Green Leads and Green Feeds

Filed under: Sedan, Technology, Hatchback, Electric

Ford Focus EV - Click above for high-res image gallery
When the 2112 Ford Focus Electric debuts in late 2011, it and the Chevrolet Volt will have a common feature in addition to their LG Chem lithium polymer cells. Ford confirms that the Focus EV will employ a liquid-cooled battery pack with automatic thermal management, just like the Chevy.

Ford opted for active thermal management solution in order to help maximize the Focus EV's battery performance and lifespan. By protecting the battery from overheating, the system can help prevent the development of cracks in the electrodes. Those imperfections eventually reduce the pack's ability to hold a charge. Conversely, warming the cells when cold will improve the battery pack's winter performance. When the car is plugged in, the thermal management system will use grid power to precondition the battery before charging actually starts.

So far, Nissan and Mitsubishi are the only major EV manufacturers that are sticking with passive air cooling for plug-in vehicles. Nissan has committed to an eight-year warranty, but it remains unclear how well the battery will hold up over regular use in differing climates.

Gallery: ABG Quick Drive: Ford Focus EV mule

[Source: Ford]

Continue reading 2012 Ford Focus EV to use liquid-cooled lithium-polymer battery

2012 Ford Focus EV to use liquid-cooled lithium-polymer battery originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 04 Sep 2010 13:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Etc., Hirings/Firings/Layoffs, Humor

Is the Stig about to get a sex change? William Hill, one of the UK's largest bookmaking operations, places the odds of the next Stig being a lady at 4-1 and has reportedly seen a good amount of action on that particular wager. Gamblers can also bet on what color the next Stig will wear, with pink currently holding 5-1 odds.

Ireland's largest bookmaker, Paddy Power, is also in the mix, posting odds on both the color of the next Stig and who will be behind the mask (they stick with all-male options, though). Paddy Power is also taking bets on how White Stig will meet his demise. The long shot, at 20-1 odds, is currently an assassination by Tom Cruise (not a solid bet, really, as such behavior seems unbecoming of a high-level Thetan).

If Top Gear does go the Lady Stig route, who do you think will suit up? We're going with Sabine Schmitz. She clearly has the ability, plus she's already friendly with the Top Gear crew.

Actually, that's not a bad bet at all - excuse us while we place a few international calls...

[Source: The Sun; BettingDirectory]

Will the next Stig be a woman? UK bookies lay odds originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 04 Sep 2010 11:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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GO BACK TO SCHOOL WITH AN AMAZING NEW SOLAR BAG!

If you just started school this past week, but found yourself utterly unprepared, don’t fret over that old, empty frayed backpack because we’ve got a giveaway going on that’s sure to  put a smile on your face! In celebration of education, this week we’re giving away a grand green back-to-school bundle to one lucky reader! Featuring a sweet new Sakku solar powered bag made from recycled sails (worth $450), we’ve packed this baby full of eco-friendly school supplies, including 7 awesome 100% recycled hardcover notebooks in assorted colors and styles by ecosystem, a 100% recycled binder, tabs and binder pouch from Naked Binder! And this prize package isn’t the only thing we’ve got in the works, 5 other lucky winners will also have the chance to win some sweet Inhabischwag! Enter to win today!

ENTER TO WIN HERE>

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Post tags: back to school, contest, eco bag, eco binder, eco notebook, eco school supplies, ecosystem, giveaway, green back to school, green bag, green binder, green notebook, green school supplies, naked binder, photovoltaic bag, sakku, sakku solar bag, sakky, solar bag, solar powered bag

Image Credit: Mehgan Murphy, National Zoo If you've been to the Smithsonian National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C. lately, you may have noticed that they've been working on the first stage of their "Elephant Trails" project- a bold initiative to build a complex of indoor and outdoor habitats for the zoo's Asian elephants that will allow the endangered animals to thrive. Phase I, which opened to the public yesterday, includes two new outdoor yards and an elephant barn, which is Read the full story on TreeHugger

Handmade is becoming big business -- reeeally big. Etsy -- the online marketplace for handmade items -- announced earlier this week that it has raised $20 million in venture capital financing and has now tripled its valuation at $300 million (not including the funding). With sales up a whopping 72% from last year, business is booming -- not to mention ex-Google exec Adam Freed being roped in as Etsy's new chief operating officer. ...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Filed under: Car Buying, Hybrid, Toyota

2010 Toyota Prius - Click above for high-res image gallery
One month of dreary sales figures doesn't signal the end of the hybrid, but the numbers reported for August hint that without a rise in gas prices, hybrid vehicle sales will likely continue to suffer. Overall hybrid sales dropped 40.4 percent in August compared to a year ago. Not even the mighty Toyota Prius could avoid the plunge. Prius sales fell 37.5 percent compared to August 2009 and dropped off 16.3 percent compared to the July 2010 numbers. Combined, Toyota and Lexus hybrids saw a 36.2 percent decline from a year ago. Ford fared better by posting a 17.1 percent drop in year-over-year numbers.

