Group items tagged

" Sustainable computing is a rapidly expanding research area spanning the fields of computer science and engineering, electrical engineering as well as other engineering disciplines. The aim of Sustainable Computing: Informatics and Systems (SUSCOM) is to publish the myriad research findings related to energy-aware and thermal-aware management of computing resource. Equally important is a spectrum of related research issues such as applications of computing that can have ecological and societal impacts. SUSCOM publishes original and timely research papers and survey articles in current areas of power, energy, temperature, and environment related research areas of current importance to readers. SUSCOM has an editorial board comprising prominent researchers from around the world and selects competitively evaluated peer-reviewed papers. "

"Approval of Bolivia's revolutionary 'Mother Earth' law is an historic step by social movements in a long struggle for real ecological transformation of their economy and society."

"FOUR DEGREES OR MORE? Australia in a Hot World explores the unintended consequences of current domestic and international climate policies. It invites us to imagine the social, economic and ecological implications of catastrophic global warming for Australia and its region."

"Marianne Maeckelbergh: "In this brief article I would like to summarise some alternative approaches to 'knowing' that I have encountered through activism and anthropological fieldwork within the alterglobalization movement. Specifically I will address four assumptions about knowledge found within the alterglobalization movement that diverge considerably from 'standard' assumptions. First, the idea that knowledge is collectively constructed. Second, that knowledge is context specific, partial and provisional. Third, that a distinction must be made between knowing something and knowing better. Finally, I describe the idea that ignorance is useful. First, however, it is necessary to briefly describe the context within which these alternatives are emerging and the type of knowledge that they resist."

About 20 kilometers northwest of Amarillo, Texas, beneath a geological structure called the Bush Dome, lies the world's largest repository of a substance that, sooner or later, will become more precious than gold: helium.

This is a book about undermining the industrial system. You can read this book online, here, right now. This is also a blog about the book, the act of writing it and getting it into the wider consciousness. The two parts of this website can be found at the top, by going to either The Blog or The Book.

Project Kaisei is a non-profit organization focused on increasing awareness of the scale of marine debris, its impact on our environment, and the solutions for both prevention and clean-up.

From August 2-21, a group of doctoral students and research volunteers from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego embarked on an expedition aboard the Scripps research vessel New Horizon to explore the problem of plastic in the North Pacific Gyre.

A thousand miles off California, the North Pacific Ocean Gyre contains one of the largest ecosystems on Earth--but it may be in danger from a deluge of accumulated plastic trash. Dubbed the "Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch," the debris at the center of the North Pacific Ocean has the potential to damage marine life and alter the biological environment. Though this issue has recently received popular media attention, there was little scientific information available on the composition, extent, and effects of the debris. The small pieces of plastic that make up most of the material are not detectable by satellites or airplanes. Researchers requiring detailed scientific sampling must use ships capable of traveling to this remote region.

"The image below this post comes from the latest IMF working paper (May 2012) looking at the "The Future of Oil: Geology versus Technology" (opens pdf) which attempts to take both the models of oil availability - that proposed by geologists and that by technologists and work out what the likely price implications are going to be to 2020. An internal working paper that "does not presume that there is a constraint on how much oil can be taken out of the ground. It prefers to believe that extraction rates will depend on the price that will be able to be charged for the final product", it makes the wonderfully understated point that "the future may not be easy". I continue to be amazed at the number of people I meet, sitting in leadership positions, who are unaware of this issue. I have heard from colleagues of engagements in the past couple of years with groups of senior decision-makers who have refused to discuss the issue as they believe it to be a fringe problem."

The image below this post comes from the latest IMF working paper (May 2012) looking at the "The Future of Oil: Geology versus Technology" (opens pdf) which attempts to take both the models of oil availability - that proposed by geologists and that by technologists and work out what the likely price implications are going to be to 2020. An internal working paper that "does not presume that there is a constraint on how much oil can be taken out of the ground. It prefers to believe that extraction rates will depend on the price that will be able to be charged for the final product", it makes the wonderfully understated point that "the future may not be easy". I continue to be amazed at the number of people I meet, sitting in leadership positions, who are unaware of this issue. I have heard from colleagues of engagements in the past couple of years with groups of senior decision-makers who have refused to discuss the issue as they believe it to be a fringe problem.

"A generation of far-reaching social change lies ahead for Australia. There will be a serious struggle to adapt to climate change as water security becomes a critical issue for many coastal cities and for agriculture. "

looks like an example of emerging public science and science communication - attempting to do science in a way that influences the public

Rare earth elements massively improve energy efficiency and conductivity of metals. Yet rare earth are some of the most toxic and difficult materials to mine, and most are controlled by China. This article provokes consideration of both the need for developing super-efficient electronics with the costs associated in mining, as well as geo-political factors related to minerals extraction.

Nice summary. Thanks, Gareth.

A few weeks before the tsunami struck Fukushima's uranium reactors and shattered public faith in nuclear power, China revealed that it was launching a rival technology to build a safer, cleaner, and ultimately cheaper network of reactors based on thorium.