By Julian Baggini from Financial Times

Review of Green Philosophy: How to Think Seriously About the Planet, by Roger Scruton, Atlantic, RRP£22, 464 pages

Not so long ago, environmentalism was assumed to be a leftwing cause: anti-capitalist, pro-social justice and on the side of the underdog. It is only recently that the idea that green goes better with blue than red has gained credence and in the philosopher Roger Scruton environmental conservatism has found its most eloquent, intelligent and passionate advocate. He is scathing about those on the left who “regard ‘conservatism’ as a dirty word, with no semantic connection to the ‘conservation’ they favour”. He argues that the link between the two is much more than etymological. “Conservatism and conservation are two aspects of a single long-term policy, which is that of husbanding resources and ensuring their renewal.”

Empty cans of pesticide in a ditch at a farm in Arusha, Tanzania. Photo by Norwegian School of Veterinary Science

From ScienceDaily

An increase in human activity is posing a threat to natural aquatic ecosystems in Tanzania and contributing to environmental damage and ecological changes.

Doctoral research carried out by Hezron Emmanuel Nonga shows that agriculture and livestock farming leads to eutrophication in lakes and the proliferation of cyanobacteria which produce microcystins. New information about microcystins and other mycotoxins in Tanzanian lakes is useful for appraising the risk linked to drinking water and edible fish, which in turn affects the health of both humans and animals.

In Tanzania, there are many and varied wetland areas and aquatic ecosystems which are productive but also vulnerable. Hezron Emmanual Nonga’s doctoral research project has studied how human activities affect ecosystems in wetlands and has also examined the incidence of cyanobacteria, the production of microcystins and the possible effects of these toxins on wild species.

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The latest issue of  The International Journal of Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability includes:

• Sustainable Tourism Development: Iranian Oasis Settlement by Asgharmohammad Moradi, GH Hossein Memarian, N. Dehghan and Hojjatollah Abdi Ardekani.
• Sustainable Metropolitan Development: Towards an Operational Model for Semarang Metropolitan Region by Agung Sugiri, Imam Buchori and Sugiono Soetomo.
• Sustainable Mass Tourism: Fantasy or Reality? by Anna Sorensson.
• The Effect of Temperature on U.S. Sustainability Policies: Economics or Politics? by Megan Topham and James Howard Johnson.
• Un-Sustainability: Sustainabiilty, Power and Economic Development at the City Level by Robert Lancaster.
• Local, Low-impact Fibres: Approaches to Sustainability in Australian Wool Production by Tali Warmington.
• Public Sector Accountability for Cultural Assets: An Integrated Reporting Approach by Susan Wild.
• The Dresden Elbe Valley, First Cultural Property to be Delisted from the World Heritage List: Why and how? Exception or Future Tendency? by Bénédicte Gaillard.

By John Quiggin from The National Interest

In political terms, the issues of climate change and energy took a back seat for most of 2011. There was some modest progress at the Durban conference in December. Moreover, having given up on the idea of cap-and-trade legislation, the Obama administration took some significant regulatory measures including new fuel-economy standards and restrictions on old coal-fired power plants.

The truly significant developments, however, were not driven by politics, although they will have profound political implications. In 2011, nuclear power ceased to be a serious option for meeting the world’s energy needs, and solar photovoltaics (PV) finally became an option worth noting.

The “solar vs. nuclear” dispute had been largely symbolic for several decades. After rapid growth in the 1960s and 1970s, new installations of nuclear power came to a grinding halt. This was partly a result of safety fears created by the accidents at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. Economic factors were even more significant. Far from being too cheap to meter, nuclear power turned out to be far more expensive than its main rival, coal, primarily because of unpredictable capital costs and generally high interest rates.

