Profile: William Kamkwamba

Tilting at windmills? Not this young man. He built wind mills from scratch. He represents Africa’s new “cheetah generation” -  young people, energetic and technology-hungry, who are taking control of their own destiny. His is the kind of tale that resonates with every human being to remind us of our own potential.”

By Jude Sheerin  for BBC News

The extraordinary true story of a Malawian teenager who transformed his village by building electric windmills out of junk is the subject of a new book, “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind”.

Self-taught William Kamkwamba has been feted by climate change campaigners like Al Gore and business leaders the world over.

His against-all-odds achievements are all the more remarkable considering he was forced to quit school aged 14 because his family could no longer afford the $80-a-year (£50) fees.

When he returned to his parents’ small plot of farmland in the central Malawian village of Masitala, his future seemed limited.

But this was not another tale of African potential thwarted by poverty.

Defence against hunger

The teenager had a dream of bringing electricity and running water to his village.

And he was not prepared to wait for politicians or aid groups to do it for him.

The need for action was even greater in 2002 following one of Malawi’s worst droughts, which killed thousands of people and left his family on the brink of starvation.

Unable to attend school, he kept up his education by using a local library.

Fascinated by science, his life changed one day when he picked up a tattered textbook and saw a picture of a windmill.

Mr Kamkwamba told the BBC News website: “I was very interested when I saw the windmill could make electricity and pump water.

“I thought: ‘That could be a defence against hunger. Maybe I should build one for myself’.”

When not helping his family farm maize, he plugged away at his prototype, working by the light of a paraffin lamp in the evenings.

But his ingenious project met blank looks in his community of about 200 people.

“Many, including my mother, thought I was going crazy,” he recalls. “They had never seen a windmill before.”

Neighbours were further perplexed at the youngster spending so much time scouring rubbish tips.

Al Gore noted: “William Kamkwamba’s achievements with wind energy show what one person, with an inspired idea, can do to tackle the crisis we face.” 

 “Many, including my mother, thought I was going crazy.People thought I was smoking marijuana,” he said. “So I told them I was only making something for juju [magic].’ Then they said: ‘Ah, I see.’”

Mr Kamkwamba, who is now 22 years old, knocked together a turbine from spare bicycle parts, a tractor fan blade and an old shock absorber, and fashioned blades from plastic pipes, flattened by being held over a fire.

“I got a few electric shocks climbing that [windmill],” says Mr Kamkwamba, ruefully recalling his months of painstaking work.

The finished product – a 5-m (16-ft) tall blue-gum-tree wood tower, swaying in the breeze over Masitala – seemed little more than a quixotic tinkerer’s folly.

But his neighbours’ mirth turned to amazement when Mr Kamkwamba scrambled up the windmill and hooked a car light bulb to the turbine.

As the blades began to spin in the breeze, the bulb flickered to life and a crowd of astonished onlookers went wild.

Soon the whiz kid’s 12-watt wonder was pumping power into his family’s mud brick compound.

Out went the paraffin lanterns and in came light bulbs and a circuit breaker, made from nails and magnets off an old stereo speaker, and a light switch cobbled together from bicycle spokes and flip-flop rubber.

Before long, locals were queuing up to charge their mobile phones.

WINDS OF CHANGE for William:

2002: Drought strikes; he leaves school; builds 5m windmill

2006: Daily Times writes article on him; he builds a 12m windmill

2007: Brings solar power to his village and installs solar pump

Mid-2008: Builds Green Machine windmill, pumping well water

Sep 2008: Attends inaugural African Leadership Academy class

Mid-2009: Builds replica of original 5m windmill

Mr Kamkwamba’s story was sent hurtling through the blogosphere when a reporter from the Daily Times newspaper in Blantyre wrote an article about him in November 2006.

Meanwhile, he installed a solar-powered mechanical pump, donated by well-wishers, above a borehole, adding water storage tanks and bringing the first potable water source to the entire region around his village.

He upgraded his original windmill to 48-volts and anchored it in concrete after its wooden base was chewed away by termites.

Then he built a new windmill, dubbed the Green Machine, which turned a water pump to irrigate his family’s field.

Before long, visitors were traipsing from miles around to gawp at the boy prodigy’s magetsi a mphepo – “electric wind”.

As the fame of his renewable energy projects grew, he was invited in mid-2007 to the prestigious Technology Entertainment Design conference in Arusha, Tanzania.

Cheetah generation

He recalls his excitement using a computer for the first time at the event.

“I had never seen the internet, it was amazing,” he says. “I Googled about windmills and found so much information.”

Onstage, the native Chichewa speaker recounted his story in halting English, moving hard-bitten venture capitalists and receiving a standing ovation.

He is now on a scholarship at the elite African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Mr Kamkwamba – who has been flown to conferences around the globe to recount his life-story – has the world at his feet, but is determined to return home after his studies.

The home-grown hero aims to finish bringing power, not just to the rest of his village, but to all Malawians, only 2% of whom have electricity.

“I want to help my country and apply the knowledge I’ve learned,” he says. “I feel there’s lots of work to be done.”

Former Associated Press news agency reporter Bryan Mealer had been reporting on conflict across Africa for five years when he heard Mr Kamkwamba’s story.

