Pitch is a viscoelastic polymer which can be natural or manufactured, derived from petroleum, coal tar, or plants. Pitch produced from petroleum may be called bitumen or asphalt, while plant-derived pitch, a resin, is known as rosin in its solid form. Tar is sometimes used interchangeably with pitch, but generally refers to a more liquid substance derived from coal production, including coal tar, or from plants, as in pine tar.

Uses

Pitch, a traditional naval store, was traditionally used to help caulk the seams of wooden sailing vessels (see shipbuilding).  Other important historic uses included coating earthenware vessels for the preservation of wine, waterproofing wooden containers, and making torches. Petroleum-derived pitch is black in colour, hence the adjectival phrase, "pitch-black".

The viscoelastic properties of pitch make it well suited for the polishing of high-quality optical lenses and mirrors. In use, the pitch is formed into a lap or polishing surface, which is charged with iron oxide (Jewelers' rouge) or cerium oxide. The surface to be polished is pressed into the pitch, then rubbed against the surface so formed. The ability of pitch to flow, albeit slowly, keeps it in constant uniform contact with the optical surface.

Chasers pitch is a combination of pitch and other substances, used in jewelery making.

Viscoelastic properties

Naturally occurring asphalt/bitumen, a type of pitch, is a viscoelastic polymer. This means that even though it seems to be solid at room temperature and can be shattered with a hard impact, it is actually fluid and will flow over time, but extremely slowly. The pitch drop experiment taking place at University of Queensland is a long-term experiment which demonstrates the flow of a piece of pitch over many years. For the experiment, pitch was put in a glass funnel and allowed to slowly drip out. Since the pitch was allowed to start dripping in 1930, only nine drops have fallen. It was calculated in the 1980s that the pitch in the experiment has a viscosity approximately 230 billion (2.3×1011) times that of water. The eighth drop fell on 28 November 2000, and the ninth drop fell on 17 April 2014. Another experiment was started by a colleague of Nobel Prize winner Ernest Walton in the physics department of Trinity College in Ireland in 1944. Over the years, the pitch had produced several drops, but none had been recorded. On July 11, 2013, scientists at Trinity College caught pitch dripping from a funnel on camera for the first time.

Winchester College has a 'pitch glacier' demonstration which has been running since 21 July 1906, but does not have records of regular measurements.

Production
The heating (dry distilling) of wood causes tar and pitch to drip away from the wood and leave behind charcoal. Birchbark is used to make birch-tar, a particularly fine tar. The terms tar and pitch are often used interchangeably. However, pitch is considered more solid, while tar is more liquid. Traditionally, pitch that was used for waterproofing buckets, barrels and ships was drawn from pine. It is used to make Cutler's resin.

A 10th-century redaction of an earlier Greek Byzantine agricultural work brings down the ancient method of applying pitch to ceramic wine casks:
[A wood-based pitch] is put into an earthen vessel, and it is put over a small fire in the sun, then some hot water percolated through wood-ashes is poured on it, and the pitch is stirred; when it has afterward stood, it is poured out after two hours, then there is as much water again poured in. Having therefore done this thrice every day for three days and having taken up the moisture on the surface, they make the pitch that is left exceedingly good. Dry pitch is also bitter, but being boiled with wine it becomes more useful; [...] and having boiled the mixture to a third part, they use it as properly qualified: but some throw wood-ashes into it and boil it down. In Italy they use pitch of this kind: forty minæ of pitch, one of wax, eight drams of sal ammoniac, six drams of manna. Thus, having pounded them and boiled them together, they sprinkle eight ounces (uncia) of well-ground fenugreek over them and they pitch the cask with them when they are well mixed.

The ceramic ware was pitched, both inside and out, immediately while they were removed from the kiln and still hot.

Literary references
The ability of pitch to contaminate those in contact with it is mentioned by Dogberry, a character in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, and the same point is made in a speech by Falstaff in Henry IV, Part 1, who refers to "ancient writers" who have made this observation. The Jewish deuterocanonical Book of Sirach states that "whoever touches pitch gets dirty, and whoever associates with a proud person becomes like him".

See also
 Asphaltene
 Creosote
 Pine tar
 Tar

Notes

References

External links

 The Pitch Drop Experiment
 Pine Tar Production
 Primitive tar and charcoal production

Materials
Chemical mixtures
Amorphous solids
Non-timber forest products

Pitch (resin)


The Pilgrimage (, "Diary of a Magus") is a 1987 novel by Brazilian novelist Paulo Coelho.  It is a recollection of Paulo's experiences as he made his way across northern Spain on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. The novel serves as part adventure story, part guide to self-discovery. It was adapted into the 1997 adventure game Pilgrim: Faith as a Weapon, also written by Paulo Coelho.

Plot summary
The story begins in 1986 when Coelho undertakes his initiation into the order Regnus Agnus Mundi (RAM), which he subsequently fails. He is then told that he must embark on a pilgrimage along the Camino de Santiago to find the sword that is the symbol of his acceptance into the ranks of RAM. He must do this to gain insight into the simplicity of life. The journey transforms him as he learns to understand the nature of truth through the simplicity of life.

He begins his journey with a guide, also a member of RAM, who goes by the alias Petrus. During the journey Petrus shows him meditation exercises and introduces him to some of the more down-to-earth elements of Western mystical thought and philosophy, and teaches him about love and its forms: agape, philia and eros.

References

External links
 The Pilgrimage Blog

1987 Brazilian novels
Novels by Paulo Coelho
Portuguese-language novels
Novels set in Spain
Fiction set in 1986
Esoteric Christianity
Camino de Santiago in popular culture
20th-century Brazilian novels
Pilgrimage accounts

The Pilgrimage


Player's Option: Skills & Powers (abbreviated SP, or S&P) is a supplemental sourcebook to the core rules of the second edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.

Contents
Skills & Powers is a supplement which presents new rules that broadened character abilities, bringing these abilities together into groups and adding "character point" values. Players purchase abilities for their characters, as long as the character has enough points to spend and that the group for that ability is available for the class and race of that character. Skills & Powers includes new methods for rolling the six ability score statistics for characters, and rules for the player to alter these scores. Each such statistic is further divided into a pair of sub-statistics, and the ability scores of the character will depend on one of the sub-statistics for any circumstance. When the value of each ability score is determined, that value is also assigned to both sub-statistics and the player can lower one to raise the other. The book presents additional options to focus the abilities and background for any character, including a table to determine what event started a character out as an adventurer, and a collection of "character kits" that a player can use to set social rank and to change the abilities of the character. The book also includes four new schools of magic, as well as an updated psionics system.

The book begins with a one-page foreword by Niles and Donovan. Chapter One (pages 6–11) describes the character points system for Player's Option, which are used to improve the abilities of player characters. Chapter Two (pages 12–21) describes ability scores, each of which is divided into two subabilities. Chapter Three (pages 22–45) describes the racial requirements for each character race. Chapter Four (pages 46–63) presents details on how the various character classes work in the Player's Option system. Chapter Five (pages 64–85) provides 30 character kits, various character packages. Chapter Six (pages 86–111) details how nonweapon proficiencies work in play. Chapter Seven (pages 112-135) details weapon proficiency and mastery. Chapter Eight (pages 136-141) provides five new schools of magic. Chapter Nine (pages 142-175) details psionics in the Player's Option system. An appendix (pages 178-187) compiles the tables presented in this book. Pages 188-192 are an index to the book.

Publication history
This 192-page book was published by TSR, Inc. in 1995. The book was designed by Douglas Niles and Dale Donovan. Cover art is by Jeff Easley and interior art is by Thomas Baxa, Doug Chaffee, Les Dorscheid, Jeff Easley, Ken Frank, and Eric Hotz.

The psionics system from this book is later used in Dark Sun Campaign Setting, Expanded and Revised.

Reception
Cliff Ramshaw reviewed Player's Option: Skills & Powers for Arcane magazine, rating it a 9 out of 10 overall. He felt that readers might suspect that Skills & Powers would "do nothing but further confuse the situation" regarding the "out of hand" number of character classes available in the game, but suggested that the book "in fact does the opposite". According to Ramshaw, "When you start to use this system, you realise it's superb. Character abilities are still largely determined by the luck of the dice, and yet players are able to gain much more control over which abilities they wish to favour. And all without upsetting the tried and tested balance of the AD&D stats system." Ramshaw admits that character creation is "much more complex and time-consuming with these new rules but if, like me, you enjoy creating characters, then this will be a bonus rather than a problem" and that "the result is much greater player choice without letting characters get grossly out of hand. And once the character has been generated, it's no more difficult to play or referee than a character of the old school." Ramshaw concludes that "Although Skills & Powers will appeal particularly to players who'd like their characters to take on the abilities of specific heroes from literature, anyone who wants to make their characters stand out from the crowd will simply love it."

Reviews
Backstab #9
Casus Belli #89

Further reading
 "Harrowed Heroes", Dragon #264
 "Designer Demesnes", Dragon #259
 "Heroes of Cerilla", Dragon #247
 "Heroes of Faith", Dragon #236
 "Mindscapes of Athas and Beyond", Dragon Annual #2
 "Planar Heroes", Dragon #235
 "Sage Advice", Dragon #233
 "Sage Advice", Dragon #231
 "Skills & Powers in Eight Easy Stages", Dragon #225

References

Dungeons & Dragons sourcebooks
Role-playing game supplements introduced in 1995

Player's Option: Skills & Powers


Blaster Master: Overdrive is a platforming and run and gun video game released by Sunsoft and Gaijinworks as a WiiWare title for the Wii game console. It is the first reboot of the formula and soundtrack of the original Blaster Master game, also produced by Sunsoft, in 1988.

Plot
The game's plot is based on an Earth that has become infected with a virus that has caused animals to be transformed into monsters that threaten humanity.  Alex, a world-leading biologist, takes the fight to the mutations to find the source of the virus, using an armored vehicle called  S.O.P.H.I.A. to battle against the creatures.

