Rezachek & Associates'
Energy & Environmental Resources

Environmental Issues - Page 1

1997 National Environmental Score Card The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) has published a National Environmental Scorecard every Congress since 1970, the year it was founded by leaders of the environmental movement following the first Earth Day.

Advanced Energy Technologies and Climate Change: An Analysis Using the Global Change Assessment Model (GCAM) The adoption of assumptions regarding advanced energy technologies were shown to have a profound effect on the future rate of anthropogenic climate change. The cumulative effect of the five sets of advanced energy technologies is to reduce annual emissions from fossil fuel use to levels which stabilize atmospheric concentrations below 550 ppmv, the point at which atmospheric concentrations are double those that existed in the middle of the eighteenth century. While all energy technologies play roles in reducing future fossil fuel carbon dioxide emissions, the introduction of advanced biomass energy production technology plays a particularly important role. If biomass energy can be made available at $2.40/GJ or less in quantities sufficient to make it the core energy supply technology In the middle of the next century, then emissions can be cut dramatically relative to the reference case. The problem of emissions reduction becomes one of technology development and deployment in this case, and not one of fiscal and regulatory intervention.

A Few Degrees Makes a World of Difference Climb into your car on a sunny day when the air inside is baking and you'll experience the greenhouse effect. Just as car windows allow sunlight in and then trap the heat inside, certain types of gases trap the sun's heat within the Earth's atmosphere. Without the naturally occurring greenhouse effect the Earth would not be inhabitable. But in the past 100 years, industrial waste gases have upset the equilibrium of our greenhouse, leading to global warming.

Alternatives to Traditional Transportation Fuels 1994 Volume 2 Greenhouse Gas Emissions This report provides information on greenhouse gases (GHGs) as required by the Energy Policy Act of 1992 (EPACT). Although EPACT is principally concerned with improving energy efficiency and curbing U.S. dependence on foreign oil, the requirement to estimate greenhouse gases reflects a desire that energy security not be promoted at the expense of the environment. EPACT was developed around the time (1992) that President Bush and other world leaders met in Rio de Janeiro to sign the ³Framework Convention for Climate Change.² This document committed developed nations to stabilizing emissions of greenhouse gases at 1990 levels.

Amazing Environmental Organization WebDirectory A listing by category of many environment-related organization links. Categories include education, employment, energy, general environmental interest groups, pollution, sustainable development, and 24 others.

An Environment Guide to the World Trade Organization This environmental guide to the World Trade Organization is intended to provide an introduction to this new and enormously powerful trade regime.

Annotated Bibliography of On-line Resources Extensive list on environmental links.

Anti-Environmental Myths In the last few years there has been an increasing number of anti-environmental myths. They have come from a variety of sources, such as right wing think tanks, "wise use" groups, political extremists, and public misconceptions. These pages were started to provide resources to identify and correct these myths.

Aquatic Network -- Information Service for the Aquatic World Subject areas covered include aquaculture, conservation, fisheries, limnology, marine science and oceanography, maritime heritage, ocean engineering, and seafood.

Are Developing Countries Already Doing as Much as Industrialized Countries to Slow Climate Change? Developing countries are already effective participants in global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Indeed, since the signing of the 1992 Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) developing countries may have achieved greater carbon dioxide emission savings than industrialized countries.

Asia Pacific Regional Environmental Network (APRENet) APRENet is an electronic information system focused on environmental issues in Asia-Pacific. Utilizing its on-line library, e-mail networks, and news reports, APRENet seeks to stimulate debate and promote regional environmental policy alternatives in the Asia-Pacific.

A Special Moment in History The fate of our planet will be determined in the next few decades, through our technological, lifestyle, and population choices.

C&D Waste Web A site to inform and assist building managers and home owners, architects, and contractors in reducing and recycling waste from renovation, construction and demolition sites.

California Environmental Resources Evaluation System (CERES) CERES is an information system developed by the California Resources Agency to facilitate access to a variety of electronic data describing California's rich and diverse environments. The goal of CERES is to improve environmental analysis and planning by integrating natural and cultural resource information from multiple contributors and by making it available and useful to a wide variety of users.

California Integrated Waste Management Act Landmark state legislation passed in 1989 and 1990, known as the California Integrated Waste Management Act (IWM Act), created a new waste management philosophy in California. The IWM Act emphasizes conservation of natural resources through a hierarchy of management methods to reduce, reuse, and recycle solid waste. The centerpiece of this effort is the development of comprehensive local plans to identify and promote programs to divert large quantities of materials from traditional disposal methods (landfilling and transformation). Statutory waste diversion goals were set at 25 percent by the year 1995 and 50 percent by the year 2000. Included in this planning process is the need to identify future landfill capacity and to ensure that environmentally safe landfills are available for disposal of solid waste that cannot be reduced, recycled, or composted.

Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Industrialized Countries An analysis of the patterns of emissions arising from the end uses of energy (and electricity production) in ten industrialized countries, with surprising, and, in some cases, worrisome results. The surprise is that emissions in many countries in the early 1990s were lower than those in the 1970s in an absolute sense and on a per capita basis; the worry is that factors that reduced emissions are not having the same effects in the mid-1990s as they did in the past.

Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC) The Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (Robert M. Cushman, Director), which includes the World Data Center-A for Atmospheric Trace Gases, is the primary global-change data and information analysis center of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). More than just an archive of data sets and publications, CDIAC has - since its inception in 1982 - enhanced the value of its holdings through intensive quality assurance, documentation, and integration. As opposed to many traditional data centers that are discipline-based (for example, meteorology or oceanography), CDIAC's scope includes potentially anything and everything that would be of value to users concerned with the greenhouse effect and global climate change, including concentrations of carbon dioxide and other radiatively active gases in the atmosphere; the role of the terrestrial biosphere and the oceans in the biogeochemical cycles of greenhouse gases; emissions of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere; long-term climate trends; the effects of elevated carbon dioxide on vegetation; and the vulnerability of coastal areas to rising sea level.

Cars and Their Environmental Impact Air pollution is expected to soon outpace the environmental gains made by emission control efforts. Reducing the future environmental impacts of motor vehicles will depend heavily on reducing gas consumption. Government policies and legislation, car owners and drivers, and new developments in fuels and cars can reduce gas consumption by decreasing the total vehicle miles driven and by increasing the energy efficiency of the vehicles driven.

Center for Environmental Citizenship The Center for Environmental Citizenship is a youth-led national non-profit, non-partisan organization founded in 1992 to train college students to become citizen activists for better environmental policies. The Center has several projects.

Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) CIESIN was established in 1989 as a non-profit, non-governmental organization to provide information that would help scientists, decision-makers, and the public better understand their changing world. CIESIN specializes in global and regional network development, science data management, decision support, and training, education and technical consultation services. CIESIN is the World Data Center A (WDC-A) for Human Interactions in the Environment.

Central European Environmental Data Request Facility (CEDAR) CEDAR provides computing and Internetwork facilities to support international data exchange with the Central and Eastern European environmental community. In 1992, CEDAR began to work with the United Nations Environmental Programme's INFOTERRA Network, UNEP's global information exchange programme. Designated as the INFOTERRA Internet node and Regional Service Centre for Central and Eastern Europe, CEDAR is working with the Austrian National Focal Point (NFP) at the Austrian Federal Environmental Agency and other regional and global NFPs to support environmental information dissemination.