MENLO PARK, California (December 14, 2009) – Silicon Valley venture capitalist Elton Sherwin in his new book, Addicted to Energy, claims that reducing soot and smog are key to affordably protecting the planet from rapid warming and vital for reaching an agreement with China. Drawing on research from U.C. Berkeley, Stanford and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Sherwin says that reducing non-CO2 greenhouse agents is faster and cheaper than reducing CO2.  “We still need to dramatically reduce CO2 in the U.S. and China, but reducing soot and smog is a quick, affordable way to work together and lessen the likelihood of crossing a major climate threshold or tipping point.”

“By lowering soot and smog emissions, the Chinese can make a major positive contribution,” says Sherwin. “There is reluctance to discuss this because it might slow progress on CO2.  But the impact of soot and smog are so great they cannot be ignored.  They are comparatively less expensive to mitigate and they provide an opportunity for the Chinese to meet or exceed western reductions without having to slow their economic growth.”

Smog contains several potent greenhouse agents. Soot contains large amounts of black carbon. One U.S. House of Representatives report says that reducing black carbon alone “will immediately slow global warming.”*

A recent article published in Foreign Affairs, co-authored by one of the world’s leading climate scientists, says, “Fully applying existing emissions-control technologies could cut black carbon emissions by about 50 percent. And that would be enough to offset the warming effects of one to two decades’ worth of carbon dioxide emissions.”**

Sherwin uses an intriguing analogy:

“Image you inherit a home and discover the attic packed full of dynamite, blasting caps and fuses. What does the local bomb squad do?  They remove the fuses and blasting caps first, and then the dynamite.”

In Sherwin’s analogy, CO2 is the dynamite, but soot and smog are the fuses and blasting caps – the first priorities.

Continuing the analogy Sherwin says, “The house is a metaphor for our planet and we are living in one room and the Chinese are living in another room. We can argue with the Chinese about who is most responsible for the mess in the attic for another decade or two and pass the problem to our children.  But by then it may be too late. We need to clean up the attic now.”

Sherwin says that the U.S. and China should jointly lead a worldwide crash program to reduce soot and tropospheric ozone (one of the key components in smog) while simultaneously reducing CO2 emissions. He says, “Filters that trap soot should be an immediate priority. This is too big an opportunity to ignore.”

He continues, “The Chinese produce so much soot and ozone, they could meet virtually any treaty obligation if these two powerful agents of climate change were included.”

Sherwin adds one word of caution, “The Chinese also release vast quantities of reflective particles into the atmosphere mixed together with their soot. Today, these reflective particles protect the earth, and it is critically important that they continue this practice while filtering out the black carbon.” Sherwin adds, “It is imperative that we accurately account for all these particles and take actions that really protect the climate.”

Source : energyhousepublishing.com

* Google “Hearing Examines Black Carbon and Global Warming.”  From the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, U.S. House of Representatives.

** “The Other Climate Changers: Why Black Carbon and Ozone Also Matter,” Jessica Seddon Wallack and Veerabhadran Ramanathan, Foreign Affairs, September/October 2009 Issue.

If current upward trends in fossil fuel emissions continue, global average ozone levels will rise 50% by 2100. The resulting damage to agriculture could reduce global crop production by at least 10%, according to a study in the November issue of Energy Policy.

Previous studies have evaluated the effects of human-induced climate change and rising CO₂ levels on vegetation and have suggested that the changes will prolong growing seasons at higher latitudes and boost photosynthesis in some plant species. John M. Reilly of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and colleagues have now added the concomitant changes in tropospheric (ground-level) ozone to the mix. The team investigated the impacts of all three stressors on crops, pastures, and forests with the MIT Integrated Global Systems Model, which incorporates economic, climate, and agricultural models.[...]

