From Kevin Bullis in MIT’s Technology Review blog:
Because of its generous incentives program, Germany, a country that gets about as much sun as the darkest parts of the United States, has become the largest market for solar power in the world. That in turn has helped create a thriving solar manufacturing industry in the country. Because of its success, the German system has been imitated around the world in places such as Spain and China. At renewable energy conferences, industry experts plead for a similar system in the United States.
But even as it’s hailed as an example, Germany’s federal government has started to cut back on the program, and plans to cut it even more by April. If that happens, it could devastate the German solar industry, and send shockwaves through the industry around the world. It could also reveal what could be the inherent weaknesses of the approach–it doesn’t address the fact that it’s cheaper to manufacture solar panels in China.
…
One thing seems clear, fostering a solar market in the U.S. or Germany is not enough in itself to create and maintain solar manufacturing jobs in these countries. To compete, companies in these countries will need to find ways to make cheaper solar panels. And they’ll probably need strong government incentives to build factories in their home countries.
For the full post…
A review of the literature by H. Charles J. Godfray, John R. Beddington, Ian R. Crute, Lawrence Haddad, David Lawrence, James F. Muir, Jules Pretty, Sherman Robinson, Sandy M. Thomas, Camilla Toulmin in Science for 12 February 2010:
The past half-century has seen marked growth in food production, allowing for a dramatic decrease in the proportion of the world’speople that are hungry, despite a doubling of the total population. Nevertheless, more than one in seven people today still do not have access to sufficient protein and energy from their diet, and even more suffer from some form of micronutrientmalnourishment. The world is now facing a new set of intersecting challenges. The global population will continue to grow, yet it is likely to plateau at some 9 billion people by roughly the middle of this century. A major correlate of this deceleration in population growth is increased wealth, and with higher purchasing power comes higher consumption and a greater demand for processed food, meat, dairy, and fish, all of which add pressure to the food supply system. At the same time, food producers are experiencing greater competition for land, water, and energy, and the need to curb the many negative effects of food production on the environment is becoming increasingly clear. Overarching all of these issues is the threat of the effects of substantial climate change and concerns about how mitigation and adaptation measures may affect the food system.
Link to the article…
Link to an overview of the complete food security special issue in the 12 February 2010 Science...
From Jessica Lichtenstein, de zeen design magazine
Designers Victor Massip and Laurent Lebot of Faltazi have designed a conceptual system where water is recycled and waste is broken down by worms inside the kitchen. 
Called Ekokook, the project aims to process waste as close as possible to the point where it’s produced.
To Read More…
Two US public broadcasting news programs, The NewsHour and WorldFocus, have recently aired a report from British ITN television about recent action by China to restrict its export of rare earth minerals essential for the manufacture of green technologies including wind turbines and hybrid automobile engines. Some of these minerals are also essential in the manufacture of mobile digital technology such as cellular telephones. This development turns out not to be so new, however. Reports were published by The Age and The New York Times at the beginning of September on China’s new policy on rare earths. Click the newspaper titles for the respective stories.
For the ITN report as broadcast on The Newshour…
From, Maywa Montenegro, Seed Magazine.
When delegates from 192 nations arrive in Copenhagen in December for the UN COP15 summit, they will confront a 181-page draft negotiation text, 2,000 bracketed passages still in dispute, and just 11 days in which to come to some sort of consensus. To power them through these discussions, Denmark has promised a smorgasbord of ecologically minded fare: All water will be tap (not bottled), tea and coffee will be fair trade, and the food menu will be no less than 65 percent organic.
Though undoubtedly well-intentioned, this last provision is troubling, but not because anyone really cares about the provenance of Ban Ki-Moon’s turnip greens. Rather, it suggests a willful and dangerous ignorance about the tenuous state of global agriculture, and the prospects for feeding 9 billion people while also addressing biodiversity loss, water shortage, and, yes, climate change. Organic foods are enjoying skyrocketing popularity in the US and Europe, as are their ill-defined sidekicks, “natural,” “whole,” and “real” foods. Yet popular notions that these foods—and the agriculture that begets them—are at once better for people and for the planet turn out to be largely devoid of experimental support. Worse still, “organophilia” tends to go hand-in-hand with technophobic skepticism towards the very sorts of scientific approaches most likely to supercharge an ailing food system while leaving our planet intact.
