Build your confidence:"Five Rude And Insulting Interview Questions -- And How To Answer Them"

Need a confidence booster.?


Read the following link from Forbes Reading List-

PS for once Forbes are not defending the Worlds Richest when it is the poor often very very poor who need help-International Help; (Wedge these damned wars please !)







Five Rude And Insulting Interview Questions -- And How To Answer Them:



'via Blog this'

Carbon capture, storage and utilisation technologies: A critical analysis and comparison of their life cycle environmental impacts

Following my previous post I would like to bring readers attention to this paper taken from my RSS feed today 17/09/2016.

"Highlights

•

27 life cycle assessment studies reviewed of which 11 focus on CCS and 16 on CCU.

•

CCS reduces the GWP by 63–82% but increases some other life cycle impacts.

•

The GWP of CCS is significantly lower than that of CCU.

•

However, other environmental impacts from CCS are higher compared to CCU." 

Read the full review paper 100% FREE LINK

Our best shot at cooling the planet might be right under our feet Ref: Global Dev Professionals Network_The Guardian UK

Our best shot at cooling the planet might be right under our feet.- brought to us by the Global Development Professionals Network.



Global temperature record brocken:

"Every one of the past 14 months has broken the global temperature record. Ice cover in the Arctic sea just hit a new low, at 525,000 square miles less than normal. And apparently we’re not doing much to stop it: according to Professor Kevin Anderson, one of Britain’s leading climate scientists, we’ve already blown our chances of keeping global warming below the “safe” threshold of 1.5 degrees." quoted from the Guardian.


Global Temperature Targets and how to achieve them

"If we want to stay below the upper ceiling of 2 degrees, though, we still have a shot. But it’s going to take a monumental effort. Anderson and his colleagues estimate that in order to keep within this threshold, we need to start reducing emissions by a sobering 8%–10% per year, from now until we reach “net zero” in 2050. If that doesn’t sound difficult enough, here’s the clincher: efficiency improvements and clean energy technologies will only win us reductions of about 4% per year at most." 


Quick look


"Maybe our engineers are missing the point. The problem with geo-engineering is that it proceeds from the very same logic that got us into this mess in the first place: one that treats the land as something to be subdued, dominated and consumed. But the solution to climate change won’t be found in the latest schemes to bend our living planet to the will of man. Perhaps instead it lies in something much more down to earth – an ethic of care and healing, starting with the soils on which our existence depends.

Of course, regenerative farming doesn’t offer a permanent solution to the climate crisis; soils can only hold a finite amount of carbon. We still need to get off fossil fuels, and – most importantly – we have to kick our obsession with endless exponential growth and downsize our material economy to bring it back in tune with ecological cycles. But it might buy us some time to get our act together." ref The Guardian

Well known but quickly forgotten. 

"Feeding the world isn’t about higher yields; it’s about fairer distribution. We already grow enough food for 10 billion people. In any case, it can be argued that regenerative farming actually increases crop yields over the long term by enhancing soil fertility and improving resilience against drought and flooding. So as climate change makes farming more difficult, this may be our best bet for food security, too." 

READ MORE? 


1. Our-best-shot-at-cooling-the-planet-might-be-right-under-our-feet? from The Guardian Global Development Professionls Network


REFERENCES brought to us by the Guardian


a) PNAS Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Enhanced top soil carbon stocks under organic farming 

read for free at their link above.

Journal of CO2 Utilization _Open Access Feed added to my Main Header Space. Content thanks to Elsevier

I trust readers will profit from this globally important new open access feed inclusion due to the highly reputable peer reviewed journal Elsevier.

I have just downloaded the following Review Article for addition to my personal library:

"Carbon capture, storage and utilisation technologies: A critical analysis
and comparison of their life cycle environmental impacts. " Rosa M. Cue´ llar-Franca, Adisa Azapagic *, from the highly reputable School of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science,  University of Manchester,

I trust readers will enjoy joining me in reading this and related articles and hopefully put into practice sustainable climate frendly projects.

Enjoy,
JA.

