Offsetters Blog

Diesels Better for Society Than Hybrids, Study Finds | Autopia from Wired.com

2007-11-10T12:41:00.000-08:00

Diesels Better for Society Than Hybrids, Study Finds | Autopia from Wired.com

Diesels get a rough ride in North America although they are very popular in Europe (where hybrids have not done as well). There is a good case for saying that hybrids are a great technology with room for improvement and they certainly perform well for urban taxi's. But North Americans should look more closely at diesels as Mercedes and VW bring a wider range of models to the market. Honda has developed an advanced diesel system in Europe that would also be popular over here.

Climate Change Pollution Rising—Thanks to Overwhelmed Oceans and Plants: Scientific American

2007-10-23T13:27:00.000-07:00

Climate Change Pollution Rising—Thanks to Overwhelmed Oceans and Plants: Scientific American

Oceans play a critical role in absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. 70-80% of the carbon dioxide will end up in the oceans. Oceans are far more important than terrestrial systems such as forests, which may not even be a net sink for carbon in temperate regions. So evidence that the rate of absorption is slowing down is a real cause for concern. The rate of decline is much faster than anyone might have anticipated, so this study is going to be subject to very close scrutiny. The backdrop is that emissions have risen from 8.4 to 9.9 billion metric tonnes between 2000 and 2006.

It's rip-off Britain, even when it comes to climate change | Climate Change | Guardian Unlimited

2007-10-23T11:41:00.000-07:00

It's rip-off Britain, even when it comes to climate change | Climate Change | Guardian Unlimited

The challenge for the UK is that as gas prices and oil prices have risen, there is more incentive to use coal as a fuel source. So emissions have risen because coal is cheaper, even when companies have bought emissions rights. Its one of the paradoxes of climate change that expensive oil could increase overall emissions as suppliers switch to coal.

globeandmail.com: Greenhouse gases already beyond 'worst-case,' scientist says

2007-10-10T08:56:00.000-07:00

globeandmail.com: Greenhouse gases already beyond 'worst-case,' scientist says

Respected Australian climate change expert, Tim Flannery, has announced that the IPCC will soon announce that economic growth has pushed greenhouse gas emissions beyond even the worst case scenario. All the evidence one needs that intensity-based targets such as those proposed by Alberta and other jurisdictions are ineffective in achieving real reductions.

Announcing North America's First Carbon Neutral Airline

2007-09-25T19:31:00.000-07:00

Harbour Air Ltd, the world’s largest all-seaplane airline, announced today that it has pledged to become completely carbon neutral by the end of 2007. Effective October 1, 2007, Harbour Air will purchase high quality carbon offsets to mitigate the climate impact of all scheduled service, charter and tour operations. This will make Harbour Air the first air carrier of any variety in North America and the only seaplane airline in the world to make all of its flight services 100% carbon neutral.

Harbour Air is further pledging to offset its corporate emissions to become the first carrier in the world to become completely carbon neutral in all aspects of its business. Harbour Air Seaplanes will institute a policy to track, reduce, and offset its corporate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by January 1, 2008.

This program was launched in partnership with Offsetters Climate Neutral Society.

For more details, see www.harbourair.com

North-West Passage is now plain sailing | Environment | Guardian Unlimited

2007-08-28T10:38:00.000-07:00

North-West Passage is now plain sailing | Environment | Guardian Unlimited

In case you needed more evidence of why governments of Canada, the US, and Russia that are otherwise climate change skeptics are all of a sudden so interested in sovereignty issues in the north. For the first time since records began, the Northwest Passage is ice free.

WP: Cost of Saving the Climate Meets Real-World Hurdles

2007-08-17T09:50:00.000-07:00

The voluntary offset market has grown to a $55 million/year industry, prompting increased scrutiny of offset projects and companies. A look at the challenges faced in participating in an unregulated industry.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/15/AR2007081502432.html?hpid=moreheadlines

news @ nature.com - Rising temperatures "will stunt rainforest growth" - Plants suffering in the heat could make global warming worse.

2007-08-13T13:24:00.000-07:00

news @ nature.com - Rising temperatures "will stunt rainforest growth" - Plants suffering in the heat could make global warming worse.

