Join Azimuth

I have decided to join Azimuth which was created recently and I will dedicate my efforts there mostly. So I'll post even less here . My motive for doing this is summarized in this post by John Baez (now doing research in Singapore). So if you fell like I do - that we humans are better off by combatting existental anxiety with collective pragmatic actions that we feel has a chance of getting to real and usable knowledge and results which can be applied for enhancing our lives - consider joining up !


If you want a shorter and funny version see this excellent show by stand-up comedian George Carlin ! Thanks John for the reference.

Message from the Global Biodiversity Outlook

GloBio summarize the results as:

"Natural systems that support economies, lives and livelihoods across the planet are at risk of rapid degradation and collapse, unless there is swift, radical and creative action to conserve and sustainably use the variety of life on Earth. That is a principal conclusion of a major new assessment of the current state of biodiversity and the implications of its continued loss for human well-being." Here is an image of potential global tipping point areas:

This will be presented for the UN General Assembly in the fall of 2010.
The principal conclusions on biodiversity futures for the 21st century:

1. Projections of the impact of global change on biodiversity show continuing and often accelerating species extinctions, loss of natural habitat, and changes in the distribution and abundance of species, species groups and biomes over the 21st century. 
2. There is a high risk of dramatic biodiversity loss and accompanying degradation of a broad range of ecosystem services if the Earth system is pushed beyond certain thresholds or tipping points.
3. Earlier assessments have underestimated the potential severity of biodiversity loss based on plausible scenarios, because the impacts of passing tipping points or thresholds of ecosystem change have not previously been taken into account. 
4. There are greater opportunities than identified in earlier assessments to address the biodiversity crisis while contributing to other social objectives; for example, by reducing the scale of climate change without large-scale deployment of biofuels and accompanying loss of natural habitats. 
5. Biodiversity and ecosystem changes could be prevented, significantly reduced or even reversed if strong action is applied urgently, comprehensively and appropriately, at international, national and local levels."

 Here is the full report.

Upstream technology rules and producer incentives

Image via Wikipedia

I glansed in a book by Joseph Huber today and just noted a couple of observations he has made initially. Current approaches to technological innovation inside the environmental area are characteristically end of pipe solutions to solve downstream problems. It is more important to try to focus on the upstream technologies and environmental innovation (TEI), in order to prevent problems. It is also important to find incentives for the designers, producers or manufacturers that helps mobilize them

The book "New Technologies and Environmental Innovation" covers 11 technological clusters. Energy, natural resources, agriculture, chemistry and chemicals, materials processing, building settlement structures, vehicles and transport, utility goods, materials reprocessing (recycling, waste management), emissions control and finally environmental measuring and monitoring. His group has made a TEI database with over 500 TEI's.

Encyclopedia of earth is a tremendous resource

Image by Aaron Escobar via Flickr

If You haven't already discovered the expert-based encyclopedia I urge You to pay a visit! There is an aim to under Creative Commons licensing be a:

"comprehensive resource for timely, objective, science-based information about the environment. It is a means for the global scientific community to come together to produce the first free, expert-driven, massively scaleable information resource on the environment, and to engage civil society in a public dialogue on the role of environmental issues in human affairs."

And also the encylopidia itself with articlas on anything You wanted to know. For example Albedo or Global warming. There are also sections on news, and also forums on a variety of topics. And if You cannot find You can always create You own!

Personal Kyoto and "Real Costs"

R&D for the public domain is what the lab part of Eyebeam does. Some of their projects are listed here. Eyebeam per se seems to have some of the flavour of an open site for art and technology, ie similar to MIT Media Lab. And indeed it turns out that several of the managers have a Media Lab background.



One project is personal Kyoto which is a way of checking and tracking electrical usage (for New York residents for now) and realigning the projected consumption with target levels in the Kyoto protocol. They also co-financed The Real Costs - a Firefox plugin to show CO2 costs when buying airfare tickets.

The Heartland Institute - Auctioning Pollution Rights - by Ted Gayer

The Heartland Institute - Auctioning Pollution Rights - by Ted Gayer:

A brief explanation of applications of market mechanisms to pollution rights:

"In the past 15 years, cap-and trade programs have become the preferred means of regulating air pollutants. A cap-and-trade program establishes the annual number of allowable emission permits (the 'cap'), which is set below the existing emissions level. Each regulated entity must cash in one permit for each unit of air pollution it emits. The cost savings come from allowing firms to trade permits, so that a firm that finds it costly to reduce its marginal unit of pollution can instead purchase a permit from another firm that can reduce a unit of pollution for less cost. Because the overall cap is binding, the result is a reduction of pollution to the target level at costs much lower than the more rigid command-andcontrol regulations"

In practice there has been a full spectrum of implementations on national levels and I think many countries are still a far cry from achieving cost efficiency in the usage and bonafide effects concerning the goals of lowering pollution numbers. But it is anyhow the first econopolitical instrument that has potential to be useful in the long run.

There might be better incentives in other economical instruments, like traditional "stock or in natura" exhanges.