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Rich nations should make the first cuts in greenhouse gases while developing countries carry on business as usual for the time being, according to a plan set out on Monday by a Harvard University project.

This is one of four proposals by the American university’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs to negotiators who meet for U.N. climate talks next week in Poland.

The current climate pact, the Kyoto Protocol, expires in 2012 and governments are scrambling to agree a new treaty by the end of next year.

“The new agreement should be scientifically sound, economically rational and politically pragmatic,” Professor Robert Stavins of the Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements said.

The Harvard report calls on rich nations to lead in cutting emissions, while developing countries can “maintain their business-as-usual emissions in the first decades, but over the longer term agree to binding targets that ultimately reduce emissions below business as usual.”

U.N. scientists have warned global warming caused by high atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide will lead to rising seas, big storms, mass heatwaves and droughts.

“The agreement should be cost-effective and consistent with the recommendations of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,” Stavins said, referring to the Nobel Peace Prize-winning scientific body.

Observers hope a new pact will include the U.S., which did not ratify the original agreement, and commit developing nations like China and India to binding emissions targets.

“We need an agreement that can be ratified in the U.S. Senate and provide increasingly meaningful roles for developing countries. We see those as essential ingredients,” Stavins said.

Last week President-elect Barack Obama said the U.S. would “engage vigorously” in climate change talks when he takes office next year.

Obama wants to reduce U.S. carbon emissions to their 1990 levels by 2020 and cut them by an additional 80 percent by 2050.

FAIR DEAL

The Harvard report proposes introducing national carbon taxes, linking emissions trading schemes or pursuing a series of simpler, possibly bilateral agreements that separately address the different gases and their sources as the other ways to fight warming.

“Countries will only participate in an international agreement if they believe they received a fair deal,” the initiative said in a statement.

But the line dividing rich and poor nations set out in Kyoto may need to be redrawn, as the global economic landscape has altered in the past 10 years.

“If you look at the non-Annex I countries, 50 of them have higher per-capita income than the poorest Annex I countries,” Stavins told Reuters.

The report said other key components of a new deal should promote clean energy technology transfer between rich and poor nations, reform Kyoto’s emissions trading schemes and combat deforestation, something the original treaty failed to address.

It emphasized that any new deal must be compatible with global trade policy to prevent potential trade wars.

“Global efforts to address climate change may be on a ‘collision course’ with the World Trade Organization, as nations that have agreed to put a price on carbon look for ways to keep their companies competitive globally,” the report said.

Citing the WTO as an example, the report suggests an independent international institution be set up to survey and review the policies, actions and outcomes of participating countries’ climate change policies.

The report combines the work of 28 research teams from around the world, including China, India, the U.S. and Europe.

Burgeoning demand for food to feed the world’s swelling population, coupled with increased use of biomass as fuel is putting a serious strain on global water reserves, experts said

“If we look at how much more water we will need for food and how much more for biomass for energy going forward … it is quite worrying,” said Jan Lundqvist, who heads the scientific programme at the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI).

Global food needs are expected to roughly double by 2050, at the same time as climate change and dwindling oil reserves are pressuring countries to set aside ever more land for producing biomass to replace greenhouse gas-emitting fossil fuels.

These parallel global trends risk colliding with “the water-constrained biophysical reality of the planet,” according to SIWI, which hosted the World Water Week in the Swedish capital last week.

“Almost every increase in water used in agriculture will affect water availability for other uses, including that needed to keep ecosystems healthy and resilient in the face of change and perturbation,” the institute said in a recent study.

According to Lundqvist, the global population today uses around 4,500 cubic kilometres of water each year to cover all water needs, including for agricultural irrigation, urban use and for energy production.

While that is below the level of what is considered environmentally irresponsible, he stressed that future needs could rapidly push water use to dangerous levels.

“It might be environmentally reasonable to withdraw maybe 6,000 (cubic kilometres), but if we withdraw more water it would be at a very high environmental cost, because we need water to flush the system and for different ecosystem services,” he said.

