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Nature_and_Environment.15 |
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Eco-Social Culture |
{Nature_and_Environment.15.180}: David {david1961} Thu, 28 Feb 2008 09:37:58 CST (2 lines)
The TED Conference continues today through Saturday. http://www.ted.com/programs/2008
{Nature_and_Environment.15.181}: ... {wren1111} Tue, 25 Mar 2008 11:58:09 CDT (HTML)
{Nature_and_Environment.15.182}: Suzanne Griffith {sggriffith} Tue, 25 Mar 2008 15:31:23 CDT (20 lines)
from Wren's link: <<a 'passive house' where no active system is needed to maintain a comfortable temperature. Super-insulated with foam and lagging up to 30cm thick, the flat is triple-glazed and externally sealed. Fresh air enters at ceiling level and is sucked out through a funnel on one wall. 'The heat from the warm air going out is transferred to the cold air coming in,' says Meinhard, Freiburg's chief architect and a world authority on passive houses. So far, his company has built about 100. Opening a cupboard, he shows me how the cold and warm ducts meet in a knot of corrugated silver piping. The result? An almost constant temperature without the need for heating - because warmth is provided by cooking, lighting, even warm-blooded mammals. 'My wife and I produce 100W of energy each, the dog another 20W,' says Meinhard, bending down to check the animal is still breathing. 'If we hold a dinner party, we have to open the windows.' By his calculation, the entire flat could be heated with 30 candles.>> I like it! And finally pets are earning their keep.
{Nature_and_Environment.15.183}: ... {wren1111} Mon, 21 Apr 2008 18:53:00 CDT (HTML)
The Real Good Life: An Entire Village Turns Against Supermarkets
& Grows Its Own Food (Martin, Hampsire, Britain)
"http://www.fourwinds10.com/siterun_data/environment/agriculture/news
.php?q=1208370363"
{Nature_and_Environment.15.184}: William Lynn {billcorno} Tue, 22 Apr 2008 21:25:37 CDT (4 lines)
Kind of like preaching to the choir here at the New Cafe. More good stuff to think about global warming... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDsIFspVzfI
{Nature_and_Environment.15.185}: Suzanne Griffith {sggriffith} Tue, 22 Apr 2008 22:19:22 CDT (4 lines)
That was good, but he neglects the fact that cleaning up the environment would not only deter climate change, but would also create better air and water quality, promote biodiversity, and a number of other things that are good for human existence.
{Nature_and_Environment.15.186}: James Files {riverrat} Wed, 23 Apr 2008 09:48:51 CDT (8 lines)
Under the header of "think globally, act locally". I intend to try to get my local high school to ban students driving their cars to school. Exceptions (athletes, band, kids working after school) and policies (drop offs by parents traveling to work OK, parents doing drop off and pick up would not?) would be decided on by a democratically elected environmental board of students and their votes on exceptions would be made public at their monthly review.
{Nature_and_Environment.15.187}: William Lynn {billcorno} Fri, 25 Apr 2008 20:29:51 CDT (10 lines)
Leave it to this place to embellish on the theme. Good luck with getting high school students to give up their "rides." I think some of them are progressive enough, but I'll bet lots of them think of it as freedom, even though it's freedom to pollute. As to the positive effects of taking a stand against global climate change, creating a new economy would have far-reaching impact on jobs and community development. Great possibilities! And having clean air and water to work and play in is all the more reason to.
{Nature_and_Environment.15.188}: James Files {riverrat} Sat, 26 Apr 2008 22:28:13 CDT (3 lines)
I plan to start with the board of education. I know it won't work to start with the kids and hold our little hope from the top. But it is worth a shot.
{Nature_and_Environment.15.189}: .... {wren1111} Wed, 11 Jun 2008 23:25:55 CDT (HTML)
{Nature_and_Environment.15.190}: Suzanne Griffith {sggriffith} Thu, 12 Jun 2008 01:20:56 CDT (2 lines)
I like their idea of planting vacant lots. You have to watch out for varmints, though!
{Nature_and_Environment.15.191}: ICSU Life-support Project {bshmr} Wed, 22 Oct 2008 12:57:35 CDT (24 lines)
At least some bodies are doing something. I was curious about Mozambique < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozambique & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maputo,_Mozambique > plus < http://www.icsu.org/index.php > http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-10/icfs-iln101608.php ICSU launches new program to understand the human impact on Earth's life-support systems Global scientific community approves new international research program to fill in some of the knowledge gaps identified in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment [ This release is available in French. ] Maputo, Mozambique—The global scientific community has approved a new international research programme designed to understand the relationship between humans and the ecosystems that provide essential life-supporting services. The decision was made today at the General Assembly of the International Council for Science (ICSU) and should help provide the scientific knowledge needed to ensure the sustainable use of our valuable ecosystems. ...