The incredible tale was the kind of positive story Mealer, from New York, had long hoped to cover.

The author spent a year with Mr Kamkwamba writing The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, which has just been published in the US.

Mealer says Mr Kamkwamba represents Africa’s new “cheetah generation”, young people, energetic and technology-hungry, who are taking control of their own destiny.

“Spending a year with William writing this book reminded me why I fell in love with Africa in the first place,” says Mr Mealer, 34.

“It’s the kind of tale that resonates with every human being and reminds us of our own potential.”

Can it be long before the film rights to the triumph-over-adversity story are snapped up, and William Kamkwamba, the boy who dared to dream, finds himself on the big screen?

Source: www.news.bbc.co.uk

Climate Change Events or Acts of God?

Epic flooding in the Philippines’ capital, Manila, came after a tropical storm and typhoon dumped a month’s worth of rain in just 12 hours, leaving some 500,000 Filipinos homeless and at least 240 people dead. Vietnam was also hit, while Samoa, Tonga and Indonesia suffered badly from the impact of earthquakes and tsunamis.

Associated Press report in Asian Journal (1 October 2009):

As the Philippines appealed to the international community for aid in the wake of floods due to typhoon Ondoy, activists remind global leaders that this calamity is an example of the dangers of climate change.

“The Philippine floods should remind politicians and delegates negotiating the climate treaty that they are not just talking about paragraphs, amendments and dollars,”  Kim Carstensen, leader of the World Wildlife Fund Global Climate Initiative said.

“But (it is) about the lives of millions of people and the future of this planet,” Cartensen added in an Associated Press report.

“This has to be a wake up call for the world as it prepares for the climate change talks later in the year,” World Vision Philippines Emergency Affairs Director Jose Bersales, meanwhile, said in a recent Inquirer report.

World leaders are set to meet in Copenhagen, Denmark in December to try to hammer out a new global treaty to address climate change. Delegations from 192 countries will hold two weeks of talks at the summit, which is the end of an earlier two-year global treaty on climate.

Last Tuesday September 22, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon convened a high-level climate summit to caution world leaders to put aside differences and move quickly in combating global warming.

President Barack Obama, during the summit, said the US is a serious partner in combating global warming, telling peers “We understand the gravity of the climate threat. We are determined to act.”

The US president is under pressure to put political weight behind getting, among others, a serious clean-energy law in the country.

Environmental experts had said that burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas contributes largely to climate change.

This produces carbon dioxide, which in addition to that which is present naturally in our planet’s atmosphere, acts as a kind of blanket, trapping more of the sun’s energy and warming the Earth’s surface

Although the initial impact is a rise in average temperatures around the world this also produces rising sea levels and changes in rainfall patterns.

The epic flooding in the Philippines’ capital, Manila, came after the tropical storm Ondoy (international codename Ketsana) dumped a month’s worth of rain in just 12 hours last Saturday, September 26.

Some 500,000 Filipinos in Metro Manila were displaced due to the floods, at least 240 people died, while 34 are missing. The death toll is expected to increase as rescuers make way into areas previously blocked off by debris. Health officials, meanwhile, have warned of an outbreak of diseases.

Overwhelmed government officials called for international help, saying they might not have enough resources for its rescue operations.

The flood, which is the worst in almost 40 years, is said to be an effect of climate change. Just last year, a US-based Filipino physicist had warned that the Philippines is very vulnerable to climate change.

“The Philippines is not emitting carbon dioxide but it’s going to be the biggest victim of climate change,” Dr. Josefino Comiso told a briefing organized by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) in Manila last year.

Comiso, a senior scientist at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said the country is very vulnerable to a warming climate because it’s home to a high diversity of species.

He also echoed observations by climate experts that the Philippines was vulnerable to a rise in sea level and stronger storms as an offshoot of global warming.

“We’ve been having longer and heavier rainfall in the previous years. That may be associated with global warming,” he said in an interview with the Inquirer. “If you have a warmer ocean, you get more evaporation. You also get stronger typhoons in the process,” he added.

Comiso, who has made several studies on climate change, visited Manila last year to share his knowledge with the academe under the Balik-Scientist Program of the DOST.

Source: www.asianjournal.com

Bigger Emission Cuts & Higher Fossil Fuel Prices

Ordinary citizens from all corners of the world met last weekend to express their views on climate change and how a future climate deal should be shaped. This was the world’s first and biggest global citizen consultation of its kind. They want politicians to act now.

Report from World Wide Views of Global Warming (28 September 2009):

Australian citizens say “act now to limit warming below 2 degrees C” in global talks with 38 countries

World Wide Views on Global Warming is a global citizen consultation initiated by the Danish Board of Technology in consequence of the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen, December 2009. The project was held during 24 hours in 38 countries, where nearly 4,500 citizens worldwide will be participating, including 100 Australian citizens.

Right on the tail of the UN Summit on Climate Change in New York City, last weekend ordinary citizens from all corners of the world met to express their views on climate change and how a future climate deal should be shaped.

This was the world’s first global citizen consultation, by far the biggest event of its kind, being run in Australia by the University of Technology, Sydney.

