LCENVS

Hydraulic Fracturing is a prominent controversy right now in this country. The dilemma lies between the benefits of economic production versus environmental/health concerns. Much like the environmental dilemma with the XL pipeline which uses fracking as a method, New York is going through thorough examination as to whether fracking should be pursued as soon as possible in the state. Interesting to note the overall of approach from the author as he displays a broad overview of the situation at hand as opposed to keen environmental analysis.

This is an in depth look into how we need to change the way we look at changing government in the context of East Africa

This brief article shows how global food prices (like cereal grains) are on the rise, while commodity prices (like oil) are actually falling. It also touches on connections between global climate change and food production.

Theo Jansen uses his interest in engineering and science to create his own "life forms". Working with his own environment (the netherlands) he uses the wind, and the geography of the land to put life into his creations. This articles is about his latest exhibition, "The Beach Animal That Eats Wind" introducing his new creatures. His ability to create living, "breathing", life forms is really cool, especially as they evolve. His TED talk (on youtube) is also really interesting, its cool to watch that before reading this--it explains their construction.

The article talks about the new technologies used in planning of a Sherbourne Common in Toronto. The main improvement of this park is its water treatment infrastructure. It also raises topics of urban planning and how nature is integrated into cirties ("New nature is what we culticate in our cities"). 

The new up-and-coming trend in landscape architecture? Redesigning streets and sidewalks to be more "people-friendly" by creating public spaces. This article focuses on Viva Vancouver, an organization advocating for the creation of mini-parks in urban areas and whose most recent accomplishment is transforming two parking spots into a shiny new deck with seating for 4-8 people. Portland organizations like City Repair have been into this idea of placemaking for a long time, touting the benefits of creating public spaces to facilitate gathering between strangers and to make the rough urban landscape a bit more homey. Good idea? Or is spending $18,000 to make a wood structure in a parking lot absurd?  

British Petroleum when the oil got spilled in the ocean. Note: it is also just a practice of using this Diigo website

An interesting piece that highlights the need for sustainable fisheries. This article discusses the damage deep-sea fisheries have done to ocean life; sea life at the bottom of the ocean is significantly slower than other forms of fisheries.

an examination of the issue of resource overconsumption in our modern agrifood system

Ecowiz is a growing database that is aimed that providing students interested in pursing ENVS in college and graduate school with the resources they need to find the right program and school for them.

An interesting article related to overfishing of sharks and the progress of their conservation. Animal club lobbied this past spring to pass a ban on shark fins in Oregon, and it's nice to see that legislators are getting on board to protect a portion of ocean biodiversity.

This is straight out of the matrix - you know how the whole AI system runs of humans producing energy like batteries? These guys are seriously looking at doing just that. This story comes from GlobalPost, a new site that has great international reporting (when a lot of big papers had to fire their journalists as the industry started to decline, GP picked a lot of their international folks up as freelancers, so they developed a good set of connections around the world fast). They're doing a series on power and energy around the world, "Powerland", which this is a part of. Very cool news organization. In a new twist in the progress of the global energy system, Japan is now looking to reduce its energy dependence on Nuclear Power (a source so many other places are looking to for reducing their energy dependence on oil, coal, etc...) So the company featured in this video comes in with an interesting mix of waste diversion/energy production at the same time. The little, marginal bits of energy thrown about when ever anyone does anything - taking a step, talking on a phone, sitting down and chilling - is harnessed to power things in its surroundings. It is sort of like using exercise equipments rotations to generate energy, which some colleges have gotten major press for. I know the military was also looking at putting something in the soles of boots that would create energy when compressed, so that marching or walking could actually power some of a soldier's personal electronics. There are no numbers to see how scalable this is, but looking at the energy margins is interesting. They do add up - one step is nothing, but if you're in Tokyo and there are millions of collected steps all the time, that is a lot of energy-producing floor vibration. One has to wonder as to how serious an alternative this sort of technology is to other types. Almost like being able to paint solar panels onto things, and just take advantage of wherever the sun hits. Its almost desperate, b

For a different thing to pay attention to, listen to the street activist (I think - not clear what the source is) message at the very beginning of the video. Interesting the stance Japan seems to be taking, at least within some parts of its culture, in response to the Fukushima incident.

I noticed that the Powerland series on GP is being sponsored by Shell, which raises some interesting questions. Multinational energy corporations may be turning to energy alternatives because they know that oil is going down the proverbial drain. Paying attention to where companies like Shell, BP, and Chevron-Texaco might yield some worthwhile information about our energy future.

Good green behaviors get us nowhere?  This economist has some provocative arguments, albeit getting a bit mainstream toward the end.

A company called Vadxx in Ohio is taking the "picked-over" scraps of plastic and converting into a low-sulfur crude oil. I don't know how feasible this would be large scale but its nice to see this stuff out of the landfills and being put to use.

We all have heard the phrase "job-killing" applied to environmental regulations, and many may roll their eyes. But how exactly does one assess benefits and costs of regulations, and what sort of time/space frame will various interests allow in calculating benefits/costs? This takeoff on recent Obama decisions suggests some complexities.

While this is old news, the issue is still very current in Hungary. While I spent time living in Budapest I found that despite the Hungarian company MAL's lack of safety regulations, the Hungarian government ended up paying the brunt of reparations to the victims of the red sludge disaster in October 2010. The issue is very pertinent after Hungary's EU Presidency in January-June 2011, and in fact it has caused the EU to tighten regulations on what constitutes "toxic" red mud throughout Europe.

This article discusses the findings from a study conducted in New York City by some field biologists who study urban evolution. They are particularly interested in studying the biological changes in city animals and organisms that have occurred due to exposures to pollutants and habitat changes over time. I thought this was a very interesting article because most articles pertaining to evolutionary biology discuss scientists findings from biodiversity hotspots-not cities.

How's this for a forceful justification of the role of equity in triple-bottom-line sustainability?

This is an example of the kind of food advice I feel good about listening to. These guys have taken the time to look at the big picture, crunch the numbers, and take more into account than their initial assumptions. It's just a preliminary study for the New York area, but it's a good example of the kind of research we need for informed decision making.

Questions our assumption that there's a healthy or natural diet that humanity needs to return to. Another example of where we may be creating false divides between nature and culture.