Barack Obama speaking in Germany back in July, photo: matt4077.

At numerous times during his campaign, Barack Obama indicated that he would take a more collaborative, reengaged approach in dealing with other nations on major issues. And though he’ll still be president-elect Obama for close to three months, that hasn’t stopped politicians in other nations from reaching out to him, offering suggestions.

Canada Would Consider Climate Pact With US
Though Barack Obama’s proposed emission cuts are deeper than those currently proposed in Canada, and he’s indicat…

Continue reading " Canada, Germany Want to Work With Obama on Climate Change "

By Joseph Romm

The staid International Energy Agency is poised to bring a note of sanity back to the oil discussion next week, according to the Financial Times:

Oil prices will rebound to more than $100 a barrel as soon as the world economy recovers, and will exceed $200 by 2030, the International Energy Agency will say in its flagship report to be published next week.

“While market imbalances could temporarily cause prices to fall back, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the era of cheap oil is over,” the report states …

“Current global trends in energy supply and consumption are patently unsustainable,” the report states.

Duh!

This is a strong reaffirmation of IEA’s “dire forecast” from July.

The above figure is IEA’s new demand forecast. Needless to say, for global fossil fuel emissions to peak by about 2020 and drop 50 percent from current levels by 2050 — in order to have a chance of keeping total planetary warming at or below the (hopefully) safe level of 2°C — then a 25 percent increase in oil consumption is untenable.

The new report lays out a stark warning about the difficulty of increasing supply even that much in the next two decades — and a starker indirect warning about the gross misallocation of global resources needed to achieve that increase:

The IEA estimates that by 2010 oil companies will have to commit to projects producing almost as much oil as Saudi Arabia — or about 7m barrels a day — if the world is to avoid a supply crunch by the middle of the next decade … The stark assessment comes as companies cancel projects from Kazakhstan to Canada because the collapse in oil prices makes them uneconomical.

The industry will have to invest $350bn each year until 2030 to counter the steep rates of decline of existing fields and find enough extra oil to satisfy the growing demand of countries such as China, the report states.

Output from the world’s oil fields is declining at a natural rate of 9 per cent, the IEA found, following the most comprehensive review of its kind. This decline rate is curtailed to 6.7 per cent when current investments to boost production are made. However, even with such investments, the decline rate worsens significantly to 8.6 per cent by 2030.

The declining rates are steeper than the industry had previously assumed. They are also slightly steeper than an earlier draft of the report because the IEA has expanded the study to 800 oil fields, adding 250 smaller fields.

The oil industry will “have to invest $350 billion each year until 2030″ — a total of more than $7 trillion devoted to the Sisyphean effort of hanging on to a dwindling resource that is destroying the very climate that our health and well-being depends upon. Imagine what could be done if just half that money were allocated toward a sustainable energy future.

Ironically, an article last week in the Wall Street Journal noted, “Oil’s Slide Threatens Future Supply“:

Nobuo Tanaka, head of the International Energy Agency, the Paris-based watchdog, was one of several experts at the annual Oil and Money conference here predicting that the industry could be setting the stage for yet another supply-and-demand whiplash down the road. “We’re concerned that supply won’t catch up with demand after this crisis,” Mr. Tanaka said. “The supply crunch may come again, but in a more acute way … “

In two years’ time, “we could see much higher prices than we saw three months ago, if the investments are not going through,” said Fatih Birol, the IEA’s chief economist …

Mr. Birol said falling oil prices will also deter investment in alternative energy. Low-carbon technologies such as wind and solar were economically competitive only so long as oil prices were high. Countries set to meet in Copenhagen next year to agree a new deal on curbing emissions may decide it is a “luxury” in view of the financial crisis. Lower oil prices are “not good news for climate change,” he said.

While libertarians and conservatives continue to advocate a do-nothing or make-things-worse energy policy, thankfully Americans were smart enough to elect a president who is committed to pursuing an aggressive strategy of energy efficiency and clean, alternative energy even at a time when prices are (temporarily) low.

