New survey shows that lousy surveys are, well, lousy

Another poorly-designed survey (reported in Digital Journal) and so the results are as expected...

Two-thirds of US cities and counties consider the environment and energy conservation a priority, but far fewer have taken steps to address those issues. And four out of five people do not consider climate change to be a high priority.

This one was from the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) in the USA, which is usually a fabulous resource. But one look at the actual pdf shows that the old garbage in, garbage out still applies. Surveys like this are worse than worthless, as they mislead and provide poor information for decision-makers.

The slow train crash...

Jonathon Porrit keeps an eye on how the new UK Government is going - and in particular the Lib Dems via a speech by their leader to the Party - and worries about the lack of focus (let alone anything) about climate change:

We’re just a few weeks away from the next big climate change conference in Cancun in Mexico (the near-inevitable failure of which will essentially result in the demise of the Kyoto Treaty post-2012, representing a massive set back in terms of addressing climate change), and the Deputy Prime Minister has got diddly-squat to say.

First a baby will be born in one, then a baby will be conceived and born...

(AP) BEIJING -- A massive traffic jam in north China that stretches for dozens of miles and hit its 10-day mark on Tuesday stems from road construction in Beijing that won't be finished until the middle of next month, an official said.

Bumper-to-bumper gridlock spanning for 60 miles (100 kilometers) with vehicles moving little more than a half-mile (one kilometer) a day at one point has improved since this weekend, said Zhang Minghai, director of Zhangjiakou city's Traffic Management Bureau general office.

Some drivers have been stuck in the jam for five days, China Central Television reported Tuesday. But Zhang said he wasn't sure when the situation along the Beijing-Zhangjiakou highway would return to normal.

The traffic jam started Aug. 14 on a stretch of the highway that is frequently congested, especially after large coalfields were discovered in Inner Mongolia, Zhang said. Traffic volume has increased 40 percent every year.

New technologies - cement trials

From the ABC:

Council workers will build a footpath in Toowoomba on Queensland's Darling Downs this morning using a new environmentally-friendly form of concrete. Local firm Wagners has developed the material using waste from coal-fired power stations and iron production and says the footpath is the first commercial trial of the product.

Project manager Tom Glasby says every tonne of traditional cement needed for concrete production produces a tonne of carbon emissions. He says the new concrete produces 90 per cent less carbon emissions than traditional forms of the building material. "We take these two mineral by-product waste materials, being ground-up slag and fly-ash, and we actually use them as the cementing agent in our concrete," he said. "It is also a very low energy product."

A bit more than a blow I would have thought

From the ABC:

Geraldton Greenough's image as an environmentally sustainable city has been dealt a blow after the local council put plans to introduce kerbside recycling on ice.

The council has spent nearly $390,000 on investigative works but this week voted not to proceed with the initiative.
...As a result of the decision, the council will forfeit nearly $600,000 in State Government funding.

 But they haven't yet told the people who do their web-site....

There are a limited number of recycling options available within the City at the moment. In the near future, the City is planning to introduce Kerbside Recycling.

Interesting China focus on cities

From The People's Daily Online:

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) launched a national low-carbon province and low-carbon city experimental project in Beijing on Aug. 18. The project will be implemented in five provinces, namely Guangdong, Liaoning, Hubei, Shaanxi and Yunnan, and in eight cities, namely Tianjin, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Xiamen, Hangzhou, Nanchang, Guiyang and Baoding.

Relevant government officials of those provinces and cities have promised to research and develop a low-carbon development plan, accelerate the establishment of an industry structure featuring low carbon emissions and actively promote low-carbon lifestyles and consumption patterns in order to help tackle global climate change.

Not mad just opportunistic

 ABC NEWS reports on a new urban event and picks an angle that was so expected:

Tasmania's workplace safety authority is seeking guarantees yesterday's wind turbine failure in central Hobart will not happen again.

Less than a month after installation, wind turbines on Hobart's Marine Board building were shut down yesterday after they started spinning out of control in strong winds. Police closed streets surrounding the building amid concerns the blades were coming loose. A spokesman for the company which installed the turbines, Rob Manson, says the incident was caused by a brake failure and there was no threat to public safety.

Roy Ormerod from Workplace Standards says some questions need to be answered. "We'll be in contact with the building owners and we'll be asking them for information on what caused the failure," he said. Mr Manson says the company will conduct an internal investigation.