Sustainability science: Exploiting the synergies published in Nature (NPG)

Sustainability science: Exploiting the synergies

David Griggs, professor of sustainable development at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, and the University of Warwick, UK. reviews in Nature, Economist Jeffrey D. Sachs book

The Age of Sustainable Development

 Columbia Univ. Press: 2015.ISBN: 9780231173148
Here I shall quote a couple of  quotes which I can easily relate to from Griggs review:
"As a concept and practice, sustainable development emerged on the global scene in 1972, with the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment. Four decades on, in the year that the United Nations is due to set its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the idea remains fuzzy around the edges. Jeffrey Sachs's The Age of Sustainable Development sharpens our understanding. It is, in my view, the best, most comprehensive and most articulate exposition of sustainable development ever written."

Economic and Social factors are underlined:

ECONOMIC:

"Sustainable development was once considered a problem of developing countries, solvable through, and almost as a by-product of, economic growth. But no country has pulled itself out of poverty without fossil fuels, whose emissions drive climate change and pollution, or nitrogen-based fertilizers, which promote algal blooms. And richer countries have demonstrated the problems of uncontrolled development of land and resources, a factor in biodiversity loss. Sustainable development is crucial for all countries, so the SDGs will apply to every nation."

SOCIAL

"How to achieve a sustainable future? Education, Sachs notes, is a lynchpin. When girls stay in school for longer, fertility rates drop. Households with fewer children invest more in education, health and nutrition. He quotes Scottish economist Adam Smith, who wrote in The Wealth of Nations (1776) that because society benefits when people are educated, the costs should be “defrayed by the general contribution of the whole society”. That we have not achieved this more than two centuries later is a baffling and damning indictment."  Blogger's note(Although the Scots are known for their legendary frugality many may take a book from the bicycle Dutch population. Granted Holland is a flat country.

SCIENTIFICALY MEASURED FACTS:

"Alongside the social challenges are climate change, ocean acidification and the current mass extinction of species — serious threats to humanity's capacity to thrive or even survive. For example, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is rising by more than 2 parts per million each year. Sachs concludes that no country is currently on a path to sustainable development."

HOLISTIC NATURE OF THESE PROBLEMS. 

"What becomes clear is that understanding the links between these issues is essential. Along with development aims such as sanitation and health care for a growing and ageing population, there are environmental challenges such as mitigating climate change."

The full review and related links to NPG are well worth reading_Great background reading for COP21 participants and all concerned citizens!

• Related links in NPG (Nature Publishing Group
• Economics: Manufacture renewables to build energy security
• Policy: Bring sustainable energy to the developing world
• Eco-engineering: Living in a materials world
• Policy: Sustainable development goals for people and planet
• Ecodesign: The bottom line
• Sustainability through computing
• Related external links
• Jeffrey Sachs
• Sustainable Development UN Knowledge Platform

'via Blog this'

Climate -COP21 Paris updates from Nature

"Momentum builds for a new treaty as world leaders prepare
to descend on Paris." 

"The road to a new global climate treaty
has been slow and plodding. But years
of delicate negotiations have given way
to cautious optimism as more than 190 nations
prepare for the marathon climate talks that
begin in Paris on 30 November."

writes JEFF TOLLEFSON 

REF:

Pledges raise hopes ahead of climate talks (pdf)

 418 | NATURE | VOL 527 | 26 NOVEMBER 2015



AND



First tranche of aid projects prompts concern over operations of fund for developing nations. (pdf)



writes  SANJAY KUMAR in the same volume;

REF: 26 NOVEMBER 2015 | VOL 527 | NATURE | 419.



'via Blog this'

A global temperature conundrum: Cooling or warming climate? _Does not, the authors emphasize, change the evidence of human impact on global climate beginning in the 20th century.

"The scientists call this problem the Holocene temperature conundrum. It has important implications for understanding climate change and evaluating climate models, as well as for the benchmarks used to create climate models for the future. It does not, the authors emphasize, change the evidence of human impact on global climate beginning in the 20th century."





Nor must this, I contend, diminish our resolve to take the necessary actions to manage Climate Change deleterious effects both for our sake,for our economies and for future generations (self-interest is a well known motivator & must not be forgotten or excluded by pious calls in abnegation in favour of future generations who naturally have no "voting" power. 


