A french system

The personal carbon footprint is a tool used in France that allows the individual to assess their greenhouse gas emissions. Born under the leadership of Jean-Marc Jancovici, he was posted in 2007, ADEME and Climate Futures Association. It allows any individual to accurately calculate the emissions of greenhouse gases caused by his actions, and therefore its participation in the global warming in every area of his life.

Carbon footprint calculator takes into account staff, "Procurement of shoes on a skiing holiday, through heating and steaks.

Description

With, preferably, with its annual gas bill, electricity, its mileage (approximate) automotive and aircraft (the site provides a link distance calculator city to city for the world), and with memory consumption of food, products and services, the site offers to know every detail of its own emissions of greenhouse gases (including methane emitted by farm animals that are eaten).

The site allows First, if desired, create a nickname to protect his information, which is useful if one wishes to correct then some of its programs for example to compare the efficacy of efforts that are plans ...

One link

http://www2.ademe.fr/servlet/KBaseShow?sort=-1&cid=96&m=3&catid=15730

The ruling administration is initiating different programs which are means towards establishing civilized rules of the game which are found in most developed countries. For instance, the usage of safety belts has recently become obligatory and those who disobey this rule face serious penalties. A similar law concerns the issue of tinting car windows. In 2011, an ecological inspection of cars might be put on the agenda. Police might start detecting cars which pollute the air. As it is known, most of the cars running in the country are second hand European, American or Japanese cars. So many of these cars could be banned which would be a great blow for the population. On the other hand another issue may appear; the low quality of petrol sold in the country. The number of cars in the country continues to increase. In 2000 there were around 250,000 cars registered in Georgia, 2005 - 400,000, and in 2009 - 660,000. From the latest number, only about 30,000 cars are less than 5 years old. Almost 270,000 cars are older than 20 years. If these cars are checked according to European standards of ecology, there is high probability that even the cars which are younger than 5 years will have problems with qualifying. If strict checking takes place, it is likely that the amount of running cars in the country will diminish. This will cause a deficit in motor transport and proceeding from the disability of population to buy new cars, there will be a serious crisis in the country. Another issue is the quality of petrol. From 2008 country has moved towards using Euro 5 standard petrol. However, low standard petrol is still being used in the country. There are low standards of quality in this direction. The petrol business has powerful lobbies in the state structures and therefore this issue will also have very controversial results.

Consequences for the climate

Likely  to produce other changes :

– retreat of glaciers, – melting of pack ice, – rise in average sea level,
– changes in  precipitation patterns, resulting in floods  and droughts,
– increases in the frequency  and intensity of extreme climate events such as hurricanes and cyclones, – changes in the circulation patterns of marine currents, such as the Gulf Stream and the North-Atlantic Drift, which could result in the cooling of certain regions (Western Europe, …). (see picture 1)

Some of these change have already started and can be traced back to global warming. In particular, this is the case with the melting of glaciers. These climate changes are clearly going to have consequences on the flora and fauna. It is forecast that a large number of species are in danger of disappearing.      (see picture 2)  

Consequences  for human beings

Besides an increase in natural catastrophes, agricultural yields could be modified and the zones where carriers of diseases such as cholera and malaria are present could be extended. Many growing populations living in tropical zones could be particularly impacted by climate change. Other populations could be displaced as a result of rising sea levels.

Whole peoples could see their way of life modified, like the Inuits of Kuujjuaq (Northern Canada) whose mayor, Larry Watt, ordered air conditioners in June 2006 after temperatures reached 31 °C !

Economic  consequences

Calculations of the economic impact of global warming are very difficult to make. Some economists speak of a cost of two euros per tonne of carbon, whereas others suggest 50 euros. Among the various figures put forward, one estimates that global warming might cost up to one percentage point of economic growth. It is worth noting that banks, insurance companies, farmers and developing countries are likely to be the most exposed. However, depending on the capacity of adaptation shown by the economy and by political organisations and on possible technological revolutions triggered by the challenge of climate change, a more optimistic outlook is not to be entirely excluded.

Some  positive consequences

Already, global warming is beginning to stimulate governments to work together to fight a  problem that concerns everyone – in itself quite a novel development. Global warming and energy issues also have a tendency to accelerate individual and political awareness of the impact of human activity on the environment. They are encouraging development of innovative technological solutions. Other more specific consequences expected are :

– lower winter mortality in the temperate zones,
– an increase in wood production,
– a rise in agricultural yields in temperate zones,
– increased water resources in certain dry zones close to the tropics,
– a drop in energy consumption  for space heating (but a rise in that used for air conditioning).

This revue is published twice a month in a French magazine called “Systèmes solaires”. The main streets where you can find the Head quarter is 146 rue de l'Université - 75007 Paris in France. You can also have more information on the French website: www.energies-renouvelables.org and our website of course… Enjoy your reading!

