The Group of Eight summit of 2008, began on Monday in Japan. The goal of the nations participating in this summit is to lessen greenhouse emissions by half by the year 2050. However, these nations have found it difficult to agree on how exactly to take the appropriate steps, in order to met this goal. According to news reports these nations have agreed that midterm goals will need to be set in order for the goal of dropping emissions in half by 2050 to become feasible. At the moment, however, no numerical goals have been set.
This effort has been well received by many of the ‘wealthy’ nations of the world. The European Commission President, has even described the summit in environmental terms, as “a strong signal to citizens around the world”. However the nations of the world which are ‘less wealthy’ and environmental groups, have criticized the summit and its goals saying that the leaders have not fully met their responsibilities.
The environmental group, WWF, has stated that “the G8 (nations) are responsible for 62 percent of the carbon dioxide accumulated in the Earth’s atmosphere, which makes them the main culprit of climate change and the biggest part of the problem”. Thus, many environmentally based groups and organizations, such as the WWF, feel that these nations have a greater responsibility to climate change issues than they have been willing to accept.
In the previous Group of Eight summit, the nations agreed to aim for lessening emissions in half by 2050, but this year both Japan and the European Union have placed pressure on these nations, encouraging them to go beyond that aim. Unfortunately, the U.S. has said that it cannot agree with ‘binding’ agreements until countries like India and China, which are large polluters, agree to lessen their emissions as well.
The summit should effectively set goals for fighting global warming once the Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012.
In addition to discussing lessen global emissions, the nations have also discussed rising food and fuel costs. The leaders are very concerned that these high prices will have a very negative effect on a global economy, already suffering from serious problems. Also, G8 leaders have agreed to deal with energy concerns through pushing oil producers and consumers to come together and discuss energy security, prices and so forth.
Engineers from China and all over Asia have recently come to Japan to observe the design of the Taiheiyo Cement factory. Its design has allowed the company to greatly lessen the amount of the energy it uses. This is because the Taiheiyo Cement factory uses its waste heat to actually make a great deal of its own energy.
The Taiheiyo Cement factory is designed with high furnaces and conveyor belts resembling something close to a building from the Industrial Revolution. This factory can be considered a modern marvel because of its energy efficiency level.
This building is one of many of Japan’s impressive efforts to combat global warming. Japan has taken strong steps to lessen its dependency on oil since the oil shocks of the 1970s. As a result, Japan has made significant efforts to increase its reliance on renewable energy and place specific efforts in making its energy use efficient.
The Group of Eight meeting which is taking place in Japan, will allow Japan to take a leadership role in the climate change issue. During the meeting, Japan will show off its latest technology and its energy efficient mentality to the Group of Eight leaders. According the Prime Minister of Japan, “Superior technology and a national spirit of avoiding waste give Japan the world’s most energy efficient structure”, he also added that Japan has the desire to “contribute to the world”.
The recent energy crisis is expected to be highly discussed in the meeting. President Bush and other leaders have been pushed by other nations to increase their oil supplies by increasing offshore drilling to improve the current energy situation.
Japan is considered to be the most energy efficient nation among all the developed nations of the world. Japan has grown accustomed to learning how to conserve its energy. Among the industrial nations, Japan is the only nation which kept up its investment in energy research during the period when oil prices fell. So that even though oil prices were low, Japan continued to find other sources of energy so that it would not remain dependent on foreign oil.
Look to Starry Night Lights for the latest environmental news, and for fixtures which will ensure the protection of the night sky.
The German Parliament recently passed legislation meant to lessen carbon dioxide emissions, through changing the ways that electricity is generated and by doubling the amount of power which comes from renewable energy. The Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, sees this measure as a large victory. Merkel, since the beginning of her reign in 2005, has made climate change a significant part of her policy changes.
It has been difficult to pass such laws in Germany. This is because of all the pressure from the automobile industry. Industries have successfully lobbied against judging the cost of registering cars based on their carbon dioxide level, thus this measure can be very positively received especially because of the difficulty it took to pass it.
In addition to the automobile industry, the industries which use a great deal of energy have also fought against such legislation, fearing the shift in energy sources that this sort of legislation would cause.