Read more at:

A global temperature conundrum: Cooling or warming climate?

A Security Council Issue_Climate science: Why the world won't listen - opinion - 26 September 2013 - New Scientist

"WHEN scholars of the future write the history of climate change, they may look to early 2008 as a pivotal moment. Al Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth was bringing the science to the masses. The economist Nicholas Stern had made the financial case for tackling the problem sooner rather than later. And the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had just issued its most unequivocal report yet on the link between human activity and climatic change.

The scientific and economic cases were made. Surely with all those facts on the table, soaring public interest and ambitious political action were inevitable?

The exact opposite happened. Fast-forward to today, the eve of the IPCC's latest report on the state of climate science, and it is clear that public concern and political enthusiasm have not kept up with the science. Apathy, lack of interest and even outright denial are more widespread than they were in 2008."

The text quote above gives an excellent summary of the difficulties encountered in tackling climate-change and the more & more hightly likely consequences.

I strongly advise readers to read the full article freely available  in the highly reputable "general public" magazine The New Scientist. (Link html below)

Climate science: Why the world won't listen - opinion - 26 September 2013 - New Scientist

ROI-Return-On-Investment:
I would add one further reason for communication not leading to action. It is not sufficient to simply mention that the Financial & Economic case hase been made. It too must be communicated. It is of no use making appeals to those with the lease influence- for bottom-up action aimed at an ever empoverised population spending to live, and buy, if possible a cheap polluting car if they are fortuneate.  Against this the number of the very very wealthy increases. Do these people care about CC-climate change? Are they still making "dirty money" from their polluting businesses. Having made "dirty money " what action are they taking to correct the current situation & their dire projected consequences -consequences obviouly hitting the most vulnerable!

A Top down appeal for a "Marshal Plan for European Re-construction" following  International Collabortative Action get to the top of the Agenda. The recent European Elections did nothing in this respect, Poorly communicated if communicated at all. There was one list which suggested (promised) to fight to put the equivalent of what was paid to put the Banks afloat. I voted for that list for the EU elections. Not to be too harsh with the banking profession the may need to stat afloat as the sea level are projected to rise. (And what of the insurance Co's...Natural hasard vs IPCC best prevision and physically unacted upon by the Financial Players?)

Will there is still time - on my previous posts -

Why Global Warming Will Cross a Dangerous Threshold in 2036 M.E.Mann in Scientific American_Truely Serious Stuff!

If proper work is done the the crossing of the predicted threshold in 2036 will be avoided and the improvements enacted fully tested. So now is the time for  top politicians (eg G8) and business men (eg Davos) to get their act together. This is truely Security Council issue - we are not talking about Millenium Issues.We are talking about what is to be done now and over the next 10 years, one little decade, a we decade lads & lassies.

Dam-it "Wedge-a-War"  We have just assisted at the the almost unbareable photos take on D-Day.

Millions of deaths, Thousands on the beaches, inaccurate bombing at at that time. Well 70 years on we are again faced with inacurate "bombing" so to speak.

He lies my case gentlemen. "Wedge-a-War"

Why Global Warming Will Cross a Dangerous Threshold in 2036 M.E.Mann in Scientific American_Truely Serious Stuff!

The full article is freely available at the following link:

Why Global Warming Will Cross a Dangerous Threshold in 2036 by M.E.Mann in Scientific American.


And "irresponsible" general public press reports are quoted and fortuneately explained by Mann in his presentation of the scientific case at the following link:

Earth Will Cross the Climate Danger Threshold by 2036

"The rate of global temperature rise may have hit a plateau, but a climate crisis still looms in the near future

Mar 18, 2014 |By Michael E. Mann

Emitting carbon dioxide at current rates will soon push Earth’s temperature up by 2 degrees Celsius. Here’s how to make the calculation yourself

Mar 18, 2014 |By Michael E. Mann "

SEE ALSO - Cf.
Perception of climate change  in PNAS-Proceedings of the National Association for Science (USA) by James Hansen, et al. March 29, 2012.

