NGO pushes alternatives to nuclear
Efficiency and cutting demand help more
• Published: 22/10/2009 at 12:00 AM
• Newspaper section: Business
•
The development of nuclear power plants by 2020 should be reconsidered, environmental activists urged the government.
The government should work on developing technology that improves energy consumption instead of building new power plants that could trigger another problem, said Chuenchom S. Greecen, an energy researcher
A Rope and a Prayer
By DAVID ROHDE
I STOOD in the bathroom of the Taliban compound and waited for my colleague to appear in the courtyard so we could make our escape. My heart pounded. A three-foot-tall swamp cooler — an antiquated version of an air-conditioner — roared in the yard a few feet in front of me. I feared that the guards who were holding us hostage might wake up and stop us. I feared even more that our captivity would drag on for years.
It was 1 a.m. on Saturday, June 20, in Mira
A Drone Strike and Dwindling Hope
By DAVID ROHDE
TWO deafening explosions shook the walls of the compound where the Taliban held us hostage. My guards and I dived to the floor as chunks of dirt hurtled through the window.
“Dawood?” one guard shouted, saying my name in Arabic. “Dawood?”
“I’m O.K.,” I replied in Pashto. “I’m O.K.”
The plastic sheeting covering the window hung in tatters. Debris covered the floor. Somewhere outside, a woman wailed. I wondered if Tahir Luddin and Asad Mangal,
‘You Have Atomic Bombs, but We Have Suicide Bombers.’
By DAVID ROHDE
A NERVOUS-LOOKING Pakistani soldier pointed a rocket-propelled grenade at our pickup truck in late January. The Taliban guard beside me loaded his rifle and ordered me to put a scarf over y face. A group of Pakistani civilians standing nearby moved out of the way, anticipating a firefight.
In the driver’s seat of our vehicle was Badruddin Haqqani, a senior commander of the Haqqani network, one of the Taliban’s most hard-l
Inside the Islamic Emirate
By DAVID ROHDE
A YOUNG Taliban driver with shoulder-length hair got behind the wheel of the car. Glancing at me suspiciously in the rearview mirror, he started the engine and began driving down the left-hand side of the road.
It was some sort of prank, I hoped, some jihadi version of chicken — the game where two drivers speed toward each other in the same lane until one loses his nerve.
Which lane he drove down showed what country we were in. If he conti
7 Months, 10 Days in Captivity
Held by the Taliban
By DAVID ROHDE,
New York Times
A Times Reporter’s Account. A Five-Part Series by David Rohde
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/18/world/asia/18hostage.html
THE car’s engine roared as the gunman punched the accelerator and we crossed into the open Afghan desert. I was seated in the back between two Afghan colleagues who were accompanying me on a reporting trip when armed men surrounded our car and took us hostage.
Another gunman in the
The assembly of 20 solar homes on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., is rapidly approaching completion, as the 2009 Solar Decathlon prepares to open, free to the public, on October 9th. The Solar Decathlon is an international event in which DOE challenges university teams to design and build homes that run entirely on solar energy.
The teams ship their partially constructed homes to the National Mall, assemble them, and then compete in ten contests. This year, the 20 teams came from univer
Bright Automotive wants to make 50,000 plug-in hybrid vans per year that are built from the ground-up to deliver 100 mpg in a van that can carry 180 cubic feet of cargo. A typical van carrying such load might achieve 15 mpg. This spin-off of the Rocky Mountain Institute has major strategic partners including Alcoa, Johnson-Controls, and Google. The Bright IDEA van weighs only 3,200 pounds, less than a Prius, and can go 30 miles on battery power alone. It will be stronger than steel, yet built wi
Health insurance companies in U.S. lack any form of common decency. They treat people like garbage. Hope the Obama administration can get a health care reform bill that provides the people with some protection from corporate health care abuse.
Energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies have the potential to provide most, if not all, of the U.S. carbon emissions reductions that will be needed to help limit the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide to 450 to 500 ppm. According to Hansen, NASA’s top climate scientist, we need to limit the additional average
world temperature rise due to greenhouse gases to 1˚C above the year-2000 level. If we fail, we risk entering an unprecedented warming era that would have disastrous
Testing Finds Proterra Electric Transit Bus Achieves More Than 20 mpg Diesel Equivalent
5 May 2009
Proterra battery-electric bus. An all-electric version of the 35-foot Proterra FCBE 35 transit bus, powered by a UQM PowerPhase 150 electric propulsion system and an Altairnano Li-ion battery pack (earlier post), achieved more than 20 miles per gallon diesel equivalent in fuel economy equivalency testing conducted by the Pennsylvania Transportation Institute at Pennsylvania State University.
Tropical Storm KETSANA
No. 3 (154/2552) Time Issued : September 28, 2009
Typhoon “KETSANA” in the South China Sea. It is expected to landfall at the Vietnam by tomorrow. Due to increasing in rainfalls and isolated heavy to very heavy rain with windy are likely in upper Thailand during 29 Sep-3 Oct. There are affect to the Northeast at first and then to the North and the Central.
The strong southwest monsoon prevails over the Andaman Sea, southern Thailand and the Gulf of Thailand thr
"climate change will make events like that Australian dust storm much more common"September 28, 2009
OP-ED COLUMNIST
NY Times
Cassandras of Climate
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Every once in a while I feel despair over the fate of the planet. If you’ve been following climate science, you know what I mean: the sense that we’re hurtling toward catastrophe but nobody wants to hear about it or do anything to avert it.
And here’s the thing: I’m not engaging in hyperbole. These days, dire warnings aren
Remember the guy that 3kW PV Grid Tie system install on his house, he also used it to charge to his electric car. Here some prices on PV Gird Tie system.PV ON GRID ROOF TOP-ENERGY PRODUCED PER YEAR
kWh per year = (PSH) X (Peak kW of Array) x (solar panel derating) x (inverter efficiency) x 365
Example:
5.5 peak hours x 3kW Array x 0.85 x 0.95 x 365 = 4,863 kWhs a year
kWhs Day = 13.32
EGAT PV Feed-in Tariff = 2.5 + 8 adder = 10.5 Baht
PV kWh 4,863 x 10.5 Baht = 51,061 Baht per year
Classic storm profile, tropical depresstion heading for Thailand draws more bad weather fromIndian ocean. Highly probable heavy rains in every where in Thailand .Also, very high tides for Bangkok now.Link for Tides: http://www.mobilegeographics.com:81/calendar/month/362.html
This last Tuesday when to Siam Paragon to see the Greenpeace movie "The Age of Stupid."I'd say 500 people showed up, 90% Thai and 10% Farang. A few TFers were there. The Khun Thais from Greenpeace were very friendly and the event was well organized. Good to see so many Thais with strong commitment to protecting the environment in Thailand. BTW, I liked the movie too.
We can have a future, that has a future. Let's hope and work for a Climate Change agreement that is AMBITIOUS, FAIR, and BINDIN
NOT STUPID IS, AS NOT STUPID DOES
Greenpeace will screen an environmental film in Bangkok to heighten awareness on climate change in the build up to the December environmental summit in Copenhagen
Writer: Anchalee Kongrut
Published: 13/09/2009 at 12:00 AMNewspaper section: Brunch, Bangkok Post
For those who are familiar with this column, don't worry about the weeks that it reads like a film report; it's still your 'Earth Alert' column through and through. Now and again, environmental con
[Frank is giving his summation to the jury]
Frank Galvin: You know, so much of the time we're just lost. We say, "Please, God, tell us what is right; tell us what is true." And there is no justice: the rich win, the poor are powerless. We become tired of hearing people lie. And after a time, we become dead... a little dead. We think of ourselves as victims... and we become victims. We become... we become weak. We doubt ourselves, we doubt our beliefs. We doubt our institutions. And we doubt t
