Home/Posts Tagged ‘copenhagen’
Posts Tagged ‘copenhagen’
Green living, Sep 12th, 2011,
I stopped driving when I moved to Europe over ten years ago. I’ve never really missed it as it hurts my back. I also don’t miss traffic jams, paying for gas/petrol, insurance and general vehicle upkeep. Soon after relocating I got into cycling. No, not skin-tight lycra clothing and titanium water bottles, just getting from A to B on a standard velocipede. I’ve got no time for trendy fixed gears or expensive, masturbatory mountain bikes. Some bastard will just steal them anyway. These last ten years my no-car-guy persona has become set in his ways. I’m thrifty to the point…
Tags: Berlin, bike, car, copenhagen, cycle, cycling, denmark, Europe, lane, traffic
Green living, Weird Stuff, Jul 4th, 2011,
Young architects in Copenhagen, Denmark are designing buildings and infrastructure that aim to be environmentally sound without sacrificing a bit of the convenience and pleasure that is synonymous with an affluent urban lifestyle. Can the residents of the Danish capital have their cake and eat it too? Award-winning architect Bjarke Ingels of BIG seems to think so. He believes the way towards sustainability is not by inconveniencing people, but rather by re-engineering the structures of society to make them less wasteful. From the Guardian: I work with the idea of hedonistic sustainability, which is sustainability that improves the quality of…
Tags: architecture, Bjarke Ingels, copenhagen, denmark, sustainable
Climate Change, Politics, Oct 6th, 2010,
The UN climate talks currently underway in Tianjin, China are smaller, more subdued and well organized when compared to the major international event at Copenhagen last December. But in the end they are still about China vs. the United States. Tianjin is being seen as an opportunity to find some common ground before the UN summit in Cancún, Mexico later this year, but the chief US envoy is frustrated at the level and speed of progress taking place. Instead of actual progress he sees backtracking. From a report in the Guardian: What is frustrating in these negotiations is to see…
Tags: China, climate, Climate change, copenhagen, low expectations, talks, Tianjin, UN, US
Conservation, Politics, Wildlife & Flora, Sep 19th, 2010,
Researchers met last week at the NEOBIOTA conference in Copenhagen, Denmark to discuss the problem of invasive species in Europe. The 6th NEOBIOTA conference called on the EU to protect Europe’s native species against animals, plants and microorganisms that are deemed a threat. The participants are demanding that the EU enact legislation similar to that of New Zealand and Australia. Invasive species – which have, according to research, increased by 76% over the last 30 years – cost Europe an estimated €12 billion every year. A European inventory in 2008 found more than 10,000 alien species in Europe, with 1,300…
Tags: alien, conference, copenhagen, EU, Europe, invasive, NEOBIOTA, species
Climate Change, Politics, Sep 1st, 2010,
In the wake of a summer that spawned harsh heat waves and forest fires in Europe; and catastrophic floods in China, Pakistan and elsewhere in Asia, climate debate is back in the news. Debate about the significance or even existence of anthropogenic global warming featured prominently the headlines last winter during the UN climate conference in Copenhagen, the ‘Climategate’ scandal the IPCC and the Met Office were embroiled in; and when parts of Europe and the US experienced unseasonably cold temperatures. These major events were followed by a relative lull in media coverage of climate issues, punctuated by the odd…
Tags: Bjorn, Climate change, ClimateGate, copenhagen, debate, global warming, IPCC, King, Lawson, Lomborg, news, Pachauri, report, review, science, skeptical
Climate Change, Politics, Aug 8th, 2010,
According to representatives of both poor and rich nations, there has been no progress at the climate talks held in Bonn, Germany this past week. In fact there has been the opposite: regression and pessimism concerning potential progress. The EU climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard said she believes the negotiations have ‘gone backwards’. From a BBC News report: Unfortunately, what we have seen over and over this week is that some countries are walking back from progress made in Copenhagen, and what was agreed there. –chief US negotiator Jonathan Pershing Despite frustrating developments at Bonn and the aforementioned ‘negative Nancys’, Christiana…
Tags: Bonn, change, climate, copenhagen, Germany, pessimism, progress, talks
Climate Change, Politics, Jul 28th, 2010,
Cap and trade or emissions trading schemes can be confusing. They have been touted as the chief market-based solution for limiting greenhouse gas emissions, preserving valuable natural resources like forests, while making money for rich and poor countries alike. The far right and climate change skeptics hate them for obvious – and sometimes less obvious – reasons: they hate government meddling in the free market and regulating business and industry to the point that they believe in a vast ‘socialist’ conspiracy involving all prominent climate scientists. Or is it just a simple question of which class and which industries will…
Tags: activist, cap and trade, carbon, change, China, climate, copenhagen, Decodcidio, emissions, environmentalist, European, exchange, hacked, justice, market, scheme, social, trading