Hybrid sales were clearly boosted last August by the government's Cash for Clunkers program, but this summer's low gas prices take much of the blame for the current hybrid sales plunge. Toyota remains in the number one spot, posting 15,444 sales last month. Ford sits in second place after moving 3,894 hybrid vehicles off dealer lots, while Honda holds onto third with 3,485 sales. It's getting redundant, but Toyota still leads the hybrid market. Anyone want to place bets on when (or if) that'll change?

Gallery: 2010 Toyota Prius

[Sources: Green Car Advisor, Autoblog]

Hybrid sales plummet 40% in August; Prius records 37.5% decline originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 04 Sep 2010 09:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Credit: Photos via facebook.com/meeteater. I like "Meet Eater," at least on Facebook. Not much happened after I hit the "Like" button to express my, um, admiration. Apparently, though, every time this plant makes a friend on Facebook, an electronic system delivers water and nutrients. No friends, no love? Dead plant. Unhappy Meet Eater....Read the full story on TreeHugger

The health differences may be more dramatic than you thought.

Emergency Solar Charger - Charging iPhone

As the name suggests, the Emergency Solar Charger for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch is a compact little solar-powered battery and charger, which can be used to charge up your iPod Touch or iPhone in an emergency. The charger contains a battery which is charged up via the solar panel. When you need the extra power, you just connect the charger to the iPhone. The charger will automatically charge the iPhone, giving it roughly 20% of charge.

Charging the Solar Charger

How It Works

You can charge up the charger using solar energy (so leaving it out on a sunny dashboard or windowsill) or you can charge it up via USB using the Apple USB cable (which could be via the PC, mains adapter, or via a car adapter). For the purposes of testing, I typically used the USB cable, as the charger was charged within just 2 hours. It takes a couple of days to charge the charger in sunlight, so really, you want to place the charger in strong sunlight when you’re not using it. That ensures you always have the emergency charge when you need it.

Once the charger is charged up, you just connect it to an iPhone or iPod Charger and it starts charging straight away. It takes about 20 minutes to charge up the iPhone or iPod to about 20%. If your device is completely dead when you start charging, then the charger charges the device up to around 16 to 18% (due to the power consumption when first switching on the iPod Touch or iPhone).

Emergency Solar Charger - on it's own

Feature Suggestions

The charger is very simple, it does exactly what it says on the tin. However, there are a couple of things that I suggest as minor improvements. Firstly, sometimes you need to wiggle the plug on the charger to get it to be recognised by the iPhone or iPod. I suspect there’s a microscopic difference in the connectors which means the charger is not always recognised as a charging device.

Secondly, it’d be good if there was an indicator to show how fully charged the charger is. Just a few small LEDs or a small LCD display to show if the charger is empty, half-full or fully charged. Currently, there’s no way to know how charged the charger is. Some attention here would be appreciated.

Conclusion

The Emergency Solar Charger for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch is a genuinely useful little gadget. I can imagine that it’s going to come in very useful when out and about with no power source! And costing just $5.51, it’s not going to break the bank either! Thanks to Budget Gadgets for sending me the charger to review.

Disclaimer: Although I was given this gadget to review, it has in no way influenced my opinions in this product review. This review reflects my personal and honest perspective on this gadget, and this perspective has not been biased in any way.

Want to buy this gadget? Check out the Emergency Solar Charger for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch article on EnviroGadget to see the lowest prices for this gadget.

© 2008 to 2010 EnviroGadget.com. You can now keep up with the latest eco-gadgets on the EnviroGadget Facebook page. Why not help us to spread the word?

Related posts:

1. The Surge Case – iPod Touch Solar Charger Case
2. Juicebar Pocket Solar-Powered iPhone and iPod Charger
3. Solar Powered Leather Case for iPhone 2G and 3G

