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SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT & ENERGY
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

CHINA'S E BIKE REVOLUTION

Every year millions of Chinese are hitting the streets on E-bikes.
Those are battery powered contraptions that are becoming increasingly
popular as soaring fuel prices are continuing to make traditional
motorbikes and scooters expensive to drive. The bikes are getting
bigger, faster and more glamorous - and the growing size of their
batteries is soaking up increasing amounts of lead, the same amount
as one car. China produced 19 million battery driven bikes in 2006,
and that figure could rise by 30 per cent this year. "Who drives
motorbikes anymore? Fuel is too expensive and these have no emissions
so they are better for the environment - it's popular to think about
that these days." Other innovations include bikes that use lithium-
ion batteries which generally last longer and give more power for
their weight.

Check more on the topic @ www.abc.net.au/catapult/news/s2060020.htm


TRANSPORT SOLUTIONS

The Mayor of London has doubled the area of the city that is subject
to a congestion charge. Any driver who wants to take a car into the
city centre should pay a congestion charge. The success of the idea
tends to support the view that the only way to increase walking and
public transport use is to make cars more expensive and less
convenient. The idea is adopted as well in Vancouver, Canada, the
city recognised in 2006 as the world's most livable. Gordon Price
Director of Translink, the regional transportation authority in
Canada talks in this interview about how important is the question of
traffic congestion.

A full transcript of the interview is available @
www.abc.net.au/rn/nationalinterest/stories/2007/1887510.htm

SLANTING OIL PRODUCTION MAY CAUSE WAR

A German based Energy Watch Group has released a study saying global
oil production peaked in 2006 and will fall by half as soon as 2030
which may lead to wars and social breakdown. "The world soon will not
be able to produce all the oil it needs as demand is rising while
supply is falling. This is a huge problem for the world economy,"
said Hans-Josef Fell, EWG's founder and the German MP behind the
country's successful support system for renewable energy. The
report's author, Joerg Schindler, said the results are in contrast to
projections from the International Energy Agency, which says there is
little reason to worry about oil supplies at the moment. However, the
EWG study relies more on actual oil production data which, it says,
are more reliable than estimates of reserves still in the ground. The
group says official industry estimates put global reserves at an
equivalent to 42 years' supply at current consumption rates. But it
thinks the figure is only about two thirds of that. EWG also predicts
significant falls in gas, coal and uranium production as those energy
sources are used up. The report presents a bleak view of the future
unless a radically different approach is adopted.

Check the article @ www.guardian.co.uk/oil/story/0,,2196435,00.html

November 25, 2007 | 8:23 PM Comments  0 comments

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SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

WASTE AND CONSUMPTION
By Gabrielle Trenbath - Australia

The United States, with less than 5% of the world's population,
consumes 24% of the world's energy, 27% of the world's aluminium, and
21% of the world's beef. U.S. residents own 32% of the world's motor
vehicles. (Stuff: The Secret Lives of Everyday Things, John C. Ryan
and Alan Thein Durning) It is easy to forget how our lifestyle
consumes disproportionably more of the world´s recourses than other
nations. And it is more interesting to see how people work harder and
go into debt to support their lifestyles. David Francis brings up a
good point in his book "Money not the root of all happiness" when he
says that levels of happiness has not risen and that high living
standards does not necessarily translate well into well being and
general contentment. A Vital Signs report written by David Spratt
also provides more statistics on over consumption and its effect. One
is `despite a relatively calm U.S. hurricane season in 2006, the
world experienced more weather related disasters than in any of the
previous three years. Nearly 100 million people were affected´.
Another shows America could displace 22 million hectares of tropical
forest and Savanna in the next 20 years´

More statistics on www.worldwatch.org/taxonomy/term/39.


WORLD FOOD DAY: 16 OCTOBER


There´s word going around encouraging writings about this year´s
theme of the World Food Day; the "right to food". Topics could
reflect environmental and social justice issues as they relate to
food, such as the right to food, hunger, urban agriculture, food
miles, water and carbon costs, food security and even issues such as
green roofs and vertical spaces for food production, among many more!
SustainableCitiesNet.com welcomes any posts you may like to
contribute with. Maybe all it will add up to is a handful of op-eds
and blog posts, but that´s how awareness-raising starts. Such a group
effort would represent a statement of solidarity with people and
groups internationally working on these issues. You might check with
some local agencies to see what the level of food insecurity in your
own area to make a connection. Use the day to toot your own horn by
telling readers what you and your group are doing to insure that more
people in your area have access to nutritious food. Write a
futuristic piece about what you´d like your community to look like 13
years from now food-wise, i.e. Your Vision for 2020.