To Read More…

The latest issue of The International Journal of Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability includes:

• Engineered Biomaterials for Construction: A Cradle-to-Cradle Design Methodology for Green Material Development by Wil V. Srubar III, Aaron T. Michel, Craig S. Criddle, Curtis W. Frank and Sarah L. Billington.
• Cultural Sustainability and International Dialogue by Robert Zack.
• Factors for Transition towards Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in Japan: Underlying Motivations and Challenges by Hiroaki Murase, Takashi Maeno and Kiyohiko Sakamoto.
• A New Regulatory Framework for the Pre-Salt Oil Exploration: Challenges and Opportunities by Tania Calvao.
• Effects of Different Substrates and Hydraulic Retention Time (HRT) on the Removal of Total Nitrogen and Organic Matter in a Sub-Surface Horizontal Flow Constructed Wetland by N. Shuib and K. Baskaran.
• Impacts of Human Activities on Groundwater Quality in Guam, Mariana Islands by Yuming Wen.
• Would Teaching Sustainable Development Business Strategies Shift Students’ Mindsets? An Australian Experience by Theodora Issa, Tomayess Issa and Vanessa Chang.
• Economic and Social Development by Management Using Outsourcing and Subcontracting Strategies by Thongphon Promsaka Na Sakolnakorn.

By Elisabeth Rosenthal from The New York Times

Clamshell containers on supermarket shelves in the United States may depict verdant fields, tangles of vines and ruby red tomatoes. But at this time of year, the tomatoes, peppers and basil certified as organic by the Agriculture Department often hail from the Mexican desert, and are nurtured with intensive irrigation.

Growers here on the Baja Peninsula, the epicenter of Mexico’s thriving new organic export sector, describe their toil amid the cactuses as “planting the beach.”

Del Cabo Cooperative, a supplier here for Trader Joe’s and Fairway, is sending more than seven and a half tons of tomatoes and basil every day to the United States by truck and plane to sate the American demand for organic produce year-round.

To Read More…

Volume 7, Issue 5 contains:

• Responses to Labour Constraint on the Singapore Economy: A CGE Modelling Approach by Xianming Meng and Mahinda Siriwardana.
• The Effectiveness of Environmental Matching Agreements among Asymmetric Countries by Toshiyuki Fujita.
• The Benefits of Including Religion in a New Ethical Framework for Climate Change Policy-making by Angela Thomson.
• Evaluation of the Impact of Water Pollution on Rice Production in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam by Huynh Viet Khai and Mitsuyasu Yabe.
• The Use of Biotechnology to Help Sustain Human Populations by Z.M.G. Sarwar Jahangir and Ronald Eckhardt.
• Common Ground: Creating Sustainable Neighbourhoods by Making Communal Space Multivalent in Medium Density Housing by Stephen John Pattinson.
• Impact of a Short-term Study Abroad: Student Reflections on Sustainable International Extension Education by Tim Durham, Lori Unruh Snyder and Danielle Brewer.
• American Students’ Experience with Sustainability in Shanghai Expo 2010 by Young Lee and Matthew Schottenfeld.
• The Effectual Use of Transboundary Water Protection Regulatory Framework: Case Study—Aras River by Nicola Morrison.