Australia was the first country to come on-line, because of our time zone. This group of 100 were selected completely at random and brought to Australia from all States and territories – as far afield as Humpty Doo, Broome, Launceston, Cairns and Kapunda.

Of our group 74 % say the price of fossil fuels should be increased to deal with climate change.  They also want a legally binding global agreement.

During the day, over 4,000 citizens in 38 countries around the world deliberated on climate policy under the headline: World Wide Views on Global Warming.

In countries as diverse as Canada, China, Uganda, Indonesia, and Chile, citizens with different backgrounds and in all ages discussed how politicians should handle global warming.  

In the Australian group, an overwhelming majority think that a global climate deal is urgent and should be made at COP15 in December 2009. If it happens, 94% believe Australian politicians should give high priority to joining it. 

A full 99% said there should be reduction targets for Annex 1 countries for the short term and 89% said they should be 25% or higher, significantly more than what many countries have on the table.

Two-thirds believe countries that do not meet their commitments under a new climate deal be subjected to “severe” or “significant” punishment.

Citizens were given the same information material in all 38 countries, which presented them with different dilemmas in the climate debate. Citizens answered the same questions, composed by The Danish Board of Technology, on the basis of this material and their own views and experience. Results from all countries were fed live to the web.

Global citizen consultation

The purpose of World Wide Views is to pass on the opinions of ordinary citizens to political decision-makers.

Results from World Wide Views are being delivered directly to Australian politicians and leaders right around the world, who this December will be making decisions with far-reaching consequences for the future of the planet.

During the 24-hours online event, three international expert panels have been commenting on results as they come in and making live videoconferences.

World Wide Views on Global Warming is a global citizen consultation initiated by the Danish Board of Technology in consequence of the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen, December 2009. The project was held during 24 hours in 38 countries, where nearly 4,500 citizens worldwide will be participating, including 100 Australian citizens.

Participating citizens are randomly selected and have no special qualifications to answer the questions. Citizens are chosen with reference to each national demographic composition regarding age, gender, education, income and ethnicity.

University of Technology Sydney is the WWViews Australian partner for WWViews International and the major sponsor of the Australian event. The University of Technology Sydney is internationally recognised as delivering research which is at the cutting edge of creativity and technology. This event is providing social research linked to policy on an issue that is recognised as critical by a majority of Australians.

UTS thanks PricewaterhouseCoopers, NAB, WWF and the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment for their generous support of the Event.

The Danish Board of Technology is an independent advisory organisation financed by the Danish  Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. The Danish Board of Technology was brought into being in order to disseminate knowledge about technology, its possibilities and effects on people, on society and on the environment. The Danish Board of Technology is experienced within citizen consultations and has held citizen meetings in Denmark concerning subjects such as The Future Health Care systems (2008), Smoking policy (2005) and the establishment of national parks (2005).

Source: www.wwviews.org.au

Greater Security Threat Than War

The Government’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS is so weak that it will do nothing to reduce emissions produced in Australia and hence nothing to promote investment in new industries or processes which will reduce Australia’s carbon footprint. Kenneth Davidson on the war path.

Kenneth Davidson in The Age (28 September 2009):

In a blistering attack on the Rudd Government’s “commitment” to climate change policy, Kenneth Davidon says “Canberra appears to be managing the climate change issue, but it is not”.

As result, the Government has the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS), which is so weak that it will do nothing to reduce emissions produced in Australia and hence nothing to promote investment in new industries or processes which will reduce Australia’s carbon footprint.

Arguably, the Rudd Government sees climate change opportunistically as a weapon with which to beat the Opposition, rather than as a greater threat to Australia’s security than either the Great Depression or World War II.

The Government has failed to develop a coherent policy on climate change. The failure has been disguised by a dysfunctional Opposition which has no policy at all apart from ”let’s see what comes out of the climate change meeting in Copenhagen in December”. This has allowed the Government to appear to be managing the issue responsibly. It isn’t.

Underneath the political argy-bargy, the policies are the same. The policy priority on both sides is to look after the interests of the largest polluters in the interest of protecting jobs by not undermining the competitiveness of the coal, aluminium and other big polluting industries against their competitors overseas.

As result, the Government has the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS), which is so weak that it will do nothing to reduce emissions produced in Australia and hence nothing to promote investment in new industries or processes which will reduce Australia’s carbon footprint.

Rudd is big on rhetoric on the world stage. It is effective in generating good headlines at home. But there is nothing in the content which offers an example for other countries to follow.

Neither the Government nor the Opposition appears to understand that by adopting stringent environmental policies which are ahead of the pack, Australia can develop a competitive edge in the environmental industries of the future – as has Denmark which, because of tough environmental regulations adopted over the past decade, has become a world leader in the development of wind energy. It is why the crucial climate meeting will be held in Copenhagen.

The Rudd Government signed on to Kyoto mark I at Bali in 2007. It reached a framework agreement requiring Bali signatories to commit to 25 to 40 per cent cuts in emissions based on an International Panel on Climate Change consensus on what constituted a safe level of emissions.

A subsequent meeting of 2000 scientists at Copenhagen in March this year said the earlier scientific evidence was redundant and much bigger cuts would be necessary if the world was to have a good chance of avoiding catastrophic climate change.