This law is aimed to increase renewable energy, so that by 2020 thirty percent of Germany’s energy will be from renewable energy sources. Currently fourteen percent of Germany’s energy comes from renewable energy sources, thus by passing such legislation by 2020 Germany’s renewable energy dependency will double.
In addition to this legislation, there will be other legislation in the near future which will be designed to lower energy consumption. The legislation will be directed to private homes. It could include measures which would push new homes to meet higher energy efficiency standards.
At the Group of Eight meeting last year, the leaders of the Group of Eight nations agreed to lessen carbon dioxide emissions, by half by the year 2050. These nations included Britain, Canada, Germany, Italy, France, Russia, the United States and Japan.
Look to Starry Night Lights for the latest environmental news, and for fixtures which will ensure the protection of the night sky.
On Tuesday, the World Bank took two big steps in the struggle to improve global warming by establishing two investment funds in order to help developing nations move to cleaner energy sources. The World Bank hopes that by doing so these nations can assist in lowering climate change and also develop a dependency on energy resources which will not have such a negative effect on the environment. These two funds are the Clean Technology Fund and the Strategic Climate Fund, the approval of these two funds comes days before the Group of Eight summit. This summit will take place in Hokkaido, Japan on the 8th of July and is meant to address the issue of climate change.
The World Bank expects the full support of the nations which are to participate in the Group of Eight summit. The World Bank expects these nations to give an initial amount of $4 billion or $5 billion in donations, in order to make the funds feasible. From among the Group of Eight, the United States, Britain and Japan have all agreed to contribute to the funds. In addition, more nations are expected to join in, now that the initial period of approval for the fund has passed.
The director of the World Bank’s environment department, Warren Evans, has stated that there are no specific financial commitments, though he is confident that the World Bank will be able to raise $500 million for its programs. “We would hope the funds are fully operational by the fourth quarter of this year,” Evans stated. He also mentioned that he was not concerned about choosing a particular time for the first payment because of the length that it will take to put the projects together. According to Evans, financing for the projects will be decided by a committee made up of the Group of Eight nations, through a consensus.
The president of World Bank, Robert Zoellick, has stated that these funds are part of the Bank’s response to climate change. Zoellick has said that he feels that “the (funds) will have a significant impact in generating even more financing for climate action,” and they will also help “in demonstrating new approaches to address the current and future effects of climate change”.
These new approaches will include: agricultural solutions, water management, development concerns, energy resources and so forth.
Look to Starry Night Lights for the latest environmental news, and for fixtures which will ensure the protection of the night sky.
China has been pressured by many nations to lessen and regulate its pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions. This request has become especially strong with China holding the 2008 Olympics; many nations are concerned that the high level pollutants in the air will be bad for the athletes. Thus, these nations have pushed China to improve its air quality. China has recently addressed this issue, by informing other nations that though it strongly wants to face this issue head-on, it needs other developed nations to participate in this situation. The President of China, has asked other nations to “step up efforts” on reducing emissions and giving financial and technical support in China’s struggle.
Next month China will take part in the Group of Eight meeting that is to take place in Japan. This meeting will address climate change issues, and is supposed to set new goals for reducing emissions meant to take place after the expiration of the Kyoto Protocol in 2012.
China is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases, though on an individual level, Chinese emit less than most other developed nations. Many Chinese have grown frustrated with the West’s response to this dilemma, saying that their country began to industrialize two centuries after the West and therefore should be able to continue to industrialize, in spite of environmental concerns.
China’s President has pushed its organizations and companies to find more efficient and clean sources of energy, in addition he has pushed for stronger efforts in recycling and the exploration of other energy sources.
This issue is clearly important and certainly relevant, but it is also evident that China cannot be expected to solve all of its environmental issues in the short period of time before the 2008 Olympics. Also, global assistance would greatly help China in this major endeavor. There are steps that every nation should take to help solve the issue of climate change, these responsibilities should not be merely expected from China. By reducing energy consumption and by finding cleaner more efficient sources of energy, we can greatly help lessen rising temperatures. Join with Starry Night Lights and choose to buy energy efficient products and save our environment.