Nowadays, houses, apartments which work with sun or positive high quality environmental energies are important. It takes an important place in our society and in the world. Passive houses, solar houses, high performance energetic are all the names you can use to talk about bio climatic architecture.

The main goal of this architectural way of conception is to find a balance between houses, climate around and inhabitant comfort. The bio climatic architecture takes the best part from the radiance of the sun and of the natural circulation of air. This let to reduce the energetic needs, maintain pleasant temperatures, control wetness but also favours natural sunlight.

September 23, 2010 was inaugurated off Kent in southeast England, the largest wind farm in the world. This park is located off the d istrict of Thanet. It was built by a Swedish energy group: Vattenfall. It cost over 780 000 000 £.

Today, it includes more than 100 turbines (a supply of electricity for 240,000 homes). It will record total of 341 turbines within 4 years. 
England produced since the creation of this park enough wind energy to supply a population equal to that of Scotland (more than 3000 wind turbines).

Zoom on Vattenfall: Vattenfall has come a long way since its beginnings in Sweden more than a century ago. Deregulation has resulted in substantial changes in the constitution and operation of the energy industry, and the free market has encouraged and driven the development of new products and services. Vattenfall is doing everything to implement new products and new services to.

Some key figures for wind turbines

Life: 20 years

Production per year: 2000 KWh

1KWh cost: 0, 05£

Nestlé, maker of Kit Kat, uses palm oil from companies that are  trashing Indonesian rainforests, threatening the livelihoods of local  people and pushing orang-utans towards extinction. Take action.

We all deserve to have a break - but having one shouldn't involve taking a bite out of Indonesia's precious rainforests. We're asking Nestlé to give rainforests and orang-utans a break and stop buying palm oil from destroyed forests.

Over the 40 years since the BR-364 Highway was built directly through Rondonia, as seen in “Children of the Amazon,” Brazil has experienced a devastating loss of forest. The indigenous and rubber tapper communities directly impacted by this loss are working to prevent it. Google Earth Outreach is helping train the Surui tribe to use Internet technology to monitor and protect the forest.

Brazilian government presented a draft for a plan to fight and adapt to global warming. In the preliminary document, the government doesn’t set goals for carbon emissions reduction, but says by 2015 deforestation could stop in the Amazon. More specifically, that they’ll be planting more trees than the ones being cut down.

Just a few days after the launch, new figures released by the Brazilian National Research Institute say deforestation went up by 134% from July to August, and that the 756 kilometers lost represent 228% more than the figures from the same month last year. The annual accumulation in 2008 is 64% more than the 12 months last year.

According to BBC Mundo and Abril, deforestation accounts for 75 to 80% of Brazilian emissions, and one of the main goals of this draft plan is to target this problem.

The reforestation program includes increasing the area of planted forest from 5.5 million hectares to 11 million by 2015, 2 million of which have to be native species and the rest forest for commercial use.

According to Environmental Minister, if this is done, by 2015 the government would be planting more trees than the ones being cut down. Of course this statement was done a few days before the new figures for deforestation i

n the Amazon were released, which threw an alarming 134% monthly increase.

Joining the problem of the sustainable development, a "green" house has ecological, economic and social implications. This article deals about the collective profits of these responsible houses.

A sustainable house to limit the global warming

The energy improvement of the housing environment is essential in the struggle against the global warming. In France, the buildings represent 46 % of the consummate energy. Two thirds of this housing were built before 1975 and consume on average almost four times more that housing built after 2000. Among the 450 000 housing sold every year, the objective to set up renovation work directed on the insulation, the mode of heating, the two points of the sustainable house. It is these particular efforts which will produce the collective profits on the horizon 2020-2050.

A sustainable house to protect the immediate environment

Every particular act is an indispensable stone of the eco-responsible building for everybody. The use of materials easy to recycle limits the costs for the community and the risks of local pollution. As an example, we can quote insulations on vegetable base or of animal origin, ecological building materials… 

The use of the renewable energies to warm, to light, acts on the environmental conservation. The firewood, the geothermal science, the photovoltaic and thermal solar energy or the wind energy are eco-energy solutions.

Besides, the use of regional materials encourages the local economy reduces the impact to CO2 emissions affect to the transport.

A sustainable house to save

A “green” house participates obviously in the development of the sector of building and local jobs. The use of the regional wood as energy maintains logically employment in this sector. The practice also encourages the development of the new technologies of eco-conception.

To reduce the energy consumption and the water consumption allows to limit the operating budget of the house.

Besides, to favor these developments, the State and the local authorities, and also institutions as the ADEME (Agence De l’Environnement et le la maîtrise de l’Energie) set up very advantageous financial operations to support the change.