Signs From Earth

Study says LED (and CFL) lights use 1/5 the energy of incandescents over life cycle (via @nytimes)

A life cycle study by OSRAM Says LED lights like this traffic light use a fifth of the energy of incandescents. Photo by happy maker/flickr

LED Lights Save Substantial Energy, Study by Osram Finds

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/30/business/energy-environment/30led.html

"...The study results show that over the entire life of the bulb -- from manufacturing to disposal -- the energy used for incandescent bulbs is almost five times that used for compact fluorescents and LED lamps..."

OSRAM: Life Cycle Assessment Study

http://www.osram-os.com/osram_os/EN/About_Us/We_shape_the_future_of_light/Our_obligation/LED_life-cycle_assessment/index.html

PDF: Life Cycle Assessment of Illuminants

http://www.osram-os.com/osram_os/EN/About_Us/We_shape_the_future_of_light/Our_obligation/LED_life-cycle_assessment/OSRAM_LED_LCA_Summary_November_2009.pdf

=

Posted via email from Signs From Earth Notes

Niall Ferguson on Empire at Risk: How Economic Weakness Endangers the U.S. (via @newsweek)

http://www.newsweek.com/id/224694

"An Empire at Risk: We won the cold war and weathered 9/11. But now economic weakness is endangering our global power."

"...if the United States succumbs to a fiscal crisis, as an increasing number of economic experts fear it may, then the entire balance of global economic power could shift. Military experts talk as if the president's decision about whether to send an additional 40,000 troops to Afghanistan is a make-or-break moment. In reality, his indecision about the deficit could matter much more for the country's long-term national security. Call the United States what you like--superpower, hegemon, or empire--but its ability to manage its finances is closely tied to its ability to remain the predominant global military power..."

=

Posted via email from Signs From Earth Notes

Stern and Monbiot on Copenhagen climate conference: Emission impossible (via @guardianeco)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/30/stern-monbiot-copenhagen-deal

Nicholas Stern: "The two defining challenges of our century are managing climate change and overcoming poverty. And if we fail on one we will fail on the other. So the world faces a stark choice at the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen..."

George Monbiot: "To be truly radical," Raymond Williams wrote, "is to make hope possible rather than despair convincing". Believe me I'm trying, but at the moment hope is hard to come by..."

=

Posted via email from Signs From Earth Notes

Resilient Communities?: Is Suburban Failure Inevitable or Can Suburbs Adapt and Reform? (via @johnrobb)

Suburban development in Dewey, Arizona, near Prescott, north of Phoenix. Photo by donatagold/flickr

Global Guerrillas: RC Journal: The Inevitable Failure of Suburbia?

http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2009/11/rc-journal-the-inevitable-failure-of-suburbia.html

John Robb: "...I start with the view that a suburban town is a community and not just type of architecture.  People/families live their lives in these towns.  So, as a community, its ability to survive/thrive is a function of its adaptability. If the future is going to be as tough as we think it is, then the question of suburbia really becomes:  are suburban communities adaptable enough to thrive in the future (as in:  becoming resilient communities)...."

Also see: Jeff Vail in comments to John Robb: "I've written a four-part series on The Oil Drum, "Resilient Suburbia?" on this general topic that you might find interesting: (links below) "While I think that suburbia, in its present manifestation, will fare poorly in the future, the fabric presented by modern American suburbia presents a unique opportunity for the development of resilient communities, distributed production, and localized self-sufficiency. Perhaps most significantly, modern American suburbia is perhaps the only example in the history of industrial civilization where the median individual owns enough property to provide food and water self-sufficiency..."

Jeff Vail: The Oil Drum: A Resilient Suburbia I

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/4720

Jeff Vail: TOD: Resilent Suburbia II: Cost of Commuting

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/4741

Jeff Vail: TOD: Resilient Suburbia III: Weighing the Potential for Self-Sufficiency

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/4774

Jeff Vail: TOD: Resilient Suburbia IV: Accounting for the Value of Decentralization

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/4844

Also see: SEJ Reporter's Toolbox: Might the Suburbs in Your Area Become the Next Slums?

http://www.sej.org/publications/sejournal/reporters-toolbox-might-suburbs-your-area-become-next-slums

Session From SEJ 2008 Conference: Are Suburbs the Next Slums?

http://sej2008.typepad.com/sej2008/2008/11/concurrent-sessions-3-the-land-.html

Arthur C. Nelson, University of Utah: American Megatrends

http://www.impactfee.org/proceedings/2009_proceedings/normal_nelson.pdf

The Atlantic: Today's MacMansions: Tomorrows Tenements: The Next Slum?