A tiny baby seahorse was measured off the coast of Dorset, England. Image via the Seahorse Trust. It must have been like finding a needle in a haystack, but somehow, in murky water conditions, diver Neil Garrick-Maidment, the executive director of the Seahorse Trust, spotted a single 1.5-inch-long female baby seahorse "clinging onto a piece of seagrass" off the coast of Studland, Dorset -- a finding so rare he said it was "akin to seeing a Read the full story on TreeHugger

photo: Sara Novak Down here in South Carolina we're known for our southern fried chicken, but what about our southern fried fuel? In a move that could have a big time impact on the way Carolina views the deep fat fryer, city council officials are calling on local restaurants and residents to donate their cooking oil to be turned into biofuel to run the city's garbage trucks. Right now it's just a test run on one of the city's trucks, but if it's successful, it could make a dent in the city's garbage pickup carbon footprint. ...Read the full story on TreeHugger

photo via Nike In an attempt to honor the 29 coal miners who tragically died last year at the Upper Big Branch coal mine, the West Virginia University Mountaineers have teamed up with Nike to create new football uniforms that have the mark of coal. The uniforms are white, but have coal dust on the pants and shoulders. The yellow strip on the hemet is said to represent a miner's headlamp. In the photo featuring the new uniform a player appears to be emerging from a strip mine, leav...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Packing paper with recycled trim. Credit: Patti Robinson When Patti Robinson, a summer camp instructor at The Art Farm in Bridgehampton, NY, sent over some photos of recycled fashion, I was intrigued -- especially with the shape and design of the one, above -- and even more so when she told me that the young campers who crafted these designs ranged between the ages of eight and twelve. This summer, Patti, a self-proclaimed Project Runway fan, struck up a recycled fashion challenge; it quickly became a camp favorite and evolved into a summer-long program, called "Gene...Read the full story on TreeHugger

It appears that certain companies are intentionally overproducing a very potent greenhouse gas called HFC-23 or trifluoromethane solely for the purpose of destroying it in order to receive CER units. The substance is a by-product in the manufacture of HFC-22, a common refrigerant used in air conditioning systems.

There are three interesting conferences coming up in the design world this month (see below for details). If you are planning to go to any of these events (or even some others we haven't yet heard of), please consider submitting a "Reader Report." We'd love to get your 'inside scoop' and learn more about all of the cool, innovative projects and ideas likely to be presented at these conferences. Please email me at amanda@worldchanging.com if you'd like to contribute a report!

ASLA Annual Meeting: Friday–Monday, September 10–13 in Washington, D.C.
More than 6,000 landscape architecture professionals from across the U.S. and around the world will gather in Washington, D.C., September 10–13, to earn up to 21 professional development hours, to enjoy the fellowship of our profession, and to reconnect with the fundamental elements of design.

The talks and education sessions that I would love to learn more about include: "Landscape Architecture and Public Health"; "Green Roofs for Healthy Cities: Advances in Living Architecture"; "Redefining Water Management: Landscapes and Buildings Under Water "; and "Global Exchange: The Best Sustainable Codes, Standards, and Policies."

The Designers Accord Seattle Town Hall: Thursday, September 23 at 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm, in Seattle, WA
The Designers Accord is a global coalition of designers, educators, and business leaders working together to create positive environmental and social impact. This town hall meeting is your chance to join fellow Seattle designers who care deeply about these issues, and share in the discussion of how we can make designing in sustainable ways a reality in our region.

Topics of discussion include: mapping the design process towards sustainability; the role of design in sustainability; and collaboration.

Green Building Festival 2010: Wednesday–Saturday, September 22–25, 2010 at the Direct Energy Centre in Toronto, Canada
Sustainable Buildings Canada is pleased to present the 6th annual Green Building Festival. Join us for 3 days of speakers, training and building tours along with IIDEX/Neocon, Canada's premier architecture and design expo.

The seminar titles I find intriguing in the schedule include: "Sustainable Development: Policy, Planning and Infrastructure"; "Contemporary Architecture in Toronto - Past, Present and Where Are We Going?"; "Innovation through the Lens of Transparent Communications"; "Life Cycle Costing for Greenbuilding Design"; "SMART GRID Taking Our Cue From Nature"; and the "Design Panel on Sustainable & Healthy Communities."
...

And of course, don't forget to register for Worldchanging's upcoming event on October 1: FUTURE CITY!

...

For some examples of past "Reader Reports" see these posts in the Worldchanging archives:

• Reader Report: Skoll Social Forum | Grace Augustine, 19 Apr 10
  
• Reader Report: Low-cost Clean Tech for Rural Communities | Baskut Tuncak, 25 Feb 10
  
• Reader Report: Investing in a Bright Green Future | Lisa Chacón, 29 Apr 09
  
• Reader Report: Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship | Kristin Hayden, 1 Apr 09
  
• Reader Report: Notes from Greenbuild 2008 | Morgan Greenseth, 15 Dec 08
  
• Reader Report: Sustainability On Campus and Beyond at AASHE 2008 | Xarissa Holdaway, 4 Dec 08
  
• Reader Report: Solar Innovation in Costa Rica | Max Levin, 23 Oct 08
  
• Reader Report: Linking Cities and Climate at The Third International CEU Conference | Faith Cable, 16 Oct 08
  
• Reader Report From the World Cities Summit | Zufan, 18 Jul 08

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(Posted by Amanda Reed in Green Building at 5:30 PM)

Melting and thinning ice in the Arctic has proceeded so rapidly that new sea routes are opening up, infrastructure is being imagined, and countries like Canada are working to assert their sovereignty in the north...

