Sustainable Solar-Dynamic Bio-Benign Design: Offering Better Ways to Live, at Less Cost Today and Tomorrow, Anywhere on Earth SECTIONS OF THE BOOK SOLVIVA: Table of Contents || Introduction || Some current realities || A visit to Solviva How I got on the path of seeking better ways to live... || Wastewater Management Greyburg or Greendale: where would you rather live? A VISIT to SOLVIVA WINTER in my HOME In the midst of the record-cold and dark winter of 1984, the temperature is well below zero degrees F, and the howling wind creates a fierce windchill factor. Bundled up in full winter gear, with an armload of groceries, I struggle against the arctic blast, down the path toward my home. With relief I deeply breathe in the fragrant warmth of my home and the beauty of the sun pouring in through climbing and cascading green leaves and red, orange and yellow flowers. Enchanting scents waft from jasmine and honeysuckle, sweet peas, pineapple sage and peppermint geranium, orange and lemon blossoms, and compost-rich living earth. Before the tub is full, I have time for one more task: pollinating the tomato flowers.
Green Wineries Embrace Innovation from the Fields to the Bottle | Eco-Leadership on GreenBiz.com Consumers are discovering that going green doesn't mean the end of the good life. On the contrary, when it comes to wines, sustainability makes them even better. Word is getting out, spurring a plethora of wines labeled "sustainable" to appear on the shelves of retailers like Whole Foods. No surprises there, since every industry these days recognizes the potential of reaching the LOHAS market. But in terms of wine, does "sustainable" connote a commitment to greener growing practices or is it a marketing gimmick? After a cursory perusal of winegrowers' websites, I reminded myself that a slick marketing strategy does not always equal sustainability. What I really wanted to know was, "Are sustainable wines better than their conventional counterparts?" My husband and I love wine, but we are by no means connoisseurs. Michael Honig is one of these experts. Honig begins the tour of Honig Vineyard & Winery by showing us his solar array. How much does it cost to do this much good?
75 per cent of Food Diversity Lost in Last Century The average person, roaming supermarket aisles with their trolley, is under the impression that our modern globalised food production system, despite being damaging in every other respect, brings one major benefit to consumers -- that being more food choices. Wrong. It's a myth . The corporate takeover of agriculture is seeing a rapid and systematic decline in seed and crop diversity, as they seek to standardise all aspects of global food trade. That's what makes the work of Stephan Fayon, who directs an international seed bank in Auroville, India, so significant. It might be argued that, the issue of unnecessary transport aside, an increase in trade invariably leads to increased choice for consumers. It's that old short-term thinking thing happening again. "I have heard . . . that people may become dependent on us for food. Supporting local farms, particularly those that concentrate on crop diversity and soil health, is one way you can help reverse this trend. Further Reading:
Little Green Lies By Ben Elgin COVER STORY PODCASTAuden Schendler learned about corporate environmentalism directly from the prophet of the movement. In the late 1990s, Schendler was working as a junior researcher at the Rocky Mountain Institute, a think tank in Aspen led by Amory Lovins, legendary author of the idea that by "going green," companies can increase profits while saving the planet. As Lovins often told Schendler and others at the institute, boosting energy efficiency and reducing harmful emissions constitute not just a free lunch but "a lunch you're paid to eat." Slide Show >> Inspired by this marvelous promise, Schendler took a job in 1999 at Aspen Skiing Co., becoming one of the first of a new breed: the in-house "corporate sustainability" advocate. Eight years later, it takes him six hours crisscrossing the Aspen region by car and foot to show a visitor some of the ways he has helped the posh, 800-employee resort blunt its contribution to global warming. ) and Google (GOOG ) and DuPont (DD
Earth Times Carbon dioxide air capture Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) methods refers to a number of technologies which reduce the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.[1] Among such technologies are bio-energy with carbon capture and storage, biochar, direct air capture, ocean fertilization and enhanced weathering.[1] CDR is a different approach than removing CO2 from the stack emissions of large fossil fuel point sources, such as power stations. The latter reduces emission to the atmosphere but cannot reduce the amount of carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere. As CDR removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, it creates negative emissions, offsetting emissions from small and dispersed point sources such as domestic heating systems, airplanes and vehicle exhausts.[2][3] It is regarded by some as a form of geoengineering,[1] while other commentators regard it as a form of carbon capture and storage.[4] Methods[edit] Bio-energy with carbon capture and storage[edit] Biochar[edit] Enhanced weathering[edit] See also[edit]
Dispelling Carbon Capture's Scaling Myth Critics of carbon capture and storage (CCS) often deride the scale of infrastructure required for CCS to make a meaningful dent in global carbon emissions–not just in equipment to capture emissions at power plants (and other “point” sources of CO2), but also in pipelines to move the captured CO2 to storage sites. But an overlooked recent study by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), based in Richland, WA, makes a convincing case that, at least where pipelines are concerned, the scale of CO2 infrastructure required is well within the realm of current industrial activities. The PNNL study determines that the feat is feasible not by taking issue with estimates such as Romm’s, but rather by projecting a realistic implementation path for CCS technology. PNNL’s conclusion: “The sheer scale of the required infrastructure should not be seen as representing a significant impediment to US deployment of CCS technologies.” That scale is certainly immense.