Even so, Australia committed to a 5 to 15 per cent cut in emissions extended to 25 per cent if a firm commitment to substantial cuts could be extracted from developing countries, even though their per capita emissions are only a fraction of Australia’s and other developed countries.

Even based on the earlier scientific consensus with only 0.8 degrees of warming, the Great Barrier Reef and the Murray/Darling/Goulburn Basin are dying and Victoria and NSW face another drought and longer and more intense bushfire seasons. With another 0.6 degrees of warming in the pipeline due to historic emissions already in the atmosphere, it is clear that ”business as usual” is no longer an option.

And yet we have a corporate establishment intent on maintaining the status quo, obsessed with short-term profit rather than long-term sustainability, defending an outmoded market ideology which refuses to contemplate incorporating carbon pollution taxes into the cost of production and naively believing that technology such as carbon sequestration will solve the climate problem.

Even worse, the Labor Government has evolved into a self-perpetuating oligarchy whose defining purpose is retaining power. In this moral and intellectual vacuum, the Government functions as the servant of the old corporate establishment and other rent seekers such as the private schools lobby in the case of education, the private health funds in the case of health policy, the roads lobby in the case of transportation and the big polluters and the finance industry in the case of climate change.

The Government should be using its considerable political capital (as evidenced by the opinion polls) to adopt the Scandinavian regulatory and tax regime to promote positive structural change which recognises that sustainable economic development must conform to the latest science on climate change.

Rudd claims he is opposed to neo-liberalism. Neo-liberalism was unleashed on the world by the deregulation of financial markets, which allowed its agents to invent complex financial instruments such as derivatives that led directly to the financial crisis.

Why should the Government create through the CPRS opportunities for new financial derivatives which have proved ineffective in reducing emissions, are easy to rort because of their complexity, and are hideously expensive compared with a straightforward carbon tax? With a tax, all the revenue can be used productively instead of creating a new class of rent seekers who, in the case of the high polluters, will be compensated, will exacerbate global warming and, in the case of financiers, will profit from the new derivative, increasing the likelihood of another financial crisis.

Kenneth Davidson is a senior columnist at The Age

Kenneth Davidson has been writing for the  Age on economics and public policy since 1974. He was winner of the Walkley award for best news story in 1977 and National Press Club/Ford Australia Award for Canberra Press Gallery Journalist of the Year in 1980. He remains a committed Keynesian and opponent of economic rationalism. In his spare time he is co-editor of Dissent magazine.

Source: www.nationaltimes.com.au

Coal-Fired Campaign Attacks CPRS

A $14 MILLION Rudd Government publicity blitz designed to garner public support for its carbon pollution reduction scheme appears to have failed spectacularly, but that hasn’t deterred the launch of an advertising campaign by the Australian Coal Association (ACA) warning of possible mine closures and job losses.

Josh Gordon in the Sydney Morning Herald (27 September 2009):

A $14 MILLION Rudd Government publicity blitz designed to garner public support for its carbon pollution reduction scheme appears to have failed spectacularly.

Public concern about climate change fell following the completion of the public relations push, a government market research report reveals.

The campaign, ”Think Change”, involved television, radio and newspaper advertisements, a telephone hotline, a website and a ”public consultation road show”, all run between July and November last year.

It found that fewer than one in five people surveyed were able to recall the existence of the campaign and by the end just 14 per cent ranked climate change as the most important issue, compared with 20 per cent at the start.

It also said the proportion of the population who rated addressing climate change as ”very important” had fallen from 72 per cent to 61 per cent between July and November, although that coincided with the onset of the global financial crisis.

It comes as political debate over the emissions trading legislation intensifies, with the Government exerting maximum pressure on Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull to provide amendments to the scheme. The Government hopes Parliament will pass its scheme in November, ahead of the December Copenhagen climate summit.

The report, completed this month by the Department of Climate Change, said the publicity campaign had been designed to raise awareness about the ”personal” significance of climate change, inform people about the emissions trading legislation and encourage public involvement.

For the full report on the campaign go to:

http://www.climatechange.gov.au/about/publications/pubs/think-change-evaluation-report.pdf

Source: www.smh.com.au

By Michael Mills in Mining Australia (29 September 2009):

Coal miners and lobby groups once again voiced their disapproval of the proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) yesterday, coinciding with the launch of an advertising campaign by the Australian Coal Association (ACA) warning of possible mine closures and job losses.

The ‘Let’s Cut Emissions not Jobs’ campaign, announced by ACA executive director Ralph Hillman in Mackay yesterday, will be directed at coal-reliant communities in central Queensland.

The association said it had conducted research in regional Australia to gauge the level of community understanding about the scheme.

“This research confirms that coal mining communities have not been properly warned of the damaging consequences of the Federal Government’s CPRS in its current form,” Hillman said.

“This advertising campaign is providing people in regional Queensland with accurate information about the new carbon tax and explaining how it will affect coal mining communities and other centres heavily dependent on a strong coal industry.

“People need to understand that mines will close and thousands jobs could go as a direct result of the proposed tax.”

