Monthly Archive for October, 2010

Fifth of vertebrates face extinction-study

Published on October 27, 2010 in News. 0 Comments

species-lossFrom David Fogarty, Reuters:

About a fifth of the world’s vertebrates are threatened with extinction, a major review has found, highlighting the plight of nature that is the focus of global environment talks underway in Japan.

The study by more than 170 scientists across the globe used data for 25,000 species from the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of threatened species and examined the status of the world’s mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fishes.

The authors found, on average, 50 species of mammals, birds and amphibians move closer to extinction each year because of expansion of farms and plantations, logging and over-hunting. Another factor was competition from other species, particularly those introduced from other areas.

But the study, published in the journal Science, also found that conservation efforts had curbed the overall rate of loss.

For more…

The Business of Sharing: What do you do When you are Green, Broke and Connected? You Share

Published on October 26, 2010 in News and Newsletter. 0 Comments

20101016_wbd000

From The Economist,

Why buy when you can rent? This simple question is the foundation stone of a growing number of businesses. Why buy a car (and pay for parking) when you can rent one whenever you need to load up at IKEA? Why buy a bike (and risk having it stolen) when you can pick one up at a bike rack near your home and drop it off at another rack near your office? Why buy a DVD when you can watch it and return it in a convenient envelope?

Renting is not a new business, of course. Hotel chains and car-hire firms have been around for ages, and the world’s oldest profession, one might argue, involves renting. But for most of the past 50 years renters have been conceding ground to owners. Laundromats have been closing down as people buy their own washing machines. Home ownership was, until the financial crisis, rising nearly everywhere. Rental markets grew ossified: hotels and car-hire firms barely changed their business models for decades. All this is now changing dramatically, however, thanks to technology, austerity and greenery.

To Read More…

Highly Charged Motoring: Electric Cars, Though a Welcome Development, are Neither as Useful Nor as Green as their Proponents Claim

Published on October 8, 2010 in News and Newsletter. 0 Comments

20101009_ldp002

From The Economist,

Designed especially for city and suburban motoring, this handsome automobile is smooth, quiet and easy to drive, and being powered by electricity it can be charged up at home. Tempting? The sales pitch is not for one of the new electric cars from General Motors, Nissan or Renault, but for a 1905 Victoria Phaeton from Studebaker of South Bend, Indiana.

Electric cars have come and gone over the years. Usually an oil crisis has given them a boost; this time it is a combination of oil prices, fears about energy security and climate change.

A decade ago the Toyota Prius took hybrid cars into the mainstream. Two years ago Elon Musk’s Tesla all-electric sports car made them sexy. Now the big car firms are pushing all-electric cars for the mass market. At the Paris Motor Show this week they unveiled electric vehicles of all shapes and sizes. Some go on sale in the next few months.

This represents a huge leap forward for the industry, but the showroom patter will be misleading, for two reasons. First, although electric cars are nippy, stylish and as easy to drive as conventional vehicles, electric motoring has some distinct disadvantages. Second, they are not really as green as their promoters claim.

To Read More…

Culture in the Winds of Change: Douglas C. Worts

Published on October 6, 2010 in Journal and Newsletter. 0 Comments

sustainability_front

Douglas Worts’ paper Culture in the Winds of Change: Fostering a ‘Culture of Sustainability’ & Making the Case for Cultural Indicators was recently published in The International Journal of Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability.

In this day and age, one thing seems increasingly clear, at least in industrialized countries. Human beings have created cultures that are unsustainable. From the uncertain implications of climate change, to the realities of a global economic melt-down and the growing gap between rich and poor, there are few indications that a human population of over 6.5 billion can continue to survive, let alone thrive, on planet Earth. As humanity proceeds down the path of globalization, pluralization and urbanization, there is a niggling question – can we create a global/local ‘culture of sustainability’? If so, what might it look like? How do we move towards it? How do we know if we are getting closer, or drifting ever further from this goal?

Douglas C. Worts is a culture and sustainability specialist with WorldViews Consulting, in Toronto, Canada. His museum career has spanned over 30 years, being employed principally by the Art Gallery of Ontario, where he focused primarily on exhibition development, audience engagement and visitor studies. He has taught graduate courses in Museum Studies at the University of Toronto. Douglas is a Fellow of Leadership for Environment and Development (LEAD). Douglas was also a plenary speaker at the 2010 Sustainability Conference.