More Nations Pricing Biodiversity: India & Norway Will Publish Natural Wealth Account Data
October 22, 2010 No Comment
photo: Paul Evans / Creative Commons Slowly, the notion that all those ecosystem services like mangroves protecting coastal towns from hurricanes, rainforests helping bring more rain, and trees scrubbing away air pollution, are actually worth something to society in financial terms is gaining some traction. At the ongoing biodiversity summit in Nagano, Japan both India and Norway h… Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Welcome to Peerdrum from TG Studios on Vimeo . There is a lot to love about having people work from home. Notwithstanding some recent naysaying, it saves a lot of energy and time, and other studies show that it increases productivity. But about half of the managers in America hate the idea, because their idea of mana… Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Image: The Mesh, by Lisa Gansky One of my favorite ideas to crop up at Poptech — a conference that’s full of them — is Lisa Gansky’s concept of the Mesh : Or, how business is moving away from models of ownership and towards that of access. The rise of product service systems (things like Netflix, Etsy, your public library, etc) has been a phenomenon we’ve covered for years at Treehugger: it promotes efficiency and lowers consumption through plain ol’ sharing. Gansky’s illuminating talk touched on all of… Read the full story on TreeHugger
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photo: James Jordan / Creative Commons Let’s just take it as a given that plants are awesome in many practical and inherent ways and go from there: New research, led by scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research , shows that plants clean out air pollution to a much greater extent than previously thought. In fact, some… Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Photo: Aloha Tech , Creative Commons Author Susan Casey at Poptech 2010 Melting ice caps, rising sea levels, warmer temperatures — these are the kind of problems we regularly associate with global climate change. There are, of course, a host of other changes caused by the warming climate, many of which consistently fly under the radar. For instance, climate change appears to be making waves bigger and steeper in oceans around the world. I caught up with Susan Casey, who spe… Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Photo: Olli Erkkila Who Needs a Front Fork? Designer Olli Erkkila has made lots of unusual bikes, but this might be the strangest one yet. This Forkless Cruiser, aka Phantom Bike, looks at first glance like the front wheel is being steered magically (check out the video below). It’s a cool effect, and even when you know how it works, it still looks strangely cool. More photos below…. Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Sea life in Papua New Gunea; Photo via Angell Williams In a move that is highly controversial among environmentalists, scientists and indigenous people, Papua New Guinea has given the go-ahead for a deep sea mineral mine that will extract materials such as copper, zinc and gold. This is a great case-in-point for Stephen’s recent post on why nature should not be considered priceless — while the minerals can fetch … Read the full story on TreeHugger
Continue reading …Week in Animal Photos: Goat Kills Hiker, Squirrel Vandalism and More (Slideshow)
October 22, 2010 No Comment
Photo: Corbis Bright eyed and bushy tailed this squirrel may be, but in the community of North Swindon, England, a band of squirrels have been gnawing on car brake cables instead of acorns. We also have the story of an abused goat that killed a hiker, a video showing shocking footage from the Taiji dolphin slaughter, and more in our roundup of the week’s news from the animal kingdom.
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Photo: etrenard , Flickr, Creative Commons There’s plenty of talk going on all the time about how people are planning on saving the world — and not so much of how not to save it. Yet we’d likely have more efficient, more effective world-saving systems in place if we focused on that second topic. And so it is that ‘How (Not) to Save the World” was the second discussion to take place at this year’s Poptech conference . A series of major players in the philanthropy and NGO world held forth on well-intentioned ideas and stra… Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Photo via Paul and Jill We’ve been hearing a lot of dire news about corals lately, and no wonder since many reefs are so sensitive to changes in water temperature. As the oceans warm, become more acidic, and experience more severe storms, corals are having a terrible time surviving, especially in the Caribbean where temperatures can get far too hot and bleaching occurs. But scientists show that perhaps this year will be the worst in recorded history for corals in the Caribbean, even worse than the devastation wrought in 2005 when 80% of corals were bl… Read the full story on TreeHugger
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