A piece in the latest issue of Science shows that there's a considerable amount of methane (CH4) coming from the East Siberian Arctic Shelf, where it had been trapped under the permafrost. There's as much coming out from one small section of the Arctic ocean as from all the rest of the oceans combined. This is officially Not Good.
Here's why: methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, significantly more powerful than carbon dioxide. There are billions of tons of methane trapped under the permafrost, and if that methane starts leaking quickly, it would have a strong feedback effect -- warming the atmosphere and oceans, causing more methane to leak, and on and on. The melting of methane ice (aka "methane hydrates" and "methane clathrates") is probably the most significant global warming...
(February 2010)
Top stories from our Canadian blog:
On-street rumble strips for bike paths—removing barriers to active transportation in the Winter City | Rod Edwards
"The best idea I heard was to use rumble strips—make the strip as wide as the painted line on the street, and drivers suddenly have a great haptic reminder when they invade the bike lane. And, rumble strips won't get scraped off by snowplows, won't wash away like paint, don't interfere with cross-traffic (like curbs), and still allow for parking."
Visions Desirable, Present and Future | Mark Tovey
"Here at WorldChanging, we often have conversations about how best to envision desirable futures. .... Alex Roman's masterfully rendered film, The Third & The Seventh, points the way. .... Herein we find a...
It's understandably common for people working on bright green issues to be dispirited these days. We're currently living in the wake of the failure of climate talks in Copenhagen, the miring of climate legislation in the swamp of the U.S. Senate and what seems like a steady torrent of bad news (from methane melt to the tragedy still unfolding in Haiti). We're not only failing to move rapidly enough towards zero-impact economies, we often seem to be losing ground these days, both because of political attacks by entrenched interests and because as the science of planetary boundaries is better understood, the problems look worse than they did before.
In private conversations, more and more people I respect have told me that they suspect the war for humanity's future is...
Readers in the design world were no doubt following last week's events in Cape Town, South Africa, where emerging and established talents from all corners of the design industry gathered for the 15th annual Design Indaba. The 3-day conference is one of the industry's leading events; a unique showcase where top minds in branding share the stage with graffiti artists and cutting-edge talents from the rapidly rising nations known collectively as BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, India and China). The event is also a source of pride and exposure for South Africa's burgeoning creative scene. As South Africans prepare to host the continent's first FIFA World Cup less in than four months, the energy and expectations are running high in Cape Town, and the Design Indaba spotlight offered a...
Monday afternoon, the Seattle City Council announced that Seattle will aim to become carbon neutral, and explore whether it can realistically commit to hitting that target by 2030, which would make it the first carbon neutral city in the United States.
If Seattle can in fact lead the way toward North American climate neutral cities, it may well have an impact far greater than the size of its population would suggest. It may, for instance, help accelerate the race towards a bright green future already engaged by cities like Vancouver, Portland and San Francisco. It may even help spur further action in internationally leading cities like Copenhagen, Melbourne and Stockholm. Since much of the innovation needed to achieve ecologically low-impact prosperity is urban innovation,...
On Friday, the world's most successful businessperson and most powerful philanthropist did something outstandingly bold, that went almost unremarked: Bill Gates announced that his top priority is getting the world to zero climate emissions.
Now, I'm not a member of the Cult of Bill myself (I'm typing this on a MacBook), but you don't have to believe that Gates has superhuman powers of prediction to know that his predictions have enormous power. People who will never listen to Al Gore, much to less someone like me, hang on Gates' every utterance.
And Friday, Gates predicted extraordinary climate action: zero. Not small steps, not incremental progress, not doing less bad: zero. In fact, he stood in front of a slide with nothing but the planet Earth and the number zero. That...
The annual publication of the State of Green Business Report drew sustainability experts of all kinds to San Francisco in the first of two U.S. events presented by Greener World Media. While the State of the Union delivered in Washington was a stark reminder of the impact of a tough economic year, the State of Green Business Forum gives hope to sustainability supporters and solid indicators of the steady growth of a green economy.
(Company Commitments: Percentage of S&P 500 Companies Reporting Reduction Targets. Source: Carbon Disclosure Project. Click image to enlarge.)
At the PG&E Auditorium in downtown San Francisco, Joel Makower presented the 2010 State of Green Business Report -- a compilation of over 1500 news stories, blogs, and media collected from all sources of...
Today, I took a long walk through the old neighborhoods of Long Beach: craftsman bungalows, Mission-style courtyard apartment buildings, quaint and walkable streets, old trees shading the sidewalks, the beach breeze blowing through. It put me in mind of the L.A. that might have been, the one that was proposed time and again, and overruled by boosters and developers and the politicians they owned.