Bread for the World has a good summary of world hunger facts:
http://www.bread.org/learn/hunger-basics/hunger-facts-
international.html

Information from the FAO´s Right to Food website can also be found
at:
http://www.fao.org/righttofood/


CLIMATE AND POPULATION STRIP FERTILE LAND

Scientists say to keep up with the growth in human population; more
food will have to be produced worldwide over the next 50 years than
has been during the past 10,000 years combined. But in many countries
a combination of poor farming practices and deforestation will be
exacerbated by climate change to steadily degrade soil fertility,
leaving vast areas unsuitable for crops or grazing. Competition over
sparse resources may lead to conflicts and environmental destruction,
the scientists fear. The warnings came as researchers from around the
world convened at a UN-backed forum in Iceland on sustainable
development to address the organisation's millennium development
goals to halve hunger and extreme poverty by 2015. The researchers
used the meeting to call on countries to impose strict farming
guidelines to ensure that soils are not degraded so badly they cannot
recover.

Read more on the following link:
www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/aug/31/climatechange.food


TIG PANORAMA ON CONSUMERISM AND POLLUTION

Sometimes we buy new goods without paying attention to whether we
really need them or not. We don't look at how long they might last,
which country they come from or the environmental consequences of
manufacturing these goods and how they are disposed. Creating new
goods means new factories that need to be built whose operations can
create many things that are harmful to our environment.

See how TIG members expressed artistically what Consumerism and
Pollution means to them @
http://en.takingitglobal.org/express/gallery/artwork/index.html?typ
e=tig&collectionID=1073

November 25, 2007 | 8:22 PM Comments  0 comments

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TRANSPORT ENERGY FUTURES
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

By Ryan Falconer, PhD Candidate
Perth, Western Australia

Oil is the key source of energy for the global transport task. In
particular, many countries rely on oil to fuel domestic motor vehicle
fleets. This reliance is pronounced in the car dependent cities of
the West, including many in the United States of America (US) and
Australia.

There is an impeding crisis facing transport sectors that depend on
fossil fuels. This crisis will differentially affect those cities
that are characterised by high levels of motor vehicle travel.
Uncertain global oil supply presents a fundamental challenge to
transport sustainability. Because of this, there is an urgent need
for transport policy redress.

The focus needs to be on more compact city designs and discouragement
of private motor vehicle travel. Technological change, as an
alternative, which is commonly considered to offer solutions for
transport, presents limited real potential, because it will take a
long time for domestic vehicle fleets to be replaced by more
efficient/alternative fuel vehicles.

For decades it has been understood that there is a limited supply of
oil. In the 1950s, M. King Hubbert (1956) forecast the peak of oil
production in the US. Nevertheless, many years of transport policy
and funding, particularly in the US and Australia, have favoured
motor vehicle transport and the transport sector remains reliant on
fossil fuels (Kenworthy, 2003). Bitumen, which is formed following
the refinement of crude, is even relied on to make roads.

Strong measures are now required to limit demand for oil and
prioritise sustainable transport modes in the face of a coming
transport energy crisis. Many US and Australasian cities have been
designed in such a way to make motorised travel the only real
transport solution for many trips (Frumkin et al., 2004; Newman and
Kenworthy, 1999; Newman and Kenworthy, 2006). Having undergone
considerable development in the period post World War II, cities
including Atlanta, Los Angeles and Perth are characterised by sprawl
and extensive motor-vehicle infrastructure.

There have been government incentives for suburban growth and funding
biases in favour of motor vehicles rather than public transport
(Davison, 2004; Laird, 2001). Car dependence, therefore, is linked to
oil dependence. As a consequence of oil dependency, oil supply has
become big business. Motor and oil companies have long featured
prominently in the global Fortune 500 (Hamer, 1987). In 2004, for
example, three oil companies - Exxon Mobil, BP and Royal Dutch Shell
Group - were amongst the ten wealthiest companies worldwide. In 2004,
Exxon Mobil´s market value was US$283.6b (Au$365.4b) (Finfacts,
2005). Automobile manufacturers and suppliers have a high
representation elsewhere in the list. Together, these companies with
an interest in motoring and oil form a powerful international
political lobby group.

Just as the oil lobby is international, so too are transport
sustainability issues, particularly those tied to oil dependence. We
need to be thinking carefully about our transport future, because one
that relies on oil for energy is not sustainable. We also need to be
thinking about the consequences of rapid motorisation in developing
nations, which is likely to perpetuate existing concerns.

November 25, 2007 | 8:22 PM Comments  0 comments

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THE OCTOBER WAR
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

By Vijayakumar Ponnuswamy
Copenhagen, Denmark

The 290th day of the Gregorian calendar year 1973 marked one of the
most important turning points in the history of the twentieth
century. The world faced a sudden and an unpredicted interruption of
the supply of petroleum. The members of the Organization of Arab
Petroleum Exporting Countries [OAPEC] announced that they would no
longer ship petroleum to nations that had supported Israel in its
conflict war with Syria and Egypt, otherwise known as `The Yom Kippur
War´. During the war, the Arab world imposed an oil embargo against
the United States, Western Europe, and Japan for their support of
Israel. The OAPEC cut production of oil and placed an embargo on
shipments of crude oil to the West, with the United States and the
Netherlands, specifically targeted.

