Explore Our Planet

1 liter gasoline/petrol - burnt in a car - emitts about 2.3 kilogramm carbon dioxyde. Diesel even more: 2.6 kg CO2. Only 10 per cent of the fuels energy are effectively used to transport you. The rest is wasted for moving iron , tires and oil.

Of course cars must be safe, but in no car you have a chance to survive a crash with 120kph. So why is it fun to drive with death speed? However if you really need your own car and car sharing is not an option, check out climate friendly cars.

ExploreOurPla.net mirrors from now the car fuel database of the Vehicle Certification Agency based in UK. 3,300 models from Alfa Romeo to Volvo all with CO2 emissions per kilometer.

The winner is the Prius build by Toyota with its hybrid engine and 104 g/km CO2. To compare: the 2001 Roadster L144 from Lamborghini emitts 520 g same distance.

Nearly a year after its launch, 28 April 2006, the French - U.S.A. mission CALIPSO collected numerous measurements of the structure of Earth’s atmosphere in unprecedented detail. Equiped with a sort of optical radar, Calipso is designed to identify the impact of clouds and aerosols on climate change.

In latest IPCC Climate Change report (SPM) the level of scientific understanding regarding anthropogenic aerosols is between low and medium low. The radiative forcing of the cloud albedo effect ranges from -1.8 to -0.3 Wm-2. A better understanding would lead to more accurate models and projections.

Calipso data are available via NASA’s Langley Research Center or via the French ICARE data centre dedicated to the study of interactions between clouds, aerosols, radiation and the water cycle.

Picture above shows data captured 11 February 2007 at around 2:00 UTC over Europe and Arctic Sea.

cnes.fr: Climate - Calipso science data now available to scientists worldwide

Quoted from press release, Jan 28 2007:

New survey shows students think climate should be Government’s biggest priority

A hard-hitting climate change advertising campaign showing condoms covering a coal station chimney, a car exhaust and aeroplane engine will be launched in universities across the country this month as part of Friends of the Earth’s The Big Ask campaign.

The launch of the ad campaign coincides with the publication of a new survey which shows that the majority of students think that climate change should be the Government’s biggest priority, with 95 per cent agreeing it is an important issue - ahead of issues such as the war in Iraq, terrorism and student loans. …

The advertising campaign will be delivered to 30 universities across England. Universities taking part in the scheme are:

Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Coventry, Derby, Greenwich, Hertfordshire, Hull, Leeds Metropolitan, Leeds University, Liverpool, London Uni of the Arts, Loughborough, Manchester, Middlesex, Newcastle, Newcastle, Northumbria, Nottingham, Oxford Brookes University, Plymouth, Sheffield University, Southampton, Southbank, Surrey, Thames Valley, Uni of Central England - Birmingham, Uni of West England - Bristol, University College London (UCL), Westminster

Picture credit: Friends of Earth

The World Health Organization states:

• Poor nutrition contributes to 1 out of 2 deaths (53%) associated with infectious diseases among children aged under five in developing countries.
• 1 out of 4 preschool children suffers from under-nutrition, which can severely affect a child’s mental and physical development
• 1 out of 3 people in developing countries are affected by vitamin and mineral deficiencies and therefore more subject to infection, birth defects and impaired physical and psycho-intellectual development.

Aviation contributes to global climate change, and its contribution is increasing. While the EU’s total greenhouse gas emissions fell by 3 % from 1990 to 2002, emissions from international aviation increased by almost 70 %.

In spite of significant improvement in aircraft technology and operational efficiency this has not been enough to neutralise the effect of increased traffic, and the growth in emissions is likely to continue in the next decades.

Overall, the total annual distance covered by the global civil aircraft fleet was forecast to grow by 149% from 2002 to 2030, with the seat-kilometres forecast to grow by 229%.

The case with the most technological advance (that with $100/tonne CO2 cost) was forecast to produce 22% less CO2 in 2030 than the case without the extra incentives to technology development.

However, even this case was forecast to produce nearly twice as much CO2 in 2030 as in 2002.

Forecasts of CO2 emissions from civil aircraft for IPCC, DTI, November 2006

Car buyers now have a simple way to compare the “greenness” of their automotive choices.

Environmental Defense has partnered with Yahoo!Autos to make Green Ratings widely available to consumers—right next to vehicle prices and other common car specs anyone can access on the Internet.

Fuel efficiency factors into the Green Ratings, greener choices cut oil use and help U.S. energy security while protecting the planet.

Remember: no car is most greenest car and only 1% of fuel’s energy is actually used by a car to transport you.

Picture Credit: Australian Greenhouse Office, Department of the Environment and Heritage

The EU’s public register of industrial emissions to air and water, the European Pollutant Emission Register (EPER), was today updated with the latest emissions data from some 12,000 industrial installations across Europe.

The data for 2004 for the first time covers installations in the ten new Member States.

EPER is a register of the emissions produced by large and medium-sized industrial facilities. It covers 50 air and water pollutants. The data in the register comes from facilities in all EU Member States.

The results from the query interface are quite informative. It shows adresses of polluters, CO2 emissions, type of emissions (water, air), amount and more.

Germany’s top CO2 emitter is RWE Power AG with 27,600,000.00 t of CO2 by 2004 an increase of 36,6 per cent since 2001.

At an european scale RWE Power AG is second and BOT Elektrownia Belchat

The greater Tokyo area counts a population of more than 35mill inhabitants and is Planet’s largest metropolitan area. Photo taken by Daily Terra, 2006-10-19. Do you see the ice cap of Mount Fuji?
Info: Effect of Sea-level Rise on Japan

Excessive power consumption, high traffic with unfiltered diesel fuel and coal-fired power plants affect the air quality in the 6,8 million city located in south-east China.

Caused by smog Hong Kong has poor visibility 45 per cent of the time, sometimes even the other side of the harbour is unvisible. Researchers concluded the cost in lost productivity and health care was 2.57 billion US dollars a year.

A report by three universities released this year states 1,600 people a year were dying of pollution-related illnesses in Hong Kong. According to EU standards it is ‘very unhealthy’ if there are 50 micrograms of pollutants per cubic meter of air, where Hong Kong’s very unhealthy level is reached at 180 micrograms. Air Pollution Index, Hong Kong

The “Lights Out” protest was the idea of Alastair Robins, a British expatriate, who says he is fed up with what he calls “the government’s failure to clean the air.”

Tuesday, at exactly 8:00 p.m., 2006-08-08, employees in more than 40 branches of Hong Kong’s biggest coffee chain, Pacific Coffee, switched off floor lamps and dimmed other lights for three minutes to join the territory wide campaign against worsening air pollution.

People in homes, offices, bars, restaurants and shops all over the territory joined in, but most lights were not dimmed.

I’m generally disappointed that more lights didn’t go out (downtown) but I’m proud that we at least got our message across, Alastair Robins said after the brief protest.

The city is facing a lost of attractiveness. Business executives are concerned that pollution is driving businesses away from the city, and making it harder to recruit managers from abroad.

While lifestyle was an important factor before, now hedge funds flee Hong Kong and move to Singapore. Managers constitute they don’t want to expose their children any longer to the smog in Hong Kong.

While still under attack by Israeli forces tens of thousands of people flee Lebanon for their lives. Picture, taken by Daily Aqua, 2006-07-17, shows burning oil refineries near the coast.

via: Deutsche Welle, Detroit Free Press, Antiwar.com