tagged w/ Sustainable Development
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As part of the Obama Administration's blueprint for an American economy built to last, Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced $3 million available this year to support research to significantly lower the cost of solar energy. The funding will enable collaborative research teams from industry, universities and national laboratories to work together in the Energy Department's research centers including the Scientific User Facilities to develop solutions to drive down the cost of solar energy. By accelerating scientific breakthroughs, these research teams support the Department's SunShot Initiative goal to make solar energy cost competitive with other forms of energy by the end of the decade – creating jobs, enhancing U.S. energy security, and boosting American competitiveness in the global clean energy economy.
The past decade has seen explosive growth in global solar installations. For American companies to remain competitive in this growing market, they must continue to innovate, lowering the cost of existing products while transitioning breakthrough technologies into production.
Thats all well and good, but 3 megabucks is probably one hour's funding of the defense department. This is woefully inadequate if the US of A is going to be competative at all in cutting solar tech. Full article at the link.As part of the Obama Administration's blueprint for an American economy built to... more
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Industrial energy waste turns out to be the most surprisingly overlooked opportunity to make outrageous returns on investment. Energy efficiency in industry is a shockingly untapped market. Modernisation at a single large industrial plant can free up an entire power station.Industrial energy waste turns out to be the most surprisingly overlooked opportunity... more
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Honduras ranks 9th in the world production of coffee and is the second most important producer in Central America. 90% of its coffee is cultivated by coffee farmers. Among these, is the cooperative Montaña Verde, situated in the province of Santa Barbara, a partner of Van Houtte’s since 2002. Following an action plan established by CARE Canada, the Montaña Verde co-op has come a long way. Generating profits, increasing orders, expanding its workforce, attracting international recognition for its high quality coffee, and improving the status of women and the well-being of communities, are all goals that the Montaña Verde co-op and its members were able to achieve through hard work, solidarity, courage, and concern for the environment. They have maintained their privileged relationship with Van Houtte for almost a decade.
Please visit: www.committedtocaring.caHonduras ranks 9th in the world production of coffee and is the second most important... more
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Environmental Economist Pamela Peeters invites you into her World, so you can experience the Galaxy Tablet. It fashion, it's eco,..., it's hot!Environmental Economist Pamela Peeters invites you into her World, so you can... more
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This film tells the story of three people and their relationship with water in the towns and villages on the edge of Delhi, India.
The landscape of these "peri-urban" zones has changed dramatically in the past 15 years. Poor people often do not have good enough access to water, and have to find different ways of getting and using it.
This film shows the ingenuity and determination of three people - a grandmother, a farmer and an activist - who have taken action to get better water for themselves and their families.
More info: http://www.steps-centre.org/filmsThis film tells the story of three people and their relationship with water in the... more
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A sustainable natural environment requires new forms of distribution and ownership.
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In honour of World Fair Trade Day, this May 14th, coffee roaster Van Houtte has sponsored this video explaining the history and impact of the Fair Trade movement. Have a look and pass it on so others may be inspired to support Fair Trade!In honour of World Fair Trade Day, this May 14th, coffee roaster Van Houtte has... more
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Food Supply. Health. Economic Security. Malnutrition. Obesity. Local Agriculture. Sustainability.
What’s in common to link all these words? Sustainable Agriculture.
His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales addressed participants last week at a Sustainable Food Conference hosted by Georgetown University in Washington DC, where he said, “Creating sustainable food systems will become paramount in the future.”
Venturing into sustainable agriculture and fearing for a food-insecurity, the Prince, with a leading voice sketched out that the rate of food production is now less than the rate of population growth. Add in threats to food crop yields, now declining with climate change, and the cost of food production as being so reliant on the rising cost of oil for transport and production, well, it all sums to an expensive forecast. He identified additional facts and pressures that you may like to know:
Global population is heading toward 9 billion people — creating greater demands for food
On average in the developed world, people throw away 40% of the food purchased
Soil is the primary source of health for all plants and people — and soil erosion in the United States is washed away 10 times faster than the Earth can replenish it
23 thousand square miles of arable land is turning into desert yearly
2 billion acres (1/4 of the world’s farm land) is degraded
One-fifth of all U.S. grain production is dependent on water with 1.3 trillion gallons used faster than rainfall can replenish it
By 2030 it is estimated the world’s farmers will need 35% more water than today
Of all the water in the world, 5% is fresh and excluding the most voluminous fresh water lake in the world, Lake Baikal in Siberia, the fresh water sources remaining are three-quarters used in agriculture
The impact of sizeable pressures and forecasts such as these mean more people could go hungry.
