Good Computer, Bad Computer
The Global eSustainability Initiative has released a report showing that while information and communications technologies (ICT) use a lot of energy and have an impact on global warming, that impact might not be negative. It is true that electronic equipment worldwide is about on par with aviation for CO2 emissions with 830 million tonnes (or 2% of total), but the other side of the coin is that these technology could help avoid 7.8 billion tonnes of CO2 emission read more »
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The Global eSustainability Initiative has released a report showing that while information and communications technologies (ICT) use a lot of energy and have an impact on global warming, that impact might not be negative. It is true that electronic equipment worldwide is about on par with aviation for CO2 emissions with 830 million tonnes (or 2% of total), but the other side of the coin is that these technology could help avoid 7.8 billion tonnes of CO2 emission read more »
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Photo by sgoralnick on flickr
The following guest post was submitted by Annabelle Gurwitch, host of WA$TED on Planet Green.
If you're like me, meaning you're a sentient b...
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If ever a picture told a story...
No matter what curve fitting equation you use to project a trend; no matter what mental model you frame this chart with; no matter what your employer demands, you can see where this slippery slope is heading. Up....
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Airship design circa 1817
Why do I feel like what I’m about the present isn’t real—that’s it’ll come out that it’s really just a big sociology experiment on the gullibility of bloggers?
We covered Darren Campbell’s Turtle Airships about eight months ago, but Mr Campbell has just issued another pronouncement about the great turtle airship future that is so (cough) enthusiastic that I am compelled to share it. I’ll let the original text work its magic.
...
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Econ 101: Subsidies
One of the many problems with subsidies is that they are almost impossible to repeal. That's because they usually give big benefits to a small group of people at a relatively small cost to a huge number of people. For example, corn-ethanol subsidies are going to be very hard to phase out because they might mean hundreds of thousands of dollars to farmers, while their cost is spread over the rest of the population and almost invisible. Farmers are a lot more read more »
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photo: Getty Images
Subsidies may be distorting the true price of oil in the United States, and the price of crude continues to rise unchecked but that won’t slow global demand for oil over the next few years—even if demand in the developing world is contracting—according to the International Energy Agency.
The Paris-based organization predicts that demand is expected to grow by 1.6% per year between 2008 and 2013, while non-Opec supply will increase at only 0.5% pe read more »
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How do you go deep green with a heavy airline habit? That was my question as I dove into week 4 of my quest to reexamine my lifestyle habits and possibly shed a bit of green guilt. Helping me along in my quest is the TreeHugger book by Graham Hill and Meaghan O'Neill Ready, Set, Green. But the answer to my question was you can't...go deep green, that is, if you are going to continue to fly.
Cold turkey car cutting
Obviously, as the book states, most of us want to fin read more »
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Duke Energy power plant (not in North Carolina, sorry) photo by Mike Baird.
Duke Energy has been doing a lot lately to try to green its image: expanding its wind development, installing solar panels across North Carolina, talking up transitioning to a low carbon economy. However the fact remains ...
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When news came that a student named Ryan Morgan at North Pocono High School near Scranton, PA had started distributing CFL bulbs in a bid to raise awareness of global warming and what folks can do about it, I must admit that I was impressed, and felt not a small pull of nostalgia as well. For it was not too long ago that I found myself doing almost the exact same thing with Mr. Luna's Bright Idea, and asking Oprah to lend a hand.
...
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Image: Kudzu weeds engulf a light pole by a47nn on Flickr
Weeds: are they troublesome invaders, ecological opportunists or key to tackling a potential global food crisis? According to research done by weed ecologists, our ambiguous relationship to these resilient plants could soon change in a world where carbon dioxide levels are rising – and where weeds could grow to oversized proportions (think 12-foot tall lambs-quarters, a common weed).
Of course, “weed” can be a rather subj read more »
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Weeds: are they troublesome invaders, ecological opportunists or key to tackling a potential global food crisis? According to research done by weed ecologists, our ambiguous relationship to these resilient plants could soon change in a world where carbon dioxide levels are rising – and where weeds could grow to oversized proportions (think 12-foot tall lambs-quarters, a common weed).
Of course, “weed” can be a rather subj read more »
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Tesla Electric Car Factory in the Bay Area
This story is still breaking, but here's what we know so far: The Tesla Motors electric car factory that was supposed to be built in New Mexico will instead be built in California, in the Bay Area, thanks to help from governor Schwarzenegger (a $9 million incentive package is mentioned by TechCrunch).
Whitestar Electric Sedan now "Model S"
From the start, we knew that Tesla's plan was to start at the top of the market w read more »
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How not to do it: Oil palm plantation in Indonesia. Photo by Achmad Rabin Taim.
Can anyone think of the exact moment when the biofuel backlash first reached its tipping point? In any case, it seems like, finally, people are realizing that liquid biofuels aren’t quite the green panacea they were once made out to be. Not to demonize them, it’s just that (like most things) there are plusses and minuses to each feedstock and production method and these need to be carefully consider read more »
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Image from Ben Tubby
Indonesia and the Philippines need help. And not because they lack the geothermal energy capacity: No, quite simply, it's because they're having trouble accessing it. The two Asian countries, both of which are located in the geothermally-active Pacific Ring of Fire, are increasingly turning to this vast, untapped source of power as rising oil prices and a dilapidated power infrastructure begin to exact their toll on their economies.
According to read more »
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Some of you may (understandably) be wondering why scientists haven't always focused on short-term climate predictions. Well, perhaps counterintuitively, that's because predicting what the cl...
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Having reported in an earlier journalistic lifetime on many of Hewlett-Packard and other electronics companies' efforts to green their products, it was a bit disappointing to go through the latest Greenpeace Guide To Green Electronics and see no one company can claim to be outstanding in designing, packaging, and safely recycling or disposing of the gadgets we all so rely on. Winner Sony Ericsson, for example, only recycles between 1 and 3% of its offerings.
Wii not green read more »
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In a case of civic action that’s gone way too far, student protesters at Berkeley living in trees for the last 18 months to protest the removal of an oak grove on campus to make way for athletic fields have begun throwing human excrement at arborists intent on cutting the supply lines they have set up to move in food and water as protesters have cycled in and out during a protracted court case.
But with supply lines cut they’re basically huddled in one tree, informing University offi read more »
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But with supply lines cut they’re basically huddled in one tree, informing University offi read more »
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Who says coal and environmentalists -- even the most hardcore take-no-prisoners kind of activists -- can't get along? Or at least listen to each other. And who says that just because coal companies can rally under deceptively-titled front groups like Americans For Balanced Energy Choices, green groups do the same?
That's exactly what happened this week, when members of Greenpeace crashed a major coal conference, Coal USA 2008 -- by co-sponsoring the event under the butto read more »
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If you needed another reason to hit up Citysol, New York's free sustainability-themed art and music event, here it is: Dan Deacon, the inimitable surrealist trash-synth community-building music man is playing tonight. He finishes up a day of concerts, comedians, green art installations and panel discussions. It continues tomorrow too.
For instance, at 6 tonight, there's a discussion on sustainable design with the chief of design for NYC parks; tomorrow, two discussions wi read more »
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