Last year, Beluga Shipping became the first shipping company to transport goods through the 'Northeast Passage'; two ships, escorted by a pair of Russian icebreakers, traveled from South Korea to Siberia via the newly broken up NE passage. Now, the sea is ice-free enough in the summer that it is projected to become a regular shipping route as early as next year. As a mark of this change, the Northeast Passage has even been renamed the "Northern Sea Route." Charlie Jane Anders has the story at io9: "2010 Will Be Remembered as the Year the Arctic Ocean Became a Trade Route"

The MV Beluga Fraternity and MV Beluga Foresight traveling through the Northeast Passage, July 2009. (Source: The Boston Globe)

In addition to the new Northern Sea Route (the NE Passage), the 'Northwest Passage' is closer to becoming a viable shipping route connecting the North Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. As the image below shows, the Northwest Passage was already ice-free in the summer of 2007.

(Image Source: NASA; Credit: Jesse Allen, using data obtained from the Goddard Land Processes data archives (LAADS))

As these Arctic shipping routes open up and Arctic communities become more connected to larger networks of distribution, local economies will likely change and new infrastructure will be needed to support a transition of goods distribution from air to shipping, as well as support growths in population. Infranet Lab explores the design challenges of this transition by looking at one conceptual design proposal for the community of Igloolik: "Frozen Cities/Liquid Networks: (air)Port and Infrastructural Autonomy"

The following project, developed by Amrit Phull and Claire Lubell, in the Frozen Cities/ Liquid Networks studio at the University of Waterloo, examines how new infrastructure can be produced in the Arctic that allows for the transference from air to shipping logistics and, while doing so, addresses the issue of food production and coastal erosion in the Arctic. It questions how remote coastal communities throughout Canada’s Arctic can establish self-sufficiency in anticipation of economic and environmental fluctuations. As stated by Lubell and Phull:

"The proposal seeks to provide a hard infrastructure which responds to the immediate needs of the community, but is also the root of growth in a context where change in landscape, resources and community occurs at varying speeds. In particular the project examines the potential development of Port Churchill as well as a major international port in the Northwest Passage and how this can create a network of small ports, at existing communities, along the west coast of Hudson’s Bay."

Rendering of New Infrastructure Typology in Igloolik by Lubell and Phull. (via Infranet Lab)

Canada has been preparing for an ice-free Arctic and asserting its sovereignty for a few years (the military operations in Resolute Bay were announced back in 2007), and this week Anita Dey Nuttall at the Edmonton Journal published an update on Canada's plans in the Arctic: "Canada Stakes a Claim to Arctic Power, Influence"

As the Canadian military exercise Operation Nanook 10 drew to a close this week and Prime Minister Stephen Harper travelled in Canada's North, the federal government made two key announcements that sum up the country's main Arctic priorities.

Both the statement on Canada's Arctic foreign policy and confirmation of the location of the long-awaited High Arctic Research Station in Cambridge Bay place Arctic sovereignty and Arctic science at the heart of Canada's resolve to exercise power and influence in the circumpolar region and indeed in the wider international community.

Added to this, the formal apology to Inuit last week for the government's controversial High Arctic relocation program in the 1950s suggests hope for a new chapter in relations with Inuit communities and organizations.

[...]

As climate change makes the Arctic more accessible, and as energy companies assess the oil and gas development potential in Canada's northern territories, the gaps in Canada's infrastructure in the North, both civilian and military, have been brought into sharp focus. This underscores the urgent need for Canada to organize and augment its defence, civic and scientific facilities in the North to enable good governance and responsible stewardship -- key pieces in exercising its sovereignty in the Arctic. Responding to this, recent moves by the government have therefore included plans for investing in new patrol ships, the building of a berthing and refuelling facility in Nanisivik, expanding the size and capabilities of the Canadian Rangers, and establishing a new Canadian Forces Arctic Training Centre in Resolute Bay.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper visited Operation NANOOK 10 on August 25, 2010, a major sovereignty exercise conducted by the Canadian Forces, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Canadian Coast Guard and other government departments and agencies in Canada’s North. (via Prime Minister of Canada Website)

For more on the new Arctic Research Station mentioned above, see Hannah Hoag's story for Nature News: "Canada Picks Site for Arctic Research Station"

After months of deliberation, the Canadian government has chosen Cambridge Bay — a hamlet midway along the Northwest Passage in the country's far north — as the site for a world-class Arctic research station.

