Archive for Geothermal Energy
Top 10 Greenest Countries
Posted by: | CommentsThe list of the top 10 greenest countries was compiled from the Environmental Performance Index (EPI). The development of the EPI was joint effort between Yale University (Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy) and Columbia University (Center for International Earth Science Information Network) in collaboration with the World Economic Forum and the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission.
“The 2010 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) ranks 163 countries on 25 performance indicators tracked across ten policy categories covering both environmental public health and ecosystem vitality. These indicators provide a gauge at a national government scale of how close countries are to established environmental policy goals. The EPI’s proximity-to-target methodology facilitates cross-country comparisons as well as analysis of how the global community is doing collectively on each particular policy issue.”
According to the latest EPI results with a score out of 100, these are the top 10 greenest countries (click on the country to see their EPI score breakdown):
1. Iceland – EPI score: 93.5
2. Switzerland – EPI score: 89.1
3. Costa Rica – EPI score: 86.4
4. Sweden – EPI score: 86.0
5. Norway – EPI score: 81.1
6. Mauritius – EPI score: 80.6
7. France – EPI score: 78.2
8. Austria – EPI score: 78.1
9. Cuba – EPI score: 78.1
10. Colombia – EPI score: 76.8
Iceland bumped Switzerland from the #1 spot they held in 2008 as the top greenest country in 2010 due to its high scores on environmental public health and generating nearly all of its power from renewable sources (hydropower and geothermal energy), plus its control of greenhouse gas emissions. The United States fell to the 61st position, as compared to 39th in the 2008 EPI, Canada ranked 46th (12th in 2008), Russia 69th, China 121st, and India 123rd. The bottom 5 is 159th Togo, 160th Angola, 161st Mauritania, 162nd Central African Republic, and at the bottom in 163rd is Sierra Leone with an EPI score of 32.1. You can view the full list of all 163 countries here.
The EPI Indicators assessed in the ranking covers environmental health (water, air pollution, environmental burden of disease) and ecosystem vitality (climate change, forestry, fisheries, agriculture, biodiversity and habitat, air pollution, water). Ranging from CO2 emissions to water quality to pesticide regulations, many variables are taken into consideration. Refer to the pie graph below.
courtesty of http://epi.yale.edu
Both Canada and the US fell considerably from their 2008 EPI ranking. Let’s hope the next set of EPI results of the greenest countries sees remarkable improvement in North America.
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Al Gore and David Letterman – An Eco-friendly Master Class Part 5
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Now the long awaited (slight exaggeration) conclusion of our in-depth recounting of the Letterman/Gore interview. The Nobel Prize Laureate appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman to promote his new book Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Global Climate Crisis, which is an eco-friendly follow up to his Academy Award winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth. We pick up near the end of multi segment interview when the conversation shifted to the ever-growing global population.
Dave said that two million women a year die in childbirth and one billion humans go hungry. He then asked if it is possible that we are not supporting the population of our world and should the population issue be a cause for concern? Gore said that this is a complicated issue as fantastic growth has helped to create the collision between people, earth, and the environment. In the last one hundred years the population of the earth has quadrupled. It is estimated that the population will continue to grow from 6.8 billion (currently) to over 9 billion, where is should stabilize in 2050. The fact that the population is stabilizing illustrates that the issue is being addressed successfully, Gore called it “a success story in slow motion”. The stability of the population is largely dependent on four factors:
- The education of girls and women
- Women having a say in their lives and communities
- Women having control over their fertility
- Higher child survival rates
Basically, when women have a say in their lives and are employed, they are predisposed to having smaller families. Additionally, when children survive at a higher rate, parents have a natural preference to have a smaller family. This shift happened in the United States decades ago and is now occurring all over the world.
The next issue that Letterman brought up has been a plank in the platform of every politician running in the United States in the last few years, which is the dependence on foreign oil. Gore shared that as long as the U.S. remains as dependent on foreign oil as they are, there will be a national security threat as well as an eco-friendly one. The reason for this is that oil reserves are mainly located in the Middle East, the largest of which are owned by the Saudis. Gore feels that to do right by the planet, future generations of children and the security the country, Americans need to be using renewable energy. When relying on foreign oil, any unrest in the Middle East is a threat, as the supply could be cut. Gore said that millions of new jobs could be created by retro fitting homes, putting up windmills, solar panels, and geo thermal installation.
Tags: Academy Award, Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth, carbon emissions, Climate Change, CO2, David Letterman, Eco Friendly, eco-friendly society, Eco-friendly Television, eco-friendly television pioneer, eco-friendly television programming, environmental issues, extinction, fertility, foreign oil, Geothermal Energy, Global Climate Crisis, Global Warming, Late Night with David Letterman, Noble Prize, planet forward, renewable energy, solar panels, windmillsLexicon of Ecofriendly Words Volume V – Renewable Energy Sources
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Keeping track of all the new ecofriendly words being thrown around nowadays can be a daunting task that can easily make you feel left out of the loop. Our Lexicon will attempt to make you hip to the new “green” word on the street. This volume deals with renewable energy and defines the top sources available for use.
Wind Energy
Wind is the movement of air that occurs when warm air rises and cooler air rushes in to replace it. Wind energy has been used for centuries to sail ships and drive windmills for a variety of reason. Today, wind energy is captured by wind turbines and used to generate electricity.
Solar Energy
The sun is the most powerful source of renewable energy. It is good for heating, lighting, cooling homes and other buildings, generating electricity, water heating, and other industrial processes. The sun fuels most forms of renewable energy: heat from the sun causes the wind to blow which contributes to the growth of trees and other plants that are used for biomass energy, and plays an essential role in the cycle of evaporation and precipitation that makes hydropower possible.
Hydropower
Water flowing is a strong force and is a renewable resource that is constantly recharged by the global cycle of evaporation and precipitation. The heat of the sun causes water in lakes and oceans to evaporate and form clouds. The water then falls back to Earth as rain or snow, and drains into rivers and streams that flow back to the ocean. Flowing water can be used to power water any number of industrial/mechanical processes. When captured by turbines and generators the energy from flowing water can be used to generate electricity.