Gameplay

The gameplay reuses much of the same concepts of the original Blaster Master title. In side-scrolling sections, the players controls S.O.P.H.I.A. to progress through terrain spaces, gaining power-ups needed to face tougher monsters and progress to new areas.  At times, the player can have Alex leave S.O.P.H.I.A. and enter smaller caves, at which point the perspective is turned to a top-down run-and-gun game, where the player controls Alex directly, using weapons and gaining upgrades to explore the caves and defeat boss characters.

Development
In December 2009, Sunsoft revealed that they wanted to rebuild the Sunsoft brand in North America, and teamed with United States publisher Gaijinworks to bring the original Blaster Master as a Virtual Console title for the Wii. At the time, Vic Ireland, owner of Gaijinworks, stated that:

Blaster Master: Overdrive was announced on February 6, 2010, only 2 days before its North America release on WiiWare. On release, the game was criticized only to support one controller configuration (using the Wii Remote in a horizontal alignment in the same manner as the original Nintendo Entertainment System controllers; Ireland stated that he was working with Sunsoft to help implement a patch to include alternative control schemes, including through use of the Classic Controller.

Reception

Blaster Master: Overdrive received "mixed" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.

Critics praised the title as a modern upgrade to a classic Nintendo Entertainment System game, but identified faults with its controls and lack of progressive scan support that limited the graphics quality. John Meyer of Wired identified the game as the "most faithful to the original" of the other attempts to recapture the Blaster Master gameplay, improving on the original game by adding a map screen and tweaking the gameplay in the top-down sections, but noted the default, uncustomized controls, placing the strafing action button on the backside of the remote would lead to hand cramping. Bob Mackey of 1UP.com noted the game, while still remaining challenging, "manages to iron out a few unforgivable aspects" of the original Blaster Master, but also lamented that the improved gameplay in the top-down sections suffered from the choice of controls.

References

External links

2010 video games
Metroidvania games
Platformers
Run and gun games
Sunsoft games
Video game prequels
Video games developed in Japan
Wii games
Wii-only games
WiiWare games
Single-player video games
Blaster Master
Gaijinworks games

Blaster Master: Overdrive


William John Hamilton  (5 July 1805 – 27 June 1867) was a British geologist who served as a Conservative Member of Parliament.

Early life
Hamilton was born in Wishaw, Lanarkshire on 5 July 1805. He was the eldest son of William Richard Hamilton, FRS, and the former Julia Udny. His younger brothers were Alexander Edmund Hamilton (who drowned in India in 1827), Capt. Henry George Hamilton of the Royal Navy (father of Adm. Sir Frederick Hamilton), Charles Anthony Hamilton (who worked in the Privy Council office), Arthur Richard Hamilton, and Gen. Frederick William Hamilton.

His paternal grandfather was Anthony Hamilton, the Archdeacon of Colchester. His maternal grandparents were John Udny, British Counsul at Venice and Leghorn, and Selina Shore Clevland (a daughter of John Clevland MP). His uncle, Lt.-Col. John Robert Fullerton Udny inherited Udny Castle in Aberdeen from his uncle, Robert Udny, the prominent merchant and art collector.

He was educated at Charterhouse School and the University of Göttingen.

Career
He became a fellow of the Geological Society of London in 1831. In 1835 he made a  geological tour of the Levant with Hugh Edwin Strickland, continuing on his own through Armenia and across Asia Minor. This journey was described in Researches in Asia Minor, Pontus, and Armenia (1842). Hamilton was the first known person to have successfully climbed Mount Erciyes.

He was a Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Newport, Isle of Wight, from 1841 to 1847.

Hamilton was president of the Royal Geographical Society for 1848–1849 and of the Geological Society between 1854 and 1866. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1855. He was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1862.

He made excursions in France and Belgium and wrote on the rocks and minerals of Tuscany, the agate quarries of Oberstein, and on the geology of the Mayence basin and the Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel) district.

Personal life
On 26 April 1832, Hamilton married Martin Trotter, a daughter of John Trotter. Before her death in March 1833, they had a son:

 Robert William Hamilton  (1833–1883), who married Charlotte Maria Palmer, a daughter of Lt.-Col. George Palmer.

On 26 July 1838, he married the Hon. Margaret Frances Florence Dillon, a daughter of Henry Augustus Dillon-Lee, 13th Viscount Dillon, and Henrietta Browne (sister to Dominick Browne, 1st Baron Oranmore and Browne). They had six children:

 Margaret Wilhelmina Hamilton (d. 1915), who married Louis Eric Ames, son Henry Ames of Linden.
 Florence Selina Hamilton (d. 1904), who married Sir Thomas Villiers Lister, son of Thomas Henry Lister, in 1877.
 Victoria Henrietta Hamilton (d. 1917), who married of James Graham Goodenough (parents of Adm. Sir William Edmund Goodenough).
 Alexander Charles Hamilton (1840–1920), who successfully claimed the title of 10th Lord Belhaven and Stenton.
 Constantine Henry Hamilton (1843–1885), a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Royal Artillery who died unmarried.
 Archibald William Hamilton (1847–1886), who married Elizabeth Ann Billyard, daughter of W. Billyard, in 1869.

Hamilton died in London in 1867, his wife survived him.

Descendants
As his son Alexander died without surviving male issue, his grandson Robert Hamilton-Udny (son of his youngest son Archibald), inherited the title of 10th Lord Belhaven and Stenton.

References

External links

1805 births
1867 deaths
People from Wishaw
People educated at Charterhouse School
University of Göttingen alumni
British geologists
Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
UK MPs 1841–1847
Fellows of the Geological Society of London
Presidents of the Geological Society of London
Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society
Presidents of the Royal Geographical Society
Fellows of the Royal Society
Members of Parliament for the Isle of Wight
Travelers in Asia Minor

William Hamilton (geologist)


Meyersville Independent School District is a public school district based in the community of Meyersville, Texas (USA).

Located in DeWitt County, a small portion of the district extends into Victoria County.

Meyersville ISD has one school - Meyersville Elementary - that serves students in grades kindergarten through eight. Ninth through twelfth grade students attend Cuero High School in the Cuero Independent School District.

In 2009, the school district was rated "exemplary" by the Texas Education Agency.

References

External links

School districts in DeWitt County, Texas
School districts in Victoria County, Texas

Meyersville Independent School District


Viktor Vasilyevich Tikhonov (Russian: Виктор Васильевич Тихонов; June 4, 1930 – November 24, 2014) was a  Soviet ice hockey player and coach. Tikhonov was a defenceman with VVS Moscow and HC Dynamo Moscow from 1949 to 1963, winning four national championships.

He was born in Moscow. He was the coach of the Soviet team, winning eight World Championship gold medals, as well as Olympic gold in 1984, 1988, and 1992.

Tikhonov also led CSKA Moscow to twelve consecutive league championships. He also coached the Soviet team that lost to the United States, 4-3, in the 1980 Olympic medal round game known as the Miracle on Ice. He was named to the IIHF Hall of Fame as a builder in 1998.

Tikhonov was hospitalized in late October 2014 and died after a long illness in Moscow on November 24, 2014, at the age of 84.

References

1930 births
2014 deaths
Soviet sportspeople
Sportspeople from Moscow
Ice hockey players

Viktor Tikhonov


Shadows-on-the-Teche is an American  historic house, garden, and cemetery.  Formerly a working sugar cane plantation with enslaved labor, it is located in New Iberia, Louisiana, United States. Built in 1834 for planter, David Weeks (1786–1834) and his wife Mary Conrad Weeks (1797–1863). The property is also home to the Shadows-on-the-Teche cemetery.

This is a National Historic Landmark since 1974 and is currently owned and operated by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

House and grounds

Architecture
Sited 20 feet above the banks of the Bayou Teche, the construction of Shadows-on-the-Teche, a two-and-a-half-story, sixteen room house, coincided with the apogee of the Greek Revival style in United States architecture.  When following this style, builders minimized the installation of superfluous decorative elements such as cornices, moldings, and trim.  Decorations were severely limited and were designed to blend into and set off the building's handmade red brick construction.  The seven bay entrance facade is located on the south front and is made up of eight full-height Tuscan columns of white-plastered brick standing on high square bases, that support a second-floor gallery or veranda, and topped by a Doric frieze. An exterior staircase is located on the left side of the front gallery that is hidden behind green painted louvered panels that are found on each side of the gallery. Three pedimented dormers are found on the gabled roof, that is pierced with two symmetrical brick chimneys on the ridge line that flank the central dormer.

The north facing rear facade features a central, two level open loggia that is enclosed on three sides by the house, flanked with double fenestrations on each level. The loggia is accessed on the ground floor by triple brick archways, where to the left, a narrow staircase leads to the second level with double white columns helping to support the frieze at the top of the house, and enclosed by a banister. Three pedimented dormers are found on the roof identical to the front.

Interior
The house has a traditional Creole plan on both floors, with three rooms across the front and two rear rooms flanking the loggia. On the first floor, the dining room, with a black and white checkered marble floor, occupies the center of the house. To the right of the dining room is an art studio, and to the left is a pantry/service work area that was used later as a kitchen. None of the ground floor rooms are accessed by interior hallways, and must be entered via the front gallery or the loggia in the rear. On the second floor an ornate parlor is centered in the middle and is flanked by the master bedroom on the left, with adjacent sitting room and secondary bedrooms on the right. The interior walls are covered with wallpaper, while the cypress doors were painted to simulate oak and the fireplaces were finished to appear like marble. Shadows-on-the-Teche was furnished throughout with Federal-style and Empire-style furniture brought in from the U.S. East Coast.

Grounds
The grounds were laid out by Shadows-on-the-Teche's last private owner, William Weeks Hall, who established gardens formed by boxwood hedges and aspidistra walks, that included live oaks, bamboo, camellias, azaleas,  and other plantings. At the northeast corner of the house is located an underground brick cistern, 6 feet deep and 11 feet wide, with a 3-foot-high domed top and a capacity of over 4,000 gallons. To the north, between the house and the bayou, is a summer house built in 1928, as a focal point to the gardens, designed to mimic the arches on the rear facade of the house. Elsewhere on the grounds is the Weeks family cemetery that contains the remains of four generations of the family, with the last burial for William Weeks Hall who died in 1958.