Once built, the station will house scientists all year round, giving them a modern space to study Arctic issues, including climate change and natural resources. It will host conference facilities and laboratories for research on marine biology and geophysics, provide ecologists with the space to do long-term ecological monitoring in aquaria and greenhouses, and give researchers in the health and social sciences a base for their studies.

Cambridge Bay, a hamlet in Canada's far north, is marked by the red point. (Image via Google Maps)

Related stories in the Worldchanging archives:

• Preparing for an Ice-Free Arctic: Part 1 - China's Growing Interest in the Thawing North
  
• Preparing for an Ice-Free Arctic: Part 2 - The Commercial Lure of Melting Ice
  
• Preparing for an Ice-Free Arctic: Part 3 - Charting Political Waters

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(Posted by Amanda Reed in Climate Change at 3:30 PM)

On the one hand, we’ve got three long days of the absence of work. On the other, the certainty that those days will almost certainly not be long enough, or include enough good times, to balance out the fact that the impending end of summer awaits on their far shore. As much as we’d love to, dear readers, there is nothing we can do about that — masterful prose and updates on the latest in New York City’s green scene cannot extend a three-day weekend. (We’ve tried, and the most we’ve gotten so far is the ability to add another few minutes and a renewed appreciation for insulation) Hopefully, then, the following far-flung links will deliver the next best thing — something to read while you are not working.

• There’s a sense in which communes, collectives and whatever other words people use to describe Intentional Rural Organic Conscious-Living Communities are sort of embarrassing to urban green types. Beyond our usual argument on this — you know the one, about the inherent efficiency of New York City and dense, diverse, transit-positive cities like it, and the way it unconsciously conditions sustainable behaviors in a way that living in an isolated net-zero yurt just doesn’t — there’s the question of aesthetics. At gbNYC, it’s our hope that green building practices will become so mainstream as to become unremarkable — that they’ll so win out on their merits that it will no longer be notable when, for instance, a building has a super-efficient HVAC system and tons of insulation. Communes and the like, simply because of their willful placement outside the larger society, take a different tack (and conjure images of easily caricatured barley-in-the-beard hippiedom) and thus, despite sharing the same goals as we Urban Green Elites (fantasy football team name!), are kind of our opposite number. Still, it’s hard not to feel positively about this USA Today piece on the rise of much less easily caricatured green living communities — many of them structured around LEED-certified green buildings — including one just a few hours north of NYC in Ithaca, New York. “These are not the hippy, free-love communes of the 1960s, but living arrangements that focus on organic farming, green building, communal spaces and other aspects of sustainability,” USA Today’s Wendy Koch writes.
• As you’ve likely noticed, this isn’t a food blog. (Spoiler: it’s a green building website) But you can generally tell whether I’ve eaten or not based on my posts — if I’m going on about pizza or using a few too many adjectives to describe a rooftop farm in Queens, I’m probably hungry. So it’s lucky for you, dear readers, that I am currently just-fed, and thus not interested in describing the very delicious roasted corn at Nolita’s Cafe Habana and Fort Greene’s Habana Outpost (which is made with cotija cheese and lime and chili powder and maybe I am still hungry?). Admirable as that corn is — and people, I am telling you — it is apparently far from the most excellent thing about these perpetually bustling restaurants. In the New York Times, Diane Cardwell describes Habana bossman Sean Meenan’s dedication to sustainability, which includes rainwater recycling, solar panels, and a green roof at Habana Outpost. Also, here’s a bonus gbNYC Labor Day Weekend recipe for Mexican-style grilled corn.
• Finally, to Chicago, where green restaurants and green retail have successfully made their way downmarket. In the Chicago Tribune, Emily Bryson York brings news of the boom in green retail in the Windy City, including what almost certainly qualifies as the greenest place in America to get a foot-long sandwich for five dollars (plus tax). “The Subway sandwich shop at 236 S. State St. may look like any other new restaurant, but its tile, crown molding and most wall coverings are made from recycled materials,” York writes. “In the bathroom, sensors control water flow, timers manage lights, and the toilet has a low-flow option. A smart air-conditioning system normalizes temperature between the bread ovens and the eating area.”

Bookmark this article to:

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2. Friday Reading: Inside LEED Platinum 1 Bryant Park, Green Boom In Pre-Fab, Allergy-Driven Speed-Blogging
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We need a better understanding of the 'environmentalist's paradox' - Why is human well-being improving globally when our environmental woes appear to be worsening all the time?

by Leo Hickman

We hear lots of concerned chatter these days – not least, here on this site - about peak oil, peak water, deforestation, resource depletion and the like, but a popular riposte offered by those doubting such concerns is something commonly referred to as the "Environmentalist's Paradox".