This post was created for ClimateProgress.org, a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

Continue reading " Up, up, and away! "

DeSmog Blog: Canada to seek climate change deal with President-elect Obama by Kevin Grandia
“One day after the United States voted Barack Obama as their next president, Canadian government officials are saying that the time is ripe for a continent-wide solution to global warming. Sounds good, but unfortunately there are some major gaps between what Canada is proposing and the much more aggressive plan out in Obama’s election platform.” …

Continue reading " DeSmog Blog, Grist and WorldChanging on Obama Victory, Ooffoo Online Community, and More "

Natural Pod, one of our favorite online natural toy companies, has introduced a wooden kitchen series just in time for the upcoming holiday season. With options such as the Chef’s Kitchen, Chef’s Kitchen and Hutch, and the Chef’s Portable Kitchen, these large wooden toys will inspire and delight any child.  Best of all, these products are made Canada and carry the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) ecolabel, which verifies the wood comes from well-managed forests.

My children love the Chef’s Portable Kitchen.  It was designed by Natural Pod and is made on Vancouver Island, British Columbia with a combination of Europly, Birch, Oak, Fir and Purple Heart and finished in natural beeswax.  Purple heart is one of my favorite woods, so I was delighted to see the details done in this unique wood. The portable kitchen is rather large at 32 inches across, making it easy for several children to work cooperatively and share this unique, wooden toy.

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Continue reading " Made in Canada: Natural Pod’s Eco-Friendly, FSC Certified Wooden Kitchen Furniture Encourages Dramatic Play "

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When Sony released the first Walkman in 1979, it changed the way music lovers saw the world. Suddenly everything around us played to whatever soundtrack we created, emotionally augmenting otherwise mundane experiences.

The iPod in 2001 brought more headphone wanderers into the fold with its monolithic success, but for many, it’s not the musical companion of choice. Some of our readers’ submissions took the ‘portable music player’ topic a little loosely, but here are some of our favorites.

Left:
Archos Jukebox
Submitted by Brad Hodges

Photographer’s comment:

“In preparation for several years in Central Africa, I bought this device long before MP3 players were commonplace. Boasting one of the first internal hard drives (20 GB) and a built-in recorder, it was a source of entertainment for an entire African village during three years in the tropical rainforest. I returned to the U.S., then spent a cold winter in Canada with it. Back in the U.S. again, it’s still my favorite MP3 player, despite its small screen and amazing simplicity.”

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Sony D-88
Submitted by Jason Sewell

Photographer’s comment:

“The Sony D-88 blew my mind when I first saw it. As far as I know, this is the only CD player with a footprint smaller than a compact disc. Two-thirds of the disc stuck out of the player. And if you could find any of the smaller CDs, you could actually reposition the spindle so that the entire disc fit inside the player.”

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“The first” portable music player, early 30s
Submitted by PAOMAG

Photographer’s comment:

“Early Columbia portable with ‘automatic’ louvres. There is a further subdivision of portable machines, which takes in the many novelty miniature and folding gramophones, particularly popular in the late 1920s, but still being made in the 1950s. Some collectors collect nothing but these novelties, of which there are dozens of variations.”

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AM/FM Headphone Radio
Submitted by Ian

Photographer’s comment:

“Remember these? I guess lightning-risk awareness was not an issue at that time.”

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DataPlay Mini-DVD Player by iRiver iDP-100
Submitted by Jacquie Dutton

Photographer’s comment:

“It coulda been someone … it coulda been a contender … there were two devices and two dozen albums ready to ship to stores. Then DataPlay went bankrupt. Everyone ran. Flash memory came down in price. And Apple did something unthinkable: It incorporated nearly obsolete small form-factor hard drives — a commodity — into something HOT. But the secret sauce is always the software, and iTunes had the winning recipe.”

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mobiBLU b153
Submitted by Jake

Photographer’s comment:

“It wasn’t pretty, but it got the job done. The mobiBLU b153 had voice recording, a customizable equalizer, an FM radio and more. It was cheap at the time, too: 2 GB for only $120. The kicker, though, was its 153 hours of battery life.”

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Boom Box
Submitted by Sam

Photographer’s comment:

“Eight D-cell batteries guaranteed three hours of use on or off the basketball courts!”

