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April 5, 2004

Japanese Landmine Disposal Machine

Japanese inventor Kiyoshi Amemiya has developed a machine for clearing landmines 100 times faster than hand-removal. He's donated 36 of these machines to Afghanistan, Cambodia, Nicaragua, Thailand and Vietnam.

Bill McKibben on John McCain

Bill McKibben has an excellent conversation with Senator John McCain in the current edition of the National Resources Defense Council's OnEarth magazine. McCain seems to have embraced the need to fight global warming.

April 6, 2004

Globalization is not Americanization

Andrew Lam has an interesting essay up at AlterNet entitled Globalization vs. Americanization, in which he argues that we're seeing a "transnational revolution" -- and it's not just McDonald's and Disney, and that geography is no longer destiny.

April 7, 2004

Encyclopedia Astronautica

In case it's not already obvious, some of us at WC are big fans of space science. For those of you out there who are, as well, here is the Encyclopedia Astronautica, a startlingly comprehensive database of spacecraft, space programs, obscure space flight history, and everyone who has ever flown beyond Earth's surly bonds.

April 10, 2004

Green Inside

Intel moves towards greener chips. In a small, regulation-pushed, but still welcome step, Intel is going to reduce the amount of lead used in the manufacturing of its computer components. Now to just get rid of the Selenium, Cadmium, Chromium, Mercury...

April 12, 2004

Carbon Nanotube-Based Sensors

Science Daily reports that your favorite carbon structural variant and mine, the nanotube, can be made into cheap and disposable sensors for organophosphate-based pesticides and nerve agents, able to detect traces of OP in amounts as small as 5 parts per billion.

Political Optimism

WorldChanging ally Paul Hughes over at FutureHi posted an interesting entry this weekend going over reasons why some of the more commonplace pessimistic political scenarios (from martial law in the US to the panopticon singularity) may not be as likely as some fear.

April 13, 2004

Congrats, Charlie!

WorldChanging friend and kickass writer Charlie Stross has been nominated for two Hugo awards! One is for his story "Nightfall," and the other is for Singularity Sky, which was my favorite science fiction book of 2003. Congratulations, Charlie!

Rust-Breathing Bacteria

We've posted about the Geobacter genus of bacteria before -- microbes which evolved to use minerals as catalysts for making energy. National Geographic now has a short but interesting story about Geobacter discoverer Derek Lovley, and how we came to know about the more than 30 different species of mineral-eating microbes. (Via Mekka)

Technorati Trackback

As BoingBoing goes, so goes the blogosphere. Or so it seems. We've now jumped on the clever little Technorati Cosmos backlink hack bandwagon, so that you can see which other sites out there refer to our posts. It appears slightly more robust than the built-in Moveable Type trackbacks, but we'll watch to see how well it works...

April 14, 2004

Lawrence Lessig at FSF

Lawrence Lessig, fresh off of the successful release of his new book Free Culture (as well as its myriad remixes) was elected to the Board of Directors of the Free Software Foundation. The FSF is the home of the GPL (General Public License), the software license underlying many free/open source applications. Congratulations!

April 19, 2004

Listen to Jaron

As noted last month, Jaron Lanier will be speaking at the upcoming Bay Area Future Salon meeting. The details are finally set: Jaron will be speaking at the SAP Labs in Palo Alto this Friday, at 7pm. He will be updating his 2000 One Half a Manifesto essay.

Earth Day

reflexorset reminds us that Earth Day 2004 is coming up on Thursday, April 22nd. And while the event may no longer be particularly radical or worldchanging, it's still a good opportunity to educate and make a little noise.

April 22, 2004

Intercontinental Ballistic (Green) Missiles

According to Strategy Page, a military-oriented website, the US Department of Defense is about to undertake a program to replace the rocket motors on 500 Minuteman III missiles with a new version which will emit less toxic material while in use. Jokes about not polluting the air while nuking the world write themselves, but bear in mind that such missiles are occasionally launched in tests, so switching to a design which complies with EPA regulations does make sense.

April 23, 2004

Green Furniture

How green is your furniture (and I don't mean color)? It turns out that many chairs and couches are made in environmentally unfriendly ways. Environmental News Network reports today about a variety of companies shifting to sustainable, toxic-free methods of making furniture. Let's hope the design aesthetics match the green ideals...

April 24, 2004

Manifestations of Privacy

Christopher Allen at Life With Alacrity has a thoughtful post on what he calls the "four kinds of privacy:" defensive privacy, protecting information which puts you at risk from other citizens; human-rights privacy, protecting information which puts you at risk from the authorities; personal privacy, protecting information about your personal life and activities; and contextual privacy, protecting information which can be misconstrued or is inappropriately intimate. I'm not sure the distinctions are as clear as Allen describes, but the essay is well worth reading.

Ford Model U

While Honda and Toyota have raced ahead with hybrid cars, American manufacturers such as GM and Ford have tended to claim that they were working on something even better (even while grudgingly announcing hybrids to come out real soon now). General Motors' advanced hydrogen car efforts were profiled in Wired last year, and now Ken Novak points us to Ford's entry into the "wow, I wonder if this will ever come out?" motor rally: the Model U. I have to admit, it looks pretty nice. It would look even better on the road, and not just in a press release.

April 28, 2004

Chinese Solar Power

Ken Novak points us to an article in Electronic Components claiming that China will move into the top five list of solar cell producers this year, with a projected 60MW production worth of solar power units. It has also launched the "Chinese Lightning Project" to promote solar cells as a power source.

May 3, 2004

HLR on the PP

WorldChanging ally Howard Rheingold has a great piece over at The Feature entitled "Inverse Surveillance -- What We Should Do With All Those Phonecams." Regular WorldChanging readers will recognize the argument and some of the language ("sousveillance" we like. "Cyborglogging" we're not so sure about...).

May 7, 2004

Hybrid Vigor

The Baltimore Sun provides some useful info on the current status of hybrid cars in the American automobile market: U.S. registrations for hybrid cars rose more than 25 percent last year, to 43,435...Sales of Toyota's new Prius shot up 62.4 percent in the first quarter compared with sales in the first three months of last year...In March, Honda sold 2,725 hybrid Civics, the most ever in a single month... Half of the hybrids sold in 2003 were the Honda Civic hybrid, and just under half the old model Toyota Prius. Over 11,000 were registered in California, with Virginia coming in at #2 with about 3,400 new hybrids in 2003.

More on New Politics

In his AlterNet article "Smart Mobs vs. Amway," Brad deGraf gives a thorough updating and elaboration of the "New Models of Politics" ideas posted here recently. He pulls together many of the ideas about emerging political/campaign models bandied about in this space (and others) in a concise, clear way. Recommended.

May 10, 2004

Open Access News

I stumbled today across Open Access News, which has been around since May of 2002. It's a group blog and headline site on the open access movement. We've written about the value of "open access" research before -- it underpins the Public Library of Science group, informs the Open Source Textbook movement, and is an engine for "The Scientific South." Since science progresses best when scientists have access to each other's work, OA argues that research papers should be made widely and freely available, via the Internet, to all interested researchers. As the current dominant model involves charging staggering sums to universities for scientific publications (as well as to individual scientists seeking documents), a shift towards open access science would also make it far easier for researchers (and universities and countries) with limited financial resources to participate in scientific discourse.

May 11, 2004

GM Wheat Seeks New Opportunities

...because it won't be putting down roots any time soon. In what is widely considered a win for anti-GMO activists, Monsanto has decided not to push its new genetically-modified wheat strains. We applaud the decision, but would encourage Monsanto to look at this as an opportunity to do some real testing on the GM wheat, over an extended period. There may come a time that climate change requires that we modify our agricultural products to be able to survive, and good, long-term testing will go a long way towards making sure that we don't just take short-term solutions with long-term consequences.

May 12, 2004

Watching the European Parliament

Earth-Info-Net points us to www.EU-votewatch.org, a site assembled by Friends of the Earth, WWF, Birdlife, and Greenpeace in order to monitor and publicize the environment-related votes of the Members of the European Parliament (MEPs). The EU has authority over the vast majority of environmental regulations for member states, and sites like this are great ways of keeping tabs on those in power. As it happens, UK MEPs have the worst environmental voting record, while Danish MEPs came in first. Check it out!

Library of Alexandria Found?

A Polish-Egyptian archaeological team has uncovered ruins which appear to be the lecture halls of the Library of Alexandria. The 13 lecture halls, each with a central podium, could hold as many as 5,000 total students. The president of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities called it "perhaps the oldest university in the world."

May 13, 2004

Greenpeace on Trial

Not exactly worldchanging, but still worth noting. the US government is taking Greenpeace, the organization, to court in Florida for "sailor mongering," in response to activists boarding a boat bringing illegally felld Amazon mahogany to Miami. Greenpeace says the prosecution is revenge for its criticism of Bush. Given that nobody has been charged with "sailor mongering" since 1890, and the decision to charge the group and not the individuals involved, is arguably an attack on political speech, this is a case well-worth watching closely.

Linux in Egypt

You should check out today's posting on Slashdot of an interview with Egyptian Linux advocate, Alaa. It's a great introduction to the issues facing the uptake of Free/Open Source software in Egypt; many of the issues, especially the prevalence of pirated Microsoft software, can be found across the developing world. Warning: if you're not a regular Slashdot reader, I strongly suggest switching the "Threshold" settings for comments (found between the post content and the comment section) to 4 or 5.

May 18, 2004

Big Money for Madagascar Environment

Reuters reports that the World Bank has approved its largest-ever environmental grant to help Madagascar protect its unique ecosystem. "The grant of $49 million will be used to expand protected areas, establish conservation sites in forests and transfer forest management responsibilities to local communities. Conservationists say three-quarters of the estimated 200,000 plant and animal species found in Madagascar, exist nowhere else in the world."

May 19, 2004

Solar Recharging Adult Toys

Most vibrating adult toys come in two varieties: carbon-emitting and toxic-metal-waste-producing. That is, most either plug into the wall or run on batteries. But now you have a third option. Blowfish is now carrying a solar-recharging vibrator. 5-7 hours of sunlight leads to a full hour of full-power vibrating fun. (Picture at link entirely tame, but site as a whole is probably NSFW.) Okay, so this isn't our usual fare, but it's definitely good to know that the alternative-energy meme is spreading beyond cars & houses.

May 24, 2004

WTF?

Tav writes to tell us that the next "WTF" (WTF's the Future?) will be taking place this Saturday, May 29, at 11am, at the 491 Gallery, Leytonstone, London. From the site: "WTF is an open space gathering/conference of the various grassroots projects, people and organisations working together to create the worlds we want. Including: social progressives, thinkers, doers, visionaries, hackers, activists, artists, musicians, academics, scientists, professors, engineers, philosophers, performers, anyone-who-is-doing-cool-projects. As an incentive to get up so early on a saturday morning, we'll be serving everyone who arrives early with a free, delicious meal. And, to top if off, after the conference, there'll be a party-till-dawn with 6 live bands in the main gallery and film screenings in the cinema next door!"

You UK WorldChangers should definitely check this out -- the last WTF was apparently quite cool, and this one sounds even better. And if you do go, please write and let us know what you learned!

Green Power in NY

JP Reardon points us to the ConEd "Green Power" page, giving NY area power consumers the option of buying electricity from New Wind Energy, a renewable energy company which provides 25% wind/75% hydro power. Like most on-the-grid green power initiatives, choosing this option actually means that ConEd gets a fraction more of its power from the renewables than from traditional generators, not that you get a special hookup directly from the wind farms. Walter Simpson, energy officer at SUNY Buffalo, gives more details here. (Thanks, JP!)

May 25, 2004

The End of Cheap Oil

I really wish National Geographic put the full text of their articles on their website (even if limited to subscribers). Unfortunately, they only provide teaser excerpts. The cover story of the latest issue of NG is "The End of Cheap Oil," and it's well-worth seeking out and reading. You can get a taste of it here, along with some very cool maps -- including a PDF showing the existing oil supplies left in the world, by country.

May 27, 2004

Welcome, Slashdotters

Alex's interview with climate change scenarist Doug Randall got Slashdotted today, which means quite a few more visitors to this site. So far, we seem to be holding up. If you're new here, take a look around, poke through the archives, and let us know what you think!

Floresta

I am not a religious person, and am not in the habit of looking at religious groups for innovative approaches to global problems. But Floresta is genuinely interesting: they focus on deforestation as both a manifestation and a symbol of global poverty, using microloans, training in sustainable agriculture, and the planting of trees as a way of helping out the poor in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Mexico. While evangelism is part of their efforts, they emphasize on the site that participation in religious activities is not a prerequisite for their services. They've worked in nearly a hundred communities, made over 2,000 loans, and planted over two million trees. (Via Slacktivist)

June 2, 2004

Open Source Voting Revisited

We've talked about electronic voting and the need for the inherent transparency of open source to make e-voting trustable before, so it's good to see the notion get some mainstream play. The New York Times Magazine had a good article this last weekend making the case for the need for open source for electronic elections.

Talk Energy

Talk Energy is a new discussion and news site focusing on alternative energy use for home and transportation. Based on slashcode, the discussion system used at Slashdot, Talk Energy mixes energy-related headlines, alternative power product reviews, classified ads, and a place for you innovative types to toss your ideas out for group evaluation. They're aiming for a million members, so check 'em out!

June 3, 2004

"Enertia" Homes

Enertia founder Michael Sykes wrote to us suggesting that we check out his company. Using sustainable design principles and green materials, Enertia promises homes which can save on power costs, will last far longer than most present-day houses, and do relatively little harm to the planet while they're around. At least according to the site's info, that is; have any of you built or lived in an Enertia home?

June 9, 2004

Simulating a Spill

You want to test new techniques for cleaning up ocean oil spills, but don't want to dump oil into the water -- what do you do? If you're the Norweigian Clean Seas Association for Operating Companies, you use popcorn instead. It turns out that popcorn, once it absorbs water, forms an emulsion that mimics the behavior of oil in ocean currents... and any bits that don't get cleaned up in the test provide a tasty snack for wildlife.

(Via World Turning)

My Rights. To Go.

It's a bit gimmicky, sure, but the idea of adding a copy of the US Constitution to your iPod holds a certain appeal. The American Constitution Society for Law and Policy is making the Constitution available as an iPod "Notes" file (which, sadly, doesn't work with the ancient first generation iPods -- sorry, early adopters, like me) for easy portability and quick reference. One wishes that certain members of the current administration had a deeper familiarity with the text; perhaps this will help.

June 11, 2004

California Plans to Reduce Carbon

Even if Washington DC isn't interested in reducing greenhouse gases, California is. According to the Los Angeles Times (and republished by ClimateArk.org), "California plans to require automobile manufacturers to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases in new cars by nearly 30% over the next decade as it implements the first regulation in the world to tackle tailpipe exhaust linked to global warming." The details will be outlined on Monday by the California Air Resources Board (CARB); historically, other states have followed California's lead on pollution controls, and even Canada is watching to see how well this works.

(Via Earth Blog)

Wireless in London

Informal, a UK group which apparently focuses on wireless free networking, has a detailed and fascinating report on the growth and diversity of WiFi in the greater London area entitled "The State of Wireless London." It documents the growth of wireless networking, and compares networks built by "freenetwork" groups to those built by commercial providers. The snazzy maps and detailed documentation are both cool and impressive.

(Via SmartMobs)

June 15, 2004

Listen to Bruce

That was quick -- LongNow has the audio recording of Bruce's speech last Friday up already. You can download it in MP3, Ogg Vorbis, and FLAC formats, but beware -- these are not small files (the MP3 is 66MB, for example).

(Thanks for the heads-up, Stefan!)

Update: Zander Rose, of Long Now, says in the comments:

We are getting slammed with downloads right now (morning of 6/16). We are working on finding a larger pipe to serve this out of now...

Quantum Computer Simulator

Speaking of web access to cool technology, the Fraunhaofer Institute in Germany has made a Quantum Computer Simulator available online, allowing you to test how various problems can be solved using a 27 qubit quantum computer. Do let us know if you do something cool with it...

June 16, 2004

BBC Opens the Archives

Wired notes that the BBC will soon open its vast archives, starting with nature programming, to web consumers. Only in the UK, though; people coming in from foreign IP addresses will be blocked. The article is particularly interesting in its detailing of just what a "content owner" actually has to go through in the current world of intellectual property regulations to make something like this available for use.

Copyright in Canada

Speaking of intellectual property, Canada is going through its own struggles with just how to balance the rights of IP users and the rights of IP owners (which, despite the common confusion, are *not* necessarily the IP creators). The report from the Canadian Parliament's so-called Bulte committee came down strongly on the side of owners. Toronto Star columnist Michael Geist has written a series of essays about copyright in Canada that are well worth reading, even if you're not a resident of the Great White North: Will Copyright Reform Chill Use Of Web? (May 31); and Copyright Reform Needs A Balanced Approach (June 14).

June 17, 2004

UK Shell Chairman "Very Worried" About Carbon

Energy company Royal Dutch Shell has had a rough year, what with overstating its oil reserves by 20% and being blamed for multiple deaths in Nigeria; it's not surprising, then, that the company's leadership is starting to take a long, hard look at the business they're in. Lord Ron Oxburgh, the recently-appointed British Chair of Shell, stated in an interview in The Guardian today that he's "really very worried" about human-induced global warming, and that "You can't slip a piece of paper between David King [the government's chief science adviser who said climate change was a bigger threat than terrorism] and me on this position." Shell (along with BP-Amoco) already invests far more money in alternative energy research than the American major oil company, Exxon-Mobil; we'll see if the new leadership is able to make a clean break with the past.

June 19, 2004

Electric Cars in the UK

The BBC notes the arrival of what it claims is the "world's best-selling electric car" in the UK: the Daimler-Chrysler Gem. At £7,000 for a two-seater with a 40 mile range, 30mph top speed, and a 7 hour recharging time, it's no surprise that the importer, ZEV Ltd, expects to sell all of 350 of them in the next year and a half. Nonetheless, given that it will be exempt from some of the hassles facing UK drivers -- road tax, London congestion charge, and many parking fees -- some people will certainly find it worth the limitations. It will be interesting to see how well it actually does. And UK WC'ers: let us know what you think of them!

June 21, 2004

Planting the Future

Reuters reports that a group of British scientists is recommending an aggressive shift towards the planting of crops not for food, but for a wholesale replacement of petrochemicals. The combination of declining supplies of petroleum (used for much more than fuel) and a still-growing global population means that replacements will be needed soon -- and it's better to start planning now for that event than to wait until oil (effectively) runs out. "At a news conference, [plant reseracher Alison Smith] complained that in the past there had been a lack of coherent thinking, but that was now changing in the face of the looming crisis."

The EU Parliament and Software Patents

Software patents are (generally) supported by big software companies and (generally) opposed by individual programmers (at least in my experience), so it comes as little surprise that the European Parliament seemed headed towards enacting a corporate-friendly software patent law. But reasonable amendments to the law passed by the parliament as a whole were tossed out by the Council of Ministers, some of whom then mislead their constituents on this fact. Because of this, the Dutch Parliament looks to be headed towards being the first nation in the EU to order its Minister to revoke his vote and force a parliamentary reconsideration of the law. This post on OS News is a fascinating account of angry Dutch geeks deciding to do something about a bad law -- and succeeding.

Glucose Fuel Cells

Your body doesn't use petroleum (or hydrogen, for that matter) -- why should your car? Today's New York Times has an article about researchers at the Sandia National Laboratory seeking to design and build fuel cells that run on glucose, a basic sugar metabolized by mammalian bodies into energy. Glucose could be used as a fuel for stand-alone gadgets, or drawn from the blood for medical implants or wearable devices. The technology is still in very early stages; the Sandia researchers admit they need to improve the efficiency of their systems by a million-fold.

June 22, 2004

Port of Los Angeles Goes (a Little) Green

On Monday, the Port of Los Angeles opened its first "Alternative Maritime Power" terminal, allowing a ship to run off of grid power rather than idle its diesel engines for its "hoteling" period in-dock. The Port claims that this is the first such grid-power hookup in the world. The concept is similar to the "IdleAire" project we mentioned last month, but on a far grander scale.

Although the AMP system supports just a single ship, the system does prevent the emission of a ton of NOx and 87 lbs. of particulates per day of use. The shipping firm adopting the AMP is China Shipping, but other companies are now looking at adopting the system. A press release is available, with some additional details (PDF).

June 25, 2004

Responsible Nanotech Student Program

Mike Treder of the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology pointed me to their new program providing support for university students and instructors wishing to undertake research on molecular manufacturing. CRN co-founder Chris Phoenix says that "studies are urgently needed in politics, economics, law, and sociology, as well as technical areas such as chemistry, physics, and product design. Molecular manufacturing will be very powerful, but no one really knows yet what that will mean."

June 28, 2004

Help Keep Government Weather Data Free

For awhile now, the National Weather Service has been making weather data freely available in XML format over the Internet. Although technically "experimental," dozens of applications have sprung up to allow people to access this data on their personal computers (I use the open source "Meteorologist" application for my Powerbook). The NWS now wants to make this free access official, reasoning that since taxpayer money pays for the data, taxpayers should have access to it (the proposed policy change can be found here). However, it appears that the chairman of Accuweather (and leader in the commercial weathercaster industry) opposes this change, and wants the data restricted to those who will pay for it (and profit from it), and is asking (Word doc) his cronies to pressure the NWS not to adopt this policy. But you have a say, too: the comments page on the new policy is still open, and the NWS is taking comments until Wednesday June 30th. Add your voice!

(Via Open Access News)

Annotated UK ID Proposal

Mark Simpkins of Nodal Research wrote to tell me of his group's latest project: taking the consultation document (PDF) proposed by the UK's Secretary of State concerning identity card legislation, and converting it into web-readable form. Not just HTML, though: the team translated it into a Moveable Type blog document, allowing comments and annotation of each section of the proposal. As security expert Bruce Schneier can tell you in detail, ID card laws are terribly ineffective forms of security, causing more problems than they solve. By taking the UK proposal and making it interactive, perhaps the Nodal Research group can draw some attention to the danger inherent in the consultation document.

July 2, 2004

Cost of Cyberliving

Travis Daub has a piece in Foreign Policy comparing the cost-per-hour at Internet cafés around the world with the percentage of national populations living on $1/day. While there isn't a strong direct correlation -- Ghana, with 26+% of its population living on $1/day, has some of the lowest average rates ($0.60/hour), while nearby Nigeria, with a similarly poor population, has far higher rates ($5.40/hour) -- the numbers are worth thinking about when considering how readily nations can leapfrog. (Via Slashdot)

World Refugee Population Lowest in a Decade

Here's a bit of good news: according to the UN High Commission on Refugees, the number of refugees in the world fell by 920,000 in 2003, bringing the global total to 9.7 million. This is the second consecutive year that the global total number of refugees has fallen. The return of refugees to Afghanistan, Angola, Burundi, and Iraq was cited as the chief reason, with more than half of the 1.1 million returned refugees going home to Afghanistan alone. 2.1 million Afghans still live as refugees, with about half of those in Pakistan. The UNHCR report on 2003 refugee trends can be downloaded here (PDF).

Transcommercial Costco

We're always on the lookout for corporations which show signs of being "transcommercial enterprises." The latest one to pop up on our radar is Costco -- the big-box, wholesale warehouse club retailer. While Costco may not embody everything transcommercial, its employee policies are surprisingly progressive. In most ways, it's the Anti-Wal-Mart. I've heard good things about the company (one of my best friends' father & brother work there), and this article by Jim Hightower on AlterNet sums up the qualities succinctly:

"We pay much better than Wal-Mart," [Costco CEO] Sinegal says. "That's not altruism. It's good business."

Indeed, Costco's pay is much, much, much better -- a full-time Costco clerk or warehouse worker earns more than $41,000 a year, plus getting terrific health-care coverage. Wal-Mart workers get barely a third of that pay, plus a lousy health-care plan. Costco even has unions!

Yet, Costco's labor costs are only about half of Wal-Mart's. How's that possible? One reason is that Costco workers feel valued, which adds enormously to their productivity, and they don't leave -- employee turnover is a tiny fraction of Wal-Mart's rapidly revolving door.

July 6, 2004

Hybrids Exempt from Smog Check in CA

Have a hybrid-electric car in California? Here's yet another reason to feel smug: the California Department of Consumer Affairs, Bureau of Automotive Repair has decided that all Honda Insights, Honda Civic Hybrids, and Toyota Priuses are exempt from the biennial and change-of-ownership smog checks. While not an onerous burden, the smog checks are moderately expensive and inconvenient. As additional hybrid vehicles come on the market, they'll be added to the list.

Animated Titan Flyby & Map

Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations -- CICLOPS -- has released a nifty animated movie of the probe's flyby of Saturn's largest moon. The movie includes Cassini's initial scan of Titan's surface features (which are normally shrouded by clouds). Since Titan is one of the few objects in the solar system with both a rocky ("terrestrial") body and a full-blown, complex atmosphere, I am particularly interested in the results of deeper study of the Saturnian moon.

Digital Library in Pakistan, too

While the Digital Library of India project continues apace, not to be outdone, the Dyal Singh Trust Library in Lahore, the second largest book repository in the Punjab, has created a new department to facilitate the conversion of the entire collection to digital form, according to the Pakistan Daily Times. The library specializes in the collection of Pakistan newspapers; it has archives of every national paper for the last 40 years, and a number of periodicals from as far back as 1927. The article doesn't give much detail on the project, which appears to be on a much smaller scale than the DLI endeavor, but it is potentially a promising beginning to a larger effort.

(Via Open Access News)

Environmentally-Friendlier Chip Etching

The conventional method of making computer chips involves etching the circuit pathways on copper via an acid bath. This is, as you may imagine, a fairly nasty bit of business, involving materials hazardous to the environment and to human health. The UK firm QinetiQ has come up with a clever alternative, using an ink which attracts metals from a solution, allowing the circuit pathways to "grow" on the chip rather than be carved from it. The developers claim that not only does the method non-toxic, it costs 50% of the current etching method. QinetiQ (and I will pay vast sums to anyone who can strangle this new last-letter-capitalized naming meme in its crib) used to be DERA, Defence Evaluation and Research Agency, sort of the UK's version of DARPA; looks like they've come up with a pretty significant breakthrough.

(Via engadget)

July 7, 2004

Green John

It's no secret that WorldChanging has a decidedly progressive-green tint to its politics. While we don't all agree on everything here, we do believe that a strong commitment to fighting climate change, support of non-politicized science, and global cooperation to solve global problems are critical. Unfortunately, we're not getting any of that from the current administration. That's why I was pleased to see that the League of Conservation Voters has identified Democratic Vice-Presidential pick John Edwards as having a very strong environmental record, both in the Senate and in his work as a lawyer. As Kerry has a similarly strong record, it's clear that the choice in November will be between two very different visions of the future.

Nature Methods

Zack Lynch over at Brain Waves points us to Nature's newest publication, coming this fall: Nature Methods, which focuses on "describing the development of new methodologies and significant improvements to tried-and-tested techniques" in scientific research. As WorldChanging looks at technique as well as technology, a journal from as respected a source as Nature dedicated to examining the utility and validity of both established and experimental approaches to understanding the world is more than welcome.

July 10, 2004

Watch the Fish

In other satellite news, the BBC reports about a proposal to put satellite monitoring data of fish populations online, to allow interested citizens to keep tabs on declining fish stocks, and to watch for signs of illegal overfishing of dangerously depleted populations. With upwards of 75% of global fish populations either overfished or fully exploited, a catastrophic collapse -- with enormous repercussions for the rest of the global ecosystem -- is all too possible.

Cancer Subway Map

BoingBoing points us to "A subway map of cancer pathways" in Nature: a remarkable visualization of how cells transform into malignancy. Links on the map take you to more specific information about given sets of genes related to the process. It's simply a brilliant representation of a biological process.

July 12, 2004

Mapping India

Next year, India will launch its first mapping satellite, allowing a full re-mapping of the subcontinent nation in about 18 months of work. India has had access to satellite data, but always from other countries. Having control over its own geography is a useful development tool; according to the Surveyor General, ‘‘We will now be able to generate these images on our own and several users, particularly those planning highways, the river-interlinking project and such development activities, will benefit."

Microscenarios

One design technique which is shifting its way into futurist/consulting work is the "microscenario" process. Rather than imagining how the world will change, then thinking about how best to make products/services for that changed world, the microscenario process involves thinking of individuals living in the changed world, then coming up with ways to make individual lives better. It's a subtle difference, but one with real applicability (I've used it with a variety of consulting clients over the years, and they are constantly surprised at the results). It turns out that Bruce Sterling -- design afficianado and WC Ally #1 -- wrote a story called "User-Centric" for the December 1999 issue of DesignFax, a design engineer journal, which ably illuminates just how the microscenario process works.

July 16, 2004

Singularity Ahoy?

Well, maybe. Roland Piquepaille discusses the new 20 billion node neural network computing system at Artificial Development (site has essentially no content), which is intended to be the "first neural system to achieve a level of complexity rivaling that of the mammalian brain." With a thousand processors working away on 20 billion artificial neurons and 20 trillion connections, it does sound impressive. Piquepaille notes, however, that the company employs only programmers and mathematicians, no neurobiologists or cognitive scientists; we'll see if they can come up with something interesting.

July 19, 2004

Beating Like A Heart

Engadget links to the firm Eamex (link all in Japanese), which has developed a new pump system which (among other things) mimics natural heart rhythms. Apparently the pump will be usable for a wide array of products, from artificial hearts (naturally) to laptop liquid cooling systems -- and it's already smaller and cheaper than current equivalents. A surprising (but interesting) bit of biomimicry perhaps soon appearing in your computer.

The Environment and the Election

Seed magazine, a new non-specialist science journal, has put online a long article ("The Greening of Election '04," by Amanda Griscom) about the role the environment-as-issue will play in the 2004 presidential election. She makes a strong, albeit not entirely convincing, case that the environment has the potential to be a key element of a successful Kerry campaign -- not as a direct issue, necessarily, but as a force-multiplier, giving added weight to a variety of existing concerns voters across the political spectrum may have about Bush. Consider it the optimistic scenario of the environment as political focus in 2004.

July 26, 2004

Future Outsourcing

In the never-ending quest to look beyond what's next, I stumbled across an article in CRMBuyer suggesting that Africa was the inevitable future location for global IT outsourcing, once India had successfully used outsourcing to bootstrap its population into the middle class. While recognizing that the article appears to be largely based on a report from a company which just happens to facilitate global outsourcing, the logic is pretty sound. Africa won't always be a mess. If you're interested in the drivers of change in the coming decades, pay attention now to the places most people ignore.

Mainstream Green in the UK

As a quick follow-up to Alex's post the other day about the mainstreaming of green home design, the Guardian reports that a recent survey of British would-be home buyers resulted in 87% wanting substantial information about the environmental aspects of the homes they considered, and 84% were willing to pay an additional 2% (a seemingly small amount, until you consider how expensive homes are) for an "eco-friendly" home. It's not just mainstream home designers who are starting to think green -- mainstream home buyers are, too (at least in the UK).

August 3, 2004

Cameron Sinclair Rocks

New WorldChanging contributor Cameron Sinclair has been awfully busy with his group Architecture for Humanity, and it's in a pretty damn good cause. Wired News has an interview with Cameron up today where he talks about his latest big project: the Siyathemba design competition, looking for designs for a combined soccer field and health-care facility in Smokhele, a community in KwaZulu-Natal, which has one of the highest HIV/AIDS infection rates anywhere. It's an inspiring project, and we're proud that Cameron is a worldchanger (in every sense of the term).

Talk to US

The notion that "because the US is so powerful around the world, people from every country should get a vote in who the president is" pops up now and again. I think that the notion's wrong, but not for the reason most might have: I think it's a kneejerk reaction to a historically temporary state, and one which could reinforce the unipolar condition which is not politically healthy for either the US or the rest of the world. Talk to US takes the view that, instead of global voting for the US president, what's needed is global communication: "US policies impact the whole world, but non-Americans have few ways to communicate directly with mainstream America. The international voices Americans do hear often represent only the extremes -- not ordinary people from around the world. Talk to US is changing this by gathering and distributing 30 second video messages from people around the world." Hear what people from different countries, ethnicities, classes, religions, etc. etc. -- including people from the United States -- have to say to and about the US. Whatever your political views, you'll find it educational.

Green Car Congress

Green Car Congress is an incredible resource for information and analysis about "technologies, issues and polices for sustainable mobility." The site creator, Mike Millikin, is a former infotech analyst now focusing on transportation. GCC has some of the best analysis I've seen lately of the increasingly ominous tidings from the oil industry (and the panic that's appearing in oil traders), as well as thoughtful discussions of the state of the automotive industry, all with an overarching focus on sustainable development. I'm still plowing through some of the archives -- he's been around since April -- but I strongly suggest those of you who have an interest in green transportation add Green Car Congress to your RSS feed or daily read list.

August 5, 2004

We the Media

This whole "give the book away and people will buy it" idea seems to be taking off. We noted awhile back that Stanford professor Lawrence Lessig's book Freeculturehad been released online for free (and promptly filled with hyperlinks by a group led by our own Taran Rampersad). Now it's WorldChanging favorite Dan Gillmor's turn, with his new book We the Media.We the Media looks at the rise of grassroots journalism in the Internet age. I was looking forward to reading it -- and now I have no excuse.

Styrofoam Houses in Afghanistan

This story has been picked up in the usual places in the blogosphere, but it's worth noting here, too: the Federation of American Scientists is promoting the use of expanded polystyrene foam as functional, efficient, and low-cost building material in Afghanistan and throughout the world. It turns out that styrofoam given a thin cement shell makes an excellent buildng material: very easy to work with (can be cut with a hot wire), inexpensive, long-lasting, has terrific thermal properties and is shock absorbant in earthquakes. The New Harmony House (in New Harmony, Indiana) was built using this material as a demonstration, with impressive results (including the house using 50-70 percent less energy than a conventionally-constructed home).

Accidentally Banning SUVs

A not-uncommon sight in California are signs in residential areas prohibiting vehicles weighing more than 6,000 pounds from driving on these roads. Heavy vehicles can severely damage streets, and many communities made the logical decision to ban three-ton-plus vehicles from roads simply not made to handle that much weight. After all, anything that big has to be a commercial vehicle with no legitimate reason to be driving down residential avenues, right?

Well, actually...

Slate magazine has an eye-opening article today examining the fact that nearly all of the extra-large SUVs and pickups popular these days actually weigh in at over 6,000 pounds, in part because of laws that give massive tax breaks to people who claim to use commercial-weight "trucks" exclusively for work. The article is richly detailed, and while the tone is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, the point is serious: heavyweight vehicles, whether Hummer or delivery truck, damage roads, requiring additional street maintenance that states like California can ill-afford. The solutions are not obvious -- raising the weight limit doesn't make the streets magically more weight-resistant, but enforcing the ban would anger the many owners of superheavy SUVs.

The most interesting aspect of the story is the lack of awareness city officials had that numerous popular SUVs weigh more than is legal for many residential streets. Most claimed that the rules wouldn't be enforced against SUVs, but their reluctance to upset the citizenry may well collide with fiscal temptation. Cities these days are strapped for cash; don't be surprised to see a jump in tickets being issued to Hummers, Excursions, Escalades, and the like driving down the wrong streets...

August 9, 2004

The Beauty of Travel

Extended text and a down-sampled, shrunken image would not do justice to Notes from the Road, the online journal and gallery of Erik Gauger. He's documented his travels in the cities and countryside of the Iberian peninsula, the West Indies, and across North America from the Atlantic coast to the deserts of Mexico, drawing maps and taking pictures with an old large format camera. His most recent entries tell us of the Isthmus of Central America, from Panama to Guatemala. The pictures he takes are simply gorgeous -- there's no other word for them -- and the maps he draws are themselves works of art. He's an ecotourist, but with a very human focus. He shows us not just the physical places, but also the lives of those who call those places home.

Notes from the Road isn't simply wonderful photography, art and words, it's ecological anthropology, and very highly recommended.

August 12, 2004

Open Source On Mars!

O'Reilly's ONLamp.com has an interesting story about the decision by NASA to use free/open source software for Mars Rover control systems, both on Earth and on Mars (the Earthside software -- Maestro -- is actually available for download). The article doesn't go into great detail about precisely how FOSS was used in the Rovers, only that it worked -- and worked well.

(Via Martian Soil)

One More Degree

Good news & bad news time: the good news is, climate researchers have come up with an improved method for predicting the range of temperature effects from continued greenhouse gas concentration in the atmosphere; the bad news is, the low end of the predicted rise in temperature just went up by a degree, from 1.4°C to 2.4°C. Nature reports that a group at the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research have devised a method which better accounts for the atmospheric factors (such as cloud reflection of sunlight) which don't yet have precise values, only informed estimates.

The results are still a range of temperatures, but a range that does not depend on any of the informed guesses being exactly right. The new method predicts a hundred year rise in global average temperature of 2.4°-5.4°C. The previous range, from the IPCC, was a 1.4°-5.8°C increase. While this does mean that the high end of the range dropped by four-tenths of a degree, the full-degree jump at the low end is of greater concern.

August 16, 2004

Blobjects & Gizmos & Spimes (oh my!)

Boing-Boing has a transcript of WorldChanging ally #1 Bruce Sterling's recent keynote for the 2004 SIGGRAPH conference, wherein he takes on "blobjects," the digital manipulation of industrial design, and "spimes" -- the next iteration of material objects (the order is: artifacts, the tools of subsistance farmers and gatherer-hunters; machines, used by customers in an industrial society; products, used by consumers in a military-industrial complex; gizmos, used by end-users in our current era; and finally spimes, used by "wranglers" -- all of which makes sense if you read the speech).

Alex adds: On second reading, I think this is the most important speech/rant Bruce has laid on us since the original Viridian Design speech. It's Viridian 2.0, essentially. Do yo'self a favor. Read it. ((Except -- Jesus God! "Spime" is an awful word. An insult to the tongue, an injury to the ear, and, to my mind, at least, utterly forgetable. We must be able to do better than "Spime."))

August 17, 2004

Sudan's Oil

Green Car Congress, linking to Lebanon's Daily Star, gives us some little-known backstory on the current crisis in Sudan, and why we should expect that unfortunate nation to continue to pop up in headlines: China now gets six percent of its oil from Sudan, and this percentage is expected to rise. Other major players in the Sudanese oil game include India and Malaysia. China's increasing hunger for oil has far greater implications than simply pushing up gas prices. As the Daily Star puts it: "The Darfur affair is giving China its first close-up experience of a Middle East crisis. How it will react if the crisis deepens remains to be seen."

Infothela

Near Near Future reports today on the "Infothela" project in India, a bicycle rickshaw with high-speed internet access, multiple computers, and a mission to "improve education, health care and access to agricultural information in India's villages." The project is organized by the Indian Institute of Technology, which runs a rural wireless network to help bring information tech to the rural masses of India. NNF links to more info at USA Today and Smart Mobs.

August 20, 2004

Recycling Computer Hardware

Salon has an informative article (subscription or brief click-through ad required to get to it) on the benefits and drawbacks of California's new computer recycling law, which will add an extra $6 to $10 to the cost of monitors, flat panel displays, laptops, and TVs sold in the state. The goal is good -- get people to recycle the hardware, or at least turn it in to a registered disposal center, instead of dumping the toxic trash into the waste stream -- but the mechanism may not be the best one around, as it puts the onus on the consumer to do something. Maine has a better idea, one which echoes EU policy, requiring manufacturers to be responsible for recycling, pushing them to use less-toxic (and more readily reused) materials in production. Check it out.

Alternative Energy in Korea

The aptly-named Alternative Energy Blog reports that the "Korean government has set a target of generating 5% of their energy from alternative energy [sources] within seven years." This is in direct response to rising oil prices, which is both good and bad. Good, because shifting to a more diverse energy basis makes Korea less subject to price shocks, and helps an overall reduction in petroleum-based carbon emissions; and Bad, because a drop in oil prices down to the levels of a couple of years ago -- not incredibly likely, but certainly not impossible -- would reduce the pressure to do something, and if a transition to 5% alt.energy production was proving more costly than expected, could easily lead to Korea abandoning the effort. Which would put them right back in the same situation when the next oil shock came around...

Fortune On Renewable Energy

WorldChanging ally Gil Friend notes that Fortune has joined Business Week in grappling directly with the issue of the need for alternatives to petroleum. The full article is behind a pay-to-read wall, but SolarAccess.com has an extended summary. Fortune's four-point plan includes: Improving fuel efficiency; more spending on alternative fuels; redoubled commitment to efficiency; and getting serious about solar and wind. Hardly a radical agenda, but as these ideas increasingly become the conventional wisdom of the business world, more radical approaches become much more thinkable.

August 21, 2004

Let A Million Solar Homes Bloom

As we've noted before, California's celebrity Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has turned out to be moderately green in many of his policies. The latest example of both the "green" and the "moderately" is his new proposal for California to add one million solar-powered homes by 2017, building on proposed legislation to require home builders to offer optional solar panels by 2008. While a million new solar homes sounds like a nicely ambitious number, the projected date (2017) seems somewhat timid (the California Building Industry Association projects that 200,000 new homes will be built in the state in 2004, so even without any growth in that pace, we'd be looking at around two and a half million by 2017; it's much more likely that the pace will climb, so a total of three or even four million new homes by 2017 is more plausible). I suspect that there are too many converging forces -- energy costs, recognition of environmental effects of certain types of energy production and use, the growing popularity of "smart grids" among planners and the growing diversity and dropping cost of solar power systems -- for such a development to take that long.

August 23, 2004

Electricity Revives Coral

Alex posted last April about efforts to build and renew coral reefs using wire mesh and low-power electric currents, and noted that results weren't yet clear. Wired now reports that these grids have, in fact, been impressively successful:

The grids were then seeded with small fragments of live coral, which begin to grow "between five and 10 times faster than normal, with much brighter colors and more resilience to hot weather and pollution," said a co-owner of the Taman Sari Cottages, an American who goes by the single name Naryana.

Some corals have been transplanted directly onto the bars, attached by wires or wedged into specially designed spaces. Soft corals, sponges, tunicates and anemones were also transplanted. Vibrant colors and growth up to nearly a half inch in less than a month have been recorded. Grids that suffered power failures saw less vigorous development and duller colors.

"Today, the fish are back, including deepwater fish which come into the reef to rest during the daytime," Naryana said.

Coral reefs are critically important to maintaining healthy oceans, and are under increasing threat; it's good to know that we may have a way of keeping them around.

Plastic Nanowires for Solar Panels

Researchers at Brookhaven National Labs and the University of Florida have come up with a way of creating polymer nanowires with specific application to solar power systems:

In conventional solar panels the energy from the sun is excites electrons in a semiconducting material such as silicon, creating the current flow. Replacing the silicon with polymer nanowires would make the solar cell much lighter, and eventually cheaper.

The so-called plastic solar cells can be made much bigger and are also more flexible, making them more versatile. Normal solar panels are rigid, expensive and their size is constrained by manufacturing techniques.

The report is from The Register which (a) doesn't give a lot of details or useful links, and (b) doesn't have the best reputation as a tech journal. Anyone have a more detailed -- and reliable -- link for the story?

August 24, 2004

Online Course on Climate Change

The Earth Council -- a Geneva-based international NGO "civil society vehicle created to follow up, promote, and advance the implementation of the Earth Summit agreements" -- has started an online seminar entitled "The Greenhouse Effect and Climate Change." It is being taught by Sven Åke Bjørke, a lawyer, science teacher, and course designer for the UN University/Global Virtual University, and the project leader/lead author on two UNEP climate change research efforts, and more. The focus is on the scientific consensus (based on the IPCC) on global warming, but will also bring in perspectives from critics and outside researchers. It appears to be fairly introductory, but could be very interesting. Tuition is $54 now, going to up to $60 soon.

(Via SciDev.Net, which has more details)

August 25, 2004

Solar Power Steam Turbine

The Alternative Energy Blog notes an article in the Daily Yomiuri On-Line about a new solar-powered steam turbine system invented by one Professor Takeo Saito of Tohoku University. The Professor claims that he has been able to generate twice as much energy than he could get out conventional solar cells, with a power output of 1,300 watts. He intends on building a miniaturized version for washing machines.

The solar steam turbine may not be worldchanging per se (the fact that it uses superheated chlorofluorocarbons gives one pause, at the very least), but Saito's stated reasons for undertaking its development are. During Japan's economic bubble of a few years back, Saito, a specialist in energy and environmental sciences, determined that the then-current rate of consumption was simply unsustainable, and began work on alternative energy systems. As the idea that current rates of consumption are simply unsustainable becomes more widespread, expect to see more out-of-the-blue innovations as more people grapple with the issue (remember: with enough minds, all problems are shallow). Many of the resulting ideas and models will be somewhat unworkable, but some will be revolutionary. Count on it.

Brazilian Discounts for Renewable Energy

Also via Alternative Energy Blog is a report in Business News Americas that the Brazilian power regulator, Aneel, has announced that it will discount transmission and distribution rates by up to 50% for renewable power. Local predictions are that this will correspondingly double the demand. Discounted power types include wind, solar, small-scale hydro, biomass and cogeneration plants. The discounts -- which will result in a 10-15% drop in customer costs -- are intended to encourage smaller businesses to buy directly from the renewable generators, not from the "incumbent distributors."

August 26, 2004

Green Car Congress on Biohydrogen

WorldChanging favorite Green Car Congress has an informative post up today about new developments in biohydrogen generation discussed at this week's 228th meeting of the American Chemical Society. Since the most efficient current methods of generating hydrogen involve electricity (likely not from a renewable source) and natural gas (a non-renewable resource), and result in carbon emissions, looking for ways of getting economically useful amounts of hydrogen from renewable biomass is a Good Idea. GCC lists and links to some of the developments -- including a new method of increasing the efficiency of photochemical hydrogen production from water.

Hydrogen Delivery Vans

Delivery giant UPS is set to start using three hydrogen fuel cell medium-duty delivery vans, one each in Los Angeles, Sacramento, and Ann Arbor. This will be the first time medium-duty fuel cell vehicles will be in mainstream use in the US. They have acceleration equivalent to gas or diesel vans, but have 10% more cargo capacity than the diesel medium trucks UPS now uses, and should have a much longer-lasting drive train, reducing maintenance costs. Of course, UPS has 88,000 vehicles, so this is a very tentative start, but if the technology lives up to its promise in the field, we should see a more rapid adoption down the road.

(Via Green Car Congress)

Welcome, Slashdotters (Again)

Alex's interview with Ethan Zuckerman was just linked to by Slashdot, which means a big increase in site activity (so if it takes a bit longer than usual to load, now you know why) and an influx of new visitors. So, welcome, Slashdot readers -- take a look around, read through some of the archives, and let us know what you think of WorldChanging.

August 28, 2004

Prius Sportscar?

Green Car Congress tells us of Toyota's plans to unveil a Prius sport version at next month's Paris Motor Show. With a combined gas-electric yield of 145 horsepower, it will do 0 to 60 in 8.7 seconds, while still getting Prius-like mileage when driven normally. Whether this more zippy version of the Prius will ever make it to showroom floors is another story, but I know there are already folks out there drooling over the possibility...

Hydrocarbon Sponge for Cleaner Cars

Nature reports that researchers at the University of Tokyo have developed a silicon, aluminum and oxygen sponge that looks (at the atomic scale) like "swiss cheese" -- and is able to absorb the smog-producing hydrocarbon emissions that catalytic converters won't catch while warming up. 80% of the hydrocarbon emissions escape during the first few minutes after a cold start. This sponge -- made of a material called SSZ-33 (they really need to work on their marketing, I suspect) -- traps the hydrocarbons until the catalytic converters are warm enough to function.

Garage-Built Scope Finds a Hot Jupiter

Sky and Telescope reports that a team of amateur and professional astronomers, using a network of off-the-shelf hardware (including a 4-inch Schmidt telescope assembled in the team co-leader's garage), identified a new extra-solar planet. It's a so-called "hot Jupiter" -- a massive gas planet orbiting closer to its star than Mercury does to the Sun. Most of the extra-solar planets discovered thus far have been of this type, as the current best method for spotting planets outside our solar system involves watching a star for rhythmic perturbations. Massive planets very close to their parent stars are far and away the most likely to show up this way. Still, we've mentioned the possibility of amateur astronomers making important discoveries by linking equipment before, and it's good to see the scenario play out. More info on amateur astronomers looking for extrasolar planets can be found at TransitSearch.org.

August 30, 2004

Darwinian Fisheries

Natural selection -- where certain traits give a population of a species a better chance of survival and reproduction under given environmental conditions -- doesn't result only from "natural" pressures. The problem of antibiotic overuse resulting in resistant bacteria is well-known, but Darwinian results from human activities may be showing up in an entirely new realm: cod. According to a subscriber-only article in this week's Financial Times (complete version is available in a Google Cache), researchers at the Institute for Applied System Analysis in Austria report a steady decline in north-east Arctic cod sizes over the past 60 years. They link this to fishing guidelines which mandate only the largest fish can be kept when caught; smaller ones are more likely to be thrown back, and therefore are more likely to pass along their genes. Changes to fishing rules -- specifying a maximum size as well as a minimum -- could reduce this selection pressure, but without countervailing pressure to make being large more survivable than being small, increases will happen much more slowly.

(Thanks, Tim!)

WiFi in Amsterdam

Reuters reports that a company called "HotSpot Amsterdam" launched a wireless network today with aims to cover the entire city of Amsterdam. "The first seven base stations are up and running, connecting historic areas that date back to the 13th century, while the entire city center will be covered by 40 to 60 antennas within three months, HotSpot Amsterdam founder Carl Harper said." Covering the entire city will take around 125 stations. Unlike some of the metropolitan WiFi efforts we've mentioned in the past, this will not be free -- but the E4.95/day and E14.95/month rates significantly undercut the far steeper fees charged by Dutch telecoms.

Solar Lanterns for Indian Villages

Ken Novak points us to an article in The Hindu noting that 660,000 houses in 1,000 villages in the state of Karnataka will receive solar-powered lanterns "as part of a 'self-village energy security programme' involving the State Government and the Union Ministry for Non-conventional Energy Sources (MNES). This is part of a scheme to electrify 'remote' hamlets using renewable energy." The project will cost about $20m; 90 percent of the funds will come from MNES, and villagers would pay Rs. 40 to Rs. 50 per month -- about $.86-$1.10 (average income in India is Rs. 22,260, about $480).

August 31, 2004

UN International Open Source Network

As Taran told us, Software Freedom Day was August 28; it turns out that the United Nations was celebrating along with the rest of us. The International Open Source Network is an initiative from the UN Development Programme focusing on spreading the use of Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) in the Asia/Pacific region. IOSN has primers on understanding FOSS, and using it in government and in education. From a fairly quick scan of the site, this looks to be one of the better resources out there for information about the growing use of Free/Open Source Software around the world.

Un-Electric Fridge in Darfur

In March, Dawn posted about Mohammed Bah Abba's "Pot-in-Pot" refrigerator design, used in Northern Nigeria. This week, SciDev.net brings us a lengthy article about the proliferation of the Pot-in-Pot in Darfur, Sudan. Known locally as the "zeer," they are being produced by the Women's Association for Earthenware Manufacturing. Use of the zeer reduces waste for the (mostly) women who sell vegetables in the local markets, thereby increasing their income.

One disturbing aspect of the article, however: it's written by an employee of the local development organization underwriting the manufacturing of the zeer, and nowhere in the article does it even mention the humanitarian disaster in Darfur. Since the mass slaughter of civilians targets one particular ethnic community, one can only conclude that the productive, positive folks quoted in the article are of the dominant group, not the targeted group. This is not to assume or assert that they support or participate in the massacres -- nonetheless, the juxtaposition is unsettling.

September 1, 2004

What To Do About Water

America's Finest News Source asks this week in its "What Do You Think?" column about the UN report that over one billion people lack access to potable water. The reactions are worth thinking about. Consider that of Mark Kunde, Systems Analyst: "This problem will be gone as soon as the earth's temperature increases enough to boil the world's lakes and streams, effectively sterilizing them."

Indeed.

September 2, 2004

Chinese Climate Monitoring

We've mentioned some of the various satellite systems the United States has launched recently for climate and environmental monitoring, so it's only fair to also take note of similar systems put up by other nations. According to Reuters, China has announced plans to launch three satellites dedicated to monitoring climate change. They will focus in particular on sandstorms and forest/prairie fires.

Unfortunately, the article also notes that the satellites won't be operational until 2012.

Alternative Energy in Pakistan

The Pakistan Daily Times reports that $875 million dollars is set to be invested in alternative energy; the money will come from "five international firms," including companies from Germany, Denmark, the United States and two from China. The German company G-Energy is putting up $400 million; the American firm Axces is investing the smallest amount, $75 million.

Unfortunately, the article gives few details as to the actual alternative energy plans, saying only that "875 megawatt electricity [sic] will be produced through air and solar enegy units." I presume "air" means "wind" in this context.

(Via Alternative Energy Blog)

September 3, 2004

RSS Feed Update

Just a quick note (and apology) about WorldChanging's RSS feeds. Today, I modified the RSS 1.0 "headline and excerpt" feed to display the author's name at the beginning of the entry. That was quick and painless. I also modified the RSS 2.0 "full article" feed to display the author name, posting time, and category, including a link to the category archives. That was less quick and painless, and resulted in the RSS listing being reset as having new material several times over the course of the day. I now have it working and displaying the way I want it to, so any "modified material" updates from here on out should be the real thing.

(A description of what RSS is, as well as some useful links, can be found here.)

September 4, 2004

Democratic Transhumanist Interview

RU Sirius interviews James Hughes in the current NeoFiles. Who's James Hughes? The founder of Cyborg Democracy, and a leader of the Democratic Transhumanism movement, which embraces both the desire for radical enhancement of humankind and the need for social fairness and justice.

[...] if you ask a libertarian transhumanist why they oppose FDA testing of life extension technologies [...], the libertarian will say "Why do I and a lot of other people have to die in the meantime waiting for the eventual legalization of this medicine?" Well, I say the same thing about healthcare and enhancements for the poor. Why do the non-affluent have to wait for these technologies to trickle down? Every other developed country in the world guarantees basic health care as a right, as should we, and once we have guaranteed a right to basic health care we should then start guaranteeing universal access to safe human enhancement technologies by including them in universal health care plans. Some will be too expensive, or have marginal benefits, and we can leave those to the (safety-regulated) market. But how long do you think any democracy would permit the top 10% to have access to an extra hundred years of life or an extra 100 IQ points that were inaccessible to the bottom 90%?

Hughes has a book coming out in October, Citizen Cyborg: Why Democratic Societies Must Respond to the Redesigned Human of the Future. I really look forward to reading.

September 7, 2004

Hurricane Watch by RSS

A few months ago, we mentioned that the US Geological Survey had earthquake reports available by RSS. I've been subscribing to the 5+ feed for awhile now, and it's fascinating -- and a bit creepy -- to watch the pattern of moderate-to-large quakes march across South-East and East Asia of late. But the USGS isn't the only government service making data available by RSS: the National Weather Service's National Hurricane Center also puts out RSS reports for both the Eastern Pacific and the Atlantic (in English and Spanish).

I wonder what other US federal agencies have RSS feeds. The RSS in Government site, referenced in the link above, seems to be updated in a spotty-at-best fashion, and hasn't touched its page of federal links since January. Anyone know of another resource?

September 9, 2004

Bacterial Toxic Remediation

The future is bacterial.

We've noted the various capabilities of bacteria numerous times, and today Wired News gives us yet another example of the power of our unicellular siblings: a bacteria which can turn styrene, a toxic by-product of the polystyrene industry, and turn it into a useful biodegradable plastic. Not only is this a natural process for removing environmental toxins, it's also an example of turning "waste" into "feedstock" -- a critical step for truly sustainable industry.

Automotive Carbon Tax?

Green Car Congress (I'll stop linking to them in stories if they stop posting such great stuff) has posted a provocative thought-piece exploring the idea of an automobile carbon tax. It would replace half of California's existing vehicle license fee; rather than that part of the fee being based on car value, it would be based on the car's mileage average miles-per-gallon of that car model. Some car owners would see their annual tax drop, some would see it grow, but the overall effect would be to help reduce California's existing fiscal problem while simultaneously nudging people to buy more fuel-efficient cars.

Super-Superconductivity

We talk a lot about energy efficiency as being a part of sustainability here. Innovations in efficiency will play an important role in making sure we have a bright green future. But what sort of innovations could we see? Well, here's an example of one which could be big:

University of California scientists working at Los Alamos National Laboratory with a researcher from the University of Cambridge have demonstrated a simple and industrially scaleable method for improving the current densities of superconducting coated conductors in magnetic field environments. The discovery has the potential to increase the already impressive carrying capacity of superconducting wires and tapes by as much as 200 to 500 percent in certain uses, like motors and generators, where high magnetic fields diminish current densities.

Biodiesel in Jeep Liberty

Okay, one last pointer to Green Car Congress and then I'm done for the day, I promise.

Daimler-Chrysler has announced that it will fill the tanks of new Jeep Liberty Diesel SUVs with "B5" -- 5% biodiesel -- to encourage wider use of renewable fuels. The Liberty Diesel gets 30% better mileage than the gasoline version, and has 20% lower emissions. GCC has the details.

It's a symbolic step, but symbols are important.

September 10, 2004

Coffee, Now With Less Guilt

Tim alerts us to a report that coffee producers and four of the world's largest coffee companies -- Nestlé, Sara Lee, Kraft and Tchibo -- are set to agree on a plan to improve working conditions and environmental standards across the industry. Fully-implemented, it will cover 80% of the international coffee market.

Producers and traders adopting the code will have to pay minimum wages, cease using child labour, allow trade union membership and stick to international environmental standards on pesticides and water pollution. [...] Alongside the four companies, the voluntary code will apply to coffee producers from Brazil, central America and Africa. It will also be signed by NGOs, including Oxfam International and Greenpeace, and the International Union of Foodworkers, a federation of trade unions including coffee industry workers.

September 11, 2004

Microsoft, Linux and China

Emergic points us to an article at CFO.com entitled "Does Microsoft Need China?," with some interesting insights into the power China could have in the global software industry if it continues to push Linux use:

But in the long run, China could pose dangers to Microsoft. If Linux flourishes there, it could spawn formidable low-cost rivals to the American company. "The real value of open source to a country like China," says Kevin MacIsaac, an analyst with the MetaGroup in Sydney, "is developing a public infrastructure for a software industry. It's a reasonable and cost-efficient way for China to compete globally."

Others in Asia see the potential. Japan and South Korea joined China in April on a project to jointly develop a new operating system based on Linux as an alternative to Microsoft's Windows. Thailand and Malaysia have instigated programs to offer low-cost PCs to citizens with Linux operating systems [...]. They're being helped along by Microsoft competitors such as Sun Microsystems, which has signed a deal with the Chinese government to supply its Linux desktop operating system and office program to as many as a million PCs there. Future electronics products shipped from China—such as mobile phones and DVD players—could be developed free from dependence on the Windows operating system.

September 14, 2004

Biodegradable Laptops

Nikkei Net reports that NEC will soon begin to produce notebook computers which use biodegradable plastics in their frames. "The plastic is made from materials derived from plants such as corn and is broken down into water and carbon dioxide by microbes. NEC says it aims by 2010 to make more than 10% of the plastic it uses in PCs biodegradable" The rest of the information is only available to Nikkei subscribers, although a search on the NEC site comes up with a short article from earlier this year about corn-based bioplastics.

(Nikkei link via Near Near Future)

Impedance Track -- Battery Gas Gauge

PhysOrg.com reprints a press-release from Texas Instruments about their new "Impedance Track" technology, which they claim provides a 99% accurate measurement of battery capacity. It's not widely known that the battery gauge on electronic devices is actually a crude estimate based on use, not a real measurement of remaining charge. This is why laptops and cameras and such will occasionally go from "half-full" to empty -- the estimate didn't match the reality. This can also happen with bigger batteries, such as those in hybrids (a hybrid mailing list I'm on is currently discussing this rare but not-unknown problem). It can also result in devices shutting down because the gauge has calculated the battery is near-empty, even when it's not.

The TI technology, which works with LI, NiCD, and NiMH battery systems, is able to measure precise charge levels, and can even take battery degradation into account when making charge-remaining estimates. Given the increased reliance on rechargeable battery packs, a technology to make these devices more reliable is welcome indeed.

September 15, 2004

Prius in China

Green Car Congress notes that Toyota will be assembling the Prius in China starting next year, the first time the Prius will be built outside of Japan."Toyota will build the Prius with FAW [the Chinese automotive manufacturer] at the end of 2005, and may build another hybrid vehicle under a separate FAW brand, the two companies said in a press statement. "

September 16, 2004

Interview with Mike Mike

Following up on the Face of Tomorrow post from a few days ago, Dominic Muren of industrial design weblog IDFuel wrote to tell us of an interview they had just conducted with Face of Tomorrow photographer Mike Mike, entitled "The (Not So Evil) Face of Globalization." It's a good chance to learn a bit more about the artist and his mission. IDFuel is pretty cool, too -- I've added it to my RSS feeds.

September 17, 2004

Get Your Absentee Ballot

We've done enough stories on the uncertainty surrounding the reliability of no-paper-trail electronic voting that there's a good chance that many of you in the U.S. are considering voting absentee for the first time this November 2. Or maybe you're one of our numerous ex-pat readers, and have decided to vote this time around. Regardless, if you've never voted with a mail-in ballot before, you may be a bit uncertain about how to get one.

Overseas Vote 2004 is a site which partially automates the process of overseas voter registration and absentee ballot request. I say "partially," as you can't actually register or request a ballot online -- you still have to mail or fax in your paperwork. The site is a good way to make sure that you've filled in every box you need to, though, and has a very useful page indicating the registration deadline for each state (October 3 seems to be the earliest and most common deadline).

Overseas Vote 2004 is paid for by the Democratic National Committee, but has no partisan content.

The Guardian on the Future

The Guardian Unlimited -- the website for the popular UK newspaper -- published a set of essays on Saturday about what the world may look like in 2020. Topics range from urbanization to water use to China. The essays vary wildly in length, detail and quality, and none of them are provocative in a "oooh, I never thought about it *that* way" (at least to me). Nonetheless, they represent solid mainstream stories of what the next 15 or so years may hold. Our job is to make sure that the good ones happen, and the bad ones don't.

September 20, 2004

Individual Carbon Credits

Think emission-trading regimes are for big companies, multinational industries, and countries? Guess again. PhysOrg.net reports that researchers at the UK's Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research have suggested the deployment of "Domestic Tradable Quotas" (DTQs) as a means of allocating carbon taxes most fairly. Those who live efficiently could sell their DTQ credits to the more profligate emitters, making a tidy sum -- and encouraging others to be more efficient, to get in on the game while there's still money to be made. Very clever...

The article gives no real details on precisely how such a DTQ mechanism would work, and the only DTQ-related article (PDF) I could find in a quick search at Tyndall focuses more on why to do it than how, we'll have to put this in the "somewhat interesting, but let's hear more" category.

September 21, 2004

Diesel Hybrid Retrofit

Got a big diesel bus you wish was more fuel-efficient? Like serious hybrid-level efficient? Green Car Congress has good news for you. A UK company called Eneco has announced a retrofit diesel hybrid system which can provide 33% fuel savings, 33% reduced CO2, and up to 99% reduced hydrocarbon and CO emissions. The company is taking orders, and has already delivered the first of its retrofits.

September 24, 2004

California Adopts Vehicle Greenhouse Emission Cuts

Reuters reports that California has Air Resources Board has gone ahead and adopted rules requiring auto manufacturers to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2009 and by 34% by 2016. These are actually a bit more aggressive than the draft we talked about a few months ago. It's likely that the auto industry will sue to stop the implementation of these rules, thereby delaying the inevitable.

Forbes on the Future of Energy

Forbes.com has a Q&A with Newsweek Middle East regional editor Christopher Dickey and Forbes.com editor Paul Maidment on the future of energy. It's the best summation of the "enlightened" conventional wisdom I've seen in awhile. These folks aren't carbon dead-enders, but neither to they appreciate the growing demand for or increasing innovation in support of alternative energy. They might consider what they're talking about to be a radical change, but we'd just consider it the baseline.

September 25, 2004

Nanotech and the Developing World

WorldChanging friend Mike Treder at the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology wrote a short but thoughtful essay about how emerging transformative technologies will intersect the needs of struggling parts of the world.

In the near future, when molecular manufacturing reaches the stage of exponential proliferation and has general-purpose application across nearly all segments of society — then the question of how (or whether?) to extend its benefits to the 2/3 of the world’s people who live on less than four dollars a day will confront us.

September 27, 2004

What is Hubbert's Peak?

If you've been paying attention to the debate around oil lately, you may have heard experts using the term "Hubbert's Peak" (or, perhaps, "Peak Oil"). If so, you probably soon figured out that it has something to do with the point at which we reach maximum production of oil, and it's downhill from there. But where did the phrase come from? What does it really mean? Caltech vice provost and professor of physics and applied physics David Goodstein gave a talk on campus a few months ago on just that issue -- and his talk (with graphics) is now available via the Caltech Newsletter.

It's a great summation of what it means to be at "peak oil," and the difficulties of figuring out what to do about the situation. WorldChangers may quibble about his too-easy dismissal of wind and solar, but he's absolutely right on the scope of the challenge.

September 28, 2004

Taxes and Hybrids

If you bought a hybrid in 2003, you got a nice $2,000 federal income tax deduction (and it was nice). If you bought one in 2004, though, the federal income tax deduction was only $1,500 -- down to $1,000 in 2005 and $500 in 2006 before disappearing entirely in 2007. At least, until today: Green Car Congress points us to an article noting that the "alternative fuel and hybrid vehicle" deduction has been restored, pushed back up to $2,000 for 2004 and 2005 (although it still drops to $500 in 2006 and then goes away). So if you bought a hybrid this year, your tax situation will be a bit nicer than you expected.