The argument goes thus: "Why, despite resource depletion and the degradation of ecosystems, is average human well-being improving globally?"

People such as Matt Ridley, author of the Rational Optimist, argue that environmentalists are needlessly downbeat about humanity's prospects. After all, we are a resourceful, adaptable, highly intelligent species more than capable of riding out any current concerns (if only we would de-shackle ourselves from free-market constraints).

As a counterpoint, we have the likes of Jared Diamond, author of Collapse, arguing that we should heed the lessons provided by failed civilisations of the past who extinguished themselves by over-exploiting their available natural resources.

The latest edition of the journal BioScience includes a fascinating paper which examines just this paradox. (hat tip: Scientific American.) "Untangling the Environmentalist's Paradox" (the PDF is available here free until it disappears behind a paywall in a month's time), co-authored by a team of scientists led by Ciara Raudsepp-Hearne of McGill University, lays out in detail the conflicting indices which underpin the paradox. The editorial introducing the article sets the scene:

Studies including the influential Millennium Ecosystem Assessment have concluded that the capacity of ecosystems to produce many ecosystem services is now low. Depletion of ecosystem services is expected to mean fewer benefits to humans, thus decreasing human well-being. Yet the composite Human Development Index, a widely used metric that incorporates measures of literacy, life expectancy, and income, has improved markedly since the mid-1970s in both rich and poor nations. The index correlates strongly with other measures of prosperousness. Some measures of personal security buck the upward trend, but the overall improvement in well-being cannot, it seems, be denied. Does this paradox mean that concern about ecosystem services is overblown?

The authors then present four hypotheses that might help to explain the environmentalist's paradox. Here is their summary:

1. Critical dimensions of human well-being have not been captured adequately, and human well-being is actually declining. Measures of well-being that suggest it has increased are wrong or incomplete. 2. Provisioning ecosystem services, such as food production, are most significant for human well-being; therefore, if food production per capita increases, human well-being will also increase, regardless of declines in other services. 3. Technology and social innovation have decoupled human well-being from the state of ecosystems to the extent that human well-being is now less dependent on ecosystem services. 4. There is a time lag after ecosystem service degradation before human well-being is negatively affected. Loss of human well-being caused by current declines in services has therefore not yet occurred to a measurable extent.

The authors effectively dismiss the first hypothesis, arguing that there is a large body of evidence to support the notion that human wellbeing is, on average, improving. As might be expected, the authors support the second hypothesis. With the third, they conclude that the available evidence suggests that the "decoupling" argument can't be supported.

But perhaps the most intriguing hypothesis – for me, at least – is the fourth. Can the environmentalist's paradox be explained away by the fact that there is a time lag between when we degrade our finite natural resources and when our well-being begins to be negatively affected? If so, what is this period of time likely to be? And will the transitional descent - when/if it finally begins - be slow or rapid? The answers to these questions will surely be key to working out who will ultimately prove to be correct out of the Diamonds or the Ridleys of this world.

When I think about this time lag I can't help but be reminded of the set-piece scene from the Oscar-winning Wallace and Gromit cartoon, The Wrong Trousers. Gromit, Wallace's canny dog, finds himself having to lay track as fast as he can in front of himself to ensure the toy train he's riding on remains in hot pursuit of the jewel-thief penguin escaping with a diamond. (Go to 1:28 on this video.) Using this as a metaphor, can humans keep laying the train track in front of them fast enough to avoid a nasty derailment? Can we keep perpetually delaying our fall and decline? The authors of the paper seem to be suggesting that our chances of doing so are diminishing all the time as the world becomes increasingly globalised:

There is growing evidence of approaching resource collapses in certain regions of the world, but less is known about how system- or service-specific collapses may interact with one other and result in major impacts on global human well-being. Local or regional collapses may lead to cascading problems associated with forced human migration and resource competition, which could have global-scale effects on human well-being. Alternatively, market forces and trade rules could cause rapid destabilization in resource markets, leading to outcomes such as the multiple food, oil, and financial crises of 2008, which took the world by surprise. The global financial crisis of 2008 also demonstrates the connectivity of the global economy, and the capacity of globalized systems to undergo abrupt and surprising declines. Whether human well-being will suffer at the global scale will depend on how humans adapt to ecosystem degradation and its associated collapses over the next few decades…

Highly adaptable human societies have at times successfully staved off the effects of environmental degradation by importing ecosystem services from other regions, enhancing the supply of ecosystem services in some areas, exporting negative impacts to other locations, and making more efficient use of ecosystem services.

However, evidence suggests that future adaptation will be different and probably more difficult, as resources near depletion at the global scale. Previously available options for migration and translocations of resource use are increasingly constrained by the scope of human use of the biosphere.