History

Early years, 1834 – 1922
David and Mary Weeks were wealthy growers of sugar cane; they owned four plantations  totaling approximately  of Acadiana land. Shadows-on-the-Teche was built on a tract of 158 acres on the edge of one of Weeks' plantations in the parish seat of Iberia Parish.  As a town house, Shadows-on-the-Teche was designed for social life and entertainment.  It is said that, at the time of its construction, Shadows-on-the-Teche was only the third brick house to be built on Bayou Teche.

The Weeks family began to suffer from a series of family tragedies almost at once after the completion of the house. Planter David Weeks, who became chronically ill while Shadows-on-the-Teche was being built, died in August 1834 while in traveling in New England seeking medical attention.

Mary Weeks remarried lawyer John Moore but kept her children's property separate from that of her second husband, as she was allowed to do under Louisiana law. This property included the 164 slaves, bequeathed to their children under the terms of her first husband's will.

David and Mary Weeks daughter, Frances Mary Weeks (Magill) Pruett and her children Mary Ida Magill and Augustine Magill were vacationing at Last Island, Louisiana; where they died in the 1856 Last Island hurricane disaster.  The children were buried on the grounds of Shadows-on-the-Teche.

The Shadows-on-the-Teche household was economically and physically dependent on Louisiana slavery. Mary Weeks and John Moore strongly supported African American slavery and supported the political changes which they thought were necessary to save it; in 1861, Moore was a delegate to the convention in which Louisiana seceded from the Union. This political status and viewpoint made the household vulnerable during the Civil War. Federal troops requisitioned occupancy of the property, and officers of the occupying army quartered themselves in it. Mary Weeks died in December 1863 at Shadows-on-the-Teche, while part of the house was being used by Union troops as officers' quarters.

The house was inherited by David and Mary Weeks' eldest son, William F. Weeks (1824–1895), who partly restored the family fortunes during Reconstruction era. However, after his death in 1895, the property was passed to his daughters Lily and Harriet, who were compelled to sell off much of the land surrounding the house to meet their living expenses, reducing the grounds from 158 acres to 2 1/2 acres.

1922 – present day
Lily's only child, William Weeks Hall (sometimes called Weeks Hall), moved into the Shadows-on-the-Teche in 1922, after he bought out his aunt's partial ownership in the property, and lived there until his death in 1958. An accomplished artist and strongly preservation-minded individual, Hall sorted and donated the voluminous archive of family papers that he found in the house, and entertained many notable people of the age including Lyle Saxon, Cecil B. DeMille, Emily Post, Walt Disney, and Henry Miller, who recounted his visit to the property in his travelogue The Air-Conditioned Nightmare.

At the end of his life in 1958, Hall donated the house and garden to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which has owned and operated it to the present. Shadows-on-the-Teche was named a National Historic Landmark on May 30, 1974, and is visited by over 25,000 people annually. In 2022, the Iberia African American Historical Society opened a center for research and learning within Shadows-on-the-Teche.

See also
1856 Last Island hurricane, where three family members perished
National Register of Historic Places listings in Iberia Parish, Louisiana
List of National Historic Landmarks in Louisiana

References

External links

The Shadows – official site
David Weeks and Family Papers (43-page inventory)
Shadows on the Teche plantation cemetery on Find a Grave

Houses completed in 1834
New Iberia, Louisiana
National Historic Landmarks in Louisiana
Historic house museums in Louisiana
Sugar plantations in Louisiana
Museums in Iberia Parish, Louisiana
Houses in Iberia Parish, Louisiana
National Trust for Historic Preservation
Plantation houses in Louisiana
National Register of Historic Places in Iberia Parish, Louisiana

Shadows-on-the-Teche


Francis Joseph Sheed (20 March 1897 in Sydney – 20 November 1981 in Jersey City) was an Australian-born lawyer, Catholic writer, publisher, speaker, and lay theologian. He and his wife Maisie Ward were famous in their day as the names behind the imprint Sheed & Ward and as forceful public lecturers in the Catholic Evidence Guild.

Life and career

Early life
Sheed was born in Sydney on 20 March 1897 to John Sheed, a descendant of Scottish Presbyterians, and English-born Mary Maloney. His mother's family were Irish Catholic. Baptized Catholic, at the insistence of their father, Frank Sheed and his brother Jack were raised Protestant. Frank would attend the Methodist Church, and surreptitiously make his Catholic First Communion and Confirmation. He attended Sydney Boys' High School and in 1917 obtained a BA degree from the University of Sydney.

Catholic Evidence Guild
In 1920, Sheed travelled to London, where he encountered the Catholic Evidence Guild whose lay Catholics expounded the faith. He joined the group and became an effective soapbox orator. With an understanding of Protestant attitudes toward Catholicism, Sheed took up writing and speaking on the subject of Catholic apologetics, the rational defense of the Catholic faith. Through his activity with the Guild he met Maisie Ward, daughter of Wilfrid Ward, a prominent Catholic essayist and biographer.

Sheed & Ward
Sheed and Maisie Ward were married in April 1926. That same year, they moved to London, where Sheed and Maisie's brother Leo established the publishing house of Sheed and Ward. When Leo Ward left to become a priest, Maisie took his place as publisher. Their son Wilfred Sheed was an essayist and novelist; their daughter, Rosemary, a translator.

As publisher of an all-star roster including Karl Adam, Hilaire Belloc, G. K. Chesterton, Christopher Dawson, Ida Friederike Görres, Ronald Knox, Hugh Pope, and Evelyn Waugh, Sheed maintained a robust Catholic faith while keeping abreast of progressive trends. Frank Sheed wrote a constant stream of books touching on almost every aspect of basic theology, several of which remain in print. His translation of St. Augustine's Confessions remains acclaimed.
In 1933 they opened a branch in New York and became "the most influential Catholic publishers in the English-speaking world".

In 1956 Lille Catholic University awarded him a doctorate in divinity. They sold the firm in 1973.  He published an autobiography, The Church and I (1974). Frank Sheed died on 20 November 1981 at Jersey City and was buried in the Holy Name cemetery.

Works
The Catholic Evidence Guild (1925)
A Map of Life (1933)
Theology and Sanity (1947)
Communism and Man (1945)
Theology for Beginners (1957)
To Know Christ Jesus
Nullity of Marriage
What Difference Does Jesus Make (1970)
Marriage and the Family
The Church and I [autobiography], Garden City, NY:  Doubleday, (1974).
Saints are Not Sad (1949)
Society and Sanity, Sheed & Ward, 1953.
Christ In Eclipse,  Sheed Andrews and McMeel, Inc.  Kansas City, (1978)

Bibliography
 Frank Sheed (1974), The Church & I, Doubleday.
 Maisie Ward (1963), Unfinished Business, New York:  Sheed & Ward.
 Maisie Ward (1973), To and Fro on the Earth:  A Sequel to an Autobiography, New York:  Sheed & Ward.
 Wilfrid Sheed (1985), Frank and Maisie:  A Memoir with Parents, New York:  Simon & Schuster.
 David Meconi (2011), Introductory Essay in Frank Sheed and Maisie Ward: Spiritual writings, Maryknoll:  Orbis Books.

References

Roman Catholic writers
1897 births
1981 deaths
Lay theologians
Writers from Sydney

Frank Sheed


Singha (; ) is a beer brand. It is manufactured in Thailand by the Singha Corporation Co. Ltd.. Singha corp is a subsidiary of its parent company, Boon Rawd Brewery.

History
Praya Bhirom Bhakdi received a license to brew beer from the Thai government. In May 1933, construction of a brewery began. Boon Rawd Brewery was founded on 4 August 1933. In March 1934, production was started. Three beers were brewed: Golden Kite, Singha, and Stupa.

A royal warrant was bestowed on 25 October 1939. Boon Rawd is the only brewery permitted to display the royal Garuda. The Singha is a powerful mythological lion, found in ancient South Asian and Thai mythology.

Boon Rawd bought two German breweries at Hartmannsdorf and Mittweida, Saxony in 1994. Some Singha beer is brewed in Germany by Schlossbrauerei Au-Hallertau under licence from Singha Corporation Co., Ltd..

Beginning in September 2007, a 5.0% (abv) version of Singha replaced the 6.0% (abv) original. This new version, while still brewed in Thailand by Pathum Thani Brewery Co. Ltd., states on its label to have been brewed under the supervision of Singha Corporation Co. Ltd., instead of Boon Rawd.

From 2013, some Singha beer has reportedly been produced at Carlsberg's Russian plant for distribution in some markets. Singha is also said to use eight Carlsberg plants in Asia for production, as part of an agreement to share each other's production facilities and markets.

Governance
Singha Corporation, established in 2001, is a subsidiary of Boon Rawd Brewery, tasked with managing of all of Boon Rawd's 150-plus subsidiary companies. It reports directly to Boon Rawd's board of directors.

Products
Besides Singha beer, the company manufactures Singha Light, Leo beer, U Beer, bottled and soda water, and packaged foods.

Operations
In 2017, Singha Corporation sold 1.32 billion litres of Singha, Leo, and U Beer and retained a 62 percent market share in Thailand. The firm intends to sell 1.4 billion litres in 2018 and up its market share to 65 percent.

Advertising
Singha was the title sponsor of Francesco Cantando's Formula 1 Powerboat team from the mid-1990s up until the end of the 2013 season, making it one of the longest partnerships in the history of the sport. For 2014, Motorglass.it replaced Singha as Cantando's team's new title sponsor.

In 2010, Singha formed a four-year partnership with Premier League football club Chelsea. The company already had a similar partnership with Manchester United.

In the 2010 Formula One season, Singha's logo was seen on the Red Bull Racing team's livery.

