Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Counterpoint: Dangers of Focusing Solely on Climate Change -- great article!!

<p>
<strong>No one with any scientific sense</strong> now disagrees about the severity of the climate crisis. But some people &mdash; and some magazines &mdash; believe that climate change trumps every other problem. If we take this argument to its extreme, we should ignore any environmental concern that gets in the way of reducing emissions. And that's just plain wrong.</p>
<p>Make no mistake: Tackling climate change is vital. But to see everything through the lens of short-term CO<sub>2</sub> reductions, letting our obsession with carbon blind us to the bigger picture, is to court catastrophe.</p>
<p>Climate change is not a discrete issue; it's a symptom of larger problems. Fundamentally, our society as currently designed has no future. We're chewing up the planet so fast, in so many different ways, that we could solve the climate problem tomorrow and still find that environmental collapse is imminent. Myopic responses will only hasten its arrival.</p>
<p>Take the proposal that we cut down old trees in favor of new ones. First, I don't buy the carbon accounting presented to advance this procrustean plan: Older trees can absorb CO<sub>2</sub> for centuries after reaching maturity, while replanted forests can emit more CO<sub>2</sub> than they sequester until the new trees are as much as 20 years old.</p>
<p>But even if wired's math were correct, this would still be a crap fix for climate change. Chopping down forests causes massive soil erosion and leads to desertification, making repeated tree plantings a dodgy prospect. As monocultures, tree farms are far more vulnerable to pest infestations. And batches of trees planted at the same time are more susceptible to wildfires, causing the carbon they're supposed to be sequestering to go up in smoke.</p>
<p>Old-growth forests, coupled with a broad program of woodlands restoration and sustainable forestry, can provide not only climate relief and ecologically responsible wood and biomass harvests but a slew of other essential ecological services, from salmon habitats to flood prevention. It's a heck of a lot more costly &mdash; in both money and emissions &mdash; to build massive dams and fish farms than to simply protect the forests we already have.</p>
<p>Another example of how carbon blindness leads to counterproductive policies: embracing nuclear power as a clean energy source. This argument assumes that other clean alternatives will not improve in efficiency or affordability during the 10 years it would take to implement a nuclear program. That's short-term thinking. If we invested the money that we would spend on new nuclear facilities more wisely (and eliminated subsidies on fossil fuels), alternatives like wind, solar, hydroelectric, and wave power could deliver a clean-energy future more cheaply and probably sooner, without any of the security or health risks of nuclear plants. Nuclear power may have a role to play, but it would be far better to create a flexible energy system that draws on many clean sources, instead of on a single panacea. Again, a cut-carbon-at-all-costs approach blinds us to more-sustainable, and ultimately more-promising, solutions.</p>
<p>To have any hope of staving off collapse, we need to move forward with measures that address many interrelated problems at once. We're not going to persuade people in the developing world to go without, but neither can we afford a planet on which everyone lives like an American. Billions more people living in suburbs and driving SUVs to shopping malls is a recipe for planetary suicide. We can't even afford to continue that way of life ourselves.</p>
<p>We don't need a War on Carbon. We need a new prosperity that can be shared by all while still respecting a multitude of real ecological limits &mdash; not just atmospheric gas concentrations, but topsoil depth, water supplies, toxic chemical concentrations, and the health of ecosystems, including the diversity of life they depend upon.</p>
<p>We can build a future in which technology, design, smart incentives, and wise policies make it possible to deliver a high quality of life at lower ecological cost. But that brighter, greener future is attainable only if we embrace the problems we face in all their complexity. To do otherwise is tantamount to clear-cutting the very future we're trying to secure.</p>

<p><em>Alex Steffen </em>(<a href="mailto:editor@worldchanging.com">editor@worldchanging.com</a>) <em>is the editor of the green futurism site Worldchanging.com and of the book</em> Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century.</p><br style="clear: both;"/>
<a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=a5fdb9574ed3c429a761fdb253f12a4c"><img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=a5fdb9574ed3c429a761fdb253f12a4c"/></a>
<img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=a5fdb9574ed3c429a761fdb253f12a4c" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>
<p><a href="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?a=wXSNe9"><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?i=wXSNe9" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~4/293977192" height="1" width="1"/>

http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/293977192/sb_carbon


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Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Selsam Multi-Rotor Wind Turbine Still Spinning

When we first wrote about Doug Selsam's multi-rotor wind turbines three years ago, it attracted some nasty and dismissive comments. When Jetson Green and Engadget posted (very old) pictures we went back and had a look at Selsam's website we found that while the site design is stuck in 2004, the contents are not. Beside the fact that his turbines are out of prototype and

http://feeds.treehugger.com/~r/treehuggersite/~3/290260876/selsam-wind-turbine-still-spinning.php


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video - together - climate change


http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/05/boris-johnson-climate-change.php




Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Solar Hot Water on the Cheap

There&rsquo;s a downside to nearly all renewable energy technologies available for homeowners. Cost. Though over time a solar power or small wind system may pay for itself in savings from not buying fuels or power from the grid, the initial outlay for renewable energy is staggering for mere mortals. Despite the wisdom of a penny saved is a penny earned, most Americans consider sales price first, long term savings last.

