Looking at the T.V. screen, I sat and realized that this oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was of a monstrous proportion. There are many reasons why this happened, and many years before it will be cleaned up. Countless unthought of repercussions from the spilling of The Black Gold will surface over the years. Our obsession over fossil fuel has to stop. The T.V. tries to tell me who to blame, but I blame us all. Most of us own or have owned something made from petroleum and, participated in the progression of Black Gold at some point. Man, I got the Black Gold Blues. Its hard to shake.

I think about my friends in New Orleans and the struggle that lays ahead. Thoughts of the future and our reliance on non-renewables for fuel made me think.
How can one person make a difference in the environmental challenges of today? It starts with a thought. That internal debate is just the impetus for the change needed.

Don’t let the Black Gold Blues get you down. If you cant make it on down to The Gulf to help with the cleanup responsibilities, thats ok. Think of their suffering and do what you can to be a steward of the land in your area. People across the world are going to unite over this tragedy. If the spill doesn’t make people environmentalists, I’m not sure what will. It could be the catalyst for change weve been waiting for. It could be what is needed to catapult the economy into a renewable future, where prosperity abounds and, energy is clean and cheap. A new, young crew of energy freedom fighters will have their chance to make a difference.
Black Gold, Your days are numbered.

by: Nicolas Mazzoli

This photo may look like something on the planet of Tatooine out of the Star Wars’ movie saga, but it is actually a rendering of what the city of Masdar may look like here on Earth. Masdar is a concept city that some obscenely rich Arab oil Sheiks are planning to build just outside of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

The plan is to create and maintain the worlds first 0 carbon city. That is, once the building is finished. Its impossible for these guys to build the city without the use of fossil fuels, but it seems to be a step in the right direction for now. Once the city is online no cars will be allowed (++), and according to the plans any vehicles will have to park in a climate controlled car park on the Al Reem island near by. I wonder if the city officials will have special parking for non polluting vehicles like camels and horses.

The parent company in charge of this creation is Mubadda Development Corp. They have a significant world presence ranging from oil to holding a sizable chuck of Cargill Corp. which is an U.S. based company. The city will truly be an international city by taking the best museums from around the world and creating not just sister museums, but the largest of them. Located within the city will be a Louvre designed by Frenchman Jean Nouvel. This branch of the famous french museum will be a whopping 24k sq. meters featuring natural sunlight throughout the building.

Jean Nouvel’s vision for the new Louvre
Not to be out done by the Frenchman, Frank Ghery is planning to create the world’s largest Guggenheim museum in the city.
The new museum will be based on the design for the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain, but will be much larger and more technologically advanced than the one in Bilbao. The new museum is slated to be finished by 2012. Its body will be wrapped in titanium just like the other buildings that Ghery has done in recent years and, will prove to be a real work of art itself I’m sure.

No city would be complete without a full on Maritime museum built by Tadao Ando.
The museum features a reflective coating, ship-like decking inside, aquarium, and a grand reception hall. All of these features will combine to blend the museum in to the seaside surrounding and emulate the natural landscape of Masdar.
Enough of all this fluff. Its time to get to the nitty gritty about how this city intends to accomplish its goals of zero waste. The city plans to power itself with a gigantic 300 megawatt photovoltaic array built by Solyndra of California. This co. claims to be producing cells that are 40% more efficient than the most efficient cells offered today. In addition to the PV array, wind farms will be erected to harness the winds from this seaside city. These same winds will cool the city by being channeled through the heart of the city in between wind towers and the closely placed buildings. Most of the construction materials will be local hopefully, but that remains to be seen. Other American companies will prosper from the $250 million invested in clean tech. Companies like New Hampshire based Segway (Segways will be used as transport within the car-less city) and Pennsylvania based Enertech (makers of ceramic batteries).
Water for the city will come from a solar powered desalination plant and the city’s landscaping will come from reclaimed grey water.
Whats really interesting is the plans for a 500 MW hydrogen plant with BP and Rio Tinto teaming up.
Id like to hear about how they plan to feed all the people of the city and what they plan to do with all the trash. That remains to be seen.
So it seems as if the city is a bit of a prototype for the future. Multinationals working hand in hand to develop and implement new clean technologies. MIT is even starting a school of technology in Masdar with a former president of the University of Delaware at the helm. Lets hope that this new trend will truly benefit the world as a whole and not just become a green facelift for the oil rich of the globe. Obviously the dirty energy from oil cannot carry us into the future and the Emirates wants a jump start on the new clean energy market. Companies like GE and the people behind Masdar are only thinking of how to make the transition from dirty to green while green is the new black.

