Solutions
The Incredible Shrinking Cost of Solar Energy Drives Mega-Projects around the World
Image: Graph of All-in Module Cost
juancole.com - May 3rd, 2013 - Juan Cole
Rob Wile uses a graph to point out the obvious, the dramatic fall in the cost of solar power generation. In many countries– Italy, Spain, Germany, Portugal — and in parts of the US such as the Southwest, solar is at grid parity. That means it is as inexpensive to build a solar plant as a gas or coal one.
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Patuca Reserve Resilience Network
Honduras' ecosystems are being destroyed at an incredible rate, taking with it the rich natural heritage of biodiversity that has required million of years to evolve. In 20 years, human populations in Honduras will be be threatend from ecosystem collapses that are likely to create abect misery and population collapses at an extraordinatry level. Already population crashes are happening in small scale collapses due to the degradation of social ecology.
There is a need to build a Patuca Reserve Resilience Network to help preserve the remaining 30% of the Patuca Reserve that has not been destroyed by deforestation and gold mining in the rivers. Association Patuca and Dr. Perinjaquet are working on introducing Resilience Capacity Zone Assessments and Mapping in order to identify solution sets local communities would embrace for preserving their environments and livelihoods, considering that they are squating within a national preserve that to date has had no environmental enforcement.
Video - Urban Resilience for a New Century
huffingtonpost.com - by Dr. Judith Rodin - May 14, 2013
The Rockefeller Foundation is today launching 100 Resilient Cities, a $100 million commitment to building urban resilience around the world. The Foundation's 100 Resilient Cities Centennial Challenge will select 100 cities through an application process to begin this summer. We will provide support for the winning cities to analyze the risks that will inform development of a city-wide resilient strategy, hire their first Chief Resilience Officer to drive its implementation and advice to leverage billions of additional dollars in infrastructure financing.
Rockefeller Foundation - 100 Resilient Cities Centennial Challenge
http://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/100-resilient-cities
Video - Scrap Fuel Subsidies and Price CO2, Urges World Bank
Reuters - trust.org - May 6, 2013
LONDON, May 6 (Reuters Point Carbon) – The world’s nations must scrap fossil fuel subsidies and put a price on emitting carbon dioxide if the planet is to avoid dangerous climate change, according to the president of the World Bank. The two measures are part of a five-point plan that the bank urged the world’s environment ministers to take, including building low carbon cities, improving agricultural practices and sharing new technology that will save energy.
“We need a global response equal to the scale of the climate problem.
Petersberg Climate Dialogue IV
http://www.bmu.de/en/topics/climate-energy/climate/international-climate-policy/petersberg-climate-dialogue/
Meet BRCK, a Backup Generator for the Internet
ushahidi.com - by Rob Baker - May 7, 2013
Ushahidi is a team of programmers and mappers who are constantly on the move.
Being constantly handicapped with spotty internet access has led us to realize that the way the entire world is connecting to the web is changing.
So Ushahidi set out to redesign the modem for the changing way we all connect to the web.
Enter BRCK: The easiest, most reliable way to connect to the Internet, anywhere in the world.
BRCK
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1776324009/brck-your-backup-generator-for-the-internet
Chapter 2. The Ecology of Population Growth - Full Planet, Empty Plates: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity
earth-policy.org
Full Planet, Empty Plates: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity
Chapter 2. The Ecology of Population Growth
by Lester R. Brown
Crisis maps
voices.mckinseyonsociety.com - Patrick Meier
Crisis-mapping technology has emerged in the past five years as a tool to help humanitarian organizations deliver assistance to victims of civil conflicts and natural disasters. Crisis-mapping platforms display eyewitness reports submitted via e-mail, text message, and social media. The reports are then plotted on interactive maps, creating a geospatial record of events in real time.
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Community of the Ark.
http://www.markshep.com/peace/Ark.html
Island of Peace
Lanza del Vasto and the Community of the ArkBy Mark Shepard
Excerpted and adapted from the book The Community of the Ark, Simple Productions, Arcata, California, 1990
Bee Deaths: EU to Ban Neonicotinoid Pesticides
Honeybees are vital for pollinating crops - a job that would be very costly without them
bbc.co.uk - April 29, 2013
The European Commission will restrict the use of pesticides linked to bee deaths by researchers, despite a split among EU states on the issue.
There is great concern across Europe about the collapse of bee populations.
Neonicotinoid chemicals in pesticides are believed to harm bees and the European Commission says they should be restricted to crops not attractive to bees and other pollinators.
But many farmers and crop experts argue that there is insufficient data.
The Limits of the Earth, Part 2: Expanding the Limits
Image: Limits of Earth logo.
blogs.scientificamerican.com - April 18th, 2013 - Ramez Naam
As part one of this series showed, we are up against incredible challenges: feeding a world with a rapidly growing appetite, the continuing loss of the world’s precious forests, the ongoing collapse of fish species in the oceans, the rapid depletion of our fresh water resources, and the over-arching threat of climate change, which makes all others far worse.
Ending growth isn’t a realistic option. Billions of people in the developing world want access to more resources, deserve those resources as much as those of us in the rich world do, and need them in order to rise out of poverty.
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