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EcoVersity
2639 Agua Fria
Santa Fe, NM 87505
Office: 505.424.9797
(Winter hrs:Tues-Fri 9-2)
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E-mail: info@ecoversity.org

Google Earth
Download Google Earth and explore our planet and biosphere like never before!

It has begun!
E.O.Wilson's TED prize proposal, an online Wiki of Earth Life, has officially begun; several thousand entries already... EOL.org
Interview: TED prize curator Chris Anderson on Charlie Rose

Download free endangered species ringtones from the Center for Biological Diversity

Notices:

TreeHugger is seeking expert writers (paid) on a variety of areas.

Register for Planet Diversity Congress May 12-16 Bonn, Germany
Register / more info

Earth Negotiations Bulletin

Al Gore's Nobel Speech: video
Al Gore's Bali Speech: video

Nuclear Threat Initiative
Former Secretaries of State Shultz and Kissinger, former Sec Def William Perry, former Sen. Nunn and other leading security experts advancing the vision of a world free of nuclear weapons...

Saved By The Sun
An excellent survey from NOVA of the current state of solar power across the world. Covers the critical science, the critical policies, the technologies on the horizon. "Saved By The Sun" is airing currently and through April on PBS NOVA, and can be viewed online HERE

Major report on Human Impacts on The Marine Environment... download the Marine Impacts KML for your Google Earth.

Alex Steffen: "I've been thinking about the fate of declining suburbs, bombed out shrinking old industrial cities and the drying up ghost towns of the high plains, when I came across a journal note mentioning something Bruce Sterling said to me this fall in San Francisco: 'The ruins of the unsustainable are the 21st century's frontier.'"

Now for Google Earth: Global Atmospheric Image Layer
JPL has made a KML for Google Earth with Terra MODIS images providing global atmospheric cloud cover from less than 24 hour-old imagery. info / download

Ecoversity blogs:
Biomagic
Vortex

"In order to solve the climate crisis, we have to solve the democracy crisis"- Al Gore

Ecoversity: News, Links and Resources April 08 (view current page)
If you would like to suggest a particular site, or alert us to follow-up articles, use this email

Al Gore Makes A New, More Urgent Presentation
In Al Gore's brand-new slideshow presented at TED, he presents evidence that the pace of climate change may be even worse than scientists were recently predicting, and challenges us to act with a sense of "generational mission" - the kind of feeling that brought forth the civil rights movement - to set it right... watch the video

Climate: The New Urgency

A Shift in the Debate Over Global Warming
"...Now, with recent data showing an unexpected rise in global emissions and a decline in energy efficiency, a growing chorus of economists, scientists and students of energy policy are saying that whatever benefits the cap approach yields, it will be too little and come too late." (NYTimes)


Jeffrey Sachs, Director of Columbia's Earth Institute was interviewed on Charlie Rose about the food-fuel-climate crisis April 16. (view here)
"Dramatic, immediate commitment to nurturing new technologies is essential to averting disastrous global warming" - Jeffrey Sachs, SciAm March 2008

Stern warns that climate change is far worse than 2006 estimate
"Lord Stern, the economist whose report on climate change helped galvanise world leaders behind the green energy movement when it was published 18 months ago, has admitted that the situation is far worse than the assumptions that formed the basis of his ground-breaking report. (story)

Jim Hansen, the Big Ice Melt and the Mainstream Media
"Very few people outside of climate scientists and climate activists even know about Hansen's polar ice melt hypothesis and what it means to each of our distant and more immediate futures. There is probably a scientific debate raging in labs and symposia about this new and compelling vision of climate change, but since publics globally remain, surrealistically, almost completely uninformed, how would we know?" (story)

Target CO2: Where Should Humanity Aim?
Download Jim Hansen's latest paper

Wilkins Ice Shelf Collapsing Rapidly
Satellite imagery from the [NSIDC] reveals that a 13,680 square kilometer (5,282 square mile) ice shelf has begun to collapse because of rapid climate change in a fast-warming region of Antarctica. more

Climate Code Red
Friends of the Earth's latest report (download pdf)

Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization
Lester Brown's new book can be read or downloaded online at Earth Policy

TruthOut- Environment TO has an extensive listing of recent articles (reprinted without ads) having to do with the environment in a new dedicated area on their website. Current count:150

Biofuels and the Food Crisis:

Subsidized demand for ethanol biofuels is causing the displacement of food production, in favor of the more lucrative fuel production, leading to skyrocketing food prices and shortages.
There is an alternative- biofuels from algae, the growing of which- in dry regions with briny water supply- does not displace food farming. The oil derived from algae is wonderfully pure, and a byproduct is edible spirulina cake. Ecoversity is presenting working models of this beneficial technology for local-scale deployment beginning April 2008, with engineer Alphonz Viszolay's Living Algae Machine.

