Education, Arts & Community | Shared Resources. Gates, Zuckerberg and Other Tech Titans Team Up to Push Clean Energy. Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and several other of the world's wealthiest tech and business titans are banding together to fight climate change by investing billions in clean-energy research and technologies.
The Breakthrough Energy Coalition was announced ahead of the opening day Monday of the U.N. -organized climate talks outside Paris. More than 150 heads of state and government were gathering at the summit to try to find common ground on how to slow the rise in global temperatures. The coalition has pledged to invest in innovative ways to produce "clean" energy, especially in the developing world, and thereby cut down on climate-warming greenhouse gases.
The group of investors will pour money into companies working on clean-energy ideas. Soft drink tax war to bubble up in cities across the U.S. There’s something even more polarizing than whether to call soft drinks pop, soda, or coke: the debate over taxing them.
Depending on the results of next year’s elections, your city government might turn your soft drink sugar rush into a source of tax income. How to read the jargon at the Paris climate change talks. Maybe climate change tends to take a back seat because the talks themselves are a jargon-filled monstrosity of diplomatic protocol, which means no one — not even the diplomats themselves!
— understands what’s happening half of the time. Here we are, closing out what’s quite possibly the warmest year since the invention of agriculture 10,000 years ago, with our atmosphere’s carbon dioxide at record levels and emissions still rising. But, alas, the most interesting drama and diplomatic wrangling are buried in a sea of legalese and acronyms. Case in point: Peru’s environment minister, Manuel Pulgar Vidal — a key figure in recent years at international climate negotiations — recently tweeted a link to a document designed to provide a more-or-less official guide to the Paris talks. Everything You Need to Know About the New SAT. Photo The new SAT will soon arrive on a wave of bold promises.
The College Board has said its redesigned admission test would contain “no more mysteries.” The American Turkey Farmer Takes On Mother Nature and Wins. Photo If the doom-saying turkey pundits had been right, we’d all be eating ham this .
Last summer, after a devastating outbreak of avian flu in the big turkey-producing states of Iowa and Minnesota, the media was full of predictions that prices for the surviving turkeys would soar. Holiday turkeys “will be hard to come by,” one expert told Reuters in June. In case you haven’t done your shopping or reserved a turkey yet, rest assured: There will be a turkey for you. When Child Care Costs More Than Rent, Women Stay at Home.
The percentage of mothers who stay at home with their children has been on the rise since 1993, and it’s not because formerly career-driven women have suddenly woken up to the joys of full-time baby bonding.
In nearly 81 percent of U.S. towns, the average price of two-kid child care costs more than rent, which can make working a full-time job seem like a poor economic decision. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, expenses related to child care (day care facilities, babysitters, and nannies) should not exceed 10 percent of a family’s income. For its new study, the Economic Policy Institute used its family budget calculator to compare “the income families need in order to attain a modest yet adequate living standard where they live” with how much child care costs in their respective communities.
The stats are an effective argument for birth control among people of reproductive age who hope for financial security. These $1 Contraceptives Last Three Months—and Could Change the Lives of Millions. Women in Burkina Faso are the first to gain access to a new, easy-to-use contraceptive injection that lasts for three months, costs $1, and could "transform women's lives" in the world's poorest countries, according to health officials.
The new Pfizer-developed contraceptive, Sayana Press, is a small, all-in-one disposable needle and syringe developed for populations where access to modern contraception is limited or nonexistent. It delivers a dose of the widely used drug Depo-Provera. Last week, a collaboration among Pfizer, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (which also funds TakePart World), and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation was announced to expand the distribution of Sayana Press to 69 developing countries by 2020. Access to contraceptives is crucial in the developing world. What We’ve Learned from New Orleans. 08.27.15 | By Judith Rodin Facebook Twitter This blog was first published by The Rockefeller Foundation on August 24.
Facebook looks to assert itself as a force for social good. Throughout much of its 11-year history, Facebook has been used as a tool to raise awareness and donations in times of crisis, whether it be for the 8.9 magnitude earthquake that rocked Japan in 2011 or for this year's ebola crisis.
Now, Facebook is looking to play a more active role in those efforts. U.S. Reaches Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Deal With 11 Pacific Nations. Making batteries with portabella mushrooms. Can portabella mushrooms stop cell phone batteries from degrading over time?
Researchers at the University of California, Riverside Bourns College of Engineering think so. They have created a new type of lithium-ion battery anode using portabella mushrooms, which are inexpensive, environmentally friendly and easy to produce. The current industry standard for rechargeable lithium-ion battery anodes is synthetic graphite, which comes with a high cost of manufacturing because it requires tedious purification and preparation processes that are also harmful to the environment.
With the anticipated increase in batteries needed for electric vehicles and electronics, a cheaper and sustainable source to replace graphite is needed. Fashion world's antidote to environmental concerns. Do You Live in a Resilient City? Climate Change, Resilience, Revalue Ecosystems, Secure Livelihoods, Transform Cities A version of this post originally appeared on 100 Resilient Cities. 1. Your commute options aren’t limited to a car. You can take advantage of bike sharing… Bike share programs make short-term bicycle rentals available to the public via unattended stations, combining the convenience and flexibility of a private vehicle with the accessibility and reliability of mass transit. 2. … or rapid transit… Rapid transit is a form of rail-based urban mass transit that runs underground, on an elevated track, or at street level.
