Si t'es planète - Blog Littoral et Environnement : février 2008

Le réseau Cohérence, clé de voûte d'un réseau d'associations qui défendent et souhaitent promouvoir un développement durable et solidaire !

« Le réseau Cohérence est aussi une force de proposition, en faisant la promotion de solutions alternatives économiquement rentables, écologiquement saines et socialement équitables : économie solidaire, commerce équitable, pédagogie du développement durable... »

Ce réseau est impliqué dans les sujets d'aujourd'hui...Protéger le secteur primaire, les échanges qui respectent l'économie, les éléments naturels, les acteurs, les consommateurs.... Répondre aux besoins de nos sociétés actuelles mais en pensant à celles de demain... Pas d'individualisme...
Un monde solidaire qui vit en harmonie avec les intérêts économiques et la nature...

Est-ce possible ? Cohérent dîtes-vous ?... OUI, c'est Cohérence qui le dit...

Pour preuve, c'est cohérence qui a crée un outil inédit pour juger la capacité des communes à prendre des mesures nécessaires pour défendre ce développement durable et solidaire :

« Le baromètre du développement durable durable »

 
Un outil de plus de 100 questions auxquelles devraient se soumettre les communes pour vérifier leur état d'engagement et dirent sincèrement leur appartenance au développement durable !

Plus d'informations ?

http://www.barometredudeveloppementdurable.org/coherence.php
http://www.reseau-coherence.org

Agir pour l'Environnement et le Développement Durable (AE2D)
Adresse : Locaux associatifs - 10 rue Hegel 29200 Brest
Tel : 02 98 49 53 92   -   Fax : 02 98 49 53 92
Voici une belle association que nous mettons à l'honneur aujourd'hui dans notre belle région de l'OUEST... AE2D...
Une association préoccupée par la qualité du cadre de vie, en se préoccupant des énergies, des réseaux de transport, de l'aménagement ...
Comment passer à côté de sujets tels que la protection naturelle de nos beaux espaces, des zones humides si riches en Bretagne, et de la qualité de la faune et de la flore...

Le but de cette association est d'informer tout public car nous sommes tous concernés par cette belle expression qu'est le « développement durable ! Alors rien ne les arrête : des expositions, des conférences, des publications...Tous les supports sont utilisés pour rendre l'information accessible au plus grand nombre !

Et n'oublions pas que AE2D a été lauréate des trophées bretons du Développement Durable en 2006 et 2007.

Plus d'informations sur AE2D ?
 http://www.ae2d.infini.fr  

Prochain rendez vous de AE2D : 22 Mars 2008
Assemblée Générale d'AE2D à 15h00, Locaux associatifs de la Cavale Blanche, 10  rue Hegel à Brest.

Un portail d'informations sur l'environnement en Bretagne... traitant des aspects des littoraux et de l'environnement grâce à tous les acteurs sensibilisés par l'environnement, l'aide de l'Union Européenne et celle du contrat Etat-région...
Un site très intéressant pour vous permettre de mieux cerner les spécificités régionales bretonnes...

 Et oui, il n'y a pas que des belles spécificités régionales culturelles... Même sur le plan environnemental, la Bretagne se distingue par des actions spécifiques liées à la protection de son espace naturel pour une meilleure visibilité économique et touristique demain...

Alors rendez vous sur le site :

http://www.bretagne-environnement.org/

Vous y trouverez un certain nombre de thématiques dont celles-ci...

The end of last week, the Conseil Général of the Loire-Atlantique, spoke about the security around the canal de Nantes à Brest and took decisions to maintain the banks of the canal.

 Being students aware of the environment and as citizens from Loire-Atlantique, it is our responsability to protect our région. This is the reason why we are interested in the canal de Nantes à Brest. A meeting about it took place few days ago.

       « An accident has been avoided, during the previous summer, at the banks of the canal, around Guerlédan », explains Monique Le Clézio, one of the elected representatives: « Kids were playing near the canal, a place where the banks are not maintained clean and safe, they could not see the river and nearly fell down. »

       The maintenance of this part of the canal had to be assumed by the Région and the département of Morbihan: it is their responsability to keep it safe. It is necesary as well, to exchange information between local government authorities to avoid accidents.
      
The conseil général will act, especially at the intersection of the lake of Guérlédan, where the canal is dirty and where some tourism access is not possible due to access problems.
       The challenge for local government authorities is now to find financial means to act quickly and efficiently knwing that the mission is not easy. Indeed, this nice place is becoming a dangerous waste reception centre.

Julien Brigand -Sup 3 - Iseg Nantes

Since the industrial revolution of the middle of the 18th century, and more particularly since 1950, human activity has caused an exponential increase in the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. This has contributed to the deregulation of the natural phenomenon of the greenhouse effect and resulted in an increase of the average temperature in the atmosphere, and global warming.

Moreover, our consumption of energy rests on limited resources. If we continue to consume like we do today, there are likely to be soon a shortage of oil and gas, which will be accompanied by increasingly high prices for these resources.

In this context we have decided to work on a project that will reduce C02 emissions and consequently use removable energy. This is the harnessing of wind power.

The modern aero-generators, called windmills, have profited from technological advancements since a few years. They are reliable and effective and allow a decentralized electric production, without pollution, or gas emission with greenhouse effect. Their installation involves a dialogue with the populations involved and affected by these projects.

