Open Thread: Sustainability/Innovation Implications of the Meltdown
World Changing 21/11/2008 09:52
This morning in Amsterdam the media is reporting a financial "meltdown," with stocks back to the level they were before the Dot.com Boom and international credit markets "seizing."
Question: what are the implications of this meltdown for sustainability and social innovation?
What are the implications in terms of pursuing sustainability and social innovation? What new approaches are now possible? What new approaches are now necessary? What kinds of unexpected innovations and solutions may we see emerge?
Also, what are the implications for those trying to advance sustainability and social innovation? Clearly, there are many ways in which a business case can be made for various sustainability/S.I. answers, and there are strong arguments to be made for a bright green recovery, but in what ways will the meltdown change how do what we do (and how we sell what we do)?
I'd love to hear your thoughts.
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(Posted by Alex Steffen in Columns at 12:52 AM)
Happy birthday, ISS!
Futurismic 21/11/2008 04:39
Break out the cake and light the candles, the International Space Station is 10 years old today (November 20). (Via Phys.org.)
The Russians launched the first part of the station from Kazakhstan on November 20, 1998; the second piece was carried up by the space shuttle two weeks later, and the first astronauts and cosmonauts arrived two years after that. Since then it has travelled 1.3 billion miles, orbited 57,300 times, and hosted 167 people from 15 different countries. Currently there are ten people aboard, and with the new additions and improvements, courtesy of the current Endeavour mission, the ISS will soon be able to host six people for long-term missions, up from the current three.
I feel a song coming on. Feel free to join in.
“Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear ISS, happy birthday to you…”
(Or, if you prefer, watch this video of STS-126 Commander Chris Ferguson and Expedition 18 Commander Mike Fincke marking the event in orbit.)
(Image: NASA.)
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Campaign Round-Up: Carbon Regulations, Transportation, E-Waste and More
World Changing 21/11/2008 01:12
Every week, we're amazed by the number of smart contests, campaigns and other initiatives that organizations around the world bring to our attention. These roundup posts are a way for us to shout out the best of what's crossed our desks. -- The WC Editorial Team
FT Climate Change Challenge
The Financial Times and Forum for the Future have teamed up to search the globe for the most innovative new solution to the effects of climate change. That standout innovation could be a new technology, system or service, novel organization or business model. One winner will receive a $75,000 prize to help turn his or her idea into reality. Entries will be accepted from now until January 30, 2009, and the winner will be announced in April 2009.
Time to Lead
On December 11, 2008, European political leaders will decide what their response to global warming is going to be. Last year, they agreed to a 30 percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. Now, with the downturn in the economy, that deal is under threat and time is running out. As a result, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and World Wildlife Fund through the coordination of the Climate Action Network (CAN) formed the campaign Time to Lead. The movement urges European citizens and organizations to act by contacting local legislators and issuing support of the 30 percent reduction in Europes own carbon emissions by 2020.
Transportation For America
We need a bold agenda to fix our roads and bridges; build high speed trains; invest in public transit, infrastructure for biking and walking, and green innovation. Through this initiative, Transportation for America -- an impressive coalition of diverse interests -- invites concerned citizens to join them in calling on President-elect Barack Obama to commit to building a 21st Century transportation system. Their letter asks Obama to lead us in building complete streets; repairing our highways, bridges and transit systems; and pushing ahead with ready-to-go rail projects ... and to commit to that plan within his first 100 days in office. (Obama recently responded to the campaign's earlier call for an agenda: read his letter here.)
Take Back My TV
With only three months to go until the U.S. digital TV conversion, the Electronics TakeBack Coalition (ETBC) released its new TV Recycling Report Card, grading the major TV manufacturers on their efforts to establish national programs to take back and recycle their old TVs. ETBC estimates that tens of millions of old-style TVs, each of which includes 4-8 pounds of toxic metals, will be disposed in the near future. They could end up in our landfills, or be dumped overseas in developing countries, as profiled in a recent 60 Minutes report. The EPA estimates that there are 99 million unused TVs in storage in the U.S.
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(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Resource - Politics at 4:12 PM)
Geoengineering 'No Substitute' for Climate Targets, UK Minister Warns
World Changing 21/11/2008 01:03
Geoengineering is a topic we often discuss here on Worldchanging. And while we encourage careful debate concerning this topic, we are cautiously skeptical of any ideas that support tinkering with the intricate systems and delicate balances of the Earth. (Click here for a collection of Worldchanging discussions on Geoengineering.)
UK climate minister Joan Ruddock is wary of reliance on radical technology that could be used by some as an excuse to avoid meeting targets to reduce carbon emissions.
by James Randerson
Research into drastic solutions to climate change such as cloud seeding, sun shades in space and ocean fertilization risks hampering global climate negotiations by giving some countries an excuse for not agreeing to short-term emissions reductions, a UK government minister warned today.