According to Hillman, the CPRS would cost the coal industry more than $14 billion over its first 10 years, causing the premature closure of 16 coal mines and the loss of 9000 direct and indirect jobs.

Speaking at the Brisbane Club yesterday, Anglo-American chief executive Cynthia Carroll echoed that forecast, saying it would force the closure of two Anglo mines.

She also said the scheme would be responsible for the loss of 2000 Anglo Coal jobs, $1 billion in government royalties and $118 million from the company’s own capital.

“The scheme risks having the perverse effect of undermining the objective we all share of reducing global warming and averting the threat of dangerous climate change,” she said.

Queensland Resources Council chief executive Michael Roche yesterday welcomed the campaign, saying it would resonate loudly throughout regional Queensland.

“As the nation’s biggest export earner is dragged down by this new tax, so is the income stream for the State Government’s funding of essential services such as education and health,” he said.

“It is a myth that these job losses would be offset by so-called green jobs.

“These jobs are gone from regional Queensland, not substituted.”

According to Hillman, the coal industry will spend one billion dollars over the next 10 years to develop technology to cut carbon emissions from coal fired power stations by up to 90%.

“Both the United States and European Union have specifically rejected taxing coal mines and both produce far higher emissions than we do,” he said.

“There is time for the government to change tack on this flawed scheme.”

Source: www.miningaustralia.com.au

Youth Prepare for Climate Action Day

350.org is hosting an Asian Youth Climate Workshop this weekend in Bangkok for nearly 100 youth from over 14 countries in the region to introduce vital new voices to the United Nations climate process and prepare for the October 24 International Day of Climate Action. A Jamie Henn letter from Thailand.

Dear Friends,

From where I’m standing, the politics of climate change need a big boost — one we’re in the perfect place to provide.

I’m here in Bangkok, Thailand, at another round of United Nations climate meetings, where negotiators are deadlocked. But I didn’t come here to watch the negotiations, I came here to help change them.

This weekend, 350.org will host an Asian Youth Climate Workshop for nearly 100 youth from over 14 countries in the region to introduce vital new voices to the United Nations climate process and prepare for the October 24 day of action.

And inside the negotiations, as I walk to meetings with my 350 shirt on, I’ve been approached by people from Ghana, Kenya, Lebanon, Germany, Vietnam, China, Australia, and more, who all want to share updates about the events they’re planning for October 24.

As organizers gear up for the big day of action on October 24 (1600+ actions in 130+ countries and rising FAST!), the images and stories from this global movement are just pouring in.

Our combination of creative action mixed with a clear goal is already having a real political impact. We could have submitted hundreds of pages of briefings and reports on 350 ppm and gotten nowhere. Instead, we’ve relied on the power of grassroots organizing and powerful images, and we’re making incredible progress.

Here at the UN meetings, I’ve overheard delegates from countries around the world talking about 350 ppm and how any legitimate global climate treaty must meet the latest science. Yesterday, I tracked down the head of the United States delegation, Jonathan Pershing, to get his perspective. I asked him to tell me what 350.org could do to push the negotiations forward. His reply: “Keep organizing.”

That’s exactly right. As much progress as we’ve made, there is still a long way to go. We’ve entered the final sprint towards the Copenhagen climate talks this December and now, more than ever, we all need to step it up.

If you haven’t started or joined an action yet please do so now.  We have a brand new action map that makes finding a local event easier than ever:

On a personal note, I want to end by saying how thankful I am to be here in Bangkok, meeting 350 action organizers from around the world. It’s an incredible feeling to shake the hand of a stranger from Ghana or Cambodia and have them yell “350!” and launch into a description of their actions and plans for October 24.

Thanks for helping build this incredible movement,

Jamie Henn for the whole 350.org Team

P.S. If you’re ready to join the 350 Movement on October 24, let your friends know–they’ll let their friends know, and they’ll let their…you get the idea.  Thanks a million.

You should join us on Facebook by becoming a fan of our page at facebook.com/350org and follow us on twitter by visiting twitter.com/350.

To join our list visit www.350.org/signup

350.org needs your help! To support our work, donate securely online at 350.org/donate

350.org is an international grassroots campaign that aims to mobilize a global climate movement united by a common call to action. By spreading an understanding of the science and a shared vision for a fair policy, we will ensure that the world creates bold and equitable solutions to the climate crisis. 350.org is an independent and not-for-profit project.

What is 350? 350 is the number that leading scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. Scientists measure carbon dioxide in “parts per million” (ppm), so 350ppm is the number humanity needs to get below as soon as possible to avoid runaway climate change. To get there, we need a different kind of PPM-a “people powered movement” that is made of of people like you in every corner of the planet.

Editor’s note: I’ll be taking part in a 24 October event for International Day of Climate Action organised by Sustainable Jamboree at Indooroopilly Library, Brisbane.  I’ll be talking about my book “The ABC of Carbon” and provide case studies of what countries and companies are doing as we move towards a low carbon economy. Come along!

Source: www.350.org and www.sustainablejamboree.org

Texas Has Even Bigger Wind Farm

“Completing the world’s biggest wind farm took more than a US$1 billion investment, coordination with more than 300 landowners and management of more than 500 workers,” Steve Trenholm, chief executive of German-based E.ON AG’s renewable unit in North America.

