The cooling towers of Three Mile Island's Unit 1 Nuclear Power Plant pour steam into the sky in Middletown, Pa., March 17, 2009.

Obama’s Nuclear Loan Guarantee Plan Draws  Opposition. USA Today, February 1, 2010. “A campaign is already underway to oppose the tripling of loan guarantees for new nuclear power plants, included in President Obama’s 2011 budget (and Energy Fact Sheet) unveiled on Monday. A bevy of environmental, taxpayer and scientific groups . . . .  are criticizing Obama’s proposal to increase loan guarantees for new nuclear plants from $18.5 billion to $54.5 billion. The guarantees could bolster GOP support for his bill to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which passed the House of Representatives but is pending in the Senate. In a letter to Obama, four groups – the National Taxpayers Union, Taxpayers for Common Sense, the George Marshall Institute and the Non-Proliferation Education Center — oppose an expansion of loan guarantees for new nuclear plants. . . “

Instead of focusing on opposing nuclear plants, these groups should brainstorm ways to shut down all U.S. coal plants, which kill more people and harm the environment more than any nuclear plants in the U.S. ever have.  The French have an excellent record of safety, so the U.S. could too, if it put more money and effort into it.  A disturbing story about tritium leaks from CBS news came out yesterday, and these problems have to be addressed as soon as possible.  Radioactive tritium, a carcinogen, now taints at least 27 of the nation’s 104 nuclear reactors

But new nuclear designs and replaced parts in old plants will help solve this problem, if they can be funded and built very soon.  The “pebble bed” design, the 4th generation nuclear plant designs offer a lot of promise for safety and keeps the radioactive material  in the reactor vessel. Nuclear energy is nearly CO2-free and has an obvious place in our energy future.  I wish “environmentalists” who are worried about climate change (as I am) would understand that conservation is not adequate to solve our massive emissions problems quickly enough.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu Announces Commission on Nuclear Waste. — U.S. DOE, January 29, 2010. “As part of the Obama Administration’s commitment to restarting America’s nuclear industry, U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu on January 29 announced the formation of a Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future to provide recommendations for developing a safe, long-term solution to managing the Nation’s used nuclear fuel and nuclear waste. The Commission is being co-chaired by former Congressman Lee Hamilton and former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft. In light of the Administration’s decision not to proceed with the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, President Obama has directed Secretary Chu to establish the Commission to conduct a comprehensive review of policies for managing the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle. The Commission will provide advice and make recommendations on issues including alternatives for the storage, processing, and disposal of civilian and defense spent nuclear fuel and [...]

Tell Congress: No more secret payments!
A bill now in Congress would help protect poor people by making oil, gas, and mining companies open their books–but industry lobbyists are fighting it. Poor communities have a right to follow the money–and to call for a fair share for schools, health care, and jobs.

This is a short video from Oxfam about economic justice for people who are not profiting adequately from the sales of their natural resources that we in the U.S. (almost) take for granted.   There are a lot of people whose natural resources are being taken and sold, without their consultation, and they are not getting fair payment for them.  They don’t even know where the money is going.  Corporate energy profits are gouging average consumers and most people don’t know how that gallon of gas gets to their local gas station.   This video, “Follow the money,” is good at pointing this out, but it also implies that gasoline has such a high price because of all the profiteers and middle men along the way to the pump.  It’s not just that;  it’s  also about supply and demand.  Oil is finite and some day it will run out. As things run out, they become a lot more expensive, and there will be a rush to profit even more from the remaining oil.

This Oxfam video also suggests that gasoline and oil are plentiful and would be cheaper if the middle men were removed.   In fact, gasoline is becoming more rare every day as oil fields are depleted and no new large ones that are easily accessible are found to replace them. We have reached, or soon will reach, a peak oil situation.  After that has become a known reality, gasoline will go up and up in price.  It just can’t possibly stay at this low price of under $5 per gallon for a resource that is getting more rare every day.  Add to that the damage oil and gas do to the environment, and the wars fought to obtain it, and gasoline should be about $20 or more per gallon to reflect its true cost.  It will be getting more expensive very soon, so you might want to order that new 2010 hybrid or electric car soon. . . .

As Oxfam points out:

More and more, poor people are asserting their right to decide if or how they want oil, gas, and mining development to take place in their community—and their right to know about the impacts and benefits of these projects.

If they are consulted in advance, local people can decide whether they want companies to begin or expand operations on their land. And if they know how much companies are paying their government for their natural resources, they can call for a fair share of the profits to go to community needs like education, health care, and jobs.

Oxfam America has a long history of supporting these community rights in [...]

Photo: Marko Djurica --The sun sets over Kabul January 31, 2010.

Iceland Tops Environment List.  U.S., China, and India Lag Far Behind

According to a new report and world-wide ranking of 163 nations based on environmental public health and the vitality of their ecosystems, Iceland, Switzerland, Costa Rica, Sweden, and Norway are in the top five, with the U.S. trailing in 61st place and China and India ranking 121st and 123rd respectively. The Environmental Performance Index, compiled by researchers at Yale and Columbia universities, ranks countries based on 10 main categories such as environmental health, air quality, water management, biodiversity and habitat, forestry, and climate change.

