adopted by
European Greens Congress, Paris, 11-13 November

Remembering the tragic consequences of the nuclear accidents and catastrophes in the last 25 years like in Chernobyl (Ukraine, where 900 000 people died from the explosion and the disaster affected more than 5 million people) and the recent tragic events in Fukushima (Japan, where the total number of victims will only add up with the next generations growing up), once again it shows that the nuclear energy remains the most dangerous one. The nuclear energy also is the most expensive way of energy gaining and when something goes wrong – we put our environment at risk and pay with our lives and lives of our children, too.

We do not have to rely on this high risk technology when we have safe, clean and sustainable alternatives to our disposal.

We are aware that the Lithuanian Minister of Energy Mr. Arvidas Sekmokas on 11.October 2011 has submitted the official documentation regarding the construction plan of the new NPP in Lithuania (Visagina) to the European Union Energy Commissioner Mr. Günther Oettinger. Submitted documentation means that the official conversations and coordination process with the European Union has started.

Bearing in mind that Latvia and Estonia have expressed their support to Lithuanian government representatives regarding the new NPP in Lithuania (Visagina), the information however is classified or hidden and people are kept in the dark in all three of Baltic States. They are not informed about the facts how the possible NPP will affect their economy, political environment, human health and, last but not least, how well are Baltics and nearest countries (Poland, Belarus, etc.) prepared for the worst case scenario – the accident in the NPP?

The new NPP in Lithuania (Visagina) is planned to be build less than 20 km away from Latvian border with the second biggest city in terms of inhabitants (600-700 thousand people) nearby, around 100 km away from Lithuania’s biggest city Vilnius (with 800 thousand inhabitants), 19 km away from the border of Belarus and around 200 km from its capital Minsk, 300km km away from the boarder of Poland and 300 km away from Estonia. The information must be public, transparent and available to anybody in the affected area!

The building site preparation in Lithuania might start already next year (in 2012), the actual building works of the NPP is set for 2014 and by the 2020 the NPP is expected to be fully operational if everything goes according to the submitted project plan.

Belarus itself who was one of the countries, which was affected by the Chernobyl catastrophe most of all, also plans to build the nuclear station on its territory. In 2016 they plan to run the first energy block, and in 2018 – second.

Finland with two already operating nuclear plants (Loviisa and Olkiluoto) in October 2011 announced that it had chosen Pyhäjoki, in northern Finland, as the site for the country’s third nuclear power plant. Construction is expected to start in 2015.

Having regard to the above mentioned facts, it is clear that the territories alongside Baltic Sea are getting seriously threatened by a nuclear power whereas there are plenty of options for clean and safe renewable and sustainable energy resources.

Taking into account that there is a strong desire to decrease the amount of working NPPs in Europe and stop the construction of the new ones, it is clear that alongside the nuclear power plant also comes the radioactive storage issues. Hence even when the NPP is closed the storage warehouses remain hazardous. Thereby it is very imprudent to build new nuclear plants or its reactors for there are no safe way back!

All of the European people got even more threatened just last week when Serbia publicly announced that they have finished building “the biggest warehouse for nuclear and radioactive waste in Europe” (storage and processing of radioactive waste at a rate of over 3 000 cubic meters) in Vinca, only 14 km from the city of Belgrade, with two million inhabitants. But we all know that there is no risk-free solution for nuclear waste management.

Also the Parliament of Ukraine recently adopted the law in the first hearing “On the management of spent nuclear fuel”, which suggests the construction of nuclear storage warehouse near its capital city Kiev with almost 3 million inhabitants. Even more like in Baltics all the required accompanying notes to the law are being kept secret. Moreover the rights of victims of the Chernobyl disaster are violated too for national authorities have refused to fulfil the social obligations established by the Ukrainian and international legislation – guarantees for financial compensations (pensions and other benefits).