In 2014, Singha became the first Official Beer of the FIM MotoGP™ World Championship and official sponsor of the Professional Darts Corporation Grand Slam of Darts.

In 2015, Singha became a personal sponsor of Formula One driver Kimi Räikkönen.

In 2018 Singha became an official partner of ROK Cup International Final.- karting CIK Homologated international competition organized by Vortex Engines (VORTON Srl.)

In 2018 Singha became the official sponsor of Oxford United Football Club.

Singha is a title sponsor the Alfa Romeo Formula One team for the 2019 Formula One World Championship Season.

References

Other websites
 Official website
 Official USA website

20th-century establishments in Thailand
1933 establishments in Asia
Thai culture
Beer

Singha


Jean-Gabriel Devéria (8 March 1844 – 12 July 1899), known as Gabriel Devéria, was a French diplomat and interpreter who worked for the French diplomatic service in China from the age of sixteen. He was also a noted sinologist and pioneer Tangutologist who published one of the first studies of the Tangut script in 1898.

Biography
Devéria was born in Paris on 8 March 1844 to a family of artists. His father was Achille Devéria (1800–1857), a renowned painter and lithographer, and his uncle was the Romantic painter Eugène Devéria (1805–1865). His mother Céleste, who married his father in 1829, was the daughter of a lithographic printer, Charles-Etienne Motte (1785–1836). He was one of six children, including Théodule Devéria (1831–1871), who became a photographer and Egyptologist. After the death of his father in 1857, when he was only thirteen years old, his older brother Théodule took responsibility for his education.

In February 1860, aged only sixteen, Gabriel Devéria was recruited as a student-interpreter in Chinese for a new School of Interpreters that the French government wanted to set up in China. In September of the same year he embarked on a ship bound for Tianjin in China, and arrived in China towards the end of the Second Opium War, when the United Kingdom and the French Empire had joined together in an attempt to force the Qing government to open up to trade with Europeans.

Devéria studied his trade at the French Consulate in Tianjin for several years, and between 1863 and 1869 he acted as an interpreter for the negotiation of treaties between China and Spain and Italy. In February 1870 he was promoted to the position of Chancellor at the French mission in Fuzhou.

Following the Tianjin Massacre in 1870, a Chinese mission of apology set sail to France, under Imperial Commissioner Chonghou, and Devéria was appointed to accompany the embassy as an interpreter. This was his first trip back to France, and when he arrived in Marseille he found his way to Paris impeded by the Franco-Prussian War. After the war ended on 28 January 1871, Devéria managed to reach to Paris, only to find that his brother Théodule had died a few days earlier.

When Devéria returned to Paris in 1873, he was appointed First Interpreter to the French Legation in Beijing. Under the pseudonym T. Choutzé (朱茨), he published his first book in 1876, an account of his travels in the north of China (Pékin et le nord de la Chine). During the following years he concentrated on the study of Annam, publishing a geographic and ethnographic description of Annam in 1886, and an account of the relations between China and Annam two years later.

In 1876 Devéria married Charlotte Thomas, niece of the French composer Ambroise Thomas, who was an accomplished pianist and composer. She also wrote a series of articles about music in China, published in Magasin Pittoresque in 1885. She died in the same year, leaving a son born in 1892.

Later in his career, Devéria turned his attention to the study of the languages and epigraphic inscriptions left behind by the Jurchens and Tanguts. He made rubbings of the polyglot inscriptions at the Cloud Platform at Juyong Pass, which he provided to Prince Roland Napoléon Bonaparte who published them in his Documents de l'époque Mongole des XIII et XIV siècles (1895). In 1896 he published a history of the Bureau of Interpreters (會同館) which had been founded in the 15th century to enable communication between the Ming dynasty government and embassies and missions to China.

During the latter half of the 1890s Devéria became interested in the spread of foreign religions in China and the Far East, such as Islam and Manichaeism.

Devéria's final works were two pioneering studies of the Tangut script, mainly based on the bilingual Chinese-Tangut inscription on a stele at the Huguo Temple (護國寺) in Wuwei, Gansu.

In the winter of 1898 he suffered a severe bout of Pleurisy, and the following summer he went to the resort of Mont-Dore to try to restore his health at the thermal springs, but on 12 July 1899 he suffered a hemorrhage and died.

Diplomatic career

Devéria was promoted to Interpreter 1st Class in 1880, Consul 2nd Class in 1880, Secretary 2nd Class in 1881, Secretary Interpreter in 1882, Secretary 1st Class in 1883, and finally Consul General in 1888.

Academic career

In 1889 Devéria was named Professor of Chinese at the School of Living Oriental Languages (École des Langues orientales vivantes) in Paris.

Honours

In 1876 Devéria was made a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur, and twenty years later, in 1896, he was promoted to Officier.

In 1888 he was awarded the Prix Stanislas Julien for his book La frontière sino-annamite.

In 1896 he was elected to the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, in place of Edmond Le Blant.

Works

 1898. Musulmans et Manichéens Chinois. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale.
 1898. L'Écriture du Royaume de Si-Hia ou Tangout. Paris: C. Klincksieck.
 1898. 'Stèle Si-hia de Leang-tcheou'; Journal Asiatique 9th series vol. 11 No. 1 (January–February 1898): 53–74.
 1896. "Histoire du Collège des Interprètes de Pékin"; Melanges Charles de Harlez. Leyde: E. J. Brill.
 1886. La frontière sino-annamite : description géographique et ethnographique d'après des documents officiels chinois. Paris: Leroux.
 1880. Histoire des Relations de la China avec l'Annam-Viêtnam du XVIe au XIXe Siècle. Paris: Leroux.
 1876. 'Pékin et le nord de la Chine'; Le Tour du Monde vol. 31 (pp. 305–368) and vol. 32 (pp. 193–256).

References

1844 births
1899 deaths
Knights of the Legion of Honour
Officers of the Legion of Honour
French sinologists
French orientalists
Tangutologists
People from Paris
Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres

Gabriel Devéria


Flylight Airsports is a British aircraft manufacturer based in Northamptonshire. The company specializes in the design and manufacture of ultralight trikes and is noted for its line of retractable gear single seat aircraft, such as the Dragonfly. The company also acts as importer for several lines of aircraft including the Best Off Skyranger and the Aeros line of hang gliders.

In 2011 the company experimented with an electric aircraft derivative of the Dragonfly, designated the Flylight E-Dragon.

Aircraft

References

External links

Aircraft manufacturers of the United Kingdom
Ultralight trikes

Flylight


Elie Walter Martel (born November 26, 1934) is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1967 to 1987, as a member of the New Democratic Party (NDP).

Personal life
Martel was born in Capreol, Ontario, into a French speaking family and was educated at an English-speaking boarding school that forced him to stop speaking his family's native language. He quit school three times to work on the railroad, and at Inco. He finally completed secondary school and then went to Laurentian University to major in history. After university, he went to North Bay Teacher's College. He worked as a teacher and high school principal in the Sudbury area before entering politics.

His wife Gaye is the daughter of Norman Fawcett, who was Nickel Belt's federal Member of Parliament from 1965 to 1968.

Career in politics

He was first elected to the Ontario legislature in the 1967 election, defeating Progressive Conservative candidate Cecil Fielding by 1,200 votes in the Northern Ontario constituency of Sudbury East.  His victory happened the same year that the United Steelworkers absorbed INCO's International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers union local 598, ending almost 20 years of very bitter political infighting between the unions and the CCF/NDP. The infighting ousted former CCF MPP, Bob Carlin because the party feared the Sudbury riding association was controlled by communists in the Mine, Mill union. Only after the Steelworkers' prolonged takeover of Mine, Mill, did the NDP finally have unity between its warring factions, thereby allowing Martel to win the seat.

In 1974, Martel supported the striking uranium miners at Elliot Lake who were demanding improved safety and support from employers.

Early in his career, Martel navigated a motion through an NDP provincial convention supporting full funding for Catholic high schools. He was re-elected by comfortable margins in the elections of 1971, 1975, 1977, 1981 and 1985, and served as an opposition member for his entire legislative career. Martel was House Leader of the NDP for seven years, from 1978 to 1985.  He stepped down from that position after being left-off the NDP's negotiating team that eventually brokered the accord between the Liberals and the NDP to form a stable minority government in May 1985. NDP leader Bob Rae thought that Martel was "too much of a lone wolf," to negotiate the deal.

He was on the left-wing of the New Democratic Party, and was strongly supported by its trade-union base.  Along with other NDP legislators from the Sudbury area, he frequently called for Inco's nickel mine in the city to be nationalized.

Martel encouraged Bob Rae to seek the provincial NDP leadership in 1981, but began developing his own organization when Rae delayed his entry. He eventually withdrew from the contest to support Rae's candidacy, but his personal and professional relationship with Rae deteriorated when the campaign was over.  By some accounts, the two men strongly disliked one another on a personal level.

Retirement

Martel stood down as a Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) in 1987, and was succeeded in Sudbury East by his daughter Shelley Martel after a bitter battle for the riding's NDP nomination between her and Rev. William Major.  Shortly after his retirement, Martel was named vice-chair of the Environmental Assessment Board by Liberal Premier of Ontario David Peterson.

The NDP won their first ever majority government in the 1990 provincial election, and Shelley Martel was subsequently named as a prominent cabinet minister. The journalist Thomas Walkom has argued that Elie Martel pressured Rae to keep his daughter in cabinet following a scandal in 1991.

Martel ran as a candidate of the federal New Democratic Party in the 1997 federal election, but finished second to Liberal incumbent Ray Bonin in Nickel Belt.

Sudbury East was disbanded and merged with the provincial Nickel Belt electoral district for the 1999 provincial election. Shelley Martel continued to represent that constituency provincially until her retirement in 2007, ending the family's forty-year run of representing the greater Sudbury area. She is married to Howard Hampton, former leader of the Ontario New Democrats.

