Jan 3, 09
Year in Review 2008: Best in Transportation
As we look forward to the new year, we've also reflected on the old, and rediscovered some of the great events, innovations, interviews and debates that 2008 had to offer. For the next week, we will be sharing our picks...
What if Climate Change is Not an Energy Problem?
Here's a thought I've been kicking around, and I'd like your ideas. What if, contrary to conventional wisdom, climate change is not actually primarily an energy problem, and by thinking of it as an energy problem, we risk making huge mistakes in the coming years? What do I mean by energy problem? A problem caused by our choice of energy sources. Given that a large percentage of greenhouse gasses comes from the burning of fossil fuels, it seems odd to contend that climate change is not a problem created by our energy choices. Certainly, no one with any credibility denies that coal, oil and gas use is changing the...
Chu, Browner, Holdren, Lubchenco: the Climate Superfriends
We need strong U.S. leadership on climate change, especially as we head into next year's COP-15 talks. President-elect Obama has already spoken more boldly (by far) on climate change than almost any other American elected official: There is often, however, a large gap between words and deeds in Washington, D.C., and some of Obama's initial cabinet selections have been discouraging, to say the least, so I was extremely glad to see the President-elect's climate team come together. Simply put, these guys are like the Justice League of American climate policy, scientific superheroes who will be (we hope) leading a transformed scientific and policy debate in a nation that's spent eight...
Harvesting the Ocean: A New Approach to Wave Energy Conversion
By Tyler Seed While much attention on renewables in recent years has focussed on solar and wind technologies, awareness has been growing around the enormous energy generating potential of the Earth's oceans. A 2005 report from the Electric Power Research Institute stated that wave power properly and effectively harnessed, would likely have minimal environmental impact, and be much less visible on the landscape, than competing technologies. At the same time, waves possess the advantage of being more predictable than either wind or solar, which in principle makes ocean power a more reliable source of energy. The rapidly expanding field of wave power is rife with innovation and an extraordinarily...
Graphic Series: Earthly Ideas, Week 12
Editor's note: This post is part of a series. We'll be releasing one of Worldchanging ally Andy Lubershane's original comics each week until the end of the year. While many of the issues covered in the comics have been discussed on Worldchanging in the past, we hope that you'll be able to use this new medium in a different way … whether it's in your classroom, on your office wall, or to help explain ideas to friends and family. This week's cartoon describes Straw Bale Homes. Straw bale is one of several leading renewable materials used in natural building. Made from mechanically compressed bales of straw, it offers flexible strength...
Make New Friends, Keep Track of the Old
Connecting with other Worldchanging readers is as easy as checking your Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn or WiserEarth account. Make new friends or keep track of the old by friending Worldchanging...
Mapping: Infrastructure and Flow
I love airline route maps. I’ve fallen asleep staring at the tangle of possible journeys so often that I sometimes confuse the capillaries I see with my eyes closed with...
Lazy Dystopias
Recently, I've been buried in a bumper crop of lazy dystopias. Now, I'm not against dystopian fiction as a means of social critique. Not at all. I think showing how...
The Street as Platform
I realize now that I've been delinquent in recommending Dan Hill's truly excellent speculative essay The Street as Platform, which explores a cross-section of all the ways that urban environments...
Headlines from Worldchanging Seattle (12/29/08)
The recent snowfall here in Seattle, and its impact on all of the city's neighborhoods, has helped us see many of the things we take for granted in new ways...
In the Bubble
I'm a huge fan of John Thackara and his writing. As I wrote of his book, In the Bubble, That book changed my brain. From the very first few pages...
Inventor's 2020 vision: to help 1bn of the world's poorest see better
Professor pioneers DIY adjustable glasses that do not need an optician By Esther Addley It was a chance conversation on March 23 1985 ("in the afternoon, as I recall") that...
The LUCAS Imager: Portable, Affordable Blood Tests for the Other 90 Percent
In the Global South, blood tests -- which require a lab, expensive evaluative equipment and/or the presence of a skilled technician -- are out of reach for the majority...
Resource: Expanding Architecture: Design as Activism
Throughout history, some architects have earned reputations as egoists who want to impose their ideals on culture through their massive structures. Industry masters are often viewed as untouchable, as...
Opinion: Department of Green Labor
by Michael Renner In announcing that he intends Hilda Solis to be his Secretary of Labor, President-elect Barack Obama made good on his campaign pledge of change: Not only will...
It's Always SunNE in Portland
A few months back, Worldchanging ally JP Kemmick traveled to Portland, Ore., to visit a group of college students working on a neighborhood-based renewable energy project. The non-profit organization Northwest...
MSF’s Top Ten - How Disconnection Affects Public Health
It’s hard to look forward to something as difficult and sad as Medicine Sans Frontieres top ten list of global humanitarian crises. I noted last year that this appears...
Small-Scale Smart Grid in Massachusetts
A recent occurrence in a small New England town has us thinking that a working future for the smart garage -- a concept which promises symbiotic energy-sharing links between buildings...
Decolonizing Architecture - Scenarios for the Transformation of Israeli Settlements
While in Brussels a few days ago, I made a beeline for the Bozar to see an exhibition with a very promising title: Decolonizing Architecture. The show was way better...
Clean Development Mechanism in Flux
About 14 percent of CDM projects worldwide are wind energy projects. Almost 40 percent are located in China, pictured above. Emissions-reducing projects continued their steady rise across the developing...
Finding Hope, Even in the Hardest Stories
Some of the most insightful and moving writing about Africa comes from correspondents just as they’re leaving the continent. Africa correspondents are generally absurdly overworked. Your “beat” is a continent...
Rolex Award Honors Sustainable Building Solution in Paraguay
Social innovator and entrepreneur Elsa Zaldívar has developed a new product for home construction in Paraguay. The material, produced as panels that can be used as a substitute for...
State Agency Calls for Ideas to "Climate-Proof" the Bay Area
Climate change is happening, and we now need innovative solutions for how to deal with its increasingly disastrous effects. One example of a way to help spur creative answers to...
Need a More Efficient Flight from Dubai to San Francisco? Good News...
Editor's note: Below is a post that Adam Stern at TerraPass recently shared with us. In our opinion, the accomplishment of the world's "longest green flight" is a dubious one...
Global Warming Animated
Climate change is an enormously complex issue. Some scientists have dedicated their entire lives to researching it. They've discovered its causes (ahem, that'd be us) and have come up with...
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