Bearing in mind that the nuclear waste has to be restored time to time and that the process is very dangerous and expensive, and for saving lives of millions of people not only in the above mentioned countries but in all the Europe –

European Green party calls upon Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland and Belarus:
1. On the basis of Aarhus Convention, for complete transparency and necessity of including citizens and non-governmental organisations in decision making about environment and people’s health to unclassify all the information regarding the new NPP in Lithuania, Finland and Belarus including the seismic indicators of the new NPP sites.
2. To open up and commit to an equal and public debate on the energy policy for Baltic Sea region countries and its neighbouring countries too with both pro – and anti – nuclear experts.
3. To consider the possibility of building new alternative and sustainable energy supply sites in Baltic Sea region countries.

European Green party have following demands for Serbian and Ukrainian government:
1. Public access to the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), with reference to the relevant institutions that conducted and approved the document.
2. Public participation in the process of creating the SEA.
3. Public listing of all significant impacts on the environment, especially those that can be harmful for the environment and people, along with protective measures.
4. Considering that warehouses mentioned above belongs to the category of projects for which Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is compulsory, make the access to the EIA, as well as the list of public and scientific authorities familiar with SEA and EIA and their attitude, available and public.
5. To unclassify all the information regarding the new nuclear waste storage warehouse law proposal being processed in the Ukrainian government at the moment.
6. The government of Ukraine to renew the social guaranties and compensation for victims of Chernobyl disaster.

European Green Party believes that the world should be nuclear-free. Therefore, we urge the all the counties to take into account its inhabitants’ constitutionally guaranteed rights to live in a healthy and safe environment, listen to opinions and voices of the society and start investing in much safer and more clean energy resources.

My quest to be more green didn’t start until I had kids. I didn’t seem to care about what was in my food, that I had to air out my house for hours after cleaning it and had no problem using all sorts of chemicals to get rid of ants, weeds, and so on. I used to be a bleach and paper towel addict.

Then I brought home my first little bundle of joy…and she changed everything! I started to care BIG time about the products I used and what we were eating. I started a quest to find safer products for cleaning our home, started getting a farm box each week of organic produce and stopped having the pest people coming out to spray lord knows what all around our house. We took big steps in the right direction.

Then my 2nd bundle of joy arrived. This bundle had allergies…poor girl! Finding a laundry soap that didn’t cause a rash was hard (no matter how “green” or “sensitive” it said it was!). We were constantly thinking she had a cold and kept coming back from the doctor with the same diagnosis–allergies. That is when I discovered the company that I am now an advisor for–H2O at Home. It took me from being sort-of-kind-of-green-at-least-I’m-buying-the-products-that-claim-to-be-eco-friendly to being the green person I am today. I had 2 bins of cleaning products that didn’t work—I gladly got rid of them and replaced them with a couple products that do a better job and the packaging is cute too It was a friend who told me about H2O at Home at a playgroup b/c i think she was tired of hearing me complain about cleaning products that don’t work. She hooked me with things like “clean your windows with just a microfiber and water” or “use a tub a clay that cleans everything from silver to marks on the walls to granite to bathrooms.” This friend did not sell the products she just loved them. After using them and finding out there were no advisors in my area I decided to go for it b/c I knew they would be a hit with everyone who tried them. I’m so glad I did!

I think back to the first time I saw the products and how I felt like I was let in on a cleaning secret. It annoys me that we have been trained to keep buying these ineffective cleaning products that need to be constantly replaced and they are so full of harmful chemicals. Or that there is no standard for saying a product is green in the US. I try to educate people and help them learn how to read lables. You read it for your food–why not for what you are using for what you are cleaning with?

The other day my husband was cleaning out his truck. He took out one of the kids carseats and if you have kids you know how bad it can get under a carseat! I have no idea what the heck they spilled but on one side it was like a black goo and on the other side looked like a raspberry smoothie had been dumped. We used to use this fabric cleaner on our cars. Lord knows what’s in it but it smelled pretty bad and we’d air out our cars for a few days. H2O at Home has this all purpose microfiber mitt that other advisors had been swearing lifts stains out of rugs and carpets with just water. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to try–and it worked! And even better my husband was SHOCKED that it worked. He kept asking…just water?

So that is how I went from being a recovering bleach addict to someone who uses just chemical free cleaning product and doesn’t buy paper towels anymore!