“It is simply not advisable.”

According to SIWI project director Jakob Granit, recent studies indicate that “by 2030, the same amount of energy that we produce today with fossil fuels will have to come from biomass.”

At the same time, scientists predict we will only be able to “meet food demands by 2050 if we have a much more efficient use of water … That does not include the water we need for all that biomass,” he said.

In addition to questioning whether it is realistic to expect biomass to cover a large share of our energy needs in the future, the best way to address the problem of shrinking water reserves is to better manage water and land use, experts say.

According to Lundqvist, there is a dire need to shift the world’s focus away from irrigation systems, which are putting so much pressure on rivers, lakes and groundwater.

“We are at the end of the road when it comes to irrigation, because all the water available in rivers and so on has already been now more or less used up,” he said, insisting that much more attention must be paid to the potential of rainfall.

“In a large part of Africa, if you look at the total rainfall throughout the year the amount is usually enough … to grow many crops,” he said.

“If you can capture that rainfall, and store it as soil moisture or in local dams, it would be possible to significantly increase food production in these areas,” he added.

Ask the man assigned to combat corruption and bureaucracy in New Orleans how the fight is going and he will tell you about his telephone problems. “I started last September and they only switched my phone lines on two weeks ago,” said Robert Cerasoli, New Orleans’ first-ever Inspector General in a recent interview. “Everything has been a battle since, everything has been a fight.”

Cerasoli was appointed by an independent ethics review board last year to root out graft — in particular as billions of dollars in government aid have flowed into the city following Hurricane Katrina — in a city that has a reputation for corruption spanning many decades.

Office computers were delivered last month but have not yet been hooked up to a secure network. Cerasoli, a former Inspector General for Massachusetts, said he has only 13 staff instead of the 30 he was promised by city hall.

“We really must get up to 37, but with the hurdles of civil service, the difficulty with getting people through the background checks, and just finding qualified applicants, the process has been much slower than expected,” he said.

Cerasoli said either inefficiency or a desire to block his every move has lead to endless problems with the city’s bureaucracy.

“This is Louisiana,” Cerasoli said with a shrug.

Father Kevin Wildes, president of Loyola University in New Orleans and head of the ethics review board that appointed Cerasoli, said the obstacles the Inspector General has faced show New Orleans’ administration is at worst terribly corrupt and at best woefully inefficient.

“Either way, something has to change,” he said.

Even before Hurricane Katrina and the levee breaches in 2005 that devastated New Orleans, the city and Louisiana had earned a reputation as being fertile ground for corruption.

“Half of Louisiana is under water and the other half is under indictment,” Billy Tauzin, who represented a Louisiana district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1980 to 2005, once famously said of his state.

“Over the course of many decades Louisiana and New Orleans have earned a reputation as being exceptionally tolerant of corruption,” said Jim Letten, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana. “This fueled the demise of the local economy as it drove many companies away and kept them away.”

Since his appointment by President George W. Bush in 2001, Letten has indicted 213 state and local officials and private individuals and, he said, convicted “almost 100 percent.”

Those found guilty include former New Orleans city council member Oliver Thomas for bribery and kickbacks in 2007.

Letten says corruption has contributed to declining city education and health standards, rising crime, and a “brain drain” that saw the city’s population decline to 450,000 in 2005 before Katrina from more than 600,000 in the 1960s.

Local entrepreneurs agreed corruption hurts investments and the economy, which is overly dependent on tourism.

“The assumption has been that if you want to do business here you need to set aside extra money to grease the wheels,” said Mike Mitternight, a former chairman of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry and owner of an air conditioning company in the New Orleans suburb of Metairie.

“That added cost scares some folks away,” he said.

KATRINA: CATALYST FOR CLEAN-UP?

In 2005, the U.S. Justice Department formed the Hurricane Katrina Fraud Task Force to combat fraud associated with billions of dollars in government aid allocated for victims of hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma along the U.S. Gulf Coast.

In a Sept 2007 report, the task force said it had charged 188 people in Louisiana with fraud or corruption since Sept 2005.