{Nature_and_Environment.15.192}: Ecological Credit Crunch {bshmr} Thu, 06 Nov 2008 09:41:01 CST (19 lines)
These analysis have always made perfect sense to me. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081105192704.htm Looming Ecological Credit Crunch? ScienceDaily (Nov. 5, 2008) — The world is heading for an ecological credit crunch as human demands on the world's natural capital reach nearly a third more than earth can sustain. ... The report, published every two years, has since 1998 become widely accepted as an statement of earth's ability to remain a “living planet”. In 2008, it adds for the first time new measures of global, national and individual water footprint to existing measures of the Ecological Footprint of human demand on natural resources and the Living Planet Index, a measure of the state of nature. ...
{Nature_and_Environment.15.193}: Tonu Aun {tonu} Thu, 06 Nov 2008 10:42:01 CST (HTML)
{Nature_and_Environment.15.194}: ... {wren1111} Wed, 19 Nov 2008 23:43:13 CST (HTML)
The crisis we are facing today arises from the fact that there is almost no more social, cultural, natural, and spiritual capital left to convert into money. Centuries, millennia of near-continuous money creation has left us so destitute that we have nothing left to sell.
...
In the face of the impending crisis, people often ask what they can
do to protect themselves. "Buy gold? Stockpile canned goods? Build a
fortified compound in a remote area? What should I do?" I would like
to suggest a different kind of question: "What is the most beautiful
thing I can do?"
{Nature_and_Environment.15.195}: James Files {riverrat} Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:03:48 CST (3 lines)
The silver lining to this financial collapse is that manufacturing is scaling back and when they scale back up, on many counts, the retool will be greener.
{Nature_and_Environment.15.196}: James River Martin {rivertree} Mon, 26 Jan 2009 14:21:27 CST (11 lines)
Folks are buing less stuff, which is good for the envoronment/ecosystems but the downside is that too many people are loosing their livelihoods, which is to say access to things genuinely needed, e.g., food, shelter, medical care. The trick will be to create an economic system which meets peoples real needs without requiring overproduction and overconsumption. Don't look to Washington DC for evidence of people working on that problem. I don't see any such evidence. But surely it is a problem with a need for a large collaborative effort involving millions!
{Nature_and_Environment.15.197}: ... {wren1111} Sat, 14 Feb 2009 02:16:04 CST (HTML)
"http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22333"
The cataclysm of the American automobile industry has been an odd combination, so far, of immediate and historical anxieties. The government loan of $13.4 billion to General Motors and Chrysler in December 2008 was presented by the outgoing administration as an unsolicited gift, lest a "disorderly liquidation of American auto companies" should "leave the next President to confront the demise of a major American industry in his first days of office." It was restricted explicitly to the very short term: "The firms must use these funds to become financially viable.... In the event that firms have not attained viability by March 31, 2009, the loan will be called."[1]
But there are also intimations of the deep past and the distant
future. The present and impending disorder of the automobile
companies is a reminder, even more than the decline of the housing
and banking industries, of the desolation of the Great Depression.