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200803/subprime

Builder Magazine: Nov. 2009: Is the McMansion Dead?

http://www.builderonline.com/infill-development/is-the-mcmansion-dead.aspx

=

Posted via email from Signs From Earth Notes

Greening Greenland: Global warming fuels dreams of uncovering untapped riches as ice retreats (via @latimes)

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/wire/sns-ap-eu-climate-09-greenlands-hidden-treasure,0,4681965,full.story

"...Global warming is melting the fringes of the frozen world where Greenland's Inuits have hunted seal, whale and polar bear for generations. It's thawing the permafrost on which their homes are built. It's disrupting Arctic wildlife and fish stocks, and making hunting trips more dangerous by thinning the ice that supports their dog sleds.

But all is not doom and gloom. The retreating ice could uncover potential oil and mineral resources which, if successfully tapped, could dramatically change the fortunes of this semiautonomous Danish territory of 57,000 people...."

Posted via email from Signs From Earth Notes

Climate Change Is Victim Of 'Tragedy Of The Commons' (via @NPR)

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120883813

David Kestenbaum: "One reason it is so hard to slash carbon emissions is that climate change occurs globally. The countries that produce the most greenhouse gas all need to take action to fix the problem. That raises a classic economic dilemma called the tragedy of the commons.

Science Magazine: Garrett Hardin, The Tragedy of the Commons

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/162/3859/1243

Posted via email from Signs From Earth Notes

How to Calculate is Key: Scientists Turn Trees Into Carbon Banks (via @NPR)

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120849322

Christopher Joyce: "...The idea is to manage forests so they absorb more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and slow down global warming. Carbon banking will be a hot topic at next month's big climate conference in Copenhagen, especially if negotiators can't agree on how to get industrialized countries to lower their own emissions. Carbon banking could be a way to cut those emissions by paying poor countries to save their forests and manage them better...

Posted via email from Signs From Earth Notes

Comment @wunderground on industry that creates climate change doubt: (via @afreedma @revkin)

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=1389

Jeff Masters: 

"...what is needed is a fundamental change to the laws regarding the purpose of a corporation, or new regulations forcing corporations to limit Manufactured Doubt campaigns. Legislation has been introduced in Minnesota to create a new section of law for an alternative kind of corporation, the SR (Socially Responsible) corporation, but it would be a long uphill battle to get such legislation passed in all 50 states. Increased regulation limiting Manufactured Doubt campaigns is possible to do for drugs and hazardous chemicals--(the book) Doubt is Their Product has some excellent suggestions on that, with the first principle being, "use the best science available; do not demand certainty where it does not and cannot exist". 

"However, I think such legislation would be difficult to implement for environmental crises such as global warming. In the end, we're stuck with the current system, forced to make critical decisions affecting all of humanity in the face of the Frankenstein monster our corporate system of law has created--the most vigorous and well-funded disinformation campaign against science ever conducted..."

Posted via email from Signs From Earth Notes

Life after Print: Jim Gaines on endurance of story-telling in a digital world (via @nytimes)

James R. Gaines, Proud to Join the Digerati

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/29/jobs/29pre.html

"...the job I learned to love when young was to tell stories, and the story has lost nothing in this transition. It is as elemental and as riveting as ever. 

"Everybody's worried about the device. Could Microsoft's Courier be the answer, or the iTablet? Good question, but not the most important one. It's less the device than the devices -- the crafts and the art of storytelling -- that need updating most urgently for the digital world..."