References

External links

1934 births
Living people
Ontario New Democratic Party MPPs
New Democratic Party candidates for the Canadian House of Commons
Franco-Ontarian people
Politicians from Greater Sudbury
Laurentian University alumni
Nipissing University alumni

Elie Martel


The Immaculate Conception  is a painting by Francisco de Zurbarán, executed in 1632, conserved at the National Art Museum of Catalonia.

Description
The Immaculate Conception represents Mary as the only mortal being free of original sin. This is a long-established Catholic doctrinal argument, frequently depicted in the painting of the Spanish Golden Age. Mary appears standing on five cherubim occupying a half moon. She is wearing a necklace with the anagram A(ve) M(aria), while a host of stars and angels emerge from the clouds in the halo around her head. On either side are angels with lilies, roses (attributes of purity) and tablets with inscriptions from the 'Song of Songs'. At the sides are two collegiates and symbols alluding to Mary: the Unblemished Mirror, Jacob's Ladder, Gates of Heaven and Morning Star. Zurbarán painted several versions of this theme, but this one is unquestionably the best.

References

External links
  The artwork at Museum's website
 Zurbarán, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF)

1632 paintings
Paintings in the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya
Paintings by Francisco de Zurbarán
Zurbarán
Angels in art

Immaculate Conception (Zurbarán)


Stephen Alan "Steve" Lillywhite,  (born 15 March 1955) is an English record producer. He is a five-time Grammy Award winner. He was born in Egham, Surrey. He is best known for his work with U2. He produced their first three albums, Boy, October and War. He has worked with many other artists including The Rolling Stones, Dave Matthews Band, Bruce Foxton (of The Jam), Big Country, Peter Gabriel, Talking Heads, Morrissey, Thirty Seconds to Mars, The Killers, The Pogues, David Byrne, XTC, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Simple Minds, The Psychedelic Furs, Beady Eye, Phish, Counting Crows and Joan Armatrading.

Lillywhite was married to singer Kirsty MacColl from 1984 to 1994. They had two sons, Jamie and Louis. He has been married to Patricia Louise Galluzzi since 29 May 2004.

Lillywhite was awarded the  Commander of the Order of The British Empire (CBE) in 2012 for his contributions to music.

References

1955 births
Living people
British record producers
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
Grammy Award winners
Musicians from Surrey

Steve Lillywhite


Energy is sustainable if it "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."  Most definitions of sustainable energy include considerations of environmental aspects such as greenhouse gas emissions and social and economic aspects such as energy poverty. Renewable energy sources such as wind, hydroelectric power, solar, and geothermal energy are generally far more sustainable than fossil fuel sources. However, some renewable energy projects, such as the clearing of forests to produce biofuels, can cause severe environmental damage.

The role of non-renewable energy sources in sustainable energy has been controversial. Nuclear power is a low-carbon source whose historic mortality rates are comparable to those of wind and solar, but its sustainability has been debated because of concerns about radioactive waste, nuclear proliferation, and accidents. Switching from coal to natural gas has environmental benefits, including a lower climate impact, but may lead to a delay in switching to more sustainable options. Carbon capture and storage can be built into power plants to remove their carbon dioxide () emissions, but this technology is expensive and has rarely been implemented.

Fossil fuels provide 85% of the world's energy consumption, and the energy system is responsible for 76% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Around 790 million people in developing countries lack access to electricity, and 2.6 billion rely on polluting fuels such as wood or charcoal to cook. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions to levels consistent with the 2015 Paris Agreement will require a system-wide transformation of the way energy is produced, distributed, stored, and consumed. The burning of fossil fuels and biomass is a major contributor to air pollution, which causes an estimated 7 million deaths each year. Therefore, the transition to a low-carbon energy system would have strong co-benefits for human health. Pathways exist to provide universal access to electricity and clean cooking in ways that are compatible with climate goals while bringing major health and economic benefits to developing countries.

Climate change mitigation pathways have been proposed to limit global warming to . These pathways include phasing out coal-fired power plants, producing more electricity from clean sources such as wind and solar, and shifting towards using electricity instead of fossil fuels in sectors such as transport and heating buildings. For some energy-intensive technologies and processes that are difficult to electrify, many pathways describe a growing role for hydrogen fuel produced from low-emission energy sources. To accommodate larger shares of variable renewable energy, electrical grids require flexibility through infrastructure such as energy storage. To make deep reductions in emissions, infrastructure and technologies that use energy, such as buildings and transport systems, would need to be changed to use clean forms of energy and also conserve energy. Some critical technologies for eliminating energy-related greenhouse gas emissions are not yet mature.

Wind and solar energy generated 8.5% of worldwide electricity in 2019. This share has grown rapidly while costs have fallen and are projected to continue falling. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that 2.5% of world gross domestic product (GDP) would need to be invested in the energy system each year between 2016 and 2035 to limit global warming to . Well-designed government policies that promote energy system transformation can lower greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality. In many cases, they also increase energy security. Policy approaches include carbon pricing, renewable portfolio standards, phase-outs of fossil fuel subsidies, and the development of infrastructure to support electrification and sustainable transport. Funding the research, development, and demonstration of new clean energy technologies is also an important role of the government.

Definitions and background

Definitions
The United Nations Brundtland Commission described the concept of sustainable development, for which energy is a key component, in its 1987 report Our Common Future. It defined sustainable development as meeting "the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". This description of sustainable development has since been referenced in many definitions and explanations of sustainable energy.

No single interpretation of how the concept of sustainability applies to energy has gained worldwide acceptance. Working definitions of sustainable energy encompass multiple dimensions of sustainability such as environmental, economic, and social dimensions. Historically, the concept of sustainable energy development has focused on emissions and on energy security. Since the early 1990s, the concept has broadened to encompass wider social and economic issues.

The environmental dimension of sustainability includes greenhouse gas emissions, impacts on biodiversity and ecosystems, hazardous waste and toxic emissions, water consumption, and depletion of non-renewable resources. Energy sources with low environmental impact are sometimes called green energy or clean energy. The economic dimension of sustainability covers economic development, efficient use of energy, and energy security to ensure that each country has constant access to sufficient energy. Social issues include access to affordable and reliable energy for all people, workers' rights, and land rights.

Environmental impacts

The current energy system contributes to many environmental problems, including climate change, air pollution, biodiversity loss, the release of toxins into the environment, and water scarcity. As of 2019, 85% of the world's energy needs are met by burning fossil fuels. Energy production and consumption are responsible for 76% of annual human-caused greenhouse gas emissions as of 2018. The 2015 international Paris Agreement on climate change aims to limit global warming to well below  and preferably to 1.5 °C (2.7 °F); achieving this goal will require that emissions be reduced as soon as possible and reach net-zero by mid-century.

The burning of fossil fuels and biomass is a major source of air pollution, which causes an estimated 7 million deaths each year, with the greatest attributable disease burden seen in low and middle-income countries. Fossil-fuel burning in power plants, vehicles, and factories is the main source of emissions that combine with oxygen in the atmosphere to cause acid rain. Air pollution is the second-leading cause of death from non-infectious disease. An estimated 99% of the world's population lives with levels of air pollution that exceed the World Health Organization recommended limits.

Cooking with polluting fuels such as wood, animal dung, coal, or kerosene is responsible for nearly all indoor air pollution, which causes an estimated 1.6 to 3.8 million deaths annually, and also contributes significantly to outdoor air pollution. Health effects are concentrated among women, who are likely to be responsible for cooking, and young children.

Environmental impacts extend beyond the by-products of combustion. Oil spills at sea harm marine life and may cause fires which release toxic emissions. Around 10% of global water use goes to energy production, mainly for cooling in thermal energy plants. In dry regions, this contributes to water scarcity. Bioenergy production, coal mining and processing, and oil extraction also require large amounts of water. Excessive harvesting of wood and other combustible material for burning can cause serious local environmental damage, including desertification.

In 2021, UNECE published a lifecycle analysis of the environmental impact of numerous electricity generation technologies, accounting for the following: resource use (minerals, metals); land use; resource use (fossils); water use; particulate matter; photochemical ozone formation; ozone depletion; human toxicity (non-cancer); ionising radiation; human toxicity (cancer); eutrophication (terrestrial, marine, freshwater); ecotoxicity (freshwater); acidification; climate change.

Sustainable development goals

Meeting existing and future energy demands in a sustainable way is a critical challenge for the global goal of limiting climate change while maintaining economic growth and enabling living standards to rise. Reliable and affordable energy, particularly electricity, is essential for health care, education, and economic development. As of 2020, 790 million people in developing countries do not have access to electricity, and around 2.6 billion rely on burning polluting fuels for cooking.

Improving energy access in the least-developed countries and making energy cleaner are key to achieving most of the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, which cover issues ranging from climate action to gender equality. Sustainable Development Goal 7 calls for "access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all", including universal access to electricity and to clean cooking facilities by 2030.

Energy conservation

Energy efficiency—using less energy to deliver the same goods or services, or delivering comparable services with less goods—is a cornerstone of many sustainable energy strategies. The International Energy Agency (IEA) has estimated that increasing energy efficiency could achieve 40% of greenhouse gas emission reductions needed to fulfil the Paris Agreement's goals.

Energy can be conserved by increasing the technical efficiency of appliances, vehicles, industrial processes, and buildings. Another approach is to use fewer materials whose production requires a lot of energy, for example through better building design and recycling. Behavioural changes such as using videoconferencing rather than business flights, or making urban trips by cycling, walking or public transport rather than by car, are another way to conserve energy. Government policies to improve efficiency can include building codes, performance standards, carbon pricing, and the development of energy-efficient infrastructure to encourage changes in transport modes.

The energy intensity of the global economy (the amount of energy consumed per unit of gross domestic product (GDP)) is a rough indicator of the energy efficiency of economic production. In 2010, global energy intensity was 5.6 megajoules (1.6 kWh) per US dollar of GDP. United Nations goals call for energy intensity to decrease by 2.6% each year between 2010 and 2030. In recent years this target has not been met. For instance, between 2017 and 2018, energy intensity decreased by only 1.1%. Efficiency improvements often lead to a rebound effect in which consumers use the money they save to buy more energy-intensive goods and services. For example, recent technical efficiency improvements in transport and buildings have been largely offset by trends in consumer behaviour, such as selecting larger vehicles and homes.