To Read More…
From Megan R. Schwarzman and Michael P. Wilson in Science for 20 November 2009:
By placing conditions on access to European markets, REACH has set what may become a de facto global standard. The influx of chemical information expected under REACH, as well as the potential for countries outside Europe to become markets for toxic substances prohibited in the EU, presents other regions with an opportunity, and imperative, to retool their chemicals policies.
In the fall of 2009, the Obama Administration unveiled principles for U.S. chemicals policy reform, proposing that chemical producers be required to submit sufficient hazard, exposure, and use data for EPA to determine that chemicals meet a health-based safety standard (21). The principles further acknowledge the EPA’s need for authority to act on priority chemicals, reducing risks they pose to sensitive subpopulations. These principles could influence development of TSCA reform. If implemented, they could improve EPA’s ability to protect public health and the environment, while also providing the necessary incentive to move the chemicals market toward green chemistry, with the ultimate goal of placing the U.S. chemical industry on a more sustainable footing.
For more (subscription required)…
Core Distinctions between Chemicals Policies of the United States (TSCA) and the European Union (REACH)
Bitu-man. A scarecrow in a "tailings pond" helps keep birds out of toxic mine water. CREDIT: MAGNUM PHOTOS
From Sam Kean in Science for 20 November 2009:
Environmental law says that tar sands companies must restore tailings ponds and pit mines back to “equivalent land capability,” but that phrase is contentious. Ecologists and environmentalists would prefer that every square meter of disturbed boreal forest or wetland be restored to its original state. In practice, companies can perform a sort of eco-alchemy: Pit mines can be converted to either new land, like a forest, or a lake, while tailings ponds can become either a lake or new land. Each transformation has its own challenges and controversies.
For more (subscription required)…
From Ernest J. Yanarella, Richard S. Levine, Robert W. Lancaster, Sustainability: The Journal of Record.
The sustainability movement from the grassroots to the global level has been both enriched and hobbled by the many different versions of sustainability articulated in scholarly and popular writings, town hall forums, and international conferences. The latest expression of this cacophony is evidenced in the emergence of “green-talk” and the growing substitution of varieties of “greenness” for sustainability and sustainable development in everyday and media parlance. This critical essay seeks to accomplish two things: draw out the differences between the green label and sustainability, and situate this debate within a hierarchical sustainability rubric that allows us to meaningfully offer gradations on the sustainability continuum. In so doing, we seek to illuminate the stakes involved in this conceptual debate and provide clarity about what these putative variations on sustainability imply for both theory and practice. In an age of mounting finite resource scarcities, rapid climate change, and continuing global population growth, combined with the growing clamor for Western-style economic development, the sustainability movement is not going to go away. Sadly, the meaning of sustainability and sustainable development remains highly contested and subject to ongoing and fierce dispute. This state of affairs is evidenced by the growing shift away from the language of sustainability and its variants to the increasingly popular, and easier to swallow, term green.
To read more…
Seed magazine interviews William Kamkwamba, the young engineer who built a windmill from scrap in his native Malawi, and eventually brought power to his entire village…
From the blustery plains of Texas to the Danish island of Samsø, wind power—and the giant, bladed towers that generate it—is all the rage in a warming world searching for cleaner sources of energy. Fourteen-year-old William Kamkwamba had never heard of windmills, or climate change, for that matter, when he stumbled across a photograph one day and it changed his life forever.