Post Continues: http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/05/sustainable-agriculture-prince-of-wales/Food Supply. Health. Economic Security. Malnutrition. Obesity. Local Agriculture.... more
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Denis Baupin is the Deputy Mayor of Paris for Sustainable Development, the Environment and the Climate Plan. In this insightful interview, Mr. Baupin shows us his Paris and describes future projects for Paris to make it an ever more welcoming city.Denis Baupin is the Deputy Mayor of Paris for Sustainable Development, the Environment... more
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This is a blog post from a sustainability advocate pointing the reader to sources of information coming from scientists who are sustainability advocates. The situation is extremely dangerous and it is important to have access to information that is not filtered by mass media outlets.This is a blog post from a sustainability advocate pointing the reader to sources of... more
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Decades ago, a sizable if motley group of individuals began to reject chemical agriculture arguing that food grown with chemicals was less wholesome, negatively affected the environment and less resilient. Many of these back to-the-land types, long on ideas and short on actual argicultural experience failed in their long-term attempts to implement this counter agricultural movement. However, enough of them stuck around to usher in the modern organic/biodynamic/local food movement.
Yet, even as our scientific knowledge of what conventional chemical and genetically modified agriculture is increasingly doing to humans, the land, and biodiversity, we have continued to hitch our survival wagons to the horses of chemical and gmo agriculture. Case in point: the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation pump millions of dollars in support of genetically modified technologies such as drought tolerant maize, buoyed by the belief that the future for sustainable development lies in genetically modified technologies.
Organic may be good for some people - most notably guilty yuppies - but to feed a growing world population we need more robust technologies, goes the logic.
Today, however, Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, has issued a report stating that the future of sustainable development does not lie in chemical ag, but rather in sustainable agricultural techniques.
(more at link)Decades ago, a sizable if motley group of individuals began to reject chemical... more
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A New Report:
Peak Energy, Climate Change, and the Collapse of Global Civilization: The Current Peak Oil Crisis
Global Climate Change, Human Security & Democracy
Orfalea Center for Global & International Studies
Department of Global & International Studies
University of California, Santa Barbara
October 2010
(free download available)
direct link:
http://www.global.ucsb.edu/climateproject/papers/pdf/Morrigan_2010_Energy_CC.pdf
all publications:
http://www.global.ucsb.edu/climateproject/papers/index.html
Synopsis
Peak oil and the events associated with it will be an unprecedented discontinuity in human and geologic history. Peak oil crises will soon confront societies with the opportunity to recreate themselves based on their respective needs, culture, resources, and governance responses. Peak oil will require a change of economic and social systems, and will result in a new world order. The sooner people prepare for peak oil and a post-peak oil life, the more they will be able to influence the direction of their opportunities. Nevertheless, there are probably no solutions that do not involve at the very least some major changes in lifestyles. Consequently, peak oil will probably result in some catastrophic upheavals. Peak oil will also present opportunities to address many underlying societal, economic, and environmental problems.
Humanity has already passed the threshold for dangerous anthropogenic interference with the natural climate system. Peak energy resources and economic decline may make it more challenging for societies and their economies to adapt to future climate and environmental changes.
This report considers energy resources, climate change, ecological balance, and the Earth’s capacity to supply food and water to support human life from the perspective of governance and human security
Some key messages from the report include:
• Peak oil is happening now.
• The era of cheap and abundant oil is over.
• Global conventional oil production likely peaked around 2005 – 2008 or will peak by 2011.
• Global oil reserve discoveries peaked in the 1960's.
• New oil discoveries have been declining since then, and the new discoveries have been smaller and in harder to access areas (e.g., smaller deepwater reserves).
• Huge investments are required to explore for and develop more reserves, mainly to offset decline at existing fields.
• An additional 64 mbpd of gross capacity – the equivalent of six times that of Saudi Arabia today – needs to be brought on stream between 2007 – 2030 to supply projected business as usual demand.
• Since mid-2004, the global oil production plateau has remained within a 4% fluctuation band, which indicates that new production has only been able to offset the decline in existing production.
• The global oil production rate will likely decline by 4 – 10.5% or more per year.
• Substantial shortfalls in the global oil supply will likely occur sometime between 2010 – 2015.
• Furthermore, the peak global production of coal, natural gas, and uranium resources may occur by 2020 – 2030, if not sooner.
• Global peak coal production will likely occur between 2011 – 2025.
• Global natural gas production will likely peak sometime between 2019 – 2030.
• Global peak uranium will likely occur by 2015 to sometime in the 2020's.
• Oil shortages will lead to a collapse of the global economy, and the decline of globalized industrial civilization.
• Systemic collapse will evolve as a systemic crisis as the integrated infrastructure and economy of our global civilization breaks down.
• Most governments and societies – especially those that are developed and industrialized – will be unable to manage multiple simultaneous systemic crises. Consequently, systemic collapse will likely result in widespread confusion, fear, human security risks, and social break down.
• This current transition of rapid economic decline was triggered by the oil price shock starting in 2007 and culminating in the summer of 2008. This transition will likely accelerate and become more volatile once oil prices exceed $80 – $90 per barrel for an extended time. Demand destruction for oil may be somewhere above $80 per barrel and below $141 per barrel.
• Economic recovery (i.e., business as usual) will likely exacerbate the global recession by driving up oil prices.
• A managed “de-growth” is impossible, because effective mitigation of peak oil will be dependent on the implementation of mega-projects and mega-changes at the maximum possible rate with at least 20 years lead time and trillions of dollars in investments.
• Peak oil and the events associated with it will be an unprecedented discontinuity in human and geologic history.
