut.

The older, impenetrable multiyears old ice is going away in the Arctic. The last three summers have been the three most ice-free summers on record for the Arctic. Current research shows no sheets of multi-year ice left in the open Arctic Ocean. What remains hugs the northern Canadian shoreline, far from shipping lanes. The new ice is often 20 inches or less in thickness, no problem for modern ships.

The melting ice has a feedback loop: darker ocean waters are exposed and they absorb more sunlight and the resulting warmth melts the remaining ice even faster. This effect of global warming is also causing northward migration of some pelagic animals as well as much jockeying for position to start drilling for oil and mining minerals in areas once blocked by the thicker ice. There are political shenanigans already about who controls what in the once frozen north. Canada wants to change the name of the Northwest Passage. Here’s a summary of where the international claims now stand. As oil and other sources of wealth are found, you can be assured exploitation will follow.

What 19th Century explorers died trying to do, a modern sailing ship has done. From Victoria to Halifax by sea, over the North Pole.

October 4th, 2009

Cellulosic ethanol, corn, etc.

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 12:35 pm

Categories: Blogroll, Canada, biofuel, cars & traffic, energy, federal government, fossil fuel, green tech, law & politics, petroleum, renewable energy

Tags: Corn, Blogging, Internet, Harry Fuller

The good, the bad, and the unreal. Read all about it on this blog.
Meanwhile Murphy Oil spends over $90-million for a corn ethanol plant in North Dakota. Canada’s largest oil company, Suncor, will resume expansion of its ethanol plant in Ontario. It had been postponed during the low point of the current recession. All this expansion’s in concert with rising federal mandates for more ethanol in American vehicle fuel.

September 22nd, 2009

Hot air balloons rise from United Nations

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 4:26 pm

Categories: Africa, Blogroll, Canada, China, Europe, European Union, Latin America, air pollution, cars & traffic, climate change, environmental health, federal government, global warming, green tech, law & politics

Tags: U.S., China, Global Warming, U.N., Harry Fuller

Hot air balloons of the “trial balloon” type in the verrrry political world of climate change diplomacy.
The heads of state from the world’s two biggest air polluters–China and U.S.–made strong statements about global warming. They are clearly not in favor of it. Meanwhile, the head of the U.N. said climate negotiations is moving at glacial speed. A nice pun, huh? Now that glaciers are moving at the speed of running water.
China, a dictatorship let’s remember, says it will plant over 100,00 acres of trees and push for more renewable energy generation there. In the U.S. there may be some push to try to get a bill of some kind at some time through the U.S. Senate. Probably not before U.S. attends the Copenhagen Conference.The Canadian chief climate negotiator says he thinks there will be a climate agreement to present to the Copenhagen’s global warming summit in December. One observers says there are a few key players in global warming: China, Brazil and South Africa, U.S., Japan and the European Union. Can those nations be brought together? So far, not happening. Nothing unified out of today’s flash conference at the U.N. in New York City.
Japan’s new leader did get some kudos for moving his nation into the active category on global warming. He’s pushing for set emissions limits in Japan, a change in policy there.

September 18th, 2009

VCs find living dinosaurs...in Detroit

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 3:28 pm

Categories: Blogroll, Canada, China, Europe, air pollution, cars & traffic, conservation, energy, engineering, environmental health, fossil fuel, green tech, petroleum, renewable energy, venture capital

Tags: Detroit, Strategy, Leadership, It Services, Management, Harry Fuller

Despite the billions in loans and bailouts and the much abllyhooed re-org of Chrysler and GM, some prominent Silicon Valley investment leaders find Detroit’s auto industry hopeless and heedless of the needed innovation. They see a new American auto industry far away in miles and mentality from Detroit once-bug-three.
Look at some of the names of the new generation of vehicle makers and support services:
Tesla–California
Fisker–California
Brammo–Oregon
Better Place–California
Chery–China
Tata–India
BYD–China
Th!nk–Europe
Zenn–Toronto, Canada
If you check this plug-in tracker, you will see that Detroit is not only financially crippled, it is far from leading the world toward electric vehicles. If high fuel prices drive more drivers to plug-in cars, it ia NOT going to be any help to Detroit’s automakers.