Sustainable energy sources

Renewable energy sources

Renewable energy sources are essential to sustainable energy, as they generally strengthen energy security and emit far fewer greenhouse gases than fossil fuels. Renewable energy projects sometimes raise significant sustainability concerns, such as risks to biodiversity when areas of high ecological value are converted to bioenergy production or wind or solar farms.

Hydropower is the largest source of renewable electricity while solar and wind energy are growing rapidly. Photovoltaic solar and onshore wind are the cheapest forms of new power generation capacity in most countries. For more than half of the 770 million people who currently lack access to electricity, decentralised renewable energy such as solar-powered mini-grids is likely the cheapest method of providing it by 2030. United Nations targets for 2030 include substantially increasing the proportion of renewable energy in the world's energy supply. According to the International Energy Agency, renewable energy sources like wind and solar power are now a commonplace source of electricity, making up 70% of all new investments made in the world's power generation. The Agency expects renewables to become the primary energy source for electricity generation globally in the next three years, overtaking coal.

Solar

The Sun is Earth's primary source of energy, a clean and abundantly available resource in many regions. In 2019, solar power provided around 3% of global electricity, mostly through solar panels based on photovoltaic cells (PV). Solar PV is expected to be the electricity source with the largest installed capacity worldwide by 2027. The panels are mounted on top of buildings or installed in utility-scale solar parks. Costs of solar photovoltaic cells have dropped rapidly, driving strong growth in worldwide capacity. The cost of electricity from new solar farms is competitive with, or in many places, cheaper than electricity from existing coal plants. Various projections of future energy use identify solar PV as one of the main sources of energy generation in a sustainable mix.

Most components of solar panels can be easily recycled, but this is not always done in the absence of regulation. Panels typically contain heavy metals, so they pose environmental risks if put in landfills. It takes fewer than two years for a solar panel to produce as much energy as was used for its production. Less energy is needed if materials are recycled rather than mined.

In concentrated solar power, solar rays are concentrated by a field of mirrors, heating a fluid. Electricity is produced from the resulting steam with a heat engine. Concentrated solar power can support dispatchable power generation, as some of the heat is typically stored to enable electricity to be generated when needed. In addition to electricity production, solar energy is used more directly; solar thermal heating systems are used for hot water production, heating buildings, drying, and desalination.

Wind power

Wind has been an important driver of development over millennia, providing mechanical energy for industrial processes, water pumps, and sailing ships. Modern wind turbines are used to generate electricity and provided approximately 6% of global electricity in 2019. Electricity from onshore wind farms is often cheaper than existing coal plants and competitive with natural gas and nuclear. Wind turbines can also be placed offshore, where winds are steadier and stronger than on land but construction and maintenance costs are higher.

Onshore wind farms, often built in wild or rural areas, have a visual impact on the landscape. While collisions with wind turbines kill both bats and to a lesser extent birds, these impacts are lower than from other infrastructure such as windows and transmission lines. The noise and flickering light created by the turbines can cause annoyance and constrain construction near densely populated areas. Wind power, in contrast to nuclear and fossil fuel plants, does not consume water. Little energy is needed for wind turbine construction compared to the energy produced by the wind power plant itself. Turbine blades are not fully recyclable, and research into methods of manufacturing easier-to-recycle blades is ongoing.

Hydropower

Hydroelectric plants convert the energy of moving water into electricity. In 2020, hydropower supplied 17% of the world's electricity, down from a high of nearly 20% in the mid-to-late 20th century.

In conventional hydropower, a reservoir is created behind a dam. Conventional hydropower plants provide a highly flexible, dispatchable electricity supply. They can be combined with wind and solar power to meet peaks in demand and to compensate when wind and sun are less available.

Compared to reservoir-based facilities, run-of-the-river hydroelectricity generally has less environmental impact. However, its ability to generate power depends on river flow, which can vary with daily and seasonal weather. Reservoirs provide water quantity controls that are used for flood control and flexible electricity output while also providing security during drought for drinking water supply and irrigation.

Hydropower ranks among the energy sources with the lowest levels of greenhouse gas emissions per unit of energy produced, but levels of emissions vary enormously between projects. The highest emissions tend to occur with large dams in tropical regions. These emissions are produced when the biological matter that becomes submerged in the reservoir's flooding decomposes and releases carbon dioxide and methane. Deforestation and climate change can reduce energy generation from hydroelectric dams. Depending on location, large dams can displace residents and cause significant local environmental damage; potential dam failure could place the surrounding population at risk.

Geothermal

Geothermal energy is produced by tapping into deep underground heat and harnessing it to generate electricity or to heat water and buildings. The use of geothermal energy is concentrated in regions where heat extraction is economical: a combination is needed of high temperatures, heat flow, and permeability (the ability of the rock to allow fluids to pass through). Power is produced from the steam created in underground reservoirs. Geothermal energy provided less than 1% of global energy consumption in 2020.

Geothermal energy is a renewable resource because thermal energy is constantly replenished from neighbouring hotter regions and the radioactive decay of naturally occurring isotopes. On average, the greenhouse gas emissions of geothermal-based electricity are less than 5% that of coal-based electricity. Geothermal energy carries a risk of inducing earthquakes, needs effective protection to avoid water pollution, and releases toxic emissions which can be captured.

Bioenergy

Biomass is renewable organic material that comes from plants and animals. It can either be burned to produce heat and electricity or be converted into biofuels such as biodiesel and ethanol, which can be used to power vehicles.

The climate impact of bioenergy varies considerably depending on where biomass feedstocks come from and how they are grown. For example, burning wood for energy releases carbon dioxide; those emissions can be significantly offset if the trees that were harvested are replaced by new trees in a well-managed forest, as the new trees will absorb carbon dioxide from the air as they grow. However, the establishment and cultivation of bioenergy crops can displace natural ecosystems, degrade soils, and consume water resources and synthetic fertilisers. Approximately one-third of all wood used for traditional heating and cooking in tropical areas is harvested unsustainably. Bioenergy feedstocks typically require significant amounts of energy to harvest, dry, and transport; the energy usage for these processes may emit greenhouse gases. In some cases, the impacts of land-use change, cultivation, and processing can result in higher overall carbon emissions for bioenergy compared to using fossil fuels.

Use of farmland for growing biomass can result in less land being available for growing food. In the United States, around 10% of motor gasoline has been replaced by corn-based ethanol, which requires a significant proportion of the harvest. In Malaysia and Indonesia, clearing forests to produce palm oil for biodiesel has led to serious social and environmental effects, as these forests are critical carbon sinks and habitats for diverse species. Since photosynthesis captures only a small fraction of the energy in sunlight, producing a given amount of bioenergy requires a large amount of land compared to other renewable energy sources.

Second-generation biofuels which are produced from non-food plants or waste reduce competition with food production, but may have other negative effects including trade-offs with conservation areas and local air pollution. Relatively sustainable sources of biomass include algae, waste, and crops grown on soil unsuitable for food production.

Carbon capture and storage technology can be used to capture emissions from bioenergy power plants. This process is known as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) and can result in net carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere. However, BECCS can also result in net positive emissions depending on how the biomass material is grown, harvested, and transported. Deployment of BECCS at scales described in some climate change mitigation pathways would require converting large amounts of cropland.

Marine energy

Marine energy has the smallest share of the energy market. It includes tidal power, which is approaching maturity, and wave power, which is earlier in its development. Two tidal barrage systems in France and in South Korea make up 90% of global production. While single marine energy devices pose little risk to the environment, the impacts of larger devices are less well known.

Non-renewable energy sources

Fossil fuel switching and mitigation
Switching from coal to natural gas has advantages in terms of sustainability. For a given unit of energy produced, the life-cycle greenhouse-gas emissions of natural gas are around 40 times the emissions of wind or nuclear energy but are much less than coal. Burning natural gas produces around half the emissions of coal when used to generate electricity and around two-thirds the emissions of coal when used to produce heat.  Natural gas combustion also produces less air pollution than coal. However, natural gas is a potent greenhouse gas in itself, and leaks during extraction and transportation can negate the advantages of switching away from coal. The technology to curb methane leaks is widely available but it is not always used.

Switching from coal to natural gas reduces emissions in the short term and thus contributes to climate change mitigation. However, in the long term it does not provide a path to net-zero emissions. Developing natural gas infrastructure risks carbon lock-in and stranded assets, where new fossil infrastructure either commits to decades of carbon emissions, or has to be written off before it makes a profit.

The greenhouse gas emissions of fossil fuel and biomass power plants can be significantly reduced through carbon capture and storage (CCS). Most studies use a working assumption that CCS can capture 85–90% of the carbon dioxide () emissions from a power plant. Even if 90% of emitted  is captured from a coal-fired power plant, its uncaptured emissions would still be many times greater than the emissions of nuclear, solar or wind energy per unit of electricity produced. Since coal plants using CCS would be less efficient, they would require more coal and thus increase the pollution associated with mining and transporting coal. The CCS process is expensive, with costs depending considerably on the location's proximity to suitable geology for carbon dioxide storage. Deployment of this technology is still very limited, with only 21 large-scale CCS plants in operation worldwide as of 2020.

Nuclear power

Nuclear power has been used since the 1950s as a low-carbon source of baseload electricity. Nuclear power plants in over 30 countries generate about 10% of global electricity. As of 2019, nuclear generated over a quarter of all low-carbon energy, making it the second largest source after hydropower.

