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Tag archives for climate change

Swedish report: CO2 is threatening our oceans (and it’s expensive!)

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The Great Barrier Reef. Photo: Noaml  (CC: By, Nc)

When no arguments seem to work to stop environmental degradation, economy sometimes does. For example it was a report by the economist Nicholas Stern that first opened the eyes of many decision makers towards the threats of climate change.

This time Stockholm Environment Institute has calculated the costs of letting climate change and other human-caused factors ruin the world’s oceans.

Today the oceans are providing humanity with enormous values through for example fishery and tourism. When those functions are reduced, a lot of people will be left without incomes. Costs can also go up because of climate change, which causes sea-level rise, storms and reduces the ability of the ocean to absorb carbon.

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Sara Jeswani - Sustainability

March 22, 2012

Sweden’s most popular sport right now: Spring Spotting

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Spring sign #1: Yellow crocuses in a sea of brown and grey. Photo: Sara Jeswani.

I’m on my way to work when I see a man and his little son suddenly crouching down in front of a heap of brown, dead leaves. Their heads move together, studying something very closely. My curiosity is awaken. What can be so interesting among a bunch of old leaves?
As I get closer, it’s obvious. Bright yellow crocuses glow beneath the brown and grey.

Spring sign #2: Willow buds. Photo: Sara Jeswani.

Now, this isn’t just any little yellow flower. This is a Sign of Spring, which in Sweden is something almost sacred.
My blog colleague Kate is in good company when she starts looking for spring signs , since it’s actually something of a folk sport.
This time of the year everyone does it: Children, adults, farmers and city dwellers, newspapers (article in Swedish) and television programs.

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Sara Jeswani - Sustainability

March 15, 2012

Biorecro wants to catch carbon from the air

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Illustration-Daniel-AndreassonCan capture and storage of carbon from biomass such as trees and plants be a way to reduce climate change? Illustration: Daniel Andréasson.

Carbon capture and storage, CCS, is a technology which is usually spoken of as a way to take care of carbon emissions coming from the burning of fossil fuels. The idea is that for example a coal-fired power plant could capture the emissions and then bury them deep down in the ground, so that they can’t rise up in the atmosphere and contribute to global warming.

Now the Swedish company Biorecro has a new idea of how to use this technology: To create negative emissions, removing carbon from the air.
Instead of burying the emissions coming from fossil fuels, creating a “zero-sum game”, they want to burn trees and plants that have absorbed carbon from the atmosphere during their lifetime and bury those emission.

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Sara Jeswani - Sustainability

March 12, 2012

What do people over 55 think about climate change?

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spring-walk

An active ageing population means people who both have the time and will to continue consuming and seeing the world. How does this affect the way over 55s look at the world? asks researchers. Photo: Helena Wahlman/imagebank.sweden.se.

They are know both as heavy polluters and those who could be the most vulnerable to a warmer climate. On the other hand, people who have lived on this earth more than 55 years, are seldom asked about their views or worries when it comes to these issues. It’s rather the coming generations we talk about.

Now a project run by Stockholm Environment Institute wants to change this by finding out what over 55s really think through an international survey.
– Some very old people say they don’t care, since they will anyway soon be gone: Others worry about what kind of world their grandchildren will grow up in, Gary Haq, who is leading the research team says in an interview with the newspaper Sydsvenskan.

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Sara Jeswani - Sustainability

February 13, 2012

A climate call for the “big ones”

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sergels-torg

Photo: Ola Ericson/imagebank.sweden.se..

“It’s time we have a go at this ourselves.”
The person writing this is Lennart Henriz, environment director at at the housing development company JM, which is one of the Nordic region’s largest of its kind. According to him, this was the feeling he and many of his colleagues had after the UN conference on climate change in South Africa a few months ago.

If the world’s political leaders fail to take the right action against global warming, maybe other parts of society, like business, have to take a lead? he argues.

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Sara Jeswani - Sustainability

February 6, 2012