climate change
Archived Posts from this Category
More Use - Less Stuff part 2
Posted by davidwfox on 15 Nov 2009 | Tagged as: climate change, enablers, events
I’m just back from Green Festival buzzing with new ideas, renewed energy and a few new connections to followup.
See if you can find the common thread on just three of the exhibitors: http://sharingsolution.com http://rentalic.com http://cohousing.org. Yes, back to my earlier post about getting more from less. I believe this is a powerful meme that needs to be spread far and wide. Today the brightest brains and deepest pockets are almost exclusively focused on creating MORE stuff. I’d argue that in many ways (though of course not all) we already have enough stuff, and intstead we need focused attention on making much better use of what we have already extracted, processed, packaged and put into use.
Technology: the web, and more particularly smartphones are central enablers. Hmm…I have a bit experience in those fields that could be put to use!
And a second thread: if we’re going to create more stuff then lets make sure folks have read Cradle to Cradle and taken a course in Biomimicry!
You’ll find my updated work-in-progress presentation at http://www.scribd.com/doc/21277439/Making-More-Use-out-of-Less-Stuff. Feedback and more examples welcome!
Posted by davidwfox on 10 Nov 2008 | Tagged as: climate change, energy efficiency
In a rousing opening address at this year’s Bioneers conference, event co-founder Kenny Ausubel outlined his vision:
“…to re-imagine how to live on Earth in ways that honor the web of life, each other and future generations.” He went on to highlight biomimicry as “arguably the single most important design strategy to shoot the rapids of the next ten years.”
You can read Kenny’s complete address at The Huffington Post.
Giving Nature a Nudge to Calm Climate Change
Posted by davidwfox on 20 Oct 2008 | Tagged as: biomimicry, climate change
This morning at the Biomimicry Climate Change Conference, Jay Harman (founder of PAX Scientific) announced The COMMET Project. More info to follow - this could be a critical breakthrough as the window of opportunity to create the long-term solutions is closing rapidly.
Human Health Depends on Biodiversity
Posted by davidwfox on 13 Jul 2008 | Tagged as: books, climate change
One of the key things that attracted me to the field of biomimicry was that it showed in very clear terms the value of protecting biodiversity. I just heard the authors of “Sustaining Life: How Human Health Depends on Biodiversity” interviewed on PRI’s Living on Earth and thought it well worth sharing:
Variety isn’t just the spice of life…it’s essential for life. According to the new book “Sustaining Life, How Human Health Depends upon Biodiversity,” we need birds, bugs, and bacteria a lot more than they need us. We use them for medicines, biomedical and agricultural research, and new materials.
And from the book’s publisher: The Earth’s biodiversity-the rich variety of life on our planet-is disappearing at an alarming rate. And while many books have focused on the expected ecological consequences, or on the aesthetic, ethical, sociological, or economic dimensions of this loss, Sustaining Life is the first book to examine the full range of potential threats that diminishing biodiversity poses to human health.
Check it out now at Oxford University Press, Amazon or your favorite book seller.
Conference: Biomimicry’s Climate-Change Solutions
Posted by davidwfox on 21 Jun 2008 | Tagged as: biomimicry, climate change, energy, energy efficiency, events, water
On October 20th, The Biomimicry Institute in conjunction with the annual Bioneers conference will be holding a one-day conference “Biomimicry’s Climate-Change Solutions: How Would Nature Do It?”
This landmark one-day intensive reveals the leading edge of biomimetic solutions to climate change, modeled on nature’s operating instructions. It’s designed for action-oriented professionals from the fields of business, finance and investment, science, technology, public policy, education, media and civil society.
CEC Report: Biggest, Easiest CO2 Emissions Cuts…Green Buildings
Posted by davidwfox on 30 Mar 2008 | Tagged as: climate change, energy, my-new-house, research & reports
As I begin a very expensive green remodel project, its heartening to read this news:
Promoting the green design, construction, renovation and operation of buildings could cut North American greenhouse gas emissions that are fuelling climate change more deeply, quickly and cheaply than any other available measure, according to a new report issued by the trinational Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC).
North America’s buildings cause the annual release of more than 2,200 megatons of CO2 into the atmosphere, about 35 percent of the continent’s total. The report says rapid market uptake of currently available and emerging advanced energy-saving technologies could result in over 1,700 fewer megatons of CO2 emissions in 2030, compared to projected emissions that year following a business-as-usual approach. A cut of that size would nearly equal the CO2 emitted by the entire US transportation sector in 2000.
Read the full report: Green Building in North America: Opportunities and Challenges