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Diamond Rio PMP300
Submitted by Anonymous

Photographer’s comment:

“You kids and your flash players with USB ports and SD slots … this is the great granddaddy of all of your new small players, the original 32-MB Diamond Rio. Connected through the parallel port, ran on one AA, and if you had the money for some flash, could be expanded with SmartMedia.

Who cares about the 17th anniversary of the iPod? We should be more concerned about the 10th anniversary of the first portable MP3 player to see any success at all.”

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Portable music in a big way
Submitted by Not Anon

Photographer’s comment:

“Seriously, the thing was the size of a brick. Owned one before my Zune. Loved the thing. Still miss the Rio DJ feature.”

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XM Helix by Samsung
Submitted by Anonymous

Photographer’s comment:

“It’s like a self-loading iPod and I’m not paying $1/song. I have a home cradle to listen through my surround system, and set it to record overnight. Next day, I put it in my car cradle, and listen to live tunes w/o ads; buh-bye FM. At work, I listen to saved music on 15 hrs battery. I edit the stuff recorded the night before, lock in the good and skip the bad. Cap: ~850 songs. When I hear something good on live broadcast, I hit REC and it’s mine!”

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Sansa slotMusic Player
Submitted by Mike Kabala

Photographer’s comment:

“Even though most people are calling it a doomed format, I love my Sansa slotMusic player, shown here with an optional cover that lets me carry up to three additional micro SD or slotMusic cards. I enjoy being able to create custom playlists that I can listen to by simply plugging in a card and pressing ‘Play,’ rather than having to mess with menus or even look at a screen.”

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Sony MPD-AP20U, the CD/DVD player and CD writer that played MP3 DVDs!!
Submitted by Anonymous

Photographer’s comment:

“Supported media: DVD-ROM, DVD-Video, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, CD-ROM, CD-ROM XA, Photo CD, CD Text, Video CD, CD-DA, CD Extra, CD-R, CD-RW. Additional media: Memory Stick Reader/Writer (Purple Stick). Write methods: Track-at-once, Disk-at-once, Session-at-once, Fixed packet writing. Write speed: CD-R Write: 4X, 8X, 8~24X Z-CLV max.; CD-RW Write: 4X, 8X, 10X max. Memory Stick: 1.5MB/s.”

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Sony Walkman Sports Edition (radio and cassette player)
Submitted by Michael

Photographer’s comment:

“It might be missing a few dials and buttons, but it’s been with me for a long time (through art school and my many travels) and still works…. (Sony really missed the bus on the MP3 player, IMO.)”

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Soundwagon: Smallest Record Player Ever
Submitted by Martin

Photographer’s comment:

“I used to carry this (soundwagon) around with me so I could drop it on a record in weird, dusty old record shops that didn’t let you listen to the goods. I’m sure it’s the worst ever for a record … but it works.”

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Toshiba XR-P9 Portable/Dockable CD Player, circa 1986
Submitted by Anonymous

Photographer’s comment:

“When I saw this page, I went to the basement and dug out my original XR-P9 (long non-functional). Seems I have the full kit: original leather-ette carry case with battery pack (6 C cells!), IR receiver and remote.

The power wedge slides off for use with the case.

My first CD player, chosen and loved for its versatility. Found this pic on eBay, but you get the idea….”

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Xclef
Submitted by Jon

Photographer’s comment:

“The Xclef is a dream for those of us who know how to build our own systems. I put my own 100-GB drive in there (standard laptop-sized drive), and can swap it out if I want. I can offload it and load onto it from Mac and PC, and the built-in equalizer sounds so much better than anything else I’ve heard. I wish they didn’t stop making this because it truly is an amazing player.”

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The original Zen Touch
Submitted by Anonymous

Photographer’s comment:

“The coolest MP3 player at the time, better sound quality then the iPod, etc….”

Continue reading " Wired.com Readers’ Favorite Portable Music Players "

By Sarah K. Burkhalter

World leaders congratulated Barack Obama on his presidential win, and indicated that his environmental policies look to be a welcome change from the past eight years.

Rajendra Pachauri, Chair, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: “Obama has not only been very clear in emphasizing the need for the U.S. to engage in global solutions to meet the challenge of climate change but also in respect of bringing about a major shift in U.S. energy policy … The U.S. now has a unique opportunity to assume leadership in meeting the threat of climate change, and it would help greatly if the new president were to announce a coherent and forward-looking policy soon after he takes office. There is every reason to believe that President Obama will actually do so.”