During his Q&A with Republicans last Friday, President Obama said:

“. . . . we have to plan for the future.  And the future is that clean energy — cleaner forms of energy are going to be increasingly important, because even if folks are still skeptical in some cases about climate change in our politics and in Congress, the world is not skeptical about it.  If we’re going to be after some of these big markets, they’re going to be looking to see, is the United States the one that’s developing clean coal technology?  Is the United States developing our natural gas resources in the most effective way?  Is the United States the one that is going to lead in electric cars?  Because if we’re not leading, those other countries are going to be leading.

So what I want to do is work with West Virginia to figure out how we can seize that future.  [changing coal instead of getting rid of it]  But to do that, that means there’s going to have to be some transition.. . . “

That was an excellent point:  even if there are climate change skeptics in the U.S. who don’t want to act until they are “sure” about climate change, the rest of the world is already sure and acting on it. That means the U.S. is falling behind.  Other countries are getting to work on green energy and green jobs and cutting emissions now, and if we don’t join in we are going to be left in the dust and lose that business in the new greener technology.  It’s already happening.  If we don’t start catching up to other countries in new tech and cutting emissions now we’ll be even farther down the list next year.

More from the report:

Iceland ranked at the top because of its excellent environmental public health and reliance on renewable sources of energy such as geothermal and hydropower. Although the U.S. placed high in categories such as safe drinking water and forest sustainability, it ranked 61st overall because of its massive greenhouse gas emissions and local air pollution problems. The low rankings of India and China are due to the severe environmental strain brought about by overpopulation and rapid economic growth. The bottom five countries were Togo, Angola, Mauritania, the Central African Republic, and Sierra Leone, all impoverished nations [...]

For those who continue to think natural gas is a clean energy alternative,  read this story from ProPublica.  Natural gas is a fossil fuel being touted as part of our “green energy future”, along with biofuels;  a nonsensical claim considering that it emits CO2 when burned. In addition to emitting greenhouse gases when it burns, it must be extracted from the ground by various methods, all of which use toxic chemicals, energy and water. Natural gas doesn’t just flow harmlessly out of a tap you can turn on and off. If people knew more about the toxicity of its extraction process and all the spills that occur, I wonder if they would be so ready to embrace something that is so damaging to the environment.  For more information, read about gas drilling’s serious environmental threat here.

(Jan. 27 2010) — As more gas wells are drilled in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale, more cases of toxic spills are being reported. Earlier this month, Pennsylvania’s environmental officials fined Pennsylvania-based Atlas Resources after a series of violations at 13 wells, including spills of fracturing fluids and other contaminants onto the ground around the sites. And just last week the agency fined M.R. Dirt, a company that removes waste from drilling sites, $6,000 for spilling more than seven tons of drilling dirt along a public road.

The reports come on the heels of a string of other incidents that have killed fish in one of the state’s most prized recreational lakes and released toxic chemicals into the environment.

The Atlas spills are significant because they are among the latest and because they happened repeatedly during the routine transfer of fluids. Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection fined [1] Atlas Resources $85,000 for the offenses, which took place between May and December of 2009. Many of the spills were discovered by DEP inspectors.

The violations [2] (PDF) cited by the DEP include spills of fluids from the hydraulic fracturing [3] process at seven sites, and failure to report a spill at one of those sites. One spill was the result of a faulty pit liner, which is supposed to insulate the ground from hydraulic fracturing fluids after they are pumped out of a well.

Atlas Resources [4] controls more than half a million acres within the Marcellus Shale, the massive gas deposit that stretches from Tennessee to New York. The company, whose total revenue was $787.4 million in 2008, issued a statement acknowledging that it had entered a voluntary settlement with the DEP and saying that each of the incidents had been corrected. An Atlas spokesman declined a request to answer additional questions about the violations, or about the company’s operations in Pennsylvania.

“If you look at this series of violations — it’s not only that there are multiple violations,” said DEP spokeswoman Helen Humphreys, pointing to the fact that the same three violations were turning up at each site. “This is a pattern, and it’s a problem.”

<p style="padding-left: [...]

“Italo – Albanese e di Futurismo”
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Applausi sul Raiuno

via Melitoonline.it

Pierfranco Bruni, scrittore ed esperto del Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali, sarà ospite, domani domenica 31 gennaio, dopo il TG UNO della Notte, su RAIUNO nel programma “Applausi” di Gigi Marzullo per parlare di cultura Italo – Albanese e di Futurismo.

Due aspetti legati ad alcune recenti mostre che stanno ottenendo consenso e successo. Un appuntamento che segna chiaramente in positivo le attività culturali di uno studioso come Pierfranco Bruni alla luce delle recenti ricerche e degli studi condotti anche per conto del Ministero per i Beni Culturali. Pierfranco Bruni illustrerà, per sintesi, i percorsi di due mostre che sono presenti nel territorio pugliese e riferite alla storia delle minoranze linguistiche, la prima, e al rapporto tra Futurismo, novecentismo e ricerca nell’opera di Francesco Grisi.

