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Tag: development

‘You’d have to use reusable tote bag at least 327 times for it to be more carbon-friendly than plastic’

Choosing plastic might sound counterintuitive, but as The Atlantic pointed out, canvas bags are actually much worse for the environment compared to their flimsy, single-use counterparts.

In a U.K. Environment Agency study, researchers crunched the environmental tally of various carrier bags such as the standard high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plastic bag you’d get from the supermarket, as well as paper, cotton and recycled-polypropylene bags.

They found that reusing a HDPE bag once (as a waste bin liner for instance) has the same environmental impact as reusing a cotton tote bags 327 times, a recycled polypropylene plastic 26 times and a paper bag seven times.

All told, as Business Insider noted from the UKEA study, a conventional plastic bag has a total carbon footprint of only 3.48 lbs.—compared to the whopping 598.6 lbs. emitted by a cotton bag.

Here’s the takeaway. Bags that are designed to last longer require more resources—growing, harvesting, manufacturing, transportation—which means they have a greater environmental impact across their entire lifecycle.

Look, we all know that plastic bags are an eco-nightmare that harms the environment and kills wildlife. That’s why many cities and even entire states have initiated bans or imposed fees on these non-biodegradable, petroleum-based menaces. If they haven’t crammed up the space under your kitchen sink, they’re getting stuck in storm drains or in the stomachs of any number of marine animals, from fish, dolphins and whales to sea turtles and birds.

But cotton is quite possibly a bigger planetary scourge. According to the World Wildlife Fund, cotton crops account for 24 percent of the global market for insecticides and 11 percent for pesticides. In 1995, contaminated run-off from cotton fields killed more than 240,000 fish in Alabama alone.

Cotton is also incredibly thirsty. “It can take more than 20,000 litres of water to produce 1kg of cotton; equivalent to a single T-shirt and pair of jeans,” the WWF says. Cotton isn’t even regularly recycled—at least many grocery stores have plastic bag recycling bins.…

UN issues ‘new urban agenda’: You will be forced into ‘compact cities’ in order to ‘foster green economic growth’

October 26, 2016 by ,

With an enthusiastic call for “sustainable urban development,” the United Nations has adopted a far-reaching document intended as a blueprint for the future of cities around the world. Described by the UN as an “inclusive, action-oriented, and concise document,” the “New Urban Agenda” (NUA) was approved on Oct. 21, the final day of the UN’s Habitat III conference in Quito, Ecuador.

The NUA, the UN proclaims, “will guide the next twenty years of sustainable and transformative urban development worldwide.” “It is a vision,” the UN explains, “of pluralistic, sustainable, disaster-resilient societies that foster green economic growth.” The centerpiece of the NUA is the promotion of “compact cities,” in which people will have little choice but to live in densely populated, high-rise buildings in order to lower their impact on the environment.

According to UN figures, some 30,000 people attended Habitat III, 10,000 of whom were international visitors, representing 167 countries.

New Urban Agenda

In keeping with long-standing UN tradition, the Habitat III conference was convened to address a “crisis.” This one involves the problems facing cities. They are said to require “urgent action.” And who better than the United Nations, aided by a coterie of self-described “urban exports” and “stakeholders” could provide the top-down solutions that will make the world’s cities a better place to live in the decades to come? Among the commitments contained in the New Urban Agenda are:

Ensure environmental sustainability, by promoting clean energy and sustainable use of land and resources in urban development; by protecting ecosystems and biodiversity, including adopting healthy lifestyles in harmony with nature; by promoting sustainable consumption and production patterns; by building urban resilience, by reducing disaster risks; and by mitigating and adapting to climate change.

And:

Readdress the way we plan, finance, develop, govern, and manage cities and human settlements, recognizing sustainable urban and territorial development as essential to the achievement of sustainable development and prosperity for all.

…

Washington’s War Against Your Air Conditioner

By TERENCE JEFFREY

Between now and when they face their final judgment, Barack Obama and John Kerry will never be forced to endure extreme heat — because they will always be able to afford air conditioning.

If they follow the standard pattern, they are sure to get richer when they leave public office because they served in public office.

In a corollary pattern, people grow wealthy in and around Washington, D.C., by taking — directly or indirectly — the tax money other Americans must send to Washington, D.C.

That is why the latest Census Bureau data for median household incomes by county shows that five of the nation’s eight richest counties are suburbs of Washington.

It gets hot in those suburbs in summer time, but the bureaucrats and politicians and contractors who live there have air conditioning in their homes — even if they work for the Environmental Protection Agency.

But if Obama and Kerry have their way, you may not have it in yours someday.

Twenty-eight years ago, the Senate ratified and President Reagan signed a treaty called the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. This treaty was designed to stop the use of chlorofluorocarbons, a coolant used in air conditioners and refrigerators that depleted the ozone layer.

The treaty worked. CFCs were replaced with hydrofluorocarbons, which do not deplete the ozone layer.

But then, as John Kerry explained in a speech in New York last month, the Obama administration targeted HFCs.

Kerry conceded that since ratification of the Montreal Protocol “nearly 100 of the most ozone-depleting substances have been completely phased out. As a result, the hole in the ozone layer is shrinking and on its way to full repair.”

“The bad news is that the substances banned by the Montreal Protocol have been replaced by substances that cause a different kind of danger,” Kerry said. “HFCs may be safer for the ozone, but they are exceptionally potent drivers of climate change itself, often thousands of times more potent than, for example, carbon dioxide.”