• Adaptation is the only strategy in response to peak oil.
• Mitigation and adaptation are the only strategies for climate change.
• Peak oil crises will soon confront societies with the opportunity to recreate themselves based on their respective needs, culture, resources, and governance responses.
• The impacts of peak oil and post-peak decline will not be the same equally for everyone everywhere at any given time.
• There are probably no solutions that do not involve at the very least some major changes in lifestyles.
• The localization of economies will likely occur on a massive scale, particularly the localization of the production of food, goods, and services.
• Existential crises will soon confront societies with the opportunity to recreate themselves based on their respective needs, culture, resources, and governance responses.
• If the international community does not make a transcendent effort to cooperate to manage the transition to a non-oil based economy, it may risk a volatile, chaotic, and dangerous collapse of the global economy and world population.
• Since the advent of the Green Revolution, the global human population has increased from 2.5 billion in 1950 to nearly 7 billion today.
• Global demand for natural resources exceeded planet’s capacity to provide sustainably for the combined demands of the global population between 1970 – 1980.
• The global population is projected to grow to around 9.2 billion by 2050.
• Current trends in land, soil, water, and biodiversity loss and degradation, combined with potential climate change impacts, ocean acidification, a mass extinction event, and energy scarcity will significantly limit the human carrying capacity of the Earth.
• Based on these estimates, the global population may have nearly reached or already exceeded the planet's human carrying capacity in terms of food production.
...A New Report:
Peak Energy, Climate Change, and the Collapse of Global... more
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Leading this refreshing on the sofa discussion Daniel Ben Ami author of ‘Ferraris for All’, explains ‘growth scepticism’. Young volunteers grappling with growth raise a wide range of questions from consuming less in the West to bankers, child labour, corruption and war. Daniel is clear: our having less will not make the poor rich; child labour is product of poverty not prosperity; corruption does not cause poverty it’s a symptom of it; bombing a country is unlikely to increase its prospects and political autonomy is key. A positive approach to economic growth he argues, not holding back and accepting ‘limits’ is key to increasing abundance for all globally.Leading this refreshing on the sofa discussion Daniel Ben Ami author of... more
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The financially transparent open collaborative approach to social enterprise the Campus TV is founded upon extends to its second physical location.
The Earthship Florida property is located in Manatee County, about a 15 minute drive from Sarasota.
The 10 acre site will be home to a number of educational and sustainable business models. The evolution of this project is the subject of this show on the Campus TV.
You are invited to PARTICIPATE if you have ideas to contribute. ALL money invested and earned will be reported on the show with full financial transparency - specifically the value of "outside" contributions.
We represent a new way of doing business. We believe most of the current problems we face can be addressed by financially transparent social enterprise. We enable new innovative ideas to get commercialized by plugging into real world ongoing projects - eliminating the need for traditional venture capital.
Interested?
www.facebook.com/thecampusTV
www.facebook.com/earthship.florida
thecampustv@gmail.comThe financially transparent open collaborative approach to social enterprise the... more
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Seventeen planets Earth would be needed to carry current world population if rest of countries adopt U.S. model. Sustainable development is only alternative for survival of humanity and planet.Seventeen planets Earth would be needed to carry current world population if rest of... more
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I’m assisting a permaculture relief team in Haiti currently with The Permaculture Guild, a group of six permaculturists who were first responders for the earthquake – five who are still there. They have saved lives by putting in sanitation systems and low tech water filtration, which were the key areas where lives were at risk when they arrived. They have been educating Haitians on how to do this sustainably, for themselves.
They have moved into the next phase of “teaching the teachers” focusing on teaching permaculture techniques for growing food, sustainable shelters, water filtration, etc, to a number of local organizations in several cities. They are working in coordination with the Haitian government and local organizations to meet real needs.
We are seeking funding for this effort. All donations go directly to Haiti to support these efforts and will multiply exponentially by teaching the teachers. If you’d like to support this historic effort, please donate through the Permaculture Guild donation website. (This is our partner non-profit for this project).
(See the original post for more info.)I’m assisting a permaculture relief team in Haiti currently with The... more
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“How many Somalias, how many Sudans, how many Afghanistans can the world handle?” asks Nobel Prize-winning head of the IPCC Dr. Rajendra Pachauri at the GGCS2 lunch panel in Los Angeles last October. “I think we are heading in that direction, and I’m not trying to dramatize. The scientific evidence of the impacts of climate change in the absence of action, clearly indicates conditions that will lead to a breakdown of society.” Pachauri says it’s essential we pursue a path of Sustainable Development and the public has to be convinced that climate change is a part of a much larger problem.“How many Somalias, how many Sudans, how many Afghanistans can the world... more
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Above is the link to a short piece about how one development foundation in Northern Thailand transformed part of the Golden Triangle into a flourishing and sustainable community. People who once had nothing, now have an education, a job and, most importantly, hope for the future. The Mae Fah Luang Foundation was voted the top Social Innovation of 2009. This is the future of sustainable development- this short film was made to inspire you to think on a global scale and to take action because change on a large scale starts with one person.Above is the link to a short piece about how one development foundation in Northern... more
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