Dopo la sua presenza nel programma “Sottovece”, sempre di RAIUNO e dopo le attività culturali su RAIDUE e RAITRE, Pierfranco Bruni ritorna in compagnia di Gigi Marzullo e attori, registi e critici d’arte per discutere e proporre percorsi culturali all’insegna della promozione e della valorizzazione del patrimonio nazionale.

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Storm Clouds over Sao Paulo

A People’s Submission on Climate Change

The following letter and statement were sent on January 28, from Climate Action Network Canada, to Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

Dear Mr. de Boer,

On behalf of the people of Canada, we are making a “Peoples Submission” to the Copenhagen Accord. We realize it is exceptional for you to receive a national submission through a nongovernmental organization. However, the present circumstance in Canada is exceptional. The views and aspiration of the majority of Canadians are not reflected in the views and actions of the present government.

The Canadian people have been very clear in their continuing support for the Kyoto Protocol and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. We also support Canada adopting science based emission targets and contributing our fair share to a mitigation and adaptation fund.

We want the international community to know Canadians will one day live up to our obligations.

Please accept this “Peoples Submission” as an indication of the real values and views of Canadians.

Sincerely,

Graham Saul
Executive Director
Climate Action Network / Réseau action climat Canada

++++++

Read the peoples’ submission after the break.

A PEOPLE’S SUBMISSION ON CANADA, CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE COPENHAGEN ACCORD

Submitted January 28th, 2010 to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

This submission is made on behalf of Canadian citizens who overwhelmingly desire that our government take real action on climate change. We submit that in order to contribute its fair share to a meaningful global climate change agreement, Canada should take the following actions:

Canada should commit to a science-based emissions reduction target of 25 per cent below 1990 levels by the year 2020 – “further strengthening” the government’s current target of 3 per cent below 1990 by 2020, as required by the Copenhagen Accord.
Canada should provide its fair share (3 to 4 per cent) of long-term climate financing to assist the most vulnerable and poorest countries in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to unavoidable climate change impacts. The Copenhagen Accord commits developed countries to “a goal of mobilizing” US $100 billion per year by 2020. Canada should go further by supporting a collective financing target of US $195 billion per year by 2020.
Canada should also provide its fair share (3 to 4 per cent) of short-term climate financing to assist the most vulnerable and poorest countries in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to unavoidable climate change impacts. This is equivalent to CAD $320 to 420 million per year in new funds, over and above our Official Development Assistance commitments, from 2010 to 2012. This financing would be a first step towards the long-term financing commitment noted above.
Finally, Canada should recommit itself to fulfilling its legal obligations under the Kyoto Protocol (an emissions reduction target of 6 per cent below 1990 levels during the period 2008 to 2012), and working with the international community to come to an agreement in 2010 on stronger commitments under the Protocol, post-2012.

Background

The [...]

Photo by Eduard Korniyenko--People Seen Through Window Of Public Bus In Stavropol, Russia

Could All the Freezing Weather Lately be Caused by Climate Change? [Yes]

January 29, 2010–Anthropogenic warming has thrown what was once a stable climate into disarray, and may be leading as much to ruinous droughts as to record-breaking freezes.

Climate change is an issue of literal and figurative polar extremes. As the planet inexorably warms, deniers mix in assertions of global cooling with their usual Al Gore insults and political assaults. . . No wonder, then, that people around the globe are dizzy with confusion. Careening between these extremes, they are easily manipulated by seeming opposites, environmental, political and otherwise. All of this, in the end, is complicated by the lack of consensus from gun-shy scientists, who are lately more busy fending off (or feeding off of, depending on the scientist) ludicrous sideshows like Climategate than they are confidently extrapolating the destabilizing scenarios to come, a move that might give all their number-crunching some real-world meaning.

News From The United States of Ostriches

The Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies released the results of a new national survey on public responses to climate change. This report finds that public concern about global warming has dropped sharply since the fall of 2008.

Obama To Propose Tripling Of Nuclear Loan Guarantees

Barack Obama will propose a tripling of government funding for new nuclear reactors to more than $54bn. Barack Obama used his presidential authority to help advance his climate change agenda today, announcing that the US federal government and agencies would cut their giant carbon footprints by 28% by 2020.

The announcement was [shown] by administration officials as evidence of Obama’s commitment to his climate and energy agenda, which has run into opposition in Congress and from coal, oil and manufacturing groups.

The White House said the targets – which are set against 2008 emissions levels – would reduce America’s greenhouse gas emissions by 80m metric tons by 2020, and save the government between $8bn (£5bn) and $11bn in energy costs.

Obama will also propose a tripling of government loan guarantees for new nuclear reactors to more than $54bn, an administration official said, a move sure to win over some Republican lawmakers who want more nuclear power to be part of climate change legislation.