Climate Change, Green living, Politics, Weird Stuff, Jun 17th, 2010,
Last year’s COP-15 event may have achieved “epic fail” status, but that’s certainly not going to stop the former host city—Copenhagen, Denmark—from pushing their green standards a bit further. Copenhagen is now the first Scandinavian city to put a mandatory green roof policy into action. The new policy requires vegetation and soil to be a mandatory part in architectural planning; in particular, it covers all roofs with a slope less than 30 degrees, plus the refurbishment of older roofs. By putting this new green roof policy into action, it pushes the great Danish city one step closer to reaching their…
Tags: architecture, carbon neutral, copenhagen, denmark, design, first, green roofs, green space, mandatory, policy, Scandinavia
Climate Change, Nature, Politics, Jun 8th, 2010,
The UN climate talks taking place in Bonn, Germany this week are not proving to be a source of positive news for the global environment. An binding agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions sufficiently enough to avoid the risk of runaway global warming and climate change were meant to be the goal of last December’s climate talks in Copenhagen. But according to the outgoing UN climate chief, this will probably take at least 10 more years. Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is quoted in an AFP report: I don’t see the…
Tags: 10, Bonn, climate, Climate change, copenhagen, countries, emissions, logging, nations, rich, talks, years
Climate Change, Politics, May 30th, 2010,
Belief in global warming plummeted amongst the British public after the climate change conference in Copenhagen last December, according to a BBC poll early this year. A similar poll commissioned by the London Times also showed increased skepticism regarding climate amongst those surveyed. Belief in climate change amongst scientists has not changed, but in the war of the press, the climate skeptics – often called climate deniers – did gain significant ground in Copenhagen’s wake. From a May 24th article in the New York Times: Two independent reviews later found no evidence that the East Anglia researchers had actively distorted…
Tags: climate, Climate change, copenhagen, environment, global, Guardian, Independent, poll, press, skepticism, skeptics, Telegraph, Times, UK, war, warming
Climate Change, Politics, May 19th, 2010,
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has appointed a successor to United Nations climate chief Yvo de Boer. Filling de Boer’s shoes will be Christiana Figueres, an experienced climate negotiator and diplomat from Costa Rica. After the Copenhagen debacle, Figueres will have the daunting task of reestablishing political and popular support for a UN facilitated climate deal. From a BBC News report: Admitting those accord talks were “not transparent and not inclusive enough,” Ms Figueres denied that Copenhagen had been a failure, stressing climate change was now “at the top of every political agenda in every country”. Christiana Figueres’ father was…
Tags: chief, Christiana, climate, Climate change, copenhagen, Costa Rica, Costa Rican, Figueres, UN
Climate Change, Politics, Apr 26th, 2010,
In terms of development and environment, global capitalism can be compared to a dinner where a rich few eat all the food and leave the bill with their poor, unwilling hosts after tossing a stingy tip and some dinner notes onto the table. The colonized, indigenous and poorest peoples of the world are the ones who suffer most from climate change, do the least to cause it and hold the least power to stop it. The UNFCCC in Copenhagen last December may have called attention to the lower tier of the developing world, but it did not give them much…
Tags: alternative, Bolivia, climate, Climate change, conference, copenhagen, Earth, environment, environmental, Evo, Guardian, indigenous, Morales, poor, President, talks, WPCCC
Green living, Weird Stuff, Apr 19th, 2010,
Keeping with Denmark’s progressively green lifestyle, one hotel is offering a rather unique deal to its guests. Located 15 minutes from the center of Copenhagen, the Crowne Plaza Copenhagen Towers hotel is offering a free meal in exchange for electricity. How will this be done? Well, there will be two exercise bicycles installed at the hotel. These bikes will be connected to generators. Any guest is welcome to use these bikes; however, their use comes with a challenge. According to a statement from the hotel: “Anyone producing 10 watt hours of electricity or more for the hotel will be given…
Tags: 10 watt hours, bicycle, carbon footprint, challenge, copenhagen, Crowne Plaza Copenhagen Towers, denmark, electricity, energy, exercise, free meal, generators, hotel guests
Climate Change, Politics, Apr 16th, 2010,
The World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth begins on Monday, April 19th in Cochabamba, Bolivia. The summit, which is not under the auspices of the UN, is seen as the alternative to Copenhagen, with more of a focus on poor peoples, social justice and environmental activism. In addition to scientists, representatives of indigenous peoples, NGOs and government officials, the conference will welcome prominent authors, academic luminaries and Hollywood celebrities. The final group an obvious and understandable strategy to garner valuable publicity for issues that were buried during Copenhagen. Big names expected at the Bolivia…