And if you haven't bought one, but plan to, you might want to consider moving to (or, at least, visiting) Connecticut. As of October 1st, Connecticut will stop charging sales tax on hybrids. The state's 6% sales tax will no longer apply, reducing the final cost by about $1,200. In order to qualify, the vehicle must get at least 40 miles per gallon, so that rules out some of the new "upscale hybrids" which don't quite meet that standard. For now, though, the hybrids out there for sale all qualify, so go get one, if you can find one...

Nano Wiki

The Center for Responsible Nanotechnology blog points us to Wise-Nano.org, founded by CRN director Chris Phoenix. It's a Wiki "designed to support collaborative research on the implications of nanotechnology and how to deal with them. In the process, it will produce a body of work on the technology, risks and benefits, and policy." If you want to take part in the evolution in thinking about how to handle potentially-world-changing new technologies, this is an excellent place to start.

September 29, 2004

Stop the Legalization of Extradition for Torture

Today we are seeing a test of the Second Superpower in action -- let's hope it works. Lots of blogs are talking about this issue and encouraging action, so you'll probably run across it multiple times. It's worth making noise about.

Sections 3032 and 3033 of H.R. 10, the "9/11 Recommendations Implementation Act of 2004" would legalize the extradition of "terrorist and criminal" suspects to foreign countries for the purposes of torture for information extraction. Specifically, the sections change our agreement to the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Forms of Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. As one intelligence official described it in the Washington Post (on December 27, 2002), "We don't kick the shit out of them. We send them to other countries so they can kick the shit out of them.”

Torture doesn't work -- you can get anyone, guilty or innocent, to admit to anything with sufficient pressure. It also makes matters worse. Legalizing the use of torture -- even "outsourced" torture -- undercuts our legitimate attempts to stop the use of torture elsewhere. It makes the use of torture against our own citizens held by others all the more likely. And it simply runs against everything we are supposed to value.

The bill could come to the floor as early as next week. If you live in the United States, write your Representative about this mind-bogglingly awful provision. Rep. Ed Markey will be introducing an amendment to change this language to specifically outlaw this sort of extradition for torture. Markey's amendment is worth supporting.

Whether you're an American or not, contact your local media about this. This is not in the best traditions of American values and, regardless of its origins (apparently introduced by Speaker Hastert), this is not a partisan issue. The more light we can shine on this provision, the more likely it will die a well-deserved death.

More information here.

September 30, 2004

10 Point Plan For Security

David Stephenson wrote to tell me of his latest post on his homeland security blog (which focuses on "empowering the public, creative use of technology, win-win public/private collaborations yielding security and economic benefits, and protecting civil liberties"): "10-point plan to make security moms -- and all of us -- feel more secure." The list is a checklist of what a 21st century security plan should look like, with entries such as "work with existing groups, but also facilitate ad-hoc ones" (take advantage of what David calls "smart mobs for homeland security"), "call me on my cell" (take advantage of what I call the growing "participatory panopticon"), and "if you make us partners, also hold us accountable" (emphasizing that "fighting terrorism can't be an excuse for harassing neighbors...").

In the coming weeks, David plans to give more detail to each of the ten points.

October 3, 2004

BlogStreet India

Emergic.org has "soft-launched" its new blog listing, BlogStreet India. BSI indexes, ranks and links to over 800 different blogs written by people in India. Conversations with Dina, written by WorldChanging ally and recent guest poster Dina Mehta, is ranked #37 out of 825. Features include an RSS search engine, a "most influential blog" list, an RSS2Mobile service, listings of popular books, movies and music discussed by Indian bloggers, and more. India is the world's largest democracy, an up-and-coming leapfrog powerhouse, and definitely one of the cornerstones of 21st century culture -- here's a way for those of us outside of India to start learning more, for those of you who blog from India to make your voice heard.

October 4, 2004

Satellite Maps vs. Kissing Bugs

SciDev.net points us to an article at the European Space Agency website about an ESA-backed project to provide geo-spatial mapping services for humanitarian aid organizations. The effort profiled in the article is the fight against "kissing bugs" -- blood-sucking beetles which bite around the lips and eyes, spreading the parasite which causes Chagas. This wasting disease can be lethal, and affects 16 million people across Central and South America.

As part of a wider anti-Chagas campaign in the area [the Nicaraguan district of Matagalpa], Médecins Sans Frontières workers oversee a methodical house-to-house inspection campaign, identifying where cracks need to be filled in and control methods such as spraying are required.

This campaign is being guided by ultra high-resolution satellite imagery showing individual houses and even cars [...]
 
 "MSF is evaluating new methods to control Chagas disease, and the acquisition of a high resolution image of Matagalpa is part of this research activity," said Rémi CARRIER, MSF logistics director. "Up until now, MSF staff have been working with hand-drawn maps”.

"The use of space-based mapping technologies allows us to carry out a more efficient situation analysis of the Chagas disease on a house by house basis. It will also help us to implement effective control and monitoring programmes on the ground."

Recycle Your Phone (and other electronics)

California may have just passed a law mandating that cell phone retailers have a phone recycling program in place by July 2006, but that doesn't mean that (a) you have to live in California to recycle your phone, (b) your retailer is the best place to do it, or (c) you have to wait until 2006. Cellphones contain measurable levels of arsenic, cadmium, antimony, beryllium, copper, nickel and mercury, as well as lead in sufficient quantities to be classified as toxic waste. Simply throwing away that old phone is a bad idea.

"Recycling" the phone generally means putting it back into service elsewhere, often in a low-income or developing world region. Recycling service CollectiveGood describes their efforts this way:

CollectiveGood attempts to recycle donated phones back into reuse in the developing world (usually Latin America or the Caribbean), where they serve useful, longer lives and offer affordable communications, in many cases offering families their first modern communications. This helps bridge the digital divide, improving the quality of life for people in the developing world, and even helps their economies too.

In addition, Social Design Notes tells us of a new program by the New York City Department of Sanitation to collect electronic devices for recycling (or, at least, to keep them out of the waste stream). The efforts focus on old computers, which can be even more toxic than mobile phones.

October 6, 2004

Car That Runs On Air, Revisited

A few months ago, we posted a short piece on the MDI AirCar, a small commuter vehicle that runs on compressed air. AP has an updated report on the AirCar, which apparently has gotten past its earlier limitation of only operating for about 7 kilometers. Current models are able to go about 50 miles on a single tank of compressed air, more if you drive below the maximum speed of about 70 miles per hour. Recharging the tank (by plugging it in) takes about four hours; MDI claims that the electricity required to recharge the tank costs about $2.50 in France (presumably, AP took care of the currency and km/miles translation correctly). Let's see... 50 miles for $2.50... that's a bit better than a hybrid gets at California gas prices, but not outrageously so. Of course, the AirCar is cleaner than a hybrid as a greenhouse/pollution emission source, and much cleaner if you can charge it with your rooftop solar panels.

Sadly, there's still no sign of the AirCar being made available in the United States any time soon.

October 10, 2004

Reminder: Chat With Jamais

Just a quick reminder: today at 8pm EDT/5pm PDT/Midnight GMT, I will be the guest at the "Immortality Institute" live chat, where I will be holding forth on scenarios of what a world with radical life extension could look like. It's a bit outside our usual WorldChanging fare, admittedly, but it should still be fun. You can use your own IRC software or the site's Java client.

October 12, 2004

Real Electronics Recycling in South Africa

We posted recently about efforts to recycle mobile phones and other electronics. In many cases, recycling means reuse -- phones and computers and such are refurbished and put back into service in the developing world. One of the commenters, however, made an excellent point: this doesn't get rid of the toxic metals in the hardware, just pushes it into the hands of countries which may be less able to handle the waste.

Now comes word of "African Sky," an electronic waste recycling company based in Johannesburg, South Africa. The company will collect computers, cell phones, switchboards and the like from business clients, recycling the plastics and metal locally, and sending other components to their partner company, Citiraya, described as the world's largest electronics recycling group.

The primary investment for African Sky came from Vuthela, a South African "empowerment" organization owned in part by musician Johnny Clegg.

October 13, 2004

Paul Hawken on "The Long Green" Friday Night

From Stewart Brand:

The environmental movement has moved on.  It has become so deep and wide that it adds up to something new entirely, still unnamed.  Whatever it is, it is now the largest movement in the world and the least ideological.  Driven by science and patience, it is civilization-scale therapy.

So says Paul Hawken in a landmark address he will make this Friday evening, Oct. 15, in San Francisco.

Paul Hawken, "The Long Green," Friday, October 15, Fort Mason Conference Center.  Doors open at 7 pm for coffee, books, and conversation, lecture promptly at 8 pm.  Admission free ($10 donation very welcome, not required).

Paul Hawken co-authored the now classic NATURAL CAPITALISM with Amory Lovins and also wrote THE ECOLOGY OF COMMERCE and GROWING A BUSINESS.  He co-founded a great garden company, Smith & Hawken, and a great organic food company, Erewhon.  He chaired the introduction of The Natural Step to the US and currently is creating several companies for Pax Scientific.

I'll be there -- if you attend, be sure to say hi.

Fuck For Forest

How far are you willing to go to save the planet? If you're a young Norwegian couple with love for the planet and a disdain for clothing, you might be willing to go pretty far. Grist magazine's Lissa Harris has an amusing article about Leona Johansson and Tommy Hol Ellingsen's heroic efforts to raise money for environmental causes.

China's Fuel Efficiency Rules Will Exceed America's

Green Car Congress alerts us to the news that the Chinese government has approved new automobile fuel efficiency guidelines. Good to hear, but the big news is that these standards -- which are "not particularly stringent" in the words of the AP writer -- exceed US fuel efficiency standards. According to an analysis by US PIRG:

China’s new fuel economy standards require 32 different car and truck weight-based classes to achieve between 19 and 38 mpg by 2005, and between 21 and 43 mpg by 2008. Only 79 percent of U.S. car sales and 27 percent of U.S. light truck sales currently meet China’s 2005 standards. Only 19 percent of car sales and 14 percent of truck sales currently meet China’s 2008 standard.

[...]

China’s new standards prescribe a maximum level of fuel consumption for every vehicle within each weight class, meaning that every automobile produced in a particular weight class has to meet the fuel economy standard set for that weight class. The U.S. fuel economy system, on the other hand, only requires that car and light truck sales averages meet fuel economy standards for each class.

[...]

In China, if the automobiles do not meet the prescribed standards, they simply cannot be sold.

October 14, 2004

William Gibson is Blogging Again

Author William Gibson's line "the future is here, it's just not well-distributed yet" has long been a cornerstone idea for WorldChanging. His most recent novel, Pattern Recognition,captures the zeitgeist of the present-bleeding-into-tomorrow better than anything I've read in a long time. He blogged for awhile a year or so ago, but now he's back.

I am particularly pleased with today's entry, as the event he's talking about ("...about seven years ago I happened to find myself in San Francisco...") was the same event where he and I met and talked about science fiction, writing for Hollywood, and the important of imagining the future.

It's Gotta Be The Shoes

In the ongoing effort to combat the greenhouse effect, the European Union has drafted legislation which would ban some types of... shoes.

Sports shoes with air pockets filled with so-called F-gases will be banned from sale within the 25-nation bloc under the proposed legislation.

"F-gases have huge global warming potential -- in some cases almost 24,000 times that of carbon dioxide," EU Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom said in a statement. "By agreeing this legislation, member states have once again taken concrete action to fight climate change.

The proposed legislation would also put restrictions on the use of F-gases in refrigerators, fire extinguishers and automobile air conditioners... but you know it's the shoes that will be in all of the headlines.

The History of Social Software

WorldChanging Ally Christopher Allen (of Life With Alacrity) has written a fascinating piece entitled Tracing the Evolution of Social Software. Starting with Vannevar Bush's prophetic 1945 essay "As We May Think" and ending up with musings about the potential future of the concept, in many respects it's a capsule history of how people and computers have co-evolved. Go give it a read.

October 16, 2004

Biomimetic Art

Artist and trained quantum physicist Julian Voss-Adreae creates wood and steel sculptures modeled after proteins. According to a writeup in Genome News Network, "the sculptures are based on proteins found in nature, and his models must meet two criteria: They have certain aesthetic qualities and are 'scientifically significant.'" GNN has several example sculptures, and more can be found at his eponymous website.

Very cool stuff indeed.

October 18, 2004

Chinese Science Aid to Africa

We've noted before China's offers to assist African development through scientific aid. SciDev.Net this week has yet another example, from a meeting between the president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the UN's secretary-general Kofi Annan. All well and good, but this would be of only passing interest except for the comment from an unnamed Chinese official:

"China will send experts to train local technicians in African countries, and will also host training classes and sponsor African experts to learn in China about agriculture, water power and renewable energies". (Emphasis mine.)

China is clearly making renewable energy technologies a big part of its thrust to be a global power. Africa and other poor areas are terrific test-beds for Chinese renewable R&D, as system which would not be competitive in western markets can still find eager users. As Chinese renewable technologies get better, expect to see their target audience move from African aid to global consumers.

FedEx's Solar System

No, not a set of planets, but a private power grid. Reuters reports that FedEx is set to build the second-largest private solar power system in Oakland, California. At 904 kilowatts, it will supply 25% of FedEx's annual power requirements at its shipping hub at Oakland Airport. It will use 5,800 panels, covering 81,000 square feet, and should be operational by this coming May. The FedEx press release has a few more details.

October 20, 2004

Stephenson and Gibson and Sterling (oh my)

Neal Stephenson (author of the recent Baroque Cycle novels and of what remains the best opening page of any novel I've ever read, in Snowcrash) answers questions on Slashdot today. His exhaustive and clever replies will undoubtedly get plenty of blogosphere attention (and I see now that it's been picked up on BoingBoing), but even wise WorldChangers who steer clear of Slashdot should take a look. His best answer -- the question of who would win in a fight between him and William Gibson -- made me laugh so hard I scared my cats. I've excerpted it in the extended entry, but definitely go check out the whole post.

Continue reading "Stephenson and Gibson and Sterling (oh my)" »

Renewable Energy Business Notes

Two pieces of news today about the business and economic side of renewable energy.

The Earth Policy Institute breaks down the details of 2003 sales of photovoltaic cells. Production of solar cells hit 742 megawatts worth in 2003, 32% more than in 2002. Nearly half of solar cell production takes place in Japan, and European production has also grown dramatically. The US, unfortunately, saw its PV cell production drop by 14%.

The Financial Times reports that a new joint study by Greenpeace and the UK's Department of Trade and Industry shows that growth of the offshore wind industry would bring up to 76,000 new jobs in the UK, half in the economically-depressed north-east part of the country. The full report is available here (PDF).

(Thanks, Tim!)

Sorry, Free Willy, Not This Time. Sorry About the Tissue Damage.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today that cetaceans -- whales, porpoises and dolphins -- do not have standing to sue the US government in court.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco [...] said it saw no reason why animals should not be allowed to sue but said they had not yet been granted that right.

"If Congress and the President intended to take the extraordinary step of authorizing animals as well as people and legal entities to sue they could and should have said so plainly," Judge William A. Fletcher wrote in an 18-page opinion for the panel.

The cause of the suit is serious -- the use of low-frequency sonar by the Navy as a possible violation of the Endangered Species Act -- and the ruling raises some interesting questions. If only people and "legal entities" -- that is, corporations -- have the right to sue, how will we define "people" in an era of rapid technological change? Would a putative machine intelligence have to be registered as a corporation in order to assert its rights? How would the courts define "person" if faced with radically bioengineered humans?

Is the act of asking for the protection of one's rights prima facia evidence that such rights should be granted?

October 21, 2004

Designing a Park in Cairo

The New York Times has a fascinating and lyrical article about the opening of the Azhar Park in Cairo. At 74 acres, it is the largest green space created in Cairo in over a century. It is also an example of the use of urban design concepts and principles to revive centuries-old architecture -- a revival that meets with ambiguous success, even as it has re-energized the community.

The site, at the city's eastern edge in one of its poorest areas, reflects the planners' social ambitions. For several hundred years, the city's most destitute carted garbage here and then sifted through it for anything of value. The dump gradually grew into a range of hills that extended nearly a mile, burying the old historic wall underneath it. The decaying medieval fabric of the Darb al-Ahmar district is just beyond. To the west of the park is the City of the Dead, a sprawling quarter of ancient tombs and mausoleums that for centuries have been inhabited by the city's poor.

The park, which opened to the public recently, rises out of this context like a virtual Eden.

Update: Reader Deborah Middleton, who is researching the Al Azhar park for her Ph.D. at Georgia Tech, has some serious concerns about the New York Times article. Read her critique in the comments.

October 25, 2004

Leapfrogging Into Space

Following up on Jeremy's post from earlier this month about Iran's plans to put a satellite into orbit in the next year or so, a couple of reports caught my eye this weekend about the increased space activity of countries once considered "third world." The ability to regularly launch satellites into orbit (or beyond) is important for a variety of reasons. As we've noted repeatedly here, satellites are incredibly useful tools for understanding what's happening with a region's environment, population, urbanization, etc., as well as for facilitating communication. Homegrown launch capacity means being able to put up a satellite without having to pay the US/EU/China/Japan/Russia for the privilege.

Reuters and SciScoop have the details about Brazil's successful test of a prototype satellite launch vehicle. Previous tests failed, sometimes explosively. Brazil hopes to be able to sell this design to the ESA. The Reuters piece notes that Brazil also wants to turn its equatorial Alcantara space base into an "international commercial satellite launch center."

Finally, India, which already has a successful domestic satellite program, is now setting its sights a bit higher: the moon. Kerala Online reports about a press conference held by G Madhavan Nair, the Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) about a planned mission to put a satellite in a polar orbit around the moon. The satellite will study the moon's surface, and will "serve as a vital stepping stone for developing technologies needed for ISRO's inter-planetary missions later."

October 26, 2004

Java Log

I could have sworn that I had posted about this before, but apparently not. National Geographic News has a new article about the Java Log, a fireplace log made from coffee grounds. Burning brighter and hotter than sawdust logs, it's better for the environment than either sawdust logs or traditional firewood. Besides recycling material that would otherwise enter the waste stream, it puts out 14 percent less CO2 than firewood and 54 percent less CO2 than sawdust logs. With Winter having bum-rushed the stage here in the SF area, I'm going to see if I can pick some of them up this weekend.

GlucoBoy

Lots of places have linked to the GlucoBoy story, but it's certainly worth noting. The father of a young diabetic lad noticed that the kid loved his GameBoy but neglected his blood glucose meter, so invented a plug-in device in order to do blood readings with the GameBoy. What stands out about this invention (aside from its "street finds its own uses for things" shine) is the reminder of how widespread general purpose computers are, even in the guise of dedicated-purpose devices.

Alex noted the question of what a $100 computer would look like earlier, and it's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that it must run on an Intel-type chip, or have the standard peripheral interfaces. A GameBoy is pretty close to a $100 computer right now; well over 100 million units have been sold worldwide. What would it take for other non-game modules to come out? Where's the PollutionBoy (with air quality reader)?

Why Smart Buildings=Green Buildings

Excellent article at the Technology Review website about the growing use of smart building systems as a method of increasing energy efficiency. The details of the diverse mechanisms employed won't come as a real surprise to most WorldChanging readers, but it's good to see them collected in a single article. The article includes a couple of interesting claims: since 2000, around 19,000 people have been LEED accredited (the article then says that 9,000 were accredited "in the last month alone," but that claim seems a bit hard to accept without evidence, and I found no reference to that number at the LEED website); and about 4 percent of new commercial construction is now done under LEED guidelines.

October 27, 2004

UIPA Nominee

We just got the word from Utne magazine that they've put us on their list of nominees for their 2004 Independent Press Awards, in the "Online Cultural Coverage" category (we're at the bottom of Page 4, the last entry on the list). The list includes (among others) Alternet, CorpWatch and Media Matters, as well as WorldChanging friends BoingBoing and Smart Mobs. In such company, we can say with all seriousness "we're happy just to be nominated." Thank you!

October 28, 2004

It is the business of the future to be dangerous.

WorldChanging friend Stefan Jones reminds us of this quote from Alfred North Whitehead, in "Science and the Modern World," 1925:

Modern science has imposed upon humanity the necessity for wandering. Its progressive thought and its progressive technology make the transition through time, from generation to generation, a true migration into uncharted seas of adventure. The very benefit of wandering is that it is dangerous and needs skill to avert evils. We must expect, therefore, that the future will disclose dangers. It is the business of the future to be dangerous; and it is among the merits of science that it equips the future for its duties. The prosperous middle classes, who ruled the nineteenth century, placed an excessive value upon the placidity of existence. They refused to face the necessities for social reform imposed by the new industrial system, and they are now refusing to face the necessities for intellectual reform imposed by the new knowledge. The middle class pessimism over the future of the world comes from a confusion between civilization and security. In the immediate future there will be less security than in the immediate past, less stability. It must be admitted that there is a degree of instability which is inconsistent with civilization. But, on the whole, the great ages have been unstable ages.

We are living in a truly great age, it seems.

UK Gov't Evaluating Linux

In our zeal to celebrate the growing use of free/open source software in the developing world, we sometimes forget to note that Linux, etc., can be pretty great for the developed world, too. Yesterday's Financial Times held a good reminder, then, with an article detailing the UK government's procurement agency's report highlighting the value of shifting to Linux and other open source apps. The article also mentions a few other European government centers considering a shift away from Microsoft. Few of the report's conclusions will come as a surprise to anyone following the growth of F/OSS, and the standard Microsoft responses quoted at the end are beginning to sound pretty tired. Still, it's a welcome reminder that the Linux Penguin (or, my preference, the BSD Demon) doesn't just thrive in the South.

(Thanks, Tim!)

Extremophile Protein Cleans Wastewater

Extremophiles are very cool. If you haven't heard the term, extremophiles are living creatures -- typically bacteria -- which are able to thrive in environmental conditions long thought to be too hot/too cold/too acidic/too radioactive/too deep in solid stone/etc. for life to exist. (The plenitude of extremophiles on Earth is one reason why xenobiologists are starting to think that Mars may actually harbor life.) It turns out that the biology that lets extremophiles live in nasty circumstances can often be of great use for what's called bioremediation. We've mentioned, for example, bacteria in the genus Geobacter, which devours various kinds of minerals, including radioactive waste.

Now comes a report at Genome News Network that a protein extracted from an extremophile microbe found in a geyser at Yellowstone National Park may provide a cheap, efficient, and natural method of cleaning hydrogen peroxide out of industrial wastewater. The protein from the microbe (Thermus brockianus) lasts -- in the lab, at least -- 80,000 times longer than the current industrial cleanup methods. What's more, the proteins can be filtered out and reused. Hydrogen peroxide cleanup is an ongoing problem in the textile and paper industries, where H2O2 is often used as a bleaching agent.

October 29, 2004

Know Your (Voting) Rights. These Are Your Rights.

30 states in the US have laws requiring employers to give time to employees to go vote. Time to Vote has a rundown of the states with voting time laws, and the details for each, along with links back to the actual statutes. Note that in many of these states, employers must post a notice of employee voting time rights. Have you seen a sign at your place of work? Since many of the states also require that the employees ask for the time off in advance, check now to see if you need to make a request today.

Virus-Detecting Biochip

Harvard researchers have developed a highly sensitive biochip able to detect a single virus in real time in unpurified samples. The system uses 20-nanometer silicon nanowires coated with antibody proteins for a specific virus, then connected to a fluid microchannel. Detectors using this biochip could provide early warnings of viral infections, as the sensor is able to detect the presence of a virus in very small concentrations. The researchers' next step is to combine multiple virus detectors on a single chip, allowing for simultaneous sensing of hundreds -- or perhaps thousands -- of different viruses.

(Via Technology Research News)

Update: Reader Sennoma notes in the comments that the original pubication of this research was as an open-access article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (auto-download PDF). Sennoma's post in his own blog about the biochip is definitely worth checking out.

November 1, 2004

Principles of Humane Systems

Information architect Adam Greenfield wrote an essay recently about "ubiquitous computing," and what system designers need to think about in order for such technology to be seen as useful and acceptable, rather than oppressive and unwanted. As I did with Dan Bricklin's essay on designing software to last for centuries, I found the general rules that Greenfield articulates to have broader application beyond computer code. His five principles of "designing useful, humane instantiations of ubicomp [ubiquitous computing]" can be seen more broadly as good rules for designing humane systems of all sorts -- technologies and techniques which will integrate seamlessly into human life, not run roughshod over it:

  • Default to harmlessness. Systems fail; when they do, they can fail gracefully or they can fail catastrophically. When a system fails, it should do so in a way which does not itself make problems worse.
  • Be self-disclosing. Systems should be transparent. The way in which they achieve their goals should be clear, as should the inputs and the results.
  • Be conservative of face. Don't humiliate the user. Don't make her or him feel stupid. Don't draw unnecessary attention to the user in public.
  • Be conservative of time. Don't make tasks more complicated than they need to be. Don't make people waste their time.
  • Be deniable. Systems should allow users to opt out, whether to use another system or to refuse participation entirely.

    It will come as little surprise that voting systems, particularly electronic voting systems, seem to me to be prime examples of violations of nearly all of these principles (it's unclear the degree to which electronic voting systems would violate rule #3, but I wouldn't put it past them). I'm sure we could easily come up with a variety of other systems (traveler security, for example) which breaks these rules, too. I'd hazard a guess that these rules are more likely to be broken than observed. Still, they make for a good set of guidelines for people who are trying to fix things.

  • November 2, 2004

    Diesel Fuel Cell?

    Good news and bad news time.

    Good news: scientists at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, working with the Office of Naval Research and fuel-cell company SOFCo-EFS, have developed a system to allow even the dirtiest diesel fuel to be used by a fuel cell. By reforming the diesel into hydrogen, the system produces twice the energy output and no sulfur or NOx pollution.

    Bad news: the development is currently focused on military uses, such as running Navy ships. It's also incredibly expensive, running a few hundred thousand dollars per unit. Hopefully, this will change as we get more civilian demand for cleaner, quieter power systems to replace dirty, noisy diesel generators.

    Unanticipated Results #3348: Cephalopod Dominance

    According to the Australian science journal, Australasian Science, ocean warming due to climate change and fisheries depletion due to over-fishing have allowed squid populations to explode. The researchers claim that the global biomass of squid now exceeds that of humans.

    "This trend has been suggested to be due both to the removal of cephalopod predators such as toothed whales and tuna and an increase of cephalopods due to removal of finfish competitors,'' said Dr Jackson.

    "The fascinating thing about squid is that they're short-lived. I haven't found any tropical squid in Australia older than 200 days.

    "Many of the species have exponential growth, particularly during the juvenile stage so if you increase the water temperature by even a degree it has a tremendous snowballing effect of rapidly increasing their growth rate and their ultimate body size.

    "They get much bigger and they can mature earlier and it just accelerates everything.''

    Cephalopods such as squids and octopus have remarkably sophisticated brains, and are able to solve complex puzzles. Jaron Lanier, in a talk I saw him give a few months back, suggested that the only reason cephalopods don't dominate the planet is that they don't pass along learned behaviors to their young through acculturation (as do primates). Global warming and over-fishing may well have given cephalopods the leg-up -- tentacle-up? -- they need to take over.

    I, for one, will now feel much less guilty about eating ika when I have sushi.

    (Via Charlie Stross' Diary)

    November 5, 2004

    Solar Capacitor

    Roland Picquepaille has the details on a new type of solar cell, a "photocapacitor," which integrates the ability to store electricity once generated by the solar cell. All the usual caveats apply: it's still in the lab, it may not be cost-effective, your mileage may vary, etc., but it certainly does look interesting (especially its ability to be twice as efficient than a standard solar cell on cloudy days).

    November 6, 2004

    Notes from ACC04 -- Dan Gillmor

    At the Accelerating Change Conference 2004, Dan Gillmor spoke about his book, We the Media,along with some of his observations about the increasing amount of information available to individuals through new forms of mediation. His main argument, that journalism had once been a lecture but is now a conversation, is one that those of us in the blog world have taken to heart, even if some in the traditional media are less enthusiastic. Weblogs (along with mailing lists, discussion boards, and the like) have become a critical part of the media complex, as they allow for rapid (and global) fact-checking, and make it harder to keep stories hidden. (You can download We the Media for free under a Creative Commons license, so there's no excuse for not reading it.)

    One story he told struck me as emblematic of the effect of wireless, mobile information systems. He was shown a demo of a system combining a bar-code reader and an Internet-connected handheld computer; when a product's supermarket bar-code is scanned, the handheld does a Google search for the product. In the demo, the first link for a box of cereal pulled from the store's shelf turned out to be a product recall -- the box didn't list an ingredient that some people were allergic to. As Dan put it:

    Every object can tell a story, and if the story is "if you eat me I will kill you," that's a story you want to hear.

    Notes from ACC04 -- Gordon Bell on MyLifeBits

    The talk I was most looking forward to seeing Saturday at the Accelerating Change Conference 2004 was the one by Gordon Bell, from Microsoft's Bay Area Research Center, talking about MyLifeBits. MyLifeBits is an early attempt at what I call a "personal memory assistant" -- a device which would stores copies of everything you see and hear, for later retrieval as needed. MyLifeBits isn't quite that powerful; it only stores personal documents, web pages browsed, selected images, audio records of phone calls, and a few other file types. It's really intended as a vehicle to allow engineers to figure out what the barriers would be for the fuller version.

    So far, they've learned a few key things: meta-data is really the core of something like MyLifeBits -- the annotations and contextual information that makes a stored file meaningful; of the various kinds of meta-data one could automatically or manually add, date and time is ultimately the most important; once something is stored, the challenge then becomes user interface -- how do you find something that you've stored? These lessons are more common sense than big surprises, but the Microsoft BARC team has taken some important steps towards figuring out some solutions.

    Two more items of note: BARC's term for a device to do constant capture of what the user hears and sees is "CARPE" (continuous archival recording of personal experience); and the idea of a system to store copies of everything you've ever read, written or heard was anticipated nearly 60 years ago, in a 1945 article called "As We May Think," by Vannevar Bush. If you haven't read it, you should -- it's a wonderfully prescient vision.

    November 8, 2004

    Seaweed vs. DDT

    The Washington Post reports on research demonstrating that a powdered mix of red and green seaweed greatly accelerates bioremediation of DDT accumulated in the soil. Because DDT is very effective at wiping out malaria-bearing mosquitos, it is still used in over two dozen countries, primarily in Africa, to combat the deadly disease. But DDT has devastating longer-term effects on a wide range of species, and is incredibly persistent in soil -- even though it hasn't been used in the US in over 30 years, significant traces can still be found in treated areas. The seaweed mixture enhances the ability of anaerobic microbes in the soil to break down DDT; in one test, the researchers found the seaweed-powered microbes eliminated 80% of the DDT in contaminated soil in six weeks.

    November 9, 2004

    Long Now Seminar on Human Life Extension

    It's Long Now Seminar time again. This month is Dr. Michael West, CEO of Advanced Cell Technology, talking about "the Prospects of Human Life Extension." It's the first of two seminars on the topic; next month is Ken Dychtwald on the "Consequences of Human Life Extension." WorldChanging readers already have a heads-up on some of the issues -- I covered them last month in my essay "What Would Radical Longevity Mean?"

    The Michael West talk is this Friday, November 12, at the Fort Mason Conference Center in San Francisco. Doors open at 7pm, lecture begins at 8pm. Admission is free.

    November 10, 2004

    Biomimicry 101

    Biomimicry -- product design based on features from the organic world -- is truly worldchanging. We talk about biomimicry quite often here, so it's nice to run across a good summary article laying out the basics of what's being done today with biomimetic design. The Wired article "Ideas Stolen Right From Nature," although largely a straightforward survey of consumer applications for biomimetic processes, nicely portrays the methodology's real-world and present-day uses. WorldChanging readers will be familiar with most of the ideas the article talks about, but it's a good quick summary for the uninitiated.

    November 11, 2004

    Applying the Precautionary Principle

    WorldChanging Allies Chris Phoenix and Mike Treder of the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology have written a terrific (and brief) essay on the application of the Precautionary Principle to nanotechnology in particular, and to emerging scientific and technological concerns more broadly. We've talked about the Precautionary Principle before (follow the link for the standard definition, if you're not familiar with the term); it's a useful method of thinking about how to respond both to new technologies and to new scientific understandings of global change. There are two broad forms of the Principle, characterized by Phoenix and Treder as the "strict" version and the "active" version. The strict form holds that research and development which can be shown to have possible harmful results should be stopped, period. There actually aren't too many people advocating this position, but they do exist. The active Precautionary Principle "calls for choosing less risky alternatives when they are available, and for taking responsibility for potential risks." Rather than the traditional risk assessment method of asking "how much harm is acceptable?" the active form of the Precautionary Principle asks "how much harm is avoidable?"

    Although the Precautionary Principle is generally applied to implementations of new technologies, the active form is a useful way of thinking about how we respond to global warming induced climate disruption. As the 1992 Rio Declaration on the Environment and Development put it,

    Principle 15: In order to protect the environment, the precautionary approach shall be widely applied by States according to their capabilities. Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation.

    November 13, 2004

    Fighting Global Warming, State by State

    The Chicago Tribune has identified something we've talked about a number of times here at WorldChanging: American federal government reluctance to do anything substantive about climate disruption may be less important than the growing number of state government projects and initiatives to fight global warming.

    In recent years, the focus of efforts to control future greenhouse emissions has shifted to the state level. According to the Pew Center, at least 28 states have undertaken measures to reduce such emissions, including a new Colorado requirement that large utilities there must produce 10 percent of their electricity from renewable energy sources, such as wind power, by 2015.

    There are still plenty of things that only the feds can do -- treaties, controls over emissions of aircraft and shipping, and the like -- but we shouldn't assume that because the EPA is dragging its feet, we've lost. The fight has just shifted venues.

    November 14, 2004

    LED Light Bulbs Real Soon Now

    We've been enamored of LED lighting for awhile now, so it's good to get word that functional LED-based light bulb replacements are going to be hitting store shelves "in a few more months." Advantages: ten times the life of incandescent bulbs, one-tenth the energy consumption (making them more efficient than compact fluorescent, too), less heat, and plastic bulbs that don't shatter when dropped. Disadvantages: three times the cost of incandescent bulbs... and still not yet available.

    (Thanks, Daniel!)

    Why the World Loves Bollywood

    I just ran across a fun (and lengthy) article in today's New York Times explaining, in great detail, what it is about Bollywood movies that the rest of the world really enjoys, even if they aren't terribly popular in the United States. In short, it's the lack of cynicism. We've talked about Bollywood before (as well as its up-and-coming competitor, "Nollywood" -- Nigerian movies): they're a terrific way to get into thinking more globally about society and culture.

    As India becomes more of a global power, a modern state with modern problems, I have to wonder how long it will be before the nature of Bollywood movies, in turn, changes.

    November 15, 2004

    Tumblin' Tumbleremediation

    Researchers at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro have found that Russian Thistle -- a.k.a. tumbleweed -- absorbs a substantial amount of depleted uranium from the soil (at least while still rooted -- once they start tumblin', they aren't doing much good). This is good news for efforts to clean up weapons test ranges and battlefields. The lowly tumbleweed may prove to be a useful addition to traditional remediation.

    What Does Peak Oil Mean For Designers?

    WorldChanging Ally IDFuel.com has a short article up today about the impact of "peak oil" on both the cost of living and product design. It lays out the issues clearly, and has interesting links. I do hope that IDFuel dives more deeply into the question of sustainable design in the near future, however. They've done some good work on that front, and as good Viridians, we know that product designers are the shock troops of social transformation.

    November 16, 2004

    The Effects of Global Warming

    Once again, the Onion says it all with a handy infographic.

    (My favorite: "A whole lotta biomes are gonna get all fucked up")

    November 18, 2004

    Happy Kyoto Day: February 16th

    The last last shoe has dropped: the Russian parliament (or Duma) ratified the Kyoto Treaty today, meaning that it will take effect in 90 days -- February 16th. The only four industrialized countries not to sign the treaty: Australia, Liechtenstein, Monaco and the United States. The US situation we know all too well, and Australia is led by a close Bush ally. But what's up with Liechtenstein and Monaco?!?

    Listening to the Grapes

    Reuters reports that French scientists have worked out a way of measuring summer temperature variation using the records of grape harvests. Such records stretch back to the 14th century. The results were unsurprising. While there were periodic warm stretches, the summer of 2003 was unusual. "The summer of 2003 appears to have been extraordinary, with temperatures that were probably higher than in any other year since 1370," claimed Pascal Yiou of the Laboratory of Sciences for Climate and the Environment in Gif-sur-Yvette, France.

    Hydrogen On Demand

    Green Car Congress points us to a potentially exciting new fuel cell system which uses sodium tetrahydridoborate: NaBH4 with a catalyst as the source of hydrogen fuel. The reaction is entirely inorganic (i.e., no carbon output), requires no energy, operates at ambient temperature, and the NaBH4 is non-flammable and non-explosive. The main difficulty may be cost and availability -- any chemists in the audience care to say what it takes to create sodium tetrahydridoborate?

    November 20, 2004

    Hybrid From A Land Down Under?

    Australian automaker Holden (partially owned by GM) and Australian national research center CSIRO are working together to build "next generation" hybrid automobile technologies, according to a CSIRO press release. The research will focus on "supercapacitors, advanced batteries and energy management control systems." Collaboration between Holden and CSIRO has already led to the "ECOmmodore" hybrid sedan... four years ago. Which, upon roll-out in 2000, listed many of the same technological features. Which you can't buy, but which still gets trotted out as an example of how green they're trying to be, despite (according to their Vehicle R&D page) "investing in more environmentally friendly technologies for which there is little market demand or economic incentive."

    So why are Holden and CSIRO now trumpeting research they've been doing for years? They can read the writing on the wall. Oil prices keep going up, demand for more fuel-efficient cars is steadily rising, and hybrids are sexy. American manufacturers have been slow to get new hybrids to market, and Holden may be in a position to be able to step up as a hybrid car leader (or, at minimum, provide their established technology to their partner parent, GM). To me, this is a sign that the auto industry may well be set for a bigger shakeup than anyone expected.

    November 21, 2004

    Towering Over The Desert

    Remember the solar tower I posted about a couple of weeks ago? It's a kilometer-tall chimney generating a couple hundred megawatts of power through temperature differentials at the top and bottom of the tower soon to be built in Australia. Questions remain about the plan's practicality, but it just might be crazy enough to work, as the saying goes. Well, those in the northern hemisphere jealous that Australia will be getting a giant power-generating phallic symbol should fret no more, if the report that the Alternative Energy Blog found is accurate: SolarMission, the California licensee of the solar tower technology, may be set to announce plans to build 2,600 megawatts worth of solar towers, presumably here in North America. That would be 13 towers, at 200 megawatts apiece, dotting the landscape of the desert southwest. Should be interesting if it actually happens, but I wouldn't advise holding one's breath.

    November 24, 2004

    Conservation Commons Update

    We posted recently about the Conservation Commons Initiative -- a proposal for an open-access information resource for those working on issues of biodiversity and ecological conservation. It's a terrific idea. In the subsequent week, I've received two updates to the material posted in the initial article:

    Stuart Salter, the manager of the World Conservation Union's Species Information Service, wrote to inform us that the Conservation Commons Initiative website is now up and running. Not only does the Conservation Commons website include information about the initiative itself, the database is up and running. Check it out.

    In addition, in the comments on the original piece, the American Museum of Natural History's Director of Library Services Thomas Moritz points us to his 2002 piece "Building the Biodiversity Commons", which laid out in greater detail the need for and utility of an open information resource for ecological conservation. I strongly recommend that anyone with an interest in either biodiversity or the growth of the intellectual commons model read this article. Thank you, Thomas!

    November 28, 2004

    Sterling on Fab Labs

    We wrote about Fab Labs a few months ago -- the combination of 3D scanners, Linux computers, laser cutters, 3D milling equipment, etc., assembled by the Center for Bits and Atoms at MIT for use in the developing world. It's one of the coolest and potentially one the most revolutionary projects going, as it could be the jumping-off point for the biggest developing world leapfrog ever. Now Bruce Sterling (a name mentioned on WorldChanging once or twice) writes about Fab Labs for the latest issue of Wired, doing what he does best: seeing the possibilities.

    Now imagine a vast, rising tide of bastardized things, shoddier than the cheapest postwar products of Japan, coming from Congo, Myanmar, Fallujah - a global outbreak of Napster-fabbed mayhem. Fabbing would be the ultimate industry for the perennially unindustrialized; the consumer cornucopia for the antideveloping world; a mushroom patch of recycled decay that pops up whenever the World Trade Organization, World Intellectual Property Organization, or US Patent and Trademark Office turns its back.

    November 29, 2004

    Self-Driving Cars

    Our post about a revolutionary approach to redesigning transportation drew a bit of discussion, much of it very informative. One of the commenters pointed us to this article at EE Times about the current state of the art in "autonomous vehicles," and just what it would take to get us to a world of self-driving cars. It's a fairly technical piece -- it is a journal for engineering professionals, after all -- but if you don't mind a bit of tech jargon, it's fascinating reading.

    Short version: augmented assistance cars are here and will only get better, but fully autonomous cars remain a ways away.

    Keyhole

    We're still a few years shy of being able to put up personal Earth-observing satellites. In the meantime, you can always take advantage of images from satellites owned and operated by someone else. We've posted about the "Public Eye" project run by the DC think tank Global Security a few months ago, which makes current pictures of hotspots around the world available to the public: timely, possibly informative, but narrow in scope. We've also posted about the ESA making satellite data on land use patterns available to the public: possibly timely, definitely informative, moderately narrow (EU only). Today we have Keyhole, a satellite company recently acquired by Google. Keyhole is making its Earth observation software available for free download and 7 day use, allowing you to zoom from place to place. The entire world is covered, to varying degrees of detail (with some locations showing sufficient detail to pick out individual people). Windows-only, and no longer free after the 7 day trial, but worth checking out.

    Biggest problem, though: it's not live, updated data. It's shots from over the last few years, some from as far back as 1999, others from just several months ago. So we add to our list Keyhole: not at all timely, moderately informative, but very broad in scope. And a lot of fun to play with.

    China's Energy Agenda

    WBCSD brings us a report that China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) announced its medium- and long-term energy policies late last week, and the results are... well, not what WorldChangers might have hoped for. China plans to still focus on coal and oil use in 2020, albeit at much greater efficiency than at present (right now, China's coal plants require 22 percent more coal per kilowatt of power produced than do comparable plants in the United States). Their focus is on China's energy shortage, which could put a brake on the nation's growth. Unfortunately, nothing in the report suggests that potentially restricted oil supplies, greenhouse gas emissions, or even choking smog problems entered into the plan. If there's a prediction to be made based on this agenda, it's that 2020 will not look at all like what the NDRC thinks it will...

    November 30, 2004

    Nuclear Hydrogen?

    Here's one for the Green Dilemma bin: researchers at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory have shown that they can crack hydrogen from at a conversion rate of 45-50% (compared to ~30% for conventional electrolysis) by adding heat to the process, 1000°C worth -- the kind of heat one gets from a so-called "Generation IV" nuclear reactor. Green Car Congress has a terrifically-detailed write-up of the research, including this provocative line: "According to INEEL, a single next-generation nuclear plant will be able to produce in hydrogen the equivalent of 200,000 gallons of gasoline each day."

    The two big hurdles for the advent of the Hydrogen Economy are the price of fuel cells and the availability of hydrogen. While research continues on improving solar->hydrogen technology, the reality is that hydrogen fuel is expensive to make in quantity. What if the most cost-effective way to make enough hydrogen for fuel cell vehicles required nuclear reactors?

    Electric Octospeedster

    Okay, so this is just weird, but it is interesting. It's an electric car -- the Eliica, short for Electric Lithium-Ion battery Car -- that can do 0-60 in four seconds is faster than a Porsche 911 Turbo, and accelerates at 0.8 Gs. It's also around 5 meters in length, 2400 kg in weight, and has eight wheels. Yes, it's made in Japan. The 10 hour recharge (and the price, over $300,000) are the primary drawbacks.

    I, for one, am now waiting with bated breath for the inevitable showdown between the all-electric Eliica and Toyota's hybrid-electric supercar, the Alessandro Volta, which also boasts 0-60 in 4 seconds acceleration. Gentlemen, push your Engine On buttons...

    Update: Green Car Congress has more details. Also, be sure to read the first comment on this post, from Jeff Rusch. This car could be a more WorldChanging development than it initially appeared!

    (Thanks, Jet!)

    December 2, 2004

    We Win One!

    Back in June, I posted about the National Weather Service requesting comments on a proposed policy to make weather data officially "open access" -- a proposal opposed by the chairman of Accuweather and other firms who wanted to make publicly-funded weather data only available through commercial vendors. Well, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA, the department overseeing the NWS) has decided to go forward with the plan as proposed, making explicit a "Commitment to Open Internet-Based Standards for Information Sharing." Of the nearly 1500 comments received, 1190 supported the policy, while only 176 opposed it.

    Free/Open Source applications making use of NWS xml feeds are widely available. Now we know that they will remain so. Good work, everyone!

    December 3, 2004

    More De-Mining Goodness: Rats

    APOPO, a Belgian organization based at the Sokoine University of Agriculture in Tanzania, has developed another tool in the global effort to detect and remove landmines. Trained rats -- specifically Cricetomys gambianus, the African Giant Pouched rat -- can sniff out the residual chemicals from landmines and scratch the ground, indicating to handlers the explosive's location. Light enough in weight not to set the mines off, the rats are well cared for, and able to cover around 100 square meters in about a half hour.

    APOPO is also working on training rats to detect signs of tuberculosis through scent, with initially good results.

    Nanotech and Peak Oil

    The always-interesting CRNblog at the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology posted this week a short essay going into the possibility of soon reaching "peak oil," and the ways in which further developments in molecular manufacturing could help us avoid serious problems. The essay itself is good, as usual, but what is more notable is the ensuing discussion. Lots of good ideas and diverse viewpoints, and well worth reading.

    Want $5,000 Towards Buying a 45+ MPG Car?

    There's a catch. You have to be an employee of Hyperion, a Santa Clara, California, based software company:

    Under its Drive Clean to Drive Change initiative, Hyperion will reimburse employees US $5,000 for vehicles that achieve 45 miles per gallon or the equivalent of gasoline. [...] The standard also is achievable by fuel-efficient vehicles using technologies such as hybrid, diesel and electric that increasingly are available in most of the countries in which Hyperion does business. [...] “We know we are not necessarily going to change the world through this initiative, but we aim to get people thinking about change,” said [Godfrey] Sullivan [president and chief executive officer of Hyperion].  “Drive Clean to Drive Change is not just a good thing to do. It’s the right thing to do.”

    Under the Drive Clean to Drive Change plan, employees who have been with Hyperion for more than a year can apply for the subsidy for one vehicle every four years. Up to 200 employees a year will be funded, on a first-come, first-served basis. A shining example of a "transcommercial" company policy, and definitely good to hear about.

    December 4, 2004

    Is There Really A Climate Change Consensus?

    Yes.

    Naomi Oreskes, at Science magazine, undertook a study of the 928 peer-reviewed papers and reports published between 1993 and 2003 which included the keywords "climate change" when indexed. Not one of them argued that observed climate change was natural in origin. As Oreskes puts it:

    This analysis shows that scientists publishing in the peer-reviewed literature agree with IPCC, the National Academy of Sciences, and the public statements of their professional societies. Politicians, economists, journalists, and others may have the impression of confusion, disagreement, or discord among climate scientists, but that impression is incorrect.

    [...]

    Many details about climate interactions are not well understood, and there are ample grounds for continued research to provide a better basis for understanding climate dynamics. The question of what to do about climate change is also still open. But there is a scientific consensus on the reality of anthropogenic climate change. Climate scientists have repeatedly tried to make this clear. It is time for the rest of us to listen.

    (Thanks, John Maas)

    December 6, 2004

    HSBC -- The First Green Bank?

    The Financial Times reports that British bank HSBC is about to start improving efficiency, trading emission credits, and planting thousands of trees around the world in order to balance out its carbon emissions, trying to become the first "carbon-neutral" international bank.

    Stephen Green, chief executive, said: "In 2003, HSBC's CO2 emissions from using electricity, natural gas, fuel oil and business travel were more than 550,000 tonnes. We need to act now to reduce our emissions."

    [...]

    As a bank, HSBC is hardly the worst offender for contributing to global warming. But the 550,000 tonnes figure is set to rise to 700,000 tonnes this year as a result of acquisitions, which equates to 2 to 3 tonnes for every member of its staff.

    [...]

    The carbon management plan, to be implemented by 2006, will examine three ways of achieving carbon neutrality - tree-planting, increasing HSBC's energy efficiency and trading emissions on emerging carbon exchanges and elsewhere.

    The article notes that Swiss Re was the pioneer in financial institutions seeking to become carbon-neutral.

    (Thanks, Tim!)

    DestinyUSA

    Jeff Egnaczyk alerts us to DestiNY USA (yes, that's the way they're spelling it), a new "Mall of America"-style development underway in upstate New York. The notable -- and potentially worldchanging -- element is the emphasis the developers are putting on their planned use of renewable energy to operate the facility. They claim that DestiNY USA will be 100% renewable energy-powered, and have a lengthy flash animation about the biodiesel-fueled power/heat/cooling/laundry/greenhouse system they're going to put in.

    As Jeff notes, the details are slim and are currently more vague promises than actual delivery, but the potential is interesting. DestiNY USA is definitely worth keeping an eye on -- let's hope they live up to their promises. If successful, it could be a terrific way of demonstrating the power of green design.

    (Thanks, Jeff!)

    December 7, 2004

    Honda's Number One

    Which of the big six auto manufacturers -- Daimler-Chrysler, Ford, GM, Honda, Nissan, Toyota -- has the overall best environmental performance? If you read the title of this post, you know the answer. For the last six model years for which there are full government records, Honda has had the best combined fleet performance in terms of both smog-causing and heat-trapping emissions, according to a new report (1.6MB PDF) from the Union of Concerned Scientists. GM, conversely, has the worst results, going from 4th place in 1997 to last place in 2003. Honda's smog-forming emissions in 2003 were less than half of the overall average, and their fleet greenhouse emissions were 82% of average; GM, by comparison, came in at 129% smog/104% greenhouse. Interestingly, Toyota, widely praised for its Prius, dropped from 2nd place to 3rd as their larger trucks grew more popular, with 84% smog/88% greenhouse, with Nissan moving to the #2 spot (70%/94%). Ford had the overall worst greenhouse emissions, at 107% of average, but moved to #4 on the basis of its smog emissions, only 91% of average.

    December 8, 2004

    Diesel vs. Hybrid vs. Gasoline

    Green Car Congress has an interesting post today looking closely at the relative performance and environmental stats of the 2005 model year Honda Accords: the four and six-cylinder gasolines, the four cylinder diesel, and the six cylinder hybrid. The results are quite interesting:

    the Accord Diesel (using petroleum diesel) offers the lowest fuel consumption and the lowest CO2 emissions, even surpassing the Accord Hybrid.

    The Accord Diesel (which is not offered in the US) gets 43.3 miles per gallon and emits ~143 grams of CO2 per kilometer, compared to 33/165 for the Accord Hybrid. Use of biodiesel would further lower the carbon footprint of the diesel Accord. And while some of the efficiency comes from being a four-cylinder instead of a six-cylinder vehicle, it's worth noting that the diesel model greatly out-performs the four-cylinder gasoline model across the board.

    Be sure to read the comments; Mike also addresses questions about the relative non-CO2 emissions.

    December 10, 2004

    Real Climate

    RealClimate is here. It's a blog written by nine working climatologists from around the world (all experts in their field), focusing on explaining climate science, providing context to current reports in the mainstream media, and rebutting the fallacious arguments of carbon lobby hacks. They've started off with a bang -- in their first ten days of operation, they've covered climate models, critics of the "hockey stick" temperature reconstruction, the Arctic Climate Assessment, urban heat islands, solar influence, and more. For anyone interested in climate science, this site will be the first place to read every day. Highly recommended.

    Middle of the Road Isn't The Safest Place To Be

    The Christian Science Monitor has a short article today about the National Commission on Energy Policy's new set of proposals for US energy strategy. In trying to avoid controversy, it apparently manages to adopt really obsolete positions and still disappoint just about everyone. Elements include:

  • Investing in oil production in the developing world.
  • Doing "cap & trade" on greenhouse gases, but not until 2010.
  • Build the Alaska natural gas pipeline.
  • Invest in advanced coal technologies.
  • More nuclear plants.
  • Increase investment in renewables by $360 million per year.

    The more cynical among you will not be surprised to learn that even this has generated opposition from the usual suspects.

    A more 21st century, future-oriented -- yet hardly radical -- agenda can be found here.

  • December 12, 2004

    Nanobiosensors

    It's become increasingly clear that the 21st century will be built with carbon nanotubes. EurekAlert lists yet another application for the plucky little singled-walled molecules: fluorescing biosensors:

    "Carbon nanotubes naturally fluoresce in the near-infrared region of the spectrum where human tissue and biological fluids are particularly transparent," said Michael Strano, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at [University of] Illinois [Urbana-Champaign]. "We have developed molecular sheaths around the nanotube that respond to a particular chemical and modulate the nanotube's optical properties."

    The test setup was able to detect glucose levels, signaling changing concentration via changes in light when excited by a laser. Carbon nanotubes last longer in tissues than other fluorescing organic molecules, so they'll be more usable for extended monitoring. And the technique should work for a wide array of chemical types, allowing for extremely accurate health and environmental sensors.

    Ideas 2004

    This week's New York Times Magazine has an interesting collection of short pieces it calls "The Year in Ideas: A to Z." The ideas run the gamut from "Acoustic Keyboard Eavesdropping" to "You Don't Need Superstars To Win," and include several WorldChanging favorites, such as "Land Mine Detecting Plants" (WC post) and "Concrete You Can See Through" (WC post). Several of them are of particular WorldChanging interest: "Augmented Bar Codes," "Dumb Robots Are Better," and "The Micropolis," among others.

    December 13, 2004

    WiFi Ambient Device

    "Ambient technologies" are supposed to make streams of variable information noticeable without being intrusive, and are a clever method for "making the invisible visible." They're designed to remain at the periphery of one's perception, notable only when the monitored conditions (the weather outside, power consumption, a child's location, email status, etc.) changes. We noted the Ambient Orb awhile back, which while interesting, suffers from only responding to a small number of different inputs from a subscription-only proprietary wireless frequency. Now the Register (a UK technology website) notes that British Telecom is showing off their own ambient display, which reads whatever assigned data over plain old 802.11 WiFi. It looks like it's a technology demo, not a product preview, which is unfortunate; ambient displays and WiFi seem like a perfect combination.

    (Via Engadget)

    December 14, 2004

    Profile of California's Emission-Fighting Legislator

    Fran Pavley, California state Assemblywoman from Agoura Hills, was the sponsor of the legislation instructing the California Air Resources Board to draw up plans to require automakers to reduce fleet CO2 emissions by 30% by 2016. The New York Times has a short profile of her, going into some detail about the auto industry's choice to send lawyers, not engineers in response. Not a deep piece, but an interesting one.

    What Will It Take To Make Solar Competitive? Nanotech. And Seven Cents.

    Seven cents per kilowatt-hour, that is. That's about the standard price for electricity in the United States (some locales will vary; California averages about 10 cents per kilowatt-hour). Renewable power needs to be price competitive with 7 cent non-renewable sources. Tidal can be, and wind is close, but both have location requirements (and wind needs lots of space). Solar, however, is still generally priced out of competition, in the 30-45 cents per kilowatt-hour range. But nanotechnology may well change that. Investor's Business Daily profiles three companies working on applying nanomaterial and nanoengineering discoveries to the more efficient generation of solar electricity: Nanosolar (making solar cells 100x thinner than current ones), Nanosys (making specialized materials for embedding into construction material), and Konarka Technologies (making light-activated plastic).

    Favorite line of the article: In time, such work could become "world changing," said Josh Wolfe, a managing partner of nanotech-focused investment firm Lux Capital.

    December 15, 2004

    Real Climate vs. Fiction Author

    Backchannel discussion here at WorldChanging has lately centered on whether or how to respond to the publication of Michael Crichton's new novel, State of Fear, a lengthy polemic (in novel's clothing) pooh-poohing the idea that global warming-induced climate disruption is real. We decided to wait and see if any interesting responses pop up elsewhere, and point to those. We didn't have to wait long.

    RealClimate.org, the group blog written by respected working climate scientists, takes State of Fear head on in two posts, pointing out errors of omission, commission, and evident confusion, and demonstrating (for those still uncertain) that while Crichton can spell the big scientific words, he really doesn't know what he's talking about. It's a thorough and well-argued takedown. (And for those who say, "hey, it's only a novel, it doesn't have to be real," remember that Crichton added an appendix where he explains his putative non-fiction case.)

    Undoubtedly, in days and weeks to come, we'll see more detailed dissections of what will nonetheless be a popular novel, so stay tuned.

    December 16, 2004

    Want To Use Hydrogen Now?

    IDFuel has a nice write-up of some of the various currently-available hydrogen fuel cell systems. While you may not be able to go buy a hydrogen fuel cell car right now, you can buy home fuel cells to function as backup generators, and will soon be able to install a fuel cell system in your boat. Interesting stuff -- small changes, to be sure, but little bits of the future. The conclusion to the piece is worth reiterating: There is no need to feel like as one small designer you can't help in the transition to a sustainably fueled economy. There is no reason to believe that this future will arrive all at once, or in one giant chain of mammoth endeavors.

    December 17, 2004

    Rendering DC Irrelevant

    Further evidence that action taken by state-level governments and global corporations can make up for federal intransigence about acting against global warming-induced climate disruption comes from the UN conference on the climate, ending today in Buenos Aires. According to Reuters, greenhouse gas reduction efforts in California and New England states were cited by attendees as models for the rest of the world. "When designing our energy policy, Germany will always look to California because it's the best example," said Barbel Hohn, environment minister in Germany's largest state of North Rhine-Westphalia. In addition, multinational giants such as DuPont, Alcoa and IBM have set their own greenhouse gas reduction targets, sometimes to levels greatly exceeding the standards set by the Kyoto treaty. DuPont's emissions, for example, were 68% lower in 2003 than in 1990.

    Why Leapfrogging Matters

    Leapfrogging is not just a developmental issue, it's also an environmental issue. As long as developing nations rely on greenhouse-gas-heavy power and industrial technologies, the worse off they'll be as they develop. We're already seeing this happen. Of the top six greenhouse gas producing countries, three are considered "developing" nations: China, at #2; India, at #5; and Brazil, at #6. Furthermore:

    ...between 1990 and 2000, energy-related carbon dioxide emissions grew by 69 percent in India, 57 percent in Brazil and 33 percent in China.

    Argentina and the EU are crafting an agreement involving cash incentives and technology transfers to push the developing world towards sustainable energy and industrial technologies. Let's hope this assisted leapfrog plan works.

    December 20, 2004

    More Holiday Greenery

    Alex listed some green/sustainable/enviro-friendly holiday presents ideas yesterday; here's more. Wired News takes on the greenish gift theme, coming up with some interesting options along with the unsurprising hemp granola stuff. My pick for the WorldChanging favorite on the Wired list? The same ones mentioned by our own Dawn Danby a year ago: the Thames & Kosmos science kits covering alternative energy and fuel cells. Now to hook them up to my Mindstorms and DNA Explorer to create a sustainably-powered gene sequencing robot...

    FCX Street Legal

    Honda's FCX, its experimental fuel cell based car, is now legal to drive on the streets of Japan. This is the second-generation fuel cell model, as the earlier version had a hard time with cold weather. The work to get the fuel cells working in freezing conditions had the useful side effect of increasing their overall efficiency by 20%.

    Interestingly, second generation Honda FCX cars could already be found on the road -- but in the US. Last month, Green Car Congress reported that the state of New York took delivery of two cold weather FCX for testing, joining several cities in California and the Los Angeles region's South Coast Air Quality Management District. That brought the number of FCX on the road in the US to a dozen; let's see how many now show up in Japan.

    December 21, 2004

    Metal Rubber

    In the "this could be big, but not just yet" department is Metal Rubber.

    Metal Rubber, a filmy brown material that can extend to three times its original length and conduct electricity as well as a bar of steel...

    Few major companies have yet stepped up to announce any official plans for the novel new polymer, but SRI International may experiment with Metal Rubber to construct artificial muscles and astronomical mirrors, and reports say that Lockheed Martin is using it to create aircraft wings with more give.

    Yet, there are huge potential ramifications for everything from jet liners to medical devices. Think flexible circuits and displays that take your laptop and cell phone to the next level of shock resistance. Or artificial limbs that can bend like their real counterparts.

    Of course, what immediately came to mind for me was the application of a flexible conductive material to wearable fabric computers. The furoshiki future gets closer every day.

    December 23, 2004

    IDFuel On Sustainable Design

    It must be the "write articles in pairs" season. Dominic Muren, at the always-interesting design size IDFuel, has a terrific pair of articles on how "rebellious" (e.g., anti-capitalist) trends can lead to greater consumption, which in turn pushes towards less-sustainable design -- and what designers can do about it. Rebels Without The Cause We Think (Part One and Part Two) may make you feel a bit guilty, but should also give you a bit of hope about the future course of product design.

    December 27, 2004

    Tsunami Animation and Information

    tsu.jpgThe US Geological Survey has a link to an animation of the course of yesterday's Indian Ocean tsunami created by Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (650K download). Each frame is a ten-minute interval; the whole thing covers the first 180 minutes of the tsunami. It's a vivid demonstration of how long it takes for a tsunami to travel -- and why early warning systems can be so valuable.

    The International Coordination Group for the Tsunami Warning System in the Pacific has crafted FAQ and Tsunami Safety Rules pages in reaction to the Indian Ocean event. Since tsunamis can happen at any time -- an earthquake is all that's needed -- anyone living close to the water should keep these guidelines in mind.

    December 29, 2004

    Satellite Before-and-After

    srilanka.jpgDigitalGlobe has made available high-resolution satellite images of Sri Lanka beaches taken both before and during the tsunami flooding. While the individual stories and videos of the disaster bring home the personal tragedies, sometimes the big picture is necessary to grasp the scale of the devastation. The images are natural color photos at 2-foot resolution (that is, each pixel shows about 2 feet); the details are simultaneously impressive and heartbreaking. DigitalGlobe has also decided to make the images available for free use, as long as conspicuous credit is given.

    December 30, 2004

    Earthquake Info

    Aftershocks in the South Asia region continue, and while seismologists don't anticipate another 9.0-scale earthquake there in the immediate future, some of the quakes which have happened over the last couple of days have been pretty strong.

    If you're interested in keeping track of what's happening under the ground, the best resource is the US Geological Survey earthquake website. They have maps of all quakes around the world as well as frequently-updated lists of earthquake activity. There's a lot going on right now. Today's earthquakes measuring greater than 5.0 (so far):

    5.9 2004/12/30 17:58:09 ANDAMAN ISLANDS, INDIA REGION

    5.5 2004/12/30 17:34:44 NICOBAR ISLANDS, INDIA REGION

    5.1 2004/12/30 13:29:45 NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN

    5.5 2004/12/30 04:27:37 NORTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA

    5.6 2004/12/30 01:04:51 OFF THE WEST COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA

    December 31, 2004

    Radio, Radio

    Turnabout is fair play, I suppose, so tomorrow Dr. James Hughes will interview me -- on his radio show, Changesurfer Radio. We'll be talking about WorldChanging, emerging technologies, and how to embrace the new ethically. The show starts at 5:30 pm EST; for those of you not in Connecticut but still interested in listening in fascinated horror, it will apparently be available in streaming radio on WHUS. Audio archives will also be available afterwards; I'll link to them if I don't embarrass myself.

    January 2, 2005

    Tsunami: What Happened

    When something as wide-ranging and devastating as the South Asia tsunami happens, it's easy to get lost in the abundance of stories, rumors and details. WikiPedia has done a masterful job of bringing together and keeping current the facts of the event, and SEA-EAT, of course, continues to collect massive amounts of information on the recovery and relief process. But one of the best overviews I've found so far is at the New York Times website -- it's not as granular as Wikipedia nor as encyclopedic as SEA-EAT, but it's richly illustrated with dozens of powerful photographs, helpful maps, and occasional informative animations (requires Flash). If you're looking for a clear capsule depiction of what happened, the NYT page is a good place to start.

    January 3, 2005

    Transparent Electronics

    Researchers at Oregon State University have developed a new kind of material which should enable the creation of transparent electronic devices. Unlike many other recent breakthroughs, these do not use carbon nanotubes or the like; they are, in fact, entirely inorganic, and are most closely related to zinc oxide transistors. This means that the technology for production is already fairly advanced, lowering the ultimate cost of making devices using this new technology. In addition, much to the surprise of researchers, high quality transistors can be made at just above room temperature -- today's components are often made at 700-1,100 degrees centigrade.

    Transparent electronics could have a wide array of applications, from vehicle windshields able to display warnings and directional information to improvements in copy machines and solar cells. And the applications to participatory panopticon-related technologies are pretty obvious...

    January 4, 2005

    Hangman

    We don't often talk about advertising here, but this banner ad -- I won't tell you who it's for, as it will spoil the ending, but WorldChanging readers will appreciate the cause -- is simple, powerful, and an excellent use of interactive media. It's a "hangman" game in Flash: click on the letters to try to spell the phrase, and when you guess wrong, gallows are gradually built and a man is hanged (a rather morbid game, admittedly). Check it out.

    January 5, 2005

    Top 100 Science Stories

    Discover magazine has listed its top 100 stories for 2004. The list of titles (with links to lead paragraphs) is available online; only subscribers get the nitty-gritty. WorldChanging readers, however, already have the low-down on quite a few of them, from spinach as a fuel cell power source (WC post) to the discovery of Sedna, an almost-planet in an orbit beyond Pluto (WC post) to Discover's number one story, the overwhelming evidence for global warming-induced climate change, and the shift in focus from "is it happening?" to "what can we do?" (WC posts here and here and here and here and here and...).

