Transition Island Blog

Saudi Arabia has threatened to halt oil exports to Taiwan over Taipei’s reluctance to invest in Saudi Arabia’s power and water desalination plant, a report said Monday.

Saudi Arabia feels cheated by Taiwan’s delay to invest in the Independent Water & Power Provider project and has threatened to suspend oil exports to Taiwan, the United Daily News reported.

Saudi Arabia supplies 100 million barrels of oil to Taiwan annually, accounting for half of all oil imports.

‘If Saudi Arabia stops oil import to Taiwan for two weeks, Taiwan will face an oil crisis,’ the paper said.

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Radical CO2 reduction targets and urgent switchover to renewables energy sources is NASA’s opinion.

In a new report released today (12/5/08), James Hansen, head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, said that the EU and its international partners must urgently rethink targets for cutting CO2.

Fears we have grossly underestimated the scale of the problem are emerging.

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A Renault-Nissan alliance is likely to invest $500 million to $1 billion in developing swappable-battery electric cars.

In Israel, most of its oil comes from Russia, so the country is very aware of its oil-dependency.

Research shows that two thirds of the public have a positive opinion of electric cars.1.2 million households own cars and 210,000 (over 5%) would consider purchasing an electric car.

Moshe Kaplinsky, CEO of Better Place Israel, said “We are not operating in a climate of indifference. The Israeli public is interested in what we are doing”.

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The Isle of Wight is going for a high profile public event where low carbon and sustainable lifestyles will be discussed and demonstrated.

Unfortunately, the Big Green Picnic event has had to be moved from Church Litten park in the town centre to the County Hall car park. Church Litton was a fantastic venue - central, open and green, but a cave-in where previous church buildings and graves had made the surface unsafe. Work will be done to make the car park into a greener area, with picnic benches and hay bales provided.

Also a bowling green carpet, that was to be thrown away by its former owners, is being recycled to be used as surfacing.

The aim of the Big Green Picnic is for the Eco-Isle initiative to inspire Islanders to lead a more green lifestyle, demonstrate what steps they can take to achieve that and what products and services are available to help them.

Transition Island will be there to explain how community action can help any neighbourhood take control of planning for the changes in the future. Sited in a strawbale house, demonstrating 12 different ways to gain from being more sustainable, Dave & Vav Simon will be joined by volunteers…

Other ideas Eco-Isle is interested in include:

• Organise an Island switch off day.
• Extend the Ventnor plastic bag-free project to the whole Island.
• Publicise ‘freecycle’ where people can recycle their belongings for the benefit of others.
• Make better use of surplus garden produce

join in
Do come and find us - Saturday and Sunday May 24 and 25 - ask questions - consider your own plans!

Tens of thousands of people combined forces to clean-up a nation recently.

Estonian people scoured fields, streets, forests and riverbanks on Saturday to amass tonnes of rubbish in the Baltic state’s first national clean-up.

Locating illegal dumps and assorted junk by internet mapping and GPS systems, they aimed to collect up to 10,000 tonnes of rubbish.

Every kind of junk from tractor batteries to plastic bottles and paint tins was located and ferried to central dumps, often in people’s own vehicles.

new mind-sets

“It is not really about the rubbish. It is about changing people’s mind sets. Next year it might be something else,” said Tiina Urm, spokeswoman for the Let’s Do It! event.

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2nd May 2008

The result sets Councillor Adrian Ramsay on course to win Charles Clarke’s Norwich South seat, becoming one of the first Green MPs elected to Westminster.

Finishing the night with an increased number of City Council seats from 10 to 13, Norwich Green Party has leapfrogged the Liberal Democrats to become the official opposition on Norwich City Hall, just 2 seats away from the ruling Labour Party.

At the same time, the Greens have beaten Labour on local election vote share across the Norwich South Parliamentary constituency by approximately 2000 votes. For the first time, the Norwich Greens also won more votes than Labour across the entire city.

This historic election sees the Norwich Greens become the most powerful Green Group of councillors in the country. The result also sets Nelson Ward Green Party Councillor Adrian Ramsay on course to win Charles Clarke’s Norwich South seat, becoming one of the first Green MPs elected to Westminster.

Read more…

A new craze has taken off - competing against the car to get the highest MPG (miles-per-gallon) possible.

The aim is to maximise fuel economy against the backdrop of increasing fuel costs.

It’s said to be the automotive equivalent of skateboarding.

As a sport, it is more like golf than football - the battle is against engine inefficiency, aerodynamic drag, rolling friction through the tyres, power-to-weight ratios, and kinetic energy lost to braking.

Having started in America, this sport is spreading. As part of the American Dream, the right to drive is almost synonymous with low-cost mileage. The biggest perceived cost is the motor-car itself, a reflection of success. But a counter-cultural movement took off, aiming to double the MPG of any car, inverting the  meaning of success.

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More than seven in ten voters are not willing to pay higher taxes to fight climate change.

The online survey also reveals that most Britons believe “green” taxes on 4×4s, plastic bags and other consumer goods have been imposed to raise cash rather than change our behaviour.

Two-thirds of Britons think the entire green agenda has been hijacked as a ploy to increase taxes.

Only a few days ago, we reported The Labour Government’s addiction to “spin” has created the most profound disillusionment. This has resulted in the “disgust and alienation of voters who now tell opinion pollsters that they scarcely believe a word that any government spokesman utters.”

The UK is committed to reducing carbon emissions by 60 per cent by 2050. This target will be impossible to reach without popular support. 

eco-fatigue

We seem to moving from charity fatigue to eco-fatigue.

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Big cats protected in Kenya’s Maasai Mara game reserve are threatened by a fall in tourism.

Tourists have stayed away mainly because of the violence which followed last year’s disputed election.

But in time, rising fuel costs will reduce holiday flights, and income from richer countries will drop, leaving many endangered species with less protection.

Loss of compensation schemes could force local people to kill lions and leopards in order to protect livestock. There are also risks from locals hunting protected animals for meat as the food crisis worsens.

taking flight?

With cheap flights, international travel is in a boom era. But things are changing.

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PERMANENT PUBLICATIONS (www.permaculture.co.uk)
a UK publisher producing practical books, magazines and websites which enable people to reduce their carbon footprint and live more sustainable lifestyles, has won a prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise 2008, in the Sustainable Development category.

The Press Release continues:

The Queen’s Award panel, endorsed by the Prime Minister’s office, have honoured Permanent Publications because of its ‘continuous achievement’ and ‘unfettered commitment to progressing sustainability’ internationally.

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