The loan guarantees, which follow Obama’s pledge in his State of the Union address to work to expand nuclear power production, will be announced as part of his budget proposal on Monday, the official said.

Poorly-Placed US Weather Stations Produce Cool Bias in Temperature Record – Not Warm as Claimed

A new study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research – Atmospheres shows that Anthony Watts and SurfaceStations.org was indeed correct. There are indeed a good deal of poorly-placed weather monitoring stations in the United States. And these have caused a bias in the record of temperature changes: [...]

What will keep the lights on?

Look into the future — it’s a very sparse and dirty place. It might also be very dark.   The few remaining humans will all live at the tops of major mountains, trying to grow things in the rock. Some made it to the Arctic, but it’s hard to live in such extreme latitudes where the sun doesn’t even shine for months out of the year. The remaining humans can’t figure out exactly what happened. So many animals and plants have gone extinct, there is little to eat and no medicine, no electricity and no power. There has been a great culling of humans and animals on planet Earth and along with them went the ability to communicate over distances. There are no governments, and no countries remain. Borders are meaningless. After the final resource wars, countries descended into chaos and humans scattered over the horizon . . . .

This is our potential future unless we get a handle on global warming very soon.  That’s not likely without strong national leadership. So, I’m hoping that President Obama will talk about climate change and new energy and green jobs in tonight’s State of the Union speech. We had such high hopes that he would act decisively on global warming, and it’s been a year already!

Alternative energy like wind and solar are making big development strides, but are not being implemented fast enough.  The U.S. needs a huge infusion of stimulus money and work into building new transmission lines.   The news on wind overall is good though:

Issuing its end-of-year report, the American Wind Energy Association said the industry installed nearly 10,000 megawatts of new capacity during the year, growing at an annual rate of 39%. The U.S. now has a total of 35,000 megawatts of wind energy installed, enough to light and power 9.7 million homes and the equivalent of removing 62 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere each year and taking 10.5 million cars off the road.

Though the industry avoided a predicted 50% decline in domestic wind turbine manufacturing because of the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act stimulus and the Obama administration’s commitment to clean energy job creation, AWEA CEO Denise Bode said a stronger federal policy on renewable energy is needed to keep manufacturing robust.

From Climate Progress.

Where does Bill Gates come in?

Science magazine dropped this bombshell today, “Bill Gates Funding Geoengineering Research,” which perhaps illuminates everything Gates has said and done:

Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates has been supporting a wide array of research on geoengineering since 2007, ScienceInsider has learned. The world’s richest man has provided at least $4.5 million of his own money over 3 years for the study of methods that could alter the stratosphere to reflect solar energy, techniques to filter carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere, and brighten ocean clouds. But Gates’s money has not funded any field [...]

Congrats to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection!

“With 326,726 visitors from February 18, 2009 to January 11, 2010, Masterpieces of Futurism at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection earned its second place ranking among the most visited exhibitions in Italy in the past twelve months; open for 284 days, the show averaged 1,150 visitors per day. The national and international press showed extensive interest and wrote with enthusiasm about the museum’s important homage to the avant-garde movement’s centenary. The exhibition included works by “the first and the best” Futurist masters, such as Boccioni, Balla, Carrà, Russolo, and Severini.”

Peggy Guggenhiem Collection

Virtual Tour of the exhibition

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President Obama’s first state of the union speech took place last night. Applicable portions dealing with climate change and energy are in the transcript clip below. It was very interesting that when Obama was talking briefly about climate change and said something like, “…overwhelming evidence …” the Republicans booed and made other negative noises. Global warming has now become a full-blown partisan political issue in the U.S., and the Republican party are the official deniers.  In addition, Obama is missing the opportunity of a lifetime to give us serious climate change legislation, and he’s blowing it by going down the middle of the road, trying to please everyone.  This year could be the end of any meaningful climate change legislation, until the point where it’s obvious and too late.  (We now enter a political election cycle.) We don’t know when it will be too late to stop climate change, but I bet Bill Gates is hoping it will be soon so his geoengineering investments pay off.

Speech clip on energy and global warming:

“But to create more of these clean energy jobs, we need more production, more efficiency, more incentives.  And that means building a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants in this country.  (Applause.)  It means making tough decisions about opening new offshore areas for oil and gas development.  (Applause.)  It means continued investment in advanced biofuels and clean coal technologies. (Applause.)  And, yes, it means passing a comprehensive energy and climate bill with incentives that will finally make clean energy the profitable kind of energy in America.  (Applause.)

I am grateful to the House for passing such a bill last year.  (Applause.)  And this year I’m eager to help advance the bipartisan effort in the Senate.  (Applause.)

I know there have been questions about whether we can afford such changes in a tough economy.  I know that there are those who disagree with the overwhelming scientific evidence on climate change. But here’s the thing — even if you doubt the evidence, providing incentives for energy-efficiency and clean energy are the right thing to do for our future -– because the nation that leads the clean energy economy will be the nation that leads the global economy.  And America must be that nation.”