    One Earth Year on Mars

    One year ago on January 3, the Mars Exploration Rover 1 -- more popularly known as "Spirit" -- landed successfully on Mars. MER 2 -- or "Opportunity" -- has its landing anniversary on January 24. MER 1 & 2 are easily the most successful Mars missions ever, and quite possibly the most successful (in terms of new discoveries made, new technologies tried, and ongoing results) space missions ever. The rovers were only supposed to last three months, and while most of the engineers expected to go well beyond that, few anticipated that both would be this healthy a year out. They've lasted through the worst of the Martian northern hemisphere winter, and spring should give them more sunlight (=more power) to work with. Of course, the year's just half-over on Mars; the Martian year lasts 687 days (Earth days, that is --Mars spins 669 times in the same period). NASA's MER mission site has the scientists' top 10 images from the two rovers, 25 favorite raw images, videos, maps, daily updates and much more information.

    The City: The Next Big Venture?

    An interesting tidbit popped up this week in the San Jose Mercury News "Silicon Beat" page, which focuses on the doings of the Silicon Valley celebrities, venture capitalists. John Doerr, of Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, is particularly well-regarded, and in a Q&A session with reporters, he revealed his big venture play for the future -- infrastructure for cities:

    Lately, the firm has started prowling for energy deals, a departure from its traditional focus on information services and healthcare. “That’s a left turn, a new initiative for Kleiner,” he told the audience, made up mostly of other venture capitalists and investors. Most of Kleiner's investments in energy so far are still in stealth. Urbanization will be one of the biggest global trends between now and 2030, Doerr explained, citing several studies including one by the National Academy of Sciences. Asia, in particular, will be creating scores of huge cities, he said. They’ll need clean water, power and transportation.

    The site seems to be down at the moment, but the above is the key quote. If anyone was wondering if a renewed focus on urban issues was just a fantasy of environmentalists and design geeks, attention from VCs should disabuse you of that notion.

    January 7, 2005

    Before and After, Lined Up

    We mentioned Digital Globe's before and after satellite images of the December 26 tsunami. While the images themselves are stark and powerful, the presentation on the Digital Globe site wasn't terribly illuminating. Now a .Mac user has set up a Before and After toggle for 14 of the shots with the geography lined up exactly -- a single click can show exactly what happened.

    The pair of pictures of Kalutara Beach, Banda Aceh, Indonesia, in particular, is borderline surreal in its horror.

    Bioremediator Genome

    Wired News and Reuters have details on research done at Cornell analyzing the genome of Dehalococcoides ethenogenes Strain 195, a bacteria able to digest chlorinated solvents. It's currently being used at 17 different locations for toxic waste cleanup. Other strains of the bacteria can process the PCBs and the chemicals underlying DDT. Most interesting is the fact that these bacteria apparently evolved in response to toxic wastes dumped by humans:

    In 1997, Cornell University researchers described D. ethenogenes and its ability to clean up chlorinated solvents. Around that same time, DuPont researchers discovered that D. ethenogenes was present at many of their toxic sites. It turns out the bacteria likes to hang out where it can find food, that is, PCE and TCE.

    That seems natural until you consider that D. ethenogenes specifically eats PCE and TCE, and the harmful compounds were introduced to the environment only about 60 years ago. The genome sequence suggests that the bacterium has evolved in response to humans dumping the chemicals, Seshadri said.

    Sequencing D. ethenogenes DNA should help us (a) better understand how bioremediating bacteria work, (b) figure out ways for them to work more efficiently, and (c) evaluate the possibility of introducing bioremediation capabilities to other organisms.

    January 10, 2005

    The Price of Truculance

    Reinforcing the theme of yesterday's essay by Gil Friend, the World Business Council on Sustainable Development has reprinted an editorial from the Duluth News-Tribune arguing that lagging adoption of high-efficiency, conservation-focused and renewable energy technologies and policies will have an adverse effect on American businesses. It's conventional wisdom among the carbon hacks that an aggressive shift away from fossil fuels would lead to a massive, long-lasting economic downturn (ironic that opposition to doing anything about climate disruption is so closely tied to the one academic discipline that does worse at predicting the future than weather forecasters). Arguably, it's more likely that not moving to renewable energy technologies and efficiency-focused policies will have the negative economic result, as Kyoto adherence is clearly where global markets are heading. The News-Tribune editorial spells out that position nicely.

    January 12, 2005

    First Image of an Extra-Solar Planet

    browndwarfplanet.jpgAlthough astronomers have discovered over 130 planets orbiting stars outside our solar system, we've never actually seen any of them. We know about them because of the changes they cause in a star's brightness, or wobbles in a star's orbit, or a number of other inferential methods. But the Hubble space telescope may have captured the first image of a planet outside of our own system -- a gas giant, roughly five times the size of Jupiter, in a distant orbit around a so-called "brown dwarf" star about 225 light years from Earth. The astronomer leading the research, Glenn Schneider of the University of Arizona, says he is "99.1 percent sure" it's a planet; further observations will make it "99.9 percent sure."

    A number of features made it possible for this planet to be seen -- its size, distance from its parent star, and the fact that brown dwarf stars are too small to shine like a normal star and wash out the dimmer reflection and heat of a planet.

    Surowiecki. Gladwell. Two Men Enter. One Man Leaves.

    Well, perhaps not quite that dramatic. But a public conversation/debate between James "Wisdom of Crowds" Surowiecki and Malcolm "The Tipping Point"/"Blink" Gladwell is still pretty interesting, at least for those of us interested in social networks, framing and memes, group behavior, and cultural change. Surowiecki and Gladwell are two of the best-known social observers around right now, and they both make trenchant observations apt to trigger cascading aha! moments for readers. Slate is hosting a week-long conversation between the two writers, now on day three. The conversation remains polite, but we're still hoping for a strike to the jugular at any moment.

    January 14, 2005

    Hello, Titan!

    landing01.jpgIf you've been at any of the vaguely science and technology related websites -- or even major news sites -- today you've undoubtedly already heard, but since we've been posting about this all along, we should note this if only for completeness' sake: Huygens made it to the surface of Titan.

    This is the first time we've tried landing on an outer solar system body, and the system -- a combined NASA/ESA effort -- seems to have worked flawlessly. We'll get more information and images once the folks back in ESOC Spacecraft Operations get done processing the data. I can hardly wait!

    January 16, 2005

    Tracking Wildlife From Above

    Satellites aren't just good for measuring urban growth or atmospheric chemistry or the impact of natural disasters -- they can count elephants, too.

    The Wildlife Conservation Society, headquartered at the Bronx Zoo, has been working with NASA to use satellite imaging to count wildlife. Their initial experiments -- spotting and counting their own animals at the Bronx Zoo from a pass by a QuickBird satellite -- proved quite successful, and they are now preparing to use satellite images to "count wildlife in exotic locations, including elephants and giraffes in Tanzania, flamingos in South America, and elk, bison and antelope in Wyoming." Counting from orbit has some advantages over traditional methods. Satellites can image otherwise hard-to-reach locales, can snapshot large expanses in one pass, and are much less stressful to animals than traditional counting methods of capturing and tagging or even flying overhead in low-flying aircraft.

    January 17, 2005

    Lula vs. Gates

    Definition of power: Bill Gates trying -- and failing -- to get on your schedule to talk.

    Reuters reports that Bill Gates, Microsoft founder and chairman, has been "lobbying" to meet and talk with Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (best known simply as "Lula"), at next week's World Economic Forum -- so far, to no avail.

    Brazil has been at the forefront of the movement to get the developing world to adopt Linux rather than Windows as they build out their information infrastructures. From the developing world perspective, this makes a great deal of sense: Linux is free as in gratis (so it can be distributed to millions of users at little incremental cost) and free as in libre (so users can get inside the code to modify it for both better functionality and education), whereas Windows, even at a discount price, can be very costly, and ties users to the whims of Redmond. Brazil plans to partially-subsidize the purchase of 1 million computers with Linux for its citizens.

    January 18, 2005

    If you can read this...

    ...you're hitting our new server!

    January 20, 2005

    Global Dimming, RealClimate-Style

    Of course the folks at RealClimate would take on the BBC "Global Dimming" story, and give it the kind of examination we've come to expect from the professionals. They now have two articles up, both well-worth reading. The first, aptly titled "Global Dimming?," takes on the concept in general, has a number of pointed comments about hack sensationalist journalism, and discusses what it means when scientists are uncertain. The second, Global Dimming II, looks at the history of the idea of global dimming and what might be causing it. A good pair of posts, nicely explaining the ideas.

    January 21, 2005

    Meet a Nanotechnologist (but don't call her that)

    Technology Review is running a brief interview with Dr. Angela Belcher, MIT material scientist, MacArthur Grant winner and cofounder of Cambrios Technologies. She uses reengineered viruses as tools to create compounds at the molecular scale. The conversation is short, informative and somewhat amusing.

    Your company describes its business as “directed-evolution technology.” So the goal is something with potentially very broad application? It’s a platform technology, yes. The aim is to work our way through the whole periodic table and be able to design materials of all kinds in a controlled way. My biggest goal is to have a DNA sequence that can code for the synthesis of any useful material.

    February 2, 2005

    Win a Prius, the Update

    Last November we posted about Center for a New American Dream's hybrid slogan contest, with the winning slogan earning its creator a new 2005 Prius. Unsurprisingly, the contest was popular: New American Dream received nearly 35,000 slogans. The top 100 finalists are in, and now's your chance to vote on which one you think would best convince car manufacturers to build more fuel-efficient vehicles. The top vote-getters won't automatically win the car -- wisely, New American Dream has chosen to use popularity as just one of the factors to be considered -- but the top three will win "Community Choice Awards," a one year membership to Better World Travel, including bicycle and auto roadside assistance.

    The voting closes on February 15th, and requires that you sign up for the site.

    February 3, 2005

    Not Just Mangroves

    It's clear that the elimination of mangrove forests along Southeast Asian coastlines made the impact of the December 26 tsunami even worse. But we're now seeing signs that it's not just mangrove forests which can reduce the effect of flood surges -- casuarina and eucalyptus trees work well, too:

    On Dec. 26, as the killer tsunami struck down thousands of people and homes in Tamil Nadu state, the casuarina and eucalyptus trees which had been planted to appease the weather gods saved the lush green village of Naluvedapathy.

    [...]

    The casuarina trees, which numbered more than 60,000, took the brunt of the tsunami waves as they swept Naluvedapathy.

    The giant waves inundated dozens of thatched-roof houses in the village as they swept inland [...] But the casuarina trees had considerably weakened the waves and reduced the impact, villagers said.

    Tamil Nadu government officials are now assembling a trust fund to plant casuarina and eucalyptus trees along the state's entire 1,000 kilometer coastline.

    Wind Replaces Nuclear

    More of a symbolic replacement, to be sure, but symbols count: the Long Island Power Authority has installed two 50 kilowatt wind turbines on the Shoreham, New York, site of a defunct nuclear power plant. The two turbines should provide 200,000 kWh annually, not a huge amount -- enough for a couple thousand homes, perhaps. Longer term LIPA goals include an offshore wind generation facility producing 140 megawatts, coming online in summer of 2008.

    February 4, 2005

    WSJ on Trends in Building

    The Wall Street Journal has a short but interesting list of ten trends in architecture (broadly conceived), with a particular focus on buildings going green. Some interesting tidbits from the list: buildings use 39% of energy in the US, more than cars; there are 453 office buildings, amounting to nearly 65 million square feet, now under construction under LEED guidelines; since 2000, 167 buildings have been LEED certified, with more than 1,800 now being built.

    (Via Gil Friend)

    Ford to Use EPA Diesel Engine

    The New York Times reports that Ford has agreed to use a diesel engine designed by the EPA in new-generation cars and trucks. Diesel is generally a more efficient fuel (around 30% better than gasoline), but it has had problems in the past with particulate and nitrogen oxide pollution. Cleaner diesel engines now power about half of the cars sold in Europe, but are only a small fraction of vehicles in the US. The new engine, designed by the US Environmental Protection Agency, runs clean enough not to require special filters, meaning that it should have a low production cost. I suspect Mike will have more details about this in his Sustainability Sundays post.

    Naked Eye Asteroid Flyby

    Remember our old friend 2004 MN4? You know the one -- it had astronomers reaching for the antacids because, unlike every previous "Earth-crossing" asteroid spotted, the chances of it hitting the Earth increased the more they studied its path. Fortunately, they finally determined that it would miss us in its very close pass in 2029. But it turns out that it will be close enough to be visible from the ground as it shoots by -- so close, in fact, that it will pass within the orbits of some satellites. This will be the closest known approach by an asteroid in history, roughly 22,600 miles from Earth. It should be as bright enough to be seen by the naked eye in Europe, Africa and parts of Asia -- but only in locations with dark skies.

    Mark your calendars now.

    February 5, 2005

    WorldChanging at Doors

    Doors of Perception 8, in Delhi, India, is looking like a real WorldChanging event. Just take a look at the announced speakers: nearly every one could be the subject of a WorldChanging story (and some already have). The panels include Joi Ito, Natalie Jeremijenko, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales... as well as our own Cameron Sinclair and Alex Steffen. Doors of Perception -- "a conference and website at the forefront of new thinking on design and innovation" -- takes place March 21-26, so if you're not local, buy your plane tickets now.

    February 8, 2005

    Bruce on Bag

    The ever-interesting Treehugger managed to get a solar-power backpack into the hands of WorldChanging Ally #1 Bruce Sterling, now on an extended stay in Pasadena, California. Bruce's review of the bag -- or, perhaps more accurately, Bruce's articulation of the observations made by his daughter, who actually used the thing -- are, as always, amusing and insightful. Money quote:

    Given that I have a solar-powered dynamo now, how about a backup server. too? If I had two or three petabytes of flash memory in a bag, I could backpack data storage for anybody who plugged in -- I'd be the Johnny Appleseed of voltage and memory. I'd carry a community on my back rather than trudging a dusty way to splendid isolation.

    Don't forget the WiFi, Bruce. Don't forget the WiFi.

    Biology News

    Dear WorldChanging,

    Where can I find regularly updated headlines on the biosciences appropriate for non-specialists, but with none of the distractions of those other sciences in the mix? Oh, and RSS-friendly, please.

    Signed,
    DNAching for Information

    Dear DNAching,

    Try Biology News. It covers biotech, stem cell research, bioscience news, even has a discussion forum. It runs a little heavy on the Google Ad placement, but what are you gonna do?

    Signed,
    WorldChanging

    (via SciScoop)

    February 10, 2005

    Tsunami Solar Light

    One of the terrific elements of the Project Re:Build effort (supported by the Architecture for Humanity/WorldChanging Tsunami Reconstruction Appeal) is the focus on sustainable reconstruction: This appeal, coupled with pro-bono design services and material donations, will allow for the building of more than just basic shelter, allowing the construction of schools, infrastructure and medical clinics. With a more holistic and sustainable approach of reconstruction, a truly worldchanging idea, the funds will help to build beyond simple dwellings to live but create real communities for life to grow, rebuild and renew.

    A similar (if narrower) project has now come to my attention: the Tsunami Solar Light Fund. Renewable Energy Access is spearheading an effort to "provide 1,500 solar power home systems and 25 solar-powered community street lights in the Tamil Nadu region on India's southeastern coast." Working in coordination with the Solar Electric Light Fund, an NGO promoting efforts to bring photovoltaic power to rural villages around the world, the Tsunami Solar Light Fund will help make the tsunami reconstruction efforts an opportunity for energy leapfrogging.

    Ecoist!

    ecoist.jpgEcoist makes "one of a kind" handbags of varying sizes out of candy wrappers, food packages and soft drink labels. Keep them out of landfills, the argument goes, by wearing them on your arm. In addition, Ecoist will plant a tree (via Global Releaf ) for every bag purchased.

    To be honest, I find them a bit on the ugly side, but Josh Rubin: Cool Hunting likes them, so what do I know?

    Is This So?

    John Perry Barlow, EFF co-founder and cybercurmudgeon from the 1990s, made the following claim at the World Social Forum last month:

    "Already, Brazil spends more in licensing fees on proprietary software than it spends on hunger," said Barlow

    Anybody up for fact-checking this statement? If true, it's a simple-but-powerful meme...

    (Via Gil Friend)

    No One Should Suffer For Chilled Wine

    Reports from Verdopolis are starting to come in. First on the dock we have this post by Will Duggan, of the US Partnership for the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. He writes of the session entitled "Adaptation and Innovation: Business Opportunities in a Time of Environmental Challenge," which included participation from officers of Swiss Re, BSH Home Appliance, and Deutsche Bank AG. The title of this post comes from a comment made by Franz Bosshard, President and CEO of BSH, about the need to make sustainability an expected part of how things work -- the end-user shouldn't have to worry about whether or how the product meets sustainability guidelines.

    Great report, Will -- thanks for the heads-up!

    Emily Gertz at Verdopolis

    Our own Emily Gertz is attending Verdopolis, as well, and will be filing reports on what she finds for Grist (as well as doing a write-up for WorldChanging). Her first day's observations are now online, and are well worth checking out. This paragraph caught my eye:

    This good mood is what seems to be different about Verdopolis. It's a gathering where we dispense with arguing the moral imperative of fewer cars and more trees, and instead get on with figuring out how to design the bright green future for our growing cities. It's beyond anger, done with denial, and waist-deep into acceptance. And at this panel, we were accepting that human-caused climate instability has arrived, and making it better is both the right thing to do and a huge business opportunity.

    Sounds like our kind of event.

    February 11, 2005

    HOV Hybrids, Nationwide?

    We didn't note California's passing of a law awhile back allowing hybrid vehicles to drive in carpool (High Occupancy Vehicle, or HOV) lanes with just a single occupant. While a nice gesture, it was ultimately a pointless one -- because Federal money underwrites HOV lanes, they control the rules, and the US Department of Transportation has so far been unwilling to bend the law to allow solo hybrid drivers in (with the exception of Virginia, in 2000). That may change, if a bill introduced by car alarm magnate/current Republican legislator Darrel Issa passes. The bill would allow states to set their own rules for HOV lanes, which means that as more states pick up the idea (Arizona, Connecticut and Georgia are considering rules similar to California's), a hybrid driver could eventually be able to drive in carpool lanes from sea to shining sea.

    Or maybe not -- as always, the devil is in the details. California's rule, for example, requires a sticker, and only 75,000 will be authorized. This is to avoid overcrowding of carpool lanes, which apparently has been a problem in Virginia. And the California law also only applies to vehicles getting greater than 45 miles per gallon -- Insights, Hybrid Civics, and Priuses, , Hybrid Accords, Hybrid Escapes, and other upscale hybrids, no -- something that US automakers have complained about. Missouri legislators have written a bill which would open up the HOV lanes to any hybrid which gets 10% better mileage than a standard version vehicle. This may make Ford happy, but would definitely result in crowded carpool lanes, and seems like an awfully low bar to meet.

    February 12, 2005

    The Solar System, to Scale

    Web designer Troy Brophy, fascinated by how things scale, has created a nifty page demonstrating just how much space there is in space. The Solar System is a six million pixel-wide page (where each pixel=1000 km), with the Sun at the left and each planet in its appropriate orbit and at an approximately correct size (at least within 1000 km of correct). There are links at the top to allow a jump to each planet, a good thing since simply scrolling left to right makes finding planets rather difficult. If you'd like to see how the planets match up against each other without a lot of scrolling and jumping, there's a link to put them all on a single screen.

    The page requires IE6 or Mozilla/Firefox; the super-wide tables apparently don't render properly in Safari or Opera.

    February 13, 2005

    Mars Gashopper

    The Mars Exploration Rovers ("Spirit" and "Opportunity") have performed well beyond their expected lifespans, and have by all measures been an enormous success. But they roll slowly around the surface of Mars, and have gone just a few kilometers each, largely avoiding any kind of rough terrain. In order to get a better look at the variety of the Martian landscape, we'll need something which can move faster over any kind of ground. Something which can fly, but which can also land and take samples, repeatedly.

    Enter the Gashopper:

    The gashopper would get its electricity from a large set of solar panels built on top of its wings. It would use this electricity to retrieve carbon dioxide from the Martian atmosphere, and then store it as a liquid inside the aircraft. When enough gas was stored up to make a flight, it would heat up a hot bed of pellets and then pass the CO2 through it. Now hot, the gas would act as a propellant, and allow the gashopper to lift off vertically from the surface of Mars. Once airborne, it could then fire more gas out a rear thruster and begin flying as an airplane, using its large wings for lift and maneuverability. When it was ready to land, the aircraft could slow its airspeed, and then touch down gently as a vertical lander.

    While still very much in the early-testing/proposal stage, the gashopper has a distinct advantage over many other proposed explorer vehicles: it is designed to use resources already present in the Martian environment (sunlight for power and CO2 for propulsion), so it can keep going as long as the hardware itself is functional. In addition, it won't pollute the Martian atmosphere with chemicals which might confuse any tests for organic material. A sustainable, environmentally-sensitive, wide-ranging exploration system for Mars? I'm all for it.

    Eco-Evangelicals

    New Sustainability Sunday contributor Joel Makower wrote a pretty interesting essay last Sunday, too, on his weblog: Are Evangelicals the New Environmentalists? Joel looks at the shifts in the attitudes of the American Evangelical Christian movement regarding the environment. This doesn't mean a wholesale adoption of progressive values, but a careful embrace of the notion of stewardship of the planet:

    "The environment is a values issue," the Rev. Ted Haggard, president of the 30 million-member National Association of Evangelicals, told the Post’s Harden. "There are significant and compelling theological reasons why it should be a banner issue for the Christian right."

    It will be interesting to see if the broader realization that the environment is in serious long-term trouble can function as a bridge across the poisonous American political faultline.

    Verdopolis, Day Two

    Emily's article at Grist on the second day of Verdopolis is now up, and is (of course!) an excellent read. (We linked to her article on day one here.) This time she covers the panel on "The Green City," where the speakers grapple with the difficulty of making built spaces both sustainable and livable. This applies to more than the shape (and insulation levels) of buildings. Transportation must be "livable," too.

    "Good transportation design fosters a good attitude in people," Vergara says, and then -- as I'm finding is typical at Verdopolis -- presents an idea that once I've heard it, is so smart it's startling. To sell multibillion-dollar mass-transportation projects, start with the last thing: Design the vehicle. [...]

    Cesar Vergara is not giving any ground on the inevitability of the personal car in his vision of the green city."The car of the future is a railroad car," Vergara says, "and there's a bike waiting for you at the other end of the ride."

    February 14, 2005

    Treehugger on Getting Green Power

    So you want to use renewable sources for your home power, but can't install solar panels & a wind turbine? About half of US retail power customers have the option of purchasing "green" power from their electrical utility companies (or, to be more precise, have the option of asking the utilities to buy a fraction more power from a renewable source to put into the grid at large -- electrons are electrons, and everyone on the grid draws from the same pool). If you aren't in that lucky half, there are other ways to boost the use of renewable power, from pricing premiums to "tradable renewable certificates." Treehugger has the breakdown and the links.

    Geo-Greens, Take Two

    Tom Friedman's "Geo-Greens" model may not be fully-baked yet, but is clearly the subject of his next book. His Sunday column in the New York Times continues to expound on the concept, and this time he manages to get in a couple of decent proposals. The money quote:

    As a geo-green, I believe that combining environmentalism and geopolitics is the most moral and realistic strategy the U.S. could pursue today. Imagine if President Bush used his bully pulpit and political capital to focus the nation on sharply lowering energy consumption and embracing a gasoline tax. [...] Sadly, the Bush team won't even consider this. It prefers cruise missiles to cruise controls. We need a grass-roots movement. Where are college kids these days? I would like to see every campus in America demand that its board of trustees disinvest from every U.S. auto company until they improve their mileage standards. Every college town needs to declare itself a "Hummer-free zone." You want to drive a gas-guzzling Humvee? Go to Iraq, not our campus. And an idea from my wife, Ann: free parking anywhere in America for anyone driving a hybrid car.

    (Emphasis mine.) While as a hybrid driver I can certainly get behind that last suggestion, I think the divestment strategy in particular has a great deal of merit. The 1980s college campaigns to cease investments in companies which did business with the Apartheid government in South Africa drew a great deal of attention to the issue, and helped to bring about the end of the regime. We would need a catchy ska tune, though...

    Nano-Solar-H2

    Three great ideas that go great together -- nanotechnology, solar power and hydrogen. We've mentioned before the growing use of nanoengineering to develop materials better able to split hydrogen from water using solar energy. Technology Research News brings word of another step in making this a reality.

    Researchers from Pennsylvania State University have constructed a material made from titanium dioxide nanotubes that is 97 percent efficient at harvesting the ultraviolet portion of the sun's light and 6.8 percent efficient at extracting hydrogen from water.The material is easy to make, inexpensive, and photochemically stable, according to the researchers.

    The downside is that only about five percent of the sun's energy hitting the earth is ultraviolet light; work continues to figure out how to shift the nanotube response to visible light. The original article appeared in Nano Letters; the full text (with illustrations) is available online.

    Verdopolis, Day Three

    Emily's third dispatch from Verdopolis is now up at Grist -- go read it. (Here are links to posts about Day One and Day Two, if you're keeping score at home.) This time, in "The Three Marketeers," she looks at the "Show Me the Money" session. The upshot? The suits are joining the fight.

    'Bout time.

    February 15, 2005

    Ten Gallons of Kyoto

    Tomorrow's Kyoto Activation Day, so in commemoration, Bruce Sterling's latest Viridian Note (#00432) is an infodump of the "ins and outs of Kyotology" -- the Gallon Environment Letter, produced by the Canadian Institute for Business and the Environment. Want to know the Kyoto Treaty's history? Its mechanisms for enforcement? A breakdown of greenhouse gas emitters (per capita, the US is number two -- and number one might surprise you)? Kyoto plans in Canada? The EU? What happens next? It's all here, and more, complete with links to even longer documents giving you even more details. Read it all. It's good for you.

    Biomimicry, Scorpion-Style

    Given the difficulties involved with figuring out how to make machines walk, it's no surprise that some roboticists are turning to arthropods as models. After all, insects and spiders and such are able to move pretty readily on some fairly simple hardware (including exceedingly simple brains). A machine would be doing very well to be able to match arthropod articulation. Are they there yet? You be the judge.

    Frank Kirchner, a roboticist from the University of Bremen, is collaborating with Silvano Colombano at NASA's Ames Research Center in the development of an eight-legged robot with walking behaviors based on that of the scorpion. The Scorpion (as that is its name, of course) is able to sense changes in terrain and respond accordingly. Nature News has a brief write-up of the technology, along with a video of the Scorpion in action which demonstrates how far biomimetic robot mobility has come, and how far it still needs to go.

    Future generations of the Scorpion may be crawling along rocky crevasses on Mars (perhaps carried as the payload of a Gashopper) and through buildings knocked down by earthquakes or other disasters here on Earth.

    February 16, 2005

    Bill McKibben on Windmills

    Grist points us to Bill McKibben's editorial in today's New York Times. McKibben notes that proposed windmill farms often generate local opposition based on the argument that the size of the wind turbines ruins scenic views and lowers property values; such arguments often come from people calling themselves environmentalists. McKibben fairly gently suggests that such folks look at the bigger picture, and learn to love (or at least live with) the clean energy towers. I'll be more blunt: global warming is going to do a lot worse to the environment than just make the coast less scenic, and NIMBY opposition to having their seaside resorts' views "ruined" by only-visible-on-the-clearest-days windmills on the horizon needs to end. Now.

    Or, as Dave Roberts at Grist put it: Oil and gas exploration is ravaging the American West. The nuclear industry is resurgent. And oh yeah, the globe is frying.

    If environmentalists take global warming seriously, and expect others to take it seriously, maybe they shouldn't become bitchy provincialists the minute you want to build a wind turbine that impedes the scenic view off the back porches of their vacation homes.

    Damn straight.

    Green Flight

    Global travel is good; reducing air pollution (including GHG emissions) is good. Unfortunately, as we've noted in the past, air travel is a significant contributor to atmospheric pollution. The more you fly, the bigger your ecological footprint. Increased use of biofuels might help in the short-term, but solving this problem is going to require some serious effort.

    That's what the "Efficient and Environmentally Friendly Aero-Engine" (EEFA) program is about. Coordinated by the European Union, EEFA includes 53 partner groups, including the entire European airplane industry, various national defense and technology agencies and numerous universities. Begun in 2000, the program seeks to (PDF):

  • Reduce fuel consumption by 12% to 20%
  • Reduce NOx emissions by 60% 80%
  • Reduce cost of ownership by 20% to 30%
  • Improve reliability by 60%
  • Reduce time to market by 50%
  • Reduce life cycle cost by 30%
  • Ambitious, to be sure, but obviously of great value. EEFA plans to start testing new engine designs this year.

    End Poverty Now

    James Traub wrote an excellent and brief essay in this last Sunday's New York Times entitled "Freedom, From Want." In it, he asks why it is that the United States, source of the Marshall Plan, is so reluctant (even now, post-9/11) to spend money on economic development assistance. The US ranks last among donor nations in development aid, at 0.15 percent of gross national income (compared to Scandinavian countries, for example, which are close to 0.7 percent of GNI now). It's not a happy article, but it does lay out the issues at hand clearly and succinctly.

    A similar piece appears to be found in yesterday's Financial Times, by Martin Wolf. "The Elimination of Poverty" starts out with two hard to dispute propositions: first, the elimination of destitution, disease and deprivation is taking too long; second, additional assistance to the world's poorest countries is easily affordable. I'm told that the column makes a strong statement in support of rich country aid for development, but unfortunately getting to the article requires a FT subscription. Any subscribers willing to summarize Wolf's arguments in the comments?

    February 17, 2005

    Dev World Nano Net

    Announcements about nanotechnology programs and plans in the developing world are coming pretty fast now. The latest is a proposal from the executive director of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World, Mohamed Hassan, that nanotech research groups in developing countries form a collaborative network. Hassan goes on to suggest that Africa be the first focus region for such a network.

    South Africa leads the field on the continent. According to its national strategy, from 2005 onwards it will dedicate US$5 million to US$10 million each year to nanotechnology research and development.

    In comparison, said Hassan, 2003 figures estimate that China spends US$175 million each year, with a 200 per cent growth rate. And the Brazilian government's 2004 budget for nanotechnology was US$7 million.

    Part of the problem is the political instability of many African states, suggested Mike Treder of the US-based Center for Responsible Nanotechnology.

    Hassan agreed, adding that although several African governments pour money into science and technology, the brain drain draws their trained researchers out of the region. As a result, they effectively support research and development elsewhere.

    South-South collaborative nanotechnology networks. That pretty much sums up what the leapfrog future will look like.

    The Saudi Biodiesel Juggernaut

    Okay, maybe not quite yet. But the Guardian reports that a British firm, D1 Oils, has launched a joint venture with a Saudi oil firm, Jazeera for Modern Technology, to make biodiesel for export.

    The new fuel is to be produced from plantations of jatropha trees on land that used to be desert. The black seeds from conker-type shells produced by the plants will be picked and fed into special refineries to be built in Saudi Arabia.The resulting fuel will either be used locally or mixed with crude oil and shipped to Europe to feed a growing demand for more environmentally friendly petrol.

    (Press release from D1 Oils here.) Jatropha is well-suited for this purpose, as it grows well with little water and in harsh environments. Jatropha-based biodiesel is already used in Africa and India.

    Acculturated

    Salon editor Andrew Leonard interviews UK science fiction author Iain Banks (subscription or brief ad required). Banks is the author of a number of novels set in the world of The Culture, a galaxy-spanning, AI-enabled, post-consumption society that is, in a nutshell, pretty much the world I'd love to live in. The interview, while short, is rather provocative:

    I have sometimes in my darker moments, suspected that we -- humans, human society, our species -- are incapable of anything like the Culture. Because we are just too damn nasty. But on the other hand, I'm not, in principle, against genetic modification. I think we could make beneficial genetic improvements to ourselves, I mean, just supposing there was a bigotry gene, that was responsible for racism, and sexism and anti-Semitism -- all the bad "isms" -- suppose you could get all that out. You could end up with something like the Culture. [...]

    My worry about the genetic modification of behavior is that if we had that now we might all end up fundamentalist Christians.

    Well, you lot might! [Cackles gleefully.]

    It's all about who gets the technology first and how you spread it. Is it government run, or by very large corporations, or can it be done in the old-fashioned science fiction way, by one lone genius and an attractive assistant, working in a laboratory somewhere? Obviously, not to be too glib about it, the very idea of evolving ourselves scares large parts of society. It takes a lot of thinking about.

    February 18, 2005

    Thank You, Taran

    WorldChanger Taran Rampersad has decided to move on, and to focus his attention on his work at KnowProSE and his ongoing efforts to bridge the digital divide. Taran joined us last April, and has been a spirited and dedicated voice for free/open source software, open access and open collaboration. We have been honored to have him in our midst, and will continue to follow his writings and ideas with great interest.

    Thank you for being a part of the WorldChanging community, Taran. Be well.

    Carbon Nanotubes Destined for your Hybrid

    Our love affair with carbon nanotubes continues unabated; the latest reason is research at UC Davis demonstrating a process for building high power supercapacitors using carbon nanotubes. Supercapacitors deliver a fast, powerful jolt of electricity; hybrid and fuel cell cars require high-power capacitors in order to start the engine, something typically done multiple times throughout a trip. Remember that hybrids are designed to cut the engine any time the vehicle stops, then restart very quickly once the brake is released. That takes power.

    What makes the carbon nanotube-based supercapacitors interesting is that they have a power density of 30 kilowatts per kilogram, compared to 4 kilowatts/kilogram for commercially-available capacitors (and 20 kW/kg for experimental versions of traditional designs).

    For those who want more details, you can read the paper in the February edition of the journal Nanotechnology.

    February 19, 2005

    Imagination, Innovation, and the Mobject

    We don't point to every Bruce Sterling article or speech, it just feels that way. Nonetheless, his new piece (PDF) at Innovation magazine (the mouthpiece of the Industrial Designers Society of America) lays out why science fiction is relevant to design, explores why design is important for thinking about the future, and tries to coin a few new words on top of it all. These last are all variants of "blobject," and one of them -- "mobject" -- feels like a winner:

    How does this work in practice? I envision some kind of universal fabricator. A big, bad, cheap fabricator that makes stuff out of utterly worthless raw materials. Straw and mud, perhaps. Or chopped grass, cellulose, recycled plastic and newspaper, even sand. A big, rugged, dirty, emergency thing like an upended cement mixer. But smart. There’s a lot of code in there. Free, unpatented code.

    So, how does it work? You’re a mob. You’re panicked; you’re shell-shocked; you’re thirsty. You need buckets. The mobject-maker spits out these general issue buckets. Khaki-colored maybe, the color of mixed dirt. Ugliest buckets in the word, but they work. They carry water. Now you need latrines, so out come a few hundred of them. Sewer pipes. Shower stalls. Faucets. The appurtenances of urban life. Squeezed out in molds, on the spot. Basic, safe water infrastructure so you don’t die of dysentery like every other dispossessed mob in the world. You wouldn’t normally put up with this mobject way of life, but if your town has been smashed in an earthquake, then mobjects are kind of handy. One helicopter and one fabricator and a week later you’ve got a town. It’s not a pretty town, but at least you’re not dead.

    February 20, 2005

    Saturn's Blue Sky

    While many of us at WorldChanging are ardent supporters of space exploration for good scientific reasons (especially robotic exploration, at least until an elevator is built), sometimes we have to admit to ourselves that part of why the Mars Rovers, Mars Express, Cassini/Huygens and the others are so interesting is that they can come up with some truly spectacular images. One of the most recent from Cassini is just jaw-dropping: the blue sky of Saturn, with the moon Mimas in the foreground. A small sample here wouldn't do it justice -- you really need to see this at full size.

    Sustainability in Sixty

    Minutes, that is. Joel Makower has a short post up on his weblog asking the following question:

    How would you convey the simple-yet-complex concept of sustainability to today's college students (assume undergrads)?

    If helping to shape the minds of young people isn't inducement enough, Joel is offering a one-year subscription to his Green Business Letter to the best and/or most innovative submissions. Get your ideas in by March 15.

    February 21, 2005

    Getting Rid of Glass

    Ken Shuttleworth is the architect responsible for the Swiss Re "Gherkin" tower in the heart of London (as well as numerous other odd and interesting buildings). In the current Building Design, a newsweekly for UK architects, Shuttleworth declares war against the all-glass building facade. (Fairly painless free reg required.)

    The high-energy, gas-guzzling fully glazed office block is totally dead, a thing from a previous time when we all had a more naive, cavalier attitude towards the environment. It’s the end of an era and we should all rethink what we are doing to the planet. And facade design is on the frontline of a change.

    [...] It is time as architects we faced up to our responsibilities; climate change is the biggest thing to affect the planet for generations and with half the world’s CO2 coming from buildings, we are directly in the firing line and in the best position to effect a change. We have to go super-green; we have to be more responsible and convince our clients and the property family as a whole that this is important.

    Shuttleworth's a man on a mission -- and his buildings live up to his word.

    (Thanks, Laurence Aurbach!)

    Call2Recycle

    How to dispose of those old cell phones and other such devices in an environmentally responsible manner is a recurring topic here. Recycling services do exist, but they may be hard to find. That should be less of a problem now. Call2Recycle, a non-profit program started last year by the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation, has a database of locations in the US and Canada accepting old rechargeable batteries and cell phones for recycling. Batteries are recycled for their metals -- nickel and iron to make stainless steel, and cadmium to make more batteries -- while cell phones are either refurbished and resold in the developing world or recycled in an unspecified "environmentally friendly" way.

    The whole "people in the developing world would love your old phone" meme is probably on its way out, especially as phone makers move towards low-cost modern phones specifically for low-income countries; we will need to see more groups focusing on actually recycling phone components. But even if you're not about to toss that old phone, the database of rechargeable battery drop-off spots will be useful. Looks like I have one just around the corner...

    (Via So What Can I Do?)

    February 22, 2005

    Good News Against HIV

    A team led by Scripps Research Institute biologists has figured out the structure of a rare but naturally occurring antibody which effectively destroys nearly 100 strains of HIV.

    The body makes many antibodies against HIV, but they are almost always unable to neutralize the virus. Nonetheless, the immune systems of some patients with HIV have beaten the odds and have produced effective neutralizing antibodies. The structure of one of these, called 4E10, is described in the latest issue of the journal Immunity.

    "This antibody is very broadly active," says Scripps Research Professor Dennis Burton, Ph.D., who led the research with Scripps Research Professor Ian Wilson, D.Phil. "It neutralized nearly 100 different viral strains of HIV from all over the world. [During tests in the laboratory], every one of them was neutralized."

    4E10 was isolated from an HIV-positive individual about a decade ago by Burton and Wilson's collaborator Hermann Katinger, a doctor at the Institute for Applied Microbiology of the University of Agriculture in Vienna, Austria, and one of the authors of the paper.

    By solving its structure, the researchers have taken a big step towards being able to construct a "mimic" protein to stimulate the human body to make 4E10 antibodies. The research appears in the February 2005 edition of Immunity. A summary is available for free; the full text of the article is only accessible to journal subscribers.

    Free Mojtaba and Arash

    freemojtabaarashday-button.gifThe Committee to Protect Bloggers is asking those of us with weblogs today to call attention to the plight of Arash Sigarchi and Mojtaba Saminejad, imprisoned in Iran for writing in their blogs against the crackdown on journalists and bloggers in late 2004 and early 2005. The Iranian blog community was once a flourishing example of free speech, but soon drew the attention of the religious authorities . Today, Arash Sigarchi was sentenced by the Revolutionary Court to 14 years in jail on charges ranging from espionage to insulting the country's leaders; Mojtaba Saminejad remains in jail on a billion rials bail, re-arrested just days after posting a 500 million rials bond. The BBC has additional details on the Committee and the Free Mojtaba and Arash Day project.

    The Sequestration Option

    Carbon sequestration -- taking CO2 from the atmosphere and storing it, well, somewhere -- doesn't generate a great deal of interest among hardcore climate change wonks. That's in part because the various sequestration options each have serious drawbacks, in part because sequestration isn't as easy as it sounds, and in part because sequestration is seen by some as being an 'easy out' for continuing a greenhouse-intensive lifestyle. From this perspective, it's the liposuction of the fight against climate disruption: it might help in the short term, but without changes in behavior, it won't matter much.

    As it becomes increasingly clear just how bad the greenhouse gas situation really is, however, we may come to reconsider that position. It's looking increasingly likely that we will need to really crank up the sequestration research on top of shifting hard and fast towards more efficient, greener designs and technologies. To that end, the Washington Post provides a basic overview of current sequestration research. It doesn't touch on every project out there, but it does cover the mainstream ideas: biomass offsets, serpentine neutralization, and liquefying CO2 for undersea insertion.

    February 23, 2005

    Battery Breakthrough?

    Among the problems with using batteries as the energy storage medium for vehicles are two big convenience-killers: recharging is not anywhere close to as fast as pumping gasoline into a tank, and the batteries themselves don't store sufficient power to go reasonable distances. If Altair Nanotechnology is correct, however, those problems may soon be less of an issue. According to a press release picked up on Yahoo! business (among others), Altair has developed a technology for allowing Lithium-Ion batteries to recharge in a matter of minutes, not hours, and to hold "three times the power" for the same price.

    Press releases are well and good, but let's see the technology in action. It's probably still years away from commercial application, yadda yadda yadda, but the implications are clear. If what Altair Nanotechnology claims is true, the battery vs. fuel cell "format war" for tomorrow's cars may just be heating up.

    Giving a Damn

    Cameron Sinclair, WorldChanging contributor and founder of Architecture for Humanity, has a brief interview in pages of the newest issue of Wired. It focuses primarily on his philosophy -- "Design like you give a damn" -- and how he implements it. His answers demonstrate that Cameron's WorldChanging to the core:

    So, what's the answer?
    Show people what can be done if you apply smart design that really takes account of ­peoples' needs. We also want to co-opt advances in technology - solar panels, recycled materials - and infuse them into communities that traditionally have not been leading-edge.

    February 24, 2005

    Ten Gigawatts of Wind

    The Scotsman reports that the Irish firm Airtricity is set to put up 5,000 two-megawatt wind turbines in the North Sea, producing ten gigawatts of power. When completed (and, as it has not yet been approved, the completion date is not set), it will be the largest wind farm in the world, assuming no competing megafarms get built in the meantime. The 10GW wind farm would help Scotland meet its goal of generating 40% of its power from renewable sources by 2020.

    It will be interesting to see if the bragging rights over "biggest wind farm" becomes a point of national pride and competition.

    Dam Dirty Shame

    New Scientist reports that the IPCC is considering changes to the calculations of "climate budgets" to include greenhouse gas emissions from hydroelectric dams. It turns out that hydro power can produce significant amounts of both CO2 and methane, sometimes even more than fossil fuel-using generators.

    This is because large amounts of carbon tied up in trees and other plants are released when the reservoir is initially flooded and the plants rot. Then after this first pulse of decay, plant matter settling on the reservoir's bottom decomposes without oxygen, resulting in a build-up of dissolved methane. This is released into the atmosphere when water passes through the dam's turbines.

    The IPCC changes would increase greenhouse inventories in countries with lots of hydro power by up to 7%. New Scientist has a map of which countries would be most affected by the proposed changes. Unsurprisingly, they are generally the nations with the largest land area, largest populations, or both.

    There is ongoing debate over whether to retain dams or remove them. One of the strongest arguments for retaining hydroelectric dams has been how "clean" the power generation is. If the research into dam greenhouse emissions is correct, that rationale could be seriously undercut.

    (Via Warren Ellis)

    Wind Power in the US

    Reader Joseph Willemssen, in the comments to the recent post on Renewables Across the Country, linked to the American Wind Energy Association database of projects. The map showing the amount of wind power by state immediately draws the eye: California tops the list with 2,114 megawatts; Texas is a distant second at 1,288 (but since the database was last updated in late July, that won't include Sweetwater 2, so that should be 1,379 megawatts); Minnesota comes in third, with 595 megawatts. 15 states have no wind generation at all.

    Total installed wind generation in the US: 6,831 megawatts (including Sweetwater 2). An impressive total, to be sure, but we still have a long way to go.

    (Thanks, Joseph!)

    Viridian Furniture

    The Viridian Furniture List has been updated, with all of the new entries going into the "What If Green Design Were Just Good Design" category. What is the Viridian Furniture List, you ask? It contains links to companies designing, making and/or selling places to put your butt without hurting the planet and (usually) without looking like you subsist solely on granola. Some of the entries are definitely for the yupscale crowd, but many point to good looking, sustainably-built, inexpensive products.

    Go check it out -- and if you don't see something that should be there, drop the curator, David Bergman, a note...

    Wind Power for your Phone

    The idea of using photovoltaics to recharge a mobile phone on the go comes as no surprise these days. But what about other renewable power sources? While wave and tidal power probably won't be of much use, wind is a possibility. Lo and behold, students at the Department of Industrial Design at Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi have come up with a small (pocket-sized), inexpensive (Rs 200, or about $4-$5), wind turbine that can be used to recharge phones. With sufficient airflow, it can put out about 4 watts -- not an enormous amount of energy, but sufficient trickle-charge a phone or power an LED lamp.

    One of the paradigm-shifting aspects of wind and solar is that, for small uses, power generation can happen just about anywhere. This pairs up nicely with the proliferation of small, network-enabled gadgets. Power should be as accessible as communications. If the cost of relatively-efficient solar and micro-wind turbines can be brought down sufficiently, we may be heading towards a world where any structure or piece of equipment expected to be outside in the sun and wind for extended periods of time have minor power generation features.

    (WorldChanging contributor Ethan Zuckerman adds this alternative phone energy source:)


    Slightly more expensive, but now commercially available is the Sidewinder cellphone charger, which uses a small hand crank to power cellphones. At $25, the product appears to be designed for travelling executives, not developing world users, but the concept could be adopted by developing world engineers and customized for local needs. Motorola is offering a similar product, Free Charge, designed in collaboration with FreePlay, well known for their work making wind-up radios and flashlights. Unfortunately, Free Charge will set you back at least $70, making it unlikely to have a major impact for developing world users.

    February 25, 2005

    Have We Passed the Peak?

    "Hubbert's Peak" is the point at which oil production reaches its maximum possible, and known sources of oil then decline. It's generally thought to be something which will happen "soon" -- five or ten years from now. But Sustainability Sundays contributor Joel Makower tells of a letter at Energy Bulletin from an anonymous oil industry insider claiming that the cheap oil peak has already been reached, and we're now on the tumble down. Anonymous makes this unsettling observation: It is not a question of “if” peak oil has occurred – it has! The better question might be “when are the crows coming home to roost?”

    Anonymous insiders should always be taken with more than a grain of salt, but the arguments that Anonymous and Makower make are well-worth thinking about. How does the sustainability agenda change if peak oil has already been passed?

    Rust Belt Leapfrogging

    BusinessWeek has a brief but suggestive article about the proliferation of nanomaterials companies in regions not generally known as being modern centers of technological innovation: Cleveland, Ohio; Albany, New York; and Norman, Oklahoma. They cite a variety of reasons why many nanomaterials firms have set up shop well away from IT and biotech hotspots on the coasts, including the dominance of government funding over venture funding and the variety of skillsets needed in nano companies ("ranging from experts in new textiles to defense contractors"). What immediately struck me, however, was the parallel to nanotech as a leapfrog engine in the developing world. So-called "rust belt" regions in the US have long suffered a brain drain similar to that plaguing developing countries, and economies based on declining industries are just as open to big changes as economies moving away from an emphasis on resource extraction.

    This wouldn't be isolated to the US, of course. Leapfrog/innovation-based emerging industries could end up as economic engines of economically stagnant regions around the industrialized world. When we think about the potential for leapfrog development, we need to keep in mind the model may apply to far more places than we first might think.

    Biology Taking A Lesson From I.T. (for a change)

    Biomimicry and biomorphic software remain favorite topics around these parts, which is why a headline at New Scientist caught our eye: "Compression algorithms harnessed to fight HIV." Biologists at the University of Washington and at the Royal Perth Hospital are taking a look at computer code as a model for vaccine development.

    Machine learning algorithms commonly used to compress digital images and recognise patterns in email spam might also be able to help scientists find an effective vaccine for HIV. [...]

    HIV mutates rapidly, thus evading the human immune system. This means that vaccines developed to counteract one strain may not be effective against another variant.

    But the researchers hope that algorithms capable of finding patterns in digital information could also help identify key genetic features across many different strains of HIV. This could enable them to engineer an HIV vaccine that is effective against several strains at once.

    The article notes that the specific algorithms used were developed by Microsoft. If that's the case, the code was almost certainly patented by Microsoft. I'd be interested to find out (if any of you are in a position to know who to ask) what kind of licensing agreement went into giving the researchers access to the algorithms.

    February 26, 2005

    WorldWater

    I was contacted recently by WorldWater, a company making solar-powered irrigation and water supply technology, to let us know that they have been asked to supply water pumps for irrigation and purification projects in Sri Lanka, as part of the post-tsunami reconstruction effort. WorldWater has active projects in California as well as in East Africa, the Philippines and (pre-tsunami) Sri Lanka. It looks to be pretty straightforward photovoltaic-powered pump technology, but they definitely seem like a company worth knowing about.

    February 28, 2005

    Pan-Asian Biotech Association

    SciDev.Net notes the founding of the Federation of Asian Biotech Associations, an organization intended to promote collaboration between industry and academia across a wide swath of Asia and into the Pacific. The organization is notable for two reasons, both relating to membership. The first is that there are no member countries traditionally thought of as being in the "highly developed" world; no Japan, no Australia, not even South Korea. There's a strong South-South element here.

    The second... well, let me give you the list of members, and you'll quickly see the second interesting membership element: FABA's founding members are India, Iran, Israel, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Iran, Saudi Arabia... and Israel? Indeed. The road to peace and cooperation in the Middle East may lie through the labs of bioscience.

    Finding the (Energy) Future in Tea Leaves

    Coca-Cola Central Japan has installed something called the "eKOsystem," a methane fermentation system which uses the coffee grounds and tea leaves left over from the manufacturing of coffee and tea-based drinks to provide heat and energy for the plant.

    Relying on a waste to energy scheme should lower the company's operating costs by reducing waste volumes and associated waste transport/processing costs, enable energy savings by use of generated methane gas in the plant, and reduce the environmental effects of CO2 that would normally get released into the atmosphere as the coffee and tealeaf waste ferments.

    The system costs $3.9 million (JPY 420 million), and the installation was part of a joint research project with the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, a government agency.

    March 1, 2005

    Washington Post on Emission Cut Benefits

    Michael Northrop, director of the global sustainable development grant-making program at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, has a to-the-point editorial essay in yesterday's Washington Post. In "Benefits of Cutting Emissions," Northrop lays out the case that, indeed, companies and countries which have gone ahead and worked to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (by improving efficiency, bringing in new technologies, or through other business process changes) can see a marked improvement in their economic and financial performance. The essay is little more than a checklist of examples -- many of which will be familiar to WorldChanging readers -- but it's good to see them collected in one spot, and in a mainstream publication. It's a good, pithy rebuttal to those who continue to tell tales of economic disaster if we dare try to cut greenhouse emissions.

    March 2, 2005

    Green Olympics 2012?

    The location for the 2012 games has yet to be chosen, but two of the top contenders are New York and London. As noted here recently, New York's efforts to get the Olympics have not gone without controversy; as Emily notes, there's no sign that the organizers for NY2012 have paid much attention to the "green Olympics" conversation going on around the world (especially in China, site of the 2008 games). London, however, seems to be embracing the green Olympics idea in a big way.

    If the bid goes out to London, the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games will feature many renewable energy and energy efficiency measures in the spirit of the country's recent adoption of the Kyoto Protocol.

    Energy conservation and the use of renewable energy will be promoted across Olympic venues, coupled with a public education campaign to raise awareness of these issues. [...]

    "This is a fantastic first step to contribute to a 'low carbon Games', and we are delighted to lead the way in helping to achieve this target at such a important international event," said Jeremy Leggett, CEO of solarcentury.

    I admit to mixed feelings about this. Of course the venues built for the Olympics should be as energy-efficient and as carbon-neutral as possible, but it would be sad if, in 2012, energy conservation and renewable energy still need to be promoted as something special and different. Making the Olympics in 2012 green shouldn't be seen as being ahead of the curve -- not having a green Olympics in 2012 should be seen as lagging behind.

    CDM Projects

    The "Clean Development Mechanism" (CDM) of the Kyoto Treaty encourages developed world deals in and technology transfers to the developing world in order to cut carbon emissions. CDM projects reduce overall greenhouse emissions, the greenhouse footprint of up-and-coming countries, and bring in new technologies and funds. What's not to love?

    Ken Novak links to a couple of articles about CDM projects, one from India, the other from the Philippines. These articles underscore the point that the developing world is part of Kyoto, and that the CDM can be an engine for energy leapfrogging. Read on for a few interesting quotes from each piece.

    Continue reading "CDM Projects" »

    March 3, 2005

    Chinese Renewable Energy Law

    PhysOrg passes along a report that the Chinese legislature just passed a Renewable Energy Law to "ease the energy strain, secure the country's energy security and better protect ecological environment." Beijing will push for 10% renewable energy by 2020; the new law requires that all state power grids purchase electricity from renewable sources. "Renewable" is defined as including hydroelectric, wind, solar, geothermal and "marine" energy (presumably tidal & wave).

    My take: this is largely window-dressing. 10% by 2020 is a remarkably unambitious goal, and may be met largely by expanded hydroelectric megaprojects. There's no sign that China is set to take advantage of its position to force real advances. Businesses around the world are hungry to get into the Chinese market. Imagine the result if China passed a requirement that all passenger vehicles sold by (say) 2010 used hybrid-electric technology, or that all new buildings (such as the towers going up across the south China coastal cities) meet LEED-style efficiency rules. China could and should do much more than this one new law.

    More Reverse Biomimicry

    We noted earlier the use of software compression algorithms as tools for discovering new ways for vaccines to spot and attack HIV. Now comes another example of biologists looking at software as a way of understanding nature. Canadian researchers have applied models for the propagation of computer viruses across the Internet to the spread of the spiny water flea in Canadian lakes, an invasive species. The network model provided new insights into both how the flea moves from lake to lake and how it could be controlled. The full text of the article, from the current issue of the Journal of Applied Ecology, is available online. Fair warning -- the article is about the spiny water flea, not about the model used.

    While have great affection for biomimicry, the use of natural models for designed products and systems, this use of designed products and systems as models for understanding nature -- technomimicry? -- is also worth watching.

    (Via Biology News)

    March 4, 2005

    Hybrid Snowblower. No, really.

    Speaking of Honda, while poking around looking for details on their hybrid scooter, I ran across this gem: the HSS1170i hybrid-electric snowblower. The HSS1170i...

    ...combines a gasoline engine for powering the snowblower apparatus and charging the battery, with electric motors for forward propulsion. [...] Replacing the conventional gasoline engine with electric motors allows for computerization of the HSS1170i drive system. This results in smoother forward propulsion and optimum automatic speed control based on workload. [...] The HSS1170i is equipped with a Honda e-SPEC engine, an environmentally friendly vertical powerplant that surpasses US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Phase II regulations-the most stringent in the world.

    Moreover, the HSS1170i is the fourth hybrid snowblower in Honda's lineup. They actually make more models of hybrid snowblowers than hybrid cars.

    Can Travolta Make Hybrids "Cool?"

    I'm not holding my breath on this one, but stranger things have happened.

    In the new movie "Be Cool," a sequel to the quirky 1995 "Get Shorty," John Travolta's character ("Chili Palmer") is stuck against his wishes behind the wheel of a hybrid -- in this case, a Honda Insight -- much like he was stuck in a minivan in the first movie. And, as before, he goes about convincing the gangsters and gangstas he interacts with that he's the cool one with his hybrid, making everyone else switch to a similar vehicle.

    This is not an unadulterated good; the humor of the subplot rests on the audience assuming at the outset that hybrids are, in fact, not cool. That's not necessarily the case, Ed Begley Jr. notwithstanding. Regardless, if the end result is more people demanding hybrid cars, it's probably worth it.

    (Via Mixed Power)

    500 Miles Per Gallon?

    Fareed Zakaria's Newsweek column "Imagine: 500 Miles Per Gallon," in which he argues that a combination of flex-fuel and plug-in hybrid vehicle technologies could significantly reduce our dependence on petroleum, is getting quite a bit of attention in the sustainasphere (see, for example, here and here). That's fine -- it's always good to see the idea that we do, in fact, already have the technologies at hand to build a better planet get wider play -- but I have to admit some exasperation with the way the story is presented. "500 miles per gallon," it turns out, refers not to the fuel consumption of these green cars, but to their relative consumption of oil.

    The current crop of hybrid cars get around 50 miles per gallon. Make it a plug-in and you can get 75 miles. Replace the conventional fuel tank with a flexible-fuel tank that can run on a combination of 15 percent petroleum and 85 percent ethanol or methanol, and you get between 400 and 500 miles per gallon of gasoline.

    As long as you mentally add that "of gasoline" every time he tosses out the "500 miles per gallon" figure, it's a decent article. And it is good to get this argument in front of a mainstream audience. I just wish Zakaria had been a bit more careful with his phrasing.

    March 7, 2005

    More Details on Fast-Recharge Batteries

    This week's New Scientist has a few more details about the rapid-recharge battery technology developed by Altair Nanotechnology we mentioned recently. Two interesting tidbits from the piece: the improved charge rate comes from increasing the effective surface area of the anode at the nanoscale; and the technology for improving the charge rate also translates into faster discharge rates, making the new type lithium-ion batteries suitable for rapid-discharge uses.

    The new design also gives the batteries a greater reuse life, up to 20,000 recharges before becoming useless, as compared to ~400 charging cycles for current Li ion batteries.

    Alternative Fuels

    Fareed Zakaria's piece in Newsweek suggested that plug-in hybrids combined with flex-fuel engines could greatly reduce our dependence on petroleum. We've talked about plug-in hybrids before, so what's this about flex-fuels?

    Broadly put, flex-fuel vehicles are those which can run on a variety of fuels, not just gasoline. While most gasoline engines will run acceptably on mixtures of a small amount of alternative fuel (e.g., ethanol) with gasoline, flex-fuel engines are designed to handle much greater amounts of non-petroleum fuel. "E85," or a mixture of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline, is a flex-fuel choice with some automaker support. This article at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development provides an overview of non-petroleum fuel options; generally speaking, the ones which include "mixed" or "blended" forms in the description are suitable for flex-fuel use.

    An advanced flexible engine technology, HCCI, offers a greater range than most flex-fuel engines. As we noted in August, Fiat will be introducing an HCCI engine design in Brazil able to use four different fuels -- gasoline, diesel, ethanol and natural gas. HCCI engines have significantly lower emissions and much greater efficiency than regular internal combustion engines, but they're also much trickier to design and maintain.

    March 9, 2005

    China's Renewable Energy Law Revisited

    Last week, we posted a reference to China's passage of a Renewable Energy Law, mandating that 10% of China's energy production be from renewable sources by 2020. One question that arose, due to a BBC report, was whether hydroelectric counted as renewable -- without including hydroelectric, the push to 10% renewable would be a bigger challenge and a more impressive goal. With hydro, conversely, my take was that the law was largely window-dressing.

    The confusion ends here. The Center for Resource Solutions, a US-based group working with China to expand the use of renewable energy sources, confirms that hydroelectric is, indeed, considered to be part of the renewable mix. Window-dressing it is, then.

    Learn To Eco-Drive

    Green Car Congress points us to a new program in Japan designed to promote changing driving habits to reduce emissions. This program uses:

    ...an in-vehicle eco-driving navigation system that instructs the driver on fuel-efficient driving. These systems are being installed in official vehicles, private vehicles and taxis. The system detects sudden accelerations, abrupt slowdowns, harsh braking and idling, and calls the driver's attention to these problems by means of a computer-generated voice and a monitor display. The data can be saved to assess effects.

    The eco-driving project started in October and finishes this month; the driving monitors will be loaned out to individuals wishing to learn how to drive more efficiently.

    March 10, 2005

    47 Gigawatts

    The Global Wind Energy Council released figures showing that wind power added 7,976 megawatts to the global power production in 2004, bringing the total to 47,317 megawatts -- just over 47 gigawatts of wind power, worldwide. Germany ranks first in national wind capacity, at 16.6 GW, Spain second at 8.3 GW, and the US third at 6.7 GW. 72 percent of new wind installations in 2004 were in Europe, 16 percent in Asia, and only 6 percent in North America.

    Renewable Energy Access has more details.

    March 11, 2005

    First Summer Crossing

    This May, polar explorers Lonnie Dupre and Eric Larsen will begin a four-month journey across the Arctic Ocean -- the first time a summer crossing will have been attempted. They will travel by slac, a combined sled/canoe, and expect to be in the water at least 30% of the time. Or perhaps even more: summer ice depth in the Arctic Ocean is less than half of what it was in the 1960s, and the ice fields have become sufficiently clear that even the long-sought "northwest passage" may soon be open. Dupre and Larsen intend to use the summer crossing as a way to draw attention to environmental disruption and the effects of global warming, and will be collecting snow samples every 50 miles to be analyzed for pollutants.

    Upscale Hybrid Review

    We've occasionally posted about the coming wave of "upscale" hybrids -- more expensive, more luxurious, less efficient than the Prius or Civic Hybrid -- and it looks like vehicles are finally reaching the showroom.

    MSNBC has a review of the Lexus RX 400h, a hybrid SUV using the Toyota "Synergy Drive" (also found in the Prius). The 29 miles per gallon combined mileage isn't going to get a second glance from Prius or HCH owners, but is still 38% higher than the 21 mpg achieved by the non-hybrid RX 330. Remember the counter-intuitive math of fuel consumption: a driver choosing the 400h over the 330 will save around 1.3 gallons of gasoline every 100 miles, roughly the same savings seen by a driver choosing a 48 mpg Civic Hybrid over a 28 mpg non-hybrid Accord. Lexus 400h drivers may be overly-conscious of not wanting to look like they've made any sacrifices, but they're actually doing a better job of reducing emissions and gasoline dependence than they may realize.

    March 12, 2005

    Central American PV to the Grid

    Solar photovoltaics are fairly rare in Central America, and none of them are connected to the grid. El Salvador is about to receive the first one -- a 20 kilowatt system on the roof of the German School in a suburb of San Salvador. The system will be built by a German pv company, Phonix SonnenStrom AG. Construction started in late February, and the system is scheduled to come online on April 7. While a single 20 kilowatt solar pv system isn't much compared to the growing supply of wind power, it's a start. The Bright Green future will have a mix of power sources, and in the coming years smallish solar installations will become increasingly common as costs continue to drop and Kyoto/CDM projects proliferate.

    March 13, 2005

    10% of Europeans Safe from HIV

    It appears that around 10% of people of European ancestry are unable to be infected by HIV. These individuals carry a genetic mutation that blocks the virus from entering cells. It appears that the source of this mutation was the Great Plague of the middle ages, which was not the bacterial bubonic plague, but was instead "a continuing series of epidemics of a lethal, viral, haemorrhagic fever that used the CCR5 as an entry port into the immune system."

    It remains to be seen whether this will assist with efforts to create an anti-HIV vaccine.

    Emergency Alerts by Cell/Pager/Text

    We posted last December on the DC Text Alert program, which sends emergency alerts via SMS. The Washington Post (via Yahoo! News) has more details on the system, which is now called the Community Emergency Alert Network. Traffic, weather emergencies, road closures, and the like are beamed to the text-capable devices of over 16,000 subscribers. Broadcasts are available in English or Spanish.

    March 14, 2005

    California Clean Energy Fund

    One of the better bits of fallout from recent energy troubles in California is the implementation of the California Clean Energy Fund, a $30 million investment fund to seed new companies focusing on clean renewable energy production. Profits from the investments would be fed back into the fund, which would otherwise operate as a non-profit organization. Three leading venture capital groups -- Nth Power, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and VantagePoint Venture Partners -- will manage the investments. More details at the SF Chronicle and Businesswire.

    (Via GCC and Ken Novak)

    Future Washington

    Rohit passed along this gem, and I thought it worthy of broader note: writer and editor Ernest Lilley, new resident of the American capitol city, is producing an anthology of science fiction stories set in a future version of Washington, D.C.. I'm a sucker for a good piece of political science fiction, and this anthology will undoubtedly have some great examples of the genre. Authors who have expressed an interest in contributing include some well-known names, but all writers are welcome to submit their offerings.

    Deadline for story submission is early April, 2005 (which is less of a deadline and more of a deadsmear, but I digress.

    March 15, 2005

    Party With Bruce

    The Bruce Sterling-hosted after-party is a long-standing South by SouthWest tradition. It used to be held in his otherwise quiet suburban Austin home, but has since outgrown such humble settings. This year, its location was a closely-guarded secret, but the cat's now out of the bag, courtesy Mr. Sterling himself. He posted the details for tonight's shindig on his blog.

    Here's the catch: it's a costume party.

    The Gimmick:
    This party will be taking place in the year 2010.
    Come dressed as yourself five years from now.
    And prepare to vanish like a magic pumpkin
    well before midnight.

    How Long Does It Last?

    Quick quiz: How long does carbon dioxide last in the atmosphere? If you said "a few hundred years," you're partially right -- but not completely. It turns out that the chemistry of atmospheric CO2 is a bit more complex than is generally thought. The University of Chicago's David Archer has a guest piece over at RealClimate, spelling out why pumping extra CO2 into the atmosphere makes for a real long-term mess.

    When you release a slug of new CO2 into the atmosphere, dissolution in the ocean gets rid of about three quarters of it, more or less, depending on how much is released. The rest has to await neutralization by reaction with CaCO3 or igneous rocks on land and in the ocean... If one is forced to simplify reality into a single number for popular discussion, several hundred years is a sensible number to choose, because it tells three-quarters of the story, and the part of the story which applies to our own lifetimes.

    However, the long tail is a lot of baby to throw out in the name of bath-time simplicity. Major ice sheets, in particular in Greenland, ocean methane clathrate deposits, and future evolution of glacial/interglacial cycles might be affected by that long tail. A better shorthand for public discussion might be that CO2 sticks around for hundreds of years, plus 25% that sticks around forever.

