Category: Environment

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Economics Environment

[532] Of the next step

The Kyoto Protocol has been in force for than three months now. I haven’t read much development on it save that some countries are planning to leave the Protocol and its legacy behind after it expires. They say it is too costly to do a Kyoto part two. At the same time, I doubt many parties of the Protocol will be able to meet the reduction goal by the year 2012.

Don’t get me wrong. Though Kyoto is not as effective as most would want it with people on one side says it’s too costly and the other saying too little too late, it is still an important step to be taken. It essentially set the pace towards greener future.

But still, one will have to wonder what is going to happen after Kyoto. Many have mentioned the need to get China, India and other developing nations to join hand in hand. But whatever is going to happen, I’m noticing a new trend in combating climate change.

Kyoto has been targeting governments. Maneuvering with such target in mind is hard given the fact that the Protocol almost died with the pullout of the US. The Protocol only got through with Russian ratification.

The near death experience probably made a lot of people to have a second thought. Hence, attention has shifted from government to organizations down the hierarchy – states, cities, private firms.

Some states in the US have their own initiative to reduce emission despite the federal government refusal to ratify Kyoto. Development in those states, California in particular has been rather encouraging. California, San Francisco in fact, has always been a leader when it comes to taking care for the environment. When I was in San Francisco, I saw first hand why – large fleet of its buses is zero-emission buses, electrically powered. I have not seen anything like it before.

Today, UN World Environment Day that is be held in San Francisco. Though the conference itself is not about climate change in particular, it will however touch on renewable energy and in general, sustainability, which go in line with methods to cut emission down.

And all these sustainability ideas won’t come true without the green technologies which come from many firms such as Toyota, Honda and General Electrics. General Electrics lately has been campaigning hard to reinvent itself as a green company. Its Ecoimagination campaign to me is impressive so far. I’m not however sure whether this is a real effort or simply another green-washing as done by Exxon and others.

Yet, all of the steps and trend is useless if there is no green grassroots. Then again, these green steps started because of expanding green grassroots. What makes me wonder is how the green grassroots started and then skipped everything between private citizens and the governments. It is weird to see only after the jump was made, everything in between starts to build up.

But in the end, it is good to see green ideas are being embraced by the bases and more importantly at the moment, privates firms. I’d guess it is not too premature or showing too much confidence to say, welcome to the green century, despite the death of environmentalism.

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Environment Photography Politics & government Travels

[531] Of oui versus non

The European Union is in such a mess right now. One would believe that the main pillars of the Union would strongly support the roof. Apparently, that is not so.

Right now, the French are having a referendum to ratify a new EU Constitution that would bring EU members closer. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on which side one stands, according to the April 30th issue of The Economist, 20 polls revealed that France is set to reject the European Constitution. Add in the error, result could go either way. Wikipedia as usual provides a fine explanation of the drafted Constitution.

The final result will be as close as 2000 US presidential election. Whatever the result maybe, I do hope it will be an oui.

I do think the formation of the EU and the subsequent activities to strengthen a central government takes away the autonomy each member enjoys. I prefer a decentralized system while idea of a super state scares me. Somehow however, charms free-flow of capital and labor is too great to resist. Of course, in the EU, free-flow of labor does not quite exist yet given that the newcomers are currently being barred from the Schengen zone. Still, sooner or later, it will be a reality and hence reestablishing the great free trade era prior to the 1930s.

The reason why I support a stronger European Union is that I would like to see a counterweight to Pax Americana; I admire the US as much as I admire any other great civilizations in the past. Fact is however, a unipolar world will never be safe.

Another main reason why I support the EU is because of ASEAN. If Europe one day is united under one banner, perhaps ASEAN should pursue almost the same path as the EU is taking right now.

From purely economic point of view, the use of a single currency will lead to an explosion of trade between members of a single-monetary zone. Of course, setting a uniform interest rate will be hard but unification could be done stage by stage. For instance, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand could be the first to use a single currency. These three countries have about the same rate currently and they’re neighbors. And then, if situation improved in the Philippines and Indonesia, then they could be included in the zone. And when others progressed (which is going to take a very long time), they could be invited to use a single currency.

Later, with a population size similar to Europe, perhaps ASEAN would have a bigger role to play on the world stage. And then, we all could play World of Warcraft and kill Onyxia together, including all fractions of the horde too.

p/s – My favorite city is now San Francisco. New York falls to the second rung.

Captured the city skyline from Municipal Pier. The Transamerica Pyramid is clearly visible while the Russian Hill to the left. (or right-side of the photo. I’m still confused about which side is the right/left on a picture.)And I can’t believe that I walked all the way from a Caltrain station south of San Francisco to the Marina Boulevard up in north San Francisco.

pp/s – Star Wars, I love. Go to the cinema, you must! Watch all the episodes again, I will!

ppp/s – I learnt that the UN World Environment Day will be celebrated in San Francisco from the 1st till the 5th of June.

