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Militant environmentalism of a different sort? - 0 views

www.globalpost.com/...ia-tiger-conservation-poaching international affairs policy law
shared by Micah Leinbach on 04 Dec 10 - No Cached
  • Micah Leinbach on 04 Dec 10
     
    Not your usual brand of militant environmentalism, but the name seems to fit. Similar to Costa Rica's move a few weeks ago to use government sponsored force in the defense of a biodiverse region along their border, we know see places where park rangers are given the same right as police when it comes to shooting criminals (i.e. poachers) where they work. Much of this is the usual (and important) we're-losing-the-Tigers-at-rapid-rates, but what I found interesting was the fact that environmental concerns are prompting this sort of response from government entities. It is coming to be something that governments are willing to defend with arms, even though the place in question might not be mineral rich or have some other resource value (those would have been defended in the past). Is this a real change in the value system of governments? I imagine if this occurred in America, there would be a pretty negative response from the public for excessive force. I wonder if that is true in India as well.
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Caltech Reactor a Breakthrough for Sustainable Business | CleanTechies Blog - CleanTech... - 0 views

blog.cleantechies.com/...rough-for-sustainable-business energy technology ecological modernization
shared by Julia Huggins on 27 Dec 10 - No Cached
  • Julia Huggins on 27 Dec 10
     
    "...researchers have found a way to do something vaguely similar to what plants do every day: harness the energy of sunlight to convert carbon and water into a liquid fuel."
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Memo to ecovores: It's cheaper being green - 0 views

www.grist.org/...ovores-its-cheaper-being-green agriculture food sustainability poverty ecological modernization
shared by Julia Huggins on 30 Dec 10 - No Cached
  • Julia Huggins on 30 Dec 10
     
    A perspective on the environmental movement that most likely everyone in LCENVS (and beyond) should keep in mind. "She learned the same thing about growing fruits and vegetables: Anyone can grow shit themselves. Anyone. Broke-Ass was sick of reading about kids who just graduated from art or architecture school manning their self-righteous food-coops with heirloom everything; looking down on everyone who wasn't raising bees on their rooftops in Brooklyn. To Broke-Ass, it all smacked of Marie Antoinette playing shepherdess with her ladies at the Petit Hameau at Versailles. You don't need to have white-kid dreadlocks, a degree from Bennington, or any more than a passing interest in limiting your carbon footprint to raise your own crap. You just need to be hungry." Moral of the story is (in my opinion), maybe environmentalism isnt limited to the privileged middle/upper classes and we're doing ourselves a disservice by assuming so or treating it that way. Can we extrapolate this from agriculture and apply it to the greater environmental movement? Maybe our priority shouldnt be ecological modernization -- maybe we should focus on taking advantage of sustainability where it already exists and has potential to exist, instead of sending the message that it can only be achieved through college degrees, high tech appliances, and hybrid cars. Maybe... these are all maybes. But nonetheless I think they're maybes worth considering.
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NOAA - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - Deepwater Horizon Library - 0 views

www.noaa.gov/...index.html noaa oil spill pollution
shared by Julia Huggins on 02 Jan 11 - No Cached
  • Julia Huggins on 02 Jan 11
     
    For those interested in the gulf oil spill: "Yesterday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) made public a new website, the NOAA Deepwater Horizon Library. The site contains a treasure trove of information relating to the oil disaster in the gulf oil disaster. This includes reports on the incident itself, scientific reports on the wildlife affected, and a detailed history of the response and cleanup efforts undertaken by governments, private companies, and individuals. It also describes ongoing efforts to rebuild the coast and the Gulf ecosystem."
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Cap and Trade Is Dead. Now What? - 0 views

www.good.is/...cap-and-trade-is-dead-now-what climate energy technology innovation
shared by Jim Proctor on 21 Jan 11 - No Cached
  • Jim Proctor on 21 Jan 11
     
    Here's a recommended read from Michael Shellenberger.  I'm thinking of all the Focus the Nation climate activism on campus a few years ago, for which one of the concrete policy goals was federal cap and trade legislation.  I wonder if Bryan Walsh's recommendation that we "invest in breakthrough innovation" would garner the same fervor on college campuses, given it's as much an economic and technological solution as a political solution?
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New Agtivists: Nikhil Arora and Alex Velez turn coffee grounds into fun fungi kits | Grist - 0 views

www.grist.org/...ts-nikhil-arora-and-alex-velez mushrooms food agriculture fungi compost
shared by Julia Huggins on 21 Jan 11 - No Cached
  • Julia Huggins on 21 Jan 11
     
