Video:The Late Paul Caseaux looks at Projected Transportation Increases

Just Added to my Video Wall. More differentied support for R&D, 1.Business and Commerce Schools and Unversities 2) Physical Sciences and Engineering. Comments on what follows most welcome:

The video is in French so mono-linguists must trust my interpretation. Here,
the late Paul Caseaux looks at major issues involved with expected increases in Transportation. As usual his high quality mind extracts the essentials in the relative short term (next 20y).
He differentiates Freight from Travel, Local (France no, increase) from International (8% increase). He considers a 2x increase in Freight over the next 20 a good guess. Freight therefore is an international affair and involves the full production-logistics-distribution system of International (Global) Commerce. As such any research and development to master the trend in the current state of affairs [Climate-Change, Emissions reduction...) must be given to The Schools of Commerce and Universities in the field whereas, Travel (the lions share he admits) is much more a question of fashion and although there are commercial aspects Caseaux considers that in public travel most advances via research and development are predominantly of an engineering nature he says with a slight smile)
NB.The late P.Caseaux (1935-9Aug.2009) was a influential member of the French Académie des Technologies.
He personally after a conference at our Bar-des-Sciences in Nevers gave a very clear description of the Current Climate=Energy dilemma, and pointed me, in his opinion, to the most advanced French worker in the field, fellow Polytechnicien, Jean-Marc Jancovici whose work has been the focus of several posts throughout my pages.

Packaging Materials Selector aids decision-making and change, just the infamous Plastic bag syndrome or a serious step in the proper direction?

I was awakened to the subject as a whole not just the plastic bag rubbish, which incidentally allowed me to freely recycle garbade to the incinerator, I trust rather than to landfil.(I was told the landfills are rolled hence there is no biodegradability worth the name. Now I pay for a similar product or use one which has no recycleability control


I was awakened to the subject as a whole not just the plastic bag rubbish, which incidentally allowed me to freely recycle garbage to the incinerator, I trust rather than to landfill.(I was told the landfills are rolled hence there is no biodegradability worth the name. Now I pay for a similar product or use one which has no recycleability control

I'll just have to wait until the specialist members of The Institute of Materials Minerals and Mining, Clay, Packaging and now Wood provide some Co data. Hopefully members know of this site or of the well known Granta Eco-selector’s efforts.

Join me in reading IOM3's Packaging Materials Journal

in reference to: Sustainable Packaging Alliance : News (view on Google Sidewiki)

Intelligence and food to spur Innovations and Innovators

I returned with pleasure to Dave MacKay's blog where almost all his posts are highly pertinent for all, either those wishing to map their professional activity or simply wishing to gen-up on current Climate Change, GW-global warming and energy issues, hopefully all of us. In his post pre-review of the book Challenged by Carbon by Brian Lovell, the blog reader's attention is drawn to the fact that "55 million years ago, an enormous global warming event, raising the temperature of the water at the bottom of the ocean by more than 4 degrees C within roughly 10,000 years occurred". I did a rapid Google search and invite readers to do the same.

There is a short history of the big oil companies attitudes from "believing what the rocks say" and they say there is a problem and the business as usual approach and "as a backdrop the war in Iraq

"Yes, some oil companies greened up their public facades in 2003, but have they reverted to business as usual behind the scenes? But what about the rest of the oil industry?"

Quoting MacKay's selection from Lovell since this cannot be over-echoed I believe: "In the second half of the book, Lovell indicates how he hopes the drama will unfold: "government intervention is essential" in relation to the transition to the low-carbon economy; "concerted action" is required from all oil companies; oil companies [and the coal mining and power gen lobby] should turn their remarkable technical skills to a new waste management business: capturing and storing carbon[dioxide CO2], especially carbon [CO2] from coal power stations.

MacKay's figures: "key numbers for carbon capture. A standard unit of carbon capture and storage is "the Sleipner""

1. Norway's implementation of a carbon-emission tax of $55 per tonne of CO2 (which can be compared to today's EU market price of 14.10 euros per tonne),

2. StatoilHydro is storing 1 Mt CO2 per year in the Utsira saline aquifer under the North Sea.

3. A 1-GW coal power station, running all the time, produces roughly 7 Mt CO2 per year. So every 1-GW power station would require roughly 7 Sleipners.

4. The cost to the consumer for electricity from that source might be in the ballpark of an extra 4p per kWh of electricity (similar to the present subsidy for wind power in the UK).

5. The scale of the waste to be stored is worth mentioning. The volume of 7 Mt CO2 (the approximate annual waste from 1 GW coal power station), after it's been compressed to the same density as water, is three times the volume of the great pyramid at Giza.

Read via his site:
Prof. Dave MacKay FRS's book free (food) online
and Blog

in reference to Bryan Novell"s Book : Challenged by Carbon:The Oil Industry and Climate Change (Paperback)
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"A 1-GW coal power station, running all the time, produces roughly 7 Mt CO2 per year. So every 1-GW power station would require roughly 7 Sleipners, and the cost to the consumer for electricity from that source might be in the ballpark of an extra 4p per kWh of electricity (similar to the present subsidy for wind power in the UK). The scale of the waste to be stored is worth mentioning. The volume of 7 Mt CO2 (the approximate annual waste from 1 GW coal power station), after it's been compressed to the same density as water, is three times the volume of the great pyramid at Giza."
- Sustainable Energy - without the hot air (view on Google Sidewiki)

Looking for a field to research, choose the people to follw: Royal Society 2010 Anniversary Professorships

N°1 for materials science and engineering or materials chemistry could be Andre Geim FRS, FinstP who is Langworthy Professor of Physics at the University of Manchester and is known primarily for the discovery of graphene. Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms densely packed into a honeycomb lattice and the first representative of one atom thick materials which until 2004 had remained unknown. Graphene has many potential uses ranging from ultrafast transistors to bendable gadgets and from composite materials to novel batteries, and has been tipped as a likely successor to silicon in electronics. Geim is also known for his educational experiments on magnetic levitation (the "flying frog" experiment) and the development of a biomimetic adhesive known as "gecko tape".

2. The current hotest of topics is undoubtedly Climate Change. The professorship goes to Professor Andrew Watson FRS, University of East Anglia. He aims to improve our understanding of carbon sinks' and develop a model for the global accounting of the atmospheric CO2 budget. I intend to put more RS top quality studies on climate chage etc. in further wikis and on my blogs.

en référence à :

"Professor Andrew Watson FRS, University of East Anglia. He aims to improve our understanding of carbon sinks' and develop a model for the global accounting of the atmospheric CO2 budget."
- Top researchers receive Royal Society 2010 Anniversary Professorships (afficher sur Google Sidewiki)