The remarks by Joan Ruddock, a minister in the Department of Energy and Climate Change, appear to be a thinly veiled dig at the Bush administration, whose delegation attempted to insert a section into last year's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on developing technology to block sunlight and cool the planet. The proposed text referred to it as an "important insurance" against the impacts of climate change.
Speaking to MPs on the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills select committee, Ruddock was defending the government's unwillingness to fund research into so-called geoengineering large-scale, untested interventions that either soak up carbon dioxide or prevent sunlight warming the planet
"The concern is that people who don't want to enter into agreements that mean they have to reduce their emissions might see this as a means of doing nothing, of being able to say, 'science will provide, there will be a way out'," she said, "it could be used politically in that way which would be extremely unfortunate."
She added that funding research on such projects would deflect engineers away from more pressing solutions to climate change such as carbon capture and storage extracting carbon dioxide from the emissions put out by fossil fuel power stations and injecting it underground.
The science minister Lord Drayson added that many of the proposals such as launching huge mirrors into space, adding particles into the atmosphere to deflect light or seeding algal blooms in the ocean using iron fertilizer were extremely costly and had risks that were poorly understood. "Some of the projects that are being postulated under geoengineering do strike one as being in the realm of science fiction," he said.
But Steve Rayner, professor of science and civilization at the Said Business School in Oxford, pointed out that not all options were expensive. Some such as iron fertilization would be within reach of wealthy individuals - he called them, "a 'Greenfinger' rather than 'Goldfinger'."
Currently, the research councils which decide how public science funding is spent do not fund any projects into geoengineering directly, although the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council has allocated £3m for an "ideas factory" into potential projects next year.
According to Dr Phil Williamson at the University of East Anglia, who wrote the Natural Environment Research Council's submission to the select committee hearing, around £50m of the government's research spend is peripherally related to geo-engineering.
The select committee's chair, the liberal democrat MP Phil Willis, said he was disappointed with the government's position of adopting only a "watching brief" over the emerging field. "That seems to me a very very negative way of actually facing up to the challenge of the future," he said. "It's a very pessimistic view of emerging science and Britain's place within that emerging science community."
He said government should support many different avenues to tackling climate change. "There have to be plethora of solutions. Some of which we do not know whether they will work, but that is the whole purpose of science."
But the chief scientific advisor to the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Prof Bob Watson, said that funding should be focussed on the most immediate solutions. "I think the question is whether [geoengineering] is the highest priority at the moment given scarce resources.
"First [priority] is actually putting investment into current technologies and pre-commercial technologies such as carbon capture and storage," he said, "Clearly I think this is something which has to be move quickly. I would call it an Apollo-type programme... we need to go in parallel and try multiple approaches simultaneously." He advocated that the EU, US and Japan work together on research into CCS.
Some scientists and engineers will also be disappointed with the government's dismissal of the field. In the introduction to a collection of scientific papers published by the Royal Society in September on the topic Prof Brian Launder of the University of Manchester and Prof Michael Thompson of the University of Cambridge wrote: "While such geoscale interventions may be risky, the time may well come when they are accepted as less risky than doing nothing... There is increasingly the sense that governments are failing to come to grips with the urgency of setting in place measures that will assuredly lead to our planet reaching a safe equilibrium."
· This article was amended on Thursday November 20 2008 to clarify that the figure of £50m mentioned in the piece is the per annum spend by the UK's research councils, not the total government spend. It covers research on climate modeling, carbon capture and storage and 'geoengineering relevant' research work.
This piece originally appeared on The Guardian, for which James Randerson is a science correspondent.
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(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Climate Change at 4:03 PM)
New Thinkers Series: Joshua Wolfe and the GHG Team
World Changing 21/11/2008 00:12
On Tuesday, we had lunch with Joshua Wolfe, president and founding member of GHG Photos, a new collaborative organization of leading climate change photographers.
He told us a lot about his job as a climate change photographer, which from what we could tell, is one of the more fascinating jobs around. Whether he's climbing mountains with 90 lbs of sensitive equipment and a stash of protein bars; gazing down dizzily through the lens from the window of a prop jet; or performing yet another death-defying feat to get that perfect glacial shot, Wolfe's work has put him face-to-face with more of the changing landscape than most people will ever see. His heartbreakingly beautiful photographs are proof.
But Wolfe and the other GHG photographers have a larger mission. Through their photographs, they hope to help accelerate the conversation about climate change. The photographers routinely look to climate scientists, like those from Columbia University's Earth Institute, and veteran environmental journalists, like Andrew Revkin and Elizabeth Kolbert, to help tell the story of climate change more clearly through science. With images, science and words, they aim to give thousands of new people a better grasp of what is really happening, and why.
