Air quality and ancillary benefits of climate change policies

This report analyses projected changes in European air quality up to 2030. It explores the possible benefits of climate policies on air quality and the costs of air pollution abatement. The results show that stringent EU climate change policies (aimed at limiting temperature rise to 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels) could: 1) improve Europe's air quality; 2) cut premature deaths as a result of lower concentrations of ground level ozone and fine particulates (PM2.5); 3) save 10 billion EUR annually in air pollution control costs by 2030.

Outros estudos em português (por exemplo)

Crise energética no horizonte

Pela primeira vez, a indústria petrolífera reconhece dificuldades na satisfação da procura de petróleo e gás num horizonte não muito distante. Ver aqui.

Fazer a diferença num mundo complicado

Se é daquele(a)s que pensam que a sua contribuição individual é insignificante perante a dimensão e complexidade assustadoras dos problemas do mundo de hoje, reflicta sobre esta frase de Anita Roddick, fundadora da Body Shop: "Se pensa que o tamanho é obrigatório para ter algum impacte, experimente ir para a cama com uma melga no quarto". Está bem visto!
Você pode ser a melga, sem ofensa!

Russos enviam submarino ao Ártico

Os russos enviaram um submarino ao Ártico. Infelizmente não é uma expedição científica para verificar o estado das calotes polares. O objectivo desta viagem é reclamar a soberania do território antes gelado e que poderá agora ser explorado. Podem ler mais aqui

As gravatas e o aquecimento global

Parece piada, mas não é. Ler notícia aqui.

Biofuels - analise no Newscientist

ALMOST one-quarter of nature's resources are being gobbled up by a single species, and it's not difficult to guess which one. Based on figures for the year 2000, the most recent available, humans appropriate 24 per cent of the Earth's production capacity that would otherwise have gone to nature.

The result is a gradual depletion of species and habitats as we take more of their resources for ourselves. Things could get even worse if we grow more plants like palm oil and rapeseed for biofuels to ease our reliance on fossil fuels.

"Things could get even worse if we grow more plants like palm oil and rapeseed for biofuels to ease our reliance on fossil fuels"

That is the message from a team led by Helmut Haberl of Klagenfurt University in Vienna, Austria. Haberl and colleagues analysed UN Food and Agriculture Organization data on agricultural land use in 161 countries covering 97.4 per cent of farmland.

By comparing carbon consumption through human activity with the amount of carbon consumed overall, Haberl's team found that humans use some 15.6 trillion kilograms of carbon annually. Half was soaked up by growing crops. Another 7 per cent went up in smoke as fires lit by humans, and the rest was used up in a variety of other ways related to industrialisation, such as transport (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0704243104).

Haberl says that the Earth can just about cope if we meet future needs by producing food more efficiently. This could be done by intensifying agriculture on roughly the same amount of land as we use now. But we're asking for trouble, he says, if we expand production of biofuels, as the only fertile land available is tropical rainforests.

"If we want full-scale replacement of fossil fuels by biofuels, this would have dramatic implications for ecosystems," says Haberl. He warns that some projections foresee four or fivefold increases in biofuel production. "This would at least double the overall amount of biomass harvested, which is about 30 per cent above ground at present, but would increase to 40 or 50 per cent to meet these biofuel targets," he says.

This would mean clearing what remains of the world's rainforests in countries such as Brazil and Argentina. As well as wiping out thousands of species, this would have devastating effects on the climate, he says. Unlike farmland, forests help to seed rainfall because they have high evaporation rates.

"The less evaporation there is, the less rainfall there is and the whole system dries up," he says.

From issue 2611 of New Scientist magazine, 07 July 2007, page 15

Solar termoeléctrico em Tavira

Mensagem curtinha. só para lançar a polémica.
A nova remuneração das tarifas garantidas para as energias renováveis define uma tarifa garantida para o solar termoeléctrico (produção de electricidade a partir de calor obtido a partir da radiação solar) muito favorável (acima da energia das ondas, abaixo do solar fotovoltaico).
Considerando o potencial de redução de preço desta tecnologia (que eu considero "curto", pois não se espera que graças a estes projectos de demonstração aprendamos a fazer espelhos muito mais baratos...) que sentido faz subsidiar desta maneira projectos como o de Tavira ?
Aparentemente há outras pessoas que se preocupam (ainda que por razões um pouco diferentes).