Algae: Huge Potential for Algae Biofuel
"It is possible to sequester as much as one billion tons of CO2 per year from algae farms in lands not useful for any other purpose in the Southwestern United States alone..."
story, ENS | Download Energy Dept Report

Biodiesel might provide new industrial niche for New Mexico: New Mexico Business Weekly

PetroSun Launches 1000-Acre Algae Biofuels Site
The oil-services company PetroSun has announced it will begin operation of its commercial algae-to-biofuels facility on April 1st, 2008. Located in Rio Hondo Texas, the plant will produce an estimated 4.4 million gallons of algal oil and 110 million lbs. of biomass per year off a series of saltwater ponds spanning 1,100 acres. (story)
Gordon LeBlanc, the CEO of PetroSun: "Whether we have arrived at this point in time by a superior technological approach, sheer luck or a redneck can-do attitude, the fact remains that microalgae can outperform the current feedstocks utilized for conversion to biodiesel and ethanol, yet do not impact the consumable food markets or fresh water resources."

Feed-based Biofuels Deemed a Greenhouse Threat Land-use change left out of prior analysis
"Almost all biofuels used today cause more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional fuels if the full emissions costs of producing these "green" fuels are taken into account..."... two new reports... story, NYT
discussion, mp3 podcast | SciAm: Biofuels Are Bad for Feeding People and Combating Climate Change

Rate of Amazon Destruction Up Sharply at End 2007
New wave of destruction as demand increases for [feed-based] biofuels... story

UN warning of food riots as world cereal prices hit record highs
Rice doubles: crisis in Asia
Food riots in developing countries will spread unless world leaders take major steps to reduce prices for the poor, Jacques Diouf, the head of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) warned April 11. (story)
UN: Food riots to worsen without global action more on this from Reuters

Stuffed and Starved
As the food crisis spread in the developing world, Amy Goodman interviewed Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved: the Hidden Battle for the World Food System on Democracy Now this week. You can listen to the interview here.

Wheat Shortage, Skyrocketing Prices Threaten Bakers
Wheat flour has more than tripled in price since August 07; wheat supply is at 1947 levels; Band of Bakers to march on Washington... (story)

Bread Riots Break Out In Egypt, Yemen.
Poor Haitians eating mud cookies... Starving for Ethanol

Peak Meat:

Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler
We grow and kill nearly 10 billion animals a year in the US... Global demand for meat has multiplied in recent years, encouraged by growing affluence and nourished by the proliferation of huge, confined animal feeding operations. These assembly-line meat factories consume enormous amounts of energy, pollute water supplies, generate significant greenhouse gases and require ever-increasing amounts of corn, soy and other grains, a dependency that has led to the destruction of vast swaths of the worlds tropical rain forests..." (Mark Bittman, NYT)

Can People Have Meat and a Planet, Too?
"The first international conference on manufacturing meat: the growing of pork, chicken, or beef through cell culture in vats instead of raising and slaughtering animals..." at NYT Dot Earth
New Harvest: "Because meat substitutes are produced under controlled conditions impossible to maintain in traditional animal farms, they can be safer, more nutritious, less polluting, and more humanse than conventional meat..."

Ocean Jeopardy:

The Unquiet Ice
Robin Bell of Columbia's Earth Institute writes in Feb. 2008 Scientific American on the increasing slippage of Antarctica's ice pack due to sub-glacial accumulation of meltwater. Picture this: if the East Antarctic ice sheet were to completely slip into the water, sea-level would rise 170 feet!

Time-Lapse Video of Melting Glacier
National Geographic team captures a series of massive calving events between May and September of 2007 at Columbia Glacier near Valdez, Alaska, during which the glacier rapidly retreating by about half a mile. (watch video)

Ocean's growing acidity alarms scientists
The increasing acidity can eat away at the shells of crabs, oysters, clams and nearly microscopic organisms known as krill and pteropods. It also inhibits calcification, the process in which these animals rebuild their shells. Without shells, most of the animals probably would die. (story) see also: Are the Oceans Giving Up?

'The Fate of the Ocean' was named to Project Censored's top-ten list:
"Oceanic problems once found on a local scale are now pandemic. Data from oceanography, marine biology, meteorology, fishery science, and glaciology reveal that the seas are changing in ominous ways. A vortex of cause and effect wrought by global environmental dilemmas is changing the ocean from a watery horizon with assorted regional troubles to a global system in alarming distress." (story)

New Oceana report: Tuna Sushi Toxic
(story) | (report)

Global Map of Human Impact on Oceans
"Four years in the making, a groundbreaking new map of the state of the world's oceans was released today, and its message is stark: human activity has left a mark on nearly every square kilometer of sea, severely compromising ecosystems in more than 40% of waters." -ScienceNOW (article) / View the report at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis site. There you can also download the Marine Impacts KML for your Google Earth.

