Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
– 10/10/10 day of climate action (photo slideshow)
– Review of the Totnes Energy Descent Action Plan
– Oxfordshire town sees human waste used to heat homes
– Transition and Social Enterprise: a short film
– Google Invests in $5bn Wind-Power Superhighway
– Hopkins Interview
– French towns swap rubbish trucks for horse-drawn carts
– Swiss Solar boat heads on around-the-world voyage
– Zero Emissions Race – 30 days around the world using renewables
– Does (European) Social-Democracy Have a Future?
– The Soot Road: Travelling along one of most polluted energy corridors on Earth
– On donating, buying, and swapping secondhand clothes
– Compostable diaper service
– UN environment chief urges recycling of rare metals
Researchers investigating a coming peak in world phosphorous production have urged caution on the revising up of estimates of reserves in a new report.
We in rich contries have almost lost the ability to supply our own needs through local manufacturing and agriculture–or even to extend the life of products through reuse, repair and repurposing. We rely on others, and on a system lubricated by cheap oil, to meet our needs as well as our wants.
-I was wrong about veganism. Let them eat meat – but farm it properly
-A benign extravagance
-The water footprint: the hidden cost of our meat consumption
Host Tamara Banks takes a look at the Transition Cities movement that is working for a way of life that is environmentally friendly, supports the local economy and conserves natural resources.
A key strategy that contributes to Seattle’s carbon neutrality work was approved by the Council in 2007, when my Zero Waste Initiative was adopted as City policy. The things we throw away not only generate carbon as they decompose—they also carry the embedded carbon that was used in creating them. Zero Waste is a strategy that addresses both of those aspects.
Too often even those people who are striving for sustainable ways of living find it hard to shake off the notions of linear resource use fostered by our ecologically dysfunctional culture. This week’s post explores ways around this blockage, using soil nutrients as a starting place.
-Engineers Use Rocket Science for Self-Sufficient Wastewater Treatment
-World’s first grid-scale flywheel energy plant to go online soon
-Oxy-fuel concept sustains electricity grid demand
-China orders polluting and unsafe factories to shut down
– Sustainable P talk (video) [new]
– American Scientist: Does Peak Phosphorus Loom?
– Scientist urges government to address ‘peak phosphate’ risk
– Sustainable Phosphorus Initiative at Arizona State (video)
– Nitrogen and Phosphorus: The Future of Toilet Design Hangs in the Balance
At just before 10 p.m. on Tuesday, April 20, 2010, the Transocean Ltd.-owned and BP Plc.-operated floating oil rig Deepwater Horizon was boring an exploratory well in the Macondo Prospect—about 40 miles southeast of the Louisiana coast and nearly a mile underwater—when it exploded without warning from a well blowout. …BP has tried repeatedly to stop the flow, to no avail. (As of this writing on Tuesday evening, July 13, it remains to be seen whether the well cap installed last night, a Band-Aid pending completion of the long-awaited relief wells next month, will actually work.) The spill’s magnitude has beggared description or belief.