    Fungi grow on coffee ground "waste," produce large edible mushrooms, and leave behind rich fertile soil for your gardens. Sound too good to be true? Incorporating and working within pre-existing energy cycles, and keeping the whole system in mind when addressing issues of "waste" and "resources" can result in some surprisingly beneficial and efficient solutions! The even more exciting news? We're doing this too! There's a large bin in the basement of Juniper, full of the Bon's coffee grounds, now sprouting several pounds of oyster mushrooms. Take home message behind inspirational change? Follow the ideas that excite you, and bring them to life in your framework of time and place.
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Where did the oil spill's methane go? - 0 views

www.csmonitor.com/...ia-ate-methane-in-three-months ecology
shared by Micah Leinbach on 16 Jan 11 - No Cached
  • Micah Leinbach on 16 Jan 11
     
    Some researches are claiming that a lot of methane disappeared very quickly after the oil spill. Their hypothesis? Bacteria did it. While clearly controversial, it is an impressive testement to ecosystems ability to respond to surprises (though hardly a reliable one). Could it also lend some new ideas to efforts to figure out how to deal with the next big oil spill? While I don't pretend to know whether or not its a good idea, one critic mentioned that other limiting factors may have inhibited population growth of presumably beneficial bacteria. Could intentional actions towards removing those limiting factors in other spills allow bacteria to consume methane more rapidly? And if we pluck that strand, what would we find it connected to? Of course, that all depends on the accuracy of the study.
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Business ready to trade nature services - 0 views

www.euractiv.com/...de-nature-services-news-499191 sustainability corporate externalities taxes ecosystem service
shared by Julia Huggins on 29 Oct 10 - No Cached
  • Julia Huggins on 29 Oct 10
     
    "A global coalition of about 200 companies said yesterday (26 October) that it was ready to support the introduction of a price tag on ecosystem services, in the hope that a global biodiversity panel will lay the foundations for an offset mechanism to encourage trading of nature services." This group is called the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). The members are listed here: http://www.wbcsd.org/web/about/members.html
  • Julia Huggins on 29 Oct 10
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Zero Net Energy Cottage - 0 views

www.sfgate.com/...article.cgi sustainable living
shared by Elijah Probst on 11 Jan 11 - No Cached
  • Elijah Probst on 11 Jan 11
     
    A design professor at Berkeley near where I live built one of these for less than a hundred thousand. An interesting concept in the whole "sustainable living" realm of things. Attractive to me at this point in my life but I have a feeling you'd have a hard time marketing something like this on a larger level. See it for yourself in the link!
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The Washed Ashore project - 0 views

www.washedashore.org art oceans pollution plastics
shared by Jim Proctor on 09 Jan 11 - No Cached
  • Jim Proctor on 09 Jan 11
     
    Here's to some interesting art with plastic that washes up on OR beaches!
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The Last 200 years in 4 mins - 0 views

www.gapminder.org/...ars-that-changed-the-world-bbc health
shared by Elijah Probst on 07 Jan 11 - No Cached
  • Elijah Probst on 07 Jan 11
     
    This is a really great site and the video graphs life expectancy and average incomes. Its a nice hopeful trend in many respects but you can look at it in any number of ways. Healthy people and higher incomes are good things in general but obviously require more resources to create. A lot of good information on the website in general, have fun with it!
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Cardboardless Toilet Paper - 0 views

green.yahoo.com/...-s-tube-free-toilet-paper.html consumption resources
shared by Elijah Probst on 29 Oct 10 - No Cached
  • Elijah Probst on 29 Oct 10
     
    Interesting to those of us that use toilet paper. I think this is a great idea cause it's not something that people are gonna stop using as long as it's available. Next step the plastic wrap around it! What do you guys think?
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The Wilderness Below Your Feet - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...02underground.html wilderness urban
shared by Jim Proctor on 03 Jan 11 - No Cached
  • Jim Proctor on 03 Jan 11
     
    What would wilderness look like if it were in an urban area?  Maybe this article has the answer.
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Mapping the Measure of America - 0 views

www.measureofamerica.org/maps well-being development health education income maps
shared by Jim Proctor on 02 Jan 11 - Cached
  • Jim Proctor on 02 Jan 11
     