    March 16, 2005

    Whoops

    Talk about misreading the market... Green Car Congress posts a link to a nice bit of crow eaten by the CEO of DaimlerChrysler, Dieter Zetsche. Admitting that they, along with most other car companies, had completely misjudged the market impact of hybrid cars -- and given Toyota and Honda the "moral high ground" -- Zetsche said that DaimlerChrysler was working with GM to build next-generation hybrid technologies.

    Zetsche added that the collaboration between GM and Chrysler aimed at developing full-hybrid architecture will benefit both companies.

    "As my wife often says, 'If you know you're going to arrive a bit late to the dinner party, be sure you bring the best wine,' " he said.

    GM executives have said the new hybrid system will be available on full-size SUVs and pickup trucks by 2007.

    March 21, 2005

    South-South Pharma

    This has "shape of things to come" written all over it.

    Brazil is one of a handful of countries outside the west with the technical expertise to manufacture anti-AIDS drugs; in order to qualify for the WTO rules giving developing nations the right to use generic versions of patented drugs in emergencies, they have to be able to manufacture them locally. As part of an ongoing program to spread that expertise, Brazil has agreed to help Mozambique fight HIV/AIDS by first acting as quality assurance for imported anti-retroviral drugs, and then building a pharmaceutical plant in Mozambique to produce anti-retrovirals locally. Brazil will train Mozambican staff to operate the facility.

    Diesel Hybrids Real Soon Now

    Last June, we asked where the diesel-electric hybrid cars were. After all, diesel engines tend to get higher gas mileage per gallon than gasoline engines, and biodiesel shows some promise as a way of reducing dependence on petroleum. Adding hybrid tech would have the potential to boost mileage figures even higher than that of the Prius or Insight. It turns out that such technology had been tested, but (aside from narrow uses) never really rolled out in passenger vehicles. Today, however, Wired has a report detailing efforts on the part of automakers GM and DaimlerChrysler (known to be working together to play catch-up with hybrids) to bring out hybrid diesels in the near future, with the potential to boost fuel efficiency by up to 25%.

    The downside appears to be price, with manufacturers claiming that the technology would add up to $8,000 to the cost of a vehicle. I'm skeptical of these figures, however. Automakers currently suing the state of California to block the implementation of CO2 emission reduction rules have a vested interest in showing that making their vehicles more efficient would be too costly.

    Zero Emissions Cargo Ship

    orcelle.jpgIs a cargo ship partially pulled along by the wind not sufficiently green for you? How about one complete with photovoltaic-covered sails, power-generating fins, and fuel cells? That's the design now being shown around by Wallenius Wilhelmsen, one of the world's biggest cargo ship manufacturers. Although the "E/S Orcelle" is a concept vehicle (i.e., not intended for production in this form), Wallenius Wilhelmsen intends this as a demonstration that efficient, clean technologies are now available for the shipping industry. The E/S Orcelle, if built as a car carrier (its somewhat ironic default configuration), would be able to carry 50% more than current car carrier ships at similar tonnage -- and would completely eliminate the use of pollution-laden ballast water tanks.

    (Found via Gizmodo)

    March 22, 2005

    Wolves As Climate Effect Mitigators

    The April 2005 edition of PLoS Biology has an article (released to the web 3/15) describing how Gray Wolves help the Yellowstone regional ecosystem better ride out episodes of climate change. Many predators are also (or even largely) scavengers, but gray wolves are not. It turns out that gray wolf predation patterns actually help scavengers; without gray wolf kills, many scavenger species are unable to make it through shorter winters (when prey species are less likely to die from starvation themselves and can move around more). Wolves act as a "safety net" for scavengers in times of environmental change.

    While interesting in its own right, this story points to the larger issue of recognizing changing the components of a system can have unanticipated (and unintended) consequences, especially when the system is under pressure. Education in how systems -- particularly natural systems -- function, and an emphasis on systemic over reductionist thinking, should be a fundamental part of 21st century schooling.

    My copy of Ken Boulding's The World As A Total System is a bit ragged these days. What texts -- newer ones, if possible -- would you suggest to people who wish to have a better understanding of systems, particularly ecosystems?

    Clean-Energy Trends 2005

    Sustainability Sundays contributer Joel Makower sent us a link to a new report from his company Clean Edge, detailing leading trends in sustainable energy-related businesses. The brief (18 page) report makes for interesting reading; the business side of the bright green future really seems to be picking up steam. Joel summarizes its findings in his blog, and an excerpt is available here. The entire report can be freely downloaded.

    Joel's "five trends to watch:"

    • the growth of fuels from biomass in the U.S. and Europe
    • the growth of energy efficiency due to high energy prices
    • the resurgence of electricity generated by concentrated solar power stations
    • the emergence of the hydrogen infrastructure
    • how the growth of green buildings is stimulating markets for new products and technologies

    Scientific Balance

    darwinhasaposse_sm.jpgDave Roberts at Gristmill gives us the heads-up on this delightful editorial from the latest issue of Scientific American. The SciAm website only has the first couple of paragraphs for free, but a helpful LiveJournal user has retyped the whole thing. Go read it.

    Good journalism values balance above all else. We owe it to our readers to present everybody’s ideas equally and not to ignore or discredit theories simply because they lack scientifically credible arguments or facts. Nor should we succumb to the easy mistake of thinking that scientists understand their fields better than, say, U.S. senators or best-selling novelists do. Indeed, if politicians or special-interest groups say things that seem untrue or misleading, our duty as journalists is to quote them without comment or contradiction. To do otherwise would be elitist and therefore wrong. In that spirit, we will end the practice of expressing our own views in this space: an editorial page is no place for opinions.

    (I've been waiting for a chance to use this graphic, btw -- click it for a link to bookmarks with that design. Bigger version in the extended entry.)

    Continue reading "Scientific Balance" »

    March 23, 2005

    Mandatory Mileage Gauges?

    Rod Edwards at Sustainability Zone suggests that making mileage information readouts mandatory would be a useful step towards greater driving efficiency. It's a not-so-unreasonable argument: the cost of implementation would be fairly low, so automakers couldn't complain about expense; it would be useful information, giving consumers a way to make better choices; and anecdotal evidence suggests that drivers change their habits when shown how mileage is affected by driving patterns. I'm told that many new cars already include mileage readouts (some with the ability to shut it off, when the news is too painful). Mandatory mileage gauges would by no means result in sufficient improvement in efficiency by itself, but it would be a good -- and easy -- start.

    March 24, 2005

    Canada Gets Green Car Promise

    In the Irony Can Be Pretty Ironic department: Reuters reports that Canada has reached an agreement with major carmakers to cut the greenhouse gas emissions from their vehicles by 25% by 2010. As the Sierra Club notes, this is essentially the same requirement as the emissions-reduction law passed in California last year -- the one that the same automakers are suing to stop, claiming that they cannot meet its demands. As the Sierra Club's Dan Becker notes, "The auto companies are now in the awkward position of telling a judge that they cannot make the same cars in California that they will make in Canada."

    A number of states have signed on to the California proposal (under a federal law allowing states to choose between EPA air quality rules or tougher California requirements); adding in Canada, and over one-third of the North American auto market will have the stricter greenhouse gas emissions rules. This could result in most carmakers simply using the stricter guidelines across the board, rather than trying to build certain cars for Canada & the coasts.

    (Via Salon)

    A Solar Eclipse On Mars

    h_deimos_sun_03.jpgOkay, so it may not be particularly world-changing in and of itself, but it's still pretty cool: the Mars Rover "Sprit" has captured images of Mars' moons Phobos and Deimos transiting the Sun. When our Moon does that, we call it a solar eclipse. As the photo here shows (click it for the QuickTime movie), the ratio of Martian Moon size to Sun size doesn't result in a real eclipse, but it's the same process.

    (Extra bonus coolness: You Are Here -- a photo of Earth as seen from Mars.)

    March 25, 2005

    Donating a Green Million

    Renewable Energy Access reports that Puget Sound Energy is donating 1 million kilowatt-hours of green power "to families who need help paying their energy bills as a way to mark the utilities hallmark of serving a million electric customers in the state." It's a bit more convoluted than that, but the idea's good. PSE will donate $60,000 to the Salvation Army's Warm Home Fund (enough to purchase a million kWh), then buying a million kWh worth of renewable energy certificates from Bonneville Environmental Foundation, which invests in renewable sources such as wind and solar.

    T. rex Tissue

    Even those whose contact with paleontology was limited to toy dinosaurs as children know that fossilization means the gradual replacement of organic material by minerals, and that over millions of years, all that's left is rock in the shape of bone. If scientists are lucky, conventional paleontological wisdom goes, they might get an imprint of skin or feather left in the mud and then hardened. Nobody would ever imagine that soft tissues would ever survive the fossilization process.

    Time to rewrite the biology texts. Dr. Mary Schweitzer of North Carolina State University and Montana State University has managed to extract blood vessels and fibrous tissues (good pictures here) from the interior of a fossilized Tyrannosaurus rex femur found in 2003. The bone had to be broken in two in order to be lifted from its resting place, and researchers noticed that the interior of the fossil wasn't quite as solid as the exterior. Schweitzer used a mild acid to dissolve the mineral components, leaving organic material which was stretchy and pliant, with well-defined blood vessels and cell structures. Schweitzer went on to duplicate the process with three more dinosaur specimens, two more T. rex and a hadrosaur.

    The research as it stands demonstrates a close structural resemblance at the microscopic level between the dinosaur tissues and large birds such as ostrich -- hardly a surprise to those of us who have continued to follow paleontology well past the toy dinosaur phase, but a welcome confirmation of current theory. Given the obvious Jurassic Park jokes, paleontologists are being very cautious about any notion that DNA could be extracted from the tissues, but do suggest that proteins could be identified. 65 million year old proteins would be a tremendous boon to our understanding of evolutionary biology.

    March 26, 2005

    Wind Power Maps

    Treehugger points us to a site at the US Department of Energy showing wind power maps for most American states. There aren't too many surprises in store -- as expected, wind power tends to be greatest along high hill and mountain ridges, and along coastlines. Still, it's interesting to get an early warning as to which locations may turn out to be wind power capitols in the not too distant future (hello, Wyoming!).

    March 28, 2005

    Ocean Power Update

    We've posted a number of items about ocean power (aka tidal power or wave power). It's the dark horse renewable energy system -- not many people are aware of it, but the more one learns about its features, the more attractive it becomes. Less transient than wind or solar power and less of a visual trigger for NIMBY backlash than wind turbines, ocean/tidal is starting to get more attention. If I was a betting man, I'd wager that, by 2050, ocean/tidal power will represent the largest source of centralized energy production worldwide (solar will probably figure higher overall, with the broad use of solar-embedded building materials, paints and polymers).

    Technology Review has a good overview article on ocean power, including links to some companies developing the technologies and some discussion of current projects. Few of the technological or environmental claims in the piece will come as much of a surprise to WorldChanging readers. What might be a bit more startling is the news that the US Department of Energy has discontinued funding for ocean power development. As of the present the UK appears to be pushing to become the world leader in ocean/tidal power.

    Oh, and one last cool thing about ocean power. Tides are generated from the pull of the Earth's moon. Ocean power can, in all seriousness, also be called Lunar Power.

    Biodiesel, North Dakota Style

    Green Car Congress points us to an announcement at the website of ND senator Kent Conrad of plans to build the largest biodiesel refinery in North America. A German company, Science and Technologies Industries International, will be the parent company behind the venture. The plant will produce 100,000 tons of biodiesel annually (a little over 2,000 barrels/day); the source biomass will be canola grown in North Dakota and Canada. Construction begins in August, and will be completed by December 2006.

    Orange Juice

    The Florida Hydrogen Initiative has just awarded $500,000 to the fuel cell company ENER1 to develop a rest stop powered by a 10kW fuel cell. The fuel cell, moreover, will use hydrogen converted from methanol, which in turn will be created from theme park food waste and orange peels from citrus processing. The so-called "HyTech Rest Area" (the namer of which should be never allowed to work in public relations again) will be completed within the next 18 months.

    Theme park waste and orange peels... could one imagine a more appropriate source for Florida power generation?

    March 29, 2005

    Plug-In Hybrid Prototype

    Valence Technologies (a battery producer) and EnergyCS (a maker of computer control systems) are introducing a plug-in hybrid concept car based on the Toyota Prius. The concept plug-in hybrid gets up to 180 miles-per-gallon for commute-type use of 50-60 miles per day. The design uses a custom lithium-ion battery with a longer life and better discharge rates than current standards.

    Given the generally uninspiring performance and inconvenience of past electric cars, it's no surprise that makers of hybrids have gone out of their way to emphasize that hybrid-electric vehicles don't have to be plugged in. As it happens, however, the option to plug them in would be a good thing, enabling a variety of useful features -- longer electric-only range, the ability to recharge batteries using lower-cost (and sometimes renewable-sourced) overnight grid power, even the ability to run the household with vehicle batteries for a limited time should the power go out (something I personally could have used this morning).

    Today's news about the rapid-recharge Li-ion battery technology from Toshiba is both good and bad for the plug-in hybrid concept. Bad because the rapid-recharge means that there would be little need to plug in overnight to recharge the vehicle batteries, eliminating one of the arguments for the model. Good, conversely, because anything that makes hybrid batteries more powerful and usable is bound to be seen as having broader applications.

    (Via Green Car Congress)

    March 30, 2005

    TAICON 05 Postponed

    Just a follow-up: Tools for the Development of Humanity, The Arlington Institute Conference 2005 we mentioned last week, has been postponed. Insurmountable logistical reasons, they say; we know how that goes. No new date has yet been posted for the conference.

    EcoMortgage

    So you want to build yourself a nice green sustainable home. Can you get the money to do it? Turns out that banks are often less than enthusiastic about making loans for non-traditional homes -- and, sadly, sustainable design can be considered such. If you're in the UK, you're in luck: the Ecology Building Society is a lending institution which specifically underwrites mortgages for "properties which given an ecological payback." According to their site, they focus on:

  • energy efficient housing
  • ecological renovation
  • derelict and dilapidated properties
  • small-scale and ecological enterprise
  • low-impact lifestyles

    Anybody know of similar lending institutions in other countries?

    (Via Treehugger)

  • Alex On the Urban Future, Live

    If you're in Seattle next week, be sure to catch "Where in the World are We Going? How Nature, Cities and Culture Can Flourish in the 21st Century," a discussion forum on the urban future in the natural world. The speakers are Terry Tempest Williams, Andrew Light, Stuart Cowen, David Conrad, and our very own Alex Steffen.

    Each of our guests is expert at implementing a compelling vision with real world benefits. Each is working on elements of a vision for the future that not only incorporates protection and restoration of the natural environment but also includes tools and concepts of sustainable cities and culture.

    The talk is on April 6 at 7:30pm. Location is the Town Hall Seattle. Tickets are $15.

    March 31, 2005

    Jamie Oliver, School Lunch Hero

    We noted recently that TV chef Jamie Oliver had launched a campaign for a 'school dinner revolution' to improve the quality, taste and nutrition of the food served in schoolrooms around the UK, and that Tony Blair had promised changes as a result. Now the UK government is coughing up the money to make those changes:

    The education secretary promised an extra £280m to improve school meals yesterday, in an announcement apparently prompted by the TV chef Jamie Oliver's popular campaign. [...] "His programme [has] brought into focus what everyone in their heart of hearts knows - which is if you feed children decent food, you are more likely to get responsible children who are healthier and fitter," said Tony Blair.

    But Oliver said it was a shame that it had taken his TV series to prompt action, although he described the extra cash as a "massive improvement".

    Celebrity chefs: the special operations force of the Second Superpower?

    April 1, 2005

    Aloha Wind

    The state of Hawaii relies on petroleum imports for 90% of its energy use, according to Renewable Energy Access, but it's about to get its first real wind farm. UPC Wind Partners has been signed to build a 30 megawatt wind farm for the island of Maui. The US Department of Energy wind map for Hawaii shows a section rated "superb" on the south edge of the western part of the island, although the neighboring island of Molokai appears to have the most consistently good space for wind power.

    Expect visual NIMBY fights about this project, unfortunately.

    Hybrid Sales Up

    It's no surprise: when gas prices go up in the US, sales of fuel-efficient cars also go up. March 2005 now holds the record for sales of hybrid passenger vehicles in the United States: 16,619 cars sold, a significant gain over the previous record month, December 2004, which saw 10,441 sales. Of the March hybrid numbers, 10,236 were Priuses., but all hybrid car manufacturers saw gains and record sales. Green Car Congress has some great graphics illustrating just much of a jump this really was.

    With summer approaching, it's unlikely that gas prices will drop substantially, and there's good reason to suspect they'll go up more. Demand for hybrid cars is, in turn, also likely to increase. But Priuses are already hard to come by, with waiting lists in most locations. Although Toyota has already boosted production, Honda and Ford (with the Hybrid Escape) may be in better positions to take advantage of the demand. MixedPower.com reprints an article observing that the Honda Accord Hybrid's high price is a way of controlling demand; it is also could end up being a source of big money for Honda if those turned away from Toyota car lots decide to go with the Prius' main hybrid rivals.

    This is why GM & DaimlerChrysler (among others) are kicking themselves about not jumping on the hybrid trend, and focusing on trucks/SUVs now, fuel cells later. Not because they feel a sudden urge for responsibility. Because not having an attractive higher-mileage vehicle out now is putting them at financial risk.

    Trying Again: Another First Image of Extra-Solar Planet

    We posted in January about the image captured of a planet orbiting a brown dwarf -- essentially a star without sufficient mass to fully ignite -- and said the astronomers who took the snapshot were "99.1% sure." But doubts still remain, the planet is still not confirmed, and the status of the star (brown dwarf) and the "planet" (huge, many times bigger than Jupiter) left many astronomers less-than-satisfied.

    Now we get a second chance at astronomical fun. Space.com reports that a team of European astronomers, working since 1999, have imaged a confirmed planet around an honest-to-goodness star. GQ Lupi is about 400 light years away, and is only about a million years old -- a youngster compared to our six billion year old sun. The planet is quite far from its parent star, at roughly twice Neptune's distance, but has been positively linked to GQ Lupi over the six years of observations. The only remaining doubts are about its mass, which is currently estimated at about twice that of Jupiter, but may range up to double that.

    April 4, 2005

    How Cities Learn

    Stewart Brand, whose credits are too numerous to mention, will be speaking this Friday night in San Francisco on our relationship with cities.

    Cities are the human organizations with the greatest longevity but also the fastest rate of change. Just now the world is going massively and unstoppably urban (governments everywhere are trying to stop it, with zero success).   In a globalized world, city states are re-emerging as a dominant economic player.  Environmental consequences and opportunities abound. [...]

    As the author of HOW BUILDINGS LEARN I kept getting asked to give talks on "How Cities Learn."  With a little research I found that cities do indeed "learn" (adapt) impressively, but what cities mainly do is teach.  They teach civilization.

    Stewart's talk is a last-minute addition to the Long Now seminars (a replacement for the planned speaker). While live streaming is unlikely, Long Now has been great about making certain to put up audio recordings of their speakers (in a variety of formats) soon afterwards. "City Planet," Stewart Brand, 7pm (doors open), Friday, April 8, Fort Mason Conference Center, San Francisco.

    Hippy Shopper

    Welcome to Hippy Shopper, a new Meta-Efficient/Treehugger-style green consumer & lifestyle blog aimed at European readers. Nice selection of items so far -- some undoubtedly familiar to regular readers, some new -- and a blogroll with an admirable mix of sustainability and design sites (as well as us -- thanks!). It's still pretty new, so some shakiness to the tone and format are to be expected, but it's a welcome addition just the same... especially to those of us who are working on making the move overseas in the near future.

    But, please, the name!?! I'm so going to have to disguise the link in my RSS reader...

    (Via Sustainablog)

    A Climate Minister for the UK?

    A group of Parliament members, the "Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee," has officially endorsed the idea of appointing a minister for Climate Change, according to UK news site ePolitix. The committee expressed frustration with the lack of direction to the government's climate-related efforts, and warned the government not to "water down" its targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. UK weather blog Rising Slowly seeks clarification: So, a department that publicly declares its own lack of clout asks the powers that be to grant it a minister to it can, err, have more clout?


    A Climate Change Minister may not be in the cards immediately, but the idea will likely live on; I would expect to see Climate Ministers (or Secretaries) in many governments in the not-too-distant future.

    April 5, 2005

    Ten Light Years to the Inch

    I admit it -- I'm a sucker for art that combines science and beauty, and the Star Map Crystal definitely covers both. Designed by Bathsheba Grossman, it's a 3" glass cube laser-etched with a 3D map of all the stars within 5 parsecs (~16 light years) of the sun, with labels for each. A shrunken-down image here wouldn't do it justice, so I encourage you to follow the link to see the object for yourself. We've mentioned art based on biology before, so it's good to see some of the other natural sciences in play, too.

    More on the Toshiba Battery Breakthrough

    Want more information on the Toshiba superfast recharge battery? Green Car Congress has a good rundown of the details of the technology, as well as how it fits with requirements for advanced-technology vehicles. The Toshiba battery looks to be just as revolutionary as we had suspected, meeting two of the three main criteria for what the US Advanced Battery Consortium (the group tasked to design next-generation electric vehicle batteries) considered as long term goals -- and coming pretty close on the third. GCC notes that one stumbling block may be Toshiba's decision last year to sell off its lithium-ion battery factories to Sanyo -- but this may be good news in disguise if it forces Toshiba to license the design to a variety of producers...

    April 6, 2005

    RSF Awards

    Congratulations to WorldChanging contributors Rohit Gupta and Ethan Zuckerman for the nomination of their other blogs for the Reporters Sans Frontières "Freedom of Expression Blog Award." Rohit's "Chiens sans frontières" and Ethan's "Ramblings on Africa, technology and the media" are both provocative and interesting, and well worth your time. Good luck to each of you!

    April 7, 2005

    Shout Africa

    Digital video technology is providing worldchanging in Africa. We noted awhile back that a digital video-based movie industry was growing in Nigeria -- referred to as "Nollywood" -- relying on cheap digital production tools and easy digital distribution (such as video CDs), and aimed at the global African diaspora. BoingBoing points us to the other end of the digital video chain: digital movie houses. Shout Africa is a South African home-grown digital cinema company, with twenty movie houses in historically disadvantaged sections of the country. Moore's Law-driven reductions in the cost of digital technology will mean that this will spread quickly; Africa may soon be home to a leapfrog movie industry, all digital and with a unique and powerful voice.

    Extended Daylight Savings Time

    For most of the United States, Daylight Savings Time started last weekend -- clocks are set an hour forward, so that the "daylight" part of the day extends to a later hour. For a variety of reasons, this has a small but noticeable effect on energy consumption. Now the House Energy and Commerce Committee is drafting legislation to extend the daylight savings period for two months, so that it starts the beginning of March and ends the last Sunday in November. A recent study by the US Department of Transportation concluded that a two month extension would save the equivalent of 10,000 barrels of oil per day.

    If this passes, a couple of questions present themselves: would the remaining three months still be referred to as "standard time;" and what's the argument for not simply extending daylight savings to the rest of the year?

    Duke Energy CEO: We Need A Carbon Tax

    It's almost enough to cause a double-take: the CEO and Chairman of Duke Energy announced that the firm will lobby for the introduction of a carbon tax in order to reduce fossil fuel use and address global warming.

    "Personally, I feel the time has come to act - to take steps as a nation to reduce the carbon intensity of our economy," Paul Anderson told several hundred Charlotte business and civil leaders at a breakfast meeting. "And it's going to take all of us to do it."

    Anderson expressed concern that the lack of action at the federal level will result in 50 different state-level policies. While that's an understandable caution, it ignores the current cooperation between states on environmental policies. We're more likely to see a small handful of different policies, with significant regional alignment (e.g., the Northeast, the West coast, etc.).

    Anderson acknowledged that a carbon tax was unlikely to appear under the current administration, but wanted to get the discussion started.

    (Via Green Car Congress)

    April 8, 2005

    Blood Vessel Nanogel

    Cool? If it works. Freaky? You betcha. A research group at Northwestern University have come up with a nanofiber and protein-based gel which, when injected into the body, self-assembles into blood vessels to heal tears or blockages, "jumpstarting" recovery.

    The new technology also can be used to quickly re-grow blood vessels for trauma victims and diabetic patients, who have a hard time growing blood vessels, Stupp said. The research can be used to help solve other medical problems, including cancer, he said."If you know how to grow blood vessels, you also know how to prevent them from forming," Stupp said. "We can do the inverse and use it to starve a (cancerous) tumor."

    Usual caveats apply -- three to five years before available, not yet tested on anything other than rats, etc. etc.

    April 9, 2005

    Speaking of Stewart Brand...

    Stewart has an article in the current issue of Technology Review in which he claims to be presenting "Environmental Heresies":

    Over the next ten years, I predict, the mainstream of the environmental movement will reverse its opinion and activism in four major areas: population growth, urbanization, genetically engineered organisms, and nuclear power.

    Dave Roberts at Gristmill has the best take on the article, and I more or less agree with his reaction. But I would add: Stewart seems to be railing against the version of the environmental movement with which he was familiar decades past.

    Recognition of the environmental advantages to urbanization isn't a new phenomenon, and the Erlich-style hysteria over population was generally discarded long ago. Even the still-widespread resistance to GMOs and nuclear power usually has more to do with an educated opposition to how these technologies have been deployed (and the lack of oversight and out-and-out deception often involved) than some kind of knee-jerk "science bad" mantra. I'm not saying that the 1970s hippy treehugger caricatures with which Stewart may be most familiar no longer exist, but they certainly no longer represent the bulk of environmentalist thinking.

    April 11, 2005

    Wireless DNA Sensor

    Technology Review has a short article on a new DNA chip that adds a tiny wireless transmitter, making it possible to conduct and report on tests from within a sample.

    Since this kind of chip can transmit data from inside a sealed container, samples tested with it are less likely to be contaminated by researchers or the environment, and samples containing pathogens are less likely to infect workers. Assuming patient samples can be prepared easily for chip analysis, the chip could also make it easier to detect DNA variations in settings less controlled than a research lab. Though the research is still in its initial phases, Hitachi expects that the chips could be used in clinics or small hospitals to help doctors decide which drugs to prescribe for patients.

    Some quick searching didn't dig up any more information; anyone have a better link?

    As the cost of biological sensors drops, and the ease-of-use increases, expect to see expanded use of on-site/real-time testing of health, consumer products and the environment. This isn't necessarily all for the better: some of this testing will have a "make the invisible visible" quality, but much of it will have the effect of "feeding consumer fears."

    Panopticon

    The 15th Annual Conference on Computers, Freedom and Privacy starts tomorrow in Seattle, Washington. The theme: Panopticon.

    Over time, and particularly recently, surveillance of ordinary citizens has increased to dramatic levels. Not only are governments watching more aspects of their citizens’ lives, but those in the private sector are increasing surveillance of people as well. Often lost in the race to “increase intelligence” are discussions about different approaches to address problems like the threat of terrorism that are equally or more effective, but do not involve extensive and constant surveillance.

    The speaker and session lists are online. The topics look provocative and interesting, and we hope to have a report or two from the conference here at WorldChanging.

    Become a Citizen Journalist

    We've been watching the growth of OhMyNews from the earliest days of WorldChanging. Reports from the original Korean-only version of the collaborative news site were influential in the 2003 Korean elections, and the English-language "International" version has become an interesting source of global perspectives, features and opinion. Now OhMyNews is opening up its "citizen reporter" system, making it possible for anyone to contribute stories.

    After submitting your registration details with OhmyNews for confirmation by our staff, you will find your very own reporter's desk where you can keep track of readers' reactions in real time. This includes the number of people who've read your stories and their comments, and the amount of cybercash you earned.[...] OhmyNews International editors will read through your stories, fact-checking them and editing for style, making them more polished for your readers.

    This last bit is what distinguishes OhMyNews from other collaborative news sites like Slashdot or Kuro5hin, which implicitly rely on their readers to do the fact-checking for them. Wikinews also relies on readers for fact-checking, but as a wiki, readers can make fixes directly.

    (Via Smart Mobs)

    April 14, 2005

    Business Ethics Magazine's 100 Best Corporate Citizens, 2005

    Business Ethics magazine has just published its list of the "100 best corporate citizens" for 2005, the sixth consecutive year they've produced such a listing. Companies from the top 1,000 biggest publicly-held firms are rated on how well they respond to the needs of shareholders, their communities, minorities and women, their employees, the environment, human rights, their customers and ethical governance. It's an interesting list (PDF); some familiar names rate highly, as do some unexpected firms, while some well-regarded companies don't appear at all. This could be because of the weighting of the various categories, or because scoring is based in part on whether the candidate firms respond to a questionnaire from the magazine.

    The magazine's ratings add categories as ethical concerns evolve. The "governance" category is new this year, for example, in response to the growing concerns over the behavior of corporate management. I wouldn't be surprised to see energy efficiency, transparency, and "production sustainability" added in years to come.

    (Via Gristmill)

    Starbucks & Nike, Doing the Right Thing

    Starbucks is #42 on the Business Ethics 100; Nike is #31. Neither firm is without controversy. But today comes a bit of news about each which underscores why these companies made the list.

    Starbucks announced today that it is committing to buying 5% of the electricity for US stores from renewable power sources; the move will cut emissions by an amount comparable to removing about 3,200 cars from the road. Now, five percent isn't that much, and in years to come we'll all do much better than that simply by being on the grid. Nonetheless, high profile companies making efforts like this is one of the drivers that will bring that future about faster.

    Nike, fresh from unveiling its Considered line of enviroshoes, has just released a detailed corporate responsibility report (after having been silent on the issue since 2002). Among the topics covered in the report is a full list of its suppliers, a move to greater transparency which should be applauded, even by those who remain concerned about past practices. Nike is aware of the need for greater transparency in order to regain public trust: "We felt the risks of any future lawsuit were far outweighed by benefits of transparency," says Hannah Jones, Nike's vice-president of corporate responsibility. "Because if we've learned anything as a company, it's that closing down and not talking about the challenges and opportunities doesn't get you far."

    (Nike via Gristmill:TriplePundit)

    April 15, 2005

    European Review of Political Technologies

    From the second superpower to smart mobs to cyberdemocracy, information technology is reshaping how politics work in the developed world. Much of the discussion, however, has focused on the American experience -- Howard Dean, political blogs, electronic voting irregularities, and the like. But political technology can be found around the world, and (as should be expected) perspectives and opinions vary on its value and utility.

    The European Review of Political Technologies is a new journal published by the Politech Institute covering issues of governance and democracy online. The March 2005 issue is available online, with papers from researchers from NGOs, academia, and the corporate world. The papers (which are all in PDF) can be a bit dry, but for those of us interested in the evolution of democracy in the wired world, it's good to see some new perspectives brought into the mix.

    Solar Powered Drip Irrigation

    BP Solar is set to start building a large-scale solar-powered drip irrigation system in Sri Lanka. The first phase of the contract will bring the system to 5100 families, reducing overall energy consumption, soil erosion, and the use of dangerous kerosene-fueled pumps. Renewable Energy Access has some details, mostly about financing.

    And that's pretty much all I can find about what sounds to be an interesting project. The BP Solar and BP Solar/Australia websites don't have any information on this, and all the news reports I could find appeared to be simply republishing the Renewable Energy Access piece.

    Any of you have better leads on this?

    April 16, 2005

    Nine Inch Nails @ Home

    A sign of things to come? Nine Inch Nails, the rock band fronted by Trent Reznor, has released the digital loop files [70MB] for its latest single, in a format for the Apple music editing app GarageBand. Reznor is encouraging fans to remix, re-edit, and play with the sound files, making their own versions of the song.

    Powerful, inexpensive tools for creating and editing audio and video are increasingly in the hands of everyday people. Sometimes that means opportunities for entirely new creations; often, it means opportunities to play with existing cultural artifacts, making them new all over again. Remixes can be better than the originals. It will be interesting to see how successful Reznor's experiment turns out to be.

    (Via Metafilter)

    April 18, 2005

    "Environmental Heresies" -- Continuing the Discussion

    Stewart Brand's recent piece in Technology Review, "Environmental Heresies," is getting a bit of play for a number of reasons. Brand is relatively well-known, and his association with the founding of the Whole Earth Catalog gives him an immediate bit of green/counter-culture cred; furthermore, in the piece, he says that the threat of global warming is greater than the threat coming from nuclear power, and the chattering classes do seem to love the sight of an environmentalist endorsing nuclear power. Technology Review is continuing the debate online, with Joseph Romm (a specialist in energy and efficiency) responding to Brand's points, and Brand replying in turn. It's unclear precisely how long this blog debate will continue, but Romm has already raised some good issues.

    As I commented earlier, Brand's "heresies" aren't, really, and seem to reflect an awareness of the environmental movement as it stood a decade or three ago. With a couple of the subjects (population and urbanization), the weight of opinion shifted awhile back towards the positions Brand claims as "heretical," while with the others (biotech and nuclear power), Brand seems to miss that much of the debate focuses on corporate misbehavior rather than on some rejection of science. Can one find greens making the arguments that Brand rejects? Of course. But environmentalists aren't nearly so stuck in the 1970s as Brand seems to believe. Hopefully, Romm will help him see that.

    Looking back 1.5 Million Years

    While much of the historical climate record comes from ice cores, it's possible to get useful information from drilling in other kinds of material. Last year, scientists in Antarctica pulled an ice core reaching back 740,000 years -- the most ancient found up to that point. But last month, researchers retrieved lake bed sediment cores from Lake Malawi with samples going back further than any previous cores of any type -- 1.5 million years.

    "The lake has restricted circulation and virtually no oxygen at the bottom, so each year seasonal deposition of sediment creates a pattern like tree rings," King said. "With the cores we collected we'll be able to look at very old records of climate data simply by counting and analyzing the layers."

    The researchers [...] chose to drill Lake Malawi because its unique location and geology will enable them to reconstruct a high-resolution, tropical climate history stretching back through the time when massive ice sheets periodically covered high-latitude North America and Eurasia.

    Hacking the Conclave

    During the run-up to last year's presidential election in the US, we posted a number of pieces about the security of voting technologies. Today, Bruce Schneier, a widely-admired security specialist, posted a piece to his blog about the security of the current election people are paying attention to -- that of the new pope. I'll let you discover his conclusions for yourselves, but he does an excellent job dissecting the ways in which the conclave system has developed protections against fraud and abuse, and finding the flaws that remain. Are the lessons replicable on a scale greater than the college of cardinals? Perhaps, perhaps not -- but they're certainly worth thinking about.

    April 19, 2005

    Hybrid Center

    The Union of Concerned Scientists has now opened HybridCenter.org, a website focusing on hybrid cars, including reviews, explanations of technology, and editorials. Regular readers of Green Car Congress or the various hybrid-focused weblogs out there won't find much that's new at Hybrid Center, but since the UCS has been pretty active in promoting hybrid vehicles over the years, I would expect the content at Hybrid Center to be of generally high quality. The site's generally well-laid out, with little auto and hybrid related facts sprinkled about. My favorite: sales of the Prius now exceed sales of the Hummer H2.

    April 20, 2005

    Mars Methane Confirmed

    We've been following the progress of the discovery of methane in the Martian atmosphere for awhile now. First spotted by the ESA's Mars Express probe, the existence of atmospheric methane (which would be driven out of the air within 300 years) implies that Mars is much more lively than previously thought. Furthermore, methane is generally produced either through biological or geological phenomena; since we've seen no evidence for recent geological activity on Mars, a number of scientists are starting to seriously consider the possibility that Mars does, indeed, harbor life.

    Space.com now reports that Earth-based astronomers at the Infrared Telescope Facility on Mauna Kea have confirmed the presence of methane in the Martian atmosphere, particularly over the equatorial regions thought most likely to harbor microbial life under the surface. As we accumulate more data about the cycles and amount of methane, we'll better be able to determine whether the methane comes from abiogenic geological sources. Discovery of life on Mars would give us our first look at a new ecosystem, and even a simple and primitive one would add enormously to our understanding of how planetary environments work.

    April 27, 2005

    Virtual March on Washington

    StopGlobalWarming.org has launched a "Virtual March on Washington," a bi-partisan effort to demonstrate a consensus about the need to respond now to the threat of continued global warming. The "virtual march" aspect will be a series of specific examples of the current effects of climate disruption, starting with the Shishmaref native village in Alaska, going step by step towards DC. The entire "march" will take a year, and is scheduled to get to Washington in late April, 2006. Unlike some examples of online activism, StopGlobalWarming.org seems to have picked up the support of some relatively influential people: Robert Kennedy, Jr., Senator John McCain, and former presidential candidate Wesley Clark, among others.

    The site's new, and there's not a lot there yet. It has something of a rough social networking aspect, wherein people who join the "march" can link themselves to names of those who have already joined, as a way of demonstrating the spread of the idea. If you'd like to join, you can hit the main page of the site. If you'd like to add your name to mine (and you're certainly under no obligation to do so), you can join via my page.

    April 28, 2005

    Home Energy Audit

    How much energy does your home consume? You can use tools like the Kill-a-Watt to check specific appliances, but that won't help you figure out if the aluminum windows, uninsulated water heater or aging dishwasher should be your first choice of replacement. Fortunately, the Lawrence Berkeley Labs has a useful tool online: the Home Energy Saver.

    The HES is a website with a multiplicity of questions about your home's energy status. You can rely on averages or get extremely granular, as desired. The more detail you can give, the more accurate the results will be.

    Each page of the audit gives you a session ID#, with the encouragement to write the number down. I'd second that encouragement -- there are so many questions that a browser crash, forcing you to re-enter all the answers, is more likely to make you give up in frustration. I know of which I speak...

    April 29, 2005

    Three Little Candles

    Reader Patrick Di Justo commented on yesterday's "Earth Out of Balance" post with a remarkable observation. I want to make sure that people who don't normally read the comments see it, so I'm putting it here.

    The article quoted in the post noted that the additional energy trapped at the surface by greenhouse gases amounted to the equivalent of a 1-watt light bulb per square meter. But Patrick notes:

    A one watt lightbulb is a pretty bad image. Who has ever seen a one watt lightbulb?

    A birthday candle makes a better image. Three birthday candles together put out about one watt. Imagine three tiny pink birthday candles burning on every square meter of the Earth's surface. Every square meter of farmland, every square meter of ocean, of forest and tundra, in every sidewalk square in every city all over the world, imagine three tiny pink candles burning day and night.

    That's global warming.

    Homebrew 3D Printer

    Want to make your own fab lab but don't quite have MIT's resources? How about using Meccano (known in the US as "Erector Set". Stop giggling.) and a glue gun? reBang weblog shows us that New Zealand's Vik Olliver has done so; a picture is worth a thousand words:

    gluegunfabber.jpg

    He's reportedly able to get 0.25mm precision with the setup. He won't be making printed circuit boards with it any time soon, but it will be fascinating to find out what he can make with it...

    (Via All Art Burns)

    May 3, 2005

    The Circle Is Complete

    Just to make the self-referential circle complete, here is a cameraphone photo of Howard Greenstein at MeshForum reading WorldChanging -- specifically, Alex's post about Howard's photo of me...

    The talk went well, and I'll be posting a text version of it tomorrow. I'm told that an audio version will be available online soon, as well.

    (Update: Howard just showed me a picture he took of me posting this entry. I'm afraid that if we take this any further, this conference would collapse into a singularity, so we'll stop now.)

    May 6, 2005

    Sharpest Ever Global Map In Progress

    The European Space Agency's Envisat environmental satellite is constructing what will work out to be the most detailed image ever of our home planet.

    Over the next two years, the Envisat's imaging spectrometer will take a series of 300 meter images of Earth's land surface area; when completed, the image will require 20 terabytes of storage.

    The picture shown here is a mosaic from Envisat assembled from 1561 orbits taking place over May, July, October and November, 2004. Click it for a much larger version.

    May 8, 2005

    We Like Mike

    Mike Millikin, publisher of Green Car Congress and Sustainability Sundays anchor, was tapped over at Grist to do some Q&A with readers. Mike's answers to reader questions are useful, informative, and wide-ranging -- just what we'd expect. Among the topics he covers are the environmental effect of hybrid car batteries, car-sharing, and the relative efficiency of air travel.

    Check it out.

    May 9, 2005

    Nanomovies by Touch

    If you want to see what's going on at an atomic scale, you can't use a regular microscope -- atoms are smaller than the wavelength of visible light. Instead, nanoengineers, physicists, and others interested in mucking about in the realm of the very, very small use atomic force microscopes, or AFMs. AFMs build images by touching the tip of a probe -- just a couple of atoms across -- to the object to be imaged; the motion of the tip as it runs across the surface gets converted by computer to an image. Traditionally, this process is very slow, on the order of about one picture every ten milliseconds.

    MIT researchers have now figured out a method of capturing the images in microseconds -- fast enough to create time lapse movies of nanoscale motion. Why is this a big deal? Because this enables researchers to monitor microscopic bits of engineering (like microfluidic pumps), keep tabs on the function of nanotechnological devices, even capture movies of biological activities at the sub-cellular level. Imagine a movie showing the replication of DNA.

    May 10, 2005

    I Voted For You Because...

    Use of the web as a locus for political organization and discussion doesn't have to end once an election occurs. Very often, successful political figures take their victories as signs of full vindication of policies and proposals, even when voter feelings were less certain or more nuanced than the politician recognizes. Now the team that brought UK voters "They Want To Be Elected.com" -- allowing citizens to annotate party platforms -- has come up with I Voted For You Because.com, a chance for UK voters to explain why they voted the way they did, addressed not to other voters, but to the elected officials themselves.

    This team is also responsible for They Work For You.com, which tracks the votes and positions of members of Parliament. These sites are wonderful examples of the web's potential in the political world -- it's more than tool for organization, it's more than a place to have shouting matches, it really can be an accessible mechanism for sharing knowledge about the world of politics.

    May 11, 2005

    Self-Replicating Robots

    Bill Joy must be tearing out his hair right about now.

    Cornell University researchers have developed a methodology for self-replication by machines. That is, they've designed robots that can build copies of themselves. Although these robots can do nothing more than make more robots (as long as the components hold out, at least), self-replication has some serious applications for dangerous environments:

    Lipson suggests that the idea of making self-replicating robots out of self-contained modules could be used to build working robots that could self-repair by replacing defective modules. For example, robots sent to explore Mars could carry a supply of spare modules to use for repairing or rebuilding as needed, allowing for more flexible, versatile and robust missions. Self-replication and repair also could be crucial for robots working in environments where a human with a screwdriver couldn't survive.

    The scariest thing in the report? The note that one of the Cornell researchers has since moved to work at Microsoft.

    (Reppy: "You appear to be making a duplicate of yourself. Would you like help with that?")

    May 12, 2005

    Leapfrog Blog

    NextBillion.net describes itself as bringing together "the community of business leaders, social entrepreneurs, NGOs, policy makers, and academics who want to explore the connection between development and enterprise," with an explicit focus on the ways in which poverty can be eliminated through profit-making activities. Its blog "Development Through Enterprise" launched formally just last week. Many of the posts on the site so far read like brief entries in the WorldChanging "Leapfrog Nations" category, and in fact we've covered a number of the items they discuss -- for example: the India "Mobilis" computer (WC post here); the Vodafone study on the impact of mobile phones in Africa (WC post here); and the connection between nanotechnology and reaching the Millennium Development Goals (WC post here).

    The posts on NextBillion won't always line up with the approaches we take here on WorldChanging, but -- at least at this early point in its history -- it definitely looks like a resource to add to one's RSS list...

    (Via SmartMobs)

    May 18, 2005

    Masters of Design

    The new issue of Fast Company -- a dot.com-era business magazine still hanging on -- is all about design, and looks to be fairly interesting reading. As of right now, among the few web-accessible pieces are a series of profiles of different designers, showing the breadth of design thinking across a variety of disciplines. Probably the most WorldChanging-relevant entry is the profile of Bruce Mau, whose "Massive Change" project has proven both inspiring and surprisingly controversial.

    For Mau, design is a powerful tool that's best used to attack vexing problems. The exhibition leads viewers through spaces defined by challenges where there are new opportunities -- many spurred by technology -- for design to play a problem-solving role. There is, for example, a humble but elegantly designed purifier that makes drinking water accessible to the developing world. More than anything, Mau's goal is to push people to rethink their preconceptions about design and what design can accomplish.

    May 19, 2005

    Solar/Electric Buses, India-Style

    Reva Electric Car company -- the Indian automaker behind the "G-Wiz" electric car -- has been tapped by the Dehli government to build a fleet of solar-charged electric buses in time for the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

    [Minister for Science and Technology Kapil] Sibal said Delhi government officials would soon visit Reva's facilities to study the prototype developed for a smaller 16-seater air-conditioned bus. [...]"Considering the fact the proposed bus would be environment friendly, with very little expense on recharging the battery, low maintenance, running cost of Rs.1.20 per km, the social benefit of less pollution - this is an altogether workable proposition," said Sibal.

    (Via GCC)

    Extreme Green Makeover

    The ABC television show "Extreme Makeover Home Edition" ends its season this Sunday night with a green twist: the rebuilt house will include both photovoltaic and wind power systems.

    PV Powered of Bend, Oregon, along with Sun Power Corporation (CA), Perfect Power (AZ), Unirac (NM) and The Good Power Company (AZ) were chosen to coordinate, design and install a state-of-the-art, 2kW PV generation system for the deserving family's new home. The system uses a combination of the highest efficiency inverter (PV Powered) and modules (Sun Power) available today.

    As an added bonus, Southwest Windpower installed a 1kW wind turbine to augment the home's PV system. With an abundance of sunshine and wind available in Flagstaff, the home will receive 65-75% of its energy needs through clean, green renewable sources, and the Piestewa Family will see a significant decrease in energy costs. The addition of a grid-connected wind power system made this the first hybrid PV/wind system installed in the state.

    As interesting as this is -- and it's certainly a good thing to have renewable power sources play such a prominent role in a relatively popular home show -- it doesn't look like it will be the WorldChanging Home Makeover. Renewable energy is good, but there's a lot more to a green home than solar panels and wind turbines. But it's yet another early warning sign of a cultural shift; don't be surprised to see "Sustainable House," "Green My Ride" and "America's Top Ecoactivist" on the Fall schedule in a year or two...

    (Via Sustainablog)

    May 20, 2005

    Penguins in Cuba

    The Cuban government has some serious problems, but occasionally it does make some reasonable decisions. They announced this week, for example, that they will eliminate the government use of Microsoft Windows in favor of Linux. Perhaps the biggest surprise in this announcement is that they hadn't done so already. Red-baiting notwithstanding, there are compelling reasons for the adoption of Linux (and other Free/Open Source Software) by developing nations -- lower cost of distribution, the ability to customize the applications for local needs, and the utility of open source as an educational tool, among others -- and some leapfrog countries have embraced it whole-heartedly.

    Besides, for those of us hoping for positive developments in a post-Castro Cuba, the spread of a system with the underlying philosophy of free inquiry and experimentation is a pretty good early indicator...

    Global Wind Map

    We've linked to wind power maps before -- maps of US wind potential, maps of US actual production, and the "SWERA" project looking at solar and wind potential in the developing world. But we haven't yet seen a map of global wind power potential. But we will soon.

    Stanford University's Cristina Archer and Mark Jacobson have just published an article for the Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres mapping global wind potential. Over 8,000 wind speed measurements around the world were analyzed; of those, almost 13 percent of the stations examined receive sufficient annual average wind strong enough for power generation. North America has the greatest concentration of potential wind power sources, followed by the southern tip of South America and the Australian island of Tasmania. But how much power could be produced?

    The authors found that the locations with sustainable Class 3 winds could produce approximately 72 terawatts and that capturing even a fraction of that energy could provide the 1.6-1.8 terawatts that made up the world's electricity usage in the year 2000. A terawatt is 1 trillion watts, a quantity of energy that would otherwise require more than 500 nuclear reactors or thousands of coal-burning plants.

    The paper is behind a subscription barrier, but I've submitted a request for a copy for review.

    May 21, 2005

    Postindustrial Design

    While keeping in mind the admonition that referring to oneself as "post-" anything is inherently constraining, the notion of "postindustrial design" has a definite ring to it. But what exactly does the term mean? HyperWerk FHBB, a department of the University of Applied Sciences in Basel, Switzerland, is sponsoring a competition to find out.

    We are looking for your interpretation of Postindustrial Design: "What does a Postindustrial Designer do?"The task is to express your thoughts and ideas on this subject on a front of a postcard. Three works will be awarded. The first prize will be printed on a postcard and distributed throughout Switzerland.

    The competition began May 16, and runs through June 12. Judging will be completed by June 19. Time to get out your Sharpies and/or Wacom pads!

    May 22, 2005

    Chinese Power Plans

    China Daily reports that Beijing plans to make offshore wind generation a significant part of its power generation network over the next couple of decades.

    Sea winds could be harnessed to generate an estimated 750 gigawatts, although few projects were under way now, [vice-chairman of the Chinese Wind Energy Association] Shi said.

    This would be around 70 percent higher than the country's total installed generating capacity at the end of 2004 and maybe three times the potential of onshore sites.

    China aimed to have 20 gigawatts of wind-generating capacity installed by 2020, equivalent to around 1.0 percent of annual electricity consumption at that time, Shi said.

    (Insert sound of screeching tires here) -- China plans to have a national electricity consumption footprint of 2 terawatts by 2020?!?!? That's roughly equivalent to total global electricity consumption now. Somebody get Amory Lovins to Beijing to help them understand the efficient use end of things, stat!

    (Via Sustainablog)

    May 23, 2005

    Open Source Brain Visualization Tools

    The notion of layering data onto maps doesn't just apply to cityscapes. It can be rather useful for brain surgery, as well. A recent article in the Financial Times profiled Atamai, a company which makes "virtual augmentation for neurosurgery" software, allowing the information coming from probes in brain tissue to display against a 3D representation of brain structures. Two aspects of the story stood out: the first, that the team which came together to form Atamai conceived of the project as a "GPS for the brain," a way to construct a standardized way of mapping brain locations for surgery; the second, that much of the code is open source, and runs on a variety of computer hardware (pretty much anything able to run Python and the VTK graphics suite).

    An open source virtual augmentation system for locational positioning during brain surgery? I'm dizzy from the futurism.

    (Complete text of article at -- and found via -- BookOfJoe)

    May 24, 2005

    The Pioneer Anomaly

    Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 -- launched in 1972 and 1973 to explore Jupiter and Saturn -- have traveled to the most distant fringes of the solar system. As their fuel was spent decades ago, their travels are subject only to momentum and gravity. Therefore, their paths should be eminently predictable. Problem: They're hundreds of thousands of miles away from where they should be, and deviating by ~8,000 more miles every year.

    The Pioneer Anomaly, as it's called, is one of the biggest physics mysteries around. JPL scientists started working in 1980 to figure out why Pioneer 10 and 11 get more and more off-course every year, proposing, testing and eventually discarding various explanations. It may turn out to be that our understanding of physics is due for a serious re-evaluation. Problem #2: NASA is about to destroy our only means of figuring this out.

    The main body of data from the two spacecraft exists only on magnetic tapes that can only be read by an obsolete computer system. Access to the tapes (from 1972-1987) would allow researchers to go over every bit of information recorded by the probes. But NASA has pulled funding from further research into the anomaly, and is set to demolish the only computers able to read the data.

    The Planetary Society, a group of space exploration enthusiasts, is trying to pull together sufficient money to save the computers from destruction, pull the data, and begin the analysis. The amount needed is startlingly small -- only about $250,000 -- considering that it's looking more and more like the result could be rewriting the laws of physics.

    Carbon Tax in the UK?

    If nothing is certain but climate disruption and taxes, here come the taxes part. The Royal Society, the highly prestigious UK scientific organization, is calling on the government to tax carbon dioxide emissions from all sectors, as the government has not done enough to curb CO2 emissions through other policies. They're particularly concerned that the upcoming closure of aging nuclear power plants will actually increase the use of fossil fuels in the UK and subsequent greenhouse emissions.

    If the UK adopts such a tax, they wouldn't be the first; as we noted recently, New Zealand will begin taxing carbon in 2007.

    (Via Green Car Congress.)

    May 25, 2005

    Human Changing (Continued)

    [the continuation of the WorldChanging Interview with Ramez Naam, James Hughes and Joel Garreau. Part One here.]

    Continue reading "Human Changing (Continued)" »

    May 26, 2005

    Amory Lovins vs. James Kunstler

    Opinions on James Howard Kunstler's latest tract, The Long Emergency, vary pretty widely here at WorldChanging. Alex disagrees pretty strongly with Kunstler's dystopic vision; JonL found it (at least its manifestation in an interview in Salon) to be a "breath of fresh air." Personally, I'm in Alex's camp -- I'm tired of Apocaphilia in its various manifestations, and Kunstler in particular seems to claim that we can do nothing to head off disaster. Moreover, any attempts to invent better, more efficient, less damaging tools are pointless, in Kunstler's view, and he calls out Amory Lovins' "hypercar" idea for particular ridicule.

    Lovins didn't like that, and responded to Kunstler. Salon managed to get Lovins' response, as well as a second exchange between the two. I'd have to say that Lovins comes across as the clear winner of the debate, although that's undoubtedly my own biases talking, at least in part. Not just my bias for Lovins' perspective, though, my bias for research over accusation and thought over fear. Or, as Lovins puts it, "Facts are more mundane than fantasies, but a better basis for conclusions."

    As with all Salon pieces, you either have to subscribe (a nominal sum, and well worth it in my view) or sit through a brief advertisement before getting access to the piece.

    May 27, 2005

    "Project for a New European Century"

    Okay, so the article title is a bit pointed, but the argument made by Mark Leonard -- that the model for success in the 21st century will be Europe, not the US -- is an interesting one. The article, in the current issue of The Globalist, is pulled from Leonard's book Perpetual Power: Why Europe Will Run the 21st Century. Although Leonard focuses primarily in the article on diplomatic and political interactions, the notion that the European model will do better in the 21st century parallels some of what we've explored here. In short, getting a jump now on a transition to high-efficiency, sustainable design could better position Europe to handle climate disruptions and "end of oil" scenarios. Add that to Leonard's argument that cooperation, international organizations and a focus on carrots over sticks is a winning strategy, and it makes for a scenario undoubtedly giving folks in DC stomach pains.

    May 28, 2005

    Microbe vs. Microbe

    Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus -- or MRSA -- is an antibiotic-resistant form of the common microbe. Staph infections can be dangerous to people already ill or injured, and the proliferation of the antibiotic-resistant form is proving a serious headache to medical professionals. But a newly-discovered deep ocean bacterium, Actinomycete verrucosispora maris, produces a unique antibiotic chemical, abyssomicin C, able to kill MRSA and, potentially, other antibiotic-resistant "superbugs."

    The most notable aspect of this discovery is the increased attention being paid to natural systems in our search for more effective medicines. In this particular case, the isolation of ocean microbes has meant that land-based bacteria have had no chance to evolve any kind of resistance to the deep sea antibiotics.

    May 30, 2005

    Pod Mobs

    Audio commentaries were just made to be hacked.

    The rise of easily-distributed digital audio files and inexpensive portable players has made possible a world of homemade, underground alternative audio commentaries to use as substitutes for or adjuncts to the "official" versions found in museums and on DVDs. The New York Times notes the growing popularity of "remix MoMA," an alternative set of commentaries available at Art Mobs; these renegade tracks are provided by art students and instructors from the NY region, and have a style (and perspective) one is unlikely to find in the commentaries provided by the museum.

    The homemade commentary concept isn't limited to museums. MP3 walking tours are becoming increasingly commonplace, giving tourists a peek into a city's culture not always available in the popularized accounts (and, incidentally, helping the visitors blend in with commonplace MP3 player headsets). And alternative DVD commentaries, while not giving the insider's perspective that one gets from hearing the writer or director talk about a movie or TV show, can give a wide range of critical opinions, observations about larger cultural connections, or even sarcastic humor of the MST3K variety.

    May 31, 2005

    RepRap Update

    Last March we pointed to the RepRap project -- an attempt by Dr. Adrian Bowyer of the University of Bath's Centre for Biomimetic and Natural Technology to design and build a Free/Open Source fabber. In the subsequent few months, Dr. Bowyer and his team have made substantial progress, including adopting a "Meccano" structure for the test unit similar to the Glue Gun Fabricator devised by Vik Olliver; a report by Vik Olliver detailing how to make one for yourself (PDF) can be found at the RepRap website, along with all of the current plans and design reports.

    (Via reBang)

    Seeing Double

    doublevision.jpgLast June, I posted about the Deja View device -- a wearable camera and hard drive recorder, allowing users to save digital copies of whatever they see, and an early indicator that the participatory panopticon would soon be here. I said at the time that it may be ugly, ungainly and too limited, but it was a sign of more advanced technologies to come. And I was right.

    I was alerted today to the DoubleVision system, a head-mounted surveillance camera hooked to a portable hard disk system. LCD display for on-the-spot reviewing is optional. Looking a bit like a small gun stuck to the side of the head, the DoubleVision improves on the portability and storage of the Deja View, while keeping the same general model. Most interesting about the system, however, is the marketing: the makers, Second Sight Surveillance, is explicitly aiming the DoubleVision at military, police and security users. No mention is made of sousveillance, media or citizen use (a "Lite" version of the system aimed at consumers uses video tape, not a hard drive -- still useful, sure, but definitely a near-dead medium).

    The website doesn't mention price, and doesn't appear to do actual distribution of the equipment. Pity; this is just the sort of gear every protest organizer and citizen watch group will want well before the next round of elections...

    June 1, 2005

    Green in the Frozen North

    Finland may have the world's best school system, but it is also a leader in another respect: eco-business. That's the message from this Washington Post article, at least, which profiles a variety of Finnish businesses taking advantage of the increasingly aggressive EU environmental rules.

    Proventia Automation [...] produces machines that can cut up television sets and computer monitors, separating leaded from unleaded glass with a laser and recycling all the glass and other valuable, reusable components. Noponen hopes the E.U.'s new standard will produce numerous new customers for this technology.

    More broadly, his firm can provide information technology and management advice to help manufacturers figure out how to meet the new rules most efficiently. Manufacturers of electronic equipment can actually make money by recycling their own creations when their useful lives are over, Noponen said.

    Finland, Finland, Finland... Finland has it all.

    June 2, 2005

    Climate Lawsuits

    Bruce Sterling, in his Viridian mailings, often draws an explicit comparison between greenhouse gas-emitting industries and tobacco companies, arguing that the same kind of lawsuits that have hammered the cigarette companies are likely to hit oil, auto and other heavy-CO2 companies, too. But now he's not alone in making that argument. An article from Agence France Presse -- translated and posted by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development -- explores the growing recognition that lawsuits around the world over greenhouse gases and heavy weather are nearly inevitable.

    "Litigation on climate-related damage is clearly on the horizon," says Richard Lord, a senior London attorney in commercial law. [...] "If generally accepted scientific assessments are accurate, global warming is likely to be the most expensive environmental problem ever," says Andrew Strauss, a professor of international law at Widener University Law School in Delaware and Pennsylvania.

    The biggest knot to untangle is likely to be apportioning the blame. How much responsibility goes to the maker of mega-SUVs (for example), and how much to the millions of buyers? But that won't mean that greenhouse-guilty industries will get off the hook easily. One of the probably unanticipated results of demands for more research and more certainty is that it will be hard for greenhouse companies to argue that they didn't understand the results of what they were doing...

    June 4, 2005

    Possible New Process for Storing CO2

    Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have come up with a new way of sequestering carbon dioxide emissions -- one based on natural processes.

    The process involves reacting carbon dioxide in the stream of waste gas from a power plant with water and calcium carbonate (limestone) or other carbonate compounds. Instead of carbon dioxide emissions, the plant generates wastewater rich in soluble bicarbonate ions, which can be released beneath the surface of the ocean. [research scientist with UCSC's Institute of Marine Sciences Gregory] Rau said he expects this would have little impact on the ocean.

    "Limestone weathering is one of the ways the Earth naturally mitigates increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide," Rau said. "But nature is slow. We propose to speed up the limestone weathering reaction."

    Rau argues that the release of bicarbonate ions in the ocean would actually improve conditions for coral reefs. Clearly this method will require a great deal of study before being implemented -- we really really don't want to make things worse in the ocean -- but nonetheless it's an interesting example of the greater use of natural processes as models for human activity. And in this case, it's a particularly important activity: sequestration is not the solution to global warming, but it's an important adjunct to an aggressive adoption of renewables and a cultural shift to a bright green society.

    June 6, 2005

    Steffen & Sterling -- the Complete Keynote

    Back in March, WorldChanging's Alex Steffen and Ally #1 Bruce Sterling gave the closing keynote to South by SouthWest Interactive. Dawn, Emily and Jon ably blogged many of the good ideas Alex & Bruce discussed, and a video excerpt was soon made available. But now, for your listening pleasure, is the audio of the complete SXSW keynote talk, presented by IT Conversations.

    The talk's available as streaming Windows media, streaming MP3, or as MP3 download. It runs about 53 minutes, and the download size is 24 megabytes.

    How can we redesign properity so that we can deliver prosperity to the whole human population? How we can design solutions to the problems of air polution, traffic, over-population, and food shortages? How do technological leapfrogging and the eviro-coture, treefrogging movement impact these problems? How can we change our long-term consumption patterns? How will bio-mimetics and neobiology help us create a sustainable ecology? [...] These are other questions that Alex and Bruce explore while they talk about how we can choose the future that we want and not the unthinkable future we'll have if we change nothing.

    June 7, 2005

    The Modern Medieval City

    Author Robert Neuwirth, a New York City native, took up residence in slums (or, as he terms them, "squatter cities") across the developing world -- among them, the Rocinha neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro, Kibera in Nairobi and Sanjay Gandhi Nagar in north Mumbai -- for his new book Shadow Cities: A Billion Squatters, a New Urban World.He sees in these squatter cities parallels to medieval urban communities, and this parallel is the subject of a talk he is giving this coming Friday, June 10, in San Francisco, for the Long Now organization. The monthly Long Now seminars are always quite interesting, and admission is free (although a $10 donation is appreciated).

    I try to attend these talks, and am always happy to chat with WorldChanging readers who run into me there. As always, a recording of the presentation will eventually be made available on the Long Now website.

    Drum on Peak Oil

    We mentioned Washington Monthly blogger Kevin Drum's series on peak oil last week; part 4 and part 5, along with a concluding observation, have now been posted.

    Grist's Dave Roberts is exactly right: Drum's policy observations are by far the most disappointing aspect of the series. Not only does Drum act as if all solutions are equally reasonable (and assume that solutions beyond improving car efficiency and drilling more -- such as changing the way we structure our communities -- are politically impossible), he pointedly ignores the bigger context of the "peak oil" scenario: greenhouse gases and climate disruption.

    That said, the Washington Monthly articles are worth reading if only for the straightforward and blessedly hyperbole-free analysis of what peak oil is, why it's a concern now, and how soon it could hit.

    Isn't It Enronic?

    Social network analysis does more than help us better understand who's sleeping with whom. It can also help investigators get to the bottom of one of the biggest corporate scandals in history: Enron.

    Jeff Heer, at UC Berkeley's Computer Science department, has built a viewer for visualizing and clustering the thousands of email connections between Enron executives made public as part of the Enron investigation. Enronic is a java application (requiring the mysql database of Enron email (219 MB)) allowing users to search through the messages, looking for patterns and otherwise non-obvious connections.

    (A categorized subset of Enron emails, with a focus on business-related messages, is also available.)

    While work remains to be done on making Enronic a fully-developed tool for corporate network analysis, it is already showing promise. An initial test run resulted in the system highlighting Tim Belden as critical, an Enron executive already convicted for conspiracy to manipulate the California energy market. Enronic is now part of the UC Berkeley Enron Email Analysis research program.

    (Apologies for the post title, but really, how could I resist?)

    (Via Future Feeder)

    June 8, 2005

    Online WIPO Forum on Intellectual Property

    The World Intellectual Property Organization is hosting an online forum on IP issues from June 1 through June 15 (i.e., the conversation started last week). The focus of the discussion is the World Summit on the Information Society, the series of meetings looking at the global evolution of information and communication technology access (we wrote about the previous meeting, in December of 2003; the next meeting is a few months away, in November of 2005).

    Intellectual property issues -- patents, copyright, free vs. closed source, genetic rights and the like -- show up often on WorldChanging, and (like many topics we discuss) solutions are neither easy nor obvious, but are possible to achieve with sufficient reasoned discussion. This is a good opportunity to get in and have your say about the direction global policies should take, and the concerns the world should keep in mind, as information technologies continue to spread.

    (Thank you, Agatha Dobbs!)

    Ten Easy Steps

    Want to reduce your greenhouse gas footprint a bit? The Union of Concerned Scientists has a ten step program for you. No admission that you're powerless over your addiction to carbon required -- in fact, the program recognizes that your CO2 output is under your control, and you can choose to reduce it.

    The "Ten Personal Solutions" are almost all easy, inexpensive, and extremely common-sense. Drive a high-mileage car, buy clean power when available, use Energy Star appliances, plant a tree -- that sort of thing. Taking all ten of these steps will reduce a household's greenhouse emissions by a little or a lot, depending on how non-green they were beforehand. Hybrid-driving, compact-fluorescent-using, walking-when-possible worldchanging types won't see a huge difference -- but that's okay, being an example that taking these steps won't hurt can be useful, too.

    (Via Treehugger.)

    June 9, 2005

    Brazil and Open Source

    Hey -- did you know that Brazil had become the world's biggest advocate of free/open source software for developing countries? If you've read WorldChanging over the last couple of years, there's no way you could have missed it. But if you need to get up to speed on Brazil's adoption of Linux and the free software philosophy, the BBC has a useful article. It hits all the key points, and does so relatively clearly.

    Government support? Check. Global Organization for Free Software? Check. Favelas? Check. Lula vs. Bill? Check.

    No surprises in store for those who have been following this story, but a nice summation of how things stand now. A good one to pass along to your friends and families...