Nuclear power's lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions—including the mining and processing of uranium—are similar to the emissions from renewable energy sources. Nuclear power uses little land per unit of energy produced, compared to the major renewables. Reason magazine reported in May 2023 that "...biomass, wind, and solar power are set to occupy an area equivalent of the size of the European Union by 2050." Additionally, Nuclear power does not create local air pollution. Although the uranium ore used to fuel nuclear fission plants is a non-renewable resource, enough exists to provide a supply for hundreds to thousands of years. However, uranium resources that can be accessed in an economically feasible manner, at the present state, are limited and uranium production could hardly keep up during the expansion phase. Climate change mitigation pathways consistent with ambitious goals typically see an increase in power supply from nuclear.

There is controversy over whether nuclear power is sustainable, in part due to concerns around nuclear waste, nuclear weapon proliferation, and accidents. Radioactive nuclear waste must be managed for thousands of years and nuclear power plants create fissile material that can be used for weapons.  For each unit of energy produced, nuclear energy has caused far fewer accidental and pollution-related deaths than fossil fuels, and the historic fatality rate of nuclear is comparable to renewable sources. Public opposition to nuclear energy often makes nuclear plants politically difficult to implement.

Reducing the time and the cost of building new nuclear plants have been goals for decades but costs remain high and timescales long. Various new forms of nuclear energy are in development, hoping to address the drawbacks of conventional plants. Fast breeder reactors are capable of recycling nuclear waste and therefore can significantly reduce the amount of waste that requires geological disposal, but have not yet been deployed on a large-scale commercial basis. Nuclear power based on thorium (rather than uranium) may be able to provide higher energy security for countries that do not have a large supply of uranium. Small modular reactors may have several advantages over current large reactors: It should be possible to build them faster and their modularization would allow for cost reductions via learning-by-doing.

Several countries are attempting to develop nuclear fusion reactors, which would generate small amounts of waste and no risk of explosions. Although fusion power has taken steps forward in the lab, the multi-decade timescale needed to bring it to commercialization and then scale means it will not contribute to a 2050 net zero goal for climate change mitigation.

Energy system transformation

The emissions reductions necessary to keep global warming below 2°C will require a system-wide transformation of the way energy is produced, distributed, stored, and consumed. For a society to replace one form of energy with another, multiple technologies and behaviours in the energy system must change. For example, transitioning from oil to solar power as the energy source for cars requires the generation of solar electricity, modifications to the electrical grid to accommodate fluctuations in solar panel output or the introduction of variable battery chargers and higher overall demand, adoption of electric cars, and networks of electric vehicle charging facilities and repair shops.

Many climate change mitigation pathways envision three main aspects of a low-carbon energy system:

 The use of low-emission energy sources to produce electricity
 Electrification – that is increased use of electricity instead of directly burning fossil fuels
 Accelerated adoption of energy efficiency measures

Some energy-intensive technologies and processes are difficult to electrify, including aviation, shipping, and steelmaking. There are several options for reducing the emissions from these sectors: biofuels and synthetic carbon-neutral fuels can power many vehicles that are designed to burn fossil fuels, however biofuels cannot be sustainably produced in the quantities needed and synthetic fuels are currently very expensive. For some applications, the most prominent alternative to electrification is to develop a system based on sustainably-produced hydrogen fuel.

Full decarbonisation of the global energy system is expected to take several decades and can mostly be achieved with existing technologies. The IEA states that further innovation in the energy sector, such as in battery technologies and carbon-neutral fuels, is needed to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. Developing new technologies requires research and development, demonstration, and cost reductions via deployment. The transition to a zero-carbon energy system will bring strong co-benefits for human health: The World Health Organization estimates that efforts to limit global warming to 1.5 °C could save millions of lives each year from reductions to air pollution alone. With good planning and management, pathways exist to provide universal access to electricity and clean cooking by 2030 in ways that are consistent with climate goals. Historically, several countries have made rapid economic gains through coal usage. However, there remains a window of opportunity for many poor countries and regions to "leapfrog" fossil fuel dependency by developing their energy systems based on renewables, given adequate international investment and knowledge transfer.

Integrating variable energy sources

To deliver reliable electricity from variable renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, electrical power systems require flexibility. Most electrical grids were constructed for non-intermittent energy sources such as coal-fired power plants. As larger amounts of solar and wind energy are integrated into the grid, changes have to be made to the energy system to ensure that the supply of electricity is matched to demand. In 2019, these sources generated 8.5% of worldwide electricity, a share that has grown rapidly.

There are various ways to make the electricity system more flexible. In many places, wind and solar generation are complementary on a daily and a seasonal scale: there is more wind during the night and in winter when solar energy production is low. Linking different geographical regions through long-distance transmission lines allows for further cancelling out of variability. Energy demand can be shifted in time through energy demand management and the use of smart grids, matching the times when variable energy production is highest. With grid energy storage, energy produced in excess can be released when needed. Further flexibility could be provided from sector coupling, that is coupling the electricity sector to the heat and mobility sector via power-to-heat-systems and electric vehicles.

Building overcapacity for wind and solar generation can help ensure that enough electricity is produced even during poor weather. In optimal weather, energy generation may have to be curtailed if excess electricity cannot be used or stored. The final demand-supply mismatch may be covered by using dispatchable energy sources such as hydropower, bioenergy, or natural gas.

Energy storage

Energy storage helps overcome barriers to intermittent renewable energy and is an important aspect of a sustainable energy system. The most commonly used and available storage method is pumped-storage hydroelectricity, which requires locations with large differences in height and access to water. Batteries, especially lithium-ion batteries, are also deployed widely.  Batteries typically store electricity for short periods; research is ongoing into technology with sufficient capacity to last through seasons. Costs of utility-scale batteries in the US have fallen by around 70% since 2015, however the cost and low energy density of batteries makes them impractical for the very large energy storage needed to balance inter-seasonal  variations in energy production. Pumped hydro storage and power-to-gas (converting electricity to gas and back) with capacity for multi-month usage has been implemented in some locations.

Electrification

Compared to the rest of the energy system, emissions can be reduced much faster in the electricity sector. As of 2019, 37% of global electricity is produced from low-carbon sources (renewables and nuclear energy). Fossil fuels, primarily coal, produce the rest of the electricity supply. One of the easiest and fastest ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is to phase out coal-fired power plants and increase renewable electricity generation.

Climate change mitigation pathways envision extensive electrification—the use of electricity as a substitute for the direct burning of fossil fuels for heating buildings and for transport. Ambitious climate policy would see a doubling of energy share consumed as electricity by 2050, from 20% in 2020.

One of the challenges in providing universal access to electricity is distributing power to rural areas. Off-grid and mini-grid systems based on renewable energy, such as small solar PV installations that generate and store enough electricity for a village, are important solutions. Wider access to reliable electricity would lead to less use of kerosene lighting and diesel generators, which are currently common in the developing world.

Infrastructure for generating and storing renewable electricity requires minerals and metals, such as cobalt and lithium for batteries and copper for solar panels. Recycling can meet some of this demand if product lifecycles are well-designed, however achieving net zero emissions would still require major increases in mining for 17 types of metals and minerals. A small group of countries or companies sometimes dominate the markets for these commodities, raising geopolitical concerns. Most of the world's cobalt, for instance, is mined in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a politically unstable region where mining is often associated with human rights risks. More diverse geographical sourcing may ensure a more flexible and less brittle supply chain.

Hydrogen

Hydrogen gas is widely discussed in the context of energy, as an energy carrier with potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This requires hydrogen to be produced cleanly, in quantities to supply in sectors and applications where cheaper and more energy efficient mitigation alternatives are limited. These applications include heavy industry and long-distance transport.

Hydrogen can be deployed as an energy source in fuel cells to produce electricity, or via combustion to generate heat. When hydrogen is consumed in fuel cells, the only emission at the point of use is water vapour. Combustion of hydrogen can lead to the thermal formation of harmful nitrogen oxides. The overall lifecycle emissions of hydrogen depend on how it is produced. Nearly all of the world's current supply of hydrogen is created from fossil fuels. The main method is steam methane reforming, in which hydrogen is produced from a chemical reaction between steam and methane, the main component of natural gas. Producing one tonne of hydrogen through this process emits 6.6–9.3 tonnes of carbon dioxide. While carbon capture and storage (CCS) could remove a large fraction of these emissions, the overall carbon footprint of hydrogen from natural gas is difficult to assess , in part because of emissions (including vented and fugitive methane) created in the production of the natural gas itself.

Electricity can be used to split water molecules, producing sustainable hydrogen provided the electricity was generated sustainably. However, this electrolysis process is currently financially more expensive than creating hydrogen from methane without CCS and the efficiency of energy conversion is inherently low. Hydrogen can be produced when there is a surplus of variable renewable electricity, then stored and used to generate heat or to re-generate electricity. It can be further transformed into liquid fuels such as green ammonia and green methanol. Innovation in hydrogen electrolysers could make large-scale production of hydrogen from electricity more cost-competitive.

Hydrogen fuel can produce the intense heat required for industrial production of steel, cement, glass, and chemicals, thus contributing to the decarbonisation of industry alongside other technologies, such as electric arc furnaces for steelmaking. For steelmaking, hydrogen can function as a clean energy carrier and simultaneously as a low-carbon catalyst replacing coal-derived coke. Hydrogen used to decarbonise transportation is likely to find its largest applications in shipping, aviation and to a lesser extent heavy goods vehicles. For light duty vehicles including passenger cars, hydrogen is far behind other alternative fuel vehicles, especially compared with the rate of adoption of battery electric vehicles, and may not play a significant role in future.

Disadvantages of hydrogen as an energy carrier include high costs of storage and distribution due to hydrogen's explosivity, its large volume compared to other fuels, and its tendency to make pipes brittle.

Energy usage technologies

Transport

Transport accounts for 14% of global greenhouse gas emissions, but there are multiple ways to make transport more sustainable. Public transport typically emits fewer greenhouse gases per passenger than personal vehicles, since trains and buses can carry many more passengers at once. Short-distance flights can be replaced by high-speed rail, which is more efficient, especially when electrified. Promoting non-motorised transport such as walking and cycling, particularly in cities, can make transport cleaner and healthier.