Climate change will reduce crop yields sooner than thought_Univ of Leeds via ScienceDaily

Climate change will reduce crop yields sooner than thought -- ScienceDaily

Date:

March 16, 2014

Source:

University of Leeds

Summary:

Global warming of only 2 degrees Celsius will be detrimental to crops in temperate and tropical regions, researchers have determined, with reduced yields from the 2030s onwards. In the study, the researchers created a new data set by combining and comparing results from 1,700 published assessments of the response that climate change will have on the yields of rice, maize and wheat. Due to increased interest in climate change research, the new study was able to create the largest dataset to date on crop responses.

Well,well,well could we be on our road to......

Dam it, "Wedge-a-War"

Why a watermelon tells you what's wrong with the climate debate - Zunia.org

Here is a rpiece I like written by the Guardian, UK science and environment editor  James Randerson of The Guardian,UK  The Guardian.com, Wednesday 11 September 2013.

Watermelon is a word that tells you what is wrong with the climate change debate. 

The right believes the agenda is green on the outside but red on the inside – we must take the political poison out of the debate

"For some libertarians, it is the insult that expresses what greenies and climate scientists are really up to. Behind all the acronyms and the jargon, they say, is a conspiracy to promote a nakedly political aim – anti-big business; anti-free market; pro-tax increases. In short, green on the outside but red on the inside.

The full conspiracy theory requires an impressive degree of paranoia, but one of the reasons the jibe is so persistent is that, if we're honest, there is a grain of truth to it – at least among some in the green movement and on the left.

Many of the policy responses to the climate change problem – consume less, regulate businesses, curb big oil and coal, restrict car use – feel more comfortable to those on the left than the right of the political spectrum. And as a result, right-leaning politicians and thinkers are in danger of losing grip on the most important issue of our age. That has already happened in large measure in America. It would be disastrous if it happened in the UK too. 

This is the backdrop to the parliamentary science and technology select committee's inquiry into the communication of climate science, to which I (J.Randerson) gave evidence on Monday. The Met Office is being questioned on Wednesday. The MPs on the committee are trying to get to the bottom of why the public is still confused about climate science when the core science has been pretty clear for years. The thrust of many of their questions was "what could the media be doing better to communicate the science?"

While the precise impacts and timescale of climate change may be uncertain, the basic tenets are well-established science. The projections from climate scientists indicate that there is a significant risk of profound changes to climate if we continue to release greenhouse gases at the current rate.
 
The elephant in the room at the parliamentary inquiry though has been that, consciously or not, there are people on all sides of the climate debate who argue backwards from a cultural or political position. As a result, arguments about the science of climate change become a proxy for what is really a political argument. If you like the prescription, then you embrace the diagnosis. If you don't, you undermine the diagnosis or attack the doctor.

But if it was just a question of putting across complex science to a lay readership whose attention must be grabbed from the numerous other shiny news stories on offer that would be, if not easy, at least no harder than your average science story. Science journalists' stock in trade is making unfamiliar ideas intelligible, compelling, relevant and entertaining. And let's face it, climate science may be complex, but the Higgs boson is harder to grasp than global warming.

REFERENCES:

Why a watermelon tells you what's wrong with the climate debate - Zunia.org

Full article by James Randerson of The Guardian, Environment, 2013/sep/11/Climate-Debate

Jared Diamond's 5 point Framework to decipher why Societies Collapse, spot the advanced warning signs_ why and how Societies Survive past and present.

This short summary is intended for readers who may otherwise not take a few minutes to watch the full video.

Jared Diamond auther of "Guns Germs and Steel_ the fate of human societies" and of "How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed" has drawn-up a five point framework-a check-list- to decipher why some Societies Collapse and others survive.

He pin-points main advanced warning signs from human societies histories and why today's leaders and general public must be made aware of these around an easy to remember, manageble 5 major themes and what the consequences are most likely to be, if we make the wrong choices, if we choose "not to see them, to ignore them!

He does not underestimate the complexities of such analyses.

THE 4-FOLD CHALLENGE:
The reasons Jared Diamond has chosen to address theses difficult questions are four-fold:
- the very importance and seriousness of the possible catastrophnic out-comes,
- the difficulties involved in their analyses,
- the courage required to face up-to the results and to act upon them and
- to encourage a wide recognition of these factors as part of a democratic solution.