Notice the words, “biofuels and clean coal technologies”.  This is not good.

It was a vague statement, tentative, almost sheepish;  with no specifics on how to get there other than passing a bill that no one agrees on.  He did not even say the word “green”.  How is he going to help pass climate change legislation?  By emphasizing that it will create jobs.  Will this placate the big environmental groups?  It already has.

All of this means we are up against huge hurdles this year.  There is plenty of evidence that conservative lawmakers don’t believe in science, or therefore in reality. Their disbelief has come full circle and the science they question now includes evolution, geology, paleontology, climatology, food safety, [...]

Aperitivo con Marcello Veneziani

Thursday, January 28, 2010 – 12:00p
Martini Cafè
Piazza Cavour, Foggia

Veneziani will present his anthology Anni Incendiari.

More on Anni Incendiari

more info on this event

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On the Move: Visualising Action

January 13 – April 18, 2010
Estorick Collection, London
Curated by Jonathon Miller

Although the problem of depicting movement in painting and sculpture had concerned artists for many centuries, the birth of the Futurist movement in 1909 signalled a renewed interest in the subject. Taking as its starting point the Estorick’s own collection of Futurist masterpieces, On the Move draws on a wide range of material in many different media to provide an in-depth examination of this complex and fascinating theme.

Many of Futurism’s pictorial innovations were in fact built on foundations laid during the nineteenth century, when the emerging medium of photography began to reveal previously unseen aspects of reality. The pioneering research of Eadweard Muybridge and Etienne-Jules Marey was of particular importance in this respect. While Muybridge’s iconic studies of animal and human locomotion represented the successive stages of movement in individual frames, Marey captured them on a single photographic plate, creating trailing images of motion that were not only of great scientific interest, but which have informed almost all subsequent analytical representations of movement, from the rhythmical paintings of Giacomo Balla to the famous ‘stroboscopic’ photography of Harold Edgerton and Gjon Mili in the twentieth century.

Occupying a position on the cusp of the arts and sciences, this subject has long been of fascination to the exhibition’s curator, Jonathan Miller. From equestrian paintings of the eighteenth century, to contemporary experiments with long-exposure photography and CAD modelling, this personal selection of works illustrates the full range of artists’ resourcefulness in tackling this most intriguing and elusive of subjects.

Gallery Talks

Saturday afternoons at 15.00 -Informal talks on aspects of the exhibition last approximately 40 minutes and are free with an admission ticket purchased on the day.

Saturday 20 February 2010

On the Move: An Introduction
Jonathan Miller, exhibition curator

Saturday 27 February 2010

‘Mere Kinematic Representation’: The Contemporary Reception of Futurism and Cinema
Prof. Christopher Townsend, Dept of Media Arts, Royal Holloway, University of London

Saturday 6 March 2010

Moving Inside the Head: Representing Movement in the Brain
Prof. George Mather, Professor of Experimental Psychology, University of Sussex

Saturday 20 March 2010

Eadweard Muybridge: The Kingston Bequest
Peta Cook, Curator, Kingston Museum

Saturday 3 April 2010

Photographing Time
Jonathan Shaw, Associate Head of Media and Communication Dept, Coventry University, and contributor to the exhibition

Round Table

Tuesday 16 March 2010, 19.00-21.00

The Legacy of Muybridge and Marey
Discussion chaired by Jonathan Miller.

Tickets £15 (£12 concessions and Estorick members) including entry to the exhibition. Please book in advance on 020 7704 9522. Pay bar.

Photography Workshop

Tuesday 23 March 2010, 19.00-21.00

Freeze! Blur! Snap! Flash!

Learn tips and techniques for capturing movement on camera in this practical workshop led by photographer Clara Cowan. Please bring your own camera (which must have manual option).

Tickets £12 (£10 concessions and Estorick members). Spaces are limited so please book in advance on 020 7704 9522.

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Homage for Mario Verdone / Omaggio a Mario Verdone

Monday, February 8, 2010 – 6pm
Sala della Protomoteca – Palazzo Senatorio
Piazza del Campidoglio – Roma

La città di Roma rende omaggio ad un suo illustre concittadino a pochi mesi dalla scomparsa. L’occasione è la presentazione dell’ultimo libro di Mario Verdone dedicato – dopo importanti saggi e studi sul cinema e sul Futurismo – ad un argomento più intimo e poetico: la terra Sabina che da oltre quarant’anni ospitò i suoi riposi estivi.

Il libro “A Cantalupo in Sabina, versi e memorie” (Ed. Sabinae) sarà presentato dai figli Luca e Carlo Verdone e da autorevoli rappresentanti del mondo della cultura.