Banners seen in the photos are almost omnipresent in San Francisco. Too bad I didn’t have the time to hang around the city longer. Else, I would certainly want to check it out.

Categories
Economics Environment Politics & government Pop culture Sci-fi

[524] Of The Economist and oil

Exactly a year ago, Paul Krugman wrote an article entitled The Oil Cunch. He started off with:

Before the start of the Iraq war his media empire did so much to promote, Rupert Murdoch explained the payoff: “The greatest thing to come out of this for the world economy, if you could put it that way, would be $20 a barrel for oil.” Crude oil prices in New York rose to almost $40 a barrel yesterday, a 13-year high.

Rose almost to $40 per barrel; about a year later, it is hovering more or less above the $50 per barrel benchmark. There was a time when lots of people thought $50 per barrel has too much fantasy in it. Now, nobody dare to question the $60 level too much.

The Economist latest edition has oil has its main focus. From one of its articles, it is clear than the team at The Economist doesn’t approve the plan to drill ANWR. The magazine bills such action as “This is mad”, or was it “This is madness”.

I agree so much that this is madness. Drilling the nature reserve in Alaska won’t alleviate the current crisis. The drilling return on investment won’t come immediately and by the time the extraction hit full speed, given the increasing global demand and little sign of slowing demand in the near future, oil from ANWR won’t be able to make a noticeable impact. It won’t make a lasting impact at all.

Believing the act of opening ANWR would relax the oil price is similar to believing one is Superman; able to stop a speeding bullet train by standing in the middle of the track, head to head.

The only solution is renewable energy. Or nuclear. We need to act now. Oil won’t last forever; renewable will.

p/s – I’ve come to a conclusion that The Economist is environmentally-friendly.

pp/s – can you feel it?

Because I do.

Categories
Environment Personal Photography

[520] Of celebrating spring, and a bit of snow

Not 48 hours ago, snow was still falling. Thank goodness for the change of flow. Today was as bright as any summer day could be though some more warmth was in order. Very much excited upon seeing the sun up in the sky, I went for a 2-hour jolly walk in an arboretum in Ann Arbor.

I took about 20 to 30 photos and this is probably my favorite:

I think the photo could have been better if I could take a sip of the sky into the photograph. I’d love to get a second shot of it if time and weather permit me to enjoy another stroll tomorrow.This like the next photo too:

Too bad I couldn’t figure out what’s the best lighting for it. In my opinion, the blue hue is too strong.It has been a long time since I last heard a bird or two sang when I’m still in bed. For the past few days however, hearing the birds singing while it was snowing was rather strange.

A trivia, this freak snow is the latest snowfall in more than 110 years.

“On April 3 and April 4 of 2003, we had an ice storm after temperatures rose to nearly 70 degrees on April 1,” he said. “The biggest snowstorm to ever hit the Detroit area was on April 6, 1886 when 24.5 inches of snow fell and the latest snowstorm we ever had was the five to six inches of snow that fell over May 21 and May 22 of 1883.”

It’s a record. Well, Ann Arbor is not really in the Detroit area (more like New York…) so I don’t know. But, as far as I am concerned, I don’t want any record-breaking event related to snow. I want my spring. Now. Period.

Categories
Economics Environment

[507] Of idealist’s curse

Earlier yesterday, during dinner, I couldn’t finish the food on my plate. I felt bad about it but I sincerely didn’t have the stomach for more. I probably shouldn’t have literally bit more than I could chew.

To be easy on myself, I was in fact served instead of helping myself with the stuff that I couldn’t even name. Hours later after leaving my table, I realize that I’m not unique in having leftover on the plate and I’m not entirely sure the server is at fault.

Then it came to me – the richer we are, the more we waste. To be precise as what has been implied in countless economic classes, the wealthier we are, the more we consume. However, though consumption itself produces waste, I’m talking about a different species of waste altogether. The waste I’m referring to is the things that are consumable but aren’t consumed and thrown out as filthy garbage nevertheless, just like the food I left on my plate.

I definitely expect better-off people to waste more than famine victims in Africa and elsewhere. I hold this but I still waste. It seems that I, no, we, are cursed to waste. Worse, I call myself a green – what a terrible curse it is. It’s painful to acknowledge this while knowing others would be willing to even eat our leftover if they were given the chance to do so, no matter how disgusting it is.

Perhaps, this is why I eat rather irregularly. Too scared to waste and too scared to violate my own principle. Yet, I violate it often and risk of being a hypocrite almost everyday. It’s the curse of an idealist I’d suppose.