To learn more about my company go to www.myh2oathome.com/molly

http://www.greenwayup.com/blogs/267/147/how-i-became-a-greener-person

This article originally appeared on the BSR Blog.

The reaction to Steve Jobs’ death on Twitter last night was fast and furious. So much has already been written about his vision, his genius, and the way he changed how we all think about interacting through devices designed in a simple, elegant style.

The world is undoubtedly worse off without his ideas, but the spirit he generated — at Apple, NeXT, Pixar, and beyond — is strong and will likely lead us forward, expecting new and better things from our technology companies every day.

Watching the dialogue evolve online, the Twittersphere — no doubt dominated by technophiles — responded with shock, then appreciation, a heartfelt outpouring for the wife and children he leaves behind, and a review of his legacy.

As Dave Roberts (@drgrist) alluded to with this tweet, “Jobs perfected front-end design. Now we need designers to work on the back end, the substrate, the supply chain, the hidden,” there has been a deeper, on-going conversation of late about the sustainability of technology products that are such a big part of our lives.

The recent public dialogue about technology manufacturing has shed some light on the complexities of making the beautiful, ever-changing, and innovative technologies we all want — while striving to maintain a price that is considered “affordable.” It has also highlighted the need for more sustainable solutions to combat the rapid obsolescence of the technologies developed.

I’ve spent time in China at the Foxconn facility, and with many electronics companies, active NGOs, and my colleagues at BSR as we have dissected the ICT supply chain and looked for ways to collaborate, influence, and change what is a complex set of demands, expectations, and cultural differences in the creation of many products. This ever-evolving conversation and commitment to incremental improvement is challenging but incredibly necessary to generate new ideas around responsible practices — both in how business operates but also what consumers want, expect, and most importantly, purchase.

Steve Jobs is often quoted as saying “stay hungry, stay foolish,” which, in his original Stanford commencement speech, is interestingly enough attributed to a quote he saw on the back of a Whole Earth Catalog.

But he also said in that same speech, “Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.”

If, in respecting his legacy, we take that advice and apply it to our conversations on supply chain, workers’ rights, and business impacts globally — for the electronics industry or any industry that impacts communities — we will all be better off.

It is not news that the manufacturing of our beloved devices (“i-” or otherwise) come with complications and questions. These tools also keep us connected and increased the speed of information, and, in a sense, shortened the real and proverbial distance between the workers who manufacture and the users.

Working on the substrate is not the sexy work of design but could serve to change the fundamentals of our experience as users and consumers of technology. At BSR, we work with companies who are able to sail fearlessly into the future, tackling unanticipated challenges and engaging broadly where no solutions exist today.

Jobs was a master at this, creating and fulfilling needs we did not even know we had. The possibilities presented by harnessing this type of power and intellect inspired by him — and directing it toward a sustainable future — are endless. Let us be inspired to apply the fantastic creative thinking on innovation and design that he championed to the sustainability challenges we see, inevitably creating a more elegant — and equitable — world.

Image courtesy of Apple.

YOUR ELECTRIC CAR: GREEN EMERGENCY POWER?
by Bruce Mulliken, Green Energy News

Here are some quick questions perhaps some economists can answer. How much personal or business income is lost, and not recovered, each year because of bad weather? How much business productivity is lost when inclement weather keeps employees at home instead of work? How much money do businesses lose each year when the weather-related events, such as power outages, keep doors closed.

In the tens of billions of dollars? More?

The loss of electricity is probably high on the list of reasons people can’t get to work and businesses can’t open their doors. It seems ridiculous that there should be disruptions to peoples’ lives and the operations of businesses because nature, or man, has caused the lights to go out.

Everyone could use some kind of back-up or emergency power. The choices now are minimal: fossil fuel powered generators or big battery packs are about it. But now in new car showrooms there’s a new possibility: Electric vehicles. The battery pack of an electric car or plug-in hybrid, or the power generating capability of an extended range electric car could be a source of emergency power.