However simple, low tech, clever products or affordable high tech plug and play technologies may be the key to bringing renewable energy into the home.

http://www.enn.com/lifestyle/article/35880


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India's green revolutionary is back in spotlight

Forty years after he helped rescue the world from growing famine and a deepening gloom over the future of food supplies, Monkombu Sambasivan Swaminathan is once again agitating for revolution -- this time a perpetual one.

The 82-year-old scientist, dubbed here the father of the Green Revolution for helping development a hybrid wheat seed that allowed Indian farmers to dramatically increase yields, says the current food crisis offers the world a chance to put farmers on the right road to unending growth.

http://www.enn.com/business/article/36109


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Biofuel Comparison Chart: The "Good," the Bad and the (Really) Ugly

<img alt="biofuel comparison chart" title="biofuel comparison chart" src="http://www.treehugger.com/biofuels-comparison.jpg" width="468" height="223" />
<em>Chart courtesy of <a href="http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/361634_biodiesel03.html">Seattle P.-I.</a></em>

Courtesy of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer comes this nifty side-by-side comparison chart (see here for a <a href="http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/dayart/20080503/biofuels_compare.gif">blown-up version</a>). The article does a nice job of running through the (many) problems associated with biofuels, citing <a href="http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/02/biofuels_heavy_ghg_emitters.php">two studies</a> by The Nature Conservancy and a team of U.S. scientists. ...
<p><a href="http://feeds.treehugger.com/~a/treehuggersite?a=fyQdpK"><img src="http://feeds.treehugger.com/~a/treehuggersite?i=fyQdpK" border="0"></img></a></p><div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.treehugger.com/~f/treehuggersite?a=bOjhAH"><img src="http://feeds.treehugger.com/~f/treehuggersite?i=bOjhAH" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.treehugger.com/~f/treehuggersite?a=9xHTzH"><img src="http://feeds.treehugger.com/~f/treehuggersite?i=9xHTzH" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.treehugger.com/~r/treehuggersite/~4/287743567" height="1" width="1"/>

http://feeds.treehugger.com/~r/treehuggersite/~3/287743567/biofuel-comparison-chart.php


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Student Designs Rainwater Harvesting Vertical Garden

<img alt="green wall and vertical garden combined photo" src="http://www.treehugger.com/2008-05-12_144733-Treehugger-vertical-garden.jpg" width="468" height="646" />

OCAD student Michael Tampilic presented <strong>Vert Rain Terrace</strong> at the <a href="http://www.acido.info/rocket2008/students/6Tampilic_Michael/index.htm">Rocket 2008</a> industrial design show. It is an interesting combination of rainwater harvesting and green wall....
<p><a href="http://feeds.treehugger.com/~a/treehuggersite?a=FD3Ijj"><img src="http://feeds.treehugger.com/~a/treehuggersite?i=FD3Ijj" border="0"></img></a></p><div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.treehugger.com/~f/treehuggersite?a=mKQ2MH"><img src="http://feeds.treehugger.com/~f/treehuggersite?i=mKQ2MH" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.treehugger.com/~f/treehuggersite?a=SkkUZH"><img src="http://feeds.treehugger.com/~f/treehuggersite?i=SkkUZH" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.treehugger.com/~r/treehuggersite/~4/288889655" height="1" width="1"/>

http://feeds.treehugger.com/~r/treehuggersite/~3/288889655/student-designs-vertical-garden-rainwater-harvesting.php


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Eco Friendly Flooring Doesn’t Have to be Drab

Undertaking a home building project? Sustainable, eco-friendly materials are the only way to go &mdash; they&rsquo;re better for you, as well as the planet. According to GreenBuilding.com, &ldquo;the US EPA ranks indoor pollution among top five environmental risks, and unhealthy air is found in up to 30% of new and renovated buildings.&rdquo;�

http://www.enn.com/lifestyle/article/36136


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Korean Village Runs On 100% Solar Power

The Korean village Donggwang gets 100% of its power from the sun. The village is located on the semi-tropical island of Jeju-do. Near the village, Halla Mountain, a volcano and the tallest mountain in South Korea, rises from the island&rsquo;s center amidst a patchwork of small farms.

http://www.enn.com/energy/article/36133


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