It is a reminder, too, of economic history, or of the rise and
decline of industrial destinies. When the listing of the "Fortune
500" began in 1955, General Motors was the largest American
corporation, and it was one of the three largest, measured in
revenues, every year until 2007.[2] GM was the "largest industrial
corporation in the world," in its own description of 1989, and it
was engaged, at the time, in "the most massive reindustrialization
program ever attempted."[3] It was an incarnation of American
economic change, as a GM vice-president suggested during the earlier
automotive crisis of 1973: "To say that a company that has
successfully grown over a period of 65 years—a period marked by two
world wars and a major economic depression—will suddenly be unable
to adapt to the changing challenge...flies in the face of common
sense"; it "denies history."[4]
{Nature_and_Environment.15.198}: ... {wren1111} Tue, 17 Feb 2009 13:49:50 CST (HTML)
"http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/2009/02/social-collapse-best-
practices.html"
{Nature_and_Environment.15.199}: ... {wren1111} Wed, 01 Apr 2009 18:05:26 CDT (HTML)
{Nature_and_Environment.15.200}: {bshmr} Sat, 23 May 2009 12:46:12 CDT (30 lines)
A diversion for those into international comparasion or a so-what-else-is-news (SWEIN??). FWIW, I downloded and am continuing to peruse the full reports (as PDFs). The graphics (charts and tables) are well defined and meaningful; Don't be put off by the PageCount, the Pages are 'half-height'. As expected the USAns and Brits are similar yet differ from Canadians, except for flaunted energy-hog lifestyle. South American stats a surprise and concern. The 'scatter diagrams' in the 'Market Basket' report priceless <g>. http://www.livescience.com/environment/090521-using-less.html Environment Study: Consumers Are Using Less By Lori Brown, Earth911; posted: 22 May 2009 10:59 am ET [quote]The world's consumers are spending less and paying more attention to their environmental impact, due in part to the economic crisis and the need to save on energy costs, says a new study conducted by the National Geographic Society and GlobeScan. ... To take an abbreviated version of the Greendex survey and determine your impact as a consumer, visit the Greendex Calculator < http://www.nationalgeographic.com/greendex/calculator.html > , or take the Knowledge Quiz < http://www.nationalgeographic.com/greendex/quiz.html requires J.v.Scr.pt Enabled >, to see how you stack up in comparison to consumers from other countries.[/quote]
{Nature_and_Environment.15.201}: Richard Basham {bshmr} Sun, 02 Aug 2009 12:57:21 CDT (8 lines)
Intriquing diversion or shopping. http://www.treehugger.com [Newsy PR] http://planetgreen.discovery.com [Personal advocacy] http://www.terracycle.net [Charity fund-raising tie-in via local merchants; loads of DIY, etc..]
{Nature_and_Environment.15.202}: Richard Basham {bshmr} Sat, 08 Aug 2009 14:23:31 CDT (24 lines)
These descriptions apply to humans as well as the 'history of civilization', or so it seems to me. For example, 'globilization', which expands our eco-web, destabilizes while isolated primative tribes tend not to. I am aware that I infer that, in reality, 'range' indicates 'diversity', ... . From a 'systems/modelling' POV, the human species could modify 'behaviors' to stabilize their ecosystems (habitats). Related: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17569-consumerism-is-eating-the-future.html which also plugs Ecological Society conference that maybe of interest to some. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090806141708.htm Science News Scientists Find Universal Rules For Food-web Stability ScienceDaily (Aug. 7, 2009) — New findings, published in the journal Science, conclude that food-web stability is enhanced when many diverse predator-prey links connect high and intermediate trophic levels. The computations also reveal that small ecosystems follow other rules than large ecosystems: differences in the strength of predator-prey links increase the stability of small webs, but destabilize larger webs. ...
{Nature_and_Environment.15.203}: {bshmr} Sun, 07 Feb 2010 21:38:42 CST (16 lines)
Great illustrations for appealing hyped design possibility. http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/02/green-boat-concept-makes-more-energy-than-it-uses.php Boat Concept Produces More Energy than it Uses by Stephen Messenger; Porto Alegre, Brazil on 02. 7.10; Cars & Transportation [quote]Last year, we told you about Vincent Callebaut's amazing 128-floor vertical farm concept to green the New York City skyline. Now, he's moved his eco-friendly designs to the waterways with the Physalia--a floating garden transport vessel that not only produces enough energy to sustain itself, but generates a bit to spare. In addition to being carbon-neutral, the boat is also be capable of purifying its own water and growing its own vegetables, all while educating its passengers on sustainability. Ship's ahoy! ...[/quote]
{Nature_and_Environment.15.204}: James Files {riverrat} Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:41:10 CST (21 lines)
Physalia I like the symbolism incorporated in naming it after the Portugese man of war. I am not at all sure that the company I am linking to is the same one discussed in the previous post, but I suspect that the "communal" aspect of the organism, cited in the following link, was considered by those naming the vessel. "http://www.physaliaos.com/intro.htm" <Physalia physalus, also called the Portuguese Man-O-War, is not really a single organism, but rather a floating hydrozoan colony consisting of four polyps: a pneumatophore (the float); dactylozooids (the tentacles); gasterozooids, (the siphons); and gonozooids - each selflessly sharing the task of the colony's overall survival. Physalia Ocean Sciences, Inc. was founded by four marine scientists, each with a unique collection of experience and abilities, and each dedicated to the common goal of serving our clientele, and thereby ensuring our business survival.>
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