As you might expect with any academic paper, there are the necessary caveats and calls for further research. As Timothy M. Beardsley, BioScience's editor in chief, says in his editorial:

"The authors' conclusions are limited by the geographically aggregated nature of their data, and BioScience will publish commentary on aspects of their analysis in a future issue. Yet the article clearly strengthens the case for research that integrates human well-being, agriculture, technology, and time lags affecting ecosystem services."

Agreed: it's certainly a subject that I for one would welcome much more nuanced, detailed research and discussion.

This post originally appeared on The Guardian

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(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Biodiversity and Ecosystems at 12:45 PM)

Editor's Note: A couple weeks ago we posted a piece by Alex Aylett reporting on Portugal's impressive percentage of renewable electricity supply. Below, we revisit Portugal's renewable energy success and explore how their planning policies helped them make such impressive gains in renewable energy production with a repost from Worldwatch...

by Alexander Ochs and Camille Serre

Typically, the Scandinavian countries and Germany have set the example in the European renewables field. Yet lately, a Southern country - Portugal - has attracted attention after delivering its National Renewable Energy Action Plan to the European Commission this June.

Portugal has made dramatic changes in its energy policy over the last five years under the government of Prime Minister José Sócrates. The country's installed renewable energy capacity more than tripled between 2004 and 2009, from 1,220 megawatts (MW) to 4,307 MW, and renewables now represent roughly 36 percent of electricity consumed. Portugal currently ranks fourth in Europe in energy production from renewables.

Of course, Portugal benefits from favorable conditions for renewables: a strong wind resource, great hydropower, good tidal waves potential, and a high sunshine rate. After the country removed several dams in recent years, Sócrates' government has focused instead on wind power development, under most conditions the cheapest renewable energy source after hydropower. With more than 600-percent growth in wind energy production between 2004 and 2009, Portugal now ranks sixth in Europe in total installed capacity and third in capacity per capita, behind only Denmark and Spain. Some even expect Portugal to overtake its neighbor Spain in per-capita wind energy production as early as this year.

Additionally, Portugal is starting to exploit its solar potential. A photovoltaic (PV) power station located in Moura, operative since 2008 and expected to be fully completed by the end of 2010, will count among the world's largest solar farms. But despite a great progression of installed PV capacity in Portugal (from 1 MW in 2000 to 75 MW in 2009), solar power still lags far behind wind's installed capacity of 3,353 MW. Portugal also deploys other renewable energies, albeit at a much smaller scale. Biomass and biogas represented 3.2 percent of total consumed electricity in 2009, and the world's first shoreline wave power plant has been operating since 2005 on the island of Pico in the Azores, with 400 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of capacity.

How did Portugal assume such impressive leadership in the clean energy transition? The key, as usual, lies in ambitious supportive policies. Prior to 2000, Portugal's transmission lines were owned by private power companies that had no interest in investing in renewables, as the deployment of these technologies would require radical changes in the grid infrastructure and therefore raise costs. To address this barrier, the government bought the lines and began adapting the grid to renewables requirements, including more flexibility and a better grid connection in remote areas to allow the production and distribution of electricity from small generators, such as domestic solar panels.

A combination of incentives was implemented to attract investors. Feed-in tariffs (FIT) - which guarantee producers of renewable energy a specified price for every megawatt-hour of power fed into the grid - were first introduced in Portugal in 1988 and have increasingly evolved into a highly sophisticated system with individual prices for each renewable energy source. The latest tariff stipulations, issued in 2005 and 2007, take into account environmental considerations, the level of technology development, and the inflation rate. The government also integrated new technologies such as Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) and tidal power into the system.

Today, all renewable energy sources in Portugal will benefit from the feed-in tariff for 15 years, and small hydro-power prices are guaranteed for 20 years. The tariffs vary from around 7.5 Euro cents (around 9.5 U.S. cents) per kWh for wind and hydro to more than 30 Euro cents (38 U.S. cents) per kWh for photovoltaic energy. Renewable heating and cooling is also supported under conditions by financial and fiscal incentives, largely for the benefit of small and medium-sized enterprises.

The European Commission plays a decisive role in setting targets for each Member State via its 2009 Renewable Energy Directive. Portugal is expected to reach a 31-percent share of renewable energy in its gross final energy consumption by 2020. Also, the European Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) encourages participating countries to cut their emissions of greenhouse gases and therefore move from fossil fuels to renewables, by requiring energy producers and energy-intensive companies to meet strict carbon dioxide emissions targets and to purchase additional permits for overshooting them.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), Portugal became a net power exporter last year, delivering a small amount of electricity to Spain. Inspired by these good results, Portugal set more ambitious targets in its National Energy Strategy (ENE 2020), adopted by the Council of Ministers on April 15. The country now aims to reach a 45-percent renewables share in its electricity production by the end of the year, and a 60-percent share by 2020.