September 10th, 2009

Global warming, bring it on...

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 9:17 pm

Categories: Arctic, Blogroll, Canada, air pollution, climate change, conservation, environmental health, global warming, law & politics, ocean, research

Tags: Global Warming, Harry Fuller

That’s the attitude our current approach to global warming seems to reflect. We are doing precious little to blunt climate change. A report just published by a group of scientists finds the effects of global warming on other animals is already severe. This report focuses on arctic wildlife.
Polar bears, caribou and ringed seals are three of the arctic species that are being hurt by the warmer winters and summers in the Arctic. More southerly animals are expanding into the Arctic while walrus, narwhal, Ivory Gull and other Arctic species suffer. Many face extinction. The climate is changing too fast for them to adjust.

MY COWARDLY BEHAVIOR
From one reader who really does not like my blogging. He decides I am a coward. Guilty. I am afraid of rising ocean levels and massive extinctions. There are many animals far more interesting and attractive than most of my fellow humans. Then this reader says: “And of course, as usual Fuller doesn’t substantiate this “drive by” statement of his. Anyway. It’s totally ok if things get warmer. Here in Canada 75% of the land mass is practically uninhabitable due to that darn cold weather. So wtf? Why is getting warmer a problem? Bring it on!”
And will Canada agree to take in the ten of millions of flooded out Bengladeshi? Or should those suckers just suck it up and accept the Darwinian conclusion they should die off? The Tongans have an agreement they can move to New Zealand, anybody wanna take in the millions of folks from Houston or Amsterdam or Lagos?
We humans have not done well with war, starvation or hurricanes, how the hell are we gonna do with something as widespread as sea level change?
STANDARD BOILER PLATE
This verbiage will now be attached to any blog I do about global warming. It’s amazing to me that somebody who can apparently read and then post comments still wonders in public why global warming matters on a technology web site. But I am naive, always assuming everybody’s paying attention.
It’s because of money. If global warming has enough acceptance among corporations, the public and even pols, there will be more money spent on green tech, wisely or unwisely. If oil prices stay low and most people don’t care a fig about global warming, green tech will have a difficult time succeeding, regardless of its merits. Not every good idea succeeds. VCs usually invest where they think there’s best chance for a good return. In greentech as in any tech the winners will often be determined by luck, brilliance, timing, happenstance and even marketing. Behind it all will be the money and behind that: whether the evidence for global warming and curtailing pollution drive action or is written off as claptrap.

September 3rd, 2009

Global warming denial alert: human activities cancelling nature's cooling trend

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 6:19 pm

Categories: Arctic, Blogroll, Canada, air pollution, climate change, conservation, environmental health, global warming, research, weather

Tags:

New scientific data shows that not only is the Arctic warming, but human-caused air pollution is cancelling out a natrual trend that would otherwise have the Arctic cooling. The Arctic is the warmest it’s been in 2000 years. That’s despite a natural wobble in the earth’s solar orbit that should be causing the Arctic to grow colder. The earth is now over 600,000 miles further from the Sun than it was 2000 years ago. Nature trumped by human activity.
The research indicates the natural trend of the earth away from the sun was actually causing cooler temps, until recent decades when greenhouse emissions really started to kick in.The researchers estimate the Arctic is now 3 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than it would be without human-induced warming. This helps explain the rapid melting of Arctic ice caps and glaciers referred to by the UN Secretary General early Thursday in a Geneva speech.
Now, we get to await the newest argument from global warming deniers telling us not to panic and to ignore data and scientific theory. It’s alright, Jack, Gaia’s got us covered? Or maybe the ice really isn’t melting and man never landed on the moon?

STANDARD BOILER PLATE
This verbiage will now be attached to any blog I do about global warming. It’s amazing to me that somebody who can apparently read and then post comments still wonders in public why global warming matters on a technology web site. But I am naive, always assuming everybody’s paying attention.
It’s because of money. If global warming has enough acceptance among corporations, the public and even pols, there will be more money spent on green tech, wisely or unwisely. If oil prices stay low and most people don’t care a fig about global warming, green tech will have a difficult time succeeding, regardless of its merits. Not every good idea succeeds. VCs usually invest where they think there’s best chance for a good return. In greentech as in any tech the winners will often be determined by luck, brilliance, timing, happenstance and even marketing. Behind it all will be the money and behind that: whether the evidence for global warming and curtailing pollution drive action or is written off as claptrap.

August 11th, 2009

Arctic summer sea ice

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 4:55 am

Categories: Arctic, Blogroll, Canada, climate change, federal government, global warming, ocean, research, weather

Tags: Advertising & Promotion, Marketing, Harry Fuller

Less and less sea ice during summer in Arctic. Worst years on record are all in this decade according to federal agency. You can see their maps and charts here.
Now what do you suppose is causing this?

July 28th, 2009

The answer my friend, is blowin' in the wind...

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 6:14 pm

Categories: Blogroll, Canada, air pollution, cars & traffic, conservation, energy, engineering, environmental health, global warming, green tech, petroleum, renewable energy, research, wind

Tags: Farmers, Insurance, Blogging, Financial Planning, Business Operations, Corporate Insurance, Internet, Finance, Harry Fuller

Bob Dylan was right, as always. A Canadian study says auto emissions would be cut by 90% if we all drove plug-ins, and then re-charged them when the wind blows. Like, overnight. In places like Calgary where they did the study. Where the wind comes sweepin’ cross the plain. Thanks to R&H for my second lyric of the blog.
I have to chime in with this electric car note: we hybrid drivers are proving to be superior drivers, as expected. That’s the word from Farmers’ Insurance that offers nice hybrid driver discounts. Pays off for Farmers.

July 26th, 2009

Cooking the books on global warming. Withholding evidence.

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 2:01 pm

Categories: Arctic, Blogroll, Canada, Europe, climate change, energy, environmental health, federal government, global warming, law & politics, ocean, water, weather

Tags: Ice, Photograph, Global Warming, Harry Fuller

Photos dating back through the past few years reveal starkly how the ice sheets are melting in the Arctic. Progressively the summer ice cover is retreating in the Arctic, meaning each winter restores less and less ice. These photos were taken by American military spy tech so that was reason enough for the Bush-Cheney Admin to classify them. Never know when the Taliban might contemplate a strike against the surviving polar bears. And we don’t want anybody hyperventilating over this global warming bruhaha. Bad for business.
Now those photos have been released by the current regime. And they show summer open water far greater than would have been seen even ten years ago.
The summer of 2007 showed over a million square kilometers of open Arctic Sea, a record in modern times. I recently was told by a Norwegian authority that their records already show Summer, 2009, could be as iceless as 2007 or even a new record. Here’s one report in Europe indicating 2009 may be the Arctic’s most ice-less summer since we began taking note of nature’s ways.
Over 1,000 of these Arctic images can now be seen online, resolution down to one-meter. The government website is very difficult to navigate, however. This NASA press release does have some easily accessible maps and images of Arctic ice melt.
Of course this means pushing and shoving over money to be made on use of Northwest Passage. Canada could be in a dominant position. Even mini-powers in Europe seem ready to shoulder in: Denmark and Norway, for example. The rich aroma of money to be made stirs patriotic blood it seems.
STANDARD BOILER PLATE
This verbiage will now be attached to any blog I do about global warming. It’s amazing to me that somebody who can apparently read and then post comments still wonders in public why global warming matters on a technology web site. But I am naive, always assuming everybody’s paying attention.
It’s because of money. If global warming has enough acceptance among corporations, the public and even pols, there will be more money spent on green tech, wisely or unwisely. If oil prices stay low and most people don’t care a fig about global warming, green tech will have a difficult time succeeding, regardless of its merits. Not every good idea succeeds. VCs usually invest where they think there’s best chance for a good return. In greentech as in any tech the winners will often be determined by luck, brilliance, timing, happenstance and even marketing. Behind it all will be the money and behind that: whether the evidence for global warming and curtailing pollution drive action or is written off as claptrap.