Lawrence Cannon, Foreign Affairs Minister, Canada: “This augurs well for a North American approach on environmental issues — specifically on climate change.”

Jan Peter Balkenende, Prime Minister, Netherlands: “It was great to see that this election touched so many people in the U.S. but also elsewhere … But I am also thinking about combating terrorism, about climate change, human rights and free world trade … Only with an intensive, transatlantic alliance can we stand up to worldwide challenges.”

Hans-Gert Poettering, President, European Parliament: “[I look forward to] working together in effective partnership [with Obama] on many of the global issues facing decisionmakers in our both continents, for example climate change.”

Jose Manuel Barroso, President, European Commission: “This is a turning point for the United States. It may also be a turning point for the world. We hope to achieve together an ambitious agenda for globalization: overcoming the financial crisis promoting growth and opportunity for all and fighting climate change … We need a ‘New Deal’ between the U.S. and the E.U. A ‘New Deal’ that covers financial stability, the fight against climate change, global prosperity, including open trade. I sincerely hope that under the leadership of President Obama, the USA will join forces with Europe to drive this new deal, for the benefit of our societies, for the benefit of the world.”

Taro Aso, Prime Minister, Japan: “As the world faces many difficult issues, I am sure that the United States, under the excellent leadership of President-elect Obama, will move further forward while cooperating with the international community. With President-elect Obama, I will strengthen the Japan-U.S. alliance further and work towards resolving global issues such as the world economy, terror, and the environment.”

Javier Solana, High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, European Union: “President-elect Obama ran on a ticket of change. This is most welcome since many things in the world today need changing. Let us do that together. [The E.U. and U.S. need to address] a high number of very complex global problems: from the Middle East to Iran and Afghanistan and Pakistan, from climate change to nonproliferation … with determination and creativity … As we grapple with these problems, it is good to have someone who put change, empathy, and good judgment at the heart of his campaign. I am looking forward to working with President Obama and his administration.”

Continue reading " World please "

[The Indigenous Network of Environment and Trade] argued that Canada’s policy of not recognizing aboriginal treaty rights [in the Canadian-US softwood lumber dispute]…was a form of a cash subsidy, a real cash subsidy, because the only thing that the World Trade Organization and North American Free Trade Agreement recognizes is cash subsidies – nothing else, no ‘intangibles’. And the WTO actually accepted our [amicus curiae] submissions three times.

And when we made the same application to NAFTA, the Canadian government,…

Continue reading " Quote of the Day: Arthur Manuel on How Indigenous Peoples Subsidize Canadian Forest Industry "

Two weeks ago I stopped at the Timmys just south of Gravenhurst, shown above, and walked to the edge of their parking lot with the puppy. Two feet beyond the edge of their own parking lot was this view.

That is what Tim Horton’s is like. They sell 80% of the coffee in Canada and they really don’t care what happens two feet beyond the edge of their property. So what if this is the view from the parking lot in the middle of scenic Muskoka. …

Continue reading " Time For Canadians to Boycott Tim Hortons "

Chinese car maker Changan announced today that it will launch electric cars in Canada before the end of 2008. The cars, developed jointly with Canadian company Electrovaya, could be the first sold by a Chinese company in North America.

The fleet of 30 electric vehicles (EVs) have been under development since May, and are based on one of Changan’s exisiting compact models, the BenBen, fitted with an Electrovaya powertrain. For the time being, the cars will be assembled and distributed in Canada, but in the long term Changan intends to develop the EVs entirely in China, before shipping to North America.

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If you haven’t already heard about the hilarious prank call Sarah Palin received last week, you’ve got to check out the audio over at The Huffington Post. A Canadian comedian convinced Palin that he was Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s President, making jokes and saying lewd things as Palin awkwardly laughed. Clearly, most of it went right […]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “Sarah Palin Prank Called, Agrees Taking Animals’ Lives is Fun”, url: “http://earthfirst.com/sarah-palin-prank-called-agrees-taking-animals-lives-is-fun/” });

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