How is it done?
A wind mill is a huge contraption; it is a large-sized machine, perched very high. This high size is the result of the technological advances achieved in the ten last years in order to improve the electric output and competitiveness of the wind mills.

A wind mill includes the following elements:
- a massive reinforced concrete base,
- a mast containing the equipment such as the transformers, - a nacelle ensuring mechanical/electric conversion, - and finally a rotor and the blades

How does it work?

• 1/ The rotation of the blades:
Under the effect of the wind, the propeller, also called rotor, is started. Its blades turn.
The rotor is located at the end of a mast because the winds blow stronger at higher altitudes. According to the type of wind mills, the mast can vary between 10 and 100 m in height.
The rotor comprises of 3 blades, measuring between 5 and 90 m in diameter.

• 2/ Electrical production:
The propeller involves an axis in the nacelle, called tree, connected to an alternator.
Thanks to the energy provided by the rotation of the axis, the alternator produces an alternating electric current.

• 3/ The adaptation of the tension:
A transformer located inside the mast raises the tension of the electric current produced by the alternator so that it can be more easily transported. To be able to start, a wind mill requires a minimal speed of wind from approximately 10 to 15 km/h. For questions of security, the wind mill automatically stops functioning when the wind exceeds 90 km/h. Optimal speed is of 50 km/h.

Some interesting statistics

An average modern wind mills  have the following characteristics:
- Height of the nacelle: 80 m
- Diameter of the rotor: 70 m
- Diameter of the mast: 4 m
- Total mass: 300 tons
- Nominal output: 2 MW (2 million Watts)

Contributed by Francois Le Naoures, SUP 3, ISEG

By ratifying the protocol of Kyoto in 1997, France committed itself to the international plan reducing greenhouse gas emissions. One aspect of this treaty deals with the use and the development of renewable energy sources such as wind power generation.

The Loire Atlantique region, in the West of France is committed to this development effort. Although,  it has currently only two wind mill farms under operation (in Erbray-Sudan and Derval-Lusanger), the region hopes  to make up this delay in the near future. At least sixty projects of installation of wind mills are currently being studied and more than 110 building permits have already been granted.

A project of wind mills is underway in La Chapelle-sur-Erdre, in close proximity to the city of Nantes. It is still too early to know the number and the size of the windmills. Studies are currently being carried out on two sites: Les Harmonnières and Le hameau des Quatre-vents. Although the final choice has not been made yet, several reports have stated that the site of Harmonnières is the most likely to be favoured since negotiations with the private owners being conclusive.

Dossier finalized this summer:

The wind mills must be established in 2010-2011. According to a regulation of July 2007, this project must be integrated in the wind development area (ZDE) that Nantes metropolis sets up. After this stage, and the end of the studies, the Chaplain project will be finalized for this summer.

The canal de Nantes à Brest is one of the visible natural links of a Bretagne dominated by the city of Nantes, This canal although a precursor to modern fluvial navigationis facing sevearl environmental challenges. In this context, many local individuals and NGOs are are fightingto save it from pollution and thus save the small parts of natural beauty in an ever-growing urban jungle that is a menace to their region.

The construction of the canal dateing from Napoleonian times is impressive: 360km, 236 dry docks, 8 canalised rivers to provide water to the canal. Approachable by flat bottom barges, by foot, by bike or with the possibility of riding horses on its banks, the canal has always been a site for educative, relaxing or romantic interludes.

Two centuries later, the canal is part of the economy and of the life for numerous people although one of the main activities - tourism- is now threatened.

Conservation efforts:  The first mission to ensure for all the nature enthusiasts at this canal  is to ensure improvement in the quality of the water, This, in order to ensure the eco-system and the authenticity of this touristic and cultural place. This is the action that makes associations and local Government bodies united in their fight against pollution along the canal.

For more more information:
www.jedecouvrelafrance.com/f-199.loire-atlantique-canal-nantes-brest.html
www.azureva.com/bretagne/magazine/bzh_mag_canal.php3
www.tourisme-pays-redon.com/sport_loisir/randonnee_canal.htm

Submitted by Julien Brigant, SUP3, ISEG Nantes

Wales is a  part of the United Kingdom. This country is situated on the south-west of the island of Great Britain. Because of its unique geographic location; being bordered by by England to the east, the Bristol Channel to the south and the Irish Sea to the west and north, it is not easily accessible from the Continent.

The above facts had long ensured that the Welsh country was unknown to most Continental Europeans and the outside world for a long time. However, over time, Wales has set up a lot of Partnerships with other countries. Thanks to that, they have begun attracting people desirous of discovering their history and their monuments.

Furthermore along with International partnerships, they have been attracting several Multinational companies to invest in Welsh cities. For example we can think about the twinning between Nantes, a French city, and Cardiff the capital of Wales. This twinning was made to develop cultural and economic exchanges between the two countries.

Today we can observe, (despite the ignorance (indifference, perhaps?) of a large segment of the local population about the twinning), the effects of the the exchanges between the two cities. One of these observable effects is the transport links that have been set up to link the two cities directly (planes, ferries, trains).

Reference: Friends of the Earth website
 
Submitted by Philippe Cantin, SUP 3, ISEG Nantes