Now 22, Kamkwamba has become something of an international DIY celebrity: He’s spoken at the World Economic Forum, at the Aspen Ideas Festival, and at TED Global—twice. He’s chatted with Al Gore, Bono, and Larry Page. A documentary about his life is currently in the works. But Kamkwamba’s story isn’t really about stardom: It’s about the grit, resourcefulness, and audacity of a young engineer who built a windmill from scrap in his native Malawi and brought power to his home—and eventually lit up every house in the village. It’s told in brilliant detail in The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (out now from William Morrow), co-authored with journalist Bryan Mealer. Seed editor Maywa Montenegro spoke with Kamkwamba while he was in New York City kicking off a US book tour. More…
www.SustainabilityConference.com
Natarajan Ishwaran, UNESCO/The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
Natarajan Ishwaran has 30 years of experience in teaching, research, wildlife/protected areas planning and management, multi-lateral environmental and biodiversity treaties, and co-ordination and management of international co-operation in environment and development. He published more than 25 publications in refereed journals is co-author of 2 edited volumes on ecology, biodiversity conservation and protected area management themes. More…
From Bridgette Meinhold at Inhabitat.com:
South Korea recently announced plans to construct a sustainable super-city that stands to eclipse the size of Masdar in the UAE. Designed by Foster + Partners together with PHA and Mobility in Chain, the Incheon mixed-use development will be a model of self-sufficent sustainability and will serve as an epicenter for the development of green technologies just north of Seoul.
Upon completion the Incheon eco-city will comprise a community of 320,000 residents centered around a spine of transportation and green industry. The hope for Incheon is that the area will become a high-tech research and development center for sustainable industries that manufacture photovoltaic panels and wind turbines. True to this ideal, the masterplan incorporates cutting-edge green technologies such as biomass energy generation, hydrogen fuel cells, and hydroponic roofs. More…
Nic Maclellan of newmatilda.com reports…
When he spoke before the UN General Assembly this week, Palau’s representative had this to say: “We do not carelessly call climate change a security threat. When we are told by scientists to prepare for a humanitarian crisis, including exodus, in our lifetimes, how can it be different from preparing for a threat like war?”
For some time, people from low-lying atoll nations in the Pacific have expressed the view that climate change is a greater threat to national security than terrorism. In 2007, Pacific representatives at the United Nations submitted a draft resolution to the 62nd Session of the UN General Assembly, requesting that the Security Council consider the security implications of climate change. More…
Natalie Angier from the New York Times reports…
If you wanted to push yourself to the outermost chalk line of human endurance, you might consider an ultramarathon, or a solo row across the Atlantic Ocean, or being nominated to the United States Supreme Court. Or you could try studying the long-beaked echidna, one of the oldest, rarest, shyest, silliest-looking yet potentially most illuminating mammals on earth. More….
In February 2009 The Open University in the UK launched an innovative new distance learning course on international environmental policy. Entitled Earth in Crisis: Environmental Policy in an International Context the course comprises three blocks of original written, audio-visual and online materials. Block 1 focuses entirely on climate change, while Block 2 covers ten environmental issues, including population growth, urbanisation, development, fresh water, sustainable agriculture and biodiversity depletion. Block 3 explores future options, and is structured around the question ‘What can be done for the future, and what should be done?’ For further details of the course go to http://www3.open.ac.uk/courses/bin/p12.dll?C01DU311 or contact Dr David Humphreys of the Earth in Crisis course team on d.r.humphreys@open.ac.uk
“Science and politics are inextricably linked. At a scientific conference on climate change held this week in Copenhagen, four environmental experts announced that sea levels appear to be rising almost twice as rapidly as had been forecast by the United Nations just two years ago. The warning is aimed at politicians who will meet in the same city in December to discuss the same subject and, perhaps, to thrash out an international agreement to counter it” - The Economist
You can read more of this article on The Economist website here.
New York City, USA Wins the 2009 Award
New York City has demonstrated that political will, bold leadership and citizen engagement can lead to sweeping transportation reforms.
Continue reading ‘2009 Sustainable Transport Award’
Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability Journal
Announcing Sixth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability Shortly
Last Conference held at :
University of Technology Mauritius
School of Sustainable Development and Tourism
SOPSPAM Building
La Tour Koenig, Pointe aux Sables (near the Capital City of port-Louis)
Mauritius
