Global Warming, Peak Oil, Resource Depletion, and Sustainable Living

Eco-fashion is the clothing industry's way of acknowledging the benefits of environmentally safe, chemical-free manufacturing and cultivation, and materials like organic cotton, hemp, and bambnoo have been introduced into the mainstream quickly by retailers that want a piece of the green action.

However, in their haste to capitalize on the recent interest in environmentally-friendly clothing, some retailers have been taking advantage of the public's lack of... See entire blog item

Times Square and Piccadilly Circus without their famous lights? Newspapers and magazines a fraction of their current thickness? Fifty minute television programmes over in … fifty minutes?!

Modern life would be very different without advertising. Is it the sort of life we'd want to live? Could it be achieved?

Banning advertising should not be ruled out, though such a path would not be easy. Any politician wanting to ban advertising would find herself up against powerful lobbies. She may even be told her idea is in breach of one interpretation of her country's hallowed constitution. Advertising, after all,... See entire blog item

According to the US Department of Energy (Energy Information Administration), the world consumption of energy in all of its forms (barrels of petroleum, cubic meters of natural gas, watts of hydro power, etc.) is projected to reach 678 quadrillion Btu (or 7.15 exajoules) by 2030 – a 44% increase over 2008 levels (levels for 1980 were 283 quadrillion Btu and we stand at around 500 quadrillion Btu today).

I wondered what surface area would be required and what type of infrastructural investment would be required to supply that amount of power by... See entire blog item

This week, I watched President Obama speak in his clear, resounding, inspiring voice about clean energy and climate change during the State of the Union address. In that moment, I admit to feeling passion stir deep within me and tingles of inspiration buzz beneath my skin. Such is the rare oratorical power that Obama holds.... See entire blog item

As a lover of our planet, Graverson Green, like us, is not a fan of dirty coal. Cue Coalfinger, a coal super villain and Green's ultimate enemy! Along with his dopey sidekick Dr. Anthracite, Coalfinger plans to cover the world in coal-fired power stations and destroy the climate. Can Green stop them with the help of his assistant Katrina Hurkane?

Although this is an animation, it greatly relates to the world we live in today. The use of coal for energy is having an incredibly negative effect on the climate, and like Coalfinger, many energy companies... See entire story

By Tina Casey

This is the discovery that could put the College of Wooster on the map: glass that swells like a sponge.  Put together like a nano-matrix, the new glass can unfold to hold up to eight times its weight.  The glass binds with gasoline and other pollutants containing volatile organic compounds but it does not bind with water, so it acts like a "smart" sponge, capable of picking and choosing from contaminated groundwater. ... See entire news item

By  Jonathan Leake and Chris Hastings

A WARNING that climate change will melt most of the Himalayan glaciers by 2035 is likely to be retracted after a series of scientific blunders by the United Nations body that issued it.

Two years ago the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a benchmark report that was claimed to incorporate the latest and most detailed research into the impact of global warming. A central claim was the world's glaciers were melting so fast that those in the Himalayas could vanish by 2035.

In the past few days the scientists behind the warning have admitted that it was based on a news story in the New Scientist, a popular science journal,... See entire news item

For years inequality has been a political issue. Some people have been willing to fight against it; for others, ending or reducing it has been low on the agenda; others still saw it as a non-issue, a fact of life and perhaps even something positive. No longer can we afford to debate this. If we are to tackle global warming, we must also tackle inequality.

Most arguments for reducing inequality are not new. There are selfish reasons: the poorest people understandably want what those better off than them can enjoy; and for richer people, lower inequality... See entire blog item

The Internet has been vibrating along with the earth since the great quake in Haiti, and I have received quite  a few emails responding to this catastrophe, often with suggestions about ways to assist the Haitians. I'll quote from one particularly thoughtful response:

"I would like for you and your colleagues together to present our president (probably through USAID) with a proposal for rebuilding Haiti with earthbag and other environmentally sustainable technologies. Such a project would serve the dual purpose of providing affordable, earthquake / hurricane resistant housing for Haitians as well as to advance the global shift toward a more sustainable green paradigm by example. Due to this humanitarian catastrophe, both the monies and the political will for such... See entire blog item

Since September, when the Ontario Power Authority began its generous payment for rooftop solar power, Toronto's commercial roof acreage has become the site of a new renewable energy gold rush by solar developers now able to earn a steady income farming solar power to local utilities for 20 years.

Just as farmers in Texas or Iowa can now earn royalties from wind developers... See entire blog item