« September 2004 | Main | November 2004 »
October 2004
Wangari Maathai wins the Nobel Peace Prize
Wangari Mathaai has been one of my heros for a long time, I heard her speak in at the TOES conference in 1985, and she, along with other speakers at the same conference like Vandana Shiva, inspired me to spend the bulk of my adult life working on projects with a purpose. She richly deserves the prize and hopefully brings it back to the levels of prestige it once had before some highly dubious awards to war-mongers.
K B C (Kenya Broadcasting Corporation): "Prof. Wangari Mathaai wins Nobel Prize
Caption: Kenya’s environmental campaigner and Environment Asst. Minister Prof Wangari Maathai (pictured) has won the 100 Million shillings worth Nobel Peace Prize, she is the first African woman to be awarded the prestigious prize since its inauguration 1901
Kenya’s environmental campaigner and Assistant Minister for Environment and Natural Resources Prof. Wangari Maathai has won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Prof. Mathaai is the first African woman to be awarded the prestigious prize since it was first handed out in 1901.
Prof. Maathai, the founder of the Green Belt Movement won the over 100 million shillings worth prize from a record field of 194 candidates among them US President George W. Bush, British Premier Tony Blair and Pope John Paul II. I have been called by the Norwegian ambassador to inform me that I have won the Nobel award," Maathai, 64, a veteran environmentalist, said. "I am very excited. I really don't know what to say."
Named after Swedish philanthropist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, the prize will be officialy presented in Oslo on December 10.
Prof. Maathai the Kenya-based Non-governmental Organisation- NGO the Green Belt Movement, comprised mainly of women, is said to have so far planted between 25-30 million trees across Africa.
She is the 12th woman Nobel winner. The 2003 prize also went to a woman, Iranian human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi.
Born in 1940, Prof. Maathai says that tree plantings slow desertification, preserve forest habitats for wildlife and provide a source of fuel, building materials and food for future generations. "
Posted by at 9:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Money reform - links to some resources
Posted by at 10:36 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Stirling Engines
I've been taking a look again at the materials on Stirling Engines, and read a useful article in the Jan-Mar 1999 issue of ATA's magazine with a good collection of links that I thought might be useful to others.
- American Stirling Company - some toys and learning amterial
- The Stirling Outlet - mostly kits
- SunPower focus on a variant of the engine using free pistons
- Stirling Technology inc
- Stirling Energy Systems - solar dish systems
Note only 40% of the links worked, and I'm not sure if that relates to the transience of the web, or of Stirling Engine companies
Posted by at 8:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Age article on Howard conspiring against alternative energy investment.
Why am I not surprised about this article from the Age?
Australia's PM Conspired against Alternative Energy Investment?:
Australia's "The Age" newspaper alleges that the Australian Federal Government and fossil-fuel industry executives discussed ways to stifle growing investment in renewable energy projects at a secret meeting earlier this year.
Prime Minister John Howard called the meeting on May 6, five weeks before releasing the energy white paper on June 14.
The white paper favours massive investment in research to make fossil fuels cleaner, at the expense of schemes boosting growth in renewable energy.
Mr Howard called together the fossil-fuel-based Lower Emissions Technology Advisory Group to seek advice on ways to avoid extending the mandatory renewable energy targets scheme.
The Government has touted the scheme as a key plank in achieving its Kyoto Protocol target to hold greenhouse emissions at 108 per cent of 1990 levels.
The Government continues to refuse to ratify the protocol, despite Russia's decision last week to ratify and bring the protocol into legal effect.
Russia's move further isolates the United States and Australia.
Most countries, including big emitters India and China, support the protocol.
The mandatory renewables target is the only legally enforceable measure among Australia's otherwise voluntary policies to encourage lower emissions.But according to minutes taken by Rio Tinto's acting chairman, Sam Walsh, the Industry and Resources Minister, Ian Macfarlane, told the May 6 meeting the scheme had worked too well.
The scheme requires power companies and large consumers to source an extra 9500 gigawatt hours of electricity from renewable sources by 2010. The 9500 kilowatt-hours target amounts to less than 1 per cent of projected electricity generation in 2010.
Mr Macfarlane said "investment in renewables was running ahead of the original planning", and was generating renewable energy certificates ahead of original projections.
The Government-commissioned Tambling review, tabled last January, warned that unless the scheme was extended beyond 2010, investment in renewable energy generation would stall after 2007 and Australia would be locked out of technical advances that would reduce costs.
The review panel recommended doubling the target to 20,000 megawatt hours by 2020.
It said the economic cost would be 0.08 per cent of GDP, but consumers were willing to pay more for clean power.
But Mr Howard told the May 6 meeting that a $1.5 billion low-emission energy fund was more attractive, as extending the renewables scheme would cost industry $1.7 billion.
The industry representatives agreed with the Government's idea, which was similar to a fund set up by the United States Department of Energy.
The Prime Minister said the mandatory target had been a burden on industry, but "it was not credible to ignore" the Tambling review.
He said there was a real need to propose credible alternatives that would pass "the pub test".
Mr Macfarlane supported a levy on all consumers over 10 to 15 years to create the new $1.5 billion technology fund.
The white paper released five weeks later, however, proposed that the Government provide $500 million, with the rest from industry on a two-for-one dollar basis.
The minister closed the meeting stressing the need for "absolute" confidentiality to avoid a "huge outcry" from the renewable energy industry.
Australian elections are being held on October 9th.
The Age Article on PM John Howard and Alternative Energy in Australia
(Via Alternative Energy Blog - Alternative-Energy-News.com.)
Posted by at 8:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)