Wishful thinking that capitalism can actually save forests

Guest Post: Redeeming REDD | redd-monitor.org: "Opponents of REDD speak about the predatory green economy, REDD as a new form of colonialism, rights abuses, carbon cowboys and susceptibility to other forms of grander organized crime corruption. "

Welcome to the Malaysian Palm Oil Board // Biodiesel Solutions

NASA Goddard

Smoke from fires on Indonesia’s Sumatra island is polluting Singapore and Malaysia.

Washington, DC: "According to the World Commission on the Environment and Development, sustainable development is defined as development that ‘meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’. Sustainable palm oil production comprises legal, economically viable, environmentally appropriate and socially beneficial management and operations. Thus, the use of sustainable palm oil for the production of palm biodiesel will make the Malaysian palm biodiesel industry sustainable. This concept focuses primarily on the proper practices required to achieve sustainability.

From the economic point of view, the utilization of the bioenergy such as biodiesel may not be as economically attractive as using conventional energy, but this should not prevent its widespread use as the concern towards depletion of the fossil fuels and increasing environmental concerns must also be addressed."

Public transit yes, but how.

This article mentions the drop in commuter rail use as if it is a problem. It is not a problem. We should not be using rail to encourage sprawl. For many years suburban commuters got preference over urban bus riders. That should end.

U.S. cities are building commuter rail, so where are the riders? | SmartPlanet: "Commuter rail — which connects city centers with suburbs — had the smallest growth of any transit system in the U.S. at 0.5 percent., with 10 out of 28 systems actually losing riders."

In general, we should not be doing capital-intensive projects. Subways take people underground to allow cars to own the streets. People should be in the streets with free buses, and as need becomes apparent, light rail and/or trams. The U.S. streetcars were deconstructed by a combination of less-frequent service and replacement by buses. We need to go back via the same path. Make buses frequent and free, then you will see where to put rail.

Revealed: £2bn cost of failed Sellafield plant

UK - The Independent: "The Green Party's spokesman, Andrew Cooper, said: "They have described their report as 'Lessons learnt' but the reality is that this is a catalogue of inherent failure which brings into question the whole nuclear industry. Clearly there have been well-documented failures by officials but far from learning the lessons, it appears that the coalition and Labour are willing to give them the benefit of the doubt yet again.""

Vietnam shows how not to promote public transit by imposing massive rail projects on top of autosprawl

Vietnam latest news - Thanh Nien Daily | Vietnam metro systems get set, but will the public go?: "However, they face a much tougher task in convincing millions of motorbike and car owners to switch to the trains because old habits die hard, and, some experts say, entrenched attitudes die even harder."

Start simple. With free buses. As ridership grows, you will know what to do.

Carbon markets can't work, won't work.

redd-monitor.org: "The financial firms that helped create carbon markets, “have a vested interest in market instruments that are complex, opaque, volatile, and hard to value”, Levy writes, adding that, “there are legitimate grounds for concern that carbon markets were not designed to provide the clear and simple price signals needed to stimulate a broad transition to a low-carbon economy.”"

Many years and hopes put into carbon market turn out to be a waste

European carbon market’s trouble darkens outlook for remedying climate change - The Washington Post: "As the regional plan falters, some countries are going it alone on domestic initiatives. This year, for instance, Britain introduced a carbon tax on emissions that British manufacturers say has put them at a competitive disadvantage with their counterparts on the continent. It suggests the potential pitfalls ahead as countries and even smaller jurisdictions such as states, provinces and cities introduce a disparate patchwork of climate-change measures."