My Diaries

Going back to the presidential campaign, during the Sarkozy-Royal debate : at the time, Royal had been called an ignorant because she stated that French nuclear power only met 17% of France consumed energy, and Sarkozy had triggered passionate debates (at least between one of my colleagues and I) when he affirmed that the soon-to-be-built French nuclear reactor, an EPR type, was a 4th generation reactor (for those who haven’t seen it: the Sarko-Ségo debate on environment and nuclear power).

At the time, my opinion was that neither one or the other was right. I thought that nuclear power counted as much as 78% in our electricity production, and I thought I understood that part of the debate on whether France should build the EPR reactor or not actually was that the EPR technology was already outdated, part of a 3rd generation of reactors, while the 4th generation was more secure, less polluting, and more efficient.

But I just found on Ressources-solidaires.org website the answer to my questions : it is a very interesting article (in French) which explains everything and settles the debate.

I won’t spoil it for you… Enjoy!

Read on digg.com : an excellent article about transforming the european electricity market with wind power and other renewable energies.

“A grandiose plan to switch from AC to DC and link Europe’s electricity grids may recast wind power from its current role as a walk-on extra to being the star of the show.”

read more | digg story

Apparently this is the new trend on the web: whereas my “miniature city” pellagato didn’t even take off (15 inhabitants this morning!!!) I have just discovered the same game, just a lot, lot more useful!!! It is “Act4trees” and this time the purpose is to save the rain forest.

The game developer, Prizee.com, promises to put back € 10000 to AquaVerde, a non-profit association whose purpose is to safeguard water resources and biodiversity in the Amazonian rain forest, when 100 million visits reach the website act4trees.com. So I can hear it from here : they are not very adventurous, since 100 million visits, that’s a lot. But then, if we make sure to help the biggest forest grow (360000 tree-leaves, 1 leaf = 1 visit) maybe we can make it… since it is not specified if the €10000 will be put back when one forest reaches 100 million visits, or when the full website, with all the forests, reaches 100 million visits. Of course the second option would be more logical and faster, but the labelling isn’t quite clear, maybe on purpose?

So let me remind you the rule: you can clic everyday to grow a new leaf. All together, we can make it… Spread the word!

According to the world climate report dated august 18th, 2007 and published by the National Climatic Data Center, the global warming keeps up its regular raise.

From january to july of 2007, the following new records were set:

• new global average temperature record (continents) showing a +1.10°C increase (previous record: +1.05°C in 2002)
• new Northern Hemisphere average temperature record (continents+oceans) showing a +0.76°C increase (previous record:  +0.72°C in 2002)
• new Northern Hemisphere average temperature record (continents) showing a +1.29°C increase (previous record: +1.22°C in 2002)

Source: Daniel Delestre, RAC-F mailing list (Réseau Action Climat France)

For more information :
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/2007/jul/global.html

Read also (French) : 2007, une année extrême selon l’Organisation Mondiale de la Météorologie (source: actu-environnement.com).

It is really sad to read, but I can only agree after the month of continuous rain and wind we’ve had in Paris (still going on, today is pouring).

“Heavy flooding in Britain, Pakistan, Afghanistan and India in the past week. Temperatures in Greece reached 46C (114.80F) this week, as part of a heatwave in southern Europe. China has also had a heatwave in recent days. Torrential rains have battered parts of Texas, where Austin is set for its wettest year on record.“

read more | digg story