By Eileen O’Grady for Reuters (1 October 2009):

E.ON Climate and Renewables said on Thursday it has built the world’s biggest wind farm by completing the final phase of its Roscoe, Texas wind farm, bringing the installed capacity to 781.5 megawatts.

The more than US$1 billion project, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) west of Fort Worth, surpasses the nearby 735.5 MW Horse Hollow wind farm, owned by FPL Group’s NextEra Energy Resources, as the largest in the world.

“Completing the world’s biggest wind farm took more than a $1 billion investment, coordination with more than 300 landowners and management of more than 500 workers,” Steve Trenholm, chief executive of German-based E.ON AG’s renewable unit in North America.

In 2006, Texas became the leading state for wind capacity with about 2,400 MW, an amount that has expanded to 8,335 MW, according to the state grid operator.

New power lines are under development that will allow wind developers to more than double the current amount of wind in Texas over the next few years.

Unlike fossil-fueled power plants, wind farms generate no carbon dioxide — a heat-trapping greenhouse gas blamed for global warming — and require no water. Wind farms are helping to revive the economy in sparsely populated areas of West Texas and the Texas Panhandle.

Wind farms have been getting bigger in Texas.

The Roscoe wind farm spans parts of four Texas counties and covers nearly 100,000 acres (40,500 hectares), several times the size of Manhattan, the company said. It has 627 turbines, manufactured by units of Mitsubishi, General Electric and Siemens.

E.ON Climate operates 2,600 MW of generation worldwide, including 1,488 MW in the U.S, mostly in Texas.

It recently completed the 458-MW Panther Creek wind farm near Big Spring, Texas, and will soon finish the 180-MW Papalote Creek wind farm near Corpus Christi.

Elsewhere, the company recently began construction on Britain’s big London Array offshore wind project, which will become the largest offshore wind farm in the world when finished.

Source: www.reuters.com

Battle of the Electric Car

France unveiled plans this past week to invest 1.5 billion euros on infrastructure for the two million electric and hybrid cars it wants on the road by 2020, while a Frenchman is organising Australia’s first Electric Vehicle Conference in Brisbane 11 November to highlight the technology, infrastructure, utilities and policies needed.

In an exclusive to ABC Carbon Express, Philippe Reboul, a Frenchman living in Brisbane, has revealed he is organising the first Electric Vehicle conference in Australia on 11 November 2009 at the Novotel Brisbane.  It will cover EV technology, infrastructure, utilities, and policies. The conference logo of a stylised car and electric cord appears on the first page of the newsletter.

Philippe is Managing Director of  RBL Management Consulting and president of the French Australian Chamber of Commerce in Queensland.

More information, including the full conference programme will be available soon on the website: www.evconference.com.au

Simon Boehm in the Age (2 October 2009):

France launched the “battle of the electric car” Thursday as it unveiled plans to invest 1.5 billion euros on infrastructure for the two million electric and hybrid cars it wants on the road by 2020.

“No player can take the risk alone, but if all the actors take it at the same time, that works,” said Ecology Minister Jean-Louis Borloo, flanked by top executives from French carmakers Renault and PSA Peugeot Citroen.

The aim is to “make the French energy and car industry a world leader,” Borloo told reporters as he presented his government’s strategy on helping reduce C02 emissions via eco-friendly cars.

The project covers everything from industrial research, making batteries, producing clean cars and building a nation-wide network of battery-charging stations.

The electric car plan comes just a couple of weeks after Borloo said France would invest more than seven billion euros (10 billion US dollars) to develop freight transport by rail and reduce road traffic.

The schemes are part of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s “green plan” for France that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming.

Sarkozy last month announced a new carbon tax on businesses and individuals that will come into force next year to encourage consumers to cut down use of oil, gas and coal.

Currently only a few thousand of the 30 million cars on French roads are electric or hybrid vehicles, so building up that number to two million will require major investment.

Of the total 1.5 billion euros (2.2 billion US dollars) earmarked, 900 million euros could come from a state loan due to be launched next year, said Borloo.

The money will be used mostly to build infrastructure but also to buy cars and on subsidies for both makers and buyers of clean vehicles.

Under the plan, a million battery-charging points will be built by 2015, 90 percent of them in private homes but also in car parks and at roadside sites.

From 2012 all new apartment blocks with parking lots will have to include charging stations, and the network will grow to a total of four million points by 2020, the equivalent of two per vehicle.

The state will help build up the battery production sector by contributing 125 million euros from its strategic investment fund to the overall cost of 625 million euros for a Renault battery plant at Flins, near Paris.

The state will also give Renault a loan of up to 150 million euros to build an electric car factory, also in Flins.

One hundred million euros will also be made available for other electric carmakers such as Peugeot or Daimler’s Smart division, officials said.

Joint purchases by state authorities and major private companies will see orders for 100,000 electric vehicles by 2015, according to the plan.

By 2030 the emissions-free vehicle sector in France is projected to be worth some 15 billion euros, representing 27 percent of the total market, according to the ecology ministry.

Borloo insisted on the importance of all actors in the sector committing themselves to victory in what he called “the battle of the electric car.”