L.A. might have been a paradise, of course, had it come up differently. Had it been a city of walkable neighborhoods, street cars, home solar, wild rivers, undeveloped beaches, gardens of water-sipping native plants (all proposed more than 100 years ago), it might have ended up the greenest major city on the planet, and a marvel of livability. Instead, of course, it's Gatsby's green...
Here at WorldChanging, we often have conversations about how best to envision desirable futures. Not just on how to collaborate on designing them, or accelerate development on the kind of technology that would get us there, but how to portray inspiring green futures that people would want to live in.
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(Posted by Mark Tovey in Features at 11:03 AM)...
Big, red 'For Sale' signs flapping in the wind are the tumble weeds of the 21 century. Signaling emptiness and recent catastrophe, these markers of market disaster are said to have proliferated because of predatory lending and lax standards. But a new report from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) shows another cause of the rapid foreclosure rate: car dependency.
Looking at data from more than 40,000 mortgages throughout Chicago, San Francisco and Jacksonville, Fla., the researchers behind the Location Efficiency and Mortgage Default report found that the rate of mortgage foreclosure actually decreased in neighborhoods that were more compact, walkable and connected to public transportation (after accounting for important factors like income). According to a recent...
Just by clicking a button, you can help us win a $5,000 grant from Brighter Planet.
Worldchanging's project proposal, Advocate for Climate Neutral Cities, has just been accepted for Brighter Planet's Project Fund, which provides seed money for people and projects working to help others fight or adapt to climate change. Our idea to create a climate neutral cities mini-magazine is one of nine projects up for the grant money.
Brighter Planet members decide—as a community—which projects to fund. The project with the most votes at the close of a voting period receives the grant. Join today to cast your vote for Advocate for Climate Neutral Cities.
PLEASE HELP US BY TAKING ONE MINUTE TO VOTE
STEP 1: Click here to create an account
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STEP 3: Vote for...
A Worldchanging Interview
Solving the world’s biggest problems will require a superhuman outpouring of energy, passion, creativity, and collaboration. Fortunately, Jane McGonigal has a strategy for unleashing people’s capacity to take on hard challenges: playing games. A celebrated designer, researcher, and future forecaster, McGonigal specializes in alternate reality games that engage massive online audiences in real-world issues ranging from energy shortages to health pandemics.
McGonigal brings to the task both academic credentials (Ph.D. in performance studies from U.C. Berkeley) and veteran gamer instincts (as a kid, she hacked games on the Commodore 64). As director of game research and development for the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto, Calif., she...
In November, shortly before heading off to COP-15, Alex Steffen spoke for two nights at Seattle's Town Hall. Over the course of these two talks, Alex explored why the planetary crisis we now face demands a different vision of sustainable prosperity - a bright green future in which sustainability becomes the means through which we provide increased prosperity, security and quality of life for every person on the planet.
Cities are the fulcrum point we can use to leverage that vision into reality. Alex explained that the powerful forces of urbanization and the global spread of knowledge (forces that some see as a symptoms of unsustainability) may in fact be the very tools we need to build highly prosperous, ecologically low-impact lives. If we can develop a model of bright green...
As you may have gathered, there's a lot afoot here at Worldchanging. Over the next couple weeks, we'll be releasing some new work (including the video of the talks I gave in Seattle shortly before COP15 and of the talk I gave at the Bright Green Expo there), some news about changes in editorial direction (including updates about the upcoming second edition of Worldchanging: A User's Guide and Bright Green) and a whole mess of announcements of speaking gigs and other public appearances over the next year.
Last year, as you also may have gathered, was a remarkable year for us. We suffered the slings and arrows of recession (like so many other nonprofits), but we also put out an astonishing amount of new work, much of which appeared elsewhere in print, on the radio or on television...
Happy Holidays, Worldchangers!
This week's cartoon is meant to help you think creatively about your gift-giving choices this season. Alternative gifts, such as donations made in a friend's name or gift certificates given for services like green house cleaning or yoga lessons, are a great way to avoid overconsumption and hectic shopping areas. For more ideas check out out our guide for alternative gift giving.
Click image to enlarge
Editor's note: This post is part of a series featuring Worldchanging ally Andy Lubershane's original graphics. 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...
The Earth's thin precious atmosphere, seen from the International Space Station.
