Trees and Air Pollution Mitigation

In this brief paper, I look at the UNFCCC's carbon trading, CDM, and JI schemes with a skeptical eye. While these schemes have good intentions to lower GHGs, I claim they are relatively infective. Developing and developed countries have little incentive to build clean carbon emitting projects. It is difficult to argue against building cheap and dirty power plants that supply electricity that quickly improve the quality of life for millions of people.

In addition to the incentive problem, there is plenty of room for state subsidies to be misdirected to CDM projects that have little to do with actually lowering GHGs. For example, financing hydro-electric dams do more damage rivers, habitat, and species in less time than the projected impacts from climate change.

Next, I question existing corporations' intent when they finance CDM/JI projects. To me, it looks like another facet of greenwashing.

Finally, I briefly argue that mitigating GHGs to acceptable levels will not occur in a way that will prevent the impacts from climate change. In this respect, adaptation becomes the more appealing choice. However, the argument against adaptation is that it is not profitable and therefore hard to justify in the market place. I conclude that, unfortunately, adaptation to impacts will most likely occur ad-hoc and post-disaster.


CITATION: Cote, Michael, Carbon Trading and CDM, Development or Green Washing? (July 2008). Available at: http://umass.academia.edu/MichaelCote/Papers/344813/Carbon_Trading_and_CDM_Development_or_Green_Washing

Lusoga language is musical and has many poetic features both in the verbal and non verbal representations. I have explored the translation of William Shakespeare and other notable English poets into Lusoga and I have found them quite thrilling. Lusoga original poems are in themselves classical thrillers. This little book is intended to be carried away in the pocket to instruct and delight the owner at all times. Above all, it is a test of the taste of the times with regards to indigenous languages like Lusoga that are threatened with attrition.

En els últims anys, els estudis turístics han anat donant una creixent rellevància al rol del transport aeri en el canvi climàtic. No obstant això, encara no s'ha analitzat què conseqüències pot tenir per a aquests altres sectors algunes de les propostes que la indústria i diferents institucions plantegen per esmorteir o compensar aquest impacte mediambiental.

Aquest document tracta aquesta qüestió. Concretament, analitza les conseqüències que té en un sector econòmic (l'agrari) i en un model productiu (el camperol) concrets alguna de les solucions que la indústria de l'aviació planteja per reduir el seu impacte mediambiental

En los últimos años, los estudios turísticos han ido dando una creciente relevancia al rol del turismo (y concretamente del transporte aéreo) en el cambio climático. Sin embargo, aún no se ha incorporado al análisis las consecuencias que el turismo, en este papel de vector del cambio climático, tiene sobre otros sectores económicos. ¿Cómo influye en otros sectores económicos el turismo a larga distancia en su rol de vector de cambio climático? ¿Y qué consecuencias puede tener para esos otros sectores algunas de las propuestas que la industria y diferentes instituciones plantean para amortiguar o compensar ese impacto medioambiental?

El texto  quiere responder a esta segunda pregunta en relación a las consecuencias que tiene en un sector económico (el agrario) y en un modelo productivo (el campesino) concretos. Veremos como algunas de esas propuestas de compensación favorecen procesos globales (lab grabbing, enajenación de recursos agrarios, etc.) que afectan negativamente las economías y sociedades rurales-campesinas, por lo que incluso generan un peligroso bucle que toma el esquema PROBLEMA-SOLUCIÓN-PROBLEMA: proyectan soluciones que, además de no solventar los problemas que pretenden enfrentar, se convierten en vectores de otros nuevos.

During planning of green planting in cities, vital status of plants which make up the groups is taken into account first. The methods of assessment of morphological and physiological parameters of the vital status are the most widely used ones. In the process of work, the vitality of woody plants was evaluated under the impact of anthropogenic pressure in the framework of the physiological state, which is determined to a great extent by the content of chlorophylls in the leaves of trees. The content of green and yellow pigments was studied in the drought conditions of vegetative period for 8 species of trees which are common in green planting of cities in the SouthEast of Ukraine. Stable species (Populus simonii Carriér, Populus × canadensis Moench) respond by increase in the content of chlorophylls at maximum air temperatures during the growing season. Nonsufficient-stable species show significant effect of the amount of rainfall on the changes in chlorophyll content in leaves, which is the evidence of their adaptive capacity. Deterioration of the functional state of trees in street and park planting compared to suburban territories was revealed, confirmed by reduced chlorophyll content and increase in carotenoids. For the further introduction in the urban greening of industrial cities of steppe zone, the models of influence of the meteorological factors on the content of green pigments in the leaves of Polulus simonii and Acer pseudoplatanus L. are proposed.

During planning of green planting in cities, vital status of plants which make up the groups is taken into account first. The methods of assessment of morphological and physiological parameters of the vital status are the most widely used ones. In the process of work, the vitality of woody plants was evaluated under the impact of anthropogenic pressure in the framework of the physiological state, which is determined to a great extent by the content of chlorophylls in the leaves of trees. The content of green and yellow pigments was studied in the drought conditions of vegetative period for 8 species of trees which are common in green planting of cities in the SouthEast of Ukraine. Stable species (Populus simonii Carriér, Populus × canadensis Moench) respond by increase in the content of chlorophylls at maximum air temperatures during the growing season. Nonsufficient-stable species show significant effect of the amount of rainfall on the changes in chlorophyll content in leaves, whi...