The effects had severely forced the west to redefine the word
'interdependence', especially on the terms of `dependence for fossil
fuels´. Researches on alternative energy sources, such as, wind and
solar energy, quickly attained importance. Years later, due to
substantial after-effects, the International Union for the
Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, located at Switzerland,
published the World Conservation Strategy and coined a new term
"sustainable development."

The IUCN brought together more than 80 states and international
organizations along with nearly 800 NGOs, with about 10,000 experts
from the countries around the world inside its organization, which is
dedicated to conserve natural resources. Wikipedia defines
sustainability as a characteristic of a process or state that can be
maintained at a certain level indefinitely. The term, in its
environmental usage, would refer to the potential longevity of vital
human ecological support systems, such as the planet's climatic
system, systems of agriculture, industry, forestry, and fisheries,
and human communities in general and the various systems on which
they depend. The broad area of sustainable development was then
thereby, categorized into many major subsets and, among them,
Sustainable Mobility, is an important one. The common definition, as
per encyclopaedias, is that "sustainable transportation is about
meeting or helping meet the mobility needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet these needs".
But colloquially, it is used to describe all forms of transport that
which minimizes emissions of carbon dioxide and other pollutants on
earth.

The Brundtland Commission, convened by the United Nations in 1983,
chaired by the former Prime Minister of Norway, Ms Gro Harlem
Brundtland, submitted its report which deals with sustainable
development and the change of politics needed for achieving that. The
definition of this term in the report was quite well known and often
cited as, "Sustainable development is development that meets the
needs of the present without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs."

The Directorate-General for Energy and Transport [DGTREN] of the
European Commission, operating since the year 2000, has launched a
programme which focuses mostly on the urban transport. Among their
many main measures, some of them focus on clean fuels and vehicles
such as biodiesel, CNG, and hybrid vehicles; intermodal passenger
transport; and Transport management. The development and environment
are both equally important as two sides of the same coin. Even if one
side is defaced, would only make the coin valueless. Jeffrey David
Sachs, an American economist, quoted that "There is an urgent need to
communicate with the public and help to explain where there is
consensus, and where are there doubts about the issues of sustainable
development." We must have the responsibility to guard the planet we
live and assure our children and grandchildren to have a healthy and
sustainable environment in which to live. Shouldn't we?

Full text of the Brundtland Report @ www.anped.org/media/brundtland-
pdf.pdf
More on sustainable transport @
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_transport

November 25, 2007 | 8:21 PM Comments  0 comments

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IYPF MEMBER PROFILES
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Rakesh Kumar Gaur
New Delhi, India

Rakesh is the Founder President of Udisha/ India, a conglomeration of
Civil Servants, Lawyers, Chartered Accountants, Environmentalists and
Social Activists who work on environmental education and prevention
of child abuse. He is also the Founder President of Rotary Foundation
Alumni Association, in New Delhi, Indiahe was the an Honorary
projects director in Caretakers for Environment/ India, a national
branch of a Netherland based Organization, for three yearshe is
affliated with the Indian Rural Youth federation (Bhartiya Gramin
Yuvak Samaj) and was Nominated as Non-official Visitor for Children
Home under Social Welfare Department, Govt. of Delhi, by the Lt.
Governor of Delhi.

Rakesh has two bachelor degrees one in law and the other in mass
communication and journalism. He also earned a master of commerce and
a diploma in personal management and labour welfare. Rakesh has 26
years of professional experience in Personnel and Civil
Administration. He worked in different capacities in many departments
under Govt. of NCT of Delhi. He is also experienced in Personnel,
Administrative, Financial, and Welfare activities.

He is profoundly knowledgeable of working with cross sections of
civil society and has contributed to the efforts of Govt. of NCT of
Delhi to bring more transparency and accountability in the working of
different departments. Rakesh is now working on formulating a
Citizen´s Charter, Manuals under Right to Information Act promulgated
recently and e-governance as the department has frequent interface
with general public and licensees.


Vijayakumar Ponnuswamy
Copenhagen, Denmark

Vijayakumar is from India. He is currently employed at the FORCE
Technology Centre in Denmark. He is also a prospective candidate for
an Industrial PhD at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU).
Earlier, he did his Bachelors in Electronics and Communication
engineering (India) and gained a Masters degree in Mechatronics from
the Aachen University of Applied Sciences (Germany).

Currently he is the Board Member for `The Ph.D. Association´ at the
Technical University of Denmark. He was nominated for DAAD Best
Student Prize-2006 (German Academic Exchange Service) from FH Aachen
and was also an active member of the `Association of Indian Students
Aachen´ during his stay in Germany.

Recently he was interviewed by the International Faculty Services of
the DTU, about their introductory session event and it was published
at the University´s newspaper `DTU Avisen´. He has joined the IYPF
and believes that he can contribute towards the foundation at all his
possible level. Among his areas of interest, the Sustainability
Development is also one them and willing to share the resources and
information he has with.

November 25, 2007 | 8:20 PM Comments  0 comments

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