Peugeot-Citroen chief executive Philippe Varin told the same press conference that “we share the ambitions of the government in terms of C02.”

Renault’s chief operating officer Patrick Pelata said “we are on the same wavelength as the government.”

The two French automakers presented their solutions for tomorrow’s cars — electric or hybrid — at the Frankfurt Motor Show earlier this month.

Renault introduced four electric prototypes in Frankfurt that cover the range from small urban to commercial vehicles.

The firm believes that by 2020 electric cars will make up more than 10 percent of the market and hopes to present its electric cars by 2011 and have them ready for the market the following year.

Electric vehicles were the star of the Frankfurt auto show but experts predict that cars will roll on a variety of power sources for quite a while.

Source: www.news.theage.com.au

Taking Steps into Company Footprints

Organisations globally are facing increasing pressure from both governments and the public to reduce their carbon footprint. The challenge is how to effectively report carbon intensities, monitor abatement initiatives and meet regulatory requirements. Three large Australian companies – Amcor, PaperlinX and Foster’s  – are finding that EnviroChart helps them do all that.

News from EnviroChart (2 October 2009):

Organisations globally are facing increasing pressure from both governments and the public to reduce their carbon footprint. The challenge is how to effectively report carbon intensities, monitor abatement initiatives and meet regulatory requirements. Three large Australian companies – Amcor, PaperlinX and Foster’s  – are finding that EnviroChart helps them do all that.

“EnviroChart has become the leading data capture and reporting platform to help large commercial organisations meet the mandatory Government energy reporting requirements, as well as providing the ideal tool for companies to produce excellent sustainability and resource efficiency reports, “ said Eshell Baron, General Manager of EnviroChart.

“Reducing your carbon footprint (and identifying cost savings) makes good business sense”, Baron says.  “Companies that manage their environmental performance, promote good corporate citizenship and long term sustainability, outperform their peers.”

“With Australia’s ongoing Government reporting requirements and increasing public pressure for companies to reduce and offset carbon emissions, EnviroChart offers a powerful, independent reporting solution suitable for any business wishing to track its impact on the environment.”

EnviroChart is suitable for both large corporations and medium size businesses wishing to track their resource consumption, environmental metrics and waste. Customers include leading ASX 50 companies.

Baron says EnviroChart has gained real credibility in the marketplace. “It is a powerful, highly configurable data capture and reporting system that differentiates itself through the unique combination of rich features, smart interface and tailored support.”

Features include unlimited users/sites, easy customisations for statutory and/or company reporting requirements, dashboards, integration with any third party system such as SAP, OSCAR support, audit, variance reporting and much more.

Within an organisation, EnviroChart is the primary repository for important environmental metrics. The data is easily customised to meet any government or internal reporting requirements via a configurable dashboard.

Compliance and reporting requirements become increasingly more difficult as company operations are dispersed across multiple sites, states and countries. Concerns include onerous government reporting obligations and the responsibilities placed on OHS & E departments to provide accurate and timely data for compliance purposes.

As a major user of energy, Amcor has established and implemented programs to deliver reductions in energy usage and greenhouse gas emissions. This includes the company’s involvement in a number of emission trading schemes worldwide.

Today, EnviroChart is used by Amcor and its business groups to manage, capture and report energy, waste and water data, providing Amcor with a snapshot of its carbon footprint and energy efficiency at any given time, location or region.

John Newton, Group Manager Sustainability & Environment, Amcor Australasia says that EnviroChart:

“Makes it simple for us to capture and report energy data on a site as well as a regional basis, and meet all requirements for our mandatory reporting.”

EnviroChart offers a simple yet detailed management tool for reporting utilisation data, carbon intensities and abatement projects in a secure dashboard like manner.

“EnviroChart also highlights for us efficiency opportunities for energy, water and waste.  We get the information we need to act on and we can also measure the success of our actions,” says Newton.

Another user of EnviroChart – for the past three years – is Australia’s premier paper producer PaperlinX.

Andrew Jackson, Group General Manager, Environment, Safety and Health is convinced of the value of EnviroChart as it enables PaperlinX to not only to collect all the data required for compliance reports like NGERS, but also to produce its own Sustainability Report.

“What I like most about EnviroChart is the built-in flexibility, enabling us to add and adapt it to meet all our data collecting and reporting needs,” Jackson says.

For example, it allows PaperlinX to discover energy efficiency opportunities, both to meet Federal and State Government requirements, as well as to see where the company can achieve genuine efficiencies.

EnviroChart was an essential part of the company-wide audit process that enabled PaperlinX to get Government “Greenhouse Friendly” approval for Australia’s first carbon neutral paper, ENVI.

For Paperlinx, EnviroChart allows it to measure and manage all the essential data types, including energy, waste, water and all aspects of production of its paper products.

For Foster’s, who have been utilising EnviroChart since the beginning of this year, it provides an easy-to-use and user-friendly way to handle full environmental reporting for the company from all its sites and for all environmental metrics.

Tanya Atherton, Global Environment Facilitator for Foster’s says they started with EnviroChart as a pilot project involving four sites. It worked so well that Foster’s then trained its people at 108 sites to use EnviroChart.