One of the biggest obstacles to the debate about climate change, Wolfe says, is the inequity in basic background knowledge of the issue. "If you're a reporter covering climate change, you always have to start at Point A," he says, and it's tough to introduce really intricate concepts when you're always explaining the basic idea. As a result, he worries that stories about climate change seem to many like a series of catastrophic and overwhelming events like major hurricanes and other natural disasters but it's harder to explain how they're all related, and to reveal the more insidious creep of planetary symptoms.
By seeking out images of a warming world, and of the science behind understanding and combating climate change, Wolfe and GHG hope to raise the bar of universal understanding, and to make knowledge not only more accessible, but more vivid.
Worldchanging's New Thinkers Series is our way of calling attention to the emerging leaders in a changing world. If you know of an individual or group that we should profile, send an email to Sarahk [at] worldchanging [dot] com.
Image credit: GHG Photos
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(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Worldchanging Interviews at 3:12 PM)
Buran space shuttle
Futurismic 20/11/2008 23:56
On November 15, 1988, as snowy clouds and winds were swirling around Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the Buran orbiter, attached to its giant Energia rocket, thundered into the gloomy early morning sky. Three hours and two orbits later, the 100-tonne bird glided back to a flawless landing just a few miles from its launch pad.
Despite the kind of strong winds that would rule out any launch or landing attempt by the US space shuttle, Buran touched down just 3m off the runway centreline.
And this planet-wide ballet was performed with its “pilots” safely on the ground.
[from the BBC][image from benjamin-nagel on flickr]
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TED's Chris Anderson honored by WITNESS tonight
TED 20/11/2008 23:24
Tonight, WITNESS' 4th annual Focus for Change benefit honors TED's Chris Anderson. WITNESS was founded by Peter Gabriel to harness the power of video to make change. Watch Peter Gabriel's TEDTalk about his work with WITNESS -- a powerful, personal story. And watch Chris Anderson's own TEDTalk to understand his vision for TED. Pictures and reports from the night are coming soon ...
Ecosystem Services of Tropical Forests to be Protected with Precedent-Setting Memorandum
World Changing 20/11/2008 22:11
Earlier this week California, Illinois and Wisconsin joined forces with six states in Brazil and Indonesia to fight climate change in an unprecedented way: the states will develop programs that will protect and restore tropical rainforests to ensure the safety of these essential carbon sinks.
According to a recent release from Marshall Maher of Conservation International, by signing the memorandum of understanding (MOU), the governors are stating that they are willing to pay for the service the tropical forests are providing: storing and absorbing atmospheric carbon dioxide.
"When a tropical forest is destroyed, it hurts everyone, no matter where they live," said Peter Seligmann, the chairman and CEO of Conservation International (CI)The US governors' leadership in this area will help stabilize the Earth's climate by providing effective incentives to conserve these threatened tropical ecosystems that are so critical for supporting the livelihoods of forest-dwelling communities and indigenous peoples."
Governments and institutions around the world are seeing the MOU as a hopeful sign that legislatures are finally willing to take action at the state level, and are optimistic that this proactive measure will encourage others to do the same.
"This would open the door for carbon credits derived from protecting forests to be used for compliance purposes under US climate legislation," said Toby Janson-Smith, the senior director for forest carbon markets in CI's Center for Environmental Leadership in Business. "International negotiators will see that it can be done in a credible and robust way, and that reducing emissions from deforestation should finally be included in the global climate change framework."
The Kyoto Protocol only allows for emissions trading for new or replanted forests. As far as carbon markets go, this has mostly resulted in voluntary financing for forest conservation. Last years U.N.-led negotiations in Bali, Indonesia, looked into forest protection as a possible strategy for climate change mitigation, but they have not yet agreed upon such a measure. This measure is unparalleled, for now. Many hope that this effort will provide a model for success that the U.N. can look to during next year's negotiations in Copenhagen.
Thanks to the Environmental Media Alliance for bringing this story to our attention.
Image credit: Flickr/Andy Hadfield.
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(Posted by Sarah Kuck in Biodiversity and Ecosystems at 1:11 PM)
In Construction. Recipes from Scarcity, Ubiquity and Excess
World Changing 20/11/2008 20:30
No proper building. Not even an architecture project that would give a hint of what its future headquarters would be like. That didn't prevent El Ḅlit, a brand new Contemporary Art Center, from opening its borrowed doors a few weeks ago in Girona.
For many Europeans used to flying on the cheap, Girona equals Barcelona or the Costa Brava. Ever since one of the most famous 'no frills' airlines chose the airport as one of their hubs, hordes of travelers land there, grab their luggage on the rotating belt and hop on an hour bus ride that brings them directly to Barcelona centre. They never get to see Girona. They miss a lovely medieval city. Its cathedral is celebrated as one of the finest specimens of Gothic architecture in Spain, there's a local tradition of climbing steps to kiss the butt of a stone lioness and people will invite you to eat chocolate flies. And now there's that new contemporary art space called El Bolit.
