The Climate Change Real Estate Boom Is Coming. Fabulously wealthy British futurist James Martin spoke about climate change at New York’s Lincoln Center and how it will change global population patterns in one of his last public appearances before passing away on June 30 at 79 years of age. Martin, who donated more than $150 million to Oxford University and lived on his own private Bermudan island, believed one of the biggest land booms in history is on its way--and it will happen in less than 100 years. At the June 15 Global Future 2045 conference, Martin explained that events like Superstorm Sandy and Hurricane Katrina will hit major American cities harder and more frequently because of climate change.
Scientists and politicians have even come to the conclusion that whole countries such as Mauritius and Tuvalu will need to evacuate due to rising sea levels. But while coastlines in much of the world may suffer, climate change will be a positive development in some areas. Climate Change Migration What’s At Risk For Cities. Is Carbon-Free Shipping possible? This week a new sailing barge was launched on Lake Champlain that its backers hope will soon be in the vanguard of a new carbon-neutral shipping alternative. The 39-foot Ceres — built by volunteers from the Vermont Sail Freight Project and farmer Erik Andrus — is an update on the type of cargo vessels that once plied the inland waterways throughout the northeastern U.S.
Like them, the Ceres will sail without any sort of motorized assistance. With the Ceres, the Vermont Sail Freight Project, which is supported by the nonprofit Willowell Foundation, hopes to prove that carbon-neutral boats can be a viable shipping method for the 21st century, connecting small-scale farmers in Vermont and upstate New York with customers along the Hudson River south to New York City — all while reducing the substantial greenhouse gas emissions that come from conventional shipping of produce, which is dominated in the region by trucks. Read more at Yale Environment360.
Cycling economy. Promotion of innovation. Blue economy. Brain drain. Virtual currency. Sharing economy. Carbon bubble. Protection for trees from pests and disease held back by 'skills gap' | Environment. Efforts to protect Britain's trees from diseases and pests such as ash dieback and caterpillars that strip oaks of leaves are being hampered by a "skills gap", a government-appointed taskforce has warned.
The taskforce, set up in the wake of a fungus that kills ash trees being found across England last year, also called for plant health to be put on a par with animal health, and for the creation of a chief plant health officer akin to the government's chief vet. "There has been an erosion in the UK and elsewhere of certain crucial field- and research-based expertise necessary to ensure tree health and plant biosecurity," said the taskforce's final report, published on Monday. He said the number of people working in this field was in "the tens", and that not enough scientists were being trained. "There are very few people being trained in these relatively important areas, and that is true in the UK and in the EU.
Tyre efficiency labels could cut company fleet costs by £500m - 02 Nov 2012. Volvo: 'Car trains will happen' Road trains will be a feature on Europe’s roads by the end of the decade, according to Volvo’s senior safety engineer. Thomas Broberg said closed-road trials had already successfully got two cars attached to a road train and revealed that Volvo will be conducting field trials in Sweden by the end of the year. Road trains feature a lead vehicle setting a pace on motorways that other cars can communicate with and connect to, leaving the speed and steering to the lead vehicle.
Small fees are likely to be paid to the lead vehicle, said Broberg. “Road trains allow a driver to use their time better, drive safer, reduce congestion and improve the environment,” he said. “You’re always following another car, so why not let the driving be done by someone else?” Read more on road train technology Broberg believes road trains are a step towards fully autonomous cars, technology that Volvo is also researching. Geely’s purchase of Volvo could also have big implications for crash safety.
Mark Tisshaw. Horse "Passports" Proposed in Europe as Meat Scandal Gallops On. As the horsemeat-dressed-as-beef scandal continues to rock Europe's food industry, a number of organizations are calling on stricter European regulation, including an EU-wide horse passport register. The Federation of Veterinarians of Europe (FVE) said creating a centralised record of horse passports would prevent the issuance of duplicate passports, thereby curbing the risk that horses banned from slaughter enter the food chain. There is no evidence that eating horsemeat in itself poses any health risk, but veterinarians give horses drugs which are banned from human consumption.
"A main reason for deciding to exclude a horse from being consumed as food is that this allows the animal to be treated with a wider range of veterinary products", the group said in a statement. Following tests, the UK's Food Standards Agency found traces of the drug phenylbutanzone, or bute, in eight dead horses, three of which may have entered the food chain in France. Horses in their stalls via Shutterstock. World Bank cuts East Asia GDP outlook, flags China risks. Multinational Corporations: The New States.
Rumour research can douse digital wildfires. The metaphor ‘digital wildfire’ — one of numerous threats to society identified this week by the World Economic Forum in its Global Risks report — is well chosen. The image highlights the risks of the rapid spread of uncontrollable and destructive information — risks that are made possible by an ever-growing worldwide web of communication channels. Many digital wildfires start as rumours, and social psychologists have long studied how rumours spread. The results of this research can therefore help in the prevention of and response to digital wildfires. Why is this important? Research on rumour has come up with four concepts that may be applicable to digital wildfires: motivation, situation, narrative context and trust. The spreading of rumours is an act of goal-oriented communication, often motivated by a desire to find out whether they are true.
Situation matters, too. The most powerful ingredient, however, could be trust. “Greater trust dampens perceptions of threat.” China to push compulsory insurance for polluting industries. Organizational Alignment: The Power of Cross-Organizational Networks. Boom for London butchers after horse meat scandal - London. Striving for global green economy. World's Biggest Data Breaches - Static.