one.point.zero - Colin O'Brien's weblog
March 08 2009
Clean Coal – by Joel and Ethan Coen
January 12 2009
Google responds to the stats on emissions generated by a search mentioned in the previous link.
January 11 2009
Web sites and your behaviour as a web surfer all have an impact on the environment. Not surprisingly, reducing the amount of gadgets, animations and/or errors on your site also reduces its impact.
May 01 2008
Very interesting article on the myths of organic farming. It’s difficult to make an informed opinion though when the article takes several shortcuts. As usual, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle.
February 26 2008
FOE vs Porsche: Fight!
February 17 2008
Bottled Water: Who Needs It?“a litre bottle of Evian or Volvic generates up to 600 times more CO2 than a litre of tap water”
January 20 2008
The shipping industry is looking for new ways to reduce emissions and costs. One of those ways is about to get its first test: a ship partly powered by a giant kite.
December 21 2007
Proof it’s possible: Sweden has beaten Kyoto targets and reduced its emissions by 12.7 percent.
November 16 2007
Responsibility isn't only local“If a gadget is made in China by an American company and exported and used by consumers from Stockholm to Sao Paulo, Brazil, should the Chinese government be held responsible for the carbon released in manufacturing it?”
October 20 2007
Warning: this vehicle may seriously damage your health.
September 19 2007
Little efforts do not big changes make“it is a serious distortion to imply, as the top ten lists usually do, that there is any equivalence between these lifestyle preferences and the serious decisions that really reduce emissions”
August 31 2007
Black Balloon
July 26 2007
Yet another reason to get vehicle emissions down: they’re now linked to heart disease.
I wondered when someone would have a go at patio heaters, I’ve always seen them as a prime example of our irrationality. Not only in the home however, restaurants with heated terraces are just as bad.
July 16 2007
Happiness doesn’t cost the earth
The happy planet index rates European countries on their happiness-to-carbon output ratio.
Conclusions seem to show that even though our standard of living is marginally higher than in the sixties, consumption (and our per-capita carbon footprint) has increased dramatically while general happiness has dropped.
Belgium ranks 17th out of 30 countries while the Scandinavians hold the top positions.
July 01 2007
Nice rundown on the pros and cons of air travel versus other means of transport.
June 25 2007
Wise words“Companies that are polluting in China are owned by American, European, Japanese and others. They are benefiting from the cheap labour, from the resources and at the same time accusing China of pollution.”
June 23 2007
Carbon trading: where greed is green
June 19 2007
The only way to survive may now be extraction of greenhouse gases from the air.
June 07 2007
18% of emissions come from meat“The answer is for people to move toward a plant-based diet if they're serious about global warming”
May 12 2007
If you have no other choice than hopping on a plane to travel, here’s a good resource for offsetting all that carbon you’ll be pumping into the atmosphere.
May 06 2007
Mark Ellingham, founder of Rough Guides“We fly anywhere at the slightest opportunity, 10 times and upwards a year. This needs to be addressed with the greatest urgency”
Interesting summary of the current dangers of biofuel use as well as future, more sustainable, directions the industry might take.
May 04 2007
Goverments know they have false figures“The rich nations seeking to cut climate change have this in common: they lie”
April 29 2007
A screen saver for Windows computers that helps reduce your power consumption and CO2 emissions. Every little bit helps…
April 26 2007
A very interesting development in carbon capture technology. Let’s just hope it’s not used as a license to completely ignore the original problem. (Thanks Jeroen)
China syndrome
China will soon become the number one emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, overtaking the current record holder: the United States.
Then again, a lot of those emissions are really ours, we’re just doing it by proxy through all the stuff we buy that’s manufactured over there.
April 25 2007
The cost of that monthly commute“The travelling circus between the European Parliament's two homes pumps the same amount of C02 into the atmosphere as 4,000 London homes”
April 19 2007
Drive one day less and look how much carbon monoxide you’ll keep out of the air we breathe
April 17 2007
Eurostar goes even greener.
April 03 2007
Organic food is better for our health. On the flipside, some of it is less energy efficient, producing more emissions.
March 27 2007
competition between cars and people“The governments using biofuel to tackle global warming know that it causes more harm than good. But they plough on regardless.”
March 18 2007
Maybe Belgian ministers could get off the seats of their carbon-spewing monsters and actually do something for the environment instead of worrying about photo ops with Al Gore?
March 15 2007
Climate change engenders climate change
The mild winter pushed down heating costs in Belgium this year resulting in a record number of people going on holiday during the Easter break thanks to the money saved.
So, basically, warm weather brought on by climate change pushes people to fly and drive long distances, thereby emitting more greenhouse gases than ever which in turn further affect climate change.
I doubt that’s one of the positive feedbacks in the climate system that scientists were fearing, but the outcome is alike.
March 13 2007
Airline flies empty planes to hold on to airport slots.
March 11 2007
From next month's climate report“Tropical diseases like malaria will spread. By 2050, polar bears will mostly be found in zoos, their habitats gone. Pests like fire ants will thrive.”
Dear Mr Winterkorn, you could actually choose not to give customers what they want, or rather what your advertising makes them want.
February 28 2007
Belgian minister for Energy Marc Verwilghen has just got himself a giant gas-guzzling Audi Q7 (pdf) that emits between 282 to 326 grammes of CO2 per km. Meanwhile, Europe is trying to get emissions down to 120g/km, nice example from above. Oh yeah, and Al Gore has the electricity bill of a small village.
February 27 2007
An open letter calling on the EU to abandon targets for biofuel use throughout Europe. Without commitment to reduce consumption, the consequences risk being deforestation, land conflicts and more. (thanks Fergus)
February 19 2007
Emissions trading: not that great, actually.
February 11 2007
Flying, your patriotic duty.
January 31 2007
The European commission has caved in to the auto industry on new emission standards opting instead to push the use of biofuels and the placement of indicators that “tell drivers when they need to inflate their tyres or change gear”. Seriously.
January 18 2007
Carbon offsetting is like wearing blinkers“Telling people to plant trees to prevent global warming is like telling them to drink more water to keep down rising sea levels. The water - or gas - will come out in the end”
October 28 2006
That’s going to hurt
A report on global warming by the British treasury says it will be cheaper for developed nations to tackle the problem with significant cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, than to deal with the consequences later. Duh.
With most politicians looking no further than their own noses the next elections, I doubt that will kickstart anything except a few empty promises.
Meanwhile, Belgium is part of the 7 European countries that will exceed their individual emission limits. No big surprise there either, they’re too busy trying to cause a depression down south before climate change does it for them.
October 27 2006
October 24 2006
John Thackara reads Monbiot's Heat“I am still in Beijing as I write this. It is going to be a long walk home.”
October 20 2006
How close is runaway climate change? Way too close for comfort.
October 19 2006
A student moving to the UK from the US decided to give up flying and get to his destination without planes or cars. His weblog describes how he did it. I admit I’ve been eyeing a transatlantic journey on a cargo ship for a while now although I need to figure out the damage that does.
September 30 2006
From a PwC report on our emissions“This business as usual approach is clearly unacceptable”
