What's New > What's New Archives

ENVIRONMENT MINISTER TO REPRESENT SASKATCHEWAN AT UN CLIMATE CHANGE MEETING
Environment Minister Nancy Heppner heads to Copenhagen, Denmark tomorrow to represent Saskatchewan's interests at international climate change negotiations during the United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP15). "The Saskatchewan government is committed to taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to meet our national and international obligations," Heppner said. "It is vital to our economy that Saskatchewan's plan be aligned with a prospective international climate change agreement. Saskatchewan introduced legislation on December 1 that provides the flexibility to accommodate any adjustments in Canada's policy framework, American legislation and international policies that emerge from this conference." Leading up to the Copenhagen conference, Saskatchewan finalized preparations to sign an agreement with the State of Victoria, Australia to promote research and development on emission-reducing technologies. A formal signing event will take place in Copenhagen on December 16, 2009. Heppner will also attend meetings with federal Minister of Environment Jim Prentice and with the International Institute for Sustainable Development. COP15 is being held under the auspices of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the lead international agency for climate change decision-making. -30- For more information, contact: Jennifer Redston Environment Regina Phone: 306-787-5796 Email: jennifer.redston@gov.sk.ca
ENVIRONMENT MINISTER TO REPRESENT SASKATCHEWAN AT UN CLIMATE CHANGE MEETING
Print this Article | Back To Top
Carbon Hunters
Is it possible, considering the many obstacles, to stop global warming, or at least reduce its harm? Anticipating the important United Nations Climate Change Conference starting December 7 in Copenhagen, Doc Zone presents the World Premiere of a timely and intriguing new documentary by Vancouver filmmaker/journalist Miro Cernetig, Carbon Hunters. Carbon Hunters delves into the controversial, little-understood, yet booming industry of carbon credit trading as a potentially workable mechanism towards solving what most people now acknowledge as the greatest crisis facing the planet: global warming. This is a crisis with no easy solutions. Voters so far seem reluctant to accept carbon taxes so, while we wait for industry and governments to sign on to binding international agreements that will fix limits on air pollution, one possible solution is good to go right now: carbon trading. Sometimes called emissions trading, carbon offset, or cap-and-trade, carbon trading is attractive to many because it is a market-driven solution that puts a fixed price on pollution, allowing those who pollute to pay and those do not pollute to profit from their position. Enter Vancouver entrepreneur Shawn Burns. They say every cloud has a silver lining. In Burns' case, he thinks that cloud is global warming and that there may be a way to stop it and make money along the way. The CEO of Carbon Credit Corp. is a 'carbon hunter' - a whole new breed of entrepreneur in a booming new industry: global traders who scour the planet looking for carbon credits. Burns and his partners package those credits and sell them to polluters, taking a cut from the sale. The plan for trading carbon as a global commodity was hatched at the UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Today, that carbon trading market is a 'green rush' that's already worth $100 billion and climbing. But how does it actually work, and what does a carbon credit actually buy? Filmmaker Miro Cernetig travels from BC to the Canadian prairie, and on to India, Philippines, Hollywood, Chicago, London and New York to find answers, linking seemingly disparate elements like the dung of sacred cows in India, the band Coldplay, Alberta wheat farmers, movie star Cameron Diaz, Filipino garbage scavengers, U.S. President Barack Obama, sea algae, the Assembly of First Nations in Canada, an English funeral director, the Amazon rain forest, and the Alberta Tar Sands. Cernetig hears from supporters of this profit motive-driven solution, like influential Canadian Maurice Strong, who feels that carbon trading is "an essential element in the solution...and the most effective one that's actually working at this moment," and detractors, like Kevin Smith of the group Carbon Trade Watch and author of the book Carbon Neutral Myth - Offset Indulgences for your Climate Sins, who argues that the carbon trading business is all smoke and mirrors. As for Shawn Burns, he concludes, "Rather than just exploiting resources now we can make money protecting resources. I think you can make money and save the planet at the same time. And I think you should." And where does the average Canadian come into this? Cernetig talks to a Vancouver man who learned whether the tree he bought as a carbon credit to offset an airplane trip really made a difference. "This is the first film that takes a global look at how you buy a carbon credit and what you get - or don't get - when you do," says Cernetig. "In our travels we've discovered the difficulties and ethical quandaries behind creating a new commodity - carbon credits - to deal with climate change." Carbon Hunters is produced by Force Four Entertainment in association with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Carbon Hunters
Print this Article | Back To Top
International Walk to School Month is October 2009
International Walk to School Month gives children, parents, school teachers and community leaders an opportunity to be part of a global event as they celebrate the many benefits of walking. In 2008, millions of walkers from around the world walked to school together for various reasons  all hoping to create communities that are safe places to walk.
iWalk
Print this Article | Back To Top
Nepalese Teen Invents Cheap Solar Panel Using Human Hair
Did you know that melanin, the pigment in hair, is light sensitive and can be used as a conductor? Well, thats what an 18 year old in Nepal recently discovered, and is now using human hair to replace silicon in solar panels. Since the price of hair is considerably cheaper than silicon, this enterprising youth may have just found a breakthrough technology to help bring down the cost of solar and give thousands of people in developing nations access to affordable renewable energy. Malin Karki had already been trying to create affordable renewable energy from hydro currents for a few years, but the project had become too expensive. But then Karki, who attends school in Kathmandu, started reading a book by Stephan Hawking that discussed ways of creating static energy from hair. From this idea, Karki realized that melanin was one of the factors in energy conversion, and that it could possibly serve as a substitute conductor. He and four other classmates worked on a prototype, which they found could charge a cell phone or a pack of batteries for lighting. The panels themselves are 15 inches square and can produce 9V or 18W of power and cost around $38 to produce. Karki thinks that if they were mass produced though, they would cost half as much. In Nepal, human hair costs about 25¢ for half a kilo and can last for several months. Hair is also basically a renewable resource and can be replenished by the owner of the solar panel as it wears out. This low cost and low tech device could be a revolutionary step in solar power bringing down the cost of the technology, bringing power to the masses and using materials which are common to everyone in the world.
Nepalese Teen Invents Cheap Solar Panel Using Human Hair
Print this Article | Back To Top
Researchers Create Electric Circuit That Runs On Tree Power
Trees provide us with oxygen, shade, timber, and&power? Thats what researchers at the University of Washington proved recently when they ran a circuit off energy generated by a tree. The experiment was inspired by a MIT study from 2008 that discovered plants ability to generate tiny amounts of voltage when one sensor is attached to a plant and the other to the soil. The MIT study, however, never experimented with trees, and no one is entirely sure how trees produce power in the first place. By hooking up nails to a bigleaf maple tree and connecting a voltmeter and a boost converter, the researchers were able to generate a steady voltage of up to a few hundred millivolts. UW researchers built their electricity-harnessing device out of a boost converter that stores as little as 20 millivolts of power from trees and releases up to 1.1 volts. The custom converter is capable of storing smaller amounts of power than any other boost converter in existence. As you might expect, trees dont produce nearly enough energy to power most electronic devicestheres a reason we arent already hooking up our iPods to the nearest treebut they do generate enough power for attached sensors to wirelessly keep track of environmental conditions or forest fires. And at a time when forest fires are becoming more and more severe, this technology could be a crucial part of figuring out where and how infernos begin.
Electric Circuit That Runs On Tree Power
Print this Article | Back To Top