Cynthia Warner, the former head of Global Refining at BP, is now President of Sapphire Energy, a company whose goal is to produce high octane fuels from sunlight, carbon dioxide and algae. Fast Company has a story on her and on the race to create high density, portable fuel from algae.
a granny-friend carbon-free transition (photo by roblisameehan)
Earlier this week, BP announced that it has already spent $3 billion on the Gulf Oil cleanup. Along with the $20 billion fund that the company has promised Obama, the total cost of the oil spill is building dramatically.
Most experts say that this is just the beginning. The Exxon Valdez led to a $4 billion settlement but affected a small fraction of the people that the gushing gulf spill will ultimately effect. The price tag for this cleanup and the subsequent settlement may rise to the point where people have begun to ask whether or not BP might go bankrupt fixing this egregious environmental disaster.
Some of these people include those who administer the pension plans of millions of ageing workers. It turns out that a significant number of private and public pension funds in the US and the UK hold BP stock. It therefore begs the question: how do we decarbonize our economy if entire generations of retirees are dependent on carbon-intensive industries?
Apple, manufacturers of the popular computers, iPods and iPhones has released detailed information on the carbon footprint of its products and operations.
Apple’s comprehensive website breaks down the company’s 10.2 million tonne footprint, which includes facilities emissions, manufacturing, transportation, recycling and product use.
Great news!! Carbonzero has just been rated one of the top vendors of carbon offsets in Canada.
I’m particularly proud of our rank as the only provider of Made-in-Canada offsets to meet the highest “Strong Performance” category in the report written by the David Suzuki Foundation and the Pembina Institute.
Carbonzero has worked hard in ensuring that the offsets that we provide are of the highest possible standard in Canada. Only companies providing Gold Standard offsets ranked higher than us
What many people don’t realize is that offsets most preferred by environmental groups, namely Gold Standard offsets, cannot be sourced from emissions reduction projects based in Canada. This is because the Gold Standard requires projects to be additional to any previously-announced reduction targets, including those promised by governments when they signed the Kyoto Protocol. Since Canada made such a commitment by signing the document in 2002, the Gold Standard organization simply won’t certify any Canadian projects at all.
Just a thought:
Recent stock volatility in the world economy presents a crisatunity for The Next Great Project of humanity: namely, the development of clean, green energy.
There are several reasons why this crisis has a bright, silver lining.
