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What A Week It Was: Apocadocuments from
View By Scenario:
Species Collapse:(5)
Plague/Virus:(2)
Climate Chaos:(12)
Resource Depletion: (1)
Biology Breach:(13)
Recovery:(7)
This Week's Top Ten Very Scary Tags:
contamination  ~ global warming  ~ economic myopia  ~ climate impacts  ~ stupid humans  ~ smart policy  ~ ecosystem interrelationships  ~ overfishing  ~ hunting to extinction  ~ governmental idiocy  ~ corporate malfeasance  



ApocaDocuments (5) matching "smart policy" from this week
[see full week] ~ [see all stories tagged "smart policy"]
Sun, May 31, 2009
from London Independent:
Leaders called to special climate talks
World leaders are to meet for an unprecedented second summit on climate change this year to try to get agreement on a tough new treaty by December, and may even get together for a third time before the end of the year. The UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, is to call the world's heads of government to New York in September to "galvanise political will" about what he describes as "the defining issue of our time". And there are plans for another G20 summit to discuss the issue in the autumn. These will follow a meeting of 17 key world leaders convened at the initiative of President Barack Obama immediately after the annual G8 summit in July. Observers cannot remember any similar progression of top-level meetings to address any issue over such a short period of time. ...


So many summits... so little time...

ApocaDoc
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Sun, May 31, 2009
from Washington Post:
New Virus Spurs Experts to Rethink Definition of Pandemic
Influenza experts are acknowledging that they were almost completely surprised by the way the current swine flu outbreak unfolded, so much so it is forcing the world to rethink what a pandemic is and what pandemic preparedness means. Virtually every assumption made since planning for a pandemic began in earnest after the deadly "bird flu" outbreak of 2004 in Southeast Asia has been contradicted by the six-week history of swine-origin influenza A (H1N1). Although they acknowledged there might be alternative scenarios, nearly every expert assumed that the next pandemic strain would jump from birds to human beings someplace in Asia. They also assumed that, like the H5N1 bird flu virus, which is lethal in 60 percent of people who catch it, the new strain would be recognized immediately and would have to be fought with drastic measures. Instead, the virus emerged in North America, appears to have come from pigs, had spread widely by the time it was noticed, and kills less than 1 percent of the people it infects. ...


We could plan for all this unpredictably by not planning at all!

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Wed, May 27, 2009
from Guardian (UK):
China puts its faith in solar power with huge renewable energy investment
China is the world's leading ­manufacturer of photovoltaic (PV) panels, which turn sunlight into electricity. But 95 percent of these are exported. While solar thermal power, in which sunlight heats water, is in widespread use, the central government and the five major utilities have deemed PV power too ­expensive, particularly compared with coal, which generates ­electricity for between an eighth and a tenth of the cost. But the global economic crisis and ­increasing concerns about climate change and energy security have prompted a change in attitudes. Since last year, a glut in supply of PV panels has pushed prices down by more than 30 percent, cutting ­profits of domestic manufacturers such as Suntech. To support them and widen the ­country's energy base, the plan is expected to include the biggest ever boost for solar power, along with extra spending and ­policy support for nuclear, wind and ­biomass power. By 2020, the government is committed to raising the share of ­renewable energy ­(excluding hydroelectric power) in the energy mix to 6 percent, from the current 1.5 percent. ...


Can they make photovoltaics as cheap as their crappy microwaves?

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Tue, May 26, 2009
from Washington Post:
In Ecuador, an Unusual Carbon-Credit Plan to Leave Oil Untapped
QUITO, Ecuador -- Beneath the tropical jungles of northeastern Ecuador lies a vast pool of oil, representing one-fifth of the small Andean country's petroleum reserves and potentially billions of dollars in revenue. Directly above that pool, the Yasuni National Park is home to a diversity of wildlife that is among the richest on the planet, Ecuadoran and U.S. biologists say. Faced with these two treasures, Ecuador is pursuing an unusual plan to reap the oil profits without actually drilling for oil. The idea envisions wealthy countries effectively paying Ecuador to leave its oil -- and the carbon dioxide that would result from using it -- in the ground. Environmentalists hail the proposal as a potentially precedent-setting approach to conservation in developing countries. ...


Don't drill, baby, don't drill!

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Mon, May 25, 2009
from Associated Press:
Study says businesses can create clean energy jobs
COPENHAGEN -- Business leaders vowed Monday to help world governments set a price on carbon, establishing a market that governments can use to cut greenhouse gases. "I think we can craft some pretty clear direction," said Tony Hayward, the chief executive officer of BP PLC. That approach requires governments to join a new U.N.-administered treaty for regulating greenhouse gases that proponents hope to hammer out by December... The predictions came at a global business summit where corporate leaders are focusing on how to help politicians negotiate a new global climate treaty to succeed the Kyoto treaty that expires in 2012. ...


Businesses and politicians working together? Now all we need is common po' folks to join in!

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