Sustainable development

On the exploitation of oil shale and sands…

You think drilling for Arctic oil would be an ugly mess ? Then have a look at the exploitation of oil shales and tar-sands that is already occurring in Canada and the United States. The WWF released a new report on how recovering these difficultly recoverable oil barrels are literally destroying entire regions with massive …

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Decreasing by 80 % US CO2 emissions by 2050 is possible

You perhaps remember my lengthy article where I stated that cutting by a factor four our carbon dioxide emissions by the middle of this century is feasible. Well, it seems I am not alone thinking this as a team of Minnesota scientists just released a study pointing to the same results : We can do …

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Smart meters lead to smart behaviors

Since the writing of my Master’s Degree thesis I am fully aware of how insulating housing is a vital part of solving both climate change and energy scarcity crises. By reading a New York Times’ article I learned that halving houses’ carbon footprint in only five years is feasible. This is the result of an …

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Can the USA get 100 % of their electricity by clean energies ?

If you don’t read US environmental blogs, you may not know that yesterday Al Gore issued a speech that may become as historical as JFK’s one on sending a man on the Moon. Indeed, the former Vice President proposes to produce a 100 percent of the country’s electricity by low carbon energies within ten years. …

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The French tax system for the promotion of efficient cars

The French Grenelle de l’Environnement may not be as advanced as it should be, but one of its first part is already in place since January 1st. It is a huge success. Since this date, if you buy a car in France you may be the subject of a price reduction or an additional tax …

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A lot of news on wind energy…

Last week, four different informations caught my eyes on wind energy. Firstly, Germany and Italy are planning to build offshore parks. Both projects will inject giga watts to the grids. Other news : after ten years of research, the NASA created a map allowing to know where are located the best places for offshore wind …

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90 percent of Israeli households have solar water heaters

An information that really caught my eyes in my RSS feeds is the fact that 90 percent of Israeli houses have a solar water heater. This is a huge percentage. It can be explained by the interest of the local government for this energy source as early as the 1950s. In 1983, up to 60 …

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50 million more hungry people in 2007

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization – FAO, part of the United Nations – the amount of people undernourished rose by approximately 50 million in 2007. Many factors contributed to such a dramatic increase, like the increasing population and demand, biofuels production (see cartoon on the left) and climate change related phenomena. As world …

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The United Kingdom’s renewable energies plan

After India’s plan on climate change last week, the United Kingdom announced  a plan due expand in an important way the use of renewable energies. Up to 7,000 wind turbines – including 3,000 offshore – will be installed by 2020 in order to multiply by a factor ten the importance of these energies in the …

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