    June 10, 2005

    Sustainability Rankings

    Sustainlane -- which describes itself as a "community-generated guide for living a better life" -- recently posted a ranking of 25 American cities on sustainability concerns. The leaders should come as no surprise (SF #1, Portland #2, Berkeley #3, Seattle #4, Santa Monica #5), and the list is (by and large) further confirmation of the correlation between sustainable urban centers and "cultural creative" centers. What makes the Sustainlane list particularly valuable, however, is that they are transparent with their methodology, and did more than simply count the number of hybrids or LEED buildings. Interestingly, none of the leading cities scored well in every category, and all but the #1 (San Francisco) had at least one aspect measured as a "sustainability laggard" or worse.

    Commenters at Cascadia Scorecard debated whether the good-but-not-great ranking of New York (#7) was too low, and whether the rankings gave too great a weight to plans instead of actions. That's the good thing about transparency of method -- if you disagree with how Sustainlane came to its conclusions, it's easy to draw your own.

    June 12, 2005

    Pierre Omidyar Interviewed

    Pierre Omidyar has done some very good things with the money he made founding eBay, not the least of which is starting the Omidyar Network. Business Week -- fast becoming the favorite economics magazine around WorldChanging -- interviews Omidyar this week, talking with him about the "power of community" and the need for greater attention to the social good.

    We have technology, finally, that for the first time in human history allows people to really maintain rich connections with much larger numbers of people. It used to be, your connected group was really your immediate community, your neighborhood, your village, your tribe. The more we connect people, the more people know one another, the better the world will be.

    Everywhere, people are getting together and connecting. And using the Internet, they're disrupting whatever activities they're involved in. It's because it's a fundamental shift in power toward the bottom, toward the people as they organize themselves, and away from a small group of people who want to impose a policy top-down. That's really the promise of the technology, and we're seeing it in all these fields.

    June 13, 2005

    FreeForAll

    FreeForAll (FFA) describes itself as "an international collaboration of libraries whose mission is to provide underserved nations with health science journal articles for free." A noble calling, to be sure. Begun earlier this year, FFA gets researchers and doctors in developing nations access to medical journal articles by having participating US libraries serve as intermediaries. Services such as PubMed and Loansome Doc index and distribute various biomedical research papers to libraries; FFA extends the reach of this program substantially.

    The FFA website is a single page linking to a handful of other sources for free journal articles and providing guides to ordering through FreeForAll (in English -- PDF -- and in Spanish -- MS Word format). The real action takes place on the FFA mailing list, where participating libraries can coordinate orders, exchange references and discuss the best ways to make sure that valuable medical literature is getting to the people who need it. More information on FreeForAll can be found on page 13 of this April 2005 Medical Library Association newsletter (PDF).

    Libraries wishing to participate in FreeForAll should visit this Yahoo! Group.

    June 14, 2005

    Tharsis India

    Dr. Amitabha Ghosh, a NASA planetary geologist on the Mars missions, wants to bring the excitement of exploring space to India. Along with colleagues from NASA -- both US-born and India-born -- Dr. Ghosh has started the Tharsis India Initiative, an attempt to accelerate space science education in India. The site includes a wide variety of links to NASA and JPL resources, as well as activities aimed squarely at young students.

    The Tharsis India team will be visiting India from June 10-June 24, talking about their experiences working on Mars missions. Dr. Ghosh is a vocal advocate of building up the Indian space program. India has a fairly well-established domestic satellite industry, but has not yet ventured beyond Earth orbit.

    (Via The Scientific Indian)

    June 15, 2005

    Sierra Club on Green Innovators

    Not only does Ally #1 have a lengthy article in the latest Sierra Club magazine, but the issue covers a group of innovators undertaking some very WorldChanging projects, including: the guy who developed the infrared-sensitive, quantum-dot based plastic solar cells; an Australian company using biomimetic design to improve industrial efficiency; and a profile of Natalie Jeremijenko (whom Emily interviewed for us last year), for example, updates us on some of her latest environmental technology ideas:

    ...creations include a particulate-sensing "Clear Skies" mask bicyclists can wear to find out what's in the air they breathe, a virtual tree that can be grown on a computer desktop (its rate of growth is determined by a CO2 meter plugged into the computer's serial port), and a "printer queue virus" that counts the number of pages consumed by a printer and spews out a cross section of a tree stump when it's used up a tree's worth.

    Cameraphone Augmented Reality

    CamBlaster! is a game which can only be played on a cameraphone. It provides moving targets that the player can "shoot" while moving the camera around. The site's a little vague on how this is accomplished, but presumably the software looks for changes in what the camera sees and figures out direction and speed of movement. It is even able to keep track of how far the camera has moved, and can put the same targets back where they (apparently) were when the camera moves back to its original position.

    Don't think of it as a game; think of it as an early-indicator, and think about how it might combine with other mobile phone technologies. Take the (horribly named) "crunkies" idea I posted about last week, a system for planting location-based messages, "tagging" the space. Adding in the ability to gauge roughly what direction the camera is facing (with the "origin" set by pointing it at a given item) would allow for a more complex set of tags, with different SMS messages coming in depending upon where the cameraphone was pointed. Or add the animations to some kind of barcode reading system for the cameraphone, so that icons for the results could be shown over the item and remain tagged in place even when the cameraphone is moved around.

    This gets really interesting when you start adding in heads-up displays...

    (Via Picturephoning)

    June 16, 2005

    Improvement to LED Efficiency

    It's becoming increasingly clear that the (very near) future of lighting is solid-state. Light Emitting Diodes are already among the most energy-efficient illumination technologies. Now researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have devised a way to boost the light output from white LEDs by up to 60% without changing power requirements. How do they do it? A specially-shaped lens prevents "backscatter" photons from being reabsorbed by the diode. The main downside is that it makes the LED larger; it's as yet unclear how much of a problem that will really be, however. Commercial application of the idea should be hitting the shelves within a couple of years.

    June 17, 2005

    Standing Out

    Among the differences between the Honda Civic Hybrid and the Toyota Prius -- both companies' main hybrid vehicles -- is the underlying design philosophy. The Prius has a unique look, one that immediately identifies the car and the driver; the HCH, conversely, looks effectively identical to the gasoline-only Civic (with a few small differences that only a few will note). Honda was explicit about its desire to make the HCH (and its more recent sibling, the Accord hybrid) be thought of as just another Honda.

    Toyota recognized, however, that the symbolic and technological arguments for buying a hybrid outweigh the economic arguments, and that most folks who seek them out have little aversion to being identifiable as hybrid drivers. In that spirit, Honda has decided that its 2006 model year Civic Hybrids will have sufficiently distinctive styling that they will be immediately distinguishable from the gas-only Civics. The Honda spokesperson said that it won't be as radical a look as the Prius, but there will still be clear differences. A side benefit will be a small improvement in mileage.

    The question this raises, at least for me, is whether the growing availability and ubiquity of hybrids will mean that Honda was right before -- and most hybrids will eventually look like other cars -- or that we're seeing a paradigm shift in auto design, and as more hybrids get on the road, we'll see more "unusual" styles.

    Corporations For Carbon Taxes

    If you've followed WorldChanging for any length of time, you'll know that it's increasingly evident that corporations are waking up to the problems posed by climate disruption. There's self-interest involved, of course; a late, haphazard, panicked response to global warming could be as bad for business as no response at all. The Los Angeles Times published a lengthy report earlier this week -- reprinted by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development -- detailing the ways in which big American companies are trying to push Washington to be more active on the subject.

    There is also far less momentum for global warming regulations in the House than in the Senate, backers acknowledge, making passage of any legislation unlikely.

    "We're not there yet in the House, quite frankly. These businesses are way ahead of us," said Rep. Sherwood L. Boehlert (R-N.Y.), who supports a federal program to reduce greenhouse gases. The Bush administration stance "happens to be wrong," he added, but he expressed optimism that it could change as dissenting businesses become more vocal.

    For many of us, the proposals pushed by the big companies will seem timid and a bit too-easily gamed. The importance here is changing the course of the political conversation. Right now, it's stuck at "should we do something now?" -- with enough momentum, it will become "how much should we do?", which in turn can soon become "how much more do we need to do?"

    Tiny Fuel Cells

    The development of a button-sized fuel cell by Cal Tech professor Sossina Haile has gotten a bit of attention (e.g., Treehugger, Gizmodo) due to its small size and relative power. The research was reported in last week's Nature (as usual, sub required for full article, but the supplemental figures include a nice illustration of the fuel cell structure). The power density of these fuel cells is quite high. Predictions that they'll eventually replace batteries in laptops and MP3 players are premature, at best. While the life of a fuel cell may be far greater than that of a battery, refilling a fuel cell means either inserting a disposable fuel cartridge or refilling the propane tank -- neither of which has the convenience of a plug.

    The greater life and power density of a fuel does seem well-suited for microbots and microbot flyers, however, enabling a longer movement and sensor/signal life than batteries. As microbots are generally too small to recharge themselves with solar, long-life fuel cells have another clear advantage over batteries: easier refueling in the field.

    A Location-Based Wikipedia

    Russel Buckley at the Mobile Technology Weblog has written "A Manifesto for Taking Wikipedia into the Physical World," an exploration of how the Wikipedia concept could be extended to physical spaces. He's essentially arguing for an open urban informatics model, one combining camera phone networks, virtual tags and location-based services. What makes his argument novel is that it makes the wiki concept central to the model -- anyone can annotate, update and edit.

    The information would be from a variety of new and existing online sources. Some compiled especially for the Mobile Wikipedia by citizen contributors, some merely linked to sites that are already there. Citizen journalists would create the physical world links and then edit how the information was presented online - probably when they were back at a terminal more suited to the purpose. This might be a PC, or when they were able to dock their phone into a larger screen and keyboard combo.

    Like the original Wikipedia, it would have potentially unlimited links and content and would be self-editing.

    The argument isn't entirely new, but Buckley puts a nice spin on it, and explores some of the issues raised by trying to implement it.

    June 19, 2005

    Fueling Aviation in a Post-Oil World

    While batteries and hydrogen fuel cells are variously bandied about as appropriate power sources for cars, and high-speed trains (also electric, or diesel-electric hybrid) an excellent choice for longer-range travel, the question remains of how airplanes will fly without energy-intensive aviation fuel. After all, you can't really run a jet-plane equivalent on batteries. Alternatives like airships and "gravity planes" are interesting, but have substantive drawbacks, mostly regarding speed. And virtual reality (even with "claytronic" avatars) is still nowhere close to being a strong alternative to face-to-face contact.

    Blogger and occasional WorldChanging commenter "Engineer-Poet" tackles the question of post-oil aviation in a new post on his blog, The Ergosphere. The post is particularly interesting in the way he peels down the issues and lays out just where the solutions could come from. The short answer is liquid methane, which actually has some advantages over current jet fuels. The entire argument is worth reading, so don't just go by this one-sentence summary.

    Eastern Winds

    Wind power projects are becoming so commonplace it's hard to keep up with them all, but reports of two new ones stood out this week as further examples of energy leapfrogging in action.

    The World Wildlife Fund details the opening of Southeast Asia's first wind farm, in the Philippines. Rated at 25 megawatts, it's not massive, but is a good first step. Over 70 megawatts of additional wind power should be coming online in the next few years, and the WWF estimates that the total wind potential in the Philippines amounts to 7.4 gigawatts. (via Sustainablog)

    And Alternative Energy Blog offers a brief report of a new one gigawatt wind farm underway in China. The details are light (and the original source, People's Daily Online is no help), but if it is built, this would be the biggest wind farm yet in China.

    Tentative steps, to be sure, but positive ones.

    June 20, 2005

    YASB (Yet Another Solar Breakthrough)

    Solar electric company HelioVolt announced that it will be developing "building-integrated copper indium selenide" photovoltaic panels. Copper indium selenium (CIS) is considered the best-performing and most rugged "thin film" photovoltaic material, but has suffered from being far too difficult to produce. HelioVolt claims to have figured out a way to make the material relatively inexpensively and very quickly. CIS is able to be coated on building material for which silicon cells are unsuitable; if the HelioVolt claims are realized, this could be a big step forwards for greater application of building-integrated PV.

    (Via @Monkeysign, which also links to a 1999 article from Siemens describing CIS in more detail.)

    Desertification -- What Are The Options?

    For a variety of reasons, some related to climate disruption, some not, the desert areas of the Earth's surface are growing. As many of the planet's poor live in the dry regions, the loss of economic and agricultural productivity is a particularly serious issue for reasons of both environmental sustainability and amelioration of poverty. Nature reports that the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment addressed some of these issues, and has now released a more detailed report on their findings: Ecosystems and Human Well-Being: Desertification Synthesis (PDF).

    Two elements of the report stand out in particular for me. The first is the use of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment scenarios as a tool for examining the future course of desertification; too often, the scenaric aspects of a study end up standing alone, withering from lack of attention and integration into the ongoing findings. The second is the exploration of options for dealing with desertification as a development issue; the MEA recognizes that, no matter how aggressive our mitigation and amelioration efforts, human activity has profoundly changed the planet's environment. We cannot get back to a pre-industrial condition. Even as we adopt practices to limit the damage done, we have to be looking at ways to adapt to the changes that have happened, and will continue to happen.

    Nanosats and Microbots

    If building and flying a microbot over the countryside is exciting, imagine how much fun it would be to control one in orbit.

    The Mini AERCam (Miniature Autonomous Extravehicular Robotic Camera) is a NASA-designed "nanosatellite" intended to be used by astronauts in orbit as a means of visually inspecting objects (including the underside of the space shuttle) and as an assistant during space walks. Measuring 7.5 inches in diameter and massing 10 pounds, it's not "nano" in the nanotechnology sense; it's much closer in form and function to a micro-sized "unmanned aerial vehicle." As with the micro-UAVs, it extends the functional reach of the users by providing views otherwise unattainable.

    The Mini AERCam is currently outfitted only with cameras, although other types of sensors are not out of the question. This version doesn't have any sort of ability to manipulate objects; although the Mini AERCam website doesn't mention it, such a feature seems an obvious extension of the device's capabilities. Like micro-UAVs, the nanosat is capable of both remote operation and independent flight. As the system intelligence increases, greater autonomy is planned, culminating in future AER design being used as robotic assistants for astronauts. Presumably, the software supporting autonomous operation could eventually be applicable to Earthly microbots, as well.

    Logistics and the Tsunami

    The Fritz Institute is a non-profit organization providing logistical support and software to humanitarian efforts worldwide; I spoke with its managing director, Dr. Anisya Thomas, last November. Its primary goal is to build up an "institutional memory" of best practices for relief and humanitarian logistics. To that end, the Institute has now published Logistics and the Effective Delivery of Humanitarian Relief, based on its experiences assisting with post-tsunami operations in Southeast Asia.

    The key finding: there aren't nearly enough people who understand logistics working in humanitarian fields.

    Logistics and the Effective Delivery of Humanitarian Relief can be downloaded from the Fritz Institute website (PDF).

    June 21, 2005

    PDA for the Blind

    I've mentioned before that I worked for a couple of years providing computer support to disabled college students, faculty and staff. While much of what I worked with was otherwise standard gear tweaked slightly to accommodate special needs, one of the coolest pieces of tech I ran across was a note recorder for the blind. The user didn't just talk into it, he typed notes to himself using an eight-key chording keyboard; the notes would then read back to him in a computer-generated voice.

    Well, that was the early 1990s. Today, the blind have a new note-taking device: the BrailleNote PK. It does everything the earlier version did (including speech output), but also has an 18-cell Braille display (essentially a series of pins that form Braille characters, read by running fingers along them), USB & Bluetooth for syncing with a PC, WiFi and a web browser, and a media player (along with a bunch of other features) -- and it weighs just under a pound.

    It's been my experience that technologies and adaptations intended initially for the disabled very often evolve into technologies for everyone. Sometimes, however, the reverse is also true: technologies meant for the mainstream can, occasionally, be adapted and transformed so as to accommodate those who can otherwise be cut off. And that's pretty cool.

    (Via Gizmodo)

    Google Map Goodness

    Google Maps has now added a bunch of global cities to its roster. Some have more of a zoom than other, and a number of big cities are missing, so don't get your hopes up about seeing your house from space. Still, it's very cool to see cities such as Paris, Istanbul, Cairo, Beijing, Mexico City and Kabul up close and personal...

    June 22, 2005

    Blogging 'Round the Clock

    WorldChanging ally Sustainablog will be celebrating its two year anniversary on July 11. In commemoration, Jeff Strasburg, Sustainablogger, will be holding a "Blogging 'Round the Clock" blogathon to raise funds for the Missouri Botanical Gardens' Earthways Center.

    Jeff's soliciting "per post" pledges. And not only will Jeff be blogging for 24 hours, he's asked a variety of other writers from what he terms the "sustainable blogosphere" to pitch in. You'll see some familiar names among the contributors...

    If you're not already reading Sustainablog, you should be. Sustainablog is a terrific resource for keeping tabs on what's going on in the world of environmental issues, and I'm happy to see the site celebrate another year. Congrats, Jeff!

    Solar Mass Transit

    Solar power may not yet be up to the task of powering mass transit vehicles, but it can do a fine job of powering mass transit stations. The Stillwell Avenue subway stop in Brooklyn has become New York City's first solar-powered train station, with over 76,000 square feet of thin-film PV generating 250,000 kWh a year.

    The picture at Renewable Energy Access demonstrates what a large-scale building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) system looks like. Interestingly, they don't completely block light transmission -- about 20-25% of the light gets through, reducing the need for artificial daytime lighting.

    Plastic Lubrication

    Lubricating oil is one of the myriad petroleum-based products that will become more expensive and harder to come by should the dire predictions of the Peak Oil folks come to pass. But chemical engineers at the University of Kentucky and ChevronTexaco have figured out a way to use waste plastics as the base material for engine lubricant. Only 1 million of the 25 million tons of plastic used in the United States every year is recycled; the rest is tossed into the garbage. The process developed by the researchers works with both polyethelene and poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) plastics; the resulting lubricant is the functional equivalent of high-quality lubricant made from natural gas. The article will be published in an upcoming Energy & Fuels journal from the American Chemical Society.

    Although battery-electric and fuel cell vehicles won't have the same lubrication requirements of internal combustion engines, hybrids -- even gas-optional hybrids -- do. If this process can be scaled up to commercial use (and early indications are that it can), it could provide a transition lubricant for the Peak Oil future, and reduce the problem of plastics going into landfills.

    June 28, 2005

    Saving Homes, Saving the Forest

    The favelas in and around Rio de Janiero regularly suffer from mudslides and floods resulting from the combination of heavy weather and deforestation. But if the denizens of the squatter cities have few recourses for lowering the weather risk, they can do something about the trees: plant more. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, favela dwellers have planted over 4 million trees around the edges of Rio, thereby reducing the threat of mudslides and floods. But the trees have had an even greater effect than that:

    In addition to saving lives, the municipal project has resulted in the return of dozens of species of birds, monkeys and other animals -- many not seen in decades. Natural springs have been reborn, air temperatures have become cooler, and mahogany, rosewood and other native species of tropical hardwood once more grow in the region.

    Nearby trees have also made it possible for residents to supplement their meals with fresh fruit, and to boost the local economy by selling fruit to the rest of the city.

    (Via Squattercity)

    Do-It-Yourself Solar Generator

    Phil Heiple wanted a home solar electricity system to act as a power backup and to serve as portable power for vacations. But being a do-it-yourself kind of guy, he decided to assemble his own. This page lists exactly how he did it, at a cost less than $300 total.

    It's worth noting that he didn't make a solar panel -- he bought one of those -- but a solar-charged power system. Whatever he needed to plug in actually pulled from the battery storage; the solar panel served to recharge the battery. In addition, the page appears to date from around 1996 -- and while the overall instructions are still quite valid, it would be interesting to see just how much better a system one could assemble for the same rough price with modern technology.

    (Via Make)

    Batteries on the March

    In the 1980s, there was much talk about "spin-off" technologies from government research, particularly military research -- devices and ideas first developed to benefit the Pentagon, and later used by the far larger civilian market (for example, the Global Positioning System). In the 1990s, the flow of ideas reversed, and political economists started to talk about "spin-on" technologies, a clumsy neologism covering the use by the military of off-the-shelf devices for reasons of cost, size or capabilities(for example, hand-held GPS units). We may be moving back towards the spin-off scenario, however, in the realm of portable power.

    PhysOrg has the latest example of this: advanced Lithium-ion batteries with up to 40% more power than standard batteries of equivalent sizes. The batteries are intended for use in power vests to be worn by soldiers, powering the variety of electronic gear carried by modern infantry. As such, the batteries need to operate in a far greater temperature range, be more rugged, and last significantly longer than off-the-shelf batteries.

    Those characteristics are also precisely the ones needed for more reliable batteries for electric vehicles, and the batteries look to be able to scale up in order to meet that demand. The improved battery technology also scales way down, for use in implantable medical devices.

    Storing the Sun in Cannisters

    One of the problems facing the distributed renewable power is that sometimes zapping the electricity down wires isn't your best choice, either for reasons of efficiency or of convenience. The Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich have come up with a novel solution, at least for solar power: store it in a metal ore.

    Solar heat is used to crack zinc from zinc oxide; the metal can then be readily moved around. The zinc can then be used in zinc-air batteries or to help crack hydrogen from water vapor. In both cases, the reaction with oxygen creates zinc oxide, which can then be used by the solar heater.

    The first trials of the solar power-plant have used thirty-percent of available solar energy and produced forty-five kilos of zinc an hour, exceeding projected goals. During further tests this summer a higher efficiency is expected. Industrial size plants, for which this is a prototype, can reach efficiency levels of fifty- to sixty-percent. The success of this solar chemistry pilot project opens the way for an efficient thermo-chemical process whereby the sun's energy can be stored and transported in the form of a chemical fuel. In this process the zinc is combined with coal, coke or carbon biomass which acts as a reactive agent, yet in this reactor only a fifth of the usual amount of agent is used. The sun's rays are concentrated on this mixture by a system of mirrors and the zinc forms as a gas which is then condensed to a powder.

    So the question for you engineering types out there: at what point does this become preferable to storing the power in batteries?

    Cyber Island off the Coast of Africa

    The Chicago Tribune reports on the desire of the tiny nation of Mauritius, off the east coast of Africa, to be the world's first "cyber island," complete with total WiFi coverage and high-speed connections to the global Internet.

    Mauritius has been struggling as the low-wage basis of its economy (largely textile manufacturing and sugar production) has become less and less viable. A leap forward is needed, and Deelchand Jeeha, the Minister of Information Technology and Communications, believes he knows what to do:

    In Ebene, just south of Port Louis, the capital, the government has built the first of three planned high-tech parks. It also has stepped up training programs to turn out tech-savvy workers and has rewritten its business rules in an effort to create an attractive investment climate. The changes are aimed at luring call centers, remote data backup facilities for companies worried about terrorist attacks and, eventually, software development companies.

    The biggest goal is the construction of a wireless internet connection to cover the entire 40-mile-long island. The biggest challenge is the government, however; although officially promoting the service, the Mauritius government owns the telecom monopoly, and is loathe to give up its high profits by opening the telecommunications market to competition. Fortunately, island citizens now say that the government is slowly coming around, and that many have gone from being dismissive of the plan to being cautiously optimistic about its potential.

    June 29, 2005

    "It Should Be More Green"

    Newsweek interviews Honda's chief US engineer, Charlie Baker, this week, and he sounds like exactly the kind of auto designer we need to clone. 7 out of the top 10 most fuel-efficient cars are Hondas, and while the company doesn't get the same kind of green cred often ladled out to Toyota, fuel efficiency is a core Honda philosophy -- the quote used as the title for this piece comes from Honda America's head, Koichi Amemiya.

    As you develop future vehicles, what are your assumptions about gas prices?

    We don't really care. Why would we?

    Well, because it could have an effect on consumers' choices.

    We don't spend a lot of time agonizing about fuel consumption. The answer is already clear. You are going to have the best fuel economy in class of any vehicle. Period. Have a nice day. You don't need to do any market research. You don't need to do any fancy negotiations because you are never going to get anything approved by the board of directors without proving you have the best fuel economy in class. That's it.

    My Honda Civic Hybrid may not have the Car of Tomorrow look of the Prius -- and I really wish I could retrofit it as a Gas-Optional Hybrid -- but this interview made me feel pretty good about my choice.

    PLoS Computational Biology

    The latest addition to the PLoS (Public Library of Science) stable is PLoS Computational Biology. PLoS comprises a growing array of academic journals which make all materials available for free over the net -- thereby making them open to poor regions unable to afford traditional library subscriptions. But what is computational biology, you ask? From the inaugural editorial:

    Computation, driven in part by the influx of large amounts of data at all biological scales, has become a central feature of research and discovery in the life sciences. This work tends to be published either in methods journals that are not read by experimentalists or in one of the numerous journals reporting novel biology, each of which publishes only small amounts of computational research. Hence, the impact of this research is diluted. PLoS Computational Biology provides a home for important biological research driven by computation—a place where computational biologists can find the best work produced by their colleagues, and where the broader biological community can see the myriad ways computation is advancing our understanding of biological systems.

    In short, computational biology is an interdisciplinary approach to using information technology as a fundamental tool for analyzing and describing living systems. Simulation, modeling, and bioengineering/biohacking all fall under this rather broad scope.

    Guide to Self-Assembly

    Technology Research News has an occasional series entitled "How It Works," describing in relatively straightforward language how important technological or scientific processes are accomplished. The latest is on "self-assembly," with a focus on biological replication. Self-assembly is particularly important for working at the nanoscale, as top-down assembly tools are simply too big and unwieldy to build anything quickly. Such techniques can mimic or even use DNA as a base for replication.

    I think the TRN piece doesn't go quite far enough in explaining how the DNA and protein tools are used, but it's a good start for understanding the basic processes involved.

    June 30, 2005

    Deep Impact

    Deep Impact is the NASA project to smack a probe into the surface of a comet in order to get some insights into what it's made of. The impact event will happen on Monday, July 4. The comet -- which will by no means be destroyed -- is Comet Tempel 1. The impact will be watched by a variety of space probes, and will be visible from some parts of the Earth.

    Why do this? Two main reasons. The first is that comets have, by and large, been around since the formation of the solar system, and taking a look at the guts of one can give some added clues about how the planets came to be. The second will be familiar to regular readers of WorldChanging: it will help us better understand how to keep comets from hitting the Earth. They don't hit very often, but when they do...

    A final digression: if scientists are concerned about Hollywood mangling science in the service of entertainment, they probably shouldn't be using Hollywood names for their projects to get more attention. Just saying.

    Flu Wiki

    Dr. Lucas Gonzalez' idea to use Wikipedia as a resource for flu pandemic preparation is a good one, and was inspired by the use of Wikipedia as information hub in the immediate post-tsunami days. But, just as the post-tsunami needs were greater than Wikipedia could support -- spawning the South-East Asia Earthquake And Tsunami site -- so too does the effort to head off a global avian flu emergency need its own home. And now it has one: Flu Wiki.

    The goal of the site is to be:

  • a reliable source of information, as neutral as possible, about important facts useful for a public health approach to pandemic influenza
  • a venue for anticipating the vast range of problems that may arise if a pandemic does occur
  • a venue for thinking about implementable solutions to foreseeable problems

    We wish them well.

  • More Eco-Protests in China

    The uprising over factory pollution in the village of Huaxi I posted about in mid-June was not an isolated incident. The month has also seen pollution-related uprisings in the village of Jianxia (over toxic waste from a battery factory) and in the Cangnan County region (over a power plant). An uprising in April in the village of Huankantou was also pollution-linked, although the proximate trigger was the death of two elderly protesters.

    If the smog-filled skies, poisoned lakes and spiraling fuel costs don't convince the Chinese government that they need to change direction fast, perhaps these villagers -- and millions more like them -- can.

    July 2, 2005

    Science Fiction Podcast

    CNN is experimenting a bit with podcasting, and they've just put out a special program (MP3) on summer science fiction. The guests include Harlan Ellison, Connie Willis, and WorldChanging Ally #1 Bruce Sterling. The interviews are fairly good -- and if you've never heard Harlan Ellison rant, you really should take advantage of the opportunity. And, of course, Bruce is Bruce...

    Interviewer: Does anything stand out in your mind as being truly exceptional in science fiction cinema?

    Bruce: Yeah, it's the ancillary rights. It's the lightsabers, it's the puppets, it's the plastic dolls. I'm not kidding!

    July 3, 2005

    Mars Journal

    MARS: The International Journal of Mars Science and Exploration (a.k.a. The Mars Journal) combines a couple of my obsessions. It doesn't take many weeks of reading WorldChanging to learn that I'm an Areophile (Greek for "Mars Geek"); in addition, we also post here with some frequency about open-access academic literature. The Mars Journal is a new open-access publication, currently funded by NASA, providing peer-reviewed publication of scholarly papers about the Red Planet. Open-access means that all papers and supporting data can be read freely; contrast this to traditional scholarly publications like Nature and Science, where links to their papers generally have to say "subscribers only."

    The Mars Journal is new, and is currently calling for papers. Issue areas it will cover include Mars Science (no surprise), Mars Technology, and Mars Policy, including discussions of "planetary protection." Author information and templates are available.

    Countdown to Impact

    The Deep Impact space probe has released its "impactor", which is now zooming towards the comet Tempel 1 at a speed of 23,000 miles per hour. It's scheduled to hit at 1:52AM EDT -- that's 10:52PM tonight for those of us on the west coast of the US, or just about 9 hours from the time of this posting.

    The impact should be visible with a moderate telescope. But if you don't have a scope, have too much surrounding light to catch an image, or simply live on the wrong side of the planet to see it, NASA is providing a "Near Real-Time" image viewer.

    July 4, 2005

    Green Car China

    In a move surprising just about nobody who reads WorldChanging, another one of China's big carmakers has announced (PDF) that it will start producing hybrid cars of its own design. Geely Motors, China's biggest privately-owned carmaker, says that commercially-available hybrid cars will be available by the Beijing Olympics in 2008. They claim to expect hybrids eventually to account for half of its annual sales.

    Earlier this year, state-supported automaker Chery announced plans to bring hybrids to market by 2006.

    (Via Green Car Congress)

    July 5, 2005

    Gas-Optional Hondas?

    Those who follow hybrid-electric automobile technology are well-aware that the Toyota "Synergy Drive" found in the Prius is considered more advanced than the Honda "Integrated Motor Assist" found in the Honda hybrids. Although the mileage figures are close, only the Synergy Drive can operate in motor-only mode, allowing the hybrid to run as an electric for short distances (this feature is what allows the aftermarket car hackers to turn the Prius into a fully gas-optional vehicle).

    Expect to see GO-HEV hacks for the Hondas soon, as the carmaker announced today that its new hybrid engine for the 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid will allow for motor-only operation at low speeds. The improvements will also increase overall power while reducing weight and cost, and will allow for a moderate increase in fuel efficiency. The new Civic Hybrids should be out this Fall.

    Who wants to lay odds on how fast the California Cars Initiative has a working gas-optional version of the 2006 HCH on the road?

    (Via Green Car Congress and Joseph Willemsen)

    Free/Open Source Software and the Preservation of Culture

    From the F/OSS online journal NewsForge comes a timely reminder of one of the less-often-discussed values of open software development: the ability to customize to meet the needs of people who speak declining languages. Bruce Byfield looks at the version of OpenOffice.org customized to work in the Scots Gaelic language, an official language of Scotland now spoken by less than 2% of the populace. This fall, the Gaelic OpenOffice.org will be distributed to schools across Scotland.

    The project began because Gaelic teachers were frustrated that students had to use English language software. Having Gaelic software, [Project Leader Evan] Brown says, "helps to provide an immersive language environment."

    In other words, users of OpenOffice.org Gaelic are likely to learn better because they do not have to use an interface in one language while trying to think and write in another. Also, although Brown does not mention it, the simple fact that Gaelic is being used in a software program might help convince students that it is a living language, in much same way that Gaelic TV shows do. Both are evidence that the language is part of modern life and not just a museum curio.

    Software in a language spoken by a small number of people will not be enough, in and of itself, to stop that language's decline. But it can slow the process -- and as information technology becomes a greater part of the global economy, and as the free/open source philosophy continues to spread, it could in the future serve as a platform upon which to start the process of restoring the language and culture.

    Thorium Point

    Wired News just published a brief piece on thorium as a fuel for nuclear reactors. Thorium-fueled reactors would produce about half the waste and 80% less plutonium than uranium-fueled reactors, and thorium is a more abundant element than uranium. The article notes that India is going forward with a thorium reactor this year.

    This is the first I've seen about thorium reactors in actual development, so I'm curious if any readers have better resources for information.

    Carbon Offset Price Wars

    David Bornstein's WC3K contribution about Terrapass elicited an interesting response. Eric Carlson, president and co-founder of Carbonfund.org, wrote to remind us that his organization (a) is a non-profit (unlike Terrapass) and (b) charges less per ton of CO2 than other carbon offset services.

    (And how do they do it? VOLUME! No, seriously -- they combine multiple offset donations to be able to purchase and retire large blocks of carbon credits from global carbon markets.)

    I had mentioned Carbonfund.org in my post last month about the utility of carbon credits and carbon taxes, but they're clearly worth giving another look.

    July 6, 2005

    Sunshine Mapping

    The European Space Agency's ENVISOLAR project is an ongoing effort to measure and map solar light intensity across the globe. Clouds, ozone, atmospheric aerosols and the like can reduce the amount of sunshine hitting the ground; this information is useful for businesses needing sunlight -- tourism, farming, and particularly solar power generation.

    ENVISOLAR takes data from a variety of satellite sources, such as the Heliosat-3 project, as well as the handful of ground-level solar intensity measurement stations. The measurements are akin to those done for the UN Environment Program's SWERA project, which looked at solar and wind potential in the developing world. The resulting solar radiation maps can be used by utilities to calculate best locations for and expected output from solar power facilities.

    It's unclear from the ESA site how much of the map data will be made available to the public; the ESA is generally pretty good about making material available, but they're often pretty slow about it. It would be great if the data could be made available in real-time, as an XML feed -- imagine what one could do with that and Google Maps...

    A Swiftly Tilting Building

    Chris Rorres, a mathematician studying models for the spread of disease at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Veterinary Medicine, was struck by the way that some buildings in earthquakes topple over rather than collapse, behaving like a capsizing ship. The metaphor was apt, as the tilting and toppling was the result of ground liquefaction, where otherwise solid soil can under certain conditions behave like a liquid. The paper that resulted, Completing Book II of Archimedes' On Floating Bodies (PDF), looked at how different shapes and structures dealt with liquefaction; Rorres' website contains links to visualizations of the results. The latest Discover describes some of Rorres' explorations of buoyancy and the possible new design ideas coming from this observation.

    New building requirements for earthquake-prone areas have not yet emerged from this research, but it is an interesting example of how we can come to understand better the needs of the human environment for survival in the a changing natural world -- and the unusual sources from which this understanding can emerge.

    July 7, 2005

    Fixing Nitrogen

    The conversion of atmospheric nitrogen to ammonia is the key to the making of fertilizer. The current method relies heavily upon petroleum as a feedstock for the process, and the prospect of declining oil supplies has left some people worried about the viability of fertilizer-based agriculture. As we mentioned recently, an alternative feedstock from algae is now being studied. Now researchers at the University of Oregon have come up with a method of fixing nitrogen that can be done at room temperature and pressure (unlike the traditional process) -- potentially a more environmentally benign and simpler process than the current method. The article in the upcoming Journal of the American Chemical Society is online, but requires subscription, etc.

    As usual, this is an experimental process taking years to get to commercial application, if ever. But it's also a good sign that peak-oil fears of the collapse of agriculture are probably unwarranted -- to whatever degree industrial agriculture can't shift to a fertilizer-free organic process, there look to be multiple possible alternatives to oil-based fertilizer.

    Using Plastic to Detect Life

    Nature News reports on the work of Mark Sims, exobiologist. He's developed a toaster-sized device to go on an upcoming ESA mission to Mars, intended to look for life -- using tiny patches of sticky plastic film.

    The Specific Molecular Identification of Life Experiment (SMILE -- and someone needs to start slapping people who push for acronyms like this) will look for biomarkers -- molecules that are strongly indicative of life, from complex hydrocarbons to amino acids. The plastic film patches have molecule-size cavities designed to match specific biomarkers. This is a common technique with Earthly sensors, but the base material is usually biological in origin; by using polymers, researchers can avoid contamination of the sample, and of the Martian environment.

    The SMILE biosensors may end up being used on Earth, too. As they are more resilient than biological material-based patches, they can be used in a wider array of applications. Scientists looking for extremophiles in deep sea vents or ice, forensic specialists trying to keep from contaminating samples, and security specialists needing inexpensive, rugged bioweapon sensors have all shown interest in the technology.

    We're Not Afraid

    The Internet forever changes the way we respond to events such as the London tube bombing. International solidarity is no longer limited to statements from politicians. Symbols of defiance and resolution are no longer only found at ground zero.

    We're Not Afraid is a website which appeared earlier today, and consists solely of image sent in from London and around the world of people holding signs saying, simply, "we are not afraid." Alfie Dennen started the site and posted the first image; there are now several dozen pictures, and the site continues to grow.

    Update: It turns out that this entry is a top link on Google for ' "I am not afraid" London' searches, which explains the surge of comments. Welcome to WorldChanging, new visitors. Please take a moment to look around -- we're a global weblog focusing on solutions to big problems. We talk about the models, tools and ideas for building a better, "bright green" world.

    Our goal is to let people know that, as bad as things can be, the tools for fixing our problems are available, if we're willing to pick them up.

    July 8, 2005

    Science, Not Songs

    Harvard Professor Calestous Juma is not one to shy away from controversy. As the head of the United Nations Millennium Projects's Task Force on Science, Technology and Innovation, he trumpeted his group's report that investments in science were, by far, the best way to improve development in poorer nations. Now he's making headlines by declaring that the funds from efforts such as Live Aid/Live 8 would be better spent on agricultural colleges than on food relief.

    In an interview with the BBC (RealAudio) earlier this week, he said "Science is very central to solving the bigger problems...Scientific collaborations with British universities will do more for Africa than distributing food aid. [...] Helping to build scientific expertise will do for Africa what the invention of the electric guitar did for Bob Geldof." He's interviewed along with one of the founders of SciDev.net, and it's well worth a listen.

    YAMFC

    Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are something of a worldchanging icon: biological systems that clean wastewater and generate electricity in the process. One system with two useful results. With so many different research teams on the job, MFCs are moving rapidly towards the "predetermined element" category of near-future scenarios.

    Reports of new developments in MFCs are frequent enough that we don't need to link to each one, but the story popping up on the science feeds today was sufficiently telegenic that it's worth a QuickChange. Researchers at Washington University at St. Louis have developed -- and patented -- a new MFC design that has improved overall energy density and a structure better suited for real-world use. The "Upflow MFC" has stacked chambers, and the test model they built is described as the size of a "thermos bottle" (and 90% of you now have an immediate mental image -- see? Telegenic).

    Moreover, the researchers claim that, when the efficiency is scaled up to closer to theoretical maximum, a single (presumably bigger-than-a-thermos) unit at a food-processing plant could power as many as "900 American single-family households" (and again -- you now have a sense of scale).

    July 9, 2005

    Smart Mobs for Homeland Security

    W. David Stephenson has been thinking quite a bit about the right way to counter the threat of terrorism. He argues (correctly, in my view) that the traditional military response is counter-productive at best, and that the only effective way to handle a distributed network of opponents is with a distributed network of protectors. He's talked about some of these ideas before, but in light of the London attacks, he has brought them together into a single post, "Smart Mobs for Homeland Security."

    Who would it comprise? All of us: My concept... was to harness all of these wireless devices in the public's control into an ad hoc, self-organizing system to both inform and empower the general public to play a significant partnership role in homeland security. A number of David's proposals will sound familiar to WorldChanging readers, in part because we've pointed to some of them before, and in part because he's definitely thinking along the same lines as we have been with the use of open, collaborative efforts to ensure our own safety.

    Biotech Leapfrogging in Central Asia

    Kazakhstan is making a play to become the regional biotechnology leader, according to this article in Science, and as described by open-source biologist Rob Carlson. Carlson quotes from the article: The government has approved plans and is now reviewing financing for a $50 million Life Science and Biotech Center of Excellence, supported in part by the World Bank. SciDev.Net has some additional details -- the project will be headed up by Erlan Ramanculov, a Kazakhstan-born researcher who worked in the US for over a decade, specializing in viruses.

    July 10, 2005

    Clinton at Aspen

    It's interesting to watch the evolution of global warming as a political issue in the United States. At the Aspen Ideas Festival, for example, former president Bill Clinton pushed the climate to the top of his agenda, arguing that action on global warming would have a variety of benefits: "We've got to make it a national security argument and we've got to make it a jobs argument and we've got to make the price of oil irrelevant," Clinton said, suggesting the country could create millions of jobs if alternative energy efforts received a fraction of the tax incentives that go to "old energy."

    What's notable here is that Clinton represents a very visible face for the Democratic Party, and if he is in fact pushing this as his key focus, we can expect to see the subject become a more frequent element in American political discourse.

    Mobile Phones for Development

    We've driven this point home: mobile phones are a crucial tool for leapfrog development. We're not alone in making this argument, but now a fairly notable source has taken up the banner -- The Economist. Although we're not always fond of the magazine's positions (and Alex is generally even less impressed with the periodical than I am), they do sometimes get it right in a big way. They're also a useful link to mainstream policymakers -- if The Economist is talking about it, it must be worth taking seriously.

    The article, "Calling an end to poverty," covers examples we've brought up numerous times here, from mobile phones as economic tools for rural citizens to the GSM association's drive to produce a phone that's both affordable in the developing world and has useful capabilities. This bit of the article sums it up nicely:

    Mobile phones have become indispensable in the rich world. But they are even more useful in the developing world, where the availability of other forms of communication—roads, postal systems or fixed-line phones—is often limited. Phones let fishermen and farmers check prices in different markets before selling produce, make it easier for people to find work, allow quick and easy transfers of funds and boost entrepreneurship. Phones can be shared by a village. Pre-paid calling plans reduce the need for a bank account or credit check. A recent study by London Business School found that, in a typical developing country, a rise of ten mobile phones per 100 people boosts GDP growth by 0.6 percentage points. Mobile phones are, in short, a classic example of technology that helps people help themselves.

    (Via Emergic)

    July 11, 2005

    Nanobones

    Researchers at UC Riverside have determined that carbon nanotubes can make ideal scaffolds for healing broken bones.

    The researchers expect that nanotubes will improve the strength and flexibility of artificial bone materials, leading to a new type of bone graft for fractures that may also be important in the treatment of bone-thinning diseases such as osteoporosis.

    In a typical bone graft, bone or synthetic material is shaped by the surgeon to fit the affected area... Pins or screws then hold the healthy bone to the implanted material. Grafts provide a framework for bones to regenerate and heal, allowing bone cells to weave into the porous structure of the implant, which supports the new tissue as it grows to connect fractured bone segments.

    Current polymer and peptide fiber scaffolds have low strength and are prone to rejection; carbon nanotube-based scaffolds would be far stronger and have far less rejection potential.

    This has been another of our series "Oh, Carbon Nanotube, is there nothing you cannot do?"

    (Via Medgadget)

    More Mobiles Than Landlines

    ...in the US, that is. The Los Angeles Times reports (registration required, try BugMeNot) that, by the end of 2004... there were 181.1 million cellphone subscribers, compared with 177.9 million access lines into U.S. homes and businesses, the Federal Communications Commission said in a biannual report. [...]

    A decade ago, the industry had 25 million customers... it should pass 200 million this year.

    India reached this point last year, as well, underscoring just how global the mobile information transformation is.

    (Via Engadget)

    ICE

    It's a simple idea, but a good one: the East Anglian Ambulance service in the UK has launched a campaign for people to add an entry to their mobile phone contacts In Case of Emergency. First responders may have a hard time getting contact information from you if you're in shock, unconscious, or otherwise unable to respond. The ICE idea attempts to standardize a place for responders to look, if the awful should occur.

    Simply type ICE plus a contact name and number into your mobile and help us to help you.

    I did it as soon as I read about this campaign -- and the more of us who do it (and talk about it), the more the idea will be recognized.

    Eat Your Curry

    University of Texas cancer researchers have determined that curcumin, the yellow spice found in tumeric and curry powders, can block the development of a variety of cancers.

    The study [...] demonstrates how curcumin stops laboratory strains of melanoma from proliferating and pushes the cancer cells to commit suicide.

    It does this, researchers say, by shutting down nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-kB), a powerful protein known to promote an abnormal inflammatory response that leads to a variety of disorders, including arthritis and cancer.

    Human and animal trials are underway.

    July 12, 2005

    I Got Your Hybrid Taxi Right *Here*

    A quick salute to the City Council of New York City: it unanimously approved a law allowing cab companies to make use of hybrid taxicabs. Given that 93% of the city's nearly 13,000 cabs are now 12 mile-per-gallon Crown Victorias, a shift to hybrids should triple the mileage, meaning a substantial improvement in both air quality and CO2 emissions -- and a big reduction in driver gasoline expenses.

    Hybrid cabs should be on the road by this fall.

    Hurricanes Shut Down Most Gulf Oil Production

    listingrig.jpgFrom the "irony can be pretty ironic" department: Green Car Congress points to reports that 96% of oil production in the Gulf of Mexico was stopped as a result of Hurricane Dennis -- with Hurricane Emily (not named after our Emily... as far as we know...) just around the corner. The force of the storm was enough to cause the "Thunder Horse" rig (jointly owned by BP and ExxonMobil, and due to come online later this year) to list at an angle of 20-30 degrees, as well. The production stoppage was down to "only" 56% by earlier today.

    Hurricanes happen in the Gulf, and whether or not global warming had any direct connection to the force of Dennis is unknowable. Regardless, that a hurricane (possibly driven in part by global warming) shut down some of the oil production that eventually leads to more global warming is a further hint that (as the saying goes) "nature bats last."

    July 13, 2005

    Hurricane Makes A Reef

    In 2002, the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary saw the deliberate sinking of a retired US Navy ship in order to create an artificial reef. Artificial reefs are proven methods of helping to restore damaged undersea ecosystems; this one didn't serve that purpose, however, as the scuttling failed to go as planned, and the ship ended up resting upside-down and at an angle that proved dangerous to navigation. Subsequent efforts reduced the danger, but the ship was still not in the intended position -- until now.

    Hurricane Dennis, pathing near the Keys, managed to generate sufficient undersea currents to flip the sunken vessel, putting it in the right-side-up position that was the goal in 2002. While the previous position was working fine as a reef, the new orientation will make it more attractive to divers -- who, in turn, help to support the artificial reef program.

    Flexible Smart Paper

    fujitsu.jpgFujitsu just announced a new form of "bendable color electronic paper," one that maintains its image without electricity. While Fujitsu sees it as a medium for price tags, menus and advertisements inside trains, it seems to me this would be ideal for low-power-consumption wireless mobile devices used largely to display text and static images (smart paper technology can't yet refresh fast enough for appealing animations). It also has obvious uses in wearable systems, as well as for "environmental" displays on walls, tables, and the like.

    The target for commercial release is late 2006-early 2007. The question, of course, is how much it will cost.

    (Via Gizmodo)

    July 14, 2005

    JonL with RU

    Our own Jon Lebkowsky is the subject of the latest NeoFiles interview, now in Podcast format (MP3). RU Sirius and Jon L talk about his new book, Extreme Democracy,and the future of online tools for emergent politics. Definitely worth checking out.

    Eco-Design and Future Cities

    The BBC continues its reports on the ongoing TED Global conference in Oxford. Its latest piece is on the combined presentations of Robert Neurwirth (Shadow Cities), Stefano Boeri (editor of Domus) and William McDonough (Cradle to Cradle). This was clearly one of the TED Global presentations I would love to see in full: Neuwirth talking about the growth of squatter cities in the shadows of global metropolis; Boeri on the intersection of the virtual and the real as means of understanding globalization; and McDonough discussing his Next City model and its imminent implementation in China. The BBC piece is an all-too-brief summary of their ideas.

    In addition, Alex spoke this morning -- he tells me it went well -- and we will link to any news or recordings of his presentation when they emerge. Let's hope the BBC is sharp enough to pick up on his talk, too.

    July 15, 2005

    Daily Kos Windfarm

    One of the diarists at the liberal political site Daily Kos has come up with an intriguing idea: a wind farm owned entirely by investors from the site -- essentially a dKos Wind Farm. The person leading the move is an investment banker, and is still trying to determine whether the project makes sense financially -- but the signs look good. Whether or not this is a good idea, it has generated some interesting conversation in the dKos thread, as well as over at Gristmill (where I heard about it).

    Toyota + BP + Biofuels

    Both Toyota and BP have adopted more responsible approaches than most of their industry brethren towards the environmental impacts of what they produce. That's why it's not terribly surprising to see them working together on a cleaner-energy project -- they both want to be out in front of the wave of change.

    Green Car Congress points us to this announcement in the Japanese business magazine Nikkei Business.

    Toyota Motor Corp. has begun negotiations aimed at engaging in a joint research project with major oil company BP Plc., Nikkei Business has learned. The project concerns biofuels, alternative fuels derived from plant matter. [...] By entering into a new tie-up with BP, Toyota hopes to conduct research into matters such as the economic viability of biofuels, their effect on vehicles, and possible raw materials. Talks are currently focused on narrowing down the research interests. BP already operates a biofuel refinery in partnership with European companies, and is working to commercialize biofuels.

    Academic debates about the viability of biofuels aside, if Toyota & BP together can't come up with ways to make biomass-based vehicle fuel work, I'd be convinced it's not a good prospect.

    July 16, 2005

    Forum on Social Capital

    Last month, Social Fusion (a "social entrepreneur" incubator) put together a panel discussion on social capital at San Francisco's World Affairs Council. Panelists and participants included representatives from a variety of social investment organizations, and the conversation took a fairly deep look at the challenges, opportunities, and upcoming developments in the world of "venture philanthropy" and innovation.

    The entire panel discussion is now available at the Social Edge website as both streaming (.m3u) and downloadable (.mp3) audio (links here go to full discussion; each section is also available in its own file). If you're interested in the future of social entrepreneurialism, you should definitely give it a listen.

    Technorati as Public Utility

    We have something of a love/hate relationship with Technorati here... well, perhaps "love/hate" is too strong. Fascination/irritation is probably better. Technorati helps us keep track of who is linking in to us, and has shown us many excellent sources of links and information; it's a very useful tool for tracking the evolution of various online memes, as well. But it doesn't update its numbers as often as we'd like (we've been stuck at the exact same number of sites & links for about a month now), and it's definitely a bit too popular for its own good -- system crash pages are unfortunately all too common on busy days.

    Still, I have to agree with Wired's Adam Penenberg when he argues that "Technorati has become a public utility on a global scale." If Google gives a sense of the structure of the Internet, Technorati gives a sense of its flow: the propagation of ideas, of influence, of perspective. To the degree that blogging has become a valuable adjunct to traditional reporting, Technorati gives the blogs a collective voice, and gives readers entry to ongoing and constantly-evolving conversations stretching across multiple sites.

    Penenberg ties his Technorati observations back to the web response to the London bombings. If we're all now historians, Technorati is the ever-changing index to tomorrow's history books.

    (Via Picturephoning)

    July 17, 2005

    Tuskless Elephants Through Evolution

    Reuters reports that Chinese elephants are evolving to have shorter or missing tusks as a result of poaching.

    Five to 10 percent of Asian elephants in China now had a gene that prevented the development of tusks, up from the usual 2 to 5 percent, the China Daily said, quoting research from Beijing Normal University.

    "The larger tusks the male elephant has, the more likely it will be shot by poachers," said researcher Zhang Li, an associate professor of zoology. "Therefore, the ones without tusks survive, preserving the tuskless gene in the species."

    Similar results are also said to be found in Africa and India.

    Reboot, Reuse, Recycle

    If setting up a local ad hoc wireless network isn't your cup of tea (...CP/IP), another option for making sure that those functional-but-obsolete computers (and the toxic metals contained within) stay out of the landfill is to make them available to people in poor regions looking to gain new skills. The BBC has a report on Computer Aid International and its latest project, Computers for Schools Kenya. CAI is a UK-based organization that accepts donated working PCs and refurbishes them for use in the developing world (primarily Africa, according to their activity list). They accept donated PCs from individuals and corporations (Mac users need not apply, nor anyone with a PC running anything older than a Pentium II).

    While notable and noble, a couple of issues stand out: the first is that, although they mention at the bottom of a specs page that they'll toss in a Linux CD, they strongly emphasize the use of Windows; the second is that sending older PCs to the developing world means that, when they do eventually break, the toxic metals and such become the problem of communities potentially unable to handle the material properly. Computer Aid International really needs to hook up with an electronics recycling service to complete the lifecycle of the equipment they pass along.

    July 18, 2005

    Micro-Wind Improvement In The Works

    Home solar gets most of the attention from people seeking to generate their own clean power, but home wind turbines (usually called micro-turbines) are an up-and-coming power source. Design improvements have reduced the noise and vibration problems with rooftop turbines, and now engineers at the University of Alberta have come up with hardware that could make micro-turbines functionally useful at lower wind speeds.

    Traditional micro-turbines provide essentially no power at wind speeds below 18 kilometers/hour. The new controller design from U of A allows the turbines to generate power at speeds as low as 10 km/hr -- and it's cheaper than current controllers, too. Dr. Andy Knight, who headed up the project, had this on-target observation:

    "My work is something that can make a small change, and it's probably a bunch of small changes here and there that will add up and one day have a big impact."

    Extremophiles Under the Ice

    When the Larsen B Ice Shelf collapsed in 2002, it uncovered a previously unknown ecosystem: "cold-seep" extremophile organisms living in the near-freezing water in a trough covered by the ice shelf for 10,000 years.

    Rare mollusks and bacterial mats thrived in the isolated water, with the energy for the ecosystem provided not by photosynthesis (as light couldn't make it through the ice) and not by volcanic eruptions, but by the chemical energy of methane released by undersea vents. Such cold-seep ecosystems have only been known of for about 20 years, and are found in just a few places world-wide. Exobiologists suspect that Jupiter's icy moon Europa may harbor life in cold-seep type environments.

    Biologists are rushing to study this ecosystem, as the removal of the ice shelf means contamination with sediment and debris has already begun.

    WikiMania

    Wikis are an interesting Internet phenomenon. By allowing any reader to also be an author, they can quickly become detailed and heavily fact-checked sources of information. They have their limits -- the Los Angeles Times "Wikitorial" project crashed and burned as a result of heated partisan re-edits of posts and, eventually, digital vandalism -- but for topics which can be addressed in a relatively un-biased way, wikis can be enormously valuable. We saw the perfect example of this value in the aftermath of the December tsunami -- Wikipedia very quickly became the go-to spot for collected and swiftly corrected information about the event and what was known minute by minute.

    Writer David Bollier, author of the OnTheCommons weblog (which investigates the ongoing evolution of the intellectual commons), has an excellent (and brief) piece on current trends in wikis and why more and more people are seeing them as a valuable tool for information distribution. Some of his examples should look familiar...

    July 19, 2005

    Transcommercial Costco Revisited

    A year ago, we posted a brief piece on the warehouse retailer Costco, identifying it as a proto-"transcommercial" company (what does "transcommercial" mean? Alex Explains It All here). July must be Costco month or something, because a couple more articles about the company popped up recently. They're worth pointing to simply as a reminder that it is possible to be a profitable large retail company and still pay fair wages, give good benefits and be considered a good place to work by union and non-union employees alike.

    The UK's Financial Times has a good piece on the company (subscribers-only), but this article from the Labor Research Organization is actually more informative. Both pieces note that Costco pays well above industry average, and has both higher productivity and much lower employee turnover than its competitors; the LRO article also notes that the Costco CEO Jim Sinegal chooses to make only $350,000 annually (compared to $5.3 million for the Wal*Mart CEO).

    The model is expanding, too: Robert Price, son of the founder of Price Club (a forebear to the current Costco and source of its employee-friendly policies) has started a line of warehouse retailers operating under similar standards in Central America, the Caribbean and the Philippines, Price Smart.

    (Update: The New York Times has a Costco article this week, too (see what I mean about July?), with some interesting details about the CEO's rejection of Wall Street Analysts who say he's "too benevolent" to his employees.)

    Picturephone Vigilantes in Malaysia

    "Vigilantes" is probably too strong a term -- it's a site for people in Malaysia to post cameraphone pictures of traffic offenders (and of people behaving properly, too, but there aren't nearly as many pictures there). The Malaysian Star notes that the site is operated by the national Traffic Ministry.

    This is a nice example of two aspects of the participatory panopticon: (a) it's global; and (b) it makes it far simpler to record (and, possibly, prosecute) petty crimes and deceptions.

    (Via Picturephoning)

    Halley 6 South Pole Habitat Selected

    In November of 2004, Régine reported that the British Antarctic Survey was holding a competition to select the design for its latest habitat, and had narrowed the field to six contenders. In January of 2005, I wrote a lengthy follow-up, going deeper into why a new habitat was needed, and noting that the final three candidates had just been chosen. Well, ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner.

    The Faber Maunsell/Hugh Broughton Architects design won out, as its combination of ski-type feet (for easy mobility using a tractor to push/pull the units) and extreme modular flexibility (to adjust to new research needs and personnel) were considered by the judges to give the design the best ability to respond to changing Antarctic conditions.

    The Halley 6 station will make use of renewable energy sources and use advanced waste handling techniques; moreover, when the station is eventually retired, 20 years hence, all traces of it will be removed, leaving its location as clean as when they started. Construction will begin in January 2007 for occupation by December 2008.

    (Thanks for the heads-up, Hans in Montreal)

    July 20, 2005

    Google the Moon

    Okay, everybody's pointed to this today -- heck, I even got a link to it from a relative -- but it's very much the kind of thing many of us love here. If you're among the fraction of the people who hasn't seen this already today, you're in luck:

    moon.google.com

    It's a Google Map of the section of the Moon that the Apollo astronauts landed more than three decades ago. Don't zoom too far out -- it's not the whole moon by any means -- but go ahead and zoom in to max magnification for a predictable-but-charming surprise.

    Google's doing this because July 20 is the 36th anniversary of the first Moon landing. Of course, it makes me wonder how difficult it would be to make a complete Moon map or even a Mars map using the Google Map (or Yahoo! Map, for that matter) technology.

    Conservation and Blogging

    The 19th Annual Meeting of the Society for Conservation Biology just finished up yesterday in Brasilia, covering a variety of particulars under the general theme of "Conservation Biology Capacity Building & Practice in a Globalized World." As might be expected from a title like that, there were representatives from over 70 countries, all looking to figure out ways to reduce or halt the course of loss of biodiversity.

    Nature sent its Washington correspondent, Emma Marris, to Brasilia to cover the event. She did so in part as a blog, one that makes for quite interesting reading. Her posts highlight the struggle in the field to figure out proper metrics, solid definitions, and the relationship between development and conservation. There's also the relationship between conservation and, for lack of a better phrase, framing:

    One of the challenges in assessing impacts, however, is that the experts always overestimate the effect of changes on species. "There is a general tendency in conservation biology to paint things very black," says Robert Scholes of CSIR Environmentek in Pretoria South Africa. Sure. If they want anybody to pay any attention or, say, give them some money, they have to portray the situation as dire. Marketing, marketing.

    July 21, 2005

    Re-Learning To Drive

    Seth Zuckerman of Cascadia Scorecard writes to let us know about a new post at the site, Driver's Ed, Hybrid Style, which summarizes Amory Lovins' recommendations for getting top mileage from hybrid-electric cars. As we've noted here before, getting a hybrid to maximum efficiency requires a somewhat different driving pattern than most people use. Lovins' suggestions (as Zuckerman notes, buried on page 15 of a large PDF newsletter) match my experience with my Civic Hybrid, as well as the experiences of other hybrid drivers I know.

    While some of these methods are good ideas for all drivers (e.g., don't go much over the speed limit, coast when possible), some reflect the differences between hybrid-electric cars and straight internal combustion engine cars. Fast acceleration from a stop, for example, burns a lot of gas in a standard car, but uses the battery-electric system in a hybrid most efficiently.

    The claim that hybrids are "just like regular cars" may be a selling point, but it's not entirely true. If you drive a hybrid like you drive a gas-only car, it won't get the kind of mileage you're hoping for. Getting the mileage that makes non-hybrid drivers envious requires learning to drive the hybrid like a hybrid.

    Digital Prayer Carpet

    sajjadah1426.jpgI like this piece of functional art not because it's something that I would use myself, but because it's a lovely demonstration of what is possible with an increasingly smart material environment.

    Artist Soner Ozenc has created a prayer rug for Muslims with an embedded digital compass and electroluminescent wiring. The image on the rug glows brighter as the rug is turned towards Mecca, dimmer as it turns away. The project is called Sajjadah 1426 -- Sajjadah being the Turkish word for "prayer rug" and 1426 being this year in the Muslim calendar. (Onzec's site is entirely Flash based; to see the images and his discussion of the rug, click Product Design and then Sajjadah 1426.)

    This is an early example of the coming proliferation of situationally-aware material items, goods which can recognize where they are, what else around them is relevant to their use, and whether they are being used correctly. More examples are certainly to come.

    (Via Gizmodo)

    July 22, 2005

    Personal Outsourcing

    Ben Hammersley at The Guardian has written an article about outsourcing that puts a new spin on the subject. In this case, he's not talking about corporations moving jobs offshore, he's talking about individuals doing so. In the course of the story, he hires programmers in Belorussia, web designers in India and a transcription service in New Zealand, all at rates affordable for most developed world citizens.

    I find this to be intriguing, but also a bit troubling -- although I can't quite put my finger on why. It's another example of the effect of global information networks on local economies, and undoubtedly the income from the work that can be done in this way will improve the lives of the coders and transcribers and the like who are doing it. At the same time, this is only possible due to the economic disparities between countries.

    What do you folks think?

    (Via Futurismic)

    Ecce Homology

    eccehomology.jpgMore biomimetic art. Artist Ruth West, director of visual analytics and interactive technologies at the UC San Diego National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research and research associate with the UCSD Center for Research and Computing in the Arts, has come up with an exhibit entitled Ecco Homology. Bioinfo Online describes it thusly:

    Named after Friedrich Nietzsche's Ecce Homo, a meditation on how one becomes what one is, the project explores human evolution by examining similarities – a.k.a. "homology" – between genes from human beings and a target organism, in this case the rice plant. [...] Custom software turns genes – incomprehensibly long strings of As, Cs, Ts and Gs – into luminous pictograms that resemble Chinese or Sanskrit calligraphy. Based on currently available biophysical information, the pictograms are scientifically accurate representations of proteins encoded for by the genes.

    Ecce Homology will be on display at SIGGRAPH in Los Angeles from July 31 through August 4.

    The website for the exhibit has numerous pictures, as well as a more detailed explanation of how they are derived. This definitely looks like something to check out if you're going to SIGGRAPH.

    Electrolytic Bacterial Evolution

    Stanford researchers gave a peek at some interesting ongoing research at this week's Always On conference. They've discovered a type of soil bacteria that absorbs photons and uses the energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. However, the microbe in question is anaerobic, meaning that it will die if exposed to too much oxygen. How, then, could these bacteria ever be used to produce sufficient hydrogen?

    This sounds like a job for... Darwin!

    To get around this problem, the researchers produce millions of the bugs and expose them to a low concentration of oxygen. They then take the ones that survive and use them to parent a new generation of bugs.

    The idea is to, over time, create a new race of bugs that can survive in a relatively normal environment. Entire generations of bugs can be produced fairly rapidly, but wholesale changes in the genetic code do take time.

    The research has been going on for about three years, and it's unclear how much longer it will take before they have microbes able to produce hydrogen sustainably.

    (Via Sustainability Zone)

    July 23, 2005

    DIY Computer-Controlled Telescopes

    We're big fans of participatory science around these parts, and one that has some interesting potential is collaborative astronomy. We've posted about what that might look like -- particularly with regards to comet/asteroid hunting -- but such efforts generally require that one's telescope be hooked to a computer and, from there, to the Internet. But such computer-operated 'scopes, while available, are expensive.

    Make points us to a site explaining just how to turn any telescope into a motor-controlled, computer-operated, and potentially Internet-linked viewing system. As with most of Make's links, the instructions are not for the timid, but they certainly be accomplished by non-specialists.

    Summertime in the northern hemisphere is terrific for amateur astronomy, and Mars will once again this year be very bright due to proximity. Even a smallish telescope should be able to resolve the ice caps and color variations. And, I have to say, even the best close-up images of planets from probes don't bring the visceral excitement of seeing things like Martian ice caps, Jupiter's big moons and Saturn's rings with one's own eye.

    July 24, 2005

    Watch the Solar Race

    The 2005 American Solar Challenge is nearing completion, with 17 teams competing to go from Austin, Texas to Calgary, Alberta. The race's website has the usual information about teams, car tech, and daily race summaries, but a particularly interesting feature is the inclusion of GPS tracking data on all the vehicles, updated every few minutes. As these are timed trials, not neck-and-neck to the finish line races, there won't be a thrilling moment when #3 MIT makes its move to pass the University of Michigan (#2) and University of Minnesota (#1). Maybe next year.

    July 25, 2005

    Nanoparticles and the Brain

    The apparent ability of some nanoparticles to get into the brain is certainly cause for some caution; to the degree that nanotechnology and molecular engineering will shape this century, we want to be certain that we don't trigger greater problems than we solve. But the ability to get into the brain turns out to have some potential benefits. University of Buffalo researchers have developed customized nanoparticles able to deliver genes into the brains of living mice "with an efficiency that is similar to, or better than, viral vectors and with no observable toxic effect."

    The paper describes how the UB scientists used gene-nanoparticle complexes to activate adult brain stem/progenitor cells in vivo, demonstrating that it may be possible to "turn on" these otherwise idle cells as effective replacements for those destroyed by neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson's.

    In addition to delivering therapeutic genes to repair malfunctioning brain cells, the nanoparticles also provide promising models for studying the genetic mechanisms of brain disease.