Hobart alderman Darlene Haigh says wind turbines should never have been erected in the city centre.
Alderman Haigh opposed their installation on heritage and public safety grounds She says concerns were raised on an environmental website. "[It] said that they were safe out further from the city but not where there was high populations of people nearby because of the possibility of a blade dislodging and I do recall at the time that a lot of people thought I was quite mad," Alderman Haigh said.

"Everyone else is doing stuff with all the new technology, so why shouldn't they?"

Perhaps not the rationale... and that notion of embracing "the technological age"?

THE Tweed Shire Council is gearing up to embrace the technological age, with the launch of a smart phone application to allow ratepayers access to key council information.
The software, developed in collaboration with a private mobile phone technology firm, will be launched at the weekend to coincide with Local Government Week celebrations and a technological overhaul of the shire council's e-planning system.

Getting citizen feedback the hard way

Grist notes the irony:

After taking heat for lack of bike-infrastructure support -- what mayor doesn't get flack for this? -- Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villariagosa climbed on a bike for the first time in years last Saturday for a ride to the beach. Within 30 minutes a taxi driver pulled out in front of him on Venice Boulevard, knocking the mayor to the pavement. He hit his head -- he was wearing a helmet -- and broke his right elbow.

How will China's citizens get to work?

ClimateWire asks: As the world hurtles toward 2 billion cars, an increasingly important issue for the climate will be this: How will China's citizens get to work?

With their rising incomes and access to freshly paved roads, many will be tempted to emulate Americans and buy cars. Some will ride the gleaming rail networks funded by Beijing. But in the past two years, China has also become the world's fastest-growing market for high-speed city buses.
In February, the southern city of Guangzhou rolled out China's latest effort, a 14-mile stretch of a main road striped with bus-only lanes down the middle. The sleek buses race between raised stations that resemble train stops. Ridership has already shattered the figures of other bus systems in Asia. Now the system beats out the ridership of every metro line in mainland China except Beijing's.

Parking - wow!

What is old is new again

Didn't local governments used to do this with non-renewables before having their powers taken off them and centralised?  ZDNet reports:

The (UK) government wants to overturn a ban which prevents councils selling renewable energy to the grid, energy minister Chris Huhne announced on Wednesday.

The Local Government ACT 1976, which currently prevents councils from selling electrcity, will be amended, said Huhne in a statement.

"It's ridiculous that the 1976 Local Government Act prevents councils from selling electricity from local wind turbines, or from anaerobic digestion," said Huhne. "I want to see this repealed and by the end of the year I hope local authorities will be able to sell electricity from renewables – generating revenue to help local services and keep council tax down."

Ducking the wind-blown spit

The excellent series in Grist continues and Terry Tamminen sums it up again:

We haven't really been focused on the price of carbon; we've been focused on reducing carbon. And if that's really our goal, as opposed to being in love with any one policy at any one level of government, then there's a lot of work going on, which has been successful and continues to be successful, that we need to defend and strengthen. That's where our time is better spent, rather than spitting into the wind

The question: what now for a carbon price given the US stalemate?

The question is from Grist and a great response from Schwartzenegger's former advisor:

Terry Tamminen: I would stop focusing on the glass that's empty and focus instead on the one that's full. We already have a price on carbon in 10 Northeastern states, at least as it pertains to the electricity sector, under RGGI [Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative]. We are in the final stages of designing a similar cap-and-trade system in the majority of the Western states, and the Midwestern states have said they'll copy what we do. So by 2012, regardless of what Congress does, if we support these state actions -- which are much more deeply rooted and have a lot more political support and practical demonstration of success -- we are much more likely to have a price on carbon in the U.S. in the near-term.

Update: that pesky TWS split

From last week (yep, I have been on holidays with my family):

Members of The Wilderness Society have tonight voted in a new Management Committee for the organization, one committed to ending the internal conflict and taking the Society forward.  
 
In a re-run 2009 Annual General Meeting, hundreds of members gathered in Adelaide and hundreds more participated by phone across the country to hold an election for the Committee. 

The 2009 AGM was required to be re-run after the Tasmanian Supreme Court ruled the previous AGM, secretly held in November 2009 and organised by the former Management Committee, was invalid as it was inadequately notified. The meeting last night was jointly called and organised by all parties within the Wilderness Society, and the outcome represents a binding resolution to a damaging chapter in the organisation’s history.