The recent push towards finding more efficient renewable energy sources, has had interesting repercussions on international markets. According to the experts at RAND Corporation, a nonprofit institution which is designed to improve policies and decisionmaking through research and analysis, there is a great deal of needed technological advances, in order to make renewable energy more affordable. If the United States wants to produce one fourth of it’s electricity and motor fuel from renewable resources by 2025, without having prices soar, new advances in technology are a must- according to a study issued by the RAND Corporation.
The Energy and Economic Development program, of RAND Corporation, has provided a “snapshot” of our nation’s possible energy use, if the US was able to make one fourth of its energy for electricity and fuel for vehicles from renewable sources. According to this “snapshot”, biomass resources and wind power will have the strongest and most influential impact towards reaching aimed goals.
In addition to the RAND Corporation involvement, the Energy Future Coalition a nonprofit environmental organization, has also played a factor in these studies. This organization has pushed RAND to create an assessment of the economic and other impacts of accomplishing the hoped goal. Thus, RAND’s study has taken technological and economic factors into consideration when judging the cost of using both renewable energy and nonrenewable fossil fuels.
It is an important time for such a report to come out, especially with higher fuel prices and concerns about global warming on the rise. It is clear that by replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy sources, carbon dioxide emissions will lessen. This is significant especially when considering how strongly these emissions affect global warming.
At this time, renewable energy is only 9.5 % of the total energy used in the US electricity supply and 1.6 % of the total used in the fuel supply of vehicles.
Renewable energy sources include: wind, solar and hydropower, in addition to the burning of agricultural waste.
Biomass energy souces include: stalks from food crops, wood material and grasses, which can be turned into ethanol or gasoline.
Of course, new energy sources are only half of the equation. The other half is using energy wisely through energy conservation and energy efficiency programs. Here is where Starry Night Lights really shines Our night sky friendly outdoor lighting aims light where it’s needed, on the ground. By preventing light from shining up into the night sky, our fixtures can often used 1/2 the energy of non-sky friendly outdoor lighting. This saves a considerable amount of energy and helps to reduce light pollution in our communities.
There is much to be desired with regard to the US response to global warming. In many cases, it seems as if the US has arrived on the scene too late. However, the US is making efforts to take the appropriate and needed steps to combat the negative effects of global warming. In fact, this week one of the US’s largest states, California will announce its plans for an aggressive approach to combat global warming.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, this plan should impact the state’s residents, industries and government agency, though the impacts will take about a decade to fully develop. This plan, comes only 18 months after Governor Schwarzenegger passed legislation which will curb one-third of greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. The plan is meant to encourage residents to buy and use energy efficient appliances, such as energy efficient light bulbs and gas efficient hybrids. It will also, press industries to lessen pollution, even at the price of paying fees for the amount of pollutants they release.
The state of California, has indicated its desire to place the nation’s strictest requirements on greenhouse emissions coming from cars, trucks, SUVs and the like. This desire has sparked some controversy between California and the Bush administration, resulting from the Environmental Protection Agency’s refusal to allow California to impose these regulations. California is also interested in charging a fee on industries, businesses, plants and refineries, in order to lessen the amount of carbon they release.
These desires have been received warmly by envrionmental groups, while industry groups see these changes in a negative light preferring market-based systems, which would encourage businesses to lessen greenhouse gas emissions but also allow them to purchase carbon emissions from other industries with lower emissions.
In any case, these forms of legislation, are very encouraging for environmental groups and individuals interested in improving our environment. By simply buying energy efficient products, such as light bulbs and other lighting fixtures, one is helping improve our energy dependency and in turn protecting our environment.
With fears of the effects of global warming on the rise, talk about the reduction of ‘greenhouse gases’ has increased. Greenhouse gases are said to be human-generated and responsible for much of the negative effects of global warming. Of all the greenhouse gases contributing to the warming of the earth, carbon dioxide is said to be the most important. It is not as if mankind created all of these gases, many of them have existed in the atmosphere, they affect the balance of heat in our atmosphere and help give us a stable climate. However, it is clear that human involvement has greatly affected CO2 levels.
