Common Dreams reports: A new analysis, published in Science Advances journal, reveals that global water scarcity is a far greater problem than previously thought, affecting 4 billion people—two-thirds of the world’s population. Previous analyses looked at water scarcity at an annual scale, and had found that water scarcity affected between 1.7 and 3.1 billion people….
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Both solar and wind energy depend on rare earth elements that will likely become scarce in 20 years or so. China accounted for 95 percent of the world’s rare-earth production, raising fears that it might exert monopolistic control. Meanwhile, renewable energy technologies that could function without rare earths, particularly photovoltaic technologies, aren’t close to deployment….
Read More about How viable is renewable energy?The bioeconomy refers to production and use of renewable biological resources as well as economic activities, both within and between countries, related to the invention, development, production and use of biological products and processes. Read the original document Download e-book: The Bioeconomy – a Primer (pdf – 1 MB) Key Points The bioeconomy is industry’s response to…
Read More about The Bioeconomy: A PrimerOMG… Greenland’s ice sheets are melting fast The Guardian UK An urgent attempt to study the rate at which Greenland’s mighty ice sheets are melting has been launched by Nasa. The aim of the six-year project, called Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG), is to understand how fast the world’s warming seas are now eroding the edges…
Read More about News updatePeak Oil: Myth Or Coming Reality? Gaurav Agnihotri, Oilprice.com We have yet to see evidence that we are nearing a peak in oil production. On the contrary, agencies like EIA and IEA have predicted a stable increase in crude oil production for the next few years at least. But supplies may not be the only,…
Read More about News updateThe Encyclical by Pope Francis is being hailed by environmentalists as the second coming. It’s hardly that, in my view. Nonetheless, I was struck within minutes of starting it, by the incisive and accurate commentary it offers on our true predicament. Here are some passages that resonated with me and that I found highly insightful. Manu…
Read More about Pope Francis’ Encyclical on Climate Change – Selected ExcerptsG7 leaders bid ‘Auf Wiedersehen’ to carbon fuels Reuters Leaders of the world’s major industrial democracies resolved on Monday to wean their energy-hungry economies off carbon fuels, marking a major step in the battle against global warming that raises the chances of a U.N. climate deal later this year. The Group of Seven’s energy pledge…
Read More about News updateTo Sri. Piyush Goyal Union Minister for Coal, Power and Renewable Energy Govt. of India, New Delhi Copy with complements: Sri. Prakash Javadekar Union Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change Govt. of India, New Delhi Sri. Arun Jaitely Union Minister for Finance Govt. of India, New Delhi Sri Naredra Modi Prime Minister Govt. of…
Read More about Letter to concerned ministers on fossil fuel subsidiesA publication by FLEDGE, Chennai From the Preface: While a large amount of time and energy is spent on deciding the future of sustainability using the Rio+20 outcome document ‘The Future We Want’, limited space is available for local communities to tell their stories on how simple, on-the-ground initiatives are being pursued enabling them to…
Read More about Sustainable Development: Stories from those making it possibleFossil fuels subsidised by $10m a minute, says IMF The Guardian UK Fossil fuel companies are benefitting from global subsidies of $5.3tn (£3.4tn) a year, equivalent to $10m a minute every day, according to a startling new estimate by the International Monetary Fund. The IMF calls the revelation “shocking” and says the figure is an…
Read More about News updateThe Breakthrough Institute From the Introduction: To say that the Earth is a human planet becomes truer every day. Humans are made from the Earth, and the Earth is remade by human hands. Many earth scientists express this by stating that the Earth has entered a new geological epoch: the Anthropocene, the Age of Humans….
Read More about Breakthrough Institute: An Ecomodernist ManifestoVijay Kundaji, Bangalore Notes Badanavalu is 10 kilometers from Nanjangud along the road to Chamarajnagar in Mysuru (Mysore) District of Karnataka. In 1927, a Khadi and Gramodyog Center was established here by Dalit women and Gandhian activists, which later grew to enlist many hundred workers, producing close to 50,000 lbs of handspun cotton yarn by…
Read More about Badanavalu Satyagraha – A ReportThe International Journal of the Commons (IJC) is an initiative of the International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC). As an interdisciplinary peer-reviewed open-access journal, the IJC is dedicated to furthering the understanding of institutions for use and management of resources that are (or could be) enjoyed collectively. These resources may be part of the natural world…
Read More about The International Journal of the Commons (IJC)Editor’s note: Allan Savory is the recipient of the 2003 Australian International Banksia Award for the person or organization doing the most for the environment on a global scale. Below is Executive Summary of his paper on combating Climate Change. Executive Summary Simplistic and counter intuitive as it may be, the fate of civilization today hangs…
Read More about Allan Savory: A Global Strategy for Addressing Global Climate ChangeMotherboard TV In 1991, Cuba’s economy began to implode. “The Special Period in the Time of Peace” was the government’s euphemism for what was a culmination of 30 years worth of isolation. It began in the 60s, with engineers leaving Cuba for America. Ernesto Oroza, a designer and artist, studied the innovations created during this…
Read More about Video: Cuba’s “Technological disobedience”Shareable.net Responding to the calls from organizers in the SCN who articulated the need for a cohesive repository of the tools and resources necessary to support their cities on the path to becoming a Sharing City. To meet this need we are creating the Sharing Cities Toolkit; an evolving compilation of resources comprised of a mix…
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When we talk of sustainability, we often hear terms like eco-friendly technologies, appropriate technologies etc. To this, critics often say that we’re talking of going back to nature, we are being primitive, unscientific and that this is not possible. This article tries to provide a logic for eco-friendly, appropriate technologies using human and animal power….
Read More about Negative entropy and sustainabilityOilprice.com & World Resources Institute Despite their promise over the past decade or so, biofuels have been found to be a very inefficient way to generate energy, are bad for the environment and even contribute to world hunger, according to a new report by the World Resources Institute (WRI). In fact none of these conclusions is new….
Read More about Report: Biofuels are bad for the environment and adds to world hungerOPEC Chief Claims Oil Could Rebound to $200 a barrel Oilprice.com OPEC’s secretary-general says the 7-month-old plunge in oil prices finally may have bottomed out and may be ready to rise again. In fact, Abdullah al-Badri hypothesized that a decision by his cartel to cut production conceivably could lead to oil at $200 a barrel….
Read More about News updateSample a selection of audio & video recordings from the ‘teach-in’ on Techno-Utopianism & The Fate of the Earth: Why Technology Will Not Save the World, held on October 25-26 in New York. More than 45 leading scholars, authors & activists participated in this event, including such well-known names as Jerry Mander, Wes Jackson, Richard Heinberg John Michael…
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