Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Sustainability

Kenneth Westling's Blog – April 2008 Archive (6)

Shock pictures: Is this what the Canadian government means by 'humane' slaughter?

"The baby seal looks into the eyes of her executioner. Barely a flicker of emotion shows on the fisherman's face as he smashes a steel-tipped club into her mouth. She lies whimpering on the ice, blood pouring from her jaw and nose.

But she is not yet dead, so the sealer hits her in the face another four times before slamming a hooked "hakapik" club into her stomach and dragging her across the ice towards the ship.

Yet even this savagery is not enough to kill the poor… Continue

Added by Kenneth Westling on April 21, 2008 at 5:17pm — No Comments

Highlights of Starbucks CSR

As I went to Starbucks today to take advantage of their new promotional card that gives me free coffee every Wednesday for the next month, I noticed their pamphlet on social responsibility and took a look through and thought I would share it. I read an article that talked about making your coffee more "green" and it reminded me of some of the things it talked about.

Conducting… Continue

Added by Kenneth Westling on April 16, 2008 at 1:00pm — 2 Comments

Gasoline Grows On Trees

Apparently scientists have known that we can grow oil for years, and not in the grow-corn-make-oil kind of way. The Brazilian Copaifera langsdorfii can be tapped (ala maple syrup) for a natural diesel fuel that requires only simple filtering before being poured into a truck. (This picture is of the tree's cells.) The catch? The diesel only has a shelf-life of about 3 months.

So how many trees would it take to match the oil output of, say, Saudi Arabia?

Click… Continue

Added by Kenneth Westling on April 3, 2008 at 10:00am — No Comments

EU industry sees emissions rise

Carbon dioxide emissions from Europe's heavy industry sectors rose by 1.1% in 2007, say carbon market analysts. The estimate is based on initial data from the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), which includes more than 10,000 large industrial plants. Environmentalists say it shows that the scheme, the EU's main mechanism to meet its Kyoto target, is not working.

But market watchers say the ETS, in the long term,… Continue

Added by Kenneth Westling on April 3, 2008 at 12:12am — No Comments

'No Sun link' to climate change

Scientists at Lancaster University found that there has been no significant link between variations in solar activity and cosmic ray intensity.

Presenting their findings in the Institute of Physics journal, Environmental Research Letters, the UK team explain that they used three different ways to search for a correlation, and found virtually none.

Scientists have produced further compelling evidence showing that modern-day climate change is not caused by changes in the… Continue

Added by Kenneth Westling on April 3, 2008 at 12:03am — No Comments

First movie of 'tsunami' on Sun

Astronomers have captured the first footage of a solar "tsunami" hurtling through the Sun's atmosphere at over a million kilometres per hour.

The event was captured by Nasa's twin Stereo spacecraft designed to make 3D images of our parent star.

Naturally, this type of tsunami does not involve water; instead, it is a wave of pressure that travels across the Sun very fast. In a solar tsunami, a huge explosion near the Sun, such as a coronal mass ejection or flare, causes a… Continue

Added by Kenneth Westling on April 2, 2008 at 10:53am — No Comments