The global coal mining sector is under pressure like never
before. An increasing number of analysts and industry watchers (including at
Goldman Sachs175) are declaring that thermal coal has now entered structural,
rather than cyclical, decline. Coal mining companies have to contend with the
fact that six countries, states, provinces, or cities have completely phased
out coal power since 2014, and an additional 17 haveannounced a coal power
phase-out date of 2030 or sooner. Among them are three G7 countries, eight EU
countries, and Beijing and Delhi — all committed to becoming coal-free. Also in
2017, South Korea, the world’s fourth largest coal importer, announced a major
reduction in its coal power reliance, a move that has dire implications for
Indonesian coal producers in particular.
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Friday, December 14, 2018
Tuesday, December 11, 2018
CASE STUDY: HOUSTON: HURT BY THE CAUSES AND SYMPTOMS OF CLIMATE CHANGE
The
torrential downpours and violent winds of Hurricane Harvey struck Houston,
Texas in August and September 2017. Harvey killed at least 68 people and
displaced over one million,leaving approximately 200,000 damaged homes along
its 300- mile trail. Damages from the hurricane tallied an estimated $125
billion. The aftermath is still being felt through the region.
Environmental
racism exacerbates the pain caused by natural disasters by disproportionately affecting low-income communities of color close to industrial
sites. In the wake of Harvey, these communities were exposed to increased
levels of toxic chemicals from Houston’s superfund sites, chemical plants, and
oil refneries during the storms. Houston is an industrial hub with a busy ship channel,
in a state that’s home to 30 percent of the country’s oil refning capacity.
According to the Environmental Defense Fund, Hurricane Harvey causeddamaged
refneries and chemical facilities to release nearly sixmillion pounds of
cancer-causing chemicals into the air.
Sunday, December 9, 2018
STOP FUNDING FOSSILS: WHY THE FINANCE SECTOR MUST FOLLOW THE WORLD BANK’S LEAD
Achieving the goals of the Paris
Climate Agreement will require action across all sectors of the economy, and
the finance sector is clearly fundamental. In fact, one of the Paris
Agreement’s three objectives is “making finance flows consistent with a pathway
towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development. Recent
announcements by some of the world’s largest financial institutions reveal an
emerging consensus that all fossil fuel investment and financing risks both
climate security and economic value. The finance sector has an important role
to play in ending further exploration and the expansion of fossil fuel
production.
Thursday, December 6, 2018
THE BEGINNING OF THE END
2017 may
go down in history as the year when it frst became clear that the fossil fuel
era was fnally starting to sputter to an end. The cost of new solar and wind
power started to fall below the price of new coal and gas plants in a growing
number of regions. The CEO of NextEra Energy, one of the largest electricity
producers in the US, now predicts that “early in the next decade” — just a few
years from now — power will be cheaper from unsubsidized new wind and solar
plants in the US than from existing coal and nuclear plants. It’s still far from game over for the
fossil fuel industry, but the game hasdrastically changed.
Monday, November 26, 2018
TASTE—IT’S THE STRUCTURE THAT COUNTS
Why do certain
substances taste sweet, sour, bitter, or salty? Of course, it has to do with
the taste buds on our tongues. But how do these taste buds work? For example,
why does sugar taste sweet to us? The answer to this question remains elusive,
but it does seem clear that sweet taste depends on how certain molecules fit
the “sweet receptors” in our taste buds.
Monday, November 19, 2018
PROTECTING THE OZONE
Chlorofluorocarbons
(CFCs) are ideal compounds for refrigerators and air conditioners because they
are nontoxic and noncorrosive. However, the chemical inertness of these
substances, once thought to be their major virtue, turns out to be their fatal
flaw. When these compounds leak into the atmosphere, as they inevitably do,
they are so unreactive they persist there for decades. Eventually these CFCs
reach altitudes where ultraviolet light causes them to decompose, producing
chlorine atoms that promote the destruction of the ozone in the stratosphere
(see discussion above). Because of this problem, the world’s industrialized
nations have signed an agreement (called the Montreal Protocol) that banned
CFCs in 1996 (with a 10-year grace period for developing nations). So we must
find substitutes for the CFCs—and fast.
Wednesday, November 14, 2018
SCHOOL CHEMISTRY LABORATORY SAFETY GUIDE
Recognition of laboratory safety and health problems has crystallized
since the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970. This Act
requires that certain precautions be observed to protect the safety and health
of employees on the job. The employee designation includes all teachers
employed by private and public school systems in States that have occupational
safety and health plans accepted by the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA) of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). OSHA rules and
regulations are provided to protect the employees and the facilities.
Monday, November 12, 2018
GUM THAT FOAMS
Mad Dawg chewing gum is
a practical joker’s dream come true. It is noticeably sour when someone first
starts to chew it, but the big surprise comes about ten chews later when
brightly colored foam oozes from the person’s mouth. Although the effect is
dramatic, the cause is simple acid–base chemistry.
The foam consists of sugar
and saliva churned into a bubbling mess by carbon dioxide released from the gum.
The carbon dioxide is formed when sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) present
in the gum is mixed with citric acid and malic acid (also present in the gum)
in the moist environment of the mouth. As NaHCO3 dissolves in the
water of the saliva, it separates into its ions:
Saturday, November 10, 2018
NUCLEAR WASTE DISPOSAL
Our society does not
have an impressive record for safe disposal of industrial wastes. We have
polluted our water and air, and some land areas have become virtually
uninhabitable because of the improper burial of chemical wastes. As a result,
many people are wary about the radioactive wastes from nuclear reactors. The
potential threats of cancer and genetic mutations make these materials
especially frightening.
Because of its controversial
nature, most of the nuclear waste generated over the past 50 years has been
placed in temporary storage. However, in 1982 the U.S. Congress passed the
Nuclear Waste Policy Act, which established a timetable for choosing and
preparing sites for the deep underground disposal of radioactive materials.
Monday, October 29, 2018
BEST PRACTICES OF PEATLAND MANAGEMENT
BEST PRACTICES OF PEATLAND MANAGEMENT
Indonesia’s peatlands
have been utilized since the end of 19th Century. Prior to 1920, Dayak rural
communities in South Kalimantan have begun to manage shallow peatlands in the
area behind the river bank (back swamp) which they call the lawau and manage it
for rain-fed rice fields (Suwardi et al., 2005). The river area is a fertile
area because it is influenced by sediment runoff from rivers. Basically Dayak people
are very environmentally friendly. In managing the land, they have a rotating
farming system that always maintains a balance with the utilization process following
a natural cycle (Suwardi et al., 2005). They divide the lands into zones
comprising settlement, bushes, harvested paddy field (jurungan), dry paddy
field (pahumaan), plantations, sacred zones, and protected zones (kayuan).
Sacred zones are customary protected zones that should not be cleared for
agricultural land. When the agricultural land has become infertile, they will
move to look for similar land in other places. After being left for 1-7 years the
former fields will become bush and after 7-12 years the bush will become a
forest. They will reopen the former field after 30 years, when it has become a
forest again. This is done continuously and sustainably.
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