    Map-based interface comparing human quality of life (primarily related to health, education, and income, but including other measures as well) in different parts of the US. Turns out, surprise surprise, that there are some huge differences from place to place, suggesting the necessity of situated research to explain these differences.
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A Sustainable Life - The New York Times - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...index.html sustainability food money marriage technology
shared by Jim Proctor on 02 Jan 11 - No Cached
  • Jim Proctor on 02 Jan 11
     
    Interesting list of topics the NYT includes in their theme series: marriage, money, food (twice), and technology, all with iconic images depicting some sort of cycle.  What's fresh and what's missing in this overall picture?
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Leviathan Gas Discovery Could be The Mother of All Resource Curses | Green Prophet - 0 views

www.greenprophet.com/...-mother-of-all-resource-curses leviathan gas energy climate change natural resource
shared by Julia Huggins on 02 Jan 11 - No Cached
  • Julia Huggins on 02 Jan 11
     
    "Houston-based Noble Energy today confirmed that its Leviathan gas find under the water off the shore of Israel is easily the largest exploration discovery in its history, with an estimated 16 trillion cubic feet of natural gas" I'm not quite sure what to make of this discovery. This article certainly gives it a declensionist spin, and I'm not quite sure that I can come up with any alternate positive side. On another note, the term "natural resource" really bugs me.
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The Great Desprawling Experiment - 0 views

www.utne.com/...er-desprawling-experiment.aspx desprawling urban livable communities cities
shared by Julia Huggins on 01 Dec 10 - No Cached
  • Julia Huggins on 01 Dec 10
     
    Pro-Urbanism "...developers and county leaders in Fairfax County are close to finalizing a radical multibillion-dollar plan to "desprawl" Tysons Corner, VA. The proposal, aimed at attracting a total of 100,000 with the texture and energy of city life, involves tearing up large swaths of the existing town and constructing a series of urban villages, with buildings up to 25 stories high."
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Ecological Restoration...from 10,000 years ago? - 0 views

www.msnbc.msn.com/...world_news-world_environment restoration ecological restoration climate change news
shared by Micah Leinbach on 29 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • Micah Leinbach on 29 Nov 10
     
    A lot of American restoration efforts tend to aim Pre-Columbian. But really, that is pretty arbitrary (and problematic - humans were intimately involved with Pre-Columbian environments, as well as post-contact environments). So why not aim further back? This Russian physicist is doing just that - for fun, and setting his standard back 10,000 years. But there is more to it. This could be part of a huge effort by this fellow to stop arctic melting, a positive feedback loop that accelerates and is accelerated by global warming. If humanity blew the first task of an intelligent tinkerer in not keeping all the parts, can it repair that by trying to put the parts back? I'll be interested to see where it goes. Plenty of the usual restoration discussions to be had.
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"Green Giant" | Willamette Week - 0 views

www.willametteweek.com/...14800 sustainability ecological modernization self-sufficiency utopia portland
shared by Jim Proctor on 24 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • Jim Proctor on 24 Nov 10
     
    The Oregon Sustainability Center, to be housed on PSU campus, embodies the utopia of high-tech self-sufficiency unlike no other contemporary structure around, and may possibly be unique in the U.S. today. But at what cost? And, is this the utopia we want to pursue??
  • Julia Huggins on 29 Nov 10
     
    This is the topic of an article that I posted to the Symposium2011 diigo group. (http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/07/07/07greenwire-bold-public-private-venture-aims-to-make-ore-c-32109.html?pagewanted=all) Originally I posted it due to it's relevance to the "future of cities" topic. Portland often comes up in discussions about progressive cities, and this is merely one more reason for it to do so. The questions you bring up here about cost and utopian attitude I think are particularly relevant to the broader question of cities and would be really interesting for us to explore further. In my discussion with Micah earlier today, for example, we talked about Portland in general being a sort of utopia. Specifically we were discussing the tendency of highly motivated and concerned people to move to Portland away from other places that might actually be in greater need of their work. I asked "what's more important: investing in a model of the ideal to generate enthusiasm and prove it can be done, or spreading efforts out to places less conducive to the changes?"
  • Micah Leinbach on 30 Nov 10
     