The main focus of Portugal's renewable policy will remain on wind power, a dynamic industry that represents a source of revenue and creates green jobs. The electricity operator Energias de Portugal even invests in wind farms located in the U.S. Midwest.

Prime Minister Jose Socrates' government wants to improve the reliability and efficiency of Portugal's renewables supply. Renewable energy production is often challenged by natural flows-including the common criticism that the sun does not always shine and the wind does not always blow, even in Portugal. By the end of the year, the government will set up a system to monitor on-going energy demand and potential supply from various available renewable sources.

What is driving Portugal to undertake such changes? One factor, of course, is the fact that the country does not possess any noteworthy fossil fuel resources, as illustrated by 2007 IEA data. Yet in 2005, the bulk of Portugal's gross electricity was generated by three fossil sources: coal (32.7%), natural gas (29.2%), and oil (18.9%). The country is therefore heavily dependent on imports that place a high toll on the national budget - amounting to 86 percent of spending in 2006, according to the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC). In its ENE 2020 strategy, Portugal aims to reduce fossil fuel imports 70 percent by 2020 and cut its energy import balance 25 percent, saving some US$2.55 billion.

In order to address initial local conflicts due to the financial costs of intense development of wind power plants, a unique mechanism has been set up. Under the current feed-in tariff legislation, municipalities that host wind farms benefit from additional financial support in the form of a 2.5-percent share of the monthly remuneration paid to local wind project operators.

Overall, the IEA's Shinji Fujino tells the New York Times, "So far, the [renewable energy] program has placed no stress on the national budget."

Alexander Ochs is director of the Climate and Energy program at the Worldwatch Institute and Camille Serre is a research intern with Worldwatch. They can be reached at aochs@worldwatch.org.

Photo courtesy Richard Gillespie: Portugal’s countryside has been dotted with new wind farms, increasing wind energy production by 600 percent from 2004-2009.

This article originally appeared on Worldwatch's ReVolt blog.

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(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Energy at 11:30 AM)

The energy provided from sun is so strong that it can power the entire planet for one year. Surely we are clever enough to capture some of this magnificent force and use it to fuel our environment. Solar energy are divided into two categories, static or passive solar energy and dynamic or kinetic solar energy. An example of passive solar energy could be building a house so that the windows face the morning sun in cold climates. We do not know but our Earth uses the power from sun in many ways. Ours is an inherently rechargeable renewable world, provided we use our resources such as solar energy wisely.

For instance in case of shopping malls which use double paned insulated windows that allow light to enter yet keep heating or cooling locked inside. But what would happen if the sun moves away from the arc its following? Then active solar lighting can use mirrors that track with the sun’s movement and then reflect light into fiber optic cable that can carry that light into any part of our same department store. Further on, we can transfer warmth through various forms of solar energy. Like in the 1950s it was a common trend to see simple glass paned boxes filled with copper pipes which were used to help heat water for swimming pools and boilers.

Water can be heated from high temperature parabolic shaped mirrors than made possible by our simple rooftop hot boxes. If we apply this theory properly then solar power can supply 50% of the power needs for a modern factory. This method could be said is one half of the concentrated solar power used for creating electricity from sun’s radiant energy.

Solar cells which are also called photovolatic is the most common form of solar every conversion which relies upon solar volatic cells. Initially being developed in the 188o’s, these cells were used to produce a flow of electrons which were further used to create current flow. In simple words, sunlight was turned into energy. However, since the 1970s, advancements in developments have taken place due to oil shortage. Solar cells are now competitive with the wind power technology due to increase in production and its low price and like their low emissions wind counterparts are far less costly than nuclear power.

Lets consider an example of the Jumilla, Spain solar farm. Currently, high yield (15% efficiency) photovoltaic solar installations cost around 6 dollars per watt. The world’s largest solar farm sits on just 247 acres and cost about 200 million dollars to build. The gross amount of revenue annually is to exceed 20 million dollars. This means you would earn all you investment in 15 years time allowing for maintainence and labor. Only in carbon credit, the solar farm would generate over a million dollars. This is because obviously a solar farm does not require any infusion of coal of any other fossil fuel which creates energy. For some people waiting for a 15 year period might be too long. Solar and wind power speculate on the overall rise in hydrocarbon fuel costs. A coal fired power plant costs one fifth as much to build as does a solar wind farm on a per watt basis. And even factoring the cost of fuel to burn, fossil fuel power is cheaper, but for how long and at what ultimate cost. One little blip in the world’s political stability can drive the cost of fossil fuels to double. If and when that happens solar power will be a bargain.

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