How China and the US will set the global climate agenda In December, representatives from nearly 200 nations will gather in Copenhagen to negotiate a possible global agreement for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. As these meetings draw near, many in the international community are looking to China and the United Sates, the world’s biggest carbon emitters, to help set the agenda for global climate efforts. In this video interview, Kenneth Lieberthal, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and director of its John L. Thornton China Center, paints a portrait of the path toward Copenhagen and addresses the difficult questions both China and the United States must face in the coming months. He also outlines the scope of opportunities that cooperation on clean-energy development could create, the remaining roadblocks to compromise, and his hypothesis that a clean-energy partnership will emerge between the two countries before December. Video How China and the US will set the global climate agenda We have complementary technologies.
Did Greenhouse Gases Cause the Earth's Greatest Mass Extinction? November 19, 2008 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. In 1980, scientists Luis Alvarez and his son, Walter, proposed a new explanation for the dinosaurs’ disappearance 65 million years ago: a meteor strike. Now scientists are rethinking another of earth’s great die-offs. But while the die-off was uniquely devastating, evidence of a single cataclysmic event, like an asteroid strike, hasn’t been found in the geological record. And as in today’s human-dominated earthscape, life was already stressed. "Something came along and kicked it over the edge," says Linda Elkins-Tanton, an assistant professor of geology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass. Two hundred and fifty million years ago, Earth was emerging from a period of glaciation. The crust through which it bubbled contained vast coal and limestone deposits from an earlier time. The eruption and release of greenhouse gas was just the beginning.
ECO ART ACTIVISM: Swimming Above a Submerged City Talk about subliminal advertising. HSBC Bank hired advertising agency Oglivy & Mather in Mumbai to create a campaign for their website, www.globalwarmingsolutions.co.in, designed to call the public’s attention to the reality of global warming. The campaign entailed placing a bird’s eye view of New York City’s skyline at the bottom of a pool located in India’s financial capital, Mumbai. Aimed to capture the attention of unsuspecting swimmers, the stunt is an elegantly simple idea of what climate change could mean for some of the world’s coastal cities. With a large URL printed on the side of the pool, the campaign was aimed to bring as much as traffic as possible to the site. + Global Warming Solutions via cubeme
Copenhagen Climate Report: “Inaction is inexcusable” “We have covered new findings on climate science, climate impacts on society and the environment, and effective tools and approaches to deal with these challenges,” says Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and member of the writing team. “The scientific findings presented in this update create by themselves a sense of urgency that we hope will lead the Copenhagen conference to success,” says Schellnhuber, who advises the German government on global change issues. In Copenhagen a follow-up to the Kyoto protocol will be debated. The Synthesis Report summarises new knowledge that was presented at the congress “Climate Change: Global Risks, Challenges & Decisions” at the University of Copenhagen in March this year. For example, the current planetary land-use pattern is the result of erratic historical processes. Synthesis Report “Climate Change: Global Risks, Challenges & Decisions” (pdf-file, 5.5 MB) More on the web: