May 17, 2007

Cities Get Funding to Go Green

New York, Chicago, Houston, Toronto, Mexico City, London, Berlin, Tokyo and Rome received funding from President Clinton's foundation to renovate buildings to reduce greenhouse emmissions.

The former president said Citi, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan Chase, UBS and ABN Amro have each committed $1 billion to finance the upgrades.

The planned projects include replacing heating, cooling and lighting systems with energy-efficient networks; making roofs white or reflective to deflect more of the sun's heat; sealing windows and installing new models that let more light in and keep the elements out; and setting up sensors to control more efficient use of lights and air conditioning.

16 Cities to Get Financing to 'Go Green'

May 11, 2007

Encyclopedia of Life

On the theory that knowledge is a good thing a Harvard professor has kicked off a collaborative effort to create a website which will catalog all forms of life on Planet Earth.

The website will be called the Encyclopedia of Life. The intention is to create an entry on every form of life on the planet. The estimate is that this may be 1,800,000 species, but this number maybe off by a factor of 10.

The idea is that the Encyclopedia of Life, by serving as a catalog, database, and learning tool about every organism that has ever lived on the planet, to increase our biodiversity literacy.

The Encyclopedia of Life is being constructed so that child and adult can experience the thrill of learning and exploring every day, providing access to the information necessary to better understand our environment and humanity’s role on this planet.

This is expected to be a ten year effort. E.O. Wilson of Harvard University articulated the idea in a widely read essay published in 2003 and has been one of the leading proponents of the Encyclopedia of Life. Here is a link to a talk E.O. Wilson gave on the topic of the Encyclopedia of Life.

May 8, 2007

Sustainable Food - Vision

Here is an excellent presentation which discusses what it will take to provide a sustainable source of food for the growing world population.

We have a rapidly growing population, we have close to 1 billion people who are underfed, and we're losing farms and soil at a rapid pace. We contribute to global warming by tranporting food across the globe.

The presenation concludes with a vision for the future and some positive steps we all can take to move the world closer to providing a sustainable source of food for the world.

Climate Change Accord

More than 1,000 diplomats from 166 countries are meeting in Bonn on a new accord to control greenhouse gases.

The expectation is that the United States, India and China will all participate in this accord, unlike the Kyoto accord.

German delegate Nicole Wilke, speaking for the European Union, told the conference's opening session that global carbon emissions should peak within 10 to 15 years, and afterward should move toward a 50 percent decrease.

Delegates Work on Climate Change Accord