»environment«

Lisa Margonelli reviews in the NY Times (15. June 2008) the book "Bottlemania" by Elizabeth Royte. The message: "So why did Americans spend nearly $11 billion on bottled water in 2006, when we could have guzzled tap water at up to about one ten-thousandth the cost? The facile answer is marketing, marketing and more marketing." We know, tapped water is as good as bottled water, or even better. Royte gives now a broader picture, including political, economic and cultural background. I guess, all speaks for the tap.

Jürg Altwegg reports in FAZ (6.2.2007) about the Swiss adventurer Bertrand Piccard and his new project solar impulse to circumnavigate Earth by a solar powered plane. In 2000 Piccard succeeded to fly round the globe with his Breitling Orbiter 3 "without any fuel consumption and site effects to the environment." Now, he wants to extend the show with a solar powered plane. Once in the air - a prototype is schedule for launch in 2008 - he hopes to give a further example for sustainable travel: People shall consider first the environmental impact of road or air travel and than change to the most environmental friendly option. Altwegg describes the network of collaborators and sponsors to realize the idea and raise the 60 million euros needed.
Their's a promotional animation a the project's website http://www.solarimpulse.com

Gerhard Fitzthum reports at large on the travel pages of FAZ (18.1.2007) about air travel and options to offset for the emissions you cause. He mentions a ranking of agencies that manage offset programmes or schemes by researcher Stefan Gössling of Lund University. Winner is atmosfair from Germany. There's a convenient flight calculator. To offset a trip from Germany to Spain, for instance, will cost you an extra 13 euros.

Monika Kronz reports in Süddeutsche Zeitung (16.1.2007) about the pollution of the oceans. The seas are a huge garbage collectors. Plastics and other stuff threatens marine life and gets into the food change. Scientists have followed that paths of waste material in the oceans. By time plastics are attracted by eddies in the sea and travel thousands of kilometers unless they reach a new beach.

Paul Marks writes in New Scientist (6.1.2007) about a new navigation application for cars to drive the most fuel efficient way - not the fastest or shortest way as the general option for a vehicle's navigation system. The researchers of Lund university in Sweden assigned fuel consumption factors for 22 roads on a digital map. The test yields a 8 percent reduction in fuel consumption. 4 percent would be more realistic in a real day scenario, the researchers comment. Experts in the navigation industry say it might be to expensive to assign each road efficiency factors.

In his article on refurbished computer models Barry Rehfeld writes in the NY Times (31.12.2006) that it's worth a thought for the sake of environment and resources' protection. "The push is coming from new technology and government initiatives. The most important political change came in July, when the European Union issued its Restrictions on Hazardous Substances. The RoHS directive essentially will require all manufacturers and retailers selling their products in the European Union to greatly reduce the presence of six hazards.
There is nothing like those standards in the United States, but the directive is nonetheless having an impact here. Wal-Mart Stores, for example, said last spring that it would sell the first laptop compliant with the European standards in the United States: a $700 Toshiba model. Other computer makers are quickly following suit," writes Rehfeld. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has set up a website for corporate purchasers, but also for private use, to rate electronics equipment http://www.epeat.net/

The story shows quite nicely how European legislation has got an impact on global trade - although IT manufacturers are located in other regions of the world, the U.S. and Asia.

Gerald Traufetter reports in Der Spiegel (20.3.2006) on how Sweden wants to get independent of fossil fuels by the year 2020—as announced by its government. Actually, Sweden is in a good position of doing so because the share of oil in the total power consumption already decreased from 77 percent in 1970 to 34 percent in 2003. Also today, 24 percent of energy is already provided by the renewables. The article is somewhat short in the questionable parts of turning wood, straw, crops, etc. into fuels, plastics, or chemicals. For instance, it's still a scientific argument whether bio-ethanol from crops is economical, environmental friendly and helps reducing global warming.

A new simulation by supercomputers of the Max Planck Institute of meteorology shows the effects of global warming in Germany until the end of this century. On a grid with mesh width' as small as 10km by 10 km the researchers calculated climate change on a not-yet seen regional resolution, reports Gerald Traufetter in Der Spiegel (24.4.2006). The model predicts for some regions a temperature rise of up to 4 or 5 degrees Celsius. Average rain falls are the same, but the winters get more heavy rain, the summers are drier and hotter. For the region around Freiburg in Southwest Germany -- already the warmest place in Germany -- the temperature will rise by 3 degrees. East Germany will see a Mediterranean climate, snowfall in the Alps is declining. Who benefits: Well, the people along the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. The climate prediction model shall give evidence for various groups to react on the occurring climate change.

After years of discussion and argument, the European Union adopted a new chemical legislation, called REACH which stands for Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals. The European Parliament approved it today. "Its effects will not be seen for a while. Companies will only have to register chemicals they make, import or use after the European Chemicals Central Agency starts up in Helsinki, Finland, in 2008. At first they will register only chemicals they make in quantities over 1000 tonnes a year, with quantities over a tonne by 2019," writes New Scientist (13.12.2006). The legislation is - in principle - a paradigm shift: Now companies have to prove that their chemical products are safe. Until now, governmental authorities had to investigate whether chemicals are hazardous.

British climate policy experts discuss a reductions scheme of CO2 that will ultimately lead to a a year-2050-target of 60 percent below 1990 emission levels, writes Michael Hopkin at Nature online (15.11.2006). That's tough, but worthwhile, and as the recent Stern report or Tim Flannery's book "The Weather Makers" indicated there are lots of option at hand to come close to the target.
In addition, the European Community debates the desirable inclusion of the aviation industry into the CO2 trade market.