    I'll say it publicly, with the hopes of getting some debate on this: I don't think you've proven it can be done if it is in the model of the ideal (operating under the assumption that most places are specifically not the ideal, and are not neccesarily conducive to the changes). Just because something can be done in an ideal place does not mean it can be spread out. I see it as more likely that when something is done succesfully in a place that is antagonistic to it, something is really right with whatever that something may be. While answers are naturally specific to the issue or solution in question (so I apologize for the vague language), I'm of the mind that a lot of the things Portland has done to make things "work" may not be easily replicated outside of Portland, as much because of structure as because of culture. This is a debate where it is particularly difficult to make broad assumptions, of course, and there will be exceptions to either and any side, but I lean towards making changes where the changes are not conducive. I welcome opposition though, I'm curious what others think coming from other regions and from Portland itself.
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Nothing Grows Forever - 0 views

www.utne.com/...er-Endless-Growth-Economy.aspx economics limits to growth no-grow economy politics
shared by Julia Huggins on 11 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • Julia Huggins on 11 Nov 10
     
    Economics and Politics. "In essence, endless growth puts us on the horns of a seemingly intractable dilemma. Without it, we spiral into poverty. With it, we deplete the planet. Either way, we lose. Unless, of course, there's a third way. Could we have a healthy economy that doesn't grow? Could we stave off ecological collapse by reining in the world economy? Could we do it without starving?" An old idea revisited with a slightly lengthy (but easily read) background on limits to growth and it's place in economic history, plus a new perspective on how a limit to growth might actually work, and what that might look like. I find the concept of ' "uneconomic" growth-growth that actually drives living standards downward' (to improve happiness, nonetheless), and the argument behind it, intriguing. This is on page 4. After page 5 it starts to look like an idealistic no-grow-utopia. But then this is addressed in the conclusion, as well as some theories about the psychological changes that would have to happen. Then they bring it on back home to politics, and last but not least a reminder of our biological-ecological pending doom. Oh, all the environmental interdisciplinary-ness! "When it comes to determining the shape of our economy, the planet may possess the most powerful invisible hand of all."
  • ...1 more comment...
  • Micah Leinbach on 12 Nov 10
     
    http://www.newsweek.com/2010/03/18/the-no-growth-fantasy.html A counter. The ghost of Malthus will forever haunt no-growth economists, as the ultimate "we tried that already". And the train of thought is reasonable. Malthusian fears about population are one example. There is also a long list of oil/energy scares where people claimed prices were going up and supplies were going down, but adjusting for inflation proved the error of the former and time proved the error of the latter. When history, politics, and economic theory all oppose the no-growth idea, its no surprise that its viewed with a lot of healthy skepticism. That said, I'm a big fan of Herman Daly and the idea that the economy needs to be reformed. Because GDP is an awful way to measure prosperity. But to have an alternative is equally difficult - what should the standard of success be for the great human experiment? Happiness is normally the benchmark. And to academics that sounds all right, because happiness is generally seen as people spending time amongst their families, art, and high culture. But is that naturally what makes people happy? Consumerism was in a large part rooted in a desire for happiness also. Growth was meant to make people happy by making their lives better - and it has. Higher standards of living all over do have economic roots, though that is not neccessarily inherent to them. There is a lot more to say on this, but its a long enough comment as it is, so I'll leave that for another time. I do feel its one of the more serious debates of our (all?) time though, and I'm really glad you brought it up.
  • Julia Huggins on 12 Nov 10
     
    Obviously, I don't know or care too much about economics. I dont know how my conversations keep ending up here. But. "Growth was meant to make people happy by making their lives better - and it has." Really? Who, to you, qualifies as "people"? And how do you define better? Soaring rates of depression, chemical dependency, and obesity? Or maybe it's these lives that are better (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL0U_xmRem4)?
  • Micah Leinbach on 13 Nov 10
     
    Perhaps because it relates so much to the various issues we have declared to be running rampant in the world today? It is very much connected to any environmental issue. Among a range of other issues. Anyways, I wrote a pretty lengthy response to your questions. I'll post the primary response to your questions here. A lot of it is based on the differences between economics, politics, industrialism, capitalism, and consumerism. In the tradition of Diigo debates, I have crafted a google site. https://sites.google.com/site/economicresponse/home The main page directly answers the question. The other page sets up some distinctions I see, personally, beteen various economic systems. I do not cite academic sources there, and I'm sure it would not take long to find economists who disagree with me, for what it is worth. Unfortunately, I do not have the time to flesh it out with other's ideas, and I apologize for that.
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