Voter anger over corruption brought the issue to the top of Louisiana’s political agenda last year. In a Louisiana State University survey in May 2007, 69 percent of respondents statewide said Louisiana needed stronger ethics laws.

When recovery efforts after Katrina exposed both corruption and inefficiency, the city responded by creating the office of Inspector General and hired Cerasoli in September 2007.

The office of Mayor Ray Nagin said the Inspector General’s problems were part of a city-wide lack of funds and staff rather than any effort to thwart its mission.

“We have some issues with corruption and bureaucracy, but no more than any other urban environment,” Dr. Brenda Hatfield, chief administrative officer for New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, said, adding the city had been forced to halve its pre-Katrina workforce so creating a new office posed funding challenges.

Meanwhile, the state has passed an ethics reform bill that mandates financial disclosures for most state and local officials and forces lobbyists to report spending aimed at public officials.

“We have promised an end to corruption and incompetence in state government. Make no mistake about it. This is a massive first step,” said Gov. Bobby Jindal, a Republican, said after signing the law in February.

The bill has been well received by observers.

In 2006 the Washington-based nonprofit Center for Public Integrity ranked Louisiana 44th out of the 50 U.S. states for public integrity, with just 43 points out of a possible 100. The center said the new reform bill would give Louisiana 99 points out of 100.

“This would rank Louisiana among the top U.S. states for public disclosure rules and enforcement of those rules,” center spokesman Steve Carpinelli said.

But back on the ground, setting up the Inspector General’s office in New Orleans remains a struggle. Though part of the city’s charter since 1995, it was not until after the hurricane in 2005 that the office was formalized.

Hurricane Katrina laid bare the problems associated with the city’s excessive bureaucracy and its environment of corruption, and showed something had to be done, said Loyola University’s Wildes. “People get so frustrated with the system here that it’s no wonder they opt to pay their around it.”

There is so much talk about going green lately, and while I know what it means I’m wondering how I can start going green myself. I’d like to minimize the footprint I’ll be leaving on the earth but I don’t know where to start.

Tips or ideas?

Going green is easy, there are so many great resources about the subject. My personal favorite is “The Green Book” which has parts of its book online as well at www.readthegreenbook.com.

As I have been striving to “Go Green” I realize it is like stepping back in time without getting rid of my modern conveniences. I’m doing many things I learned as a child, like line drying my clothes, sweeping instead of vacuuming, opening the windows in the morning to catch the cool breeze, only buying what I need instead of everything that looks cool, growing some of my own food, and canning what I can’t eat now.

To me “going Green” is a frame of mind. Do what fits your lifestyle and do the easy things first, it is a process and like dieting if you go to radical to soon, you are more likely to go back to bad habits. I also believe there are good, better, best choices in most things. If you aren’t ready to start a home garden, then try finding a farmers market, until you locate one look for produce grown as close to home as possible and go organic when available.

Many people think “going green” is expensive, I disagree. Some changes may take an initial investment, but they usually have a short payoff time. Things like weatherstiping and insulation cost, but the energy savings will add up quickly. You may need to purchase reusable bags, but most stores give you a 5 or 10 cent credit, so you are paid back within a few months.

My top tips are make your home more energy efficient, that also means using natural light, cooling and heating.

Reduce your packaging, if you eat more fresh food you will generally reduce packaging, it’s the same thing they tell dieters, shop the perimiter, that is where all the meat, dairy and produce are located. Only buy what you will use, many Americans throw away a lot of unused food. Buy in bulk, that doesn’t just mean large packages, but that area with the bins that you buy only what you plan on using.

Replace disposable items with durable items, if you eat outside often and use disposable paper or plastic plates, it is a wise investment to purchase a set of reusable plastic plates. Replace disposable razors, diapers and cleaning products like swiffer. Avoid bottled water, get a home filter like Pur or Brita.

Recycle, www.earth911.org will help you locate the nearest recycle center. I try to only purchase plastics that are #1 or #2, they are more easily recycled. I also buy recycled products when available, that includes paper towels, napkings, toilet paper, tissue, school/office supplies and clothing.