• Engineered Biomaterials for Construction: A Cradle-to-Cradle Design Methodology for Green Material Development by Wil V. Srubar III, Aaron T. Michel, Craig S. Criddle, Curtis W. Frank and Sarah L. Billington.
• Cultural Sustainability and International Dialogue by Robert Zack.
• Factors for Transition towards Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in Japan: Underlying Motivations and Challenges by Hiroaki Murase, Takashi Maeno and Kiyohiko Sakamoto.
• A New Regulatory Framework for the Pre-Salt Oil Exploration: Challenges and Opportunities by Tania Calvao.
• Effects of Different Substrates and Hydraulic Retention Time (HRT) on the Removal of Total Nitrogen and Organic Matter in a Sub-Surface Horizontal Flow Constructed Wetland by N. Shuib and K. Baskaran.
• Impacts of Human Activities on Groundwater Quality in Guam, Mariana Islands by Yuming Wen.
• Would Teaching Sustainable Development Business Strategies Shift Students’ Mindsets? An Australian Experience by Theodora Issa, Tomayess Issa and Vanessa Chang.
• Economic and Social Development by Management Using Outsourcing and Subcontracting Strategies by Thongphon Promsaka Na Sakolnakorn.
• Sustainable Tourism Development: Iranian Oasis Settlement by Asgharmohammad Moradi, GH Hossein Memarian, N. Dehghan and Hojjatollah Abdi Ardekani.
• Sustainable Metropolitan Development: Towards an Operational Model for Semarang Metropolitan Region by Agung Sugiri, Imam Buchori and Sugiono Soetomo.
• Sustainable Mass Tourism: Fantasy or Reality? by Anna Sorensson.
• The Effect of Temperature on U.S. Sustainability Policies: Economics or Politics? by Megan Topham and James Howard Johnson.
• Un-Sustainability: Sustainabiilty, Power and Economic Development at the City Level by Robert Lancaster.
• Local, Low-impact Fibres: Approaches to Sustainability in Australian Wool Production by Tali Warmington.
• Public Sector Accountability for Cultural Assets: An Integrated Reporting Approach by Susan Wild.
• The Dresden Elbe Valley, First Cultural Property to be Delisted from the World Heritage List: Why and how? Exception or Future Tendency? by Bénédicte Gaillard.

Image by Frankh, via Flickr

By Larry Greenemeir from Scientific America

It’s easy to knock electric vehicles (EVs): It takes too long to recharge the batteries and there are too few places to do it. And besides, who will pay for all the new recharging stations that would be needed if the cars catch on? The International Energy Agency’s most optimistic scenario puts (pdf) plug-in hybrids or EVs at 15 percent of all cars on the road by 2020; other projections predict a mere 3 percent.

The dubious outlook for EVs has much do to with uncertainty over what role utility companies should play in providing the electricity needed for large fleets of these vehicles. At a recent conference, however, industry analysts put several options on the table.

To Read More…

From ScienceDaily

Fuel made from wood could become a competitive commercial alternative to fuel made from corn by 2020 if the wood biofuel industry is supported, according to a new University of British Columbia study.

Corn ethanol is currently blended with gasoline to satisfy government-mandated targets to include renewable content in transportation fuel. Compared to corn, wood-based biofuel is considered more sustainable but is not currently produced in large commercial quantities in Canada and the United States because the costs are too great.

The study, published in the most recent issue of the journal Biofuels Bioproducts & Biorefining, identifies several opportunities for reducing these costs. Researchers in UBC’s Faculty of Forestry found that large-scale commercial production of wood-based ethanol, also known as cellulosic ethanol, will reduce capital and operation costs and assist in achieving the improvements necessary for wood-based ethanol to compete, without government support.

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Image by Brett Ryder

From the Economist

SHORTLY before the 2009 UN climate summit in Copenhagen, many companies got into green. The summit was expected to lead to new regulations restricting greenhouse-gas emissions. Dozens of chief executives came to see history being made and to be seen on the right side of it. But Copenhagen was a flop. Most firms turned their thoughts elsewhere. Only four bosses showed up at the next annual climate meet, in Cancún. Few are expected at this year’s bash, which begins in Durban on November 28th.

Alas, that represents a realistic assessment of the Durban summit’s chances of delivering anything like the long-term certainty that businesses crave. Of 300 bosses of big global firms recently quizzed by Ernst & Young, 83% said they wanted to see a legally binding multilateral deal struck in Durban to update the ailing Kyoto protocol and help to put a price on carbon emissions. But only 18% expect this to happen. The absence of a clear climate policy helps explain why, for example, investment in British clean technology fell from around $11 billion in 2009 to $3 billion last year. It would also suggest that any firm factoring a steep carbon price into its plans—as Shell does, assuming a notional price of $40 a tonne—should quietly lower it.

To Read More…