The Ḅlit was a game popular among children in Catalonia until the middle of the XXth century. "It's a metaphor for a dynamic center, one that is constantly moving and is pushed forward by people", explained its Director, Rosa Pera, to Spanish newspaper El Pais. The opening exhibition of the center proves that, if the center is still waiting for a proper building, it certainly doesn't lack a strong personality, a dauntless attitude and a very promising exhibition programme.
As the introduction to its current show, In Construction. Recipes from Scarcity, Ubiquity and Excess, states:Beyond the construction of a building, the creation of a contemporary art centre involves first and foremost the construction of a discourse, relationships and dialogue. This is why the first exhibition at the new centre focuses on processes that explore new methodologies to articulate narratives with the context as a starting point.
Retrospective Cirugeda. Image courtesy El Bolit
Heading the party is Santiago Cirugeda whose Recetas Urbanas (Urban recipes) are lined up for a retrospective made of models, videos and a brand new intervention. The work of the Sevillan architect fosters the dialogue between institutions and citizens in order to come up with better ideas susceptible to solve the issue of housing and public space management.
Retrospective Cirugeda. Image courtesy El Bolit
Santiago Cirugeda has sometimes been labeled as a "guerilla architect", "a subversive artist", "a urban hacker". His action/constructions are always adapted to the situation. Because his home town, Sevilla, would not authorize him to build a playground, Cirugeda obtained a dumpster permit and installed a playground on top of a dumpster container. In another intervention, he built and occupied a rooftop crane that passersby believed was there only to move building materials. He even posted on you tube a video to demo how to build a temporary flat in your rooftop. Cirugeda's recipes are cheap, fast, accessible to everyone and one of their key ingredient is that some of them exploit the gaps in administrative structure and official procedures. They intervene where the law falls short.
Santiago Cirugeda, Niu. Images courtesy El Bolit
Cirugeda also developed a site specific architectural intervention on the roof of Girona's Sala de La Rambla (where half of the exhibition is hosted.) The temporary infrastructure has been designed with the aim of hosting artistic activities as well as providing a working space for Spanish and international artists invited to work at El Bolit. El Niu (the Nest in catalan) is made of several containers and covered with branches and leaves.
Probably more famous to the new media art community, Michelle Teran opens the second chapter of the exhibition, the one dedicated to Ubiquity. The artist is showing her recipes for making and re-making narratives out of everyday experience inside Girona's intimate Capella de Sant Nicolau.
Screening of videos by Michelle Teran inside the Capella de Sant Nicolau. Image courtesy El Bolit
In her performance series titled Life: A User's Manual, the artist applies potential literature methodologies and uses video scanners to pick up images recorded on wireless security cameras (inside hotel lobby, private home, bank entrances, etc.) Scenes thus recorded in 17 cities around the world are projected in the exhibition space. I had seen the work of Teran in countless exhibitions but it was the first time i had the opportunity to see displayed next to one another not only the videos of her performances, but also the wide range of devices she uses to host the video scanners. Suddenly i realized the breadth and complexity of her work. I was particularly struck by A20 Recall, a collective exercise in cultural memory carried out by the artist over the course of three weeks with the help of residents of Quebec City. The result of the experiment is an online map of made of texts and images documenting situations that arose in response to the fortification of Quebec City during the FTAA Summit of the Americas in 2001.
Technology is used as a tool to discover the significance of the trivial and to re-endow hidden stories with meaning, while fostering a critical spirit among citizens from their immediate surroundings. This is active, collective voyeurism used to combat indifference and oblivion.
The third part of the exhibition is From excess, recipes for an architecture of accumulative thought by Catalan artist Jordi Mitja. The Catalan artist defines himself as an 'image collector'. He has carefully compiled and slightly edited images recorded by amateur film-makers in the 1970s in order to create a singular portrait of Emporda County in Catalonia.
The research suggests that the development of a legal drug that contains certain properties similar to those in marijuana might help prevent or delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. Though the exact cause of Alzheimer’s remains unknown, chronic inflammation in the brain is believed to contribute to memory impairment. Any new drug’s properties would resemble those of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the main psychoactive substance in the cannabis plant, but would not share its high-producing effects. THC joins nicotine, alcohol and caffeine as agents that, in moderation, have shown some protection against inflammation in the brain that might translate to better memory late in life. This following news THC could also be used as an antibiotic, and that cannabis is believed to be less dangerous than alcohol or tobacco. [from Physorg][image from Wikipedia]
Marijuana is teh good, episode 3
Futurismic 20/11/2008 19:02
Research suggests drugs similar to THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, may help reduce memory impairment due to Alzheimer’s, from Physorg:
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