Canaries in the Coal Mine:

Bats Struck by Colony Collapse Disorder in Northeast
"A mysterious illness is sickening and killing thousands of hibernating bats in New York and Vermont, baffling scientists who fear that tens of thousands more may be dying in abandoned mines and dark caves throughout the Northeast." (story)
Bat CCD Update... (NYTimes)
It was broad daylight in the middle of winter, and bats flew out of the mine about one a minute. Some had fallen to the ground where they flailed around on the snow like tiny wind-broken umbrellas, using the thumbs at the top joint of their wings to gain their balance... All would be dead by nightfall...
Bat Crisis: The White Nose Syndrome" at the Center for Biological Diversity
CRS 2007 Report for Congress: Recent Honey Bee Colony Declines
download pdf

New and Green:

Virgin Atlantic will fly the first partially biofueled transatlantic flight sometime next month
ZENN car: introduced across the US. Zero-emission, no-noise vehicle gets 245 miles per gallon. Only thing is, at top speed it'll take you 10 hours to use up that gallon!
EarthRace: More exciting perhaps, the new fastest boat in the world, EarthRace, is entirely biofuelled (story and pics).
SkySails: The first wind-powered cargo ship, the MS Beluga, has set sail from Germany to Venezuela.

Wired: Ecotopias Aren't Just for Hippies Anymore - and They're Sprouting Up Worldwide
"In the 1970s, environmental idealists had a vision of Ecotopia: Everyone recycled, there was no pollution, and we all worshipped trees and co-ops. Today's eco-communities are less crunchy and a lot more high tech. In addition to using renewable energy sources, these projects aim to limit their impact on surrounding ecosystems by building with green materials, promoting earth-friendly transportation, and recycling water and waste. The race for the first carbon-neutral, zero-emissions community is on...." (see article)

more links from earlier

Online Resources


James Hansen
of NASA: Censorship and the Truth of Global Warming
Interview Mar 21
Democracy Now

Green Money Journal
Planet Green | Global Green
EarthWatch | EarthPledge
Oceana | NASA Blue Marble
Earth Charter | Wiser Earth
Nature Conservancy
Ocean Conservancy
Mangrove Action Project
Biomimetics: Design by Nature
Biologically Inspired Design
Millenium Ecosystem Assessment
National Geographic Environment
Nature Geoscience Journal
Pew Trusts: Global Warming
GOES Realtime Products
The Tracking Project
Breathing Earth
New York Times' Dot Earth blog
Discovery Channel's "Planet Earth"
Columbia University Earth Institute
Environmental Careers Organization
Earth Studies

Earthlife: Family Portraits

EDGE of Existence
EDGE: Amphibians
Center Biological Diversity
Post Carbon | Post Carbon Cities
Inhabitat | EcoGeek
Ashoka: Environ. Innovat. Init.
Natural Capitalism
Fields of Fuel (the movie)
Survey: Solar Thermal Power
Rocky Mountain Institute
Peter Russell's 'World Clock'
Deep Ecology Foundation
The Dharma House
Energy Justice Network
Seeds of Change
Architecture 2030
SustainUS | Once a Forest
The Sustainable Video Project
Journeyman Pictures
Solar Decathlon | Face It! webcast
ENGAGE the World
Lost Valley | Yestermorrow
James Martin Institute
Stop Global Warming
Natural Architecture (pics)
Regenerative Design Institute
Fairfax, California Ecofest

 
The Story of Stuff
Don't miss this amusing survey of the consumerist reality and it's toxic consquences. (99% of our production is trashed within 6 months!)

In Defense of Food
Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food, The Omnivore's Dilemma, and The Botany of Desire, on Democracy Now: "what most Americans are consuming today is not food but 'edible food-like substances'." (show)

Willem Malten Interview KSFR
Willem Malten talks about Ecoversity's mission and activities, peak food, and the worldwide problem of rising prices and falling supply of wheat and other basic foodstuffs. (audio interview, KSFR Radio)
see Willem's Vortex blog

Nat'l Geographic: Six Degrees
The difference between the world we know and something out of a disaster movie is only a matter of degrees...
National Geographic's online presentation based on Mark Lynas's book Six Degrees can be viewed here.

Face It!
Learn how to solve global warming and revitalize our economy... -Architecture 2030

Do You Know What You Eat?
Drug-laced corn flakes for breakfast? Taco shells infused with detergent enzymes for dinner? Take the short quiz provided by the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Know The Oxysphere
"It alarms many to see the slow but steady rise in the CO2 curve, a result of the burning of fossil fuels and other organic matter. What gets little attention, however, is the decline in oxygen levels that the very same curve represents. As carbon is burned, oxygen is consumed. Oxygen naturally tends to recombine with the carbon it was liberated from [by plants]. Oxygen began to accumulate in the atmosphere in appreciable amounts only because the associated carbon was buried in sediments away from oxygen's reach. Humans have learned to extract some this stored carbon from Earth and to utilize the "fossil sun ray" energy that is released as it recombines with oxygen gas in a controlled burn..." Learn more about the Oxysphere

The Wild Horses of Newbury
Greens were filming the tragic destruction of two great old oaks of Newbury, when an amazing thing happened... watch the video