    The dangers of using viruses for gene therapy is that they may revert to "wild type," with potentially fatal results for the patients. Non-viral vectors don't have this problem.

    (Via Medgadget)

    Supporting Development With Science

    Science -- both as the basis for technological innovation and as a way of understanding the world's systems -- is increasingly being recognized as a fundamental part of economic development. Although some developing nations are beginning to invest in scientific research, science is an inherently collaborative process, and flourishes in environments of transparency and international cooperation. UNESCO's new International Basic Sciences Programme (IBSP) appears to be very much a step in the right direction.

    IBSP describes itself as:

    ...a new flagship initiative that will reinforce intergovernmental co-operation in strengthening national capacities in the basic and engineering sciences and science education through major region-specific actions involving a network of national, regional and international centres of excellence in the basic sciences. [...] The overall goal of capacity building in science and engineering is to promote networking, the sharing of information and good practices, and the development of innovative curricula, education and training, with an applied, interdisciplinary focus on applications to address the Millennium Development Goals, including the promotion of a culture of maintenance. Efforts will be in human resources development and promoting large-scale use of sustainable and renewable energy, energy diversification and efficiency with special emphasis on developing countries and small island states.

    Sharing information, support of the MDGs, sustainable and renewable energy, and efficiency with an emphasis on developing countries: this sounds very much like a WorldChanging kind of project. More details can be found at the UNESCO News weblog.

    July 26, 2005

    Chinese Wind

    China is trying, in fits and starts, to adopt an energy infrastructure based more on renewable sources. We've been following aspects of this story for some time. The latest chapter comes from New York Times writer Howard French -- and it hints that China's beginning to see just how important to its economy a move to sustainable power could be.

    By 2020, starting from a minuscule base that it has established only recently, China expects to supply 10 percent of its needs from so-called renewable energy sources, including wind, solar energy, small hydroelectric dams and biomass like plant fibers and animal wastes. [...]

    “We have huge goals for wind power development,” Wang Zhongying, director of China’s Center for Renewable Energy Development. “By 2010, we plan to reach 4,000 megawatts, and by 2020 we expect to reach 20,000 megawatts, or 20 gigawatts.” If anything, Mr. Wang said, these targets are too conservative, and may be easily surpassed.

    July 27, 2005

    Amazon Carbon Cycling

    At first blush, this doesn't seem like terribly good news, but it does give us a bit more information to use when thinking about our climate response options. Researchers studying the carbon cycle in the Amazon River basin (particularly the uptake and release of CO2 by the region's plants) have found that, rather than sequestering the CO2 for decades or centuries, the carbon is cycled out back into the atmosphere within five years. Among the implications of this discovery (assuming it's confirmed) is that the Amazon rain forests are not good candidates for long-term capture of CO2, and that we need to pay close attention to the actual carbon cycle for each biome before assigning sequestration targets.

    I, For One, Welcome Our New Post-Singularity Overlords

    Well, not quite yet, but I'm practicing saying it nonetheless. IBM will be spending the next two-to-three years retooling one of its "Blue Gene" supercomputer -- in this case, the 8th fastest in the world, operating at over 22 teraflops -- to function as a mammal brain simulator. The "Blue Brain" project will simulate a single "neo-cortical column" down to a molecular level; the neo-cortical column is considered the key difference between mammalian brains and reptilian brains. Each neo-cortical column -- there are millions in a human brain -- has about 10,000 neurons and 10,000 synapses. This will be used to gain a better understanding of brain function, with the dual goals of improving artificial intelligence research and reducing the need for live animal brain research.

    As FutureWire notes, however, the Japanese government is now developing a supercomputer that will be 73 times faster than Blue Gene, operational by 2011 and working at 10 petaflops -- around the estimated computing speed of the human brain.

    Inuit, Climate Change, and Pun Control

    WorldChanging contributor Emily Gertz has a lengthy article in the latest Grist Magazine on the claim by the Inuit people of the Arctic that global warming-triggered melting of the region is a violation of their human rights. She wrote a piece for us on the topic last December; the Grist article is more detailed, and covers much of what has happened in the subsequent half-year. It's not a terribly happy story, of course, but it's a useful early warning sign of the variety of legal responses to climate disruption that we will see as the process continues to wreak havoc on various communities around the world.

    My only complaint: the relentless puns used as story and section titles...

    July 28, 2005

    Photons For Efficient Farming

    Despite strong advocacy of smart organic farming practices, it must be recognized that industrial farming is not going away immediately. Given that, we should at least make fertilizer-based farming as environmentally-friendly as possible. The "N-Checker" (N for nitrogen) system, therefore, looks to be a step in the right direction.

    Rapid pulses of polarized light can reveal nitrogen content in the leaves of crops, indicating how much fertilizer to apply, reducing the amount of waste. Less overuse of fertilizer, in turn, would "dramatically cut the nitrogen-laden runoff responsible for algal blooms and other damage to wetlands and waterways." The system can analyze around one plant per second, making it possible to cover tens of acres in a day.

    GOHEV in Energy Bill

    The final energy bill version now in the hands of the US Congress is disappointing all around, eliminating any conservation and vehicle efficiency rules while expanding subsidies for fossil fuels, but Green Car Congress notes it does have a small positive element: a $40 million appropriation (over 2006-2009) to establish a program to develop a plug-in hybrid/flexible fuel vehicle.

    Preference is to be given to proposals that:

  • Achieve the greatest reduction in petroleum fuel consumption
  • Achieve not less than 250 miles per gallon petroleum fuel consumption
  • Have the greatest potential of commercialization to the general public within 5 years

    More a silvery patch than a silver lining, but still good to see.

  • Make Your Own Cartograms

    Cartograms are those funky maps that provide additional information through the use of shape, distorting the geography for the sake of greater information accuracy. The canonical example is the cartogram of votes in the 2004 election: a straight map makes the "red" areas appear overwhelmingly dominant; a cartogram adding population does a much better job of showing the relative weight of urban areas.

    A comment in yesterday's post on maps led me to Michael Gastner's page at the University of Michigan. Gastner links to a number of his papers on cartograms and data display, but also provides a program for the creation of your own cartograms. The source code for the latest version is here (.ZIP), while a compiled but somewhat older Windows version can be found here.

    (Thanks, Ted W.)

    July 29, 2005

    Solar Thermal at the Bottom of the World

    The Halley VI station in Antarctica (we noted the winning design just a couple of weeks ago) will be the first Halley station to make use of renewable energy. From the outset, Halley VI will make use of a solar thermal system for heating water, taking advantage of the 24-hour sunlight of the Antarctic summer; as the modular station grows, the design allows for the introduction of solar photovoltaic and wind power. Electricity generation is augmented by a special ultra-cold-weather diesel generator -- sorry, biodiesel fans, the South Pole's just too cold for anything other than a special aviation formulation of petrodiesel.

    But given that petrodiesel may be harder to get by the time Halley VI is operational, the station's ability to use a variety of power sources means that replacing the diesel generator with an ultra-cold-weather fuel cell fortunately shouldn't be too much of a problem.

    July 30, 2005

    War Between Democracies in the 21st Century

    It's a truism that democracies tend not to go to war with each other. And it's hard to imagine what sorts of conditions would lead to two long-standing democracies with relatively pacific characters to come to blows. But Denmark and Canada are in a dispute over territory, a dispute that is taking an ominous turn. Hans Island, a half-mile square rock roughly midway between Canada and Greenland, is claimed by both nations; a recent visit to the island by the Canadian Defense Minister triggered a protest from Denmark. As a result, both Denmark and Canada have taken their struggle over the Arctic island to... Google Ads.

    Toronto resident Rick Broadhead googled the matter and found an ad that touted Hans Island as Danish. [...] Internet users clicking on the ad were directed to the Danish Foreign Ministry's Web site.

    So Broadhead paid for his own Google ad and created a Web site to promote Ottawa's sovereignty. His Google ad leads users to a fluttering Maple Leaf flag and plays the national anthem.

    A quick check of Google shows that Broadhead is not alone in this now. Is this the flip-side of the decentralization of warfare?

    July 31, 2005

    Green GDP

    Environmentalists often harbor real skepticism about the "Gross Domestic Product" as a measure of economic health; after all, the GDP doesn't measure clean air or water, and both pollution resulting from industrial and commercial activity and cleanup of that pollution get counted. But what are the alternatives? Gernot Wagner of Environmental Economics ventures to describe some of the alternatives from the perspective of an environmentally-focused economist.

    The short version: all of the alternatives raise good points, but none of them are perfect, mostly for the same reason that market approaches to environmental protection are so fraught with difficulty -- assigning value to the environment is more of a political than an economic process.

    In Bloom

    Phytoplankton play a crucial role in the global carbon cycle, and both climate disruption and natural climate cycles (e.g., El Niño/La Niña) affect the size of plankton blooms and the corresponding CO2 consumption. We've talked most often about phytoplankton in the southern oceans, but it's important to remember that plankton blooms can happen throughout the world's seas. It's also important to note that these blooms can be staggeringly beautiful to see.

    The European Space Agency just posted an EnviSat shot of a phytoplankton bloom in the Baltic Sea earlier this month. The bloom itself stretches around 200 kilometers, and is an almost un-Earthly shade of green. The ESA shot is available in a smallish jpeg and as a 2MB high-resolution TIFF. The latter makes for quite a spectacular desktop photo...

    August 1, 2005

    The Hundred Year Exposure

    Artist Jonathan Keats has come up with an interesting variation on the "century cam" concept: keep the shutter open.

    Starting Wednesday, a specially-built camera and specially-designed film will be opened in a hotel room in San Francisco; the exposure will last a hundred years, until August 3, 2105.

    During that period, an estimated 12,000 couples will pass through the room, but Mr. Keats isn't interested in any of them. "People are incidental," he says. "Eventually they all die. And I don't have any interest in taking portraits. What I'm trying to document is history, in order to get a picture of time itself."

    Mr. Keats calls his camera a continuous time capsule.

    Hopefully the hotel (Hotel des Arts, in downtown San Francisco) is built well enough to withstand the size 8+ earthquake very likely to happen in the region during this century.

    August 2, 2005

    Solar Grove

    A few other sites have mentioned this already, so it won't be news to many of you, but electronics manufacturer Kyocera -- who makes solar panels, among other devices -- has installed a "grove" of solar "trees" in the parking lot of its San Diego, California headquarters. The "trees" act as shades for the cars and asphalt -- reducing the need for car air conditioning and the "heat island" effect from the blacktop -- and have a generation potential of 235 kilowatts, working out (according to Kyocera) to about 421,000 kilowatt-hours per year.

    Set aside for a moment the cost of the project and the fact that it got a 36% kickback from the state of California. As the price of solar comes down -- and cheap plastic solar comes onto the market -- we're going to see lots more of this. The solar energy hitting the ground on parking lots (and on roofs and roads and sidewalks and...) is wasted, for the most part. Last year, the American Geophysical Union estimated that the total built-up surfaces in the United States amounted to 112,610 square kilometers (an area bigger than the state of Ohio). If just one-tenth of one percent of that surface area -- 113 square kilometers (or 113,000,000 square meters) -- had 5% efficient plastic solar coverage, we'd be looking at a total energy generation potential of over 5.6 gigawatts. Not quite enough to power the whole country, but a pretty good start nonetheless.

    August 3, 2005

    Smart Mobs for Nature Security

    We've talked a bit here about the use of camera phones and phone-mounted sensors as a "green panopticon," with individuals empowered to watch for and report violations of environmental laws. We've also been great proponents of the use of distributed sensors as ways of monitoring and better understanding the natural environment. But the Gristmill writer known as "biodiversivist" has managed to combine the two concepts in an intriguing way -- with distributed sensors pinging the mobile phones of forest rangers and the like, alerting them to potential incursions of poachers.

    I like the idea; it fits nicely with other models we've talked about, and has a clear benefit. I would take it a bit further, though, with both webcasting of the sensor/camera results (as with the Cumbria Osprey cam the Gristmill post links to) and widespread distribution of sensor images of poachers to add a public pressure element to the criminal prosecution.

    August 5, 2005

    Curing Cancer with Nanotech, Revisited

    One of my favorite posts to WorldChanging has to be Curing Cancer, from July, 2004. In brief, Rice University researchers found that flooding a tumor with gold nanospheres then illuminating the tumor with an infrared laser (through the skin, which remains undamaged) would result in the tumor being completely eliminated. Now Stanford University researchers have accomplished a very similar feat, this time using carbon nanotubes rather than gold nanospheres. The principle is the same: inundate the tumor with the material, illuminate the tumor with a low-power laser, cook the tumor into nonexistence without harming nearby healthy tissue.

    Although the Rice University work is further along, this is extremely good news, as it is further demonstration of the viability of the laser treatment model. Given the existing caution about carbon nanotubes in biological contexts, and the demonstrated non-toxicity of gold, it's likely that the Rice approach is more likely to see wider use. But if the gold nanosphere technique proves not to work for some reason (or has other barriers to acceptance, such as cost), it's good to know that the carbon nanotube approach could be able to provide equally-powerful results.

    Add other breakthrough cancer-fighting techniques, and we may well see the end of cancer as a scourge by the middle of the next decade, if not sooner.

    August 6, 2005

    Cameron Sinclair in the Washington Post

    The work done by WorldChanging contributor Cameron Sinclair and his partner Kate Stohr at Architecture for Humanity ranks as some of the most important and truly worldchanging work I know. Cameron and Architecture for Humanity are the subject of a lengthy profile in today's Washington Post, going into detail of both AfH's history and the challenges faced by Cameron in his ongoing crusade to convince his colleagues to "design like you give a damn." This translates into the purposeful use of design as a tool for improving the lives of the citizens of this planet most in need.

    For all of the discussion here about the importance of design as a method of turning understanding into interaction, it's easy to get swept up in the notion that innovation is all about transforming a product; sometimes, the more important innovation is about transforming the audience.

    Driving the Costs Down

    Last February, the GSM Association (the organization of manufacturers of mobile phones on the globally-used GSM standard) announced the Emerging Markets Handset Program, seeking to drive the end-user cost of a useful GSM phone in the developing world to under $40 by next year, and eventually to below $30. But for many, even $30 apiece is still not nearly low enough. Philips is launching a project to build a GSM phone (with SMS capability) with an end-user cost of $20; their goal is to bring that down to below $15 apiece by 2008.

    The networking capabilities of these handsets are limited to voice and SMS (so no GPRS Internet access), but that's still a markedly useful level of information and communication technology. Even though the cost may still be too high for many individuals, this can still have a dramatic impact on development: $15 phones would make the Grameen Phone program able to reach a far wider array of communities, for example.

    (Via Unmediated)

    August 8, 2005

    110 Miles Per Gallon

    How far can you go on a tank of gas with an unmodified, commercially-available car? How does 1,400 miles sound to you?

    In what's probably the ultimate support for the argument that driving a hybrid means changing how you drive, a group of techies and environmentalists driving in Pennsylvania managed to take a stock 2004 Toyota Prius 1,397 miles on a single tank of gasoline, for an average of 110 miles per gallon. They accomplished this feat through a style of driving that could only work with a hybrid:

    In order to achieve extreme fuel economy, the team primarily used a gas-saving technique called pulse and glide. It's a form of coasting that involves releasing the gas pedal, then pressing it slightly again to disengage the electric motors. And as they glide, the drivers glance at a built-in screen displaying vital statistics like average miles per gallon. [...] Using this technique, the team estimates they used the gas engine on only about 33 percent of the trip.

    Imagine how well they'd do with a GO-HEV...

    (Thanks, Joseph Willemssen)

    Congratulations to Charlie!

    WorldChanging Ally (and all-around very smart fellow) Charlie Stross won a Hugo this weekend for his novella The Concrete Jungle. And, yes, that's a link to the story itself, published under a Creative Commons license. Enjoy!

    August 9, 2005

    Finland, Finland, Finland

    Finland is a pretty decent place to be student or an older worker, but how does it stack up otherwise? Sunday's Washington Post tells us: generally speaking, there are few better places on the planet. As listed by the Post, Finland ranks number one globally in terms of competitiveness (according to the World Economic Forum), sustainability (according to the annual Yale/Columbia rankings), lack of corruption (according to Transparency International), and trains more musicians per capita than anywhere else.

    How much of the Finnish social experience can be used outside of Finland? Not all of it -- Finland has a small, mostly homogenous population, a focus on consensus over political competition, and a willingness to embrace very high taxes. But author Robert Kaiser argues that the education model would work elsewhere, but more importantly: ...we could learn from Finns' confidence that they can shape their own fate. Finns speak of the Finnish National Project, an effort involving much of the country, and nearly all of its elites, to make the country more educated, more agile and adaptive, more green, more fair and more competitive in a fast-changing global economy. (emphasis mine)

    We can shape our own fate. That's the WorldChanging story, and we're sticking to it.

    August 10, 2005

    Gasoline Use Per Capita

    Which US state consumes the most gasoline per capita? Which consumes the least? Answers based on conventional wisdom and stereotypes might put California (home of the "car culture") close to the top, and some place fairly small and less prone to massive suburban sprawl, like Iowa, close to the bottom. Of course, I wouldn't be offering up those examples of "conventional wisdom and stereotypes" if they were at all right: California, it turns out, ranks #44 out of 51 in per capita gasoline use, at 413.8 gallons so far in 2005 (the District of Columbia has used the least per person, at 214.4 gallons); Iowa, conversely, ranks #8 at 553.9 gallons per person (Oklahoma is #1 at 625.8 gallons). As a whole, the average American has consumed 470.6 gallons of gasoline so far in 2005.

    This is according to the statistics compiled by the California Energy Commission based on US Department of Energy and US Bureau of the Census data.

    The state-by-state listing just begs for further analysis: the corresponding per capita rates of hybrid ownership and light truck/SUV ownership; average population density; portion of the populace living in "high density" environments; gasoline prices; telecommuting rates; availability of public transit; even "red" vs. "blue." Anyone up for a bit of number crunching?

    "Zero Energy Homes" Hit the Mainstream

    Although it's something of a misnomer, "zero energy home" has an attractive ring to it. The combination of wall and window insulation that keeps heat out in the summer and in during the winter, high-efficiency appliances and solar panels with "net metering" lets an otherwise standard American home consume little or no power beyond what it produces. A growing number of housing developments are offering ZEH as an option -- or as the default -- and mainstream media outlets are starting to clue in that something big is happening. The latest example is Newsweek.

    The article claims that the only real downside is the added cost of the equipment, around $25,000 before rebates. While certainly a considerable sum, if part of the original design, it's not an up-front cost. Rather, it's likely to be 5% or less of the total cost of the home, adding just a few tens of dollars a month to a typical mortgage -- and the amount saved every month on energy fees would more than make up for that.

    The home featured in the Newsweek article is in Sacramento, California, which is suffering through a summer of near-record heat (a stretch of 100+ degree days in late July was broken by a few days only in the high-90s; the record, 9 days over 100 degrees, was set in 1996), so it's not altogether surprising that solar panels work very well for this development. But solar isn't the only option; micro-wind and co-generation (where electricity is produced from the systems heating the home and water) can also play an important role in (currently) less-sunny climes.

    (Via Make)

    Pine Trees and Hurricanes

    As we mentioned a few days ago, although the argument that global warming is increasing the intensity of hurricanes is becoming more accepted, there's still a great deal of dispute over whether climate disruption is increasing the frequency of hurricanes. Human records aren't terribly helpful for more than a couple of hundred years at most, and hurricanes don't leave permanent and identifiable marks on the environment... or do they?

    University of Tennessee, Knoxville researcher Claudia Mora and her team think they've found the key to unlocking a record of past hurricanes. It turns out that hurricanes have a strong tendency to deplete the air of Oxygen-18 (or 18O), a rare isotope of Oxygen. The rain that falls from hurricanes has measurably less 18O in the water; this is "recorded" in the rings of late-season-growth trees such as Georgia Pines. By measuring the 18O in the tree rings, Mora and team were able to positively identify every hurricane that hit the region over the past century, and have mapped out a tropical cyclone record going back 277 years. They claim to have spottier information going back to 1450 AD.

    More details on this research will be released tomorrow at the Earth System Processes 2 conference in Alberta, Canada.

    August 11, 2005

    Near Zero Waste

    It's a simple statement: waste=inefficiency=higher cost=lower profit. But until recently, many industries ended up throwing away thousands of tons of waste from production every year, filling landfills and all too often leaching toxic materials into the ground. But product manufacturers are beginning to see the value of reducing, reusing and recycling waste materials, with occasionally dramatic results.

    Wired News profiles numerous companies that have taken active measures to reduce the amount of waste going to landfills. Many of the companies report reuse and recycling rates of 80-90 percent; in some cases, such as the Subaru factory in Lafayette, Indiana, efforts have led to effectively zero waste output, as nearly all leftover materials can be reused, and the small fraction that cannot is in turn used in an incinerator for electricity generation. But the most interesting example is the Georgia carpet manufacturer that found that ground up carpet pieces make a good backing for new carpets, and started a recycling program to take advantage of material that would otherwise have gone to landfill (the spokesperson for the company claims that carpet makes up a significant part of industrial trash in landfills).

    This is a good indicator of the value of the high-efficiency mindset: waste goes from being not worth the trouble to care about to being not worth the trouble to make in the first place.

    Green Nanotechnology

    We're not the only ones thinking about the environmental and sustainability applications of nanomaterials and molecular assembly. Mark Wiesner, Director of the Environmental and Energy Systems Institute at Rice University is, too, and has written a readily-understood and well-structured article for the Pakistan Daily Times on precisely this issue. He's careful to address the environmental questions about the safe use of nanomaterials such as fullerenes -- indeed, that discussion takes up the greatest part of the aritcle. Fortunately, he doesn't come across as hyping the technology so much as providing some cautious optimism.

    Towards a green nanotechnology is a good introductory piece for thinking about the environmental implications of this emerging field; it answers some important questions, but leaves the reader hungry to learn more.

    August 12, 2005

    Kids With Cameras, Revisited

    Cameron Sinclair first wrote about the powerful documentary Born Into Brothels last year, the work of his friend Zana Briski. The documentary covers Briski's "Kids With Cameras" project, which gave cameras and taught photography to a group of children growing up in the red-light district of Calcutta, India; Born Into Brothels went on to win an Academy Award for best documentary, and the Kids With Cameras project has since opened up operations in Haiti, Jerusalem and Cairo. Now many of the photographs taken by the Kids With Cameras in Calcutta are on display at the School of the International Center of Photography in New York City. The exhibition only runs through Sunday, so if you're in the area, you'll need to take advantage of this opportunity now.

    The exhibition is timed to coincide with the release of Born Into Brothels on cable movie channel Cinemax. The version shown on Cinemax includes an addendum segment, shot three years later, detailing Briski's reunion with many of the Calcutta children, who now attend boarding schools thanks to her work.

    Open Source Patents

    Abstractly speaking, when in a conflict, you have two options: use your strengths to counter the strengths of your opponent; use your opponent's strengths against it. The latter is clearly more difficult, but can have startlingly impressive results (just ask any practitioner of taiji or aikido). An interesting example of this latter philosophy popped up this week: free/libre/open source software partisans are beginning to use the patent system as a way to expand access to open software, and as a way to fight against the growing use of software patents as a tool to weaken the FLOSS movement.

    Red Hat will finance outside programmers' efforts to obtain patents that may be used freely by open-source developers [...]. At the same time, the Open Source Developer Labs launched a patent commons project, which will provide a central list of patents that have been donated to the collaborative programming community.

    The goal is to change the nature of the relationship between FLOSS developers, who are often work solo or in small groups, and the large commercial software developers, who have in recent years found patent infringement lawsuits (or even the threat of one) to be an effective way to shut down open source upstarts.

    Solar WiFi

    How come this isn't more common?

    Boulder, Colorado, has become the latest location to offer public free wifi with the access points powered by the sun. The solar panels can charge the system battery in about 5 hours, and the battery can operate the access point for up to 72 hours. The network can therefore remain up day and night, and the manufacturer, Lumin, claims that the panels are sensitive enough to "register a charge from the moon" -- unstated is just how much charge, but no matter: under nearly any conceivable scenario, solar powered WiFi access points could remain up and running without interruption for very long periods of time.

    Although Lumin and other solar panel access point manufacturers talk about the usefulness of their systems in the wilderness or in war zones, I can't help but wonder why these configurations aren't in greater use in more urban environments. By definition, a WiFi hotspot doesn't need to have cables connecting to client computers, and if you hook up something like an EV-DO card, it doesn't even need to have a cable connecting to the Internet provider. Why should it have a cable connecting it to its power source, then?

    (Original link via Roland Piquepaille)

    August 13, 2005

    Sustainable World Conference

    The Sustainable World First International Conference took place last month in the UK, and the meeting materials are now starting to appear online. The conference was sponsored by the Institute of Science in Society (ISIS), a UK organization seeking to "promote science responsible to civil society and the public good, independent of commercial and other special interests, or of government control." Presenters at the conference included activists, researchers and even a few politicians, with topics ranging from "Sustainable Food Systems for Sustainable Development" (PDF) to "Food and Energy Security: Local Systems, Global Solidarity" (PDF) to "Soil, Climate, Productivity and Environmental Justice". As you can probably tell, the conference's main topic was sustainable agriculture.

    ISIS appears to have as its primary focus opposition to genetic modification to foods. Although I believe the question of bioengineering is more complex than some supporters and critics would like to suggest, the efforts of science-based groups like ISIS are critical for keeping everyone aware of how risks are considered and problems are managed.

    August 14, 2005

    Environmental and Urban Economics Blog

    I must admit to some deep-seated skepticism around academic economics, primarily concerning the superficially "scientific" arguments economists often make that nonetheless remain devoid of the rigor of real science. Economics is most closely related to sociology and politics, yet some economists seem to want to present themselves as Real Scientists, using language (and sometimes models) derived from physics or biology. I'm trying to get over this knee-jerk response to economics, however, and have been looking for interesting websites and weblogs discussing economic issues particularly relevant to WorldChanging topics.

    My latest find is the new Environmental and Urban Economics weblog by Matthew Kahn, Associate Professor of International Economics at the Fletcher School at Tufts University. E&UE just started up a week ago, and Kahn has already started grappling with some meaty topics, from sprawl to whether "shame" is a viable tactic for encouraging good corporate behavior. His latest post (as of this morning) concerns the connection between incarceration of African American men for drug crimes and the incidence of AIDS in black women.

    I haven't yet decided whether Kahn's blogging will give useful insights into WorldChanging issues, but there are hints of that possibility; at the very least, I've found Environmental and Urban Economics to be sufficiently able to push my own thinking that I've added it to my regular RSS list.

    August 15, 2005

    ZipCar Sharing in SF

    Car-sharing represents a model for transportation that overlaps both the private and public spheres. Taking advantage of the "access by proximity" available in urban settings, car-sharing makes it possible to reconceptualize personal vehicles as a community good. As WorldChanging reader Mars Saxman said awhile back about a car-sharing scenario, "the point is to think about [shared] cars as *part of* the (public) transportation system, instead of as an *alternative to* the (public transportation) system."

    The largest of the US car-sharing services, ZipCar, is currently only available to east of the Mississippi locations such as NYC, Boston, Chicago, and DC. Despite this relatively limited availability, ZipCar claims over 40,000 of the nearly 77,000 car sharing participants in the US. Expect that number to climb: ZipCar has just announced that it will soon be available in San Francisco, and later on in Portland and Seattle.

    Not that these cities are devoid of car-sharing services now. San Francisco (and some regional neighbors) is currently served by City CarShare, while Portland and Seattle are both homes to Flexcar. The CarSharing Network has more details on where shared car services are now available.

    (Via Green Car Congress)

    August 16, 2005

    Hybrid Survey

    Anne Brooks, of the Geography Department's Environmental Policy, Planning and Regulation group at the London School of Economics, has put together a brief survey on hybrid vehicles. Hybrid owners and non-owners alike are invited to participate. The information will be used in her ongoing dissertation research on the economics of hybrid electric vehicles.

    As a self-selected survey, it's technically a scientific poll, but it should give her some insights into why people buy (or don't buy) hybrid cars. No personal information (other than opinions) is requested.

    Never Smile At A Crocodile -- Unless It's Healing Your Infection

    Crocodiles have immune systems far stronger than the one in human beings. Evolutionarily, it's not a surprise: crocs engage in deadly territorial battles leaving participants covered in wounds (and often missing limbs) -- all the while in environmental conditions filled with some pretty nasty pathogens. And yet crocodiles rarely suffer from infection; it turns out that the crocodile immune system literally tears apart bacteria. Now researchers working in Australia's Northern Territory are looking at ways to use crocodile immune system as an antibiotic for humans.

    Initial studies of the crocodile immune system in 1998 found that several proteins (antibodies) in the reptile's blood killed bacteria that were resistant to penicillin, such as Staphylococcus aureus or golden staph, Australian scientist Adam Britton told Reuters on Tuesday. It was also a more powerful killer of the HIV virus than the human immune system. [...] "We may be able to have antibiotics that you take orally, potentially also antibiotics that you could run topically on wounds, say diabetic ulcer wounds; burn patients often have their skin infected and things like that," said [researcher Mark] Merchant.

    The use of crocodilian blood as the base for a powerful experimental medicine might sound like a plot twist in an upcoming Spider-Man or Batman movie, but it comes at the right time: there are now mutated forms of staph immune to all but the most powerful (and dangerous to patients) antibiotics.

    August 17, 2005

    The Onion on Biofuels

    The Onion, America's Finest News Source, takes on biofuels in this week's edition, with a helpful infograph listing some current lines of research. Among the fuels you might expect to see at your local gas station:

  • EcoCoal--bituminous, geologically occurring combustible that comes in a nice green container.
  • Ethanol--corn-based gas additive included at the insistence of corn-farming uncle.
  • DynOil--petroleum substitute made by putting long-extinct biomass under extreme pressure for millions of years.

    I found this rather amusing. As always, your mileage may vary.

  • Solar Prius

    This one is spreading around the "sustainable blogosphere" faster than Avian Flu -- Green Car Congress has a report on the efforts of a Canadian engineer to add photovoltaic panels to his Prius. The goal isn't to make the Prius entirely self-sufficient, but to boost its overall efficiency: the engineer, one Steve Lapp, reports a better than 10% boost in mileage using a rough, non-optimized version of the system, from ~52 miles per gallon to ~59 mpg. The "PV Prius" is very much a proof-of-concept demo -- I'd imagine that Toyota's designers will be appalled at how the big solar panel breaks up the smooth lines of the car -- but it's a good example of how the integration of local generation has the potential to enhance overall energy efficiency.

    There's still much work to do in order to figure out right number of panels, energy flow to batteries, and myriad other technical details. There's also the larger question of the overall efficiency of the photovoltaics, and whether future adoption of cheaper, low-efficiency polymer PV or expensive, higher-efficiency nano PV would have a better payoff. Still, expect some day to see "Sun-In Hybrids" shoulder-to-shoulder with "Plug-In Hybrids."

    Cheap Silicon PV

    Speaking of solar (see below), the growing interest in photovoltaics has sparked a sharp increase in the price of the high-quality silicon needed to make standard solar panels. It turns out that most silicon has too many other metals intermixed in the ore to be usable for photovoltaic power; processes for removing the contaminants exist, but are far too expensive to be worthwhile, even at current high silicon prices. But @Monkeysign points us to new research by a team in Berkeley which may make it far easier -- and cheaper -- to turn "dirty" silicon into pv-grade material.

    The research will be published in an upcoming Nature Materials, but is available (to subscribers) online.

    There's a lot to be said about what this might mean, but @Monkeysign does a terrific job of laying out the scenarios, so go check it out.

    August 18, 2005

    PASA

    Many of us here at WorldChanging are quite enthusiastic about the "local food" movement -- the drive to encourage people to primarily (or even exclusively) eat the foods grown within the local region, in-season. There are good reasons to prefer local foods, as they are arguably better for the planet than even organic fruits and vegetables trucked in from hundreds of miles (or more) away. It would be easy to think, however, that the whole "local food" thing is something that might be done in Berkeley or Boulder (and, admittedly, throughout the UK), but wouldn't make it in a more blue-collar part of the US.

    Think again.

    PASA -- the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture -- is a non-profit focusing on educating people in Pennsylvania and the Northeast US about the value of local and sustainable farming. They have a major office -- and a devoted following -- in Pittsburgh, a city evolving out of its steel-centered past. PASA membership covers farmers and agricultural scientists as well as local residents interested in learning more about local and sustainable foods.

    If you're in the Pittsburgh area this weekend, you may be interested in checking out PASA's "Summer Harvest Dinner," featuring the best of locally-grown fruits and vegetables, as well as chicken, lamb and pork from local farms. The dinner is taking place at ELEVEN on Sunday, August 21. Seating is limited.

    (Thanks, Drue Miller)

    August 19, 2005

    Tiny Drones

    Remote operation air vehicles -- commonly referred to as "drones" -- have some interesting potential uses for environmental monitoring and video sousveillance (as well as myriad other less worldchanging uses). Recently, we've looked at "open source" remote flyers and large solar-powered long-duration flight vehicles. Today brings news of a couple of remote operation flyers that hit the other end of the size spectrum: tiny "unmanned air vehicles," or UAVs, weighing about an ounce -- or less.

    Swiss researchers have come up with an experimental self-guided drone able to avoid obstacles and weighing only around 30 grams, with an 80 centimeter wingspan. The device has two cameras onboard (each weighing about a gram), used for navigation. The Swiss team is at work on an even smaller UAV specifically for search-and-rescue and reconnaissance missions. (Technology Review, Roland Picquepaille)

    Don't work in a Swiss research institute? The Plantraco company is now selling a remote operation flyer that's even smaller than the Swiss device. Weighing less than four grams, the "Butterfly" is really only suited for indoor operation. It's also less sophisticated than the Swiss flyer, requiring complete control from the operator rather than having any on-board navigation. A one-gram camera would undoubtedly be too heavy for this one, but CMOS "camera on a chip" technologies are coming down in price; don't be surprised if the next version has remote video capacity, too. (Engadget)

    Light Faster Than Light

    Farnsworth: These are the dark matter engine I invented. They allow my starship to travel between galaxies in mere hours.
    Cubert: That's impossible. You can't go faster than the speed of light.
    Farnsworth: Of course not. That's why scientists increased the speed of light in 2208.

         --Futurama, "A Clone of My Own"

    We may not have to wait two centuries. Researchers in Switzerland's Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) have developed a method of altering the speed of light in an off-the-shelf optical fiber. Their findings were published in the current Applied Physics Letters, and describe being able to reduce the speed of photons in optical fiber to below 71,000 km/s (the speed of light in a vacuum is approximately 300,000 km/s) as well as increasing photons to a speed "well exceeding the speed of light in vacuum." The press release isn't much more forthcoming than the abstract, noting only that "relativity isn't called into question, because only a portion of the signal is affected."

    Much more attention is given to the ability to slow light. This is because, counter-intuitive though it may be, slowing down light could lead to significantly faster computers. Slowed-down light would allow for temporary "optical memory," allowing for routing and processing of optical computing signals without having to convert to electricity (which slows down processing considerably). The speed gained by not having to do conversion from light to electricity more than compensates for any speed loss from "slow light."

    The attractive aspect of this development is that it uses off-the-shelf technology at room temperature, and doesn't require exotic materials or environmental conditions.

    Now if someone can explain (a) how much faster than light they achieved, and (b) why this doesn't violate relativity?

    Weather Experiment

    Or, to be more precise, a weather website experiment. The US National Weather Service has been looking at new ways of distributing useful weather information over the Internet for awhile now. XML-based data streams are widely used, but even pressure from corporations and Senators hasn't stopped the NWS from trying new ideas. All for free, of course -- this is paid for by US citizen taxes.

    The latest experiment involves Google Earth. Google Earth is a standalone software version of the satellite images underlying Google Maps; currently available for Windows, Mac (and Linux?) versions are coming real soon now. The NWS is now making weather forecast data available in the Google Earth plug-in format. Currently, files for maximum and minimum temperatures can be accessed and put into the system. There's little documentation, so it's unclear precisely what area this covers; it may only cover the region around the Tulsa, Oklahoma NWS office.

    August 23, 2005

    Take the WorldChanging Survey!

    In all of the dust and debris from today's transition to the new site layout, we don't want to forget that the WorldChanging Survey is still up and running, and will continue through the end of the month.

    If you haven't taken the survey yet, give it a shot. It's quick -- five minutes, really -- and will help us better chart the course of where we take WorldChanging in the weeks and months to come.

    August 29, 2005

    Katrina on the Wiki

    Wikipedia seems to be assuming an interesting role in the global response to disaster: the web home for the best current information. In the aftermath of the December tsunami, Wikipedia slowly embraced this role; in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the Wikipedia entry almost immediately became information central. This undoubtedly comes as a combination of both Katrina hitting an area already home to large numbers of web users and media outlets, giving more sources to draw from, and Wikipedia users recognizing the site's value during disasters.

    (Hat tip to W. David Stephenson)

    Leaving Home

    earthfrommess.jpgThe Messenger probe, launched in August of 2004, will take more than six and a half years to get to the orbit of Mercury. Even though Mercury is relatively close-by, in order to get there with a minimum of fuel use (allowing the probe to allocate less weight to fuel and more to equipment), Messenger needs to do "gravity assist" flybys of Earth, Venus, and even Mercury itself to gain and shed enough speed to get it into the right orbit. Close flybys aren't wasted -- Messenger trains its high-resolution cameras and sensors on the planets as it passes by.

    Earlier this month, Messenger performed its lone Earth flyby, and snapped numerous pictures during its brief encounter. The Messenger website, at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, has the resulting gorgeous high-resolution images of our home; moreover, they have assembled the series into an animation of 24 hours of Earth's rotation, observed by Messenger as it speeds away. Messenger will never be this close to Earth again, and this is a lovely way to say goodbye.

    (Thanks, JWZ)

    August 30, 2005

    Harder than Diamond

    Diamonds have been dethroned. Long believed to be the hardest material around, researchers at the University of Bayreuth in Germany have just made something even harder: aggregated diamond nanorods.

    Aggregated diamond nanorods (ADNRs) are created by subjecting carbon-60 molecules (aka buckyballs) to immense pressures and heat -- 200 times atmospheric pressure and 2500 Kelvin. The resulting material has an "isothermal bulk modulus" (the technical measure of hardness) of 491 gigapascals, compared to 442 gigapascals for regular diamond.

    The material will have commercial applications (generally to do things that diamonds already do, but better), but its biggest impact will be symbolic: the notion that diamonds are the "hardest material on Earth" has long been an eternal verity. Now they've been beaten by something from the lab, a super-compressed buckyball. What's next -- the certainty of death and taxes?

    Kaytecyenza

    The so-called "female condom," which never quite took off in the US and Europe, is becoming a key tool in the fight against AIDS in the developing world. The somewhat tricky insertion process, the feel of it, and the noise -- all of which were negatives to Western users -- have turned out to be wildly appealing in numerous markets. Over 10 million female condoms have been sold in the developing world since the late 1990s. The Guardian has the details (and discusses the use of the female condom in relatively graphic biological terminology; readers sensitive to frank discussions of sexuality should take note).

    The female condom has been particularly important in parts of the developing world ravaged by AIDS, as it gives women a way to protect their own health without having to demand that their male partners use traditional condoms. Moreover, the tickling sensations for the male partners from the polyurethane have become a selling point, prompting prostitutes in a number of countries to charge more for sex with the female condom. In Zimbabwe, the term "kaytecyenza" has been coined to reflect this sensation and the excitement it provides.

    With women making up nearly half the HIV cases globally -- and often far more in the developing world -- anything that both increases the likelihood of safer sex practices and puts the power of use into the hands of women has to count as seriously worldchanging.

    (Thank you, Janice!)

    August 31, 2005

    Alex in Grist, Part 2

    The second part of Dave Roberts' interview with Alex Steffen for Grist is up today (we linked to Part One here). This one focuses on issues of sustainable urban and rural development.

    Alex: One of the places we've failed the worst is providing a vision of the rural future. [...] We need to do is start imagining what a high-tech, prosperous, 21st century rural life would look like. We can't allow ourselves to treat people in rural America the way environmentalists have sometimes been guilty of treating people in the developing world, which is saying, "well, you don't have a lot right now, so you're not really causing any problems, so just stay where you are." No future that requires rural America be poor is viable to sell to the American people. It doesn't have to be that way.

    Worldmeters

    worldometers.jpgAs much a novelty as a data source, Worldometers uses statistical averages and your computer's clock to calculate a variety of figures about human beings and the planet we live on. These are basic javascripts (meaning that, if you really want to have a self-incrementing world population meter on your site, the code is right there), and should work on any standards-compliant browser. The site reports some problems with KHTML browsers like Safari, but it seemed to work fine for me...

    (Via information aesthetics)

    September 1, 2005

    Alex in Grist, Part 3

    In the final part of the Alex in Grist interview saga, Alex Steffen and Dave Roberts talk about how the environmental movement needs to change, how to make the case for sustainability compelling, and how to defeat the Emperor by tossing him down a convenient bottomless pit.

    Alex: ...once you have better ways of doing things -- better both in that they're cleaner and safer but also in that they make money for shareholders -- then you're able to cast the old-school chemical companies, the fossil fuel companies, as what they are: old, bloated, heavily subsidized industries with a lock on politicians who benefit from a quid pro quo arrangement. You can finally cast them as the enemy in such a way that you're not against industry, you're against old, dirty, last-century industry, which is standing in the way. Why won't they get out of our way? Why won't they let us do things in a healthier way? Why are they making money off poisoning us when we could make more money doing it cleaner?

    Car Sharing Heats Up

    Hot on the heels of Zipcar's announced expansion, Seattle-based Flexcar yesterday revealed investments from and board memberships for two close-to-household names: Steve Case (formerly of AOL) and Lee "Not Snoop Dog" Iacocca (formerly of Chrysler, pre-Daimler era). The money (undisclosed but apparently significant) will allow Flexcar to double its fleet, open up in five new cities in the next 16 months, and double its membership levels.

    While we're not normally all that interested in celebrity corporate executives, an investment like this is a big, flashing neon sign that car-sharing is set to get big. No doubt the threat of $4/gallon gas and $100/barrel oil will make even die-hard solo drivers think again about their car habits, and car-sharing is well-positioned to assist a transition towards greater use of public transit.

    (Thanks, Joseph Willemssen)

    CanX

    The next big thing is space probes looks to be very small. "Nanosatellites" -- fully-functional satellite systems measuring a few dozen centimeters in length. As we noted last June, NASA is working on nanosats as sort of micro-UAVs for inspecting the space shuttle and station. Canada's University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies, Space Flight Laboratory (UTIAS/SFL) is working on something a bit more complex, however. CanX -- Canadian Advanced Nanospace eXperiment -- is a series of increasingly-complex, very small satellites, able to work either alone or in "flocks." Multiple nanosats are potentially much less expensive than big solo satellites, and allow for greater flexibility and robustness: the loss of a member of a flock doesn't threaten the whole mission.

    The second nanosat in the series, CanX-2, is set to launch in mid-2006; the launch will test a new propulsion system, custom radios, cheap & tiny attitude sensors and actuators, and a commercial GPS receiver. CanX-3 is already being built, with even greater functionality, and CanX-4 and 5 are in design.

    Nanosat development would be particularly useful for countries and regions without extensive space programs, as they would allow more collaborative space-based environmental monitoring and research at lower cost and lower risk.

    September 2, 2005

    RealClimate on Katrina

    The connection between climate disruption and Katrina is a complex issue, one that is ill-served by either bald assertions that global warming "caused" the hurricane or talking point-driven claims that any suggestion of a link amounts to "politicizing" the disaster.

    As we've noted here, the connection between global warming and hurricanes looks to be one of increased average intensity -- but not something allowing simple, "if-then" logic for any single event. But we're not climate professionals; you're better off hearing from people who are experts in the field. I mean, of course, the scientists at the RealClimate website.

    In Hurricanes and Global Warming -- Is There A Consensus? the RealClimate authors give a painstaking breakdown of the factors that could contribute to increased hurricane intensity. Their conclusion won't satisfy partisans, but gives a good read on where the science is these days: Thus, we can conclude that both a natural cycle (the AMO [Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, or Hurricane Cycle]) and anthropogenic forcing could have made roughly equally large contributions to the warming of the tropical Atlantic over the past decades, with an exact attribution impossible so far.

    September 6, 2005

    AltWheels 2005

    The annual AltWheels festival, held in Brookline, Massachusetts, is just around the corner. AltWheels is a chance to get some hands-on time with a wide variety of alternative and sustainable transportation ideas, from advanced bikes to hydrogen cars to solar vehicles. I gave a heads-up last year, and reader Jeff Egnaczyk posted a link to his photos of the event. This year, I'd love to hear from more of you who attended. In particular, I'd like to know: what struck you as realistic? What seemed implausible or ill-founded? What surprised you? What gave you a "I'd really like to see *that* on the road" feeling?

    AltWheels 2005 will be held Saturday and Sunday, September 17 and 18, at the Larz Anderson Auto Museum. Directions and (inexpensive) pricing info can be found here.

    September 7, 2005

    China's Renewables Plan

    In March, we noted that China was set to pass a law requiring that 10% of its energy production come from renewable sources, including hydropower, by 2020. Not terribly ambitious in terms of either goals or technology, we argued at the time that "China could and should do much more" to move to cleaner power and consumption.

    Slowly, China seems to be shifting towards recognition the need to do more. The latest example comes in a report from Reuters that Shi Lishan, director of renewable energy at the policy-setting National Development and Reform Commission, last week told a Beijing energy conference that 15% renewables was a reasonable goal, and that shifting from a 10% to a 15% target was being considered by top officials.

    15% is still a fraction of what China could do by 2020, but a jump like this in just 6 months is notable. China seems to have a growing recognition that current models of energy production and consumption are unsustainable. Perhaps more importantly, China may be seeing that the same is true globally -- and that the first major economic power to aggressively shift to cleaner technologies could have a "first mover" advantage over the rest.

    More Steampunk Solar

    Stirling Energy Systems, fresh from signing a major deal with Southern California Edison for the construction of a 4,500 acre Stirling engine solar power farm, has just locked up another regional energy giant: San Diego Gas & Electric. SDG&E has just agreed to buy 300MW of power from another Stiring Energy Systems farm, with the option of expanding to 900MW. If the full installation goes forward, the Stirling farm would produce 10% of SDG&E's total power capacity -- a big step towards the company's goal of 20% renewable energy production by 2010.

    The SCE Stirling farm was to be the largest solar power array in the world; the full SDG&E plan would be a bit larger, and would result in California being home to nearly two gigawatts of non-photovoltaic solar power production within the next decade.

    (Via Green Car Congress)

    September 8, 2005

    Kate Stohr on The World

    Architecture for Humanity co-founder Kate Stohr was just interviewed on the BBC/PRI radio show The World, talking about the role of architects and design in the response to disasters (WMA). Katrina and New Orleans are certainly foremost in the conversation, but Kate also touches on some of the previous AfH efforts, including the post-tsunami work.

    "You can't rebuild the past. You can't. We have no choice but to look forward and to rethink New Orleans as a new city... New Orleans was a gift, it was an architectural gift, so what kind of gift and legacy are we going to leave to future generations?"

    (Thanks, Clark!)

    Nichia "Next Big Thing" Competition

    Okay, fast writers, here's something for you: the Japanese electronics company Nichia (which tries to emphasize environmental responsibility, at least in its press pages) is holding an essay contest:

    As we embark on our 50th anniversary, we can't think of a better way to celebrate our history and commitment to the environment than to look toward the future and invite you—our future problem solvers and scientists—to help us discover “The Next Big Thing."

    How can electronics contribute to environmental solutions?

    We challenge you to answer this question in an original essay of 500 to 1,000 words. A panel of judges, including esteemed Nichia scientists and graduate students from across the country, will choose a winner to receive the $25,000 prize.

    Yep, you read that right: a 500-1000 word essay can win $25,000. Here's the thing -- I just found out about this today, and the essay deadline is... September 9. Tomorrow. At one minute before midnight Pacific time. The contest is open to residents of the US, UK and Japan over the local "age of majority."

    Playing Hybrid Catch-Up, Globally

    Honda and Toyota continue to dominate the hybrid market, with Ford a distant third, but even long-time automaker holdouts against the adoption of hybrid technologies have sullenly come around.

    BMW, DaimlerChrysler and GM -- three of the biggest also-rans in the world of hybrid cars -- have decided to throw their lots in together on the design of a new hybrid engine system. BMW and GM have focused their long-term efforts upon hydrogen vehicle technologies, and all three missed the rise of the hybrid as a nearer-term option for reducing fossil fuel consumption. GM and DaimlerChrysler claim to be coming out with hybrid SUVs in 2007 and 2008; we'll see if they actually do so.

    More interesting is the Reuters report that Volkswagen -- which had been reluctant to the point of obstinate about building hybrids -- has signed a deal with Shanghai Automotive to start building hybrid vehicles in China. The line will produce small numbers of cars by 2008 (as show vehicles for the Olympics); large scale production is said to begin by 2010. The report had few real details about the deal, but it appears that VW will be designing the hybrid system on its own.

    Of course, by 2008 Toyota and Honda will have converted an even larger portion of their vehicle fleet to hybrids...

    September 9, 2005

    Recycled Water Shower

    Water-saving has something of a bad reputation, as it often requires reduced facility effectiveness (as with the low-flow showers that don't clean well or the water-saving toilets that too often require multiple flushes). WorldChanging readers should already know what the right kind of solution is: a system that both reduces consumption and provides benefits that more wasteful incarnations can't match. Today's BBC brings word that British design student Peter Brewin has come up with just such a solution.

    Brewin has constructed a water-recycling shower that takes the "gray water" running down the drain and filters it to clean water status, heats it to the desired temperatures, then pumps it out at full flow. The filtering system is similar to the ultra-advanced Dyson vacuum cleaner, and adoption of the shower could save a dramatic amount of water (the BBC describes it as £170 worth per year per household). But what makes the design really attractive are its various added features:

    The shower has some nifty functions, including a pause button designed to please anyone who has unwittingly stepped into a freezing cold shower. The button allows water flow to be stopped until it hits the right temperature. Other features include a water meter showing water usage per shower and a chlorine filter.

    Okay, these aren't super-sexy, but this is an excellent example of how to rethink the way we use resources. We've said it dozens of times: trying to save the world by making everyone give up perceived benefits is a losing strategy. But combine advantages such as cost-savings and new capabilities with responsible use -- especially use with no visible reduction of benefits -- and you have a winner.

    Leapfrog Medtech

    Endoscopy, the examination of interior surfaces of organs through the insertion of a small, flexible scope, is a standard practice in medical offices around the world. But the cost of a typical endoscope -- around $30,000 -- can be a real problem in poorer regions. Vietnam, for example, has but a single endoscope in each province. But a Vietnamese physician, Dr Nguyen Phuoc Huy, took advantage of the bloom in cheap, powerful digital technologies, and was able to build his own endoscope at a fraction of the cost of a standard device.

    The homebrew endoscope combines a normal microscope (at $800, by far the most expensive part of the device) with inexpensive lenses, a webcam, and an old PC for image processing. Components, aside from the microscope, ended up costing under $300. Although the doctor notes that the PC runs Windows, in principle there's no reason why a similar system couldn't run Linux or other FLOS software.

    Interestingly, the article makes no mention of one of the real advantages of this kind of system over more traditional endoscopes: built-in Internet access. With the applications built in to any modern operating system, the resulting images can be readily saved in web-standard formats and emailed around the world for consultation. In fact, it would take little effort to allow multiple doctors on the net to observe an endoscopic examination as it happens.

    Remote medical assistance to developing regions can be worldchanging; I hope that Dr. Huy takes advantage of the potential of his invention.

    (Via SciDev.Net)

    September 10, 2005

    72 hours

    Those of us who live in places that haven't given much thought to how citizens should prepare for disaster can learn from cities and regions where natural disasters are more common. The city of San Francisco's Office of Emergency Services, for example, has set up a terrific website called 72 Hours, spelling out in easy, straightforward language the basics of how to prepare for a major disaster. The information focuses a bit more on earthquakes than on other kinds of events, but the vast majority of the content is applicable to just about any kind of traumatic event. The advice is quite good, too: tips for making disaster plans; lists for "Go Bags;" specific sections for planning to aid children, the disabled, and household pets; what to put into an emergency first aid kit; and much more. The site is available in English, Spanish and Chinese.

    I know that many of our readers live in locations also prone to disasters, and likely know of local resources giving useful information as to how to prepare for trouble. The 72 Hours site is good, but is likely missing sections of use in other kinds of emergencies.

    Please use the comments to give links to good disaster prep information, especially for places outside of the United States.

    September 11, 2005

    Asian Wind

    Not much of a surprise, but a good data point nonetheless: governments in Asia are starting to pay much closer attention to renewable energy technologies. Why? The reasons are manifold: local pollution coming from fossil fuel power generation; reduced supply and greater competition for oil, globally; and a growing recognition that this is an emerging market, and first movers could have a real advantage as more countries start looking at renewable energy technology options.

    Reuters has a feature article on renewable energy in the region, "Asia sees sense in going green as oil prices rise," focusing primarily upon China but touching on renewable energy strategies across the region. Interestingly, Japan and Korea are not mentioned, but Indonesia, Bangladesh, Cambodia and the Philippines each get a paragraph.

    South Korea gets its due in a brief note at Renewable Energy Access, however, "Wind Power to Evolve in Korea & China." Korea Electric Power is set to invest $57.5 million in a wind power facility -- in China. The first foreign company to invest in a Chinese wind power project, Korean Electric will own 40% of the facility. The value of this investment is two-fold: income from a rapidly-growing power market, and experience with large-scale wind generation. Korean Electric's investment in China pales, however, in comparison to energy company China Datang's investment in a wind power project in Inner Mongolia: $989 million.

    September 12, 2005

    The Uses of Disaster

    Almost exactly a year ago, in the midst of the last hurricane season, I asked "Do We Need A Disaster?," exploring the question of whether we as a human society require monstrous events to focus our attention on the need for change. Although I was -- and remain -- hopeful that change could happen without such painful triggers, history offers me little support for my hopes.

    Author Rebecca Solnit explores this question further in the latest issue of Harper's magazine. In "The Uses of Disaster," written before the recent hurricane but with an after-Katrina postscript, Solnit looks at the psychology of human behavior after major disasters. Moreover, she looks at how disasters in history, around the world, have been catalysts for major cultural changes.

    If we do need a disaster to change our thinking, how best can we make sure that the changes are for the better?

    (Thanks, Daniel Haran)

    The "Big Here" Quiz

    How much do you know about where you live? Not the politics of your hometown, mind you, or the details of the local markets and economy -- how much do you know about the land and your local environment? Peter Warshall started asking this about thirty years ago, turning the questions into a quiz (one we wrote about earlier); over time, his list of questions has grown. Kevin Kelly gives us the latest iteration of the test, which he calls the "Big Here" quiz.

    Questions include:

    2) What time is sunset today?
    3) Trace the water you drink from rainfall to your tap.
    19) How many days is the growing season here (from frost to frost)?
    20) Name five birds that live here. Which are migratory and which stay put?
    25) Name three wild species that were not found here 500 years ago. Name one exotic species that has appeared in the last 5 years.

    The drive to get people back in touch with their particular local environment has a number of expressions, and is perhaps most visible in the "eat local"/"100 mile diet" movement. People can reasonably disagree about the importance of deep knowledge of a location in an era when few people stay put for long (I'm of two minds about the whole thing, myself), but this quiz is certainly a good trigger for making one think about what does and doesn't know about one's own surroundings.

    September 13, 2005

    The French Way

    France, never very shy about using government policies to set broader economic and social goals, has announced that it will be taxing high-CO2 vehicles, with the tax money going to fund research into hybrid car technologies. Green Car Congress has details.

    The tax, effective 1 Jan 2006, will be set at €2 (US$2.45) per gram for cars producing between 200 and 250 g/km CO2, and €4 (US$4.91) per gram for those producing more than 250 g/km. The proceeds, expected to be about €18 million (US$22 million), will flow into the French Environment and Energy Saving Agency.

    The research goal is technically a "family car" that produces less than 100 g/km of carbon dioxide, but the Ecology Minister has already said that hybrid-electric technology is the likeliest candidate.

    Solar is Hot

    In case you needed some additional confirmation that the interest in alternative energy systems is skyrocketing, the New York Times business section has a nifty little piece going over the growth in stock value of the various small and medium-sized producers of photovoltaic gear for the home. For those of us with more of a focus on users than on shareholders, the article includes a graphic showing just how much the installed base has grown from 1996 to 2004. Worldwide solar power generation nearly doubled over the 2003-2004 period, and 2005 looks to be another record year (if silicon shortages don't hold us back, that is).

    September 14, 2005

    Suburban Obesity?

    We know that there's a correlation between obesity and suburban sprawl. But what's the nature of the connection? The traditional conclusion is that the fewer opportunities to walk and ride bicycles in suburban and exurban communities exact a toll on physical health -- in short, that living in the 'burbs can make you fat.

    But two Oregon State researchers have come to a different conclusion. In their research, just published in Journal of Regional Science, they find that living in sprawl doesn't make one fat, but that a reluctance to walk or ride bikes makes one more likely to want to live in the suburbs!

    The researchers found that fit people choose to live in neighborhoods that allow them to walk to work or shop and fat people pick places where they need a car.

    The study was adjusted to eliminate differences due to income and other factors.

    The upshot is that changes to urban design may not have the health effects many of us might wish for. Real change will require changing people's minds about exercise. Sadly, this may be even harder than transforming urban landscapes.

    BusinessWeek Dreams

    Alan AtKisson's essay, Dreaming of a New New Orleans, Version 1, has received abundant, well-deserved attention. It's going to get even more -- Alan's essay was featured in a short article at BusinessWeek magazine.

    This is important for a number of reasons. Not just because it gives Alan more visibility (although that's terrific to see), not even because it gives WorldChanging more visibility (ibid), but because it gives mainstream attention to these ideas. People who have never even heard of WorldChanging will be exposed to Alan's persuasive prose, and the notion of rebuilding New Orleans on a basis of sustainability and long-term livability will have a greater chance of entering the broader public conversation on the city's, and the country's, future.

    September 15, 2005

    European Hybrids

    European carmakers rolled out some demonstration hybrid-electric vehicles at the Frankfurt Auto Show this week, but only grudgingly. As we've noted, auto manufacturers like Volkswagen and BMW have been dismissive of hybrids, declaring them to be less efficient than diesels and less advanced than planned hydrogen/fuel cell cars. Both of these may well be true -- a good diesel vehicle can get mileage along the same lines as a hybrid, and (under certain conditions) sometimes better -- but demand for hybrids appears to be growing, globally.

    The mainly German carmakers discussed in the New York Times article seem to be giving lip-service to building hybrids, but promising no rollouts before 2010. It's pretty clear that they hope that the demand for hybrids dies off before then, an attitude that seems to have much in common with traditional US automaker behavior.

    The real difference between diesels and hybrids, from my perspective, isn't which one is more efficient now, but which one has the greater potential for increased fuel efficiency. We know that gas-optional hybrids and other experimental variations are getting mileage the equivalent of about 100 mpg on the relatively heavy Prius frame; are there experimental diesel engines that can make the same general claim?

    Mother Talks To Mike

    Sustainability Sundays contributor Mike Millikin, editor of the fantastic Green Car Congress website, is the subject of an interview in the current Mother Jones. The discussion is a good one, and the interview could serve as a primer on the current and near-future trends in building more efficient vehicles. (And if you shy away from Mother Jones for political reasons, you don't need to for this piece -- it's almost entirely focused on vehicle technology and its social context.)

    Millikin: ...one of the things I try to do is emphasize new engine concepts. It's very difficult to develop an engine, and it's hard for inventors and innovators to come up with something that can really make any headway. And so in at least one case – and I'll be doing this with other cases – I've thrown up a new concept on the site, and the inventor and the readers interacted and discussed it in great depth.

    I've got the educated or leading-edge consumers, researchers from universities, engineers and developers from the auto companies checking in regularly. It's a good cross section. And I've been very pleased with the types of discussions and interactions that have developed. All I'm really trying to do is to get people learning and thinking and then taking what they've learned and doing more.

    September 17, 2005

    Jamais at ACC

    Just a quick note: I'm at the 2005 Accelerating Change Conference, held at Stanford University. I will be speaking tonight (in the final section for the day, at 10:15pm), and have already had the pleasure of meeting several readers.

    If you are at ACC05, please feel free to say hi. I look forward to the chance to meet more worldchangers.

    September 21, 2005

    Back Now

    Normal blogging should resume today; my talks at the Accelerating Change 2005 conference and at Global Business Network both went well, although it should be noted that I need to figure out how to tell the WorldChanging story in a more compact fashion.

    Global Warming... On Mars

    Mars Global Surveyor, which went into service around the Red Planet back in 1997, has outlasted its original mission spec, giving planetologists a chance to view longer-term changes on Mars. One discovery with some Earthly implications -- the Martian climate is changing. The carbon dioxide ice cap at the south pole has receded each of the last three years, indicating that the planet is gradually getting warmer; NASA researchers are still working on precisely what is triggering this climate shift.

    This is an excellent example of why the space program (particularly automated probes) is an important tool for building the Bright Green future. Determining what natural forces are at work warming Mars can help pinpoint the levels to which the same natural forces could contribute to Earth's climate disruption. Human activity far outweighs the effect of solar variation, for example, but it's important to measure just how much of an effect the Sun does have, so as to better determine what level of change to human activity would be required to pull us back from the brink (more solar influence=more work we have to do to bring the human influence down).

    Scientific American: Crossroads for Planet Earth

    Run, don't walk, to the nearest magazine vendor carrying the September 2005 edition of Scientific American. (The October issue should be out soon, so go now. We'll wait.) The special issue, entitled "Crossroads for Planet Earth," is the closest one could get to WorldChanging ideas in magazine form without any articles by WorldChanging writers. Topics covered include poverty, public health around the world, biodiversity, efficiency as a source of profit, and prosperity as a function of sustainability. Many of the articles are freely available on the Scientific American website, so if you miss your chance to pick up the issue, all is not lost. But I have to say that this is probably the most impressive copy of Scientific American I've seen in awhile, and I'm very glad I grabbed up the print edition.

    September 22, 2005

    What Is A "Climate Forcing?"

    We've recommended that WorldChanging readers check out the Real Climate website numerous times. Run by real, working climatologists, it takes a science-based approach to discussions of climate issues (global warming in particular). Today's post on climate forcings is particularly useful, as it helps to peel back some of the apparent fuzziness about how scientists determine the relative importance of different interacting forces when looking at a changing environment. This post is also a good example of how scientific disagreements should be handled -- with respect for another scientist's view, a reasonable explanation of why that view might be held, and details of why the author sees things differently.

    Fossil Fuel-Free Sweden

    The Swedish government announced this week that the country will seek to end its dependency upon fossil fuels by 2020.

    The Prime Minister Goran Persson announced this as part of a package of boosted support for alternative energy research and development. Persson explicitly connected the plan to the advent of global warming. "We are frightened by climate change today... The mean temperature of the earth is rising, and it is rising most nearest to the poles."

    I've asked Alan for more details, when he has a chance.

    September 23, 2005

    Big Business for Climate Regulation

    It may surprise some readers to learn that some of the loudest voices calling for strict climate-related regulations come not from activists, and certainly not from government bodies, but from the corporations which would be regulated. This definitely came as a surprise to British writer George Monbiot, who penned an editorial for the Guardian earlier this week entitled, "It Would Seem That I Was Wrong About Big Business." It's definitely worth checking out.

    A moment's reflection will reveal the logic at work. The lack of regulation means that, whenever the adoption or production of a greener alternative process or technology costs more than sticking with the old, dirty version -- which is most cases, if only due to basic switching costs -- companies that go green face a temporary set back against less forward-looking competitors. And while some green moves will end up benefiting the adopting companies far faster and far more than they expect, that's not always true.

    Companies in the US face an additional issue: inconsistent regulation from state to state. Figuring out how to meet wildly divergent state environmental standards can end up being more expensive than even strict -- but consistent -- national standards.

    Hurricanes and Oil Production

    "Professor Goose" from The Oil Drum -- definitely one of the best places on the web to visit for information on the ongoing energy transformation -- writes to tell us that The Oil Drum is keeping an updated page for the impact of Rita on the Gulf Coast oil sites. The page includes updated maps comparing the hurricane path and oil infrastructure sites, damage models, and of course updates on the course of the storm.

    Spikes in oil prices have pushed more American drivers into high-mileage vehicles, and that's a good thing. But some of the scenarios that come from a rapid decline in oil availability aren't so appealing: drilling off California and Florida beaches; boost in coal production for liquified coal; and, of course, the kind of greater economic instability that tends to lead political figures to avoid thinking about long-term consequences in order to avoid short-term political pain.

    Microbe-Killing Bandage

    University of Florida researchers have developed a coating for gauze bandages that both speeds healing and prevents fungal and bacterial infections. Moreover, the method used by this coating for its microbicidal properties is said to be highly resistant to evolved resistance. Unfortunately, the press release from UFL -- while detailed about how the bandage blocks the migration of microbes to wounds (through tightly-bonded nitrogen clusters) and how it promotes healing (by pulling excess moisture from wounds) -- says little about how the microbicidal coating actually kills bacteria and fungi.

    If this material actually does what the researchers say it does (and clinical trials will start later this year), this could be a very useful tool for preventing the spread of antibiotic-resistant infections.

    September 25, 2005

    Microgrids as Peer-to-Peer Energy (Welcome, BBC Readers)

    The BBC News website has an excellent piece up today about the utility of local distributed power networks, or "microgrids," as a tool for increasing energy efficiency and the adoption of alternative energy technologies. The article covers the key points, and is an excellent primer for understanding how such a system could function and why we'd want to build it. It's also excellent because WorldChanging is linked -- twice -- in their related resources list.