GIULIANO COMPAGNO – Comune di Roma

GIORDANO BRUNO GUERRI – Scrittore e presidente della Fondazione “Il Vittoriale”

ELIO PECORA – Poeta e scrittore

GIAN LUIGI RONDI - Presidente del Festival internazionale del Film di Roma

CARLO VERDONE – Attore e regista cinematografico

LUCA VERDONE – Regista

http://www.edizionisabinae.com
info: 0765/513007 392/8634584 press@edizionisabinae.com

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Every time there is a great idea concerning biofuels it eventually turns out to be less than advertised.  I thought algae would be something that could pan out as a brilliant form of fuel for the future.  It would be easy to grow and would not compete with food for land.  At present, though, it creates more net CO2 than expected.  The CO2 production would not be a one-off, it would be something that would be repeated as more fuel is made, over and over again.   Last week, the government doled out more than $80 million in stimulus money for biofuels research, much of which will be focused on algae research.  From GreenInc. and e360:

Chris Richards for The New York Times: The need to feed nutrients directly to the water could be a limiting factor in the utility of algae as a biofuel, a new study suggests.

Growing algae for biofuels is an energy-intensive process that can generate more greenhouse gases than the process sequesters, according to a new study. Examining the life cycle of algal biofuels, researchers from the University of Virginia found that the process emits high levels of greenhouse gases because algal production requires using large amounts of fertilizer. Those fertilizers often come from petroleum-based sources, and fertilizers also emit nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas, according to the study.

The study, published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, said that while biofuel production from crops such as corn, canola, and switchgrass can result in a net carbon dioxide uptake, that is not yet the case with algal biofuels.  The paper said that one promising way to overcome the environmental impact of using fertilizers to grow algal biofuels is to produce them with effluent from sewage treatment plants. Proponents of algal biofuels also said it is too early to make firm conclusions about the environmental impact of the technology because it is still in its infancy.

This is disappointing!  The paper suggests that one way to reduce the environmental impact of algae is to draw city wastewater into algae plantations, as a source of nitrogen and phosphorus.

This could reduce the amount of fertilizer required, said Dr. Jardine.

Numerous companies, large and small, are investing resources in algae biofuel research, including Exxon Mobil, which last summer devoted $600 million to the endeavor.

EXXON is also surprising us in other ways . . . . or not.  Turns out Exxon backs a carbon tax.  No kidding!   They want themselves taxed for carbon!

Oil giant comes in from the cold

Exxon funded global warming denial for years. Yesterday, in an astonishing U-turn, it called for the imposition of green taxes.

By Stephen Foley in New York

The boss of ExxonMobil, the world’s largest oil company, has called for a carbon tax to tackle global warming, marking a volte-face by the firm once described by Greenpeace as Climate Criminal No 1. Assailed from all sides by scientists and a new cadre [...]

Embattled Avant-Gardes: Modernism’s Resistance to Commodity Culture in Europe
By Walter L. Adamson
University of California Press, 2010
ISBN: 9780520252707

This sweeping work, at once a panoramic overview and an ambitious critical reinterpretation of European modernism, provides a bold new perspective on a movement that defined the cultural landscape of the early twentieth century. Walter L. Adamson embarks on a lucid, wide-ranging exploration of the avant-garde practices through which the modernist generations after 1900 resisted the rise of commodity culture as a threat to authentic cultural expression. Taking biographical approaches to numerous avant-garde leaders, Adamson charts the rise and fall of modernist aspirations in movements and individuals as diverse as Ruskin, Marinetti, Kandinsky, Bauhaus, Purism, and the art critic Herbert Read. In conclusion, Adamson rises to the defense of the modernists, suggesting that their ideas are relevant to current efforts to think through what it might mean to create a vibrant, aesthetically satisfying form of cultural democracy.

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CONFERENCE

IL FUTURISMO NELLE AVANGUARDIE

Milano, Palazzo Reale
Sala delle Otto Colonne
February 4-6, 2010

Organized by the Comitato Nazionale per le celebrazioni del centenario della pubblicazione del Manifesto del Futurismo

Download the program and brochure here

THURSDAY, FEB 4

Indirizzi di saluto del rappresentante del Governo
di Letizia Moratti sindaco
di Milano di Massimiliano Finazzer Flory assessore alla cultura del Comune di Milano
di Maurizio Fallace MiBAC, Direttore Generale per le Biblioteche, gli Istituti Culturali e il Diritto d’Autore

saluto di Vittoria Marinetti

intervento di Carlo Fabrizio Carli Segretario – Tesoriere del Comitato Nazionale

coffee break

seduta antimeridiana

Avanguardia/Avanguardie

presiede Ezio Godoli
Walter Pedullà Il Futurismo, prima avanguardia
Enrico Crispolti L’immagine-evento futurista

seduta pomeridiana

Velocità,Violenza, Rivoluzione

presiede Walter Pedullà
Zeno Birolli e Marina Pugliese I gessi originali di Boccioni e le successive traduzioni in bronzo
François Livi Futurismo e Surrealismo

coffee break

Matteo D’Ambrosio La guerra nella letteratura futurista
Ruggero Pierantoni L’ottica della velocità

interventi di

Gloria Manghetti Dell’esperienza futurista di Giovanni Papini
Silvana Cirillo Il futurismo segreto. Epistolari editi e inediti
Alessandro del Puppo I funerali dell’anarchico Carrà
Emanuela Bufacchi Le città del silenzio e la poetica del rumore.