A lot of people hope that reforestation or avoided deforestation will limit some of the increases in greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere. Most people understand the simple story of how living plants absorb carbon dioxide, but this show how the system is more complex. Plant do increase in productivity up to a threshold and then they are not able to photosynthesise. Worst still, if trees die then they may rot, producing methane in large volumes, which is a very effective greenhouse gas. These problems apply both in northern and tropical forests. In northern forests, the other big issue is that there is actually more carbon in the soil than in the trees themselves. A study in the UK found net losses of carbon dioxide from soil reserves in recent years. So tree planting, while attractive in terms of the story, is much more complex than it seems.

Climate Change from breathing

2007-07-28T01:40:00.001-07:00

Every time you breath out, a little bit of carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere. Add up all the carbon dioxide breathed out and it adds up to 0.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide or about 0.6 tons per person per year. Human waste adds in another 0.3 tons per year. Add in all the carbon dioxide from domestic animals and it adds up to about 2 billion tons.

Special Report on Climate Change - New Scientist Environment

2007-07-27T18:13:00.000-07:00

Special Report on Climate Change - New Scientist Environment
New Scientist has just run another special issue on climate change covering a range of issues from the role of iodine in the oceans to the reasons why green buildings have not been as popular as they should be. There is detailed coverage of the new Australian cap and trade system and an interesting piece on the relationship between climate change and war in Chinese history. This theme came up in the early nineties as a number of international relations scholars wondered out loud about whether climate change and environmental degradation in general could cause conflict. Generally, the view at the time was that war is driven by far more complex factors that climate change.

California Academy of Sciences Aims to Be the Greenest Museum on Earth

2007-07-26T17:33:00.000-07:00

California Academy of Sciences Aims to Be the Greenest Museum on Earth

Climate Engineering Is Doable, as Long as We Never Stop

2007-07-26T17:32:00.000-07:00

Climate Engineering Is Doable, as Long as We Never Stop

BBC NEWS | Business | Brown to lobby EU on greener VAT

2007-07-22T14:56:00.000-07:00

BBC NEWS | Business | Brown to lobby EU on greener VAT
Europe has led the world in the development of indirect taxation systems that seek to modify behaviour. A system co-ordinated across Europe would be more appealing as it would prevent consumers from simply purchasing in a jurisdiction that doesn't apply the same taxes. This already happens with tobacco and alcohol. But it also shows the extent to which a green agenda is being seen as a way of generating revenues in the course of modifying behaviour; part of a wider shift away from direct taxation of income and towards indirect taxation.

Scotsman.com News - Scotland - Edinburgh - Photographer shows world in denial of climate change

2007-07-20T19:38:00.000-07:00

Scotsman.com News - Scotland - Edinburgh - Photographer shows world in denial of climate change

Sometimes images have more influence than words and scientific data.

news @ nature.com - US proposal for carbon cuts offers compromise - Climate legislation makes headway in Congress.

2007-07-20T12:22:00.000-07:00

news @ nature.com - US proposal for carbon cuts offers compromise - Climate legislation makes headway in Congress.
Carbon markets and climate change policy in general are gaining momentum in the US for complex reasons. Industry realizes that if they don't act that there may be legislation but I think there is a more complex reason. In a conversation with two researchers from the National Intelligence Office we sketched out three forces that overlap to drive climate policy: climate change, national security and energy independence. It is becoming clear that part of the backlash against the Iraq war has manifested as a concern about the geopolitics of oil. The US and her allies would not be there without the demand for oil from within the continent. Similarly, large scale utilities in the energy sector currently make attractive targets for terrorists. Distributed energy systems, which may reduce emissions would also be more resilient to attack. The combination of these factors may help make for a perfect storm, or at least a squall around climate change.

The corporate race to cut carbon : article : Nature Reports Climate Change

2007-07-20T11:17:00.000-07:00

The corporate race to cut carbon : article : Nature Reports Climate Change

Nature reports on moves by business leader to address climate change, in some cases in advance of government regulation. Lots of people have raised concerns about whether businesses can contribute positively to tackling climate change, since industry is seen as the cause of many of the problems. I think that the only way we will see real progress towards addressing the challenge of climate change is through the engagement of the most innovative firms in the world. The article describes efforts by BP to tackle their own emissions through internal markets and market research suggests that the clean tech market could be worth $55 billion in 2006 in the US.

Welcome to offsetters

2007-07-15T22:07:00.001-07:00

By popular request we have finally launched a blog to help keep track of all the projects we are working on and to share the most recent information we've encountered on climate change and carbon markets.