    A quick note for new readers: we haven't used the term "microgrid" much here; we more often refer to "distributed power" and "smart grids." Search on those terms, for the full set of articles we've written. Some of the more useful pieces include:

  • How To Do Decentralized Energy
  • Urban Sustainability, Megacity Leapfrogging
  • Making the Meters Smarter
  • Smart Energy Grids

  • September 26, 2005

    Viral Batteries

    The name of MIT's Dr. Angela Belcher has popped up a couple of times here on WorldChanging. A 2004 MacArthur "genius grant" winner, she works on the integration of biological processes and nanoscale materials. Now we can learn a bit more about the work that she's been doing:

    Copying how red abalone build their shells, Belcher and her team are developing a way to actually "grow" rechargeable batteries with the help of viruses — tiny microbes that multiply by infecting living cells. Their technique would take a matter of weeks, rather than the 15 years the red abalone needs to assemble a full-sized shell.

    "We're forcing the viruses to interact with materials that they would never interact with, normally. So now the viruses are a template to actually grow that material… it incorporates these new materials into its coat surface," Belcher explains.

    The ScienCentral article includes a video description of the project and interview with Dr. Belcher, as well as links to some of Dr. Belcher's recent publications, including a 2000 article in Nature.

    (Via MedGadget)

    Intel Cuts Processor Power

    Not processing power, mind you, just the electrical power used by their computer chips. Intel claims that about half the power consumed by processors comes not from active computing, but from "leakage current" when the transistors are in a "low-level sleep state." Intel's latest chip production process will result in processors that won't suffer from such levels of "transistor leakage." According to CNET, the new chips could cut wasted power by as much as a thousand times. Overall, the new design chips should use about one-tenth the power that current generation mobile technology processors use.

    Although processor power consumption isn't the only draw on device power, it's an important one. This is the kind of development that will make self-powered mobile devices more likely, with greater consumption efficiency matching improvements in plastic photovoltaic production capacity.

    (Via Mobile Technology Weblog)

    September 27, 2005

    Nano Dermal Display

    Seattle-based designer Gina Miller has come up with a piece of plausible speculative technology. Her Dermal Nanotech Display is worn on the back of the hand, where billions of nanomachines planted just under the skin provide a linked information display. Miller's model (including animation) focuses on personal biomedical information; in principle, there's no reason why the same display couldn't also interface with an external network.

    Real implanted displays probably won't be exactly like this, but I find these kinds of speculation projects to be very useful for helping to frame what we do and don't want with emerging technologies.

    (Via Medgadget)

    September 28, 2005

    Carbon Free Volvo

    Volvo production, that is. The Swedish automaker has announced that its truck manufacturing facility in Tuve will be the world's first CO2-free automotive plant. All of the factory's power and heat will come from a combination of wind power and biofuels, coupled with efforts to boost overall power efficiency by 20%. The Tuve facility is the first step in a longer-term effort to convert all Volvo facilities to CO2-free energy. Energy produced in excess of factory needs will be sold to the national grid.

    "The Greenhouse Effect is a reality and the automotive industry has a specific responsibility for coping with emissions of carbon dioxide," says Volvo's Chief Executive Officer Leif Johansson. [...] "Reducing carbon dioxide emissions is no easy task [...] But the issue is so important that I believe we must be prepared to try out a variety of different alternatives, if we really want to succeed. Our investment in the Tuve plant is one such effort."

    (Via Green Car Congress)

    Civ IV

    Oh, I'm in trouble. Civilization IV will be out this Fall, possibly next month, and aside from the expected graphical and game play upgrades, the game ships with an incredibly sophisticated modification system. From the Gamespy preview:

    Meanwhile, Civilization IV promises to be the most moddable game in the franchise yet. It'll ship with an in-game "worldbuilder" that allows you to shift units around and redraw the map, similar to a scenario editor. More hardcore modders can jump into XML files and tweak all of the unit stats and variables in the game. Beyond that, users who know the Python scripting language can actually go in and set up scripts and triggers to make game events happen or alter the way the game plays, while a Game A.I. SDK that'll be available shortly after the game ships will allow players to completely change the way the A.I., combat system, or game rules work.

    World-building games (or even city-building games) should always open up the rules to players to examine and modify. The modification possibilities in Civ III were substantial; it sounds like what they're doing with Civ IV will be close to revolutionary.

    September 30, 2005

    Mice of Regeneration

    The story of the regenerating mice first popped up on science sites a couple of weeks ago, but it hadn't caught my eye until I saw the details in this Wired News article. In brief, bioscientists at the Wistar Institute at the University of Pennsylvania, working on the auto-immune disorder Lupus, accidentally created mice with the uncanny ability to regrow lost limbs and to heal, without scars, serious injuries to tissues and organs, including the heart, liver and brain.

    Amazing, yes, but it gets even better:

    The researchers also made a remarkable second discovery: When cells from the regenerative mice were injected into normal mice, the normal mice adopted the ability to regenerate. And when the special mice bred with normal mice, their offspring inherited souped-up regeneration capabilities.

    The researchers, who have since been joined by other institutes in the project, have yet to figure out precisely which set of genes and proteins make this amphibian-like regeneration capacity possible. When they do, it may well lead to similar kinds of healing in human beings; Cambridge scientist Aubrey de Grey, a specialist in life extension, argues that this breakthrough may well be the turning point in work on radical longevity (or, in his terms, "engineered negligible senescence").

    October 4, 2005

    EU Renewable Target

    The European Parliament has passed legislation mandating an EU-wide renewable energy target: at least 20% of energy production must come from renewable sources by 2020, with 25% as a non-mandatory goal when coupled with efficiency improvements. For electricity producers, this could mean getting 33% of their power from renewables.

    According to Renewable Energy Access:

    ...the European Parliament voted for the following:

  • Renewable energies combined with energy conservation measures to reduce Europe's dependence on energy imports and diminish the political and economic risks resulting from these imports
  • Tax cuts to encourage renewables
  • Fair market conditions for electricity produced from renewable energies
  • End to distortions in the energy market
  • Clear increase of R&D budget for renewables in the upcoming FP7 program
  • The development of an export strategy for less-developed countries and emerging economies and as part of poverty reduction strategies
  • Renewables to be a key element of structural policy
  • Greater use of biomass
  • Further initiatives to promote the use of renewable heating and cooling technologies in particular in the building sector.

  • An End to the Sport Utility Home?

    The New York Times reports a welcome change: American home buyers are starting to turn away from the massive "McMansion" dwellings, and are looking for smaller homes with more amenities.

    To its credit, the article cites a number of possible reasons for this shift, from simple leveling off (the average desired home size of just over 2,400 square feet is a close match for the average purchased home size of 2,300 square feet) to higher energy costs for heating and cooling to changes in culture and style.

    Although nowhere in the article are efficiency improvements and home power generation mentioned, but this is still good news for those of us who want to see smaller environmental footprints as the norm. Solar shingles, super-efficient appliances and the like are increasingly seen as desirable features instead of "eat your vegetables" responsibilities, tying into the emerging market zeitgeist. This, in turn, could lead to greater demand, lower costs, and wider availability for people who otherwise might not be able to afford a greener life.

    October 5, 2005

    FindSolar

    FindSolar.com is a new site designed to encourage interest in the installation of solar power technologies. Look up your state and county, and FindSolar can return information on your solar energy potential, various incentives and exactly how a solar power system (pv or direct heat) would work for you. The calculator displays the estimated costs of a system, monthly and annual savings, even how many tons of CO2 per year would be saved (it's unclear whether this takes into account regional differences in power generation -- photovoltaics in the Northwest, for example, would be displacing mostly hydro power, while pv in Southern California would be displacing mostly natural gas turbines, and pv in the mid-west would be displacing mostly coal).

    Once you determine whether solar power is a good idea for your location, the site also has a database of solar power professionals, organized by location. The listings include consumer feedback-based quality ratings, but (as always) buyer beware. The site is sponsored by the American Solar Energy Society, the Solar Electric Power Association, and the Department of Energy, so you're not going to find many solar skeptics here.

    (Via Renewable Energy Access)

    Gridpoint

    As much as we love the idea of "net metering" -- being able to supply power back to the grid with home renewable generation, and get credit for it -- the technology has one big drawback: if the power grid goes down in your area, you can't draw power from your home system, even if the afternoon sun is making your solar shingles output power like crazy. There are good technical reasons for this, but it's still pretty annoying. Fortunately, Treehugger points us to a company called Gridpoint, which makes a device that serves as a combined "inverter" (for connecting your direct current solar pv to the alternating current grid) and battery backup. The system draws enough power from your solar panels to keep the batteries topped up, and when the grid goes down, you can still run your home.

    It may seem like a prosaic thing -- a battery back-up for the house -- but it's exactly the kind of technology that can make home renewable power that much more attractive to potential users.

    Nobel Prize for "Green Chemistry"

    The Nobel Prizes are being awarded this week, and today's announcement of the Chemistry prize has a definite worldchanging aspect. The winners, Americans Robert H. Grubbs and Richard R. Schrock and Yves Chauvin of France, won for research that allows the production of pharmaceuticals and industrial plastics with far greater efficiency and far less resulting toxic waste.

    The environment aspect was foremost on the minds of the Nobel committee in awarding this prize: "This represents a great step forward for 'green chemistry', reducing potentially hazardous waste through smarter production. Metathesis is an example of how important basic science has been applied for the benefit of man, society and the environment," the committee said.

    As always, the prize honors work that was done some time ago, and has been proven to be useful and transformative. The original research, by Dr. Chauvin, was published in 1971; Grubbs and Schrock each managed to turn the research into useful material processes in the early 1990s.

    October 6, 2005

    Global Warming on Mars, Revisited

    A few weeks ago, we pointed to some preliminary research suggesting that Mars was going through a "global warming" phase, noting that, if true, this might give us another data point about the relative strength of natural triggers for observed global warming on Earth. Fortunately, RealClimate comes to the rescue again, with a sharp post going over the Mars data in more detail. In short: the observed 3 year shrinkage of the south polar ice cap looks to be the result of a combination of regional topography and variations in dust storms, not external solar factors.

    Another Try At Quake Prediction

    Earthquake prediction has a notoriously bad track record. The underlying geophysical mechanisms are so complex (in both the "difficult" sense and the "emergent" sense) that successful backcasting -- using the models to "predict" past quakes -- is no guarantee that forecasting will be any better than random guessing. Last year, UCLA professor Vladimir Keilis-Borok got a bit of press for a method that successfully forecast two quakes... but failed from then on. Now researchers in Sweden are giving it a shot.

    The Swedish Defense Research Agency has come up with a method that was able to successfully backcast the Sumatran-Andaman earthquake last December (which triggered the deadly tsunami), as well as a more recent earthquake in the same area. Given the history of quake prediction, the Swedish scientists are rushing to say that this method is nowhere near ready to be used to look ahead. Still, coupled with increasingly useful seismic and geological data coming from new monitor technologies, it's inevitable that the Swedish method will be employed for forecasts. As before, if it succeeds, we'll be in a new world of disaster management... and if it fails, it just goes on the heap of previous attempts.

    New Songdo City Update

    Last April, Alex told us of New Songdo City, a development project in South Korea that attempted to transform the modern urban concept. The city plan looked ambitious, and Alex posed some very good questions about how whether this really could be a model for a "post-oil megacity."

    Today, over at We Make Money Not Art, Régine has an update on what's happening with New Songdo. I have to say, it sounds both intriguing and a bit like something out of a mid-90s vision of the future: Public recycling bins that use RFID to credit recyclers every time they toss in a bottle; pressure-sensitive floors in the homes of older people that can detect a fall and contact help; phones that store health records and can be used to pay for prescriptions. [...] When completed in 2014, the city's infrastructure will be a test bed for new technologies. [...] "The same key can be used to get on the subway, pay a parking meter, see a movie, borrow a free public bicycle and so on. It'll be anonymous, won't be linked to your identity, and if lost you can quickly cancel the card and reset your door locks."

    I hope to see the New Songdo model evolve over the next 9 years of development, with the high-tech information infrastructure being subsumed into a larger network for sustainable urban life.

    October 7, 2005

    The Personal Pandemic Preparedness Plan

    WorldChanging reader "Shaman," in the comments in Alex's August call to "Out-Collaborate a Pandemic," noted that he had written up a "Personal Pandemic Preparedness Plan" to hand out to friends and family, and a few other readers asked for copies. Reader Anna Sessarego-Mercer found that one of the recipients had posted Shaman's plan online, and asked us to link to it.

    The Personal Pandemic Preparedness Plan is a pretty good summary of the steps one should take to get ready for a serious pandemic event. It should be underlined that the scenario Shaman describes in this piece is among the worst-case likely scenarios, and not the only possible outcome of Avian Flu jumping fully to humans. Still, the steps described are useful even in a lesser epidemic; moreover, most of the preparation encouraged by this plan would serve well for many kinds of disasters, from earthquakes to massive storms -- any situation where you may be stuck at home for days or even a couple of weeks without any outside assistance.

    As Pandemic Flu Awareness Week draws to a close, it's important to remember that information and preparedness go hand in hand, and both are necessary to keep you and your loved ones safe in the event of a pandemic disaster.

    Nanotech for Organic Solar

    On the one hand, it's just another story about researchers boosting the efficiency of flexible, relatively inexpensive organic photovoltaic polymers: researchers at the New Mexico State University have integrated polymer and carbon buckyballs to raise organic solar material to 5.2% efficiency. On the other hand, it's another story about researchers boosting the efficiency of flexible, relatively inexpensive organic photovoltaic polymers: with so many groups taking so many different approaches to making organic solar efficient enough to be useful, we should see consumer-usable polymer pv sheets or even paint relatively soon, perhaps even before the decade is out.

    Gold Nanoparticles Revisited

    A couple of news reports came up today about gold nanoparticles, tiny spheres far smaller than a cell, coated with pure gold. One builds on a story we first talked about over a year ago; the other is very new -- and very weird.

    Researchers at UC San Francisco have published work in the journal Cancer Letters describing the use of gold nanoparticles and a laser to detect and kill cancer cells. If this sounds vaguely familiar, it should: we first reported on the use of gold nanoparticles and lasers by researchers at Rice University to eliminate cancer cells in July of 2004. This research focused on a different type of cancer than the Rice work, as well as a different type of laser. [In addition, as the lead researcher on the project indicates in the comments, they use a different, significantly smaller, form of gold nanoparticle.](Coincidentally, while looking through the Cancer Letters site for a direct link to the abstract, I stumbled across yet another piece of research on gold nanoparticles, lasers and cancer, from Belarus.) What all of this means is that the gold nanoparticle & laser approach to cancer elimination looks to be an extremely robust method. I honestly believe we'll have an effective cure for cancer in tests before the decade is out.

    That is, if we're not busy using gold nanoparticles to build circuits out of bacteria.

    Researchers at the University of Nebraska have shown that bacteria coated with gold nanoparticles can function as an electronic circuit. The bacterial species Bacillus cereus will form bridges between gold electrodes on a microchip; when dipped in a solution of gold nanoparticles and a synthetic protein, the nanoparticles will coat the bacteria, which are still alive. This, in turn, allows the completion of a circuit. The value of the bacterial component comes from the way living bacteria respond to environmental conditions -- the hybrid bio-nanochip created by the Nebraska team was made as a humidity sensor, but other kinds of environmental sensing technologies are possible with the method.

    October 8, 2005

    War is Smurf

    smurfwar.jpgWith images of real people killed, injured and/or left as refugees from war losing their emotional resonance, UNICEF has turned to killing Smurfs.

    In an advertisement set to appear in Belgium starting next week, approved by the family of the Smurfs' creator "Peyo," very bad things happen to the blue cartoon creatures:

    The short film pulls no punches. It opens with the Smurfs dancing, hand-in-hand, around a campfire and singing the Smurf song. Bluebirds flutter past and rabbits gambol around their familiar village of mushroom- shaped houses until, without warning, bombs begin to rain from the sky.

    Tiny Smurfs scatter and run in vain from the whistling bombs, before being felled by blast waves and fiery explosions. The final scene shows a scorched and tattered Baby Smurf sobbing inconsolably, surrounded by prone Smurfs.

    The final frame bears the message: "Don't let war affect the lives of children."

    In test showings, the sight of beloved cartoon characters killed by bombs proved far more effective than similar images from the real world at sending UNICEF's anti-war message.

    (Via jwz)

    October 10, 2005

    Steven Chu on Termite Guts and Global Warming

    Nobel prize-winner Dr. Steven Chu is the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a premier government-funded scientific institutions. A specialist in both physics and biology, Dr. Chu has taken as his primary goal the development of carbon-neutral energy systems able to replace our current fossil-fuel economy -- and thinks that the solution may well come from termites (or the bacteria inside of them, to be precise). He detailed his ideas in a recent interview for the UC Berkeley news website.

    Either we'll genetically engineer the microorganisms from termite guts to produce more energy from biomass than they need, or we'll adapt the chemistry within the microorganisms to process the biomass ourselves. There's a lot of biomass out there. If we're ever going to raise crops for energy, it's not going to be for the oil we can extract from the corn or the sugar from the sugar cane that we can convert to ethanol, it's going to be for the entire biomass of the crop.

    Readers may disagree with some of Chu's ideas -- he's a cautious supporter of nuclear fission, for example -- but he's likely correct about the role of bioengineered bacteria in the shift away from fossil fuels.

    October 11, 2005

    A (Little) More on DTQs

    "Domestic Tradable Quotas" -- DTQs -- can best be thought of as personal carbon credits. Individuals would have an annual carbon quota; those who live more efficiently will have extra credits to sell off to those who are less cautious. The Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research proposed this concept last year in a briefing paper (PDF, although it's currently offline). It's an interesting idea, albeit one which needs a great deal more thought before implementation. (We touched on DTQs last September and this past June, and have talked about a variety of carbon-offset and carbon-neutrality opt-in programs for individuals.)

    Our friends at Grist have taken a look at the DTQ scheme in a bit more detail (although they reference the same Tyndall climate research center paper). It is an interesting idea, and author Mike Wendling explores some of its implications. Check it out.

    October 12, 2005

    Reviving the Space Race?

    Two Chinese astronauts ("taikonauts" in the local lingo) launched from a space base in the Gobi Desert today, almost two years after the first Chinese taikonaut, Yang Liwei, went into orbit. Two aspects of this launch demonstrate China's confidence in their burgeoning space program: the launch was carried live on Chinese state TV (a first for the program); and the Shenzhou VI spacecraft carried two people. Unlike the Soviet and American space programs, China went directly to a multi-person crew immediately following a single solo launch.

    All of this would be seen as national grandstanding were it not for China's stated plans to send taikonauts to the Moon, with the longer-term goal of establishing a base there. This helps to explain why the US government is still pushing for a renewed Lunar program, despite the needs of the unmanned space program and the larger question of federal budgets. The last space race was a superpower one-upmanship game; will the new space race be any different? We can hope...

    Test Ban Monitors and Tsunamis

    We love 'economies of scope' around here: efforts and ideas that manage to solve multiple, seemingly-unrelated problems all at once. The latest example can be found in a paper published in Geophysical Research Letters, describing the unique signature of the December 2004 tsunami as monitored by the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty monitoring system. 78 of the CTBT stations, comprising seismic, hydrophone and infrared acoustic sensors, picked up signs of the December 26 earthquake and tsunami. What's more, the multiplicity of detectors made it possible to measure the intensity, speed and direction of the tsunami.

    The CTBT monitoring system could clearly contribute to the global effort to watch for dangerous seismic and ocean events. Doing so will require some political choices, however: "Until this earthquake killed 200,000 people, the data was only made available to the CTBTO itself and to state signatories," [researcher Roger Bowman] said, "and not to any hazard-warning organisation. I think there is going to be a loosening of data restrictions for this purpose, and I think the kind of data interpretation we have done could be folded into a hazard warning system."

    (Via Warren Ellis)

    October 13, 2005

    Plastic Solar, On The Cheap

    Photovoltaic polymer breakthroughs are coming fast these days, making the Plastic Solar Future all the more likely. Researchers at UCLA's School of Engineering published a paper in the current Nature Materials about their work on plastic pv, claiming the highest verified efficiency yet for polymer solar: 4.4%. Yes, that's lower than the efficiency other polymer pv developers have talked about, but this one has been verified by the US National Renewable Energy Lab, giving it the official stamp of approval.

    Of perhaps greater interest is the use of relatively cheap and readily-available polymers as the base material for the solar panels. The plastics are significantly less expensive than the base materials for traditional silicon photovoltaic materials -- less than one-third the cost at present, with an ultimate goal of just 10% of the cost of silicon. Similarly, the researchers believe that they'll be able to get the polymer photovoltaic efficiency up to 15-20%.

    Now, 10% of the cost of silicon is still more expensive than the $15/m2 Danish solar plastic we've talked about before, but the UCLA polymer pv is already more efficient than the Danish version, and the efficiency goal is much higher. I would be very happy to see a range of photovoltaic plastics available for commercial use, from 5% @ $15/m2 to 15% @ $50/m2 to 50% @ $500/m2.

    October 14, 2005

    Hybrid Driver's Ed

    As someone who has owned a hybrid car for two and a half years, let me be blunt: if you drive your hybrid the way you drove your last (non-hybrid) car, you're not paying attention. Hybrid-electric cars may look more-or-less the same on the outside as other gasoline-only vehicles, but the difference in the way they operate requires changing driving techniques in order to get the best mileage possible.

    We've talked before about hybrid driving tips, but now it appears that some of the manufacturers are starting to pay attention to the need to train new hybrid drivers to drive differently. Both Toyota and Ford are taking steps to raise buyer awareness about hybrid differences. Toyota is distributing pamphlets (PDF) with their Lexus R400h hybrid SUVs explaining why drivers may not get the EPA estimated mileage (and what to do about it), while Ford is actually taking engineers around the US to teach people how to drive their hybrid Explorers for maximum mileage. According to a report from one of those workshops, attendees were able to boost their mileage by over 10% immediately.

    Gilberto Gil

    We have a great deal of interest in Brazil around these parts, in part because of the approach the current leadership has taken to issues around economic development (c.f., "the Brasilia Consensus"), and in part because of the innovative approach the nation has adopted regarding FLOSS (Free/Libre/Open Source Software). While President Luiz Inacio da Silva, or "Lula", is rightly given credit for the former, his Minister of Culture, Gilberto Gil, has been a profound influence on the latter. Gil is prone to showing up at Linux conferences, and has been vocal in his appreciation of the political value of the open source model, especially as it applies to more than just software.

    The UK's Guardian has a profile of and interview with Gil today, and it's sufficiently interesting to warrant being highlighted here. A sample:

    "This [the adoption of open source software] isn't just my idea, or Brazil's idea," Gil says. "It's the idea of our time. The complexity of our times demands it." He is politician enough to hold back from endorsing the breaking of laws, for example on music downloading, but only just. "The Brazilian government is definitely pro-law," he grins. "But if law doesn't fit reality anymore, law has to be changed. That's not a new thing. That's civilisation as usual."

    (Via BoingBoing)

    October 17, 2005

    Recycling the City, Revisited

    The New York Times takes a look at some of the questions we raised last month in "Recycling the City," about the enormous amounts of waste left over in New Orleans after the storms. The Times article gives a good sense of the scale of the problem, which amounts to 22 million tons of garbage:

    It is more trash than any American city produces in a year. It is enough to fill the Empire State Building 40 times over. It will take at least 3.5 million truckloads to haul it away. [...] This is not even counting the cars that have been abandoned on sidewalks, or the boats stranded on the streets. It is not counting the more than 1 million refrigerators, stoves and washing machines on curbs all over the area. This is not counting any of the hundreds of homes that will inevitably be demolished.

    Unfortunately, while raising many useful questions about just how this clean-up will be accomplished, the article focuses a bit too much on how awful the rotting food smells, and gives scant attention to the question of handling the tons of potentially dangerous materials that should not go into landfills. Worse, it leaves out any suggestion that potentially a large portion of the waste could be recycled. This will not be the last major urban clean-up effort we undertake this century, and possibly not even this decade; we need to get better at not making the situation worse in the long-term.

    Squatter Cities

    Robert Neuwirth studies "squatter cities" -- informal urbanized areas home to as many as a billion people worldwide -- in a particularly notable way: he lives in them. We've covered Neuwirth's work before, and greatly appreciate the insights he brings to the question of urbanization and megacities. He has an editorial in the current Fortune magazine, and it provides an excellent summary of his argument:

    Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto has proposed that governments should legalize this development by offering squatters the chance to buy title to the land they’re on. [...] But while the idea may sound good (and would doubtless provide long-term employment for the lawyers and surveyors needed to untangle the land-use patterns in these primitive communities), it may not benefit squatters. [...] From the two years I spent living in four of the world’s squatter communities (in Brazil, India, Kenya, and Turkey), I’ve found that squatters need two far simpler conditions to enable their communities to grow. The first is what the U.N. calls "security of tenure"—confidence that they will not be arbitrarily evicted. The second is access to politics—some way to participate in the larger city.

    October 18, 2005

    Green Viagra

    So it turns out that the various pharmaceutical tools for curing erectile dysfunction have an environmental side-effect: their growing popularity in China is reducing the use of endangered species as cures for impotence. The Times of India reports on research by William von Hippel, a psychologist from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and his brother Frank von Hippel, a biologist from the University of Alaska in Anchorage, on whether patients return to the use of traditional treatments -- medicines made from seal penises and reindeer antler velvet -- once they've tried a Western medical treatment. In the group studied, none of those who had tried traditional treatments before went back to them. This matches up with controversial 2002 research from the same scientists showing that the trade in traditional impotence medicines was declining.

    There's much to be skeptical about with this research, of course: it was funded by Pfizer; the size of the studied group is fairly small; and impotence medicines are just one of many uses of animal parts in Chinese traditional medicine, so the overall impact on endangered animals is likely to be relatively low. That said, if true, it's an example of the sometimes unexpected sources of environmental progress.

    October 19, 2005

    Brazil Wind Farms

    The southern Brazil city of Osorio is set to build three wind farms, to come online in 2006. The three wind farms will compose a wind generation complex that will rank as the largest in Latin America, and the second largest in the world. The project will have the capacity of generating 150 MW of electric energy, more than five times Brazil's current wind generation capacity of 28.6 MW. The wind complex is part of a $4B investment project from the Ministry of Mines and Energy, covering wind, biomass and small-scale hydro power.

    HAPs

    Tests in Europe of a "High Altitude Platform" broadband router have successfully demonstrated the ability to provide a high-speed wireless connection over a wide area from the air. The Europe-wide Capanina project, led by the University of York, operated a wireless-Internet-equipped balloon at an altitude of 24 kilometers over Sweden this week, according to the BBC. The goal of the project is to provide wireless coverage of a region 60 kilometers square at a speed of 120 Mbps; the project team say that they should be able to do this in less than five years.

    Such a system would be of particular utility in areas where terrain makes pulling wires or even installing enough wireless towers too costly. Because the cost of a HAP wireless system would be significantly lower than a satellite link, this model should be of great use in the developing world. At the same time, the ability to launch a balloon-based router relatively quickly -- potentially even releasing it from an airplane -- would be valuable during post-disaster response operations.

    (Thanks for the pointer, Lorenzo!)

    October 20, 2005

    Desert Tents, Courtesy the Space Program

    The ESA (European Space Agency) is showing off its "Desert Seal" inflatable tent concept at the SAFE exhibit at New York's Museum of Modern Art. Desert Seal is a one-person tent made for extreme environments, and while this particular design may not be widely used, it suggests ways to build robust temporary shelters for extreme environments.

    The Desert Seal uses a fan at the top of a "chimney" to pull in cool air during the day and warm air at night. The fan's battery is charged by a flexible solar panel on the top of the tent. The tent isn't based on a particular space technology, but instead comes from the use of the same design methodologies used to come up with systems for space exploration.

    "To design habitation for humans on Mars, completely autonomous solutions must be found. How can a construction be extremely light and easy to transport? How can the surrounding environment be controlled?”

    Although few of us will be in a situation that needs an individual desert tent, it's good to see that the people working on space survival technologies are willing and able to apply themselves to issues of Earthly survival, too.

    More Accolades for Cameron Sinclair

    Not a prize this time, but a Business Week, which continues to inch closer to "getting it" about WorldChanging ideas. Like many of the Cameron Sinclair interviews, this one focuses on how Architecture for Humanity came about, but does give some details about how the AfH idea is spreading.

    Architecture for Humanity has grown into a movement much larger than its founder anticipated. There are 152 AFH meet-up groups and chapters around the world working on their own local projects. In this regard it has something in common with the global Linux movement launched by programmer Linus Torvalds.

    Over the long term, Sinclair aims to adopt the open-source model more literally. From the beginning, he has tapped the knowledge of his members through competitions; one, to design a mobile AIDS clinic for Africa, generated a record 530 proposals from 51 countries.

    Get used to it, Cameron -- there will be more of these to come.

    October 21, 2005

    Nanoparticle Water Filter

    Researchers at the University of Central Florida -- one a nanomaterials specialist, the other an expert in water filtration systems -- have been given a grant by the US National Science Foundation to develop a portable water filtration device using nanoparticles to kill bacteria. The goal is to develop a system that can be easily and widely deployed after a disaster.

    The key to the process is a naturally created nanoparticle that can kill bacteria that foul membranes used as filters to produce drinking water. In catastrophic situations such as Hurricane Katrina or the recent earthquake in Pakistan, the membranes become so fouled by bacteria that they become unusable for water treatment. [...] Taylor, who has conducted water treatment research since 1975, said drinking water could be consistently produced even from wastewater if the fouling bacteria could be killed.

    The catch? They need to show results in six months. Then again, it sounds like they haven't heard of the Lifestraw -- maybe somebody should tell them.

    October 23, 2005

    Hurricane Season, 2005

    As Tropical Depression Alpha wanders through the Caribbean -- that's right, we've made it through the 21 named storms, and are now on the Greek alphabet -- NASA has made available a movie of the 2005 Hurricane Season, up to the early days of Wilma. The MPEG video is notable for a couple of reasons: it's easy to see both the consistent patterns and abberations of this year's storms; and the satellite image has an overlay of orange to red in the parts of the ocean warm enough to strengthen tropical depressions into hurricanes.

    Individual stills from the movie are available, as well.

    (Via Futurismic)

    October 26, 2005

    A Kozi Little Home

    This is the kind of leapfrog innovation that we really love around here: Cape Town, South Africa-based n'Kozi Homes has come up with a home design that mixes Buckminster Fuller and local materials. The dome homes are designed to be compatible with a variety of environmentally-sustainable utilities, from waterless toilets to solar power. The costs are remarkably low, too: a ready-to-live house, 33 meters square, complete with plumbing and power, would run about $10,000.

    (Via NextBillion -- Thanks, Rob!)

    October 28, 2005

    Breaking and Fixing LEED

    It's inevitable: combine a complex rule system and the potential for economic benefit, and you have a ripe opportunity for "gaming:" seeking the optimal combination of minimum effort and maximum result. Gaming a system isn't cheating, per se; you're following all the rules to the letter, even if you're not following the spirit of the rules. It has a similar result, however: the devaluation of legitimate effort, and confusion over the utility of the rules.

    With greater attention focused on green buildings of late, it should come as no surprise that the LEED guidelines, with lists correlating green methods and points toward silver, gold and platinum status, may have been gamed by builders. Grist has published a couple of very interesting articles about the phenomenon and -- more importantly -- what can be done about it. Fixing a gamed system isn't insoluble, but like so many other bad situations, the first step is admitting you have a problem.

    October 31, 2005

    Microfossils As Climate Indicator

    A research tool used primarily by the oil industry is finding a new application as a means for climatologists to gather climate data. How's that for irony? Foraminifera, single-celled organisms that produce easily-identified shells, are readily preserved in ocean and shore sediments. Samples can be tied to particular times and locations, making them useful for geologists looking for oil-rich layers; this also makes it possible to use foraminifera to identify disturbances such as hurricanes. By looking back over foraminfera fossils pulled up from shore samples, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte are able to track the frequency of major hurricanes over the past several thousand years. The results are suggestive, but more research remains to be done.

    "The record indicates that big storms have been less frequent in the last 1000 years than in the previous 2000 years before that," Hippensteel said. Recent layers contained far fewer layers of sand and very few layers containing significant numbers of off-shore foraminifera, compared with numerous such layers in the previous millennia. [...] "Our records seem to show that we have been in a thousand year period of relative calm, but that result doesn't consider the possible destruction of the storm layers," he said. "Hurricanes may have been far more frequent before a thousand years ago… but we really don't know yet. We need more data."

    November 1, 2005

    Choose Your Scenario

    Notice of two different sets of scenarios popped up this last week. Royal Dutch Shell, the organization that drove the development of corporate scenario planning, and the UK's Energy Saving Trust, an environmental non-profit, have each produced scenarios of what the early 2020s might hold. The two sets of scenarios are quite different, but make for interesting comparisons.

    In Jet Stream, Shell gives three scenarios: Low Trust Globalization emphasizes security and efficiency; Open Doors emphasizes efficiency and social cohesion; and Flags emphasizes security and social cohesion. Open Doors is clearly the most WorldChanging-friendly scenario, and it's heartening to see that Shell seems to like it best, too. The full set of scenarios is only available for purchase, but the executive summary (PDF) gives a good sense of how the scenarios play out.

    The Energy Saving Trust, in 2020 Futures: Energy and Waste in an Age of Excess, gives us two different scenarios: Back to Basics is a kind of collapse-lite, with power and water rationing, skyrocketing fuel prices, and the wholesale abandonment of suburbia; the Alternate Sustainable Future depends upon a near-term shift to high-efficiency energy use, and reads like they pulled pages right off of WorldChanging, with distributed power, prefab homes, green roofs, and carbon trading. As of now, only a summary page is available; I've written in requesting a copy of the full scenarios.

    (Shell: Thanks, Eric Boyd; EST: Thanks, City Hippy)

    Engineers Without Borders, Around the World

    Back in December of 2003, Alex posted a brief piece on Ingenieurs san Frontieres/Engineers without Borders, a Canadian non-profit organization dedicated to providing technical and technological support for achieving the Millennium Development Goals. We were recently contacted by folks from Engineers without Borders USA, a parallel organization with similar goals -- but without any apparent link. It turns out that Engineers without Borders is (ironically enough) not an international organization, but a name common to a variety of national groups operating in a variety of countries.

    Regardless, this is a group well worth talking about again. The description at the EWB-USA site captures the mission common across all of the ISF/EWB groups: Engineers Without Borders - USA partners with developing communities to improve their quality of life through implementation of environmentally, equitable, and economically sustainable engineering projects, while developing internationally responsible engineers and engineering students.

    Check the extended entry for a list of EWB organizations around the world, from the EWB Canada website.

    Continue reading "Engineers Without Borders, Around the World" »

    November 2, 2005

    Wikipedia in Print

    What do you call a wiki project that isn't online and can't be edited by the users? We're going to find out soon, as Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has announced plans to bring Wikipedia to print. His goal is to make the collaboratively-edited encyclopedia more readily available to people in parts of the world without computers or reliable Internet connections, according to CNN:

    "I have always liked the idea of going to print because a big part of what we are about is to disseminate knowledge throughout the world and not just to people who have broadband," Wales said by telephone from St. Petersburg, Florida.

    Issues like funding, distribution and topics were still being discussed but a first printed work could be ready from mid-2006, he added.

    Wales also plans a CD/DVD version for use in places with access to computers and local networks.

    (Via TEDblog)

    The Nanotube Site

    We do love those nanotubes, at least if the volume of posts on WorldChanging about their sundry capabilities is anything to go by. If you love those nanotubes, too, you need to put the Nanotube Site on your list. Operating by David Tomanek at Michigan State University, the Nanotube Site is intended to: ...facilitate the exchange of ideas among researchers by concentrating links to sites dedicated to nanotubes. One of the benefits is to provide an easier (or better structured) electronic access to bibliographical information and preprints. Information about providers of nanotubes is intended to increase the production volume and find new applications for nanotubes.

    The links vary in specificity -- some are general nanotube-related sites, others focus on particular attributes and applications -- but all are relatively technical. Enjoy.

    November 7, 2005

    Today Shanghai, Tomorrow...

    British design firm Arup is set to announce that the Chinese government wants them to take their "eco-friendly city" model to up to four more major Chinese cities, the UK Guardian reports.

    Up to four more eco-cities will be built, though exact locations have not yet been revealed. [...] The eco-cities are intended to be self-sufficient in energy, water and most food products, with the aim of zero emissions of greenhouse gases in transport systems.

    Arup's work with the Shanghai expansion, Dongtan, is underway. The first phase, a 630-hectare development intended to house a 50,000-person community, is set to be completed by 2010.

    November 10, 2005

    The Five Percent Solution

    The UK's Department for Transport has announced new rules mandating that 5% of all UK retail fuel come from renewable sources -- that is, biofuels -- by 2010. According to Transport Secretary Alistair Darling, The Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation I am proposing today is predicted to save around 1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions in 2010 - the equivalent of taking 1 million cars off the road.

    The 5% requirement would be a 20-fold jump in the use of biofuels in the UK. Interestingly, the mandate allows fuel companies to sell more than 5% biofuels to generate a transferrable credit. The feasibility study put together by the DFT demonstrating that this plan would actually work can be found here.

    (Via Green Car Congress)

    November 11, 2005

    Cultivation for Biodiversity

    One of the more insidious forms that loss of biodiversity can take is the reduction of genetic diversity within a particular species. The species itself may not go extinct -- in fact, it may thrive, at least for awhile -- but the individual members show little genetic difference, putting them all at risk from disease or environmental stresses that, in a more natural environment, would only harm a fraction of the species. The usual cause of this plant cultivation. But a report out today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences finds that small-farm cultivation of the jocote plant in Central America has actually protected the species' genetic diversity.

    Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis report that farmers and families in Central America actually have saved genetic variation in the jocote (ho-CO-tay), (Spondias purpurea), a small tree that bears fruit similar to a tiny mango. And they've done this by taking the plants out of the forest, their wild habitat, and growing them close to home for family and local consumption. [...] The authors say that, through multiple domestications in arenas such as living fences -- fences made of plants like jocotes -- crops, orchards, trees cultivated in backyards and forests, genetic diversity in the jocote has been preserved.

    This points to one of the less-often-recognized values of small farms (vs. large-scale industrial agriculture): greater likelihood of preservation of species diversity. And this kind of genetic resilience is exactly what we want in a time of global environmental change.

    SMS Disaster Alert System

    In the aftermath of the December 2004 tsunami, one of the ideas we discussed here a bit was the creation of a disaster alert system using SMS, the mobile phone text messaging system. Washington DC and New York City have implemented limited versions; now the idea's popped up in Holland. According to CNN, the Dutch government is testing a system called Cell Broadcast to send out regionally-targeted warnings of disaster to mobile phone users.

    "This is a more instantaneous way of informing people about what is going on right now. It's an extra medium to communicate directly with people during a disaster," [Interior ministry spokesman Frank van Beers ] said. "If something happens in the center of The Hague, for example, we can select communication points from telecom companies and everyone who is within a few 100 meters can get the information."

    Other scenarios could include terrorist attacks, fires, explosions and leaks of toxic substances.

    As Taran Rampersad at KnowProSE points out, the main drawback is that this is a one-way system, keeping people in the role of disaster victims rather than participants in disaster response.

    November 12, 2005

    Google Risk

    You've examined the crime maps, scouted out environmental disasters, sought out a good coffee, compared bus routes to real-time traffic, and checked the weather. What else is there to do with Google Maps? How about a game of Risk?

    GMRisk is the classic wargame, but uses Google Maps as the playing board. It's more of a "hey, look what we can do!" than a really usable game, at least for now (no AI, opaque interface), but it is suggestive of the varied ways in which online mapping systems like Google Maps and Yahoo! Maps can be used.

    As we continue to play with the idea of building a good global environment sim/game, the idea of using online maps as the base of play is definitely something we'll keep in mind.

    FabLab on Science Friday

    Neal Gershenfeld, founder of MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms and the creator of the Fab Lab project, was the guest on yesterday's Science Friday edition of NPR's Talk of the Nation.

    The audio is now online -- check it out!

    (Thanks for the heads-up, Judy Galli!)

    November 14, 2005

    Egypt Crosses Over

    Mobile phones are an engine of leapfrog development, and it looks like another developing nation is moving quickly towards cellular dominance. The number of mobile phone subscribers in Egypt now exceeds the number of land-line users, according to the Egypt Mobile Communications 2005 Report. At the end of September of this year, Egypt had 12 million mobile phone users and 10.3 million land line users. Analysts believe the difference will be more than 3 million by the end of the year; this will represent about 18 percent of the Egyptian population. The Report projects mobile phone growth to reach 21.1 million users by the end of 2008.

    November 15, 2005

    Sustainable Future

    Curt Rosengren, author of the Alternative Energy ~ Renewable Energy blog, has started up a new site that looks to be just as good: The Sustainable Future weblog.

    I have a blog devoted to alternative energy sources, and I find myself constantly wanting to address sustainability issues beyond its energy focus. So I finally took the hint from my brain and thought, "Hey, why don't I create a sustainability blog?!"

    And so I have. Just like that.

    RSS feed can be found here. Good luck, Curt!

    Meme Alert: "GEMs"

    I've put in a request for a copy of the article, but just on the basis of the press release, I think we have a new bit of buzzworthy jargon coming down the road. Georgia Tech researcher Kenneth Sandhage and his team have come up with a method to apply biological processes to the manufacture of non-biological microdevices. The release then says:

    This study's newly invented approaches for the low-cost mass production of micro-devices could yield unprecedented breakthroughs in genetically engineered microdevices (GEMs) for biomedical, computing, environmental cleanup, defense and numerous other applications.

    Genetically engineered microdevices -- you know we're going to be hearing more about these.

    November 16, 2005

    Energy Efficient Software

    Lower-power microprocessors can reduce computer energy use, but the solutions don't have to all be in hardware. PowerEscape, a programming tools company, has unveiled a utility called "Insight" that lets programmers improve the efficiency of their software with an eye towards reducing overall power consumption, according to LinuxDevices.com. The more the data has to be shuffled around, the more power is needed.

    In the olden days of slow, limited hardware, programmers had to work to maximize both processor efficiency and memory use; those habits have largely fallen away in the era of desktop supercomputers. It's just possible that the growing need to improve energy efficiency will trigger a return to programming parsimony, a desire to get the maximum possible result out of minimum possible effort.

    PowerEscape's utilities are available for Linux, MacOS X, and Windows XP.

    (Via Make)

    November 17, 2005

    Ethan's In Tunisia

    Ethan Zuckerman is in Tunis for the World Summit on the Information Society conference, where's both an observer and a participant. He's blogging his observations over at his home site, ...My Heart's in Accra. Ethan, along with Global Voices partner Rebecca MacKinnon, are running a workshop entitled "Expression Under Repression" -- and they got a taste of it at the summit.

    Yesterday, we were warned that our session could be cancelled by the Tunisian authorities. We also discovered that the session wasn’t listed in the official program guide. Today, we came to the room where the session was to be held and there was a sign on the door stating that the workshop was cancelled. Friends who passed by the UNDP booth on the WSIS floor earlier today heard gossip that the security forces would appear at our session and anyone who attended would be arrested. [...] This low-grade harrasment did nothing to dampen our turnout for the session. The room is literally standing room only and people are listening in through the doorway.

    White LED Efficiency Breakthrough?

    The details are slim, but the UK's Inquirer reports that Japanese researcher Satoshi Kamiyama of the Meijo University has figured out how to increase the efficiency of white LEDs quite dramatically. The new technique produces white LEDs capable of 130 lumens per watt. Normal incandescent light bulbs produce 15-20 lumens per watt; modern fluorescent bulbs produce between 60-110 lumens per watt; and current LED methods allow for a maximum of 60-70 lumens per watt. In short, if this is real, it's a big breakthrough.

    Dr. Satoshi is said to be starting up a company to sell the new LEDs by next year.

    November 18, 2005

    Butterfly Biomimicry

    We may end up getting a boost to the efficiency of LED-based lighting thanks to lepidopterists.

    African Swallowtail butterflies signal each other using fluorescent patches on their wings. Scales on the wings function as "2D photonic crystals," focusing and enhancing the signal by trapping light particles and preventing them from spreading in all directions. This is an identical process to a recent breakthrough in high-emission LED design -- but even more efficient.

    "Unlike the diodes, the butterfly's system clearly doesn't have semiconductor in it and it doesn't produce its own radiative energy," Dr Vukusic told the BBC News website "That makes it doubly efficient in a way.

    "But the way light is extracted from the butterfly's system is more than an analogy - it's all but identical in design to the LED."

    Dr Vukusic agreed that studying natural designs such as this could help scientists improve upon manmade devices.

    November 21, 2005

    Climate Prediction For Beginners

    Oxford University, in collaboration with ClimatePrediction.net, has created a "Climate Basics" website using interactive Flash to explain how climate change is predicted, for non-scientific audiences. The site's emphasis is very much on how we figure out what's coming, not explanations of greenhouse gases or why we know warming is happening, etc.; it's an interesting example of what a "global warming for beginners" looks like in a setting where the core evidence is already accepted and non-controversial.

    I should emphasize that it is a very basic presentation, and several of the observers on RealClimate have pointed out some underlying problems with the probability math used in the program. The errors aren't anything that would change one's understanding of the issues, but more mathematically adept readers may wish to watch for them.

    November 23, 2005

    Congratulations to Global Voices!

    Global Voices, where WorldChanging contributor (and board chair) Ethan Zuckerman hangs his hat, just won the "Best Journalistic Blog in English" award from Deutsche Welle.

    Global Voices rocks -- congratulations to Ethan, co-GV leader Rebecca MacKinnon, and the entire crew!

    The Fading Relevance of the Feds

    We've long noted the growing importance of local and state officials in the effort to halt global warming, and now research shows that these sub-national political bodies are making a real difference. In a "Brief Communication" in the November 17 edition of Nature, Brendan Fisher and Robert Costanza from the University of Vermont show that, in the United States, up to a third of the US population lives in areas that either already have or will soon adopt policies in accord with the Kyoto protocols. Moreover, the Kyoto-friendly regions account for nearly one-half of the total US GDP -- a total economic output greater than that of Japan, currently the world's second-largest economy.

    The catch is that there are few mechanisms to enforce compliance at the sub-national level, so meeting the policy commitments will be even more difficult than under a national system. Conversely, as the authors note, "the local nature of these initiatives could make it possible to develop adaptable, site-specific plans for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions."

    November 26, 2005

    South-South Superpower Science

    SciDev.net notes an announcement that India and China are set to begin joint biomedical research, focusing on both traditional medicine and stem cells -- the latter due, in part, to China's stricter regulatory standards on stem cell work.

    In the field of traditional medicine, these include surveying and documenting medicinal plants, creating scientist exchange schemes, and developing systems for both approving the sale of traditional medicines and regulating the trade. [...] India sees stem cells as a key area for research... But despite government support and scientific know-how, the sector has been plagued by concerns over India's lack of a regulatory authority to ensure that guidelines are being followed.

    Traditional rivals China and India working together on research on ancient and cutting-edge medicine, with China as the responsible, conservative partner. It's hard to imagine a better demonstration that we live in counter-intuitive times.

    November 29, 2005

    Too Good To Be True?

    UK online retailer Good Gifts wants you to buy a Kalashnikov rifle (most likely an AK-47) -- £25. Or perhaps a rocket launcher (£55). Or a tank, for £1000. Not for your own use, mind you, but to provide the raw materials for enterprising blacksmiths and metalworkers in Sierra Leone, who turn the iron and such into "farm implements... hoes and axe heads... pickaxes, sickles and even school bells." A single tank will provide a year's work for 5 blacksmiths, they say, and convert into 3,000 items.

    This sounds amazing and clever. Although the Good Gifts site provides few details about how it's accomplished (and how everyone's certain that the AK-47 goes to the blacksmith and not the local militia), the organization behind the site, the Charities Advisory Trust, is reputable, and several UK media outlets have profiled the Good Gifts program.

    It's not every day we actually get to turn the modern equivalent of swords into plowshares.

    (Via HippyShopper)

    December 1, 2005

    Thank You, BusinessWeek!

    BusinessWeek has named WorldChanging as one of its five "Best of the New Web" sites in the "Giving Back" category. Others in the category (which isn't ranked) include WorldChanging allies Omidyar.net and NextBillion.net, as well as OneWorld.net and DonorsChoose.org.

    Winners in other categories include Engadget, Wikipedia, MAKE and (of course!) BoingBoing.

    Congrats to all the winners!

    Dossiers on Brazil, China (and soon India) and Climate Change

    All WorldChanging readers should have SciDev.net near the top of their bookmark lists. The site's content is a graceful counterpart to our somewhat more manic presentation here: science and global development are its main focus, which means coverage of everything from nanotechnology to the ethics of research -- and, of course, the climate.

    SciDev.net has just opened up two "Spotlight" sections looking at the role played by key developing nations in both the causes of and solutions for global warming. Spotlight pages for Brazil and China are now available, and one for India should be up soon.

    The pages include "policy briefs" and opinion pieces, descriptions of background reading on the subject, and links to relevant websites and organizations. The China page is available in English and Chinese; the Brazil page is available only in English for now.

    Enjoy Europe While You Can

    Dismal news really isn't our focus here, but we can't let this go without notice: the latest Nature also includes a report on an apparent weakening of the warm-water current in the North Atlantic due to global warming causing Greenland ice to melt. This flow keeps the UK, Ireland and the rest of Europe relatively temperate, despite being at latitudes similar to Canada and lower Alaska. A further weakening of the flow could result in a mini-ice age for Europe, and possibly further strengthen mid-Atlantic hurricanes.

    It's unclear yet whether this is a single event or signs of a new trend.

    Green Car Congress has a terrific summary. Additional good discussions can be found at The Oil Drum and (for the more technically-inclined among you) RealClimate.

    December 2, 2005

    Green Aerogel

    Aerogel is one of those materials that sounds too bizarre to be real. Technically, it's 99.8% air, and 1,000 less dense than glass. It's also one of the best insulating materials known, working 39 times better than fibreglass. It was actually invented in 1939, but is best known as a tool used by NASA to capture space dust.

    Soon, it may end up in your car.

    GreenShift, an environmental sustainability-focused research and capital group, has just invested $500,000 in Aerogel Composite, in order to encourage their work on using aerogel to improve the efficiency of fuel cells. The use of aerogel both boosts the performance of energy transport and lowers the overall cost of production by reducing the need for platinum by 90%. Aerogel also has potential as an energy storage medium.

    Sadly, it's still far too expensive to use for building insulation -- but since an inch of aerogel would insulate as well as a meter of fibreglass, you know somebody is thinking about it...

    (Via Sustainability Zone)

    Oregon Embraces California

    At least when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions from cars. Oregon resident Watthead alerts us that Oregon governmor Ted Kulongoski has ordered the state's Department of Environmental Quality to create a local version of the California regulations on vehicular GHG. Popular sentiment in the state supports the governor on this, although automakers and the opposition party in the legislature are pledging to fight. If Oregon is successful in adopting these rules, they will join not just California but also New York and Vermont; New Mexico, Arizona, and most Northeastern states have also declared a desire to join in on the fun.

    Oregon's decision affects more than just itself -- the state of Washington pledged to adopt the California rules, but only if Oregon does it, too.

    (If Oregon does this, I may forgive them for charging hybrid cars double the normal vehicle registration fee.)

    December 3, 2005

    Hydrogen-Producing Bacteria Sequenced

    Researchers at The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) have sequenced the genome of Carboxydothermus hydrogenoformans, an extremophile bacteria that lives in a Russian volcano, eating carbon monoxide and producing hydrogen and CO2 as waste. Biological production of hydrogen is one of the candidates for how a fuel cell economy would be supported, so getting this sequence will help us better understand how hydrogen-forming bacteria do their voodoo.

    Rather than give the full scientific breakdown of the research, I'll just point you to Mike Millikin's post at Green Car Congress.

    An Exurban Scenario?

    Engineer-Poet, who occasionally comments here, has a provocative post up at his own blog, The Ergosphere. In "the Triumph of Exurbia," E-P posits that a serious peak-oil collapse scenario could actually result in a world in which exurban sprawl -- the medium-lot mcmansion communities well outside the urban core and suburban ring -- is a preferable place to live. The reason? One could become close to self-sufficient for food and, possibly, energy on the lots typical of exurban areas.

    The big problem would remain getting around. Here E-P doesn't argue that the current set-up, with a bit of tweaking, would suffice, and argues again for plug-in hybrids as a critical solution.

    I'm not sure the scenario works, but it does suggest an interesting opportunity should some of the bleaker peak-oil conditions look imminent: people who know how to turn golf courses and back yards into productive spaces will be in great demand.

    December 5, 2005

    DIY $100 Laptop

    MAKE blog has an amusing post about the beginnings of a project to make a $100 or so laptop with the main features of the One Laptop Per Child project -- portability, hand-crank & solar power, wireless network, and useful software -- using only materials gathered from sources like eBay, Freecycle, Craigslist, and the like. The object isn't to replace the OLPC computer so much as to see what can be done, now, with the detritus of a rapidly-evolving technology base.

    A trip to a local used computer store will find dozens of still functional old laptops for amazingly low prices. What could we do with them to make them useful in today's world, not as Thinkpad/Powerbook replacements, but as new kinds of tools?

    Drive the Smart Way

    The US Environmental Protection Agency has just updated its listing of automobile environmental ratings, with scores for air pollution and CO2 emissions. This time around, however, they've added a special tag for the vehicles that score best -- the "SmartWay" and "SmartWay Elite" labels -- to make it easier to pick out the overall greener vehicles from the EPA lists.

    SmartWay Elite vehicles are those that score near the top in both categories (9 points out of 10); currently, the only vehicles so rated are the Prius, the Honda Civic Hybrid and the Honda Insight.

    The real value of the list, however, is for people who have decided that a hybrid is too expensive. Although no non-hybrids made the Elite rank, several gasoline-only cars came close, including some models that cost significantly less than a Prius or HCH.

    (Via Treehugger)

    December 6, 2005

    A World Without Snow

    tempsnowsmall.jpg

    One of the many troubling aspects of global warming is the possibility of feedback effects, where changes resulting from a warming atmosphere serve to further exacerbate the warming. An example of how this could work is the interaction between warming and snow cover. According to Stephan Vavrus at the Unversity of Wisconsin-Madison's Center for Climate Research, if global warming manages to melt off the current snow cover in the far north -- a distinct possibility -- the result would be a further increase in temperature of close to another degree (which would, in turn, further accelerate other effects of temperature increases).

    The snow itself does more than reflect the sun's heat; it also serves as insulation for the ground, so that snow-covered soil is warmer than it would be otherwise. As a result, regions now covered in snow would instead see an expansion of permafrost, with resulting damage to structures and roadways in places like Alaska. Of course, as temperatures continue to climb, even that permafrost won't be so permanent...

    December 7, 2005

    Greener Grenades

    Grenades exist to kill people. But Swedish scientist Elisabeth Hochschorner and her team reasoned that they could be made to be less-harmful to the Earth, something of particular relevance during training, when all the grenades blow up is the ground.

    In a study to be published in an upcoming Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology, they present the results of a "life-cycle assessment" of the environmental harm of grenade manufacturing and use, and found that the two most significant ways that grenades damage the planet are mining the copper used to make grenades and residues left over from the explosives themselves. The chemical remnants are more of a problem during training, as the copper can be recaptured and recycled; the mining, correspondingly, is more of an issue during wartime. The researchers also propose some ways to mitigate the problems.

    The reaction that many of us might have is to argue that even better for the planet would be not using the grenades (or other munitions) at all. However, in a world where that scenario is not a likely one any time soon, it's good to see that green design methodologies can make things a little bit better, nonetheless.

    GMoke Goes (Partially) Off

    George Mokray -- seasoned observer of the green community and regular commenter here -- has gone off-grid, at least in one room of his home:

    My bedroom is now basically off-grid. [...]

    This system is still a work in progress but for about $150 I've got one room that is independent of the grid, that provides me with radio and reading light for the foreseeable future without the use of coal, oil, gas, or nuclear energy. I have one room running on sunlight.

    This is particularly inspiring because it's a clear demonstration that it's possible to make an environmental difference in one's own life without having to utterly transform every aspect of how one lives. Good work, gmoke!

    December 8, 2005

    How the World Works

    Salon has just launched a new weblog on globalization, entitled "How the World Works." Written by Salon's Andrew Leonard (disclaimer: I've known Andrew for 7 or 8 years now), the blog will attempt to explore the manifestations and impact of globalization without hewing to the Tom Friedman "it's all wonderful" or the Battle in Seattle "it's all a disaster" lines. Given what we have seen over the years from Salon, as well as from Andrew Leonard (a major proponent of free/open source software), I expect that most WorldChanging readers will find his column to be worth reading, even if they don't agree with all of his conclusions.

    As with most things Salon these days, this falls into the "premium content" category: you'll either have to subscribe at a modest fee, or sit through an advertisement, in order to read the site.

    December 10, 2005

    Triangulation

    This is an interesting idea. Leo Laporte (computer guru from the late, lamented TechTV), John Dvorak (professional curmudgeon), and Larry Lessig (Mr. Creative Commons) have joined forces to create a podcast show called "Triangulation." Here's how Lessig describes it:

    The idea is totally John’s: pick a topic on which we all three roughly agree, and then spend 30 minutes drilling down on the layers of the subject. It is intended to be the opposite of Crossfire like malarky.

    It's a bit unclear whether Lessig will be a regular, or whether he was there because the first episode covered the Google Print project and intellectual property issues.

    While I'm not overly fond of Dvorak (he seems to specialize in getting things wrong), Laporte's a sharp guy, and I find the idea of a show that's the direct opposite of the superficial talking points yelling matches deliriously appealing.

    December 13, 2005

    India's TKDL

    We first reported on the use of Traditional Knowledge Digital Libraries as a means of fighting biopiracy nearly a year ago, and now the BBC has an update. India's TKDL is set to be opened for public viewing next year, and already holds 30 million pages of entries covering traditional medicines and practices, with photographs, scans and abundant detail. The goal isn't to restrict the use of these traditional medicines, but to ensure that they cannot be patented in places like the United States and Europe because of a lack of documented "prior art."

    This will enable the revocation of patents on millennia-old plant-based medicines and health practices such as yoga -- various yoga positions have been patented in the US and Europe, despite their ancient history.

    December 14, 2005

    Bioplastic Phone

    Details are slim, but NTT DoCoMo, Japan's largest mobile phone company, is about to release a version of their popular FOMA N701i phone made of biodegradable plastic made from a plant called Kenaf. (NTT DoCoMo press release in Japanese here.) (See Below)

    As transformative as mobile phone technology may be, the rapid churn of phone technology and ownership means that millions of usable but obsolete units get chucked away every year. Efforts to recycle the usable components and reuse the phones in the developing world are useful and important, but it's good to see work on making the objects less harmful to the planet to begin with.

    (Jeremy Faludi adds, in the comments:

    Actually, the plastic itself is not made from kenaf, the plastic is PLA, a corn-derived plastic we've mentioned before:

    The kenaf is used as fiber-reinforcement of the plastic so it can be a decent structural material. PLA by itself isn't stiff enough for anything but packaging.

    Oh, and by the way, if this stuff is reasonably cost-competitive, this wil be a HUGE deal. Lots of consumer products are made with "ABS" plastic, and NEC's press release says this PLA-kenaf composite can be stiffer than ABS. That's great news! It means tons of ordinary consumer products could go green.)

    Fabber Art

    3dprintart.jpg

    The advent of 3D printers (or "fabbers") won't just transform the economy, it may well revolutionize the world of art, as well. MAKE points us to the work of Bathsheba Grossman, who uses made-to-order 3D printing services for her metal sculptures. Her designs come from mathematical formulas converted to computer code.

    (If the name sounds vaguely familiar, it may be because we've pointed to some of her other art work in the past.)

    December 15, 2005

    Mars Journal Now Publishing

    Back in July, we noted the opening of Mars Journal, a NASA-funded open access scholarly journal focusing on the science, technology and policy issues related to Mars exploration. The first two items are now up: editor David Paige outlines the rationale behind the new journal; and planetologist Kenneth Edgett writes about data acquired from the Mars Observer and Mars Global Surveyor satellites regarding the Sinus Meridiani region. (Click here for a high-resolution image of the region in question.) Edgett's article includes seven images heretofore never released to the public.

    Open access is a powerful scientific tool because it makes information available to those who previously could not easily see it. The leapfrog benefits are obvious in the case of open access biotech or medical research, but also accrue to subjects as esoteric as Mars research. The fascination with worlds other than our own is not limited to the industrialized countries; Brazil, Kenya or Pakistan may not soon have their own Mars programs, but it's entirely possible that the Mars Journal will serve as an inspiration to a new generation of developing world scientists.

    Stopping Idle Draw

    Many home electronic devices, from televisions to microwave ovens to electric toothbrushes, continue to draw a small amount of power even when turned off. Sometimes, this is to allow the device to respond to a remote control; other times, it's for little more than a light or (yet another) digital clock. This "idle power" draw (sometimes called "phantom use") may be a trickle, but can really add up with lots of gizmos. Putting these devices on power strips doesn't always help, as you can easily end up with a situation where you're sending power to every item on the strip when you're only using one.

    Treehugger profiles a couple of different options to resolve this problem: the Wattstopper and the Smart Strip, two power strips able to sense when a plugged-in device goes idle and shut the power down completely. The prices vary, but they seem to be worthwhile additions to a household with more gadgets than time.

    The one thing they're missing, though: a way to communicate the information about device activity back to a central monitoring system, so that you can know as much about how your stuff works as your stuff does.

    December 16, 2005

    White Roofs, Revisited

    My post about the environmental value of white roofs garnered quite a bit of attention back in early 2004. According to research done at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, in warm weather regions, using white rooftops -- tiles, paint or other -- had a substantial environmental benefit, potentially greater than would be gained using traditional solar panels. It's good to see the idea is still getting some play -- as with this post in Treehugger today, quoting from a recent issue of New Scientist (which also mentions GRUMP -- the Global Rural Urban Mapping Project, which we talked about in March of this year).

    If you live in a warmer area, as a growing number of us do, installing a white roof can be one of the smartest things you can do to both keep your power bills down and improve the local "urban heat island" effect. Other good steps: planting more trees and getting local city planners to avoid using dark black road seal.

    Algerian Space Program

    I'm really fond of the non-great power space programs, as they provide ample evidence for how the "greens in space" argument applies to the leapfrog nations. In nearly every case, the point is to launch satellites for environmental observation and communication. Of the space-faring leapfrog nations, only Iran and India are seriously pursuing their own launch vehicle technology (with clear military implications) -- pretty much everyone else piggybacks on someone else's rocket.

    The Moor Next Door and Maghrebia bring us news about Algeria's space efforts, and they fit the pattern perfectly:

    ALSAT-1 has already transmitted more than 1,000 photos for the benefit of users in national and regional development, telecommunications, agriculture and the water resources sectors. It has also played a role following the earthquake that affected Algiers and surrounding areas in 2003, the tsunami that ravaged Southeast Asia and recent French forest fires.

    On the heels of the initial success, the Algerian Space Agency (ASAL) has developed a 15-year satellite programme.

    As the Moor Next Door puts it, very cool.

    December 19, 2005

    Nanoarmor, and More

    Inorganic fullerenes-- recently discovered non-carbon analogues to buckytubes -- are notable for a few important reasons: they can be produced relatively inexpensively, are chemically stable, and tests so far show them to be non-toxic. Moreover, they're incredibly strong. According to ZDNet, materials made from inorganic fullerenes have remarkable "shock-absorbing properties," making them suitable for (among other things) new kinds of lightweight bullet-proof armor.

    During preliminary tests, these materials, which are five times stronger than steel, have successfully resisted to steel projectiles generating pressures as high as 250 tons per square centimeter.

    The material tested, which for now can only be made in small quantities, is Tungsten Disulfide (WS2); ApNano, a company formed to work with inorganic fullerenes, plans to shift to Titanium Disulfide (TiS2) soon, as it will be lighter and stronger than WS2. Although ApNano is promoting the material as a potential new form of armor, strong, lightweight materials could have numerous important applications, including bodies for high-efficiency vehicles.

    Are Wind Costs Falling?

    Deng Yuanchang, deputy director of the Wind Resource Research Center at Sun Yat-sen University, claims in this article in the San Jose Mercury News that "With the development of wind turbine technology in China, the price is already falling worldwide. The price has come down about 20 percent." Unfortunately, the article doesn't follow up on this remarkable assertion.

    I could see reasonable arguments both supporting and refuting this claim; there are more companies making wind turbines using better/cheaper technologies, but there's also a great deal more demand. My initial search for confirmation didn't dig up any other pieces talking about a 20% drop in wind power technology prices, and I don't have ready access to historical cost trends. I do, however, know that many WC readers have been looking at the wind industry for awhile, so let me throw the question to you folks: are the costs of wind power systems falling? And the 20% claim -- presumably over just the last decade or less, as China wasn't aggressively pushing wind until recently -- is this true?

    (Found via Alternative Energy ~ Renewable Energy blog)

    December 20, 2005

    Honda Solar

    Honda Motor Company announced yesterday that it would soon begin manufacturing thin-film solar cells, building a new production facility on the site of a current auto factory. Because the thin-film cells won't require silicon, they won't be affected by current shortages in high-quality Si used for traditional photovoltaics, and they will require less energy to produce. Honda plans to make over 27 megawatts worth of solar cells per year at the new factory.

    By using thin film made from a compound of copper, indium, gallium and selenium (CIGS), Honda’s next-generation solar cell achieved a major reduction in energy consumed during the manufacturing process to approximately 50% of the amount required by conventional crystal silicon solar cells. [...] The mass production of Honda’s next-generation solar cell became possible with a new mass production process for thin film solar cells developed independently by Honda Engineering.

    (Also see this post at Environmental Economics, and check out this solar power tower design at Honda's Thailand headquarters.)

    Africa Blogging

    Just a quick pointer to an article at the BBC website entitled "African bloggers find their voice," which features both BlogAfrica -- a terrific source of ideas, opinion and insight from Africa-focused bloggers -- and our own Ethan Zuckerman.