Tags: alternative, Bolivia, climate, Climate change, conference, copenhagen, Earth, environmental, Evo, Hollywood, Morales, mother, poor, President, summit
Climate Change, Politics, Apr 12th, 2010,
The first UN climate talks since Copenhagen ended in Bonn, Germany, much as expected – with little concrete progress. The cleavage between industrialized and developing countries that characterized the Copenhagen conference is likely to continue through the next major climate talks in Cancun, Mexico at the end of the year. This rich poor divide provided the fireworks for the meetings in Bonn, which ultimately ended in an agreement to intensify negotiations before Mexico. From an article in the Guardian: In what was interpreted as a major rebuff to the US, Russia and Japan, the G77 (plus China) group of 130…
Tags: accord, ALBA, binding, Bolivia, Bonn, Cancun, China, climate, copenhagen, countries, deal, developing, japan, kyoto, Mexico, nations, talks, UN, US
Climate Change, Politics, Apr 9th, 2010,
Copenhagen it’s not, but the first UN climate meetings since December’s disappointment in Denmark began today in Bonn, Germany. According to a report from BBC News, developing countries are strongly on board with the UN process and would like to see a binding global climate deal under the Kyoto Protocol by the next major summit, which takes place in Mexico in November and December. But political will is lacking in some richer nations, especially the US. US President Barack Obama’s modest pledge made at Copenhagen to reduce emissions by 17% from 2005 levels by 2020 probably does not have the…
Tags: accord, Bonn, climate, Climate change, copenhagen, countries, developing, emissions, Germany, kyoto, meetings, Mexico, nations, protocol, rich, treaty, UN, US
Climate Change, Politics, Videos & Documentaries, Mar 9th, 2010,
Here’s something good that came out of COP15: The Stupid Show I could spend hours watching these snippets and interviews from Franny Armstrong and company. They are both alternately and simultaneously interesting, depressing, amusing and sometimes even inspiring. Armstrong is the filmmaker responsible for the eco-documentary The Age of Stupid. During the climate change conference in Copenhagen last December she and her crew were on site talking to politicians, activists, journalists, celebrities and ‘climate witnesses’ – ordinary people who have already suffered the effects of climate change. I highly recommend scrolling down and following all the links, exploring a bit,…
Tags: Armstrong, change, climate, copenhagen, environmental, Franny, Miliband, show, Stupid
Climate Change, Politics, Feb 26th, 2010,
Economic recession, ‘Climategate’ and other ensuing scandals may have shaken both the public’s faith in – and concern about – the realities of man made climate change. Yet a fickle media or confused citizenry have not been enough for most political establishments to break from some kind of platform that takes climate change and other environmental issues into account. Contemporary politics are still strongly influenced by what has become the zeitgeist of the day – and the parties of the future will no doubt be judged in part on how they are now reacting to environmental concerns. For the moment,…
Tags: climate, Climate change, copenhagen, Economist, environment, environmental, european union, Green, greener, Left, party, political, Politics, Right, Rising Tide
Climate Change, Politics, Feb 2nd, 2010,
![]( "<!--:en-->Breaking:")
' src='http://gf1.statico.be/wp-content/themes/greenfudge/thumbnails/6719.jpg' alt='breaking-not-good-enough-55-nations-sign-copenhagen-accord' class='art-teaser' width='95' height='95' /> 55 countries signed onto the Copenhagen accord by January 31st, the UN’s ‘soft deadline’ for submitting promises to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The 55 signatories – who are responsible for 78% of greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel burning – include China, the US and all 27 European Union states. So far the pledges to reduce emissions are not sufficient for what is needed to keep the Earth’s temperature from rising 2C (3.6 F) above pre industrial levels, or 1.3C (2.3F) above today’s temperatures, according to the goals set out during the Copenhagen climate talks. Janos Pasztor, the top climate…
Tags: accord, climate, copenhagen, emissions, gas, greenhouse, Guardian, sign, temperature, UN
Climate Change, Politics, Jan 21st, 2010,
In an unprecedented and audacious move to curb global greenhouse gas emissions, the Federated States of Micronesia – a small nation of islands in the western Pacific Ocean – have appealed against the refitting of a coal plant in far off Prunerov, Czech Republic. Prunerov – owned by the utilities conglomerate CEZ – is one of the largest coal-fired power stations in the EU and the largest single source of CO2 emissions in the Czech Republic. According to the Norwegian environmental NGO Bellona, the Czech plant emits 40 times as much yearly CO2 as the entire Federated States of Micronesia….
Tags: Bellona, Climate change, co2, coal, copenhagen, Czech, Czech Republic, emissions, environment, Federated States of Micronesia, global, island, Micronesia, ocean, Pacific, plant, power, Prunerov, Times