=

Posted via email from Signs From Earth Notes

RealClimate: "Something Is X in the State of Denmark" on how IPCC has been "too" even-handed

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2009/11/something-is-x-in-the-state-of-denmark/

"...(Prof. Laut) also has much to say about the way that the debate about climate change has been conducted. It’s worth noting that he sent us this letter before the “CRU email” controversy broke out, so his criticism of the IPCC for being too even handed, is ironic and timely..."

http://www.realclimate.org/wp-content/uploads/PETERLAUT-ANALYSIS-CLIMATE-CHANGE-CPN.pdf

also: fixed link on Steve Schneider site to 2003 Laut paper cited in above:

http://stephenschneider.stanford.edu/Publications/PDF_Papers/Solar-ClimateLAUTPREPRINT.pdf

=

Posted via email from Signs From Earth Notes

Carl Leopold Dead at 89: Conservationist Son of Aldo Leopold, who wrote "Sand County Almanac"

The Leopold Family Shack on the Wisconsin River at Baraboo served as incubator for conservation ideas of Aldo Leopold and his children, including Carl, who died in November. Photos by Dennis Dimick/flickr.

Cornell University: Plant Physiologist, Conservationist Carl Leopold Dies at 89

http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Nov09/LeopoldObit.html

Carl was a noted plant physiologist and part of a panel at 2009 Society of Environmental Journalists meeting in Madison Wisconsin discussing his father's legacy.

SEJ 2009 Session at Univ. Wisconsin Arboretum: Aldo Leopold's Changing Legacy

http://www.sej.org/initiatives/sej-annual-conferences/AC2009-coverage#Sunday

Carl photographed many family activities at "The Shack."

http://www.aldoleopold.org/Resources/archives.shtml

"...In 1935, Aldo Leopold traveled to Germany to study European forestry methods. When he returned home, he brought with him a Zeiss camera which he gave to his son Carl. Carl quickly became the self-designated family photographer, documenting much of the family's activity at the Shack in the 1930s and '40s. ..."

Slide Show of Trip to Aldo Leopold Shack, October 2009

http://ddimick.posterous.com/photo-journey-to-aldo-leopold-shack-baraboo-w

Carl Leopold Spoke with Grist in 2007

http://www.grist.org/article/leopold/

Encyclopedia of Earth: Aldo Leopold's Children

http://www.eoearth.org/article/Aldo_Leopold's_Children#A._Carl_Leopold_.28b._1919.29

Aldo Leopold Foundation

http://www.aldoleopold.org/

Posted via email from Signs From Earth Notes

Comment: Monbiot's call for climate scientists to clean up their act (via @guardianeco)

George Monbiot: Pretending the climate email leak isn't a crisis won't make it go away

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2009/nov/25/monbiot-climate-leak-crisis-response

"Climate sceptics have lied, obscured and cheated for years. That's why we climate rationalists must uphold the highest standards of science..."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot

=

Posted via email from Signs From Earth Notes

Before Climate Conference, Weather Reports From Brazil, Japan, S. Africa & Denmark (via @nytimesglobal)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/29/opinion/29climate.html

"President Obama and other world leaders will gather in Copenhagen next week to discuss climate change. Though this is a global issue, it's also a profoundly local one. For this reason, the Op-Ed editors asked writers from four different continents to report on the climate changes they've experienced close to home. Here are their dispatches..."

=

Posted via email from Signs From Earth Notes

Watch This: Dubai default fears spook investors (via @ft)

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/554a5c30-da50-11de-9c32-00144feabdc0.html

Posted via email from Signs From Earth Notes

Radical Transformation Looms: Corporate America Prepares, and Braces, for Emissions Rules (via @nytimes)

Mountaintop Removal Coal Mine in West Virginia. Carbon-intensive industries will come under pressure to cut emissions under new rules. Photo: Dennis Dimick/flickr

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/26/business/energy-environment/26emissions.html

Jad Mouawad: "The nation's corporations have long been bracing for the day when they would be required to carry out sharp cuts in the emissions that cause global warming. That day seemed to move a bit closer on Wednesday, when President Obama outlined a national target for such reductions...

"...In the energy sector, some corporations have also been vocal in demanding clarity on emissions. James E. Rogers, the chief executive of Duke Energy, a large power company and a major emitter of carbon dioxide, says that clear rules are needed to ensure that companies relying on coal-fired power plants can finance their transition to lower-carbon fuels, like natural gas or nuclear power. Coal accounts for half of the nation's electric generation...

"...Limiting the growth in greenhouse gas emissions, let alone cutting them, will require a radical transformation of the nation's energy consumption and fuels that will most likely take decades. It is bound to hurt some energy-intensive businesses, like petroleum refiners and coal-fired power plants, and some manufacturers, while bolstering the development of alternative power industries like solar and wind..."

=

Posted via email from Signs From Earth Notes