In the last post I presented Jared Diamonds video, the first selected for my intended series entitled "Foresight-Hindsight" It is chosen for the timely relevance to one of our current day issues the "Climate - Energy." relationship in a wold of finite resources.

My post could also be entitled, "Lessons form the past ever so relevent today".

Jared Diamond's 5 point Framework-Check list.

1. Human impact the environment with an example of using all available non-renewable (limited) natural resources. This should ring a bell -Petrol Production Peak.

2.Climate Change. (not necessarily fatal.)

3.Relationship with friendly neighbours.

4.Relationship with hostile neighbours.

5. Social and cultural factors in societies which help or hinder solving their problems.


I inadvertantly made a "creative error" in my last post title. I wrote Forsight in stead of Foresight.I could just well be a better statement and rejoins J.Diamonds complaint "that if only we could see" or admit the reality behind "The Signs", The warning signals.

Diamond illustrates all his claims with numerous example.

The reader would be well advised to take 10 to 15 mns, the time to watch any one of Jared Diamand's the videos.

The Butter fly effect - L'Effet du papillion_Guadeloupe_Gwada an Island in turmoil calling for understanding and justice

What beauty, this volcanic Island in the form of a Butterfly-Papillion. Save your environment this patrimoine de l'UNESCO_ and the long suffering people called-upon to protect it, the inhabitants and those more than willing to co-operate towards such common goals: "Wedge-a-War" even a little one, a personal one, find interior and exterior peace, be responsible the one's to the other in all affaires.

There is every reason to hope; The Antillais are a valorous population of mixed origin, a dark shared past, to remember but who must now more than ever, look forward and choose the road their great sportsment have traced.

And rember, or note in passing the unofficial national anthem of a once warrior still up-right people, a warriors nation for more than almost 1 full millenium which says "For those days are gone now and in the past they must remain but..." and I translate that we-you, a free, democratic people, people who admiire the great good in french civilisation and language and reject the bad, for the common good and the better for all.

I shall dare translate to French - J'osera traduire en français.

Quelle beauté, cette île volcanique à la forme d'un papillon. Sauver votre environnement, ce patrimoine de l'UNESCO_ et soulager la longue souffrance des personnes appelées à le peuplé à la protéger, les habitants d'aujourd'hui et ceux qui sont plus que prêts à coopérer en vue de tels objectifs communs: "Wedge-a-War"© ™ (Logo personnel © ™ pour la protection de environnemental qui veut dire_caler pour ne pas tomber dans la guerre, l'abomination) un guerre de clans. Priviligé la lutte individuel, pour trouver la paix intérieure et extérieure, être responsable, solidaire l'un envers l'autre dans toutes les affaires.
Il y'a toutes les raisons d'espérer; Les Antillais sont un population courageux d'origine mixte, d'un sombre passé partagé. Il faut se souvenir, mais on se doit aujourd'hui plus que jamais, regarder vers l'avenir et de choisir la bonne route par exemple celle tracéé par leur grand sportifs et sportives, litteraires, scientifiques… Et se souvenir, ou noter, en passant ; l'hymne national non-officiel d'un peuple guerrier pour plus de près de 1 millénaire qui dit: "Par ce que ces jours sont dans le passés, maintenant et dans le passé, ils doivent y rester, mais .. ». Et je traduis- Vous et nous, des peuples libres, démocratiques, éduqués, des personnes qui admire bon dans la grande civilisation et la langue française et de rejeter le mauvais, pour le bien commun et pour la meilleure pour tous.

Sustainability Science from PNAS-AAAS Advancing Science Serving Society

Following my PNAS reading, I have already posted on their new journal "Sustainability Science".
Here, I have bookmarked their online National Academies.Org website and FORUM: Science and Innovation for Sustainable Development. and present their RSS in the side bar menu (LHS left hand side).

NB. Projects = Jobs, and Solutions are what the World is waiting for.

PNAS are moving their office to Washington. Could USA be accelerating their consulting role and enlightenment as concerned scientists at the highest level? Let's hope so.