It’s an unfortunate fact of our society that he who shouts
the most is likely to get results, regardless of the validity of the message.
Advocacy groups and politicians bank on that – frequently relying on negative
campaigns to crush opponents. Radical environmental groups have successfully
shut down several projects around the world simply by spreading fear to an
unknowing public, often times completely misrepresenting a new technology or
method.
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| Former President Bill Clinton. (CNBC) Video: Pres. Clinton One-On-One |
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton has done his research. He
has spent time post-presidency studying the negative effects of greenhouse
gases and alternatives to the world’s waste problem. As a result Clinton
endorses a combination of recycling and waste-to-energy practices and has set
up the Clinton Climate Initiative to forward his agenda.
“One of my obsessions is trying to close the landfills in
all these cities in the world by setting up systematic recycling of all the
plastic, metal and glass, taking the organic material and making fertilizer for
farmers who need it to increase their productivity and then burning the rest,
either to make steam heat for factories or to feed into the electrical grid,”
Clinton said in an interview with CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo.
Clinton’s solution is tiered and recognizes the fact that a
combination of methods needs to be used in order to achieve the end goal of
eliminating landfills. In addition to recycling and composting, Clinton backs
waste-to-energy practices as a way of diverting leftover trash that would be
otherwise headed towards a landfill.
Clinton’s endorsement of waste-to-energy technology is
significant because of his status as a leader in the environmental sector. By
clearly articulating the role waste-to-energy projects play into the bigger
picture he may be able to unite a fractured environmental community.
Better BTU Take: Regardless of your political allegiance, Bill
Clinton gets this one right. His well-researched views are bipartisan and
something everyone should get on board with.
Video: Pres. Clinton One-On-One
More Information: Clinton Climate Initiative
Dear Mr Clinton,
ReplyDeleteIt is my utmost pleasure to read about your blog on an apparently least bothered topic " Climate change impact of Municipal Solid Waste" but i would rather add municipal sewerage as well.
I hereby, fully support your cause by heart and soul; that due to ever increase in world population; the generation of Municipal and industrial solids, effluents and ultimate GHG emission increased proportionally.
The time waste experts would have selected landfill disposal path as the only available option then. But with continuous research and awareness; we have now several environmentally sound as well as value added technologies especially accepted for developing countries.
Your cause is so strong that it must be preached like a "RELIGION" throughout the world (i already stand tall here in Pakistan, an avid supporter of your cause and qualified environmentalist to implement cause in the country where dumb/ greedy decision makers want to build a landfill).
In line to ideally managing MSW is Composting and or biogasification, variety (5) of organic solid and liquid fertilizers, recyclable plastics and variety of environmentally sound (~ zero emissions) waste to electricity generation options, like combine heat and power (CHP) generation or plasma technologies where nothing left to be disposed in the landfill (0-waste technologies).
I would rather strictly suggest to "Re MINE" the "TIME BOMB" landfills around the world, recover the variety of value added materials and bioremediate the target soils as well as polluted ground water aquifers and make this law mandatory worldwide to stop future landfill construction at war basis.
The author is a solid, liquid, gaseous and W2E expert having a confident 21 over years experience locally as well as abroad; he may be contacted at: wastechnologies@yahoo.co.uk/ Cell Phone+92 300 6363 724. via LinkedIn
Mian,
DeleteBetter BTU appreciates your feedback on the blog we wrote about former U.S. President Bill Clinton and his views on the state of our environment and the need to reduce the number of landfills by combining recycling and waste-to-energy practices. Please feel free to read more about his work on the links provided and contact his foundation.