On Saturday, in Rwanda, the Obama administration and the other governments that are party to the Montreal Protocol agreed to an “amendment” to the protocol that, as a White House “fact sheet” puts it, is designed “to cut the production and consumption of HFCs by more than 80 percent over the next 30 years.”

So, the Obama administration and its global …

EPA Chief: ‘People Have to Start Living a Life That’s Commensurate with Reductions in Greenhouse Gases’

(CNSNews.com) -“People have to start living a life that’s commensurate with reductions in greenhouse gases,” EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said while discussing the recent global deal to limit the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) used in air-conditioning and refrigeration.

During a social media discussion with Mashable last week, McCarthy said that fighting climate change will “not have to be just what government does, but it has to be what people do.”

“People have to start living a life that’s commensurate with reductions in greenhouse gases to the extent they can,” McCarthy said. “But also, as you said- demand government to be responsive to this.”

“But I would waste no time with climate deniers, if they haven’t figured it out by now, what in God’s name can anyone say to them to make them figure it out,” McCarthy continued. “The science is overwhelming. I don’t check out Flat Earth Society, and I’m not talking to climate deniers – that’s it.”

In the past, the president of the Flat Earth Society has spoken out in support of the theory of climate change.

According to recent survey by the Pew Research Center, nearly three-quarters of Americans don’t trust that there is a large “scientific consensus” amongst climate scientists on human behavior being the cause of climate change.

Earlier this month the US signed on to a global deal that caps and reduces the use of HFCs.  The White House claims the deal will “could avoid up to 0.5 degrees C of warming by the end of the century” by cutting production and consumption of HFCs “by more than 80 percent over the next 30 years.”

…

UN pushes ‘compact cities’ to fight ‘climate change’ – ‘Densely concentrating people in urban areas’ 

http://www.cfact.org/2016/10/18/un-habitat-iii-pushes-compact-cities/

October 18, 2016 by , 0 Comments

In a world repeatedly described as under threat from innumerable challenges, including income inequality, inadequate urban infrastructure, discrimination against minorities of every stripe, and climate change, participants at the UN’s Habitat III conference in Quito, Ecuador were told that comprehensive planning aimed at densely concentrating people in urban areas offered the best way  forward to a “sustainable” future.

Addressing Habitat III on the conference’s first day, Serge Salat, director of the Urban Morphology Lab in France, said compact cities with residents living as close as possible to public transportation should be the goal of urban planners. He noted that ready access to public transportation would mean residents would no longer need cars to take them to work and recreation. This, he added, would make forward-looking cities leaders in the fight against climate change. Salat’s panel at Habitat III discussed green solutions to climate change and other urban problems. Salat, it should be noted is an adviser to the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (IPCC_.

Creating Open Spaces and Wild Areas

According to Salat, the city all should embrace as a role model is Stockholm, Sweden. Stockholm, he noted, has created open space “buffer zones” – essentially parkland – running all through it. Just beyond the open space are areas set aside for wildlife, what he termed “wilderness corridors.” With few exceptions, the only place where residential and commercial property is available is in Stockholm proper.…

India To Overtake U.S. And China As World’s Biggest Coal Miner

India is set to surpass the U.S. as the world’s biggest coal producer after China by 2020, as state-miner Coal India Ltd. ramps up output to meet demand from domestic power producers, according to BMI Research.

The South Asian nation’s share of world output will increase to 12.7 percent by 2020 from 9.8 percent in 2016, BMI said in a report Thursday. It cautioned that the country will still fall short of the government’s ambitious coal output target and domestic demand will continue to exceed production up to 2020.

India, where coal accounts for 61 percent of electricity generation capacity, is seeking to reduce imports of the fuel by boosting domestic output. India foresees coal as a dominant source of energy at least for a couple of decades, while other countries, including the U.S., are moving faster toward replacing the fuel with cleaner energy sources such as natural gas to meet tougher emissions standards.

India plans to expand coal output to 1.5 billion metric tons by 2020 from an estimated 634 million tons in the year ended March 31. China produced nearly 3.7 billion tons of coal last year, according to the country’s National Bureau of Statistics.…

Global deal reached to limit greenhouse gases from fridges and air conditioners

KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) — Nearly 200 nations have reached a deal, announced Saturday morning after all-night negotiations, to limit the use of greenhouse gases far more powerful than carbon dioxide in a major effort to fight climate change.

The talks on hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, were called the first test of global will since the historic Paris Agreement to cut carbon emissions was reached last year. HFCs are described as the world’s fastest-growing climate pollutant and are used in air conditioners and refrigerators. Experts say cutting them is the fastest way to reduce global warming.

President Barack Obama, in a statement Saturday, called the new deal “an ambitious and far-reaching solution to this looming crisis.” The spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called it “critically important.”

The agreement, unlike the broader Paris one, is legally binding. It caps and reduces the use of HFCs in a gradual process beginning by 2019 with action by developed countries including the United States, the world’s second-worst polluter. More than 100 developing countries, including China, the world’s top carbon emitter, will start taking action by 2024, when HFC consumption levels should peak.

A small group of countries including India, Pakistan and some Gulf states pushed for and secured a later start in 2028, saying their economies need more time to grow. That’s three years earlier than India, the world’s third-worst polluter, had first proposed.

“It’s a very historic moment, and we are all very delighted that we have come to this point where we can reach a consensus and agree to most of the issues that were on the table,” said India’s chief delegate, Ajay Narayan Jha.

Environmental groups had hoped that the deal could reduce global warming by a half-degree Celsius by the end of this century. This agreement gets about 90 percent of the way there, said Durwood Zaelke, president of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development.…

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