Pope Francis convenes world's mayors to discuss global warming. Anyone who thought that Pope Francis was going to issue his climate change manifesto, and then recede quietly into the background on the issue was sorely mistaken. Why Whites Don’t Understand Black Segregation. By Ellen Nakashima July 9 at 3:16 PM Two major breaches last year of U.S. government databases holding personnel records and security-clearance files exposed sensitive information about at least 22.1 million people, including not only federal employees and contractors but their families and friends, U.S. officials said Thursday. The total vastly exceeds all previous estimates, and marks the most detailed accounting by the Office of Personnel Management of how many people were affected by cyber intrusions that U.S. officials have privately said were traced to the Chinese government. But even beyond the rising number of apparent victims, U.S. officials said the breaches rank among the most potentially damaging cyber heists in U.S. government history because of the abundant detail in the files.
Hackers stole personal information about at least 22.1 million people, including addresses, mental health and criminal records, in two major breaches of U.S. government databases. Whitest big county in the U.S? It’s us. King County is the whitest of the nation’s 20 most-populous counties. But the county’s fastest population growth is happening among Asian and mixed-race people. The Times’ FYI Guy, Gene Balk, digs into the new Census numbers. Among the 20 most-populous U.S. counties, King County is the whitest — by a ways. According to new data released by the Census Bureau, King is 62.4 percent non-Hispanic white. Nearly all the 19 other counties are “majority minority.” The Earthquake That Will Devastate Seattle. When the 2011 earthquake and tsunami struck Tohoku, Japan, Chris Goldfinger was two hundred miles away, in the city of Kashiwa, at an international meeting on seismology.
The Pacific Northwest is Doomed. Seeder making its mark in Washington D.C. Microplastic Particles Move Up Marine Food Chain on B.C. Coast. Plastic fibres and particles in West Coast waters are being consumed and passed up the food chain by tiny marine creatures that apparently mistake them for food, according to a new study from the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre. Handle with humor: why we want you to laugh about climate change. With the historic People’s Climate March taking place in cities around the world last year, the landmark US-China deal, as well as record carbon-dioxide levels and the hottest year on record, awareness of the potential devastation of climate change continues to grow.
How Science Denial Derails Scientists. Mostly, I recommend bypassing the climate science “debate” altogether. 4 Years After Fukushima, How Is The Nuclear Industry Faring? A team of experts with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) check out water storage tanks at the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okuma, Japan, Nov. 27, 2013. (Greg Webb/IAEA) Four years after a tsunami struck Japan and caused the Fukushima nuclear reactor disaster, Here & Now’s Robin Young checks in with a defender of nuclear energy about the state of the industry. When Will This West Oakland Neighborhood Get a Grocery Store? Debate on climate change should be over. Capracotta, Italy Sets New World Record For Single-Day Snowfall.
Coal-Country States Declare War on Obama’s Climate Rules. This story is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. This week, representatives from the state-level agencies that manage electric grids met in Washington, D.C., for a collective freak-out about President Barack Obama’s flagship climate policy. Learning Resilience From Peru’s Ancient Civilizations.
Your shower is wasting huge amounts of energy and water. Here’s what you can do about it. What’s Your Climate Change Elevator Pitch? This Company Will Pay You to Use Less Electricity. The WELL Building Standard: Buildings bonding us to nature. The Invasion of the K-Cup and its ‘monster’ environmental problem. Organic Food Reduces Pesticide Exposure. Oregon Bill Would Eliminate Coal-Fired Power By 2025. Education for Success in the Sustainability Industry. Got Policy Solutions? Think: Brownies. EPA's Historic Coal Ash Disposal Rule Not Enough, Watchdogs Say. The Case for Mandatory Composting. F-ABRIC RESOURCES. Interactive: Carbon Emissions Past, Present and Future. The New Oregon Carbon Tax Report is Out. Breaking Down Bioplastics. Seeking Creative Ways to Deal with Food Waste at Hospitals. Fashion Futures: Resource Constraints and Sustainable Design. Free Money to Save Water? You Can Do It, and Here’s How. Fracking the Poor.
How to Communicate a Good Idea: Carbon Pricing. ASBC Summit Attendees Chart Path and Policies to a Sustainable Economy. Cost of Energy Efficiency Is under Half the Cost of Building Coal Power Plants. California Approves $13.5M in Loans for Energy Upgrades to Schools. Global Warming Photography, Climate Change Science, Weather, Arctic, Antarctica, Climate Zones, Glacier, Effects of Climate Change, Paleoclimate. Combatting Illegal Fishing in Offshore Marine Reserves. First 17 Multifamily Buildings Attain Energy Star. Live longer? Save the planet? Better diet could nail both. Where Obama's Potential Successors Stand On Climate Change.
Method’s New Factory to Host World’s Largest Rooftop Farm. More Than One-Third of U.S. Shrimp May Be Mislabeled, Study Says. Food Waste is a Bigger Problem Than You Think. Pure Waste Textiles Aims to Save 100 Million Liters of Water by Year's End.