“It’s very user-friendly, so our EnviroChart training went very smoothly and we got everyone on board very quickly.”

“Useability is the word I use to describe EnviroChart,” says Atherton, who has also found it easy to not only add new sites into the system but also add additional metrics to be measured.

It goes beyond enabling Foster’s to report its mandatory measurements and metrics, to provide a very handy tool to give the company information it needs for its own monthly reporting and for its annual and sustainability reports.

EnviroChart is a single centralised system solution used to:

• Track sustainability metrics
• Increase compliance assurance
• Minimise risk and reduce compliance costs
• Report by site or across the enterprise
• Integrate with company ERP systems
• Import data from ERP systems or utilities
• Identify, target and achieve efficiency objectives
• Provide savings for both: (a) the environment; and (b) the organisation

There is no limit to the number of data types available as additional data types can be created where required. The standard data types handled by EnviroChart are listed below:

Energy: Electricity, LP Gas, Natural Gas, Oil, Steam, Coal, Diesel

Waste: General Solid, Hazardous Solid, Hazardous Liquid, Recycled solid (internal and external)

Water: Purchase and Discharge

Production: Gross, Wastage and Net

Each of these data types may be enabled/disabled as applicable on a per site basis.

EnviroChart is a division of Formation Technology Group, a Microsoft Certified high technology service provider located in Melbourne, Australia.

Source: www.envirochart.com.au

Life Altering Planetary Experience

Insurance companies, politicians, and businesspeople often use the expressions “natural disaster” or “act of God” to deflect responsibility for events beyond our control. Today, human activity and technology have become so powerful that we are contributing to what were once natural disasters. Wise words from David Suzuki.

By David Suzuki with Faisal Moola

Insurance companies, politicians, and businesspeople often use the expressions “natural disaster” or “act of God” to deflect responsibility for events beyond our control. Today, human activity and technology have become so powerful that we are contributing to what were once natural disasters.

Hurricanes, tornadoes, freak storms, floods, droughts, pest outbreaks, heat waves, and even earthquakes are occurring with greater frequency and intensity than ever. Some of this can be traced to human activity. Greenhouse gases, immense dams, and deep oil and water wells can all affect natural forces.

Since life first appeared on Earth some four billion years ago, it has played a critical role in altering the physical and chemical properties of the planet. For the first couple of billion years, it was a microbial world, yet those microscopic organisms acted with other forces to break down rock. Over time, this process reduced mountains and boulders to stones, gravel, and dust, releasing minerals and creating soils from the carcasses of organisms.

Life is thought to have evolved in oceans. Here, carbon from the atmosphere dissolved in the water to form carbonaceous shells that offered protection for some life forms. When these died, they sank to the ocean floor where eventually their accumulated shells were pressurized into limestone. Limestone is rock, created by life, which stores carbon in the ground.

As life forms evolved, they grew bigger, in part by incorporating and storing water. In doing so, they became a critical part of the hydrologic cycle, the process whereby water evaporates, forms clouds, and rains back on the Earth in an endless cycle. Organisms could take up dissolved minerals and trace chemicals from the water and release them with their own wastes. After plants evolved into trees on land, they became efficient at sucking water from soil and transpiring most of it into the air to affect weather and climate.

The evolution of photosynthesis was a huge biological breakthrough, enabling Earth’s life to capture vast amounts of energy in the form of sunlight. During photosynthesis, plants release oxygen. Over millions of years, this process reduced the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere while creating oxygen-rich air that animals like us depend on.

So for billions of years, the web of life has played a crucial role in changing the physical, chemical, and biological features of the planet. Life was not just opportunistic in exploiting physical and chemical opportunities; living organisms interacted with and changed the planet’s earth, water, and air, or biosphere. But it took vast periods of time and millions of diverse species. In all that time, no single species was able to rapidly alter the properties of Earth on a geological scale – until now.

Humans appeared during the last moment of evolutionary time, perhaps 150,000 years ago. For most of our brief existence, we were tribal animals who didn’t even know whether other humans lived on the other side of an ocean, desert, or mountain. We only had to worry about our own territory and tribe.

Suddenly, we have become a geological force, the most prolific mammal on the planet, endowed with powerful technologies, impelled by an insatiable appetite for stuff, and supplied by a global economy. Taken together, our numbers, technology, consumption, and global economy have made us a new kind of force on the planet. For the first time, we must ask, “What is the collective impact of 6.8 billion human beings?” As we begin to answer that question, we are left with the extreme difficulty of responding to global threats that our own activity has caused.

Many people harbour an understandable tendency to deny the reality of the crisis in the biosphere. After all, how can puny humans have such a massive impact on this large planet? Some also maintain a conceit that we can manage our way out of the mess, increasingly with heroic interventions of technology. But we’ve learned from past technologies – nuclear power, DDT, CFCs – that we don’t know enough about how the world works to anticipate and minimize unexpected consequences.

The truth is that the only factor or species we can manage on Earth is us. We have no choice but to address the challenge of bringing our cities, energy needs, agriculture, fishing fleets, mines, and so on into balance with the factors that support all life. This crisis can become an opportunity if we seize it and get on with finding solutions.

Source: www.davidsuzuki.org