72 story Tameer tower

Florida sugar cane farm

Sept. 25th is the deadline for a deal to buyout U.S. Sugar Corp, and restore 187,000 acres of Everglades wetland. The deal has a rock bottom price of $1.75 billion dollars that will be paid to U.S. Sugar for the land. In return for the $9,358 per acre paid by the Water Management District Floridians will get the satisfaction of knowing that the land will eventually be restored to its original state in time. That is, after U.S. sugar gets off the land in 2016. U.S. Sugar has worked a leaseback into the proposed deal for $50 per acre until 2016 rolls around. That means business as usual for the next 6 years. The state will get approx. $56 million from the leaseback over the span of the 6 years and U.S. Sugar has agreed to pay an additional $25 million for clean up of all the fertilizers and pollution they have dumped into an area the size of 3 Orlandos.

map of area

U.S. Sugar planned buyout map
Conservation and restoration of the land is critical to the survival of Florida as we know it. Growing up here in South Florida makes me especially interested in the deal and its progress. The deal has some bitter sweet qualities attached to it. When I found out that there is a proposed Ethanol plant that might be worked into the deal I thought to myself this may be the reason why the price of sugar has just gone up from 18 cents to 18.5 cents per pound. This new breed of Ethanol is made from the sugar cane bagasse. It was pioneered by a University of Florida professor named Lonnie Ingram. In this new technique Ingram uses a genetically engineered form of E-coli bacterium to aide in the harvesting of the sugars from the cell walls of the sugar cane. This new process is much more efficient than other means of Biofuel production. However, some are concerned that despite the advances in the extraction process the Ethanol is a pig when it comes to H2O.

ethanol plant

ethanol plant
Other Ethanol plants have been known to consume up to 400,000 gallons of H2O per day. Where will this water come from? The same everglades we are trying to protect and restore. Assuming that if Governor Crist has spent upwards of $20 million to research this Sugar based ethanol project it is here to stay. Word has it that Florida Power and Light may be running the Ethanol plant.

Now about Ethanol. Ethanol is no more efficient than regular gasoline. In fact its less efficient giving less MPG than traditional gasoline. It can ruin the engines in boats because it releases resins, gums and debris in the fiberglass tanks found in boats. In addition to this the Ethanol breaks down old fuel lines meant for old school gas adding to the problem.

We need to be investing in cleaner versions of fuel for our cars. Fuels like hydrogen and electric power are the key not Ethanol based garbage.

I urge you to write you congressman and tell him or her what you think about this.

Reading= Richard Weiskoff’s “The Economics of Everglades Restoration”

Sources=

Carboncapture.us

Cristian science monitor

Treehugger.com

Many Thanks,
Ecocritique Staff

Today I read via www.washingtonsblog.com about the same woman who invented the credit default swaps for good ole’ JP Morgan and his gang. Her name is Blythe Masters. She is ruthless in the banking game. She will stop at nothing to develop the next big banking scheme for her bankster buddies. Now she is in charge of Morgan’s environmental businesses as the firm’s global head of commodities. The same scam that got us into our current financial crisis will repeat itself if banksters like her get away with their plans to create a new commodities market based on carbon. I plan to find out who else is involved in these carbon futures. Is this the next big ponzi scheme that will rob entire countries of wealth?

watch the video

We are seeing results coming in from the summit now as we approach the end of the week. As world leaders begin to show at the conference we will hopefully get a clear view of who is playing roulet with our climate and who truly has our best interest in mind.

sources:
washingtonsblog.com
en.cop15.dk