Al termine

Presentazione virtuale del Museo del Novecento

FRIDAY, FEB. 5

seduta antimeridiana

Il controdolore presiede Gino Agnese

Franca Angelini Il teatro futurista
Gino Tellini L’eroe e la pulce; il Futurismo autoironico di Aldo Palazzeschi
Andrea Cortellessa Aspetti della poesia futurista

coffee break

Günter Berghaus Futurism and Dada: contacts, conflict and collisions

interventi di

Augusto Sainati Forme futuriste nel cinema
Tecla Biancolatte La narrativa futurista
Patricia Gaborick L’influenza del Futurismo sulla danza statunitense
Maria Elena Versari Rapporti internazionali del Futurismo dopo il 1919

seduta pomeridiana

l’epos futuristanpresiede Wladimir Krysinski

Simonetta Lux Lo scarto assoluto
Ezio Godoli Problematiche d’attualità nell’architettura del futurismo
Luigi Ballerini I romanzi di Marinetti

coffee break

Antonello Negri Pittura e scultura di guerra

interventi di

Gregory Alegi Il fascino del volo
Mario Caramitti Pasternak dal Futurismo degli esordi alla maturità dell’avanguardia
Antonella Greco Angiolo Mazzoni, un futurista
Luigi Sansone Joseph Stella e i rapporti con i futuristi italiani

al termine proiezione del film La metropoli im-possibile di Vincenzo Capalbo ed Ezio Godoli

SATURDAY, FEB. 6

seduta antimeridiana

La materia, l’immateriale

presiede Enrico Crispolti

Remo Bodei Lo slancio verso il futuro: Futurismo e filosofia europea
Paolo Valesio Marinetti: la letteratura all’estremo
Daniele Lombardi La musica futurista

coffee break

Emiliano Gentile Futurismo: La rivoluzione per un disumanesimo anticristiano

interventi di

Simona Cigliana L’immateriale nelle avanguardie
Domenico Scudero Dematetializzazioni futuriste: l’arte elettronica
Silvia Zoppi Garampi Materia e poesia
Paola Pettenella Gli archivi futuristi del MART

seduta pomeridiana

La tecnica e la storia presiede Carlo Fabrizio Carli

Wladimir Krysinki Le identità variabili dell’avanguardia: il Futurismo e gli altri
Giovanni Lista Futurismo ed Espressionismo

interventi di

Luciano Ceri Marinetti alla radio
Riccardo Notte Futurismo e comunicazione
Gianni Eugenio Viola L’ “Ossessione lirica della materia”

coffee break

Renato Barilli Lasciti futuristi nella neoavanguardia europea
Maurizio Calvesi Cent’anni di Futurismo

conclusione dei lavori

In occasione del convegno sarà visitabile a Palazzo Reale una mostra di documenti originali per la storia del Futurismo

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BOOK PRESENTATION

Il Futurismo a Viareggio e in Versilia

Tuesday, January 26, 2010 – 5:30
Libreria Edison

Introduction by Eugenio Giani, president of the Consiglio comunale di Firenze, along with Alessandra Belluomini Pucci, new director of the Galleria and curator along with Riccardo Mazzoni, Glauco Borella and Anna Laghi

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Wind turbines spin in the wind generating electricity on Hwy 10 North of Shelburne. Ontario is preparing to lift a controversial moratorium on the development of offshore wind projects in the Great Lakes.

25 January 2010 – The Ontario government has just signed an agreement that will (reportedly) bring more green energy and new jobs to Ontario, Canada.

A consortium led by Samsung C&T Corporation and the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) will invest CAD$7 billion (£4.12 Billion) to generate 2,500 megawatts of wind and solar power. These projects will triple Ontario’s output from renewable wind and solar sources and provide clean electricity to more than 580,000 households.   The investment will also lead to more than 16,000 new green energy jobs to build, install and operate the renewable generation projects.

QUICK FACTS

More than 1,200 megawatts of new renewable projects, representing CAD$2.8 billion (£1.65 billion) of investment, have started up in Ontario since 2003.
$7-Billion (£4.12 Billion) Investment Means Green Energy and 16,000 New Jobs For Ontario, Canada
Ontario is Canada’s leading province in wind and solar power.
The Green Energy Act will create 50,000 new jobs in the green energy sector.
CO2 emissions from coal-fired power generation are 73 per cent lower than 2003 levels, with four more units coming offline in fall, 2010.

Why aren’t more deals like this being made in the U.S.?

The Korean consortium will also work with major partners to attract four manufacturing plants. This will lead to the creation of 1,440 manufacturing and related jobs building wind and solar technology for use in Ontario and export across North America.

The consortium fully intends to use Ontario-made steel in its renewable energy projects, such as constructing its wind turbine towers.

This is the single-largest investment in renewable energy in provincial history. The consortium chose Ontario because the province’s Green Energy Act guarantees stable rates for renewable energy.