    "It can be a bit overwhelming, but it's a great overview of the conversations taking place in and around Africa," says Ethan Zuckerman, one of the people behind BlogAfrica, on his own weblog My Heart's in Accra.

    Zuckerman, a resident fellow specialising in the impact of technology on the developing world at Berkman Center for internet and society at Harvard Law school in the US, is also one of the main drivers behind Global Voices - an even more ambitious project to follow interesting blogs from the whole world, with a focus on countries often overlooked by the mainstream media.

    December 21, 2005

    Prius in China - Now Underway

    We noted way back in September of 2004 that Toyota had reached an agreement with Chinese automaker FAW to begin manufacturing the Prius in China by late 2005. Well, it's about as late in 2005 as you can get, and finally we have word that production is now underway. This is the first Prius plant outside of Japan, and the auto is being built for local purchase.

    The Toyota-FAW joint venture plans to sell only about 3,000 Priuses in China in all of 2006; this low figure is less surprising when one learns that the price will be "between 288,000 yuan and 302,000 yuan ($35,680-$37,410), compared with around $22,000 in Japan and North America."

    (Via Treehugger)

    Afrotecnik

    Black Looks blogger Sokari Ekine has another website worth following, one that's a terrific example of why RSS aggregators are so useful. Afrotecnik describes itself as having a "focus on technologies for transforming communities in Africa and bridging the digital divide," and is good source for leapfrog technology updates. Recent posts have talked about the Simputer, microfinance, and open source in Africa.

    Unfortunately, Ekine only manages to update it on a sporadic basis, a bad thing back in the day that one had to remember to hit a site in order to catch something new. These days, of course, we have syndication feeds, and aggregator programs that take of the "hitting the site on a regular basis" for you. RSS is a big reason why I can follow such a wide array of websites -- I think I have something approaching 500 active feeds in my list, and I'm always adding more. RSS is truly the Future Scanner's Friend.

    Afrotecnik's feed can be found here.

    Send Your Name To The Asteroids

    Want to go into space? How about just your name? NASA is making it possible for people to "sign" their names to a satellite destined for the asteroid belt. The Dawn mission will launch in May of 2006, heading off to an encounter with the asteroids Ceres and Vesta.

    This isn't the first time NASA has done something like this. In 1999, the agency asked for names to go on a CD to be sent to Mars on the 2001 Surveyor Lander. If you don't remember the 2001 Lander, it's because it was delayed until 2003, then scrapped in favor of the hugely successful Mars Exploration Rovers. The CD would have been destroyed by radiation soon after landing, a relief to the kids who worried that aliens would get their names (I'm serious). The names on the Dawn mission will go on a memory chip and not a disk, however, so presumably they'll last awhile.

    NASA doesn't say whether they accept any responsibility for the names being used by alien invaders as a contact list.

    December 22, 2005

    RGGI Underway

    The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a Kyoto-style agreement among seven northeast US states, has been finalized and signed, and is scheduled to take effect starting in 2009 (we posted about the RGGI discussions last year). The RGGI group includes New York, New Jersey, Vermont, Maine, and most of the rest of the New Englad states. Massachusetts, one of the states working on this agreement, is conspicuously absent; current speculation is that its Governor, Mitt Romney, is going to run for President in 2008, and needed to shore up support among Republican voters.

    The RGGI agreement is notable in part because it formalizes a model for carbon trading that many see as a good compromise between climate greens worried about carbon and big businesses worried about a new cost. The carbon allowances plan includes a mix of carbon permits, price levels that automatically trigger additional permits, and the ability to use offsets in lieu of carbon allowances. The Environmental Economics blog has more details, including a link to a lengthy presentation on how the whole thing works.

    Gyroscopic Bio-Sensors

    Researchers at Newcastle University in the UK have come up with a new type of bio-sensor based on a vibrating disk a tenth of a millimeter in diameter. The tiny disk, with a gyroscope at its heart, is coated with proteins or DNA that the target marker -- in the research case, molecules produced by cancerous cells -- finds attractive. The vibrations are so precisely tuned that the weight of a single molecule can alter the motion of the disk in a readily-detectable way. The vibrating disk method could prove to be faster and more accurate than current chemical tests, and make possible easy testing for hard-to-spot phenomena:

    The technology could eventually be developed for other types of cancer and a range of other diseases, including those caused by bacteria. This opens up the possibility of hospitals being able to screen new patients and visitors for MRSA, tuberculosis and other diseases to prevent the infections being carried into the wards. [...] Potential uses do not stop at medicine. In theory, the technology could be used to detect particles from biological or chemical weapons, providing an early warning system against terrorist attacks.

    Earthquake Alerts Straight to the Phone -- On or Off

    Japan's Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry wants to implement a program of emergency messaging over cellular phone networks, particularly in the event of earthquakes. The SMS messages would provide emergency instructions, evacuation routes, and the like; if a plan to piggyback the emergency alert system on top of a broadcast video for phones technology works out, the emergency alerts could also include animations and graphics.

    Interesting, sure, but not much of a surprise at this point. What is novel about the system is that the Ministry also wants to be able to turn phones on by broadcasting a special signal, so that citizens can get the emergency messages even if they've shut their phones off for the night. They're working on the necessary technology in hopes of including it in future phones.

    Somehow, I don't expect that a feature like that would be appealing in many places, but it's a novel solution to a clear (if minor) problem.

    December 23, 2005

    The Year of Living Dangerously

    2005 -- the hottest or second-hottest year since we started keeping records in the 1880s -- saw quite a remarkable collection of massive natural disasters. Some, like the South Asian tsunami (at the very end of 2004, but count it anyway) and the Pakistan earthquake in October, had no human triggers, and even the massive hurricanes can't be definitively blamed on global warming. But a provocative (and unsigned) Agence France-Presse piece argues that what we consider the "disaster" isn't the event but the result -- and those results are very much our fault:

    From the Mississippi delta to the mountains of Kashmir and the beaches of the Andaman Sea, governments failed in almost every case to respect the basic laws of sustainable development.

    In a nutshell, these rules are: don't house people in places that are at risk to disasters -- but if you do, respect natural defenses; keep the population growth to sensible limits; build wisely and ensure high safety standards in construction; and set up effective alert and response networks in the event disaster does strike.

    This article tells a very WorldChanging story -- the need for sustainable development, response networks, and greater attention to the environment -- in a very non-WorldChanging way. What it says is that we've screwed things up, but we know what to do to make things better, if we're willing to try. It's an important essay, if you can read past the blame and dismissal.

    Another Step Towards the Participatory Panopticon

    One of the stumbling blocks to the creation of what I've termed the "participatory panopticon" is the need to organize and structure terabytes of data. While it's possible to add tags and metadata by hand, nobody would want to take that kind of time -- the system itself needs to handle it. Marc Davis and his team at Yahoo! Research Labs in Berkeley, California, may have brought that capability a bit closer with a new way to allow cell phones to identify who you've just snapped a picture of.

    The concept... is based on a central server that registers details sent by the phone when the photo is taken. These include the nearest cellphone mast, the strength of the call signal and the time the photo was taken. [...]

    ...in tests Davis and his team found that by combining [facial recognition software] with context information the system could correctly identify people 60 per cent of the time. The context information can also be combined with image-recognition software to identify places within photos.

    60% recognition? Not useful, yet -- but that's why it's still in the labs and not on your phone. This is just the sort of thing that will get much better, much faster than some might expect. Get ready.

    (Via Picturephoning)

    December 24, 2005

    More Energy Currents

    The UK Design Council's RED team has added more ideas to the Future Currents site Dawn told us about in October. Check out their ideas for home energy monitoring, ranking and rewarding goods and services, and distributed power -- along with five ideas from top global design groups.

    Readers can then vote on which ideas they'd like to see happen. Many of them are quite good, and seem easily implementable. RED uses a scenario approach with many of the products, providing a news clipping from the future describing a little bit of what the world looks like when the product or service is available.

    January 5, 2006

    Electric Bike Ban Lifted in Beijing

    You may recall earlier posts on the decision by Chinese leaders to ban the use of electric bikes in many major cities. Electric bike use is growing faster than auto use in China, and the officials worried about electric bikes as a the threat to the "pillar industry" of auto manufacturing. Word comes from Green Car Congress, however, that the Beijing city government has lifted its ban on electric bikes.

    Removal of the ban came as pressure mounts on city administrators to tackle horrible traffic congestion, air pollution and possible fuel supply, caused to a large extent by a rapidly growing number of cars on the road.

    It is just part of a series of measures undertaken by the capital city to address traffic congestion. Other major steps include greatly increasing the number of buses and building more urban railways.

    January 6, 2006

    Bruce, Jon, and the State of the World

    Once again, WorldChanging Ally #1 Bruce Sterling is holding court on the state of the world at the WELL, in the public "Inkwell" forum. Readers without WELL membership can send in questions via email. As always, our own Jon Lebkowsky is the moderator.

    This isn't a "Chinese century," or anything so corny and fearsome. The Chinese have got maybe 25, 30 lively years in the sun before they run into the weirdest demographic problems on the planet. That doesn't even count their restive land-empire and the pervasive corruption problems they have. We ought to be crossing our fingers for the Chinese people, rather than sitting in some neocon bunker plotting their demise.

    January 7, 2006

    Geo-Green Thomas Gets Fired Up

    We've posted links in the past to articles by Thomas Friedman in the New York Times calling for a "geo-green" agenda, making a move away from fossil fuels a national security issue. It's not because we think he's a brilliant writer so much as he's about as mainstream influential as they come; if Friedman is pushing this, it's going to be debated in the halls of power in Washington.

    Well, he has a new one this weekend, and it's probably his most rabble-rousing version yet. Unfortunately, it's behind the "Time Select" barrier, so I can't link directly to the essay, but WorldChanging ally Watthead has generously excerpted some of the key pieces in his blog:

    Enough of this Bush-Cheney nonsense that conservation, energy efficiency and environmentalism are some hobby we can't afford. I can't think of anything more cowardly or un-American. Real patriots, real advocates of spreading democracy around the world, live green.

    Green is the new red, white and blue.

    January 9, 2006

    Value vs. Values

    I'm always a bit baffled by the accusations that buyers of hybrid-electric cars are foolish, because the savings from the improved gas mileage won't make up for the increased cost of the car. That's probably a fact (barring another big spike in gas prices), but entirely irrelevant. What's the return on investment of a sun roof? Or four-wheel drive? Or ability to go three times the speed limit? People don't buy hybrids because they save money, they buy hybrids because of their underlying meaning: hybrids say something about their drivers, just as do family sedans, mega-SUVs and high-power sports cars. Further, I suspect many hybrid drivers -- like me -- bought in part to demonstrate support for a better vehicle technology.

    The non-financial motivations for hybrid drivers are getting greater emphasis in research underway at UC Davis' Institute of Transportation Studies. HybridCars.com has an interview with researchers Ken Kurani and Rusty Heffner:

    There are common meanings that run through our interviews. And there are often some individual meanings as well. Preserving the natural environment is the obvious meaning of the hybrid, but it's a lot deeper than that. What we hear from people is that when they buy a hybrid vehicle, it expresses their vision of a better world, and their desire for a society and a world where people work together for common goals. One of our subjects just had her first grandchild. That was why she felt the world needed to be a better place.

    (Via Gristmill)

    New Standards

    On Thursday, the US Environmental Protection Agency is set to release its proposed new standards for measuring automobile gas mileage. The new guidelines are intended to be closer to real-world automobile use than the current ones.

    Under its new program, the E.P.A. plans to take into account factors used by the agency in measuring vehicle emissions. They include how a car performs in high-speed driving, defined as 80 miles an hour or more; aggressive driving, in which a vehicle accelerates more than 3.3 miles per second; while air-conditioning is in use; and during cold temperatures. All these factors can affect a vehicle's fuel economy.

    (Great -- the EPA is adding "illegal," "irresponsible" and "known to degrade mileage at all times" factors to the mix.)

    It's likely that most vehicles will see a drop in their mileage ratings under these new metrics, including hybrids.

    Davos Blog

    Davos Newbies reports that the 2006 World Economic Forum planners have asked all attendees to participate in a group blog for the event; the WEF's current (and rather quiet) weblog at forumblog.org will be the focal point.

    The World Economic Forum was the first international organization to set up a blog at the Annual Meeting in January 2005 and the upcoming Annual Meeting will see a significant development in the experiment. All of the more than 2,000 participants, including presidents and prime ministers, will be asked to provide at least one posting for the blog.

    As DN's Lance Knobel notes, it would be even better if the participants were asked to have their own individual blogs for the duration, but this is a pretty good start.

    January 10, 2006

    Asia's Biggest Solar Power Plant, in India

    Indian newspaper The Hindu reports today that construction of a five megawatt solar power facility, claimed to be the largest in Asia, is set to begin in the Rashtrapati Bhavan, the residence of the President of India. Most solar power generation in India is currently in the kilowatt or smaller range, providing local and community power in off-grid areas. Programs like the Barefoot Solar Engineers have helped to expand the use of off-grid solar in India. The five megawatt project will be part of an ongoing attempt to increase the use of renewable sources for grid electricity.

    Kerry Emanuel Profiled in the NYT

    Climate scientist Kerry Emanuel knows hurricanes, and has historically been extremely cautious about drawing connections between global warming and hurricane strength or frequency. So when he published an article this past summer in Nature arguing a strong connection between climate change-driven ocean warming and hurricane intensity, the scientific world took notice. And when hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast a couple of weeks later, lots of other people took notice, too.

    Today's New York Times has a brief profile and interview with Dr. Emanuel, one that helps to underscore the shift he has made from caution to concern.

    There is no doubt that in the last 20 years, the earth has been warming up. And it's warming up much too fast to ascribe to any natural process we know about.

    We still don't have a good grasp of how clouds and water vapor, the two big feedbacks in the climate system, will respond to global warming. What we are seeing is a modest increase in the intensity of hurricanes.

    I predicted years ago that if you warmed the tropical oceans by a degree Centigrade, you should see something on the order of a 5 percent increase in the wind speed during hurricanes. We've seen a larger increase, more like 10 percent, for an ocean temperature increase of only one-half degree Centigrade.

    Katrina was just the beginning.

    January 11, 2006

    Sniffing Out Cancer

    Anecdotal evidence that the ultra-sensitive noses of dogs can detect subtle olfactory signs of cancer abound, such as the story of a dog that kept sniffing a spot on a man's arm until he went to have it checked out -- only to find it was malignant melanoma. It turns out that these anecdotes reflect more than coincidence: researchers in San Francisco and Poland have run extensive tests showing that dogs can detect cancer by scent alone, even by smelling the breath of patients.

    In this study, five household dogs were trained within a short 3-week period to detect lung or breast cancer by sniffing the breath of cancer participants. The trial itself was comprised of [sic] 86 cancer patients (55 with lung cancer and 31 with breast cancer) and a control sample of 83 healthy patients. [...] The results of the study showed that dogs can detect breast and lung cancer with sensitivity and specificity between 88% and 97%. [...] Moreover, the study also confirmed that the trained dogs could even detect the early stages of lung cancer, as well as early breast cancer.

    The implications here are multifold: the potential for an extremely inexpensive, highly-accurate, non-invasive test for cancer; stimulus for tests of canine ability to smell subtle clues of other diseases; and an indication that there are detectable levels of molecular signs of early stages of cancer, with the possibility of engineering sensors that could be even more accurate and sensitive than dog noses.

    Banana Paper

    Current methods of making paper are often toxic, wasteful of water and energy, and terribly unsustainable. Recycling only goes so far; what's needed is an alternative method of making paper that is less-harmful to begin with. Papyrus Australia thinks they have that alternative: Banana Ply Paper.

    Optimal parameters for an environmentally friendly but highly sustainable paper production industry include: Renewable raw materials: preferably a non-seasonal secondary fibre crop of which the BTT is a prime example given that it is cropped continually all year round; Low water usage: preferably none; Low energy usage: and preferably usage of renewable energy; Low levels of introduced chemical additives, preferably none; Low effluent discharge: preferably none, but with any discharge being non-toxic and non-pollutive.

    Papyrus’ technology meets those criteria: BTT [Banana Tree Trunk, a waste product from banana farming] is the source of fibre; Production takes place amidst the plantations which reduces transport requirements and resultant pollution; No external water supply is used during the production process; Minimal amounts of energy are needed; There are no introduced chemical additives in the production process; No effluent is discharges or released into the environment: the only by-products are fluid (basically water) from the banana plant and off cuts usable as mulch which will be returned to the plantations from which supply of raw material is sourced.

    What's more, production costs for banana paper are estimated to be less than one-fifth those of traditional pulp paper, and the capital investment costs just 3% of those required for pulp paper production. The big question: is there enough banana production to keep up with the global demand for paper?

    (Thanks for the tip, David Chan)

    January 13, 2006

    Massive Solar Program in California

    The California state public utilities commission has approved the California Solar Initiative, a massive new program to support the expansion of solar power in the state, USD$2.8 billion going for incentives for solar power retrofits and USD$400 million going for incentives for adding solar to new construction. At USD$3.2 billion over 11 years, this puts California second only to Germany in investment in solar power. The plan's passage is the direct result of an outpouring of public support. According to Renewable Energy Access, the plan will lead to...

    ...the installation of approximately 3000 MW of solar energy, roughly the power equivalent of six large natural-gas fired power plants. [...] public support for the plan was repeatedly mentioned as a critical factor in bringing this plan to the CPUC. Over the last three months, 50,000 people have written to the California Public Utilities Commissioners to ask them to pass a long-term solar rebate program - more public comment than the CPUC has received on any issue they have ever considered, including the 2001 energy crisis.

    LEED On A Budget

    Oregon developers Interface Engineering managed to design and build the Center for Health and Healing at the Oregon Health and Science University to meet (and even exceed in some respects) LEED Platinum standards -- and do it on a budget no greater than that required for a conventional building. Moreover, they've decided to make the details available, for free. The 48-page Engineering A Sustainable World tells the story of the building project, and provides insights into how to create and build environmentally-friendly structures on a limited budget.

    The book can be ordered through the Interface Engineering website; unfortunately, they apparently have decided not to make it available as a PDF download (which, frankly, would have been the ecologically-friendlier approach).

    (Via Treehugger)

    January 14, 2006

    Congratulations, Gil!

    Sustainability Sundays contributor Gil Friend won one of the Environmental Business Journal Awards for Business Achievement, in the Project Merit category.

    Natural Logic for pioneering innovative strategies to assist companies and communities in initiatives that allow them to go ≥beyond compliance≤ and develop sustainable operations. By offering an innovative ≥risk and fiduciary responsibility≤ lens to clients and the public, the company says that it is changing traditional perceptions of environmental management by ≥deeply linking≤ environment, health and safety issues to company strategy, risk management, and the mandates laid out in corporate charters.

    There are many winners this year, each a reminder that it's possible to do well by doing good.

    January 16, 2006

    New Horizons

    Every (traditional) planet in the solar system has been explored up-close -- except one, Pluto. That's about to change: tomorrow, the launch window for the New Horizons probe opens, and very soon (possibly by 1:24pm EST) the spacecraft will be off on its 15 year mission to Pluto and beyond.

    The NASA Press Kit for the New Horizons probe (PDF) provides a terrific overview of the mission, the space craft, and what scientists hope to learn when it finally gets to Pluto in 2015 -- and the Kuiper Belt in 2020.

    The craft will map the surfaces of Pluto and Charon with an average resolution of one kilometer (in contrast, the Hubble Space Telescope cannot do better than about 500- kilometer resolution when it views Pluto and Charon). It will map the surface composition across the various geological provinces of the two bodies. And it will determine the composition, structure and escape rate of Pluto’s atmosphere.

    New Horizons will be the fastest space craft ever built by humankind, traveling at 16 kilometers per second (or around 30,000 miles per hour) -- and it will still take over 9 years to get to Pluto.

    Deforestation and Malaria

    It turns out that deforestation isn't just a big picture environmental problem -- it has direct, immediate, negative results for human communities. A study by the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Johns Hopkins University has found that "malaria-inducing mosquitoes are likely to bite humans more than 200 times more often in cleared areas versus forested ones." Authors Jonathan Patz and Amy Yomiko Vittor argue that it's not just more people moving in to deforested regions that boost the infection rates, but a profound increase in the number of mosquitos.

    Malaria rates in the Peruvian Amazon have soared dramatically in recent years, jumping from a few hundred cases in 1992 to more than 120,000 cases, or over a third of the population, by 1997... As trees have been steadily cleared away, the insect has presumably thrived in the more exposed, breeding-friendly pools still remaining in such disturbed habitats... The fact that deforestation, one of the fastest global drivers of landscape change, may affect the prevalence of a disease like malaria raises larger issues, says Patz. "I feel conservation policy is one and the same with public health policy," he says. "It's probable that protected conservation areas may ultimately be an important tool in our disease prevention strategies."

    It seems that global environmental disruption isn't enough to discourage rampant deforestation, but direct threats to the health of local citizens just might be.

    (Thanks for the tip, Jon Foley)

    January 18, 2006

    Carbon Trading 101

    WorldChanging contributor Gil Friend has a handy article up at GreenBiz.com entitled "The Nuts and Bolts of Carbon Trading," providing an easy introduction to the process for organizations considering giving it a shot.

    1. Establish an emissions baseline -- how much do you generate? What are they main sources? What are your trends over time?

    2. Set a specific reduction goal. The existence of a concrete goal (meaning, for example, a goal of "reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 15% below 1990 levels," not simply "lowering emissions") makes measuring progress and determining success or failure much simpler. And don't set the goal comfortably low. Dupont plans to reduce GHG to 65% below 19990 levels by 2010; ST Micro is going for 100%; and Sweden plans to be off fossil fuels by 2020.

    3. Identify efficiency opportunities through systematic assessment of your operations. Look beyond direct energy use (what about employee commuting? your supply chain?).

    There's lots more to the piece -- check it out.

    Open Source Software vs Bird Flu

    CompLearn is a free/libre/open source software application that uses mathematical compression techniques to spot obscure patterns in a wide variety of data sources, from languages and music to biology. One of the authors of CompLearn, Rudi Cilibrasi, has applied this tool to a data set of 30 different H5N1 avian flu strains, and was able to build a tree graph of the relationships between the different versions of the disease. The goal?

    ...to track which strains are going where and when new strains pop up we can match them to the nearest previously known strain in the hope that this can shed light on the epidemiology of the situation.

    Mathematical compression algorithms are turning into profoundly powerful tools (we blogged recently about the use of compression to aid the ability of radiologists to detect cancer, for example). And, as WorldChanging alumnus Taran Rampersad notes, this is a prime example of the utility of open source tools outside of the corporate computing setting.

    January 19, 2006

    Global Warming-Resistant Agriculture

    Word comes from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council in the UK of the discovery of the gene sequence that controls how barley responds to temperature and seasonal changes. BBSRC scientists believe that it may be possible to modify this gene to allow barley -- a staple crop in the UK -- to flourish in the warmer, dryer environment to come. Other key crops such as wheat, rice and corn likely have similar genes, and should be able to be modified in similar ways.

    Such a proposal smacks of "adaptation," and those of us who argue that we have the means now to prevent climate disaster are usually a bit hesitant to discuss such a notion. It's not because we don't think adaptation is possible, it's because the concept has been so abused by those who seek to avoid making any changes to our fossil fuel society that to speak of adaptation at all runs the risk of having one's words dismissed by allies and distorted by opponents. There's also the deeper philosophical issue that a focus on adaptation can easily undercut more productive -- but more difficult -- efforts to halt and reverse disastrous changes.

    The reality is that thermal inertia of the ocean and the atmosphere means we'll still see warming for at least the next couple of decades, even if we were to stop putting any more greenhouse gases into the air right this very second. The global environment is changing in ways that will take a long time to reverse, even in the best scenarios; in the meantime, we'll need to figure out ways to continue to support a civilization under stress. Being able to modify key agricultural products to live in the changing environment will be a crucial part of the overall solution. It's not adaptation -- it's crisis management.

    January 20, 2006

    The Nuclear Debate

    The audio recording of the Peter Schwartz/Ralph Cavanagh discussion at the last Seminar About Long-Term Thinking isn't yet up, but Stewart has written up a brief but fairly complete summary of their arguments, and posted it to the new Long Now discussion boards.

    Meanwhile, Schwartz said, world demand for energy will continue to grow for decades, as two billion more people climb out of poverty and developing nations become fully developed economies. China and India alone will double or quadruple their energy use over the next 50 years. We will run out of oil in that period. That leaves coal or nuclear for electricity. Conservation is crucial, but it doesn't generate power. Renewables must grow fast, but they cannot hope to fill the whole need. Nuclear technology has improved its efficiency and safety and can improve a lot more. Reprocessing fuel will add further efficiency. [...]

    California, Cavanagh said, has led the way in developing a balanced energy policy. Places like China are paying close attention. PG&E has become the world's largest investor in efficiency, led by Carl Weinberg (who was in the audience and got a round of applause). And now there are signs that California may become the leader in setting limits to carbon emissions. Within limits like that, then the private sector can compete with full entrepreneurial zest, and may the best technologies win. Nuclear would have to compete fairly with new forms of biofuels and with ever improving renewables.

    Fair warning: most of the comments on the Long Now boards are from people with quite a bit of knowledge about nuclear power engineering and a strong pro-nuclear perspective. If you choose to weigh in, be sure to have your facts straight. That said, the posters seem to have very little knowledge about renewables, and a few have made the kinds of blanket -- and factually incorrect -- pronouncements about renewable energy that they'd quickly dismiss were they about about nuclear energy.

    Aside from the nuclear discussion, there's not a lot of content up yet on the Long Now boards, but go and take a look around. I'm certain that you'll find much of interest for WorldChangers.

    January 21, 2006

    Serious Games Summit

    A recurring theme on WorldChanging Weekend is the power of games -- video, board or otherwise -- to educate and enlighten. The standard term for these kinds of endeavor is "serious games;" the annual Game Developer's Conference has a Serious Games Summit allowing designers and analysts to get together to talk tech, theme and purpose. This year's GDC and Serious Games Summit will be in San Jose, California, on March 20-24 (20-21 for the Summit), and registration is now open.

    I'm going to try to go -- and if you go, be sure to say hi.

    January 23, 2006

    Discovering Amory Lovins

    Discover magazine has a short (two-page) but terrific interview with Amory Lovins (of Rocky Mountain Institute and Winning the Oil Endgame fame). The article has Lovins talking about his favorite subject, energy, covering subjects like the relationship between weight and efficiency, the utility of plastic resins over steel, why the Pentagon should matter to environmentalists, and just how he's managed to grow bananas in Colorado (the picture on page 2 of the interview, of Lovins holding next to a solar panel while eating a banana, is worth checking out). My favorite bit, however, has to be his beginning comment:

    When I give talks about energy, the audience already knows about the problems. That's not what they've come to hear. So I don't talk about problems, only solutions. But after a while, during the question period, someone in the back will get up and give a long riff about all the bad things that are happening—most of which are basically true. There's only one way I've found to deal with that. After this person calms down, I gently ask whether feeling that way makes him more effective.

    As René Dubos, the famous biologist, once said, "Despair is a sin."

    January 25, 2006

    Hydrokinetic in the UK

    Today, the Carbon Trust, one of the UK's biggest climate and energy information groups, released a report on the potential for hydrokinetic power -- electricity generated by the flows of tides, waves, and ocean currents -- in the UK energy grid. The summary (PDF) hits the major points, as does the BBC article; the full report, sadly, is only available by calling the Carbon Trust's office. The story is clear, though: wave and tidal energy is less mature than wind and solar, but rapidly improving; by 2020, the sector could provide 3% of the UK's power; over the long run, hydrokinetic could provide 20% of the power supply. As we've discussed more than once, hydrokinetic power has many of the benefits of other renewable sources like wind and solar without [in the case of wave power, as much of] their major drawback, intermittency. [But see the comments for discussion on this issue.] Tidal, wave and ocean current power don't really have microgeneration versions, but that's okay -- ocean power can provide the centralized generation backbone for a distributed renewable network.

    The one aspect of the report that disappoints me is the presumption that UK energy consumption will continue to follow established patterns. As noted yesterday, improvements to consumption efficiency could reduce energy use by 60% by 2050 (personally, I think the improvements could happen even faster than that). If efficiency reduces demand in that way, and at the same time hydrokinetic increases by the amount projected by the Carbon Trust, wave and tidal could eventually be responsible for half of the UK's power, not just one-fifth.

    That is why it's important not to think of these solutions as operating in isolation. Efficiency alone=good. Distributed power alone=good. Hydrokinetic alone=good. Efficiency + distributed power + hydrokinetic=worldchanging.

    Google Antarctica

    Viewing ice flow changes in the Arctic via Google Earth is pretty cool, but what about the antipodes? You're in luck. Polarview.org, an "initiative of the European Space Agency and the European Commission, with participation by the Canadian Space Agency, to make earth observation (EO) services more accessible and affordable to anyone interested in the Northern and Southern Polar Regions," has developed a KMZ file for Google Earth providing Antarctica datasets, including both station locations and daily ice data.

    By itself, Google Earth doesn't actually have terribly detailed maps of Antarctica; evidently, the photographic satellites the program uses don't take many south pole pictures. The Polar View Antarctic KMZ improves the situation, providing substantially higher-resolution images for selected sections of the continent. They aren't the six-inches-per-pixel resolution of some of Google's maps, but they're much better than the default view. Sadly, WorldChanging favorite Dome C isn't covered in these updated maps -- but now you can see exactly where it is!

    (Via Google Earth Blog)

    January 26, 2006

    Green Power Use Doubles in a Year

    The US Environmental Protection Agency released its Green Power Top 25 list yesterday, a compilation of the greatest renewable energy use by a set of 600 "partner" organizations across the US who agree to preferentially buy green power. All told, the green power partner firms consumed over four million megawatt-hours of renewable energy in 2005, a nearly 100% increase over the 2004 total.

    The 2006 Top 25 green power purchasers are buying enough energy to power more than 300,000 homes a year, which is also comparable to removing the emissions of nearly 400,000 cars from the road annually.

    Topping the list is the US Air Force, which used over a million megawatt-hours of renewable power, 11% of its total consumption (a combination of biomass, geothermal, micro-hydro, solar and wind). More notable is the new #2 entry, Whole Foods Market, which recently shifted to a 100% renewable energy footing -- and managed to use over 450 thousand megawatt-hours of green energy.

    January 27, 2006

    A Bit of Bird Flu Good News

    With recent reports of avian flu H5N1 spreading across Asia towards Turkey, it's nice to see a positive report on virus research. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have engineered a vaccine for H5N1 that provided 100% protection tests on in mice and chickens. Moreover, the vaccine successfully triggers a broad immune response that could work against multiple variants of the infection.

    The focus of the research is on a vaccine for use in captive bird populations; the human infections have largely been in people who handle poultry. H5N1 is 100% fatal to chickens, but this vaccine, when delivered subcutaneously, protected all test chickens against levels of the virus far larger than they would likely face in a natural outbreak.

    January 30, 2006

    Africa Source II Report

    Black Looks points to details from Becky Faith of Pambazuka News on the recent Africa Source II conference, an attempt to expand the discussion of open source software and the open source concept in Africa. (We noted the conference earlier this month.) Highlights include discussions of the Creative Commons License as a benefit for Africa, localization of software for community empowerment, and the needs of disabled computer users in Africa. Of particular note was the emphasis on getting women involved in open source development:

    Women from Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Nigeria, Malawi, Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, Senegal, Uganda, Sierra Leone and Guinea, and Egypt got together to discuss how they might advocate for open source amongst women. Mentoring for school-age girls to get them to consider information technology as a career was seen as a top priority. The openness of the FOSS community was seen as a great opportunity for learning and participation by women.

    Faith points to the Africa Linux Chix website and mailing lists, which appear to be well-worth checking out.

    Medical Data, Global Health

    Two interesting and useful online databases give us two very different points on the spectrum of medical information.

    GlobalHealthFacts.org is a new website providing searchable information on current country and regional health data. Created by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the site's goal is to provide up-to-date information on key data about the state of global health and healthcare. GlobalHealthFacts includes country-by-country information on HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, as well as important socio-economic and demographic indicators such as physicians, nurses and midwives per 100,000 population, the rural/urban split, and the availability of international aid for healthcare. Country reports can be compared, and each particular piece of data has a link to original source material. The results page for a given country also includes a set of relevant news summaries from GlobalHealthFacts' sister site, GlobalHealthReporting.org. (Via Medgadget)

    Hippocrates is a medical information search engine, providing one-click links to a variety of data sources about diseases and treatments. The search engine focuses on the "deep web," the dynamic content used to produce on-the-fly pages, which is generally invisible to traditional search methods. From what I could tell, the information sources searched are relatively mainstream -- although it does explicitly include alternative medical treatments -- and the data presentation is structured to make it easy for non-specialist users to find needed information quickly. Useful, to be sure, but what makes this website notable is that it was designed and built by the Indian company CloserLook, and runs on the big India news portal Chennai Online. (Via Open Access News)

    January 31, 2006

    Sustainability Bloggers, Together Again for the First Time

    If you're in San Francisco, come on by the Commonwealth Club tonight (January 31st) at 6pm for a discussion about green blogging. Our own Gil Friend is the moderator, and the panelists include Nick Aster from Triplepundit, Siel from Green LA Girl, Treehugger writer Kyeann Sayer, and, um, yours truly. It promises to be a good conversation and an excellent chance to meet your favorite green bloggers. More information here.

    I'm told a few tickets are still available; reserve your seat at the Commonwealth Club website.

    February 1, 2006

    Diesel Hybrid Electric Cars... Real Soon Now

    My 2004 call for automakers to build hybrid-electric cars that use modern low-emissions diesel instead of gasoline -- diesel providing more energy/volume, therefore a higher base mileage -- remains one of the most popular posts we've ever done. I'm pleased to see that the idea is finally getting some traction. French automaker Peugeot-Citroen announced this week that it has designed two hybrid-electric cars using the high-efficiency HDi diesel engine. The prototypes deliver an average of 69 miles per gallon (US rating) combined city and highway mileage, with a record low emission of 90 grams of CO2 per kilometer. Like the Prius, the Peugeot-Citroen hybrids will have a low-speed all-electric mode, meaning that they'd be candidates for a plug-in hybrid refit.

    Don't rush off to your local dealer yet, though; Peugeot-Citroen says that the hybrid technology is still a bit too costly to be able to sell the cars at a competitive price, but that they expect to have them on the road by 2010. Buyer demand is a funny thing, though, and sufficient consumer interest in a very high-mileage car might bring them to market sooner, despite the higher price.

    See Green Car Congress for the details.

    African Telemedicine Conferences

    Telemedicine is a worldchanging practice for regions that, for reasons of geography, economics or politics, are poorly-served by local healthcare. Advances in communication technologies make telemedicine more accessible, and we've covered a variety of applications for remote medical diagnosis. Global institutions are paying more attention to the potential for telemedicine lately, and two conferences -- one just concluded, one still coming up -- demonstrate the breadth of interest.

    The European Commission's Directorate General for Development, in coordination with the African Union and the European Space Agency, just concluded a workshop on telemedicine in Brussels. The focus was on the use of satellites for telemedical applications, and the conference initiated a study -- to be completed by June of this year -- on what would be required to set up a pan-African telmedicine satellite network. Satellite communication systems have dropped in cost in recent years, and allow rural health clinics to take advantage of international medical diagnostic services.

    At the other end of the institutional power spectrum, the Africa Telehealth Project seeks to build community healthcare programs in Africa through the use of telemedicine applications. In late May, the Africa Telehealth Group will host a conference on Telemedical Health Care in the city of San Angelo, Texas. The goal of the conference is to review recent developments in the field of telemedicine, and to work out ways to strengthen the relationship between US and European information technology and healthcare organizations with the nascent telehealth movement in Africa. Registration is now open.

    February 3, 2006

    Climate Maps

    Maps maps maps. Can we ever really get enough?

    Maplecroft, the UK organization specializing in the coverage of the non-financial performance of global corporations and governments we discussed in December, has just released updated versions of some of its key environmental maps: carbon resources; greenhouse gas emissions; climate change; and renewable energy use. These maps give a geographic presentation to useful data resources.

    The maps require the latest version of Flash to operate properly.

    (Via NextBillion)

    Mobile Phones in China

    Wow... just... wow.

    China already has more mobile phone users than the entire population of the United States, but the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry (now there's a new twist on an otherwise Orwellian name...) noted yesterday that the number of mobile phone users in China is expected to top 440 million this year. That's a third of the Chinese population.

    Anybody want to estimate what portion of Earth's population has a mobile phone?

    (Via SmartMobs)

    Build the Digital Witness Project

    Our recent post on the decision by the Witness project to build a web server to collect digital camera and cameraphone images from human rights workers around the world has had an unexpected -- and wonderful -- result. Witness employee Bryan Nunez is participating in the resulting discussion, and, upon the suggestion of a couple of the other participants, has opened up a forum on the Witness website to allow the broader community to help figure out just what the digital portal will need to be successful.

    The Witness digital video site will be a profoundly important step for the organization, and for human rights around the world -- giving the citizens in the greatest danger a chance to play a role in change for the better, with greater safety and a swifter response.

    If you have thoughts on what the project might need, please take a moment to join the discussion, both here and (more importantly) at the Witness website.

    February 7, 2006

    The Topology of Covert Conflict

    I'm still trying to wrap my head around this one to understand all of the implications, but even at this point it's clear: The Topology of Covert Conflict, a technical report by Shishir Nagaraja and Ross Anderson of the Cambridge University computer laboratory, is an important piece of research into network-embedded conflicts. As the abstract makes clear, this research has wide application:

    Often an attacker tries to disconnect a network by destroying nodes or edges, while the defender counters using various resilience mechanisms. Examples include a music industry body attempting to close down a peer-to-peer file-sharing network; medics attempting to halt the spread of an infectious disease by selective vaccination; and a police agency trying to decapitate a terrorist organisation. [...] Our models thus build a bridge between network analysis and evolutionary game theory, and provide a framework for analysing defence and attack in networks where topology matters. They suggest definitions of efficiency of attack and defence, and may even explain the evolution of insurgent organisations from networks of cells to a more virtual leadership that facilitates operations rather than directing them.

    It's a dense article, with useful insights both for those who are working to prevent networked epidemics (of biological or computer viruses) and those who seek to use networked models for social change (such as "second superpower" political movements).

    (Via Bruce Schneier)

    Green Affordable Housing

    For the moment, high-efficiency, renewable energy housing -- at least in the United States -- is realistically only available to upper-middle-class homeowners. People in "affordable housing" developments, even new ones, rarely have access to super-efficient windows and insulation or rooftop solar. The Massachusetts Technology Collaborative wants to change that, and has launched a program to provide grants to green affordable housing projects.

    This solicitation invites grant applications for:

    • Development and administration of a funding program to incorporate renewable energy, energy efficiency, and green design into affordable housing developments
    • Development of a state-of-the-art, green affordable housing development that incorporates renewable energy
    • Development of an operational plan that will lead to a program incorporating renewable energy, energy efficiency, and green design as part of affordable housing development

    The Green Affordable Housing Grant program has just started, but has a quick deadline -- interested participants have until March 23 to get their proposals in.

    February 8, 2006

    Solar Titanium Nanotubes

    A few weeks ago, I posted that researchers at Penn State used titanium nanotubes to significantly boost the efficiency of cracking hydrogen from water using solar "photolysis," increasing it from ~6% efficiency to over 13%. In passing, I noted that they also claimed to have improved the utility of dye-based photovoltaics. Details of this latter discovery are now coming out.

    A layer of titanium nanotubes roughly 360 nanometers in length gave the dye-based photovoltaics a conversion efficiency of about 3%. That may not sound like much -- and it's not -- but it is equivalent to the typical efficiency of commercially-available thin film and polymer photovoltaics. Moreover, the Penn State team believe that a thicker layer of titanium nanotubes should boost the overall efficiency to over 15% -- equivalent to commonplace silicon solar panels. The advantage here is that dye/titanium photovoltaics would be far less expensive to produce, requiring much less energy and fewer toxic chemicals.

    Mexico City from Above

    This is getting a bit of play in the blogosphere, but it's too good not to note here, too. C.O. Ruiz, a former helicopter pilot in Mexico City, took photographs of what he saw from the sky, and has now posted them to the web. They're all fascinating, but some -- like this photograph of the Mexico City megalopolis, or this one of a massive low income housing development -- are simply stunning. It's hard to select a favorite. The street market? The expansion of the city into the hills? Maybe the picture of the city taken from the rim of a volcano...

    February 9, 2006

    Sweden To Go Oil-Free (Revisited)

    In early January, we pointed to Sweden's ambitious plans to build the "green welfare state," including efforts to eliminate the use of petroleum by 2020. The UK's Guardian just picked up on the announcement this week, however, and we've received numerous suggested links to their article. Since there's clearly continued interest in the subject, here are some useful links for people who may have missed them previously:

    The Swedish Ministry of Sustainable Development's website.

    The Ministry's October 2005 announcement: "Sweden first to break dependence on oil! New programme presented." This press release has more information than the Guardian article, and is well worth checking out.

    The commission planning out this shift away from petroleum includes the chief executive of Volvo Trucks, a good indicator that industry is working with the government on this idea, not against it.

    If Sweden can pull this off -- and given how aggressively the nation has moved to renewable energy sources, which now make up 26% of Sweden's energy production, that seems entirely possible -- it would be a strong positive reinforcement of the viability of moving away from fossil fuels.

    February 10, 2006

    Concrete Canvas

    Almost a year ago, Jeremy noted the development of "concrete canvas," a semi-permanent shelter in a bag developed by a couple of grad students at Royal College of Art in London. At the time, all they had come up with was a plan and a prototype -- they didn't even have a website.

    Fast forward to the present: Concrete Canvas is now operational, at least as a website. They're still seeking funding for production, something that should be greatly helped by their being given the Saatchi & Saatchi Award for World Changing Ideas earlier this month.

    This is really a brilliant idea, and we're happy to see it get the recognition it deserves.

    Non-GM Biotech in the Developing World

    If you think agricultural biotechnology just means genetically modified organisms and Monsanto breathing down your neck, think again. SciDev.net offers an overview of non-GM biotechnologies useful to farmers in the developing world. The listing of the methods and their benefits is a useful reminder that biotechnology means more than fiddling with DNA.

    This briefing seeks to help fill this information gap by summarising the characteristics of the most common non-GM biotechnologies that are being developed and applied to crop improvement in the developing world.

    Drawing on the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) database on Biotechnologies in Developing Countries (BioDeC), it focuses on four types of non-GM biotechnology: tissue culture, molecular markers, diagnostic techniques and microbial products.

    February 13, 2006

    Department of Lego Security

    WorldChanging ally W. David Stephenson has an amusing and thought-provoking article up at his blog, comparing the choice made by Lego to open up the process of developing its next-generation Mindstorms kit with the choice made by the US Department of Homeland Security to keep information limited and access to decision-makers restricted. It's a mildly tongue-in-cheek post, but it makes some excellent points that map to our earlier posts about useful approaches for building worldchanging systems:

    ...what are the lessons for DHS from the Lego Mindstorms experience?

    • Open source is more robust. [...]
    • Don't think you have to keep everything secret. [...]
    • Don't think you have to -- or even can -- control everything. [...]

    David adds useful detail to each of these points.

    Lego is an excellent example of a long-standing institution that was able to actively and consciously change its approach to working with its broad community of interested stakeholders.

    Sustainable NYC

    Sustainable New York City (PDF) is a report from the Design Trust for Public Space examining concrete proposals for increasing the environmental sustainability of the city. New York is already arguably one of the most sustainable cities around, but to a great degree that sustainability derives from urban density, not conscious planning. The Design Trust's case studies show that it would be possible to move New York -- or, for that matter, any large city -- to an even more sustainable point, relying upon projects with proven good results.

    The report, written by WorldChanging reader David Hsu, looks at three key areas: water and land protection; energy, air quality, and climate; and waste and materials. The case studies chosen as models are widely considered to be high-quality, successful efforts: Seattle's natural drainage systems; Chicago's green building program; and Santa Monica, California's, environmentally preferable purchasing program. Each case study is matched against a similar or complementary program in New York.

    Sustainable New York City is a relatively short, well-illustrated document, and makes for interesting reading for those of us looking for practical steps for improving the environmental footprint of urban spaces.

    February 15, 2006

    GSM 4 3B Update

    It's not just the big mobile phone manufacturers that are interested in developing ultra-low-cost handsets for emerging markets. Electronic component maker TTP Communications has announced a new "reference blueprint" for a full-function cell phone with an end-user cost of under $20. The phone design includes software such as email, camera and multimedia support, even voice recognition, along with interfaces for connecting external hardware.

    TTP claims that further improvements to production processes should bring the costs down even further.

    (Via Unmediated)

    February 16, 2006

    National Disaster Information System in India

    Earlier this week, Indian minister for science, technology and ocean development Kapil Sibal announced the launch of the National Disaster Information System, which will use voice calls, SMS and a public address network to send disaster warnings to a pilot group of Indian citizens.

    Using the system, once a warning about a natural disaster is received from the Meteorological Department, Geneva’s server pushes out the message simultaneously in 14 languages through SMS, and dynamically-generated voice messages to wireless public address systems and phones. The entire process is expected to take 33 seconds.

    “The pilots are an experiment. The results of the pilots will be placed before the National Disaster Management Authority for a comprehensive project. The pilots will be integrated later with Tsunami Warning Center which is expected to be ready by September 2007,” says Union Minister of Science and Technology Kapil Sibal, adding that the project is the first of its kind in the world.

    (More information from The Hindu.)

    February 17, 2006

    Grameen Covers the Monopoly Board

    The Grameen Bank organization, which gained visibility with the Grameen Phone project, is expanding into the provision of electricity and water using the same village entrepreneurial model. Created by inventor Dean Kamen, the village power and village water devices will be low-cost, low-maintenance, low-complexity methods of providing critical utilities to people in the developing world.

    The electric generator is powered by an easily-obtained local fuel: cow dung. Each machine continuously outputs a kilowatt of electricity. That may not sound like much, but it is enough to light 70 energy-efficient bulbs. As Kamen puts it, "If you judiciously use a kilowatt, each villager can have a nighttime." [...]

    The Slingshot [water purifier] works by taking in contaminated water – even raw sewage -- and separating out the clean water by vaporizing it. It then shoots the remaining sludge back out a plastic tube. Kamen thinks it could be paired with the power machine and run off the other machine's waste heat.

    Compared to building big power and water plants, Kamen's approach has the virtue of simplicity. He even created an instruction sheet to go with each Slingshot. It contains one step: Just add water, any water.

    We first noted the village power project last July, and Technology Review detailed both the generator and water purifier in October. Yesterday's CNN report doesn't break a lot of new ground on the story, but is getting a lot of attention -- and for a subject like this, attention can be the difference between success and failure.

    (Thanks to Tim Du Toit, Rektide, Ryan Sims, and Chris Albon for all -- independently -- sending in this story.)

    (Feb 27: This story has been updated with correct information on which Grameen organization is behind this project, along with the correct link. The water/power initiative is through Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, not the Grameen Foundation.)

    February 22, 2006

    I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing (About Malaria)

    Nature's Declan Butler (whom we have linked to several times in recent weeks) has a brief but provocative idea on his blog today, musing about alternative distribution media for medical information in the developing world.

    ...when I attended the UN Millennium Project’s Nobel Forum meeting in Stockholm at the end of last month, I discussed the problems in getting information on malaria and other diseases out to remote villages in Africa with Kenya’s health minister, Charity Kaluki Ngilu. I mentioned that even in the most remote areas of Africa one could almost always find Coca Cola, and suggested that perhaps she should think about piggybacking health programmes on top of such distribution infrastructures. I haven’t thought about this in detail, but it seems like an idea worth pursuing.

    If you'd like to discuss the idea in particular, please check out Declan's blog. I'd like to talk more generally here about the use of arguably non-worldchanging platforms for worldchanging efforts.

    I suspect that the majority of readers would feel that the widespread availability of Coca-Cola in parts of the world still struggling to get reliably clean water isn't an ideal situation by any means; moreover, that dichotomy is hardly unique to high-fructose soft drinks. But Declan may well be onto something: rather than railing against Coca-Cola's prevalence, would it make sense to -- in a bit of medical information judo -- leverage its ubiquity as a tool against a much more serious medical issue? Or is that buying into a market/cultural paradigm that should be avoided, even at the cost of lost opportunities for communication?

    February 23, 2006

    Greenland, Antarctica, and Beach-Front Property

    Quick tip: if you live somewhere that's a meter or less above sea level, you should probably move inland soon. This may well also be the case if you live somewhere that's three meters or less above sea level. And there's even a chance this may be the case if you live somewhere that's five meters or less above sea level. In short, head for the hills.

    That's the hard-to-avoid conclusion when looking at the speed at which the glacial ice of Greenland and Antarctica is melting. Recent studies indicate that Greenland's ice cap is turning to water at a rate more than double what geologists had predicted. And, as Stuart Staniford's troubling and fascinating Living in the Eemian entry at The Oil Drum describes, the last time the planet had average temperatures around what's predicted for later this century, sea levels were 25' higher than at present.

    We've pointed to Stuart's work before, and this piece is definitely worth checking out. Stuart does an excellent job of translating sometimes dense scientific literature into broadly-comprehensible material, and the focus of this post -- a comparison between the last interglacial warm period and the present, and the implications for sea level -- will likely be an increasingly-important subject of discussion in the years to come.

    February 28, 2006

    Camera Phone Dominance

    2005 was the biggest year yet for camera phones, those pocket-size precursors to the participatory panopticon and potential planetary protection tool (yes, I got a special deal on "p"s, why do you ask?). Market research group NPD reports:

    In 2005, 45 percent of all mobile phones sold in the U.S. were camera phones, up from 26 percent in 2004. Asia followed a very similar trend. Western Europe had a higher incidence of camera phones at 64 percent, and Japan had a much greater adoption rate with more than 90 percent of all mobile phones sold with camera capabilities both in 2004 and 2005.

    This tells us two things: we're on the verge of seeing a major blow-up between advocates of strict control over recordings of intellectual property and advocates of universal use of communication tools; and we're approaching a point where location-based information and communication systems relying on cameraphones will have a large enough base of potential users to really make a go of it.

    (Via Picturephoning)

    Open Source and Air Resources

    The Mad Penguin has an excellent interview with the information technology team at California's Air Resources Board (ARB), which has the primary responsibility in California for handling air pollution. The focus of the interview is the widespread adoption of free/open source software (FOSS) in the ARB computer network, but it seems to me the important lesson coming from this conversation is the close relationship between the FOSS philosophies and organizational transparency.

    Although there's lots of talk about Linux distributions and the uses of PHP, read between the lines: this is an organization that has clearly learned the value of collaboration, transparent discourse, and open access to historical records.

    (Thanks for the tip, Eric Boyd!)

    March 1, 2006

    So... How Do We Know Oil Is Peaking?

    The redoubtable Stuart Staniford has posted another excellent piece over at The Oil Drum, this time explaining for people who are new to the concept just why reasonable people can assert that oil production is at or very near its peak, and we're headed to a world of gradually -- and potentially rapidly -- declining petroleum reserves. It comes, in part, in response to an article in the New York Times (subscription required) laying out for lay readers the peak oil argument. If you're still hazy about why anyone would believe that oil production has peaked or will do so soon, read the Oil Drum piece first.

    Stuart's piece makes clear that there's no single piece of evidence saying definitively that oil has peaked, but rather a collection of circumstances that point, in total, to this conclusion. Less certain, however, is what happens afterwards. Implicit in some of the peak oil work (and notably absent in Stuart's essays) is an assumption that once oil production has peaked, the collapse of civilization is just around the corner. And while we're hardly ones to discount a good end of the world scenario, we should emphasize that while peak oil is a geophysical phenomenon, the social and economic responses are not -- and we have a lot more control over our societies than we often acknowledge.

    March 2, 2006

    We [Heart] Cameron

    Cameron Sinclair, recent TED prize recipient, designer who gives a damn, and WorldChanging contributor (when he can), is now on the final list of nominees for the UK Designer of the Year award. The final selection belongs to you, the Internet reader, so get over there and give him your vote. Cameron promises that if he wins...

    ...I will donate the prize money (25K pounds) towards reconstruction post-hurricane Katrina.

    Good on you, Cameron.

    (Note: The UK Desigern of the Year site is a Flash-based website, something I normally grumble about, but I do have to admit it's a very sleek interface.)

    March 8, 2006

    The Myth of Leapfrogging

    Kevin Kelly and I have had an ongoing discussion about whether leapfrogging was, in fact, a real phenomenon; the Leapfrog 101 post actually grew out of the early parts of that conversation. Kevin argues that leapfrogging doesn't actually happen, and that societies can't simply skip over older technologies. Most of us at WorldChanging would argue the opposite.

    Kevin wrote to tell me that he has finally laid out his argument in detail, and (unsurprisingly) it's a truly thought-provoking essay. I don't agree with his conclusions, but I'm really going to have to work to make a good case for leapfrogging in response. In the meantime, The Myth of Leapfrogging is well worth your time to read, and especially to think about.

    March 9, 2006

    Manhattan in January

    One of the more pleasing moments at TED a couple of weeks ago was singer Jill Sobule's poppy tongue-in-cheek celebration of global warming, Manhattan in January. Written in a matter of just a couple of days in response to Al Gore's powerful depiction of the current and potential state of global climate disaster, the song manages to be both amusing and very dark.

    TED is now hosting an MP3 of a studio version of the song, free for the download.

    Is this the first pop song about global warming?

    March 10, 2006

    Technology, Language, and Imagining Tomorrow

    WorldChanging patron saint Bruce Sterling gave what looks like a pretty terrific speech at the 2006 Emerging Technology conference in San Diego. On the surface, it's about the "Internet of Things" -- spimes, blogjects and the like. What Bruce is really talking about, though, is language, and how what we call things can shape not just our perception of them, but how we use them to build the future.

    As a literary guy, though, I think these definitional struggles are a positive force for good. It's a sign of creative health to be bogged down in internecine definitional struggles. It means we have escaped a previous definitional box. For a technologist, the bog is a rather bad place, because it makes it harder to sell the product. In literature, the bog of definitional struggle is the most fertile area. That is what literature IS, in some sense: it's taming reality with words. Literature means that we are trying to use words to figure out what things mean, and how we should feel about that.

    So don't destroy the verbal wetlands just because you really like optimized superhighways. New Orleans lost a lot of its mud and wetlands. Eventually, the storm-water rushed in, found no nice mud to bog down in, and came straight up over the levees.

    Those of you who disliked Bruce's response to Lovelock's latest essay take note: this is Bruce in academic mode, not sarcastic rant mode.

    Green Building Action Plan

    California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is a bit of an enigma. He has promoted state policies that have alienated both progressives and moderates (as demonstrated by the resounding election defeat for his various initiatives), but has done more to push a green agenda than pretty much any previous governor. The latest step in his plan, the Green Building Initiative, mandates that all public buildings be 20% more efficient by 2015, and suggests regulatory incentives to get private buildings to meet that same goal (PDF).

    All new State buildings and major renovations of 10,000 sq. ft. and over... will be designed, constructed and certified at LEED-NC Silver or higher [...] Building projects less than 10,000 sq. ft. shall use the same design standard, but certification is not required.

    ...All State-owned buildings will reduce the volume of energy purchased from the grid, with a goal to reduce their energy consumption by at least 20% by 2015 (as compared to a 2003 baseline) by undertaking all cost-effective operational and efficiency measures as well as onsite renewable energy technologies.

    It's great to see good ideas become public policy. 20% is very achievable and cost-effective, and one shouldn't be surprised if many buildings end up beating both the standard and the timeline.

    (Via Social Design Notes)

    March 14, 2006

    Under Odysseus

    Blogging has become firmly-entrenched as a form of journalism, as well as a tool for self-revelation. As a medium for telling stories, however, it's still finding its footing. Part of the problem is that the challenge of the new medium can compound the inherent difficulty of creating compelling literary art. Under Odysseus side-steps this issue by re-telling a story that's nearly 3000 years old, and is a welcome step towards understanding how the blog structure can serve the world of fiction.

    Under Odysseus presents itself as the journal of the Greek officer Eurylochus (who plays a more prominent role in the Odyssey), and more-or-less follows the plotline of Homer's Iliad. The language is modern -- less jarring than one might expect -- but there's no other effort to translate the emotions or setting to a more familiar context.

    Although we are fighting this damned war because Menelaus’ wife left him, we don’t see very much of him. –Truth be told, he isn’t really the kind of guy that inspires men to action. In fact, it’s a common belief that we are actually fighting this war on Agamemnon’s behalf, trying to save face for his brother.

    I haven’t personally talked to Menelaus face-to-face, but from what I have seen, the guy is somewhat of a sap. –Menelaus’ demeanor kind of reminds me of a dog that gets hit too much.

    For He's a Batten Institute Fellow

    Regular contributor Joel Makower has just been selected as Batten Fellow at the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate Business School. Even better, he's going to be working on a book on sustainability for business students:

    With this Fellowship Makower joins the ranks of other thought leaders such as Nobel Prize winner Reinhard Selten and best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell. Makower will be working with Professor Richard Brownlee on a case book called The Case for Sustainability.

    This project is focused around the publication of a compendium of case studies on business and sustainability - stories about how companies are incorporating sustainable business principles into their organizations in profitable ways. The cases will focus on the drivers, the barriers, the "learnings," and the benefits to the companies and the natural world. [...] Makower will also serve as a mentor to the Batten Institute's Sustainable Business Initiative.

    Congratulations, Joel!

    March 15, 2006

    Nanotech Neural Surgery

    Researchers at MIT and at the University of Hong Kong have developed a treatment for repairing severely damaged brain tissues, offering the possibility of restoring partial function to people injured by disease or trauma.

    The treatment uses synthetic peptide molecules as scaffolding, allowing damaged neurons to grow new axons in order to connect to other nerve endings. The researchers' goal is a modest 20% restoration, but the process worked well enough to restore sight to hamsters that had been blinded by the intentional severing of their optical nerves.

    The researchers injected the blind hamsters at the site of their injury with a solution containing synthetically made peptides - miniscule molecules measuring just five nanometres long. Once inside the hamster's brain, the peptides spontaneously arranged into a scaffold-like criss-cross of nanofibres, which bridged the gap between the severed nerves. The scientists discovered that brain tissue in the hamsters knitted together across the molecular scaffold, while also preventing scar tissue from forming. Importantly, the newly formed brain tissue enabled the brain nerves to re-grow, restoring vision in the injured hamsters.

    The treatment works as well in older brains as it does in younger ones, and the synthetic peptides appear to be both immunologically inert and either absorbed into local proteins or flushed through the urinary system in a matter of weeks.

    More details at MIT.

    March 16, 2006

    How to Talk to a Climate Disruption Denialist

    Even as the talking points of those who resist any response to global warming move from "it's not happening" through "it's not our fault" to "it's too late to do anything about it anyway," we still occasionally run into people who seem stuck at the first step, still stridently denying that climate disaster is happening, period (sadly, some of these folks are elected officials). Pointing them to careful descriptions of how we know what we know doesn't help; what we need is a point-by-point rebuttal of their tired (but oh-so-soundbyte-friendly) claims.

    Coby Beck has done just that.

    On his blog, A Few Things Ill-Considered, Coby is creating a guide to the science-grounded replies to the various denialist arguments. The material is good enough to get the full endorsement of the climate scientists at Real Climate -- and if it's good enough for them, it's good enough for us! The selections include "It's just natural variation," "a warmer climate is a good thing," "natural emissions dwarf human activity," and the old favorite, "global warming is a hoax!"

    March 17, 2006

    Wind Power Rankings

    We pointed to last year's list of wind power use in the US, by state, so reader Joseph Willemssen sent us the link to this year's update from the American Wind Energy Association. California still tops the list, with 2,150MW of installed wind power production (up from last year's 2,114MW), but Texas is just zooming up the charts, coming in at 1,995MW, compared to last year's 1,288MW. Texas is likely to take the top spot in next year's ranking, due to a combination of interest and abundant wind resources.

    Cumulative wind power production in the US now stands at 9,149MW, compared to last year's 6,831MW. Last year's increase in wind power was the most ever -- but the AWEA expects the 2006 number to be even bigger, potentially coming in at over 3 gigawatts of added wind power.

    Flash Earth

    You know how much we love the satellite maps of the world here, but one problem with them is that they tend to be kind of slow to load and sluggish to navigate on somewhat older computers. Web designer Paul Neave has come up with a nifty solution, however, one that has the added attraction of making it simple to switch between Google's satellite maps and those from Microsoft's mapping site. He uses Flash.

    Flash Earth works more-or-less like the other satellite map sites: you can navigate my "grabbing and pulling" or with arrow keys, and can use the +/- keys to zoom in and out. It doesn't have any of the directions buttons, but that's okay -- the speed and convenience of popping between Google and Microsoft maps more than makes up for it. You do have to have Flash loaded in your browser for the site to work, but it does seem to work more swiftly than the home sites.

    The big surprise is that the Microsoft and Google satellite maps have become very similar in many areas, often relying upon exactly the same satellite images.

    March 21, 2006

    Warmer Seas, Stronger Storms

    Despite both models and observations linking warmer ocean temperatures (from global warming) to stronger hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones, some climate scientists remained doubtful of the link, citing the action of wind shear or natural storm cycles as potentially greater causes than warmer water. Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology, however, have just published a report in Science demonstrating a very strong connection between warm seas and powerful storms.

    Climate scientists already know that, throughout the world, hurricanes have grown in intensity although not necessarily in frequency over the past few decades [...]. So [Dr. Judith] Curry and her colleagues examined existing data on a range of climate variables, correlating changes in these factors with trends in the occurrence of higher-category hurricanes.

    Globally, only sea surface temperature increased in line with super-strong hurricanes, Curry's team reports in Science.

    This is bad news for locations like the US Gulf Coast, Central America and (just this week) Australia's northern Queensland region, battered by increasingly strong storms. Places already damaged by storms stand every chance of being hit again, and political resistance to rebuilding at-risk cities will only grow with each big storm.

    Paging Steve Austin

    University of Texas researchers have come up with two different artificial muscle designs that derive strength from processes remarkably similar to biological muscles -- but are much stronger. Both systems use chemical energy (one hydrogen, the other alcohol) and "breathe" oxygen. Structurally, they remain clearly artificial, relying on wires, carbon fiber and glass tubes.

    The most powerful type, "shorted fuel cell muscles" convert chemical energy into heat, causing a special shape-memory metal alloy to contract. Turning down the heat allows the muscle to relax. Lab tests showed that these devices had a lifting strength more than 100 times that of normal skeletal muscle. [...]

    "The muscle consumes oxygen and fuel that can be transported via a circulation system; the muscle itself supports the chemical reaction that leads to mechanical work; electrochemical circuits can act as nerves, controlling actuation; some energy is stored locally in the muscle itself; and, like natural muscle, the materials studied contract linearly."

    The researchers see this development as potentially transforming how mechanical systems are built, as well as leading to technologies to strengthen individuals, either through prosthetics or exoskeletons.

    (For you whippersnappers out there: Steve Austin was the fictional bionic "Six Million Dollar Man," back when $6 million really meant something.)

    March 23, 2006

    The Future of Computing

    We'll have more about this tomorrow, but this week's Nature has a massive section looking at what the next 15 years could hold for information technology. Articles include Vernor Vinge talking about computers and creativity, Declan Butler on the future evolution of sensor networks, and Roger Brent and Jehoshua Bruck examining the intersection of biological science and computation.

    Best of all, the full set of articles are available for free, supported in part by Microsoft's Toward 2020 Science project.

    It's a fascinating collection of stories, well worth taking the time to read.

    (Thanks for the tip, Declan)

    March 29, 2006

    Wired's Climate Disaster Interviews

    Wired News has posted a series of interviews with the authors of three recent books on global warming and what we can do about it. The three interviews -- with Tim Flannery, author of The Weather Makers: How Man is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth, Lester R. Brown, author of Plan B 2.0 (described, with links, here), and Elizabeth Kolbert, author of Field Notes From a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change (based on her incredible series of articles at the New Yorker) -- are brief but quite compelling.

    These interviews are part of a growing body of literature aimed at what we might call the "eyes now open" audience: people who weren't denialists about climate disaster, but thought it was something for future generations to worry about, was something that had to do with the ozone layer, or wasn't that big of a deal anyway. In the post-Katrina world, these folks, who potentially are a majority of the American public, are waking up to the reality that global warming-induced climate disruption is happening now, and that we have to act fast if we are to head off the worst possible outcomes.

    Demographic Mashup

    AnalyGIS and SRC, both of whom work on various tools for studying markets and communities, have teamed up to build a demographic study tool combining Google Maps (surprise) and 2000 US Census data. Click on a spot in the US, then select either basic census information (ethnic distribution, sex parity, and income averages) or housing information (owners vs. renters, housing value, age of units) within one, three and five miles of your target click. You can also enter an address directly.

    They describe this as primarily a proof-of-concept exercise, so there's no telling when it will disappear. Still, for those of us who want a better way to access demographic information quickly and visually, this works pretty well. Since it's based on Google Map's public APIs and open access census data, it should also be relatively simple to rebuild should this one go away.

    (Thanks, Joe Willemssen!)

    March 30, 2006

    Culture Jamming the Tahoe

    Chevrolet has opened up a site asking visitors to create advertisements for its ginormous SUV, the Tahoe, using a collection of clips and soundtracks, as well as your own text.

    Thing is, there's no reason you have to make ads in favor of ginormous SUVs...

    The good folks at Network-Centric Advocacy are collecting links to (and, where possible, recordings of) "Chevy Apprentice" ads talking about global warming and similar subjects. Here's an example. If you come up with a good one, be sure to post the link there -- and here, of course!

    Enjoy!

    About QuickChanges

    This page contains an archive of all entries posted to WC Archive in the QuickChanges category. They are listed from oldest to newest.

    Pulling Back the Curtain is the previous category.

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