The energy efficiency of cars has increased over time, but shifting to electric vehicles is an important further step towards decarbonising transport and reducing air pollution. A large proportion of traffic-related air pollution consists of particulate matter from road dust and the wearing-down of tyres and brake pads. Substantially reducing pollution from these non-tailpipe sources cannot be achieved by electrification; it requires measures such as making vehicles lighter and driving them less. Light-duty cars in particular are a prime candidate for decarbonization using battery technology. 25% of the world's  emissions still originate from the transportation sector.

Long-distance freight transport and aviation are difficult sectors to electrify with current technologies, mostly because of the weight of batteries needed for long-distance travel, battery recharging times, and limited battery lifespans.  Where available, freight transport by ship and rail is generally more sustainable than by air and by road. Hydrogen vehicles may be an option for larger vehicles such as lorries. Many of the techniques needed to lower emissions from shipping and aviation are still early in their development, with ammonia (produced from hydrogen) a promising candidate for shipping fuel. Aviation biofuel may be one of the better uses of bioenergy if emissions are captured and stored during manufacture of the fuel.

Buildings and cooking

Over one-third of energy use is in buildings and their construction. To heat buildings, alternatives to burning fossil fuels and biomass include electrification through heat pumps or electric heaters, geothermal energy, central solar heating, reuse of waste heat, and seasonal thermal energy storage. Heat pumps provide both heat and air conditioning through a single appliance. The IEA estimates heat pumps could provide over 90% of space and water heating requirements globally.

A highly efficient way to heat buildings is through district heating, in which heat is generated in a centralised location and then distributed to multiple buildings through insulated pipes. Traditionally, most district heating systems have used fossil fuels, but modern and cold district heating systems are designed to use high shares of renewable energy.

Cooling of buildings can be made more efficient through passive building design, planning that minimises the urban heat island effect, and district cooling systems that cool multiple buildings with piped cold water. Air conditioning requires large amounts of electricity and is not always affordable for poorer households. Some air conditioning units still use refrigerants that are greenhouse gases, as some countries have not ratified the Kigali Amendment to only use climate-friendly refrigerants.

In developing countries where populations suffer from energy poverty, polluting fuels such as wood or animal dung are often used for cooking. Cooking with these fuels is generally unsustainable, because they release harmful smoke and because harvesting wood can lead to forest degradation. The universal adoption of clean cooking facilities, which are already ubiquitous in rich countries, would dramatically improve health and have minimal negative effects on climate. Clean cooking facilities, e.g. cooking facilities that produce less indoor soot, typically use natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas (both of which consume oxygen and produce carbon-dioxide) or electricity as the energy source; biogas systems are a promising alternative in some contexts. Improved cookstoves that burn biomass more efficiently than traditional stoves are an interim solution where transitioning to clean cooking systems is difficult.

Industry
Over one-third of energy use is by industry. Most of that energy is deployed in thermal processes: generating heat, drying, and refrigeration. The share of renewable energy in industry was 14.5% in 2017—mostly low-temperature heat supplied by bioenergy and electricity. The most energy-intensive activities in industry have the lowest shares of renewable energy, as they face limitations in generating heat at temperatures over .

For some industrial processes, commercialisation of technologies that have not yet been built or operated at full scale will be needed to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions. Steelmaking, for instance, is difficult to electrify because it traditionally uses coke, which is derived from coal, both to create very high-temperature heat and as an ingredient in the steel itself. The production of plastic, cement, and fertilisers also requires significant amounts of energy, with limited possibilities available to decarbonise. A switch to a circular economy would make industry more sustainable as it involves recycling more and thereby using less energy compared to investing energy to mine and refine new raw materials.

Government policies

Well-designed government policies that promote energy system transformation can lower greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality simultaneously, and in many cases can also increase energy security and lessen the financial burden of using energy.

Environmental regulations have been used since the 1970s to promote more sustainable use of energy. Some governments have committed to dates for phasing out coal-fired power plants and ending new fossil fuel exploration. Governments can require that new cars produce zero emissions, or new buildings are heated by electricity instead of gas. Renewable portfolio standards in several countries require utilities to increase the percentage of electricity they generate from renewable sources.

Governments can accelerate energy system transformation by leading the development of infrastructure such as long-distance electrical transmission lines, smart grids, and hydrogen pipelines.  In transport, appropriate infrastructure and incentives can make travel more efficient and less car-dependent. Urban planning that discourages sprawl can reduce energy use in local transport and buildings while enhancing quality of life. Government-funded research, procurement, and incentive policies have historically been critical to the development and maturation of clean energy technologies, such as solar and lithium batteries. In the IEA's scenario for a net zero-emission energy system by 2050, public funding is rapidly mobilised to bring a range of newer technologies to the demonstration phase and to encourage deployment.

Carbon pricing (such as a tax on  emissions) gives industries and consumers an incentive to reduce emissions while letting them choose how to do so. For example, they can shift to low-emission energy sources, improve energy efficiency, or reduce their use of energy-intensive products and services. Carbon pricing has encountered strong political pushback in some jurisdictions, whereas energy-specific policies tend to be politically safer. Most studies indicate that to limit global warming to 1.5°C, carbon pricing would need to be complemented by stringent energy-specific policies. As of 2019, the price of carbon in most regions is too low to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement. Carbon taxes provide a source of revenue that can be used to lower other taxes or help lower-income households afford higher energy costs. Some governments, such as the EU and the UK, are exploring the use of carbon border adjustments. These place tariffs on imports from countries with less stringent climate policies, to ensure that industries subject to internal carbon prices remain competitive.

The scale and pace of policy reforms that have been initiated as of 2020 are far less than needed to fulfil the climate goals of the Paris Agreement. In addition to domestic policies, greater international cooperation is required to accelerate innovation and to assist poorer countries in establishing a sustainable path to full energy access.

Countries may support renewables to create jobs. The International Labour Organization estimates that efforts to limit global warming to 2 °C would result in net job creation in most sectors of the economy. It predicts that 24 million new jobs would be created by 2030 in areas such as renewable electricity generation, improving energy-efficiency in buildings, and the transition to electric vehicles. Six million jobs would be lost, in sectors such as mining and fossil fuels. Governments can make the transition to sustainable energy more politically and socially feasible by ensuring a just transition for workers and regions that depend on the fossil fuel industry, to ensure they have alternative economic opportunities.

Finance

Raising enough money for innovation and investment is a prerequisite for the energy transition. The IPCC estimates that to limit global warming to 1.5 °C, US$2.4 trillion would need to be invested in the energy system each year between 2016 and 2035. Most studies project that these costs, equivalent to 2.5% of world GDP, would be small compared to the economic and health benefits. Average annual investment in low-carbon energy technologies and energy efficiency would need to be six times more by 2050 compared to 2015. Underfunding is particularly acute in the least developed countries, which are not attractive to the private sector.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change estimates that climate financing totalled $681 billion in 2016. Most of this is private-sector investment in renewable energy deployment, public-sector investment in sustainable transport, and private-sector investment in energy efficiency. The Paris Agreement includes a pledge of an extra $100 billion per year from developed countries to poor countries, to do climate change mitigation and adaptation. However, this goal has not been met and measurement of progress has been hampered by unclear accounting rules. If energy-intensive businesses like chemicals, fertilizers, ceramics, steel, and non-ferrous metals invest significantly in R&D, its usage in industry might amount to between 5% and 20% of all energy used.

Fossil fuel funding and subsidies are a significant barrier to the energy transition. Direct global fossil fuel subsidies were $319 billion in 2017. This rises to $5.2 trillion when indirect costs are priced in, like the effects of air pollution. Ending these could lead to a 28% reduction in global carbon emissions and a 46% reduction in air pollution deaths. Funding for clean energy has been largely unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and pandemic-related economic stimulus packages offer possibilities for a green recovery.

References

Sources

External links

Climate change mitigation
Climate change policy
Emissions reduction
Energy economics
Environmental impact of the energy industry
Sustainable development

Sustainable energy


Shifting cultivation is an agricultural system in which areas of land are deforested and used  for a short time. Shifting cultivation is also known as slash and burn agriculture.

Shifting cultivation is practised in the thickly forested areas of Amazon basin, tropical Africa, parts of southeast Asia and northeast India. These are areas of heavy rainfall and quick regenerating of vegetation. Then they are left to grow back their natural vegetation, while the farmer moves to another area. It is practised in forested areas of the Amazon basin.It is one of the rudimentary forms of cultivation.

After cultivation a plot of land is cleared by felling the trees and burning them. The ashes are then mixed with the soil and crops like maize, yam, potatoes and cassava are grown. After the soil looses its fertility, the land is abandoned and the cultivator moves to a new plot.

Because the soil is no longer protected by the large trees in the rainforest system, it can be ruined easily by heavy rains and too much sun. One of the main problems with shifting cultivation is that the land is ruined after being used 3 or 4 times. Areas of land are abandoned and not prepared to grow again, and the rainforest becomes smaller with each preparation for a new piece of land. The land loses its fertility and so this is not a reliable form of cultivation.

Agriculture

Shifting cultivation


WJZ-TV is a CBS affiliate in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. The TV station started in 1948 as WAAM-TV and was changed to WJZ in 1957. The call letters were taken from the now WABC-TV station in New York City. It was formerly an ABC affiliate at the time of its launch until January 2, 1995 when it switched to CBS. The network used Eyewitness News for its newscasts until October 23, 2017, when it was replaced by WJZ News. Also, the station has the similar logo as used for WBZ-TV in Boston.

On August 9, 2018, WJZ opened a new studio with new artwork and slogan called "presenting our future."

On August 10, 2018, Nicole Baker of WJCL in Savannah, Georgia joined Linh Bui and Marty Bass on the station's morning newscast.

On August 20, 2018, WJZ expanded their morning newscasts to 4:30-7 a.m., becoming the last station in Baltimore to start its morning newscasts at 4:30 a.m.

On September 9, 2019, WJZ started a 7 p.m. newscast, moving the CBS Evening News to 6:30 p.m.

American television stations

WJZ-TV