“Thanks to today’s announcement, we will be delivering more green energy for Ontarians to use — and more green energy products for North America to buy. With this step, Ontario is becoming the place to be for green energy manufacturing in North America,” said Dalton McGuinty, Premier of Ontario.

“We commend Ontario for creating a welcoming climate for green energy investment. Samsung takes pride in its global efforts to support a more sustainable future and looks forward to working with Ontario residents and businesses to create clean, green power,” said Sung-Ha Chi, President and CEO, Samsung C&T Corporation.

“This is an exciting opportunity to help create new manufacturing facilities and be on the cutting edge of an emerging renewable energy supply sector in Ontario,” said Chan-Ki Jung, Executive Vice-President, Korea Electric Power Corporation.

From NeonDrum

The world’s melting glaciers: Disappearing alpine glaciers are an ominous sign of global warming

Every day I read or hear somewhere a media person of some type say that the glaciers aren’t really melting, they are actually gaining ice. Then I see blog posts repeating this false claim. How can people deny reality, when the glaciers are melting right in front of our eyes? (This is getting as bad as denying the moon landing.) The fact is that glaciers, world-wide, are indeed melting, and it’s not due to natural “cycles” or sun activity, it’s due to global warming caused by us.  Also, read more about George Will’s latest disinformation below.  (Click on the photo for the video to start).

*Video: national geographic glaciers melting january 2010

From National Geographic.

While the glaciers melt, the politicians are still trying to find a way to talk to each other without the demands and recriminations.

NEW DELHI: With an eye on the climate change conference in Mexico, [next December] the BASIC countries are considering ways to mend fences with the small island states and less developed countries. At the BASIC meeting to be held this week, India is likely to put forward a proposal for a fund to help vulnerable countries to deal with the effects of climate change.

The BASIC meeting in New Delhi will focus on post-Copenhagen scenario. With the group—Brazil, South Africa, India and China—now focusing on climate change negotiations leading to the conference at Mexico, it will need to work out ways in which it can make common cause with the rest of the developing bloc. There has been a sense that in Copenhagen, the emerging economies or the more advanced developing countries had broken ranks with the G-77. For the BASIC to retain its negotiating strength it will need to reach out to the vulnerable countries in the developing group.

The fund could serve this purpose. “The details of the fund are still being worked out,” a senior ministry official said. The proposed fund will be bilateral in nature and not under the auspices of the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change. The fund is unlikely to be a formal set up as that would require setting up of structures. Instead each of the four countries—Brazil, South Africa, India and China—will co-ordinate their climate related aid to vulnerable countries.   Source

Why do China and for that matter, the U.S., even bother pretending they are interested in climate change?  I have lost my patience with these politicians and "negotiators".   They don't care about the future of the livability of the planet -- it's politics, the next election, jobs and low cost energy that they are concerned with. Climate change has always been secondary to not only developing countries but to the most-developed "developing" countries too. Look at the use of coal in China, with no end in sight.  To the tiny nation of the Maldives it's the opposite -- climate change [...]

photo by Chance Lane - RFK, Jr. and Big Coal CEO Don Blankenship debated at the University of Charleston.

Robert Kennedy Jr. is a passionate environmentalist and attorney, who has been arguing for years that coal is destroying Appalachia and the climate. Don Blankenship is the head of the biggest coal company in the south, Massey Energy, responsible for coal mining mountaintop removal and the mining of much of the coal that is polluting the country. Kennedy has been publicly speaking out against Massey and Blankenship for years, and the two finally debated on January 22nd at the University of Charleston. It’s a fascinating and maddening debate,  and I am in awe of people who can debate polluters like Blankenship, who is a climate criminal, and keep their cool. Kennedy remains logical and puts forth his case very well and very passionately. He has 100X the facts that Blankenship has.

Download or Listen to the whole debate here. (81.5 MB)

Blankenship puts forth what’s best for his business: Spin and BS about national security.  Coal has nothing to do with our national security and it certainly does not improve quality of life when its waste is so toxic and poisonous (even radioactive) and the use of it is destroying the climate.  Blankenship is also under the impression that we need to use coal and that he’s doing some type of public service.  Quite the opposite!  Kennedy does a good job of describing the damage that mountaintop removal does.

More information from West Virginia’s public radio:

“While Administration officials work to determine new policies to oversee mountaintop removal permits, a much more public debate on the subject was held Thursday in Charleston.  Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship and environmentalist Robert Kennedy, Jr. faced off on coal, climate change and the nation’s energy future.

Thousands packed the auditorium and tuned in on television and radio for the debate at the University of Charleston.  Much of the debate was predictable, as Blankenship and Kennedy stuck to talking points.  Kennedy argued that the controversial practice of mountaintop removal is not only bad for the environment, but is so efficient that it’s eliminated most of West Virginia’s mining jobs.

“Don often talks about his concern for the workers of this state,” Kennedy said. “But this is an industry that through the ruthless pursuit of total efficiency has eliminated 90,000 jobs.”

Read more here.