Full Article – Source : ©pubs.acs.org

The economies of developing countries are energy intensive, and without energy security and affordable fuels, all efforts at social development are in vain. We are already seeing the truly catastrophic socio-economic effects of high oil prices on the poorest countries, some of which are now forced to spend up to six times more on importing oil than on health care and poverty alleviation. Asking such countries to make energy even more expensive by putting a carbon tax on fossil fuels or by capping emissions in order to fight climate change would be unacceptable to many of them. In fact, some energy experts have warned that in the medium term, high energy prices could indeed be more threatening to societies than climate change.

A Chinese top official, Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui, made this crystal clear by saying Beijing will reject binding caps on greenhouse gas emissions at the UNFCCC’s global meeting in Bali next month, because developing countries must be allowed to use more energy and consequently raise emissions to fight poverty.

Full Article – Source : ©BioPact.com

Global warming ranks far down the concerns of the world’s biggest companies, despite world leaders’ hopes that they will pioneer solutions to the impending climate crisis, a startling survey will reveal this week.

Nearly nine in 10 of them do not rate it as a priority, says the study, which canvassed more than 500 big businesses in Britain, the US, Germany, Japan, India and China. Nearly twice as many see climate change as imposing costs on their business as those who believe it presents an opportunity to make money. And the report’s publishers believe that big business will concentrate even less on climate change as the world economy deteriorates.

The survey demolishes George Bush’s insistence that global warming is best addressed through voluntary measures undertaken by business – and does so at the most embarrassing juncture for the embattled President. For this week he is convening a meeting of the world’s largest economies to try to persuade them to agree with him.[...]

Read article – Via : ©independent.co.uk

LONGYEARBYEN, NORWAY (26 FEBRUARY 2008) ­ The Svalbard Global Seed Vault opened today on a remote island in the Arctic Circle, receiving inaugural shipments of 100 million seeds that originated in over 100 countries. With the deposits ranging from unique varieties of major African and Asian food staples such as maize, rice, wheat, cowpea, and sorghum to European and South American varieties of eggplant, lettuce, barley, and potato, the first deposits into the seed vault represent the most comprehensive and diverse collection of food crop seeds being held anywhere in the world.

At the opening ceremony, the Prime Minister of Norway, Jens Stoltenberg, unlocked the vault and, together with the African Nobel Peace Prize-winning environmentalist Wangari Maathai, he placed the first seeds in the vault. The President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, and a host of dignitaries and agriculture experts from around the globe deposited seeds during the ceremony. A variety of Norwegian musicians and choirs also performed in the opening ceremony held 130 metres deep inside the frozen mountain.

Built near the village of Longyearbyen on the island of Spitsbergen, the vault at its inception contains 268,000 distinct samples of seeds–each one originating from a different farm or field in the world. Each sample may contain hundreds of seeds or more. In all, the shipments of seeds secured in the vault today weighed approximately 10 tonnes, filling 676 boxes.

The opening of the seed vault is part of an unprecedented effort to protect the planet’s rapidly diminishing biodiversity. The diversity of our crops is essential for food production, yet it is being lost. This “fail-safe” facility, dug deep into the frozen rock of an Arctic mountain, will secure for centuries, or longer, hundreds of millions of seeds representing every important crop variety available in the world today. As well as protecting against the daily loss of diversity, the vault could also prove indispensable for restarting agricultural production at the regional or global level in the wake of a natural or man-made disaster. Contingencies for climate change have been worked into the plan. Even in the worst-case scenarios of global warming, the vault rooms will remain naturally frozen for up to 200 years.

“With climate change and other forces threatening the diversity of life that sustains our planet, Norway is proud to be playing a central role in creating a facility capable of protecting what are not just seeds, but the fundamental building blocks of human civilization,” said Norway’s Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg.

“Crop diversity will soon prove to be our most potent and indispensable resource for addressing climate change, water and energy supply constraints, and for meeting the food needs of a growing population,” said Cary Fowler, Executive Director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is funded and established by Norway as a service to the world. The Global Crop Diversity Trust is providing support for the ongoing operations of the seed vault, as well as organizing and funding the preparation and shipment of seeds from developing countries to the facility. NordGen will manage the facility and maintain a public on-line database of samples stored in the seed vault, which has the capacity to house 4.5 million samples–some 2 billion seeds.