Detox your cleaning, vinegar and baking soda clean almost anything, they can even losen a hair clog. Seventh Generation and Method are a couple mainstream brands that are very earth friendly.

Just start small and build from there, don’t get overwhelmed.

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First off, I’d like to say good for you! Everyone really should be doing what you’re trying to do! =)
Alright, so if you’re just starting out, start with some small things. Get reusable bags for your groceries, buy organic food (when you can), don’t drive if you don’t have to, recycle, etc.
Also, I don’t know if you’re aware of this but the CFL lightbulbs, while reducing your energy bill by a LOT, also have been known to cause medical conditions. I actually know someone who put one in over the desk where she does her homework every night and has started having seizures si

I have noticed recently all of the police where I live have these souped up Dodge Chargers they are driving now. When I think about how much gas they waste driving around in those things per month it infuriates me. Why are they not in more gas efficient vehicles? Not only are they wasting tax payers money to fuel those things up, they are harming the environment as well.

Perfect example of government waste in this country. They want everyone else to abide by their rules, but think they are exempt.

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A police car takes a lot of punishment and requires a bigger engine to be able to chase speeders and felons. I’ll bet most police departments would love to be able to cut their fuel budgets with greener cars, but until greener cars have better “get-up-and-go”, they probably won’t be standard police fare.

What are some cultural-specific ways to conserve water? Could you talk about your own family’s practices regarding water conservation? If you are an international student, you can reflect back on your country’s norms about water conservation.

Looking for specific/different cultures-Is it important to some cultures more than others? Pustuns, Arabs, Persians, Asians- Desi, Orientals, Africans? Native Americans?

Culture and ethnicity have nothing to do with conservation.
Anyone, pink, green or purple, can save water. Shut it off while brushing teeth or washing up at the sink. Shut if off while doing dishes. Do NOT water lawns. This is the biggest waste. Grass goes dormant during droughts, it will come back when rain eventually falls. It is vanity to have a perfect green lawn, and a horrible waste of water for something decorative when the nation’s water supplies are dwindling away. Take short showers, get in get washed, wash the hair, get out. Simple, keep it to 10 to 12 minutes.
Water left over in bottles, can be used to water plants and flowers inside and out, or shared with a pet. Do not dump water down the sink. If you take a glass of water finish it or take half next time, you can always get more if you need it.
That’s it…pretty simple.

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The most common water conservation/collection system throughout history is a cistern. It can be a huge underground system like those used by the Romans in many cities, or a simple 30 gallon garbage can to collect water from a downspout.
I use my downspouts to fill a 2000 gallon pond.

Kindly recommend which one you recommend as there are a bunch.

Yes it works if you install it correctly. I suggest buying the manuals, which will tell you where you can by the parts and show you how to install it. There is also a list of local installers if you rather not do it your self.

http://waterpetrolcar.com
Reviews of the top HHO Kits resources.

I have been trying to find on the internet a way to connect a small generator up to you home fan. Since you use your home fan anyway, why not connect a generator up to it to create power to run you laptop, charge your ipod or cell phone. If anyone has tried this or knows of a web site on this, let me know.

Unfortunately that will not work. the laws of thermodynamics will not allow it. This would be considered a perpetual motion machine, which do not exist.

Basically, the fan is being turned by x amount of power. If you connect a generator to that fan, the generator would never get more than x amount of power from it. In fact it would be less than x because of heat loss due to friction. Considering it is an isolated mechanical system (no special chemistry happening here), you will never get more power out than what you put in.

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You will use more electricity to power your generator than you will be able to get out of it.

Not only will you fan now have to consume the power to run your lap top, but it will also need additional power to overcome the friction of the generator.

You would do better if you attach a perpetual motion machine to the generator.

In Kent it’s not just peaked through, it’s positively glorious!!

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People are sun bathing on the beach, and a fair number are swimming.
Temp. is about 22 deg.