Scientifically our atmosphere has the ability to reflect some of the high-energy radiation which arrives to our planet from the sun and other heat radiating from the Earth itself, it also can absorb some as well. However its ability to perform this task, depends on whats in the atmosphere. What is distinct about CO2 and other greenhouse gases is that they allow more heat inside our atmosphere, than they allow out. Meaning that they absorb and reflect more of the lower energy radiation created by the Earth as opposed to the higher energy radiation coming form the sun, this in effect warms the planet.
In all reality, methane, nitrous oxide, and certain other greenhouse gases are stronger than CO2. In fact, it can be estimated that in a 100 year period, one pound of methane will be equivalent to 25 pounds of CO2. However, it is CO2 which receives the greatest amount of attention when compared to all other other greenhouse gases. This is because it is relatively abundant, and its presence in the environment can be directly linked to human involvement and its effects.
Become involved and aware of the impacts of global warming on our environment. Buy Starry Night Lights product and be guaranteed environmentally night friendly lighting.
The importance of protecting our environment, through building green has become increasingly significant. All across the globe, governments and companies are taking steps to become more green. In fact, companies who refuse to ‘go green’ have begun to look like backwards companies, compared to their innovative, competitors. This same mentality goes for nations, as well. Nations who have made the appropriate steps in building green and in improving building standards have become the pioneers in creating a more environmentally friendly functioning world. One such nation, in the drive to go green, is Japan.
Japan has already made incredible achievements in the automobile industry and in its efforts to make this industry more green. Japan has also made significant efforts in finding alternative energy sources, and making its automobiles more efficient. In addition to these efforts, Japan is making improvements in going green in buildings.
In fact, Japan has very literally gone green. In the city of Osaka, a city with relatively few green areas, Japan has created Namba Parks, which is a beautiful green complex. It is both an architecture marvel and a beautifully green oriented complex. The area used to be the location of a baseball stadium. It is now an area made up of a 30-foot skyscraper, known as Parks Tower, as well as shopping mall with eight floors of garden area. The area is connected to the street, encouraging individuals to partake in its green splendor and enjoy its trees, rocks, cliffs, streams, waterfalls, ponds and so forth.
For an image of complex, please click on Namba Parks
Climate change has had a significant effect on recent extreme weather changes. This fact has come to our knowledge in many forms, the most influential of which has been the amount and severity of weather disasters that have plagued our world. Especially in the last 5 years, the US has felt the severity and harshness of climate change. This month, the U.S. Climate Change Science Program and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research, have conducted their first comprehensive analysis on projected climate changes in North America and other U.S. territories. Previously, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had conducted a similar test but on a broader scope which focused on global results. However before this recent analysis, there had not been a specific report on the climate changes across North America alone.
According to this analysis, droughts, heavy downpours, extreme heat and strong hurricanes, could all become more common across the globe. This will be the result of human influence and effects, on high concentrations of heat-trapping greenhouse gases. This analysis is based on strong scientific evidence which heavily indicates that a ‘warmer world’ will cause high changes in the strength, length, location and frequency of extreme weather occurrences.
According to Tom Karl, of the the National Climate Data Center, in Asheville, N.C., “This report addresses one of the most frequently asked questions about global warming: what will happen to weather and climate extremes? This synthesis and assessment product examines this question across North America and concludes that we are now witnessing and will increasingly experience more extreme weather and climate events”.
Unfortunately, over the past 50 years the negative impacts of global warming which has occurred is directly linked to human caused- heat trapping gases. During these 50 years, many unusal weather occurences have occurred, and will continue to occur.
Some of the unusal/severe consequences of climate change, which are expected to occur are:
- Unusually hot days and evenings, heat waves, as well as a decrease in very cold evenings
- Rain will be less frequent, but more intense during times of percipitation
- Increased drought
- Stronger hurricanes, with stronger winds and rain
- Continued melting of sea ice in the Arctic
- Stronger cold season storms, in the Atlantic and Pacific, with stronger more extreme waves
Join with Starry Night Lights in the struggle against global warming and its cosequences. In order to protect our environment, ourselves and the livestyle we’ve come to hold dear, we must make the appropriate steps to lessen global warming and climate change. Buy energy efficient appliances- protect the environment.
Our night sky friendly 