Prime Minister Stoltenberg and Wangari Maathai, founder of the African Green Belt Movement and 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, delivered together the first box of seeds to the vault. It contained rice seeds specially prepared with varieties originating from 104 countries. The box was opened during the ceremony, and then resealed before being placed in the vault.

“The significant public interest in the seed vault project indicates that collectively we are changing the way we think about environmental conservation. We now understand that along with international movements to save endangered species and the rainforests of the world, it is just as important for us to conserve the diversity of the world’s crops for future generations,” Maathai said.

“The opening of the seed vault marks a historic turning point in safeguarding the world’s crop diversity,” said Fowler. “But about 50 percent of the unique diversity stored in seed banks still is endangered. We are in the midst of trying to rescue these varieties. Our success means we will guarantee the conservation and availability of these wildly diverse crops. Forever.”

Unique Building

The building of the vault itself has attracted much outside interest due to its location and its unusual engineering, security, and aesthetic features. Its engineering allows it to stay cool with only a single 10-kilowatt compressor, which is powered by locally generated electricity.

The vault consists of three highly secure rooms sitting at the end of a 125-metre tunnel blasted out of a mountain on Norway’s Svalbard archipelago. The seeds will be stored at minus 18 degrees Celsius (minus 0.4 degrees Fahrenheit) and sealed in specially-designed four-ply foil packages. The packages are sealed inside boxes and stored on shelves inside the vault. Each vault is surrounded by frozen arctic permafrost, ensuring the continued viability of the seeds should the electricity supply fail. The low temperature and moisture level inside the vaults will ensure low metabolic activity, keeping the seeds viable. If properly stored and maintained at minus 20 degrees Celsius (about minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit), some seeds in the vault will be viable for a millennium or more. For example, barley can last 2000 years, wheat 1700 years, and sorghum almost 20,000 years.

Anyone seeking access to the seeds themselves will have to pass through four locked doors: the heavy steel entrance doors, a second door approximately 115 metres down the tunnel and finally the two keyed air-locked doors. Keys are coded to allow access to different levels of the facility. Not all keys will unlock all doors. Motion detectors are set up around the site. Boxes of seeds inside the rooms are scanned before entering the seed vault.

A work of art also will make the vault visible for miles around. Artist Dyveke Sanne and KORO, the Norwegian agency overseeing art in public spaces, have worked together to fill the roof and vault entrance with highly reflective steel, mirrors, and prisms. The installation acts as a beacon, reflecting polar light in the summer months, while in the winter, a network of 200 fibre-optic cables will give the piece a muted greenish-turquoise and white light.

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Svalbard Global Seed Vault (www.seedvault.no)

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is designed to store duplicates of seeds from seed collections from around the globe. If seeds are lost, e.g. as a result of natural disasters, war or simply a lack of resources, the seed collections may be reestablished using seeds from Svalbard. The seed vault is owned by the Norwegian government which has also financed the construction work, costing nearly NOK 50 million.

The Global Crop Diversity Trust (www.croptrust.org)

The mission of the Trust is to ensure the conservation and availability of crop diversity for food security worldwide. Although crop diversity is fundamental to fighting hunger and to the very future of agriculture, funding is unreliable and diversity is being lost. The Trust is the only organization working worldwide to solve this problem.

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For password, photographs, b-roll footage, or phone interviews, please contact

Jeff Haskins: +1 301 652 1558 ext. 5730 (US)/+47 91 63 92 64 (Norway 19-29 February) or jhaskins@burnesscommunications.com

Preeti Singh: +1 301 652 1558 ext. 5722 (US) or psingh@burnesscommunications.com

Ole G. Hertzenberg: +47 90 10 04 42 (Norway) or ole.g.hertzenberg@faktotum.no

Editor’s Note: The official press room for the event ­ including streaming video of the opening ceremony, photos of the facility, and embargoed press materials ­ is available at www.seedvault.no

(password protected). Other background information and multimedia materials can be found at

http://www.croptrust.org/main/seedvault.php