Dear Worldchangers,
As the global debate about climate change heats up, the Worldchanging team is becoming more and more of a go-to source for the solutions you seek. As an ideas workplace, we create content and share the best ideas that we can find from around the world on cutting-edge practices, such as innovation networks, metropolitan coalitions, and government 2.0 solutions. These ideas help you make sense of the world you live in while uncovering the progresses that are building a more vital, sustainable and prosperous planet.
We share with you these great ideas because they help you make sense of the world around you and keep you thinking about our changing planet. However, this...
Essay originally submitted to the "Conclave of Thought Leaders on the Future of Sustainable Development," United Nations Division for Sustainable Development, New York, 11-12 May 2009; Updated 6 October 2009
In Fall 2009, when the scale and magnitude of the world's economic meltdown began to settle in, I posted the following update to Twitter (which was automatically copied to my Facebook page):
Alan AtKisson is wondering how to continue accelerating sustainable development in an era of financial collapse.
Responses posted to my Facebook wall (apologies to readers who do not know that I am referring to short text messages published on popular social networking websites) and by email were uniformly optimistic. Corporate sustainability champions, university leaders, and...
by Alex Aylett
Sustainable cities have been a hot topic for over a decade. But never has there been a time when the challenges and opportunities of sustainability have been so clearly on display. On the one hand, billions of stimulus dollars around the world are being channeled into the green economy. On the other, we find ourselves at the tail end of a year where report after report have made clear that things are much worse that we realized; when did we start talking about 1.4m sea level rise and a 40% reduction in grain yields by the end of the century? Somehow, old classics like putting energy efficient lights on city hall and installing some LED traffic signals just aren't that exciting anymore.
Toolkit for Change
That makes ICLEI's recently released Sustainability...
by John de Graaf
Just before Thanksgiving, I attended the 5th International Gross National Happiness Conference, held at Iguassu Falls, Brazil. Several hundred people from around the world gathered to discuss the latest in “Happiness Science” research and practical applications through policy and cultural changes currently being adopted in several countries. The first of these conferences was held in Bhutan, a tiny Himalayan kingdom, whose monarch once proclaimed that “Gross National Happiness is more important than Gross National Product.” I attended the second conference, in Nova Scotia, along with representatives from 46 nations.
As many Worldchanging.com readers are probably aware, there has been a boom in happiness studies recently, stirred by...
by Kirstin Butler
After all the hullabaloo over Balloon Boy, it’s reassuring to learn that some Americans look up for reasons other than media pranks. In fact, whole communities of amateur astronomers and citizen scientists look to the skies for discovery, education, and inspiration. Aiding them in those pursuits is Spacehack, an online directory of and for people who want to participate in space exploration.
Since January, Spacehack has provided a portal for educating and engaging those with an interest in the extraterrestrial. And in the context of both next-generation space races and abysmal science performance in our schools, it seems like Spacehack's mission to support space literacy for the future is more important than ever.
At Spacehack's helm is Ariel Waldman, a...
The Sharing Ethic of the Commons, Like Thanksgiving, is Woven into American Traditions
by Jay Walljasper
Last November’s hopes for the United States moving in the direction of a commons-based society are being challenged now in fierce debates over health care reform, increased social spending, tougher Wall Street regulations and other progressive measures that once seemed inevitable.
But commons thinking did get a small boost this fall in an unlikely setting—a hit television series. The acclaimed Ken Burns PBS documentary declared national parks as “America’s Best Idea”—a ringing endorsement of the commons as a deep-seated American ideal seen by millions of viewers. National Parks stand as one of the most beloved symbols of what we share together.
Ken...
Last week, I stood on the stage at Seattle's Town Hall and called on Seattle to become North America's first carbon-neutral city, dropping its per capita climate emissions to nothing by 2030.
Since then, I've gotten a whole slew of great emails and calls from people who are thinking that goal through, and have questions. Mostly, folks have been wildly supportive, generally wanting most to know how they can help build the movement to do that. I'm a writer, not an organizer, and I don't have the plan, but I can explain a little more my thinking, and share some observations about what seems to be needed right now. Hopefully those will help.
The timing and target come from the now-common observation that we need to aspire to return the level of CO2 in the atmosphere to 350 ppm. In...
That which is unsustainable cannot go on. Unsustainable things that are propped up too long snap and collapse suddenly. Our way of life is unsustainable. The sooner we transform our economy into one that can generate sustainable prosperity, the better off we’ll be, and with every passing day, the risks of catastrophe grow larger and more certain. We need change now.
These shouldn’t be radical statements; they’re all demonstrably true. Yet they cleave right down the middle of what is fast becoming the largest generation gap in at least 40 years, a growing split between people under 30 and people over 60.