I’m not going to count the kilowatts and kilowatt hours for this story to illustrate that this idea is feasible. A refrigerator, for instance, requires a fraction of electricity each hour compared with the electricity needed to propel an electric car for an hour. There’s plenty of power stored in a battery electric Nissan Leaf, Ford Focus Electric, Ford Transit Connect Electric etc, etc, to provide the necessary power for an average home or micro-business for many, many hours. (Necessary power might mean running the fridge and some lights.)

While a fully-charged battery electric car would be a GOOD source of emergency electricity, an extend range electric vehicle, such as the Chevy Volt, would be GREAT source of emergency power. With the Voltec drivetrain technology, the Volt with its built-in gasoline-powered generator (its genset) has enough power generating capacity to power a cluster of homes or small businesses for many hours, and with refueling, provide power indefinitely. The battery pack in the car would provide a long period of emission free electricity as well.

Consider this to illustrate the electricity generating capacity of the Volt: A typical gasoline generator with an output of 5500 watts employed to run some lights, a sump pump and a refrigerator might have a gasoline motor of 8 -13 horsepower. The Volt has a gasoline motor of 74 horsepower driving its genset.

Currently, NO car manufacturer has suggested that their electrically-driven cars could be used for emergency or back-up power. Yet some vehicle manufacturers in the recent past have worked with some power companies in real world vehicle-to-grid (V2G) studies to prove that electric and hybrid vehicle batteries can store energy for use on the grid. So, if electricity from a big battery pack can flow to the power grid, it could certainly flow directly to a home or business.

Some modifications might have to made to both vehicle and home or business to allow the vehicle to be this source of power. For instance on the building side of the electrical connection a modification of the home or business’s electrical panel box would have to be made to be able to switch between car-power and grid power. Pure battery electric vehicles might also need some kind of limiter to control the amount of electricity drawn from the vehicle so as not to draw too much power from the battery and damage it. In the case of the extended range electric vehicle, such as the Volt, some device would also have to be developed to prevent the vehicle from being tapped for electricity while parked in a garage. Because of the exhaust from the running genset, the car would have to parked far away from the house or building connected to it. (Carbon monoxide from the car could kill if it’s run in a closed area.)

As in the vehicle-to-grid studies, the connection from car to building could be through the charging outlet on the car and charging station planted in the building. Electric vehicle owners would have to vigilant about keeping the car fully charge if bad weather is forecast.

More than home or business owners wanting emergency power, there would some support for the development of this technology from insurance companies that pay claims on damage resulting from natural disaster-related power outages.

The ability to provide ample stored electricity to a home or business might be a good reason for many to make the switch to electric drive.

New markets electrically driven vehicles might also develop if the power on board could be tapped for other purposes. As a source of emergency mobile electricity the cars might be popular with law enforcement agencies, fire departments or first responders who need to bring onsite power to emergencies.

Having plenty power available when the grid is down can’t help but peoples’ economies in a country that relies so much on the flow of energy.

http://www.green-energy-news.com/arch/nrgs2011/20110067.html

Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is convinced that through use of repression against his political opponents, President Viktor Yanukovych is deliberately trying to disrupt the signing of the agreement on association and free trade zone with the European Union, according to the Official web site of Yulia Tymoshenko.

“The agreement on association and free trade zone with the European Union is in the final stages. Yanukovych is declaring that he sincerely wants this, but in reality it’s only declarations. He’s doing everything he can right now to provoke the EU into not signing the agreement on association and free trade zone,” Yulia Tymoshenko said today in court.

Yulia Tymoshenko believes that Viktor Yanukovych considers Ukraine’s entry into the EU unacceptable. “Because this will mean an end to the massive corruption he’s involved in. This will mean an end to the legal chaos that we’re seeing today because it will force him to return to true democratic values,” she said.

The ex-premier also asked the representatives of Europe in the courtroom to not leave Ukraine without a European future. “I know his plans clearly. He’s keeping me behind bars in order to prevent the signing of the association agreement. So I would like to appeal to the European community: they are punishing the opposition and throwing us in jail. What is happening today in Ukraine has nothing in common with democracy. But if Yanukovych is denied the agreement on association and free trade zone, Yanukovych will not be punished, every Ukrainian will be punished,” she said.

http://www.unian.net/eng/news/news-459476.html