When confronted with generational conflict, we naturally tend to see the elders as seasoned and realistic, and the youth as passionate and ethical, and to seek a middle...
Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) is a proposed (and controversial) solution to powerplant pollution that captures carbon from smokestacks and stores those emissions underground.
Although some believe this idea would help provide the amount of power currently demanded while reducing pollution, it has others scratching their heads. Many feel confused about the science, as there are are still technical challenges to overcome, and others feel outraged as they believe CCS could be used as another industry-created excuse not to move forward on important renewable energy discussions and investments.
What do you think? Is CCS an idea worthy of time and implementation? Whatever your opinion, we think it's worth understanding the concept of CCS and hope this week's cartoon will...
Greeting Worldchangers,
Our two night event at Town Hall Seattle starts tomorrow! We are thrilled to invite you to Town Hall’s Center for Civic Life for an evening with Alex Steffen, Seattle City Council President Richard Conlin, Seattle Mayor-Elect Mike McGinn and the Worldchanging Team.
Each night, the doors will open at 6:30 pm. Come early and come hungry as Seattle's street food perfectionists from Skillet will be serving up delicious pre-talk snacks outside Town Hall. After a bite to eat, head inside to visit with other worldchangers and our fantastic sponsors: The American Institute of Architects, The Bullitt Foundation, Climate Solutions, The Community Coalition for Environmental Justice, The Fremont Brewing Company, Greendrinks, Groundwire, PubliCola, People’s...
As world leaders begin to pack their bags for the Climate Summit in Copenhagen next month, feelings of anxiety may accompany the pressure to hammer out an international agreement to cap carbon emissions to keep our planet from entering a period of climate crisis. A group of people involved in the Climate Prosperity Alliance are working to shift the debate to a more positive and productive goal.
Instead of focusing on carbon-reduction strategies and schemes like cap and trade, “clean coal”, or carbon sequestration, the Climate Prosperity Alliance believes the Copenhagen Summit should be the entryway that leads the world into a global green economy.
While some analysts are already predicting a dismal outcome for the conference, citing the inability of major players such as the...
Yak herders in Mongolia may seem like the most unlikely of bank customers. There’s little infrastructure in their largely rural country, making it tough to find a local branch office. But in these sparsely populated steppes, opening a personal savings account is increasingly seen as a first step out of extreme poverty, according to international microfinance leaders.
Altan Govii Shiree Cooperative
The Altan Govii Shiree cooperative is located in one of southern Mongolia's most scenic areas - near the Bayanzag, or Flaming Cliffs. Its tourism business has been supported by Mercy Corps since 2003. The cooperative now has 10 gers that accommodate about 500 tourists each year, raising the fortunes of vulnerable herding families in the area.
Until relatively recently, Mongolia’s...
by Edward Wolf
Bikes, boats, and bodies align to spell “350” at events in 181 countries, sounding a worldwide call for climate stability. Congress takes halting steps toward passing a law to limit U.S. carbon emissions and advance clean energy. Diplomats from 193 countries prepare to hammer out a global climate treaty in Copenhagen. But few expect this year’s activism, politics, or diplomacy to change the game. The 21st century to-do list keeps growing. What will it take to accelerate change?
Three recent books say that it’s all about thinking. In The End of the Long Summer, Dianne Dumanoski tells how our thinking got us in planet-scale hot water; in Whole Earth Discipline, Stewart Brand advocate heresy to get us out; in Thinking in Systems, the late Donella Meadows...
Not only are women's rights essential to a vibrant society, but they are also essential to a healthy, viable environment. This week's cartoon describes why women's rights and environmental sustainability go hand in hand. Studies show that when given equal access to education and rights over their own bodies, women choose to have fewer children. Overpopulation is a serious issue, with huge implications for problems like climate change. By giving women rights we are investing in what Kim Stanley Robinson calls some of the best climate change technology available today.
To get involved with the women's equal rights movement, check out the Global Fund for Women. This organization, led by the innovative Kavita Ramdas, is the largest independent foundation working to advance...
What can any of us do in the face of planetary catastrophe?
Staring into the ecological abyss, it's easy to feel small and unimportant. Edward Abbey wrote truly, "Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul." But it's often hard to see how any actions we might actually take, as individuals, will have any meaningful effect, whatsoever: leaving aside the pablum about small steps and each doing our part, we all know in our hearts that taking out the recycling will not do much to slow the melting of Greenland.
The best thing, the really hopeful thing, about the Transition Town movement is that it breaks the emotional isolation privatized responsibility inflicts